FINALE'

This is the testimony we had published in The Banner, the mission newsletter.  Goodbye, Denmark.

Our mission has been a wonderful part of our life and we feel so blessed to be able to serve in Denmark. We love Denmark and the people of Denmark and they will always hold a special place in our hearts.  Our little branch on Amager has a unique spirit.  These members have a special, loving bond with one another and have welcomed us into the fold.   

We love the missionaries and their examples of faith, obedience and hard work.  Their testimonies of missionary work and especially their testimonies of the Savior have inspired us to be more dedicated and faithful.  We worried that we would not be able to interact much with missionaries because we would be in the office every day.   Much to our surprise and delight, we were wrong.  We will miss so much our daily interactions with all the missionaries and feel like they are family to us.  

We have been blessed to meet and become friends with other missionary couples – friendships which will be life-long.  We also feel a special closeness to President O-Bryant and Sister O-Bryant who have tutored, befriended and encouraged us. What great examples of selfless service and dedication to the Lord.  We love them.  

Researching and taking our Danish ancestor’s names to the temple has increased our testimony of temple work, and of being part of an eternal family.  We know the church's doctrines are true and that our Savior, Jesus Christ died for us and that if we live the best we can, and repent, we can return to live with Him.  We have a testimony of families and their part in the plan of salvation.  We testify that the Book of Mormon is true and that within its pages are the words of eternal life.  We know that we are led by a living prophet today and that President Monsen and the apostles are inspired to direct us in righteousness, if we just listen and follow their council.  We pray for the Lord’s blessings on the land of Denmark and the Denmark Copenhagen Mission.  We love you and will miss you!  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

– Elder and Sister Buxton  

AMAGER GREN

One of the most cherished memories of our mission is our little branch on Amager.  The members here are a wonderful variety of ages and personalities.  One Deacon, 2 Young Women and 6 primary children keep us all young and on our toes.  The marvelous thing is that all ages interact, are comfortable with, and share a great love for one another and for the gospel.  Close-knit and faithful.  They have been great examples to us and it will be strange sitting next week in a large ward  singing and listening to talks and lessons in English. For 3 hours.

The branch president is not from the branch boundaries and has served 4 years and hopes to serve more.  The Relief Society president is a young mother expecting child #3.  The young women and young men's presidents are both young, single and enthusiastic.  All members have served in all organizations many times.  Today's  testimony meeting was a very emotional good-bye for us.  Good friends.  Some have promised to come visit, and some we will never see again in this life.  We will miss this little branch, but are so grateful to have been assigned here.

We had a farewell fest at the Valgren's home and true to form, most of the whole branch came.  Love these people.

They Are Trying to Make us FAT

Leaving Denmark apparently requires a lot of  feasting.  Rather than crunch into the tiny kitchen at the office, we splurged and bussed to a very busy, famous cafe, for a final dinner out.

Final office get together.  Shurtliffs and Jensons joined us and we even got the President and Sister O'Bryant to come.

Canal Cafe -  famous in Copenhagen and  requires a reservation 3 weeks in advance.  Weinerbrød.  Beautifully presented.  Had a nice discussion on genealogy with the gentleman  and his wife from Norway in the  back on the left.

Just one of the types of open-faced sandwiches.  The Kochs had pickled herring.  Nah.......Can't.

Us, Sister Warnsdorf, Shurtliffs and Jensons., Brother Warnsdorf

Final dinner at the Warnsdorfs.  (Danish mission couple for most of our mission.)  Sister Warnsdorf regularly entertains in her museum home.  Royal Copenhagen dinnerware, lovely silver, Danish cuisine and good company.  Brother and Sister Warnsdorf's granddaughter lives in Mendon as an exchange student and maybe is going to BYU Idaho in the fall. We plan to lure them to Mendon to visit us (and their granddaughter, of course).  We will miss them.

LAST JAUNTS

Gedser Odde.  Just like our packing, we have been stuffing in a few last trips from our "bucket list" in Denmark.  We headed south one Saturday and ended up at the end of the road, literally.  It  is called Gedser Odde and is the southern-most point in all of Scandinavia.  Miles of white sand beaches, deserted now, but packed in the summer;  narrow little roads with "small road" warnings, otters and swans swimming in the ocean. And best of all, a sunny, fairly warm day.

Agersø.  A few weeks ago we visited  Agersø,  a tiny little Island off the west coast of Sjælland.  Requires a 15 minute ferry ride.  Tiny place; little charming village with old half-timbered houses, but no food.  Everything was closed and it felt deserted.  Apparently the walking trails around the island are the big draw.

The Mall.  Seriously. Down a little country road.  The other "shop" had honey wine and vinegar.  I bought a hand-dyed egg and a little wooly sheep.

The reason the village felt deserted.  Everyone was at the church for a concert choir from Greenland.

Our traveling buddies, the Jensons.

Last trip.  Egeskov Castle.  This is one of the most famous and most visited castles in Denmark.  We discovered it in the fall, then went to a Christmas market in December.  We had to take one more trip to see the flowers and tour the castle.  What started as a trip one last time with the Larsens, ended up as nearly a mission-couple conference.  A wonderful way to end our travels.

Couples Group:  Jensons, (Bear River City; Forslunds, (Bountiful)  Shurtliffs, (Houston) Buxtons, Johnsons (new couple, Gilbert, AZ) and Larsens (Seattle soon to be Sacramento)

Inside the castle was a mixture of pure Danish country (lots and lots of STUFF), massive hunting lodge (a huge room with weapons and heads and horns from Africa) and whimsey (a room-size doll house with miniature, hand-crafted furnishings.)

FABULOUS!  But, a sad time because we are leaving these wonderful couples.  We hope to meet them again at reunions and in our travels.

GOOD-BYE NEIGHBORHOOD

We are packing up and trying to fit all our stuff into the 4 suitcases we are allowed.    It is not working so well.  We have been sorting  and discarding and stuffing in what we can.  Painful. Thankfully, we can take as many memories home as we want.  We have loved living in a beautiful neighborhood for the last twenty-plus months.  We will miss  Denmark and especially Copenhagen.  Copenhagen is like an aging queen;  stately and regal from afar,  but up close, a little wrinkled and tattered.  Part of the charm of living in an old European city.  We will miss it.

Some years we are lucky to watch the swans mothering their young.  This last year, a swan made a nest and laid eggs only to abandon them eventually.  The city puts fences around the nests so walkers along the lakes don't bother them.

View from our roof top looking northwest.

Winter out the back window.

Beautiful spring tulips at Tivoli.

Me and  the Ottleys at the Queen's spring and fall residence.  I need some of these climbing roses!

Tivoli decorated at Halloween.

Sunset over the lakes in our backyard.

Lovely spring on the path around the lakes.

This tough guy lounging along the lake path with the daffodils.

ÆGTEPAR

I could not finish this blog without pictures of some of our wonderful friends who have served here in Denmark with us.   Faithful saints from all walks of life with firm testimonies of the gospel and of missionary work.  They have truly been examples to us.

 The Parkers:   Sitting squarely in the window. They were our first neighbors and have been home long enough to go on their next mission to England as an office couple.  Fun people. Brother Parker shared his considerable expertise in Danish research with me.   They are from the Provo area.

Ottley's, Brookes, and me

We were at the White Bus exibit in Copenhagen.  Danish resistance stuff from WWII.

The Ottleys and the Brookes.  (Now home)  Our main partners in crime.  Both were record preservation specialists and had the same working hours as we, so were able to explore after hours and on weekends with us.  They loved to find new and out-of-the-way places to travel especially if we could go by train.  They were both in our branch as well, so we saw them often.  The Brookes actually ended up being our neighbors.  Wonderful couples.  We miss them a alot.  (Brookes from Orem, Utah and Ottleys from  Kenniwick, Washington)

THE BROOKES and me at the Binky Tree

THE OTTLEYS

The Johnsons

The Johnsons:  This couple served on Bornholm, but stayed with us when they came to Copenhagen.  We loved having them stay with us.  Elder Johnson served a mission here many years ago. They are home in Parowan, Utah. 

The Larsens from Aarhus

The Larsens:  A lovely couple serving with young adults on Jylland.  Fun traveling partners, up for any adventure.  Sister Larsen and I love to shop for bargains together and rummage through piles of old STUFF.  She is very artistic and creative and has an eye for beautiful old things and how to use them.  Elder Larsen also served in Denmark as a young man and was a companion with Elder Bryner.  They are from Seattle, but going back to live in the Sacramento area in July.  We have great future plans.......

From the back:  The Brookes, me, the Shurtliffs

The Shurtliffs.  Front.  This couple works with the young adults here in Copenhagen and are doing a fabulous job.  They are our neighbors now and do a lot of their work in the evening.  Also a lot of help to the mission.  They are from Houston, Texas, and are learning Danish.

The Jensens

The newest couple, the Jensens.  This couple is from Bear River City, Utah (almost our neighbors) and are record preservation specialists and in our branch.  They love to go sight-seeing and are good natured at being dragged about Denmark.  They love to help with the missionaries.

The office staff.  ( I think this picture is in a previous post.) The Warnsdorfs  (next to us) from Frederiksberg, served in the office with us until February.  We still see them and love to talk to them.  They sent a grand-daughter on a high-school student exchange to Mendon  and now she is maybe staying for college.  (BYU Idaho), so we hope to see them  in the USA.  Elder Bryner, a widower, is standing next to Elder Warnsdorf.  We are still serving with him.  He is an expert on housing and maintenance.  He was raised in Odgen, but has lived most of his adult life in Denmark.  His wife was Danish.  Kind and generous.  The Kochs are a new couple in the office and we are getting to know them.

A rare trip with the President and his wife

President and Sister O'Bryant.  Spiritual giants and wonderful friends.  We have learned much from their teachings and examples.  They have lived many places, but most recently,  California.  They are building a house near Park City and will be home in about a year.  We look forward to seeing them again.

There are also 4 other mission couples on Jylland and Bornholm:  The Yates, the Forslunds, the Ravns and the Halls.  Iceland generally has 2 couples, plus sometimes a couple doing record capturing.  For all of our mission, the Michaelson's have served there, though they rarely come to Denmark.  The temple has 3 couples from the states:  The Larsens, the Ohlsons and the Andersons who are in our branch, and of course, President  and Sister Williams who have returned home.    Part of the rewards of serving a mission are the friendships formed with other couple missionaries.  There is a special bond and knitting of hearts when you serve together.  We are looking forward to many future reunions.

STEEPLES AND STATUES AND FLOWERS

DEAR DENMARK WEATHER, 

I would love to pack my winter coat and boots, put away my warm scarves and mittens, and wear my light jacket, but you are not cooperating.   SPRING NEEDS YOUR HELP!  Unfolding buds and splashes of yellow daffodils and forsythia push the cold spring limits without your warmth, and the days are noticeably longer.  But you are stubborn. You are hanging on to the cold like a sticky-fingered child. Even the sun has retreated and hides most days behind fat clouds.   Really?

Defiantly, we spent a morning snapping pictures in the cold. (Don't let the blue skies fool you.  Blue does not equal warmth.)  Some of our favorite Copenhagen sights can be summed up in three words: red roofs and steeples. From the air, red dominates the roof scape; but add copper turrents  green with age, and  black slate towers poking up like hat pins across the skyline.  Some steeples are stiff with importance while others are pure architectural whimsey.  All are beautiful.  Here is a smattering.

Three for one - Statue,  Steeple and Red Roof

A few of the steeples in Copenhagen, plus one church in Iceland

Copenhagen is also full of statues.  Hundreds and hundreds.  Many tower majestically in the streets, on squares and waterfronts and in parks; others are hidden inside museums and churchyards or cluster around fountains.  Bronze statues oxidize and turn a dusty green shade; marble statues, smudged dark in the folds with age,  still blaze in the sun.  In the collage, you will notice the absence of the most advertised statue in all of Copenhagen: the little mermaid. Pure tourist PR and most unimpressive.

E V E R Y W H E R E

At least the flowers can brighten the cold weather, and the streets of Copenhagen have an abundance. Every single street has a flower shop with racks of flowers trundled out every morning, every day, all year round.  And every grocery has flowers spilling out the door to wind through on your way in.  No matter the season.   And they sell them all.  Most customers leave with a grocery bag looped over one arm and a bundle of flowers clutched in the other.    I have never been in a Danish home without fresh flowers or small plants lining windows and table tops.  Tall, lanky, huge orchids are a particular indoor favorite. Flowers are definitely a blessing in this cold climate even though they are grown in greenhouses.

I WILL MISS THIS

Monday we start training the new office couple and I am counting on the weather to  be on its best May behavior so they don't get scared off.  They are coming from hot Arizona and spring here can be a shock.  Just saying.........