FUNERAL, COPENHAGEN TEMPLE and ZONE CONFERENCE

It has been a long and emotional week for us here in Denmark.  But, the Lord has blessed us and our family.  All of our children were able to go to Ft. Collins to support Kendell and Ruth at the funeral for our sweet little Julieanne.  We were able to feel their love and support across all these miles, and they included us with Skype, Google Hangouts, pictures, videos and lots of calls and texting.  We will all continue to support each other through the trials of this life.  It makes it so much easier when family pulls together and when  good, faithful friends add their support.

This wonderful family traveled hundreds of miles to support Kendell and Ruth.

We had a super busy week which was good for us - we wanted to stay busy since day here, is night for our children.  We really crashed this weekend, though, because we were done in.  We had zone conference for the Sjæland Zones (shay land).  The president focused on repentance and how to help investigators understand the importance of this principle. Very good.  We also fed about 50 missionaries including couples,  then we turned around  the next day and had a conference for the new missionaries  who have been here a month (plus their companions) and of course, fed them again.  Those boys and girls can eat! Every crumb of food was gone.

Here are some notes from Zone Conference.  There were 5 or 6 pages of these plastered on the back wall of the chapel.

See the sick house above?  The President told the missionaries to clean their sheets and throw away old dynes (comforters) otherwise they were breathing in dead cells and dust mites from missionaries who lived there before them.  Literally consuming each other.  They were properly appalled.

Note Taker Sister Sørenson

After the new missionary conference, we were able to go to the temple here in Copenhagen.   It is about 1 block from the mission home, right downtown.  It is a small, red brick building with no fence in front like most temples. It's a little disconcerting so see the public lounging around on their lunch break and munching sandwiches on the front steps. But as soon as you enter the doors, the temple atmosphere is the same:  hushed, reverent and calming.

The best part is the inner, circular stairway.  As you stand at the bottom step and look up, you see the white-walled enclosed stairs circle up three stories to a partially stained glass window, but you can glimpse  the clouds floating past.  The carpeted stairs have tiny lights horizontally right below the lip of the tread; the lighting is soft, and you feel like you are climbing around and up through a luminescent sea shell. The decor is straight out of Scandinavia - blue tole painting on the square, high-arm oak furniture and modern Danish light fixtures.  It's really beautiful.  Worshiping in the temple, even in a foreign language, has a way of putting things into perspective and bringing peace to the mind and heart.
The Fredricksberg ward is housed in a tall, narrow building behind the temple.  The top floor is a distributionn center, and rooms for out of town temple patrons.  It is also where we hold some conferences and meetings and training with new missionaries.

The plaza in front of the temple is open to the public and people even sit on the steps to have lunch.  

SADDEST DAY

Our hearts hurt today because our new little granddaughter, Julianne Faith left us to return to heaven yesterday.  She was absolutely perfect when she came and perfect when she left.  The doctors were not sure why this happened, but we have faith that she has bigger assignments to do where she is and that she is surrounded by her loving heavenly family.  She was such a blessing to our lives for the few short days she was here.  We feel privileged to have her born into our family and we know that we will have her for eternity. We so appreciate all the family members who are rallying around Ruth and Kendell at this sad time, and we send our love and prayers to them all.  We are grateful to Heavenly Father for such a sweet family, who take care of each other while we are gone.  We are grateful for the knowledge we have of eternal families and eternal relationships and eternal promises.

SEPTEMBER STUFF

MISSIONARY

We've had some big family events in September that just need to be recorded.  First of all, Elder Christoper Long left for the Mexico MTC on his way to his mission in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  He is loving the MTC and speaking Spanish like a boss.  Way to go grandson!  It warms my heart to think that he is serving the Lord so willingly.  YOU WILL BE A GREAT MISSIONARY!

Good luck  Elder Christopher Long!  Only in Cheyenne do the rabbits meet you in the airport to wave goodbye.

NEW BABY

We also had a new addition added to this cute bunch.  A new granddaughter born on September 14. Nameless, but so adorable!  Kendell and Ruth are wonderful parents and these are such adorable, happy, well- adjusted, talented, helpful kids.  Do I sound like a grand-parent?  Yes I do.  We love all our grandchildren and miss them so much.

Cute Buxton Bunch

Newest addition to the family.

ENGAGEMENT

And then we had the BIG engagement.  Rose petals, spotlight, OSU gymnasium, video - this was a well-planned plot to lure this cute girl to the proposal.   And she said YES!  Congratulations to Christien and Coley. She is The Sweetest Thing. And he's pretty wonderful too.

Newly engaged couple at Oklahoma State University.  Coley is a local girl.

STEVNS KLINT

Today we drove south along the coast.  Denmark is still green and beautiful and farmers are in their fields plowing and harrowing. They have quite modern equipment, on a small scale.  The road we traveled was narrow and two-lane,  and you had to keep an eye out for tractors wheeling out into the road to have enough room to turn and  plow another row.  Charming little cottages lined the road with glimpses of the Baltic Sea at the end of narrow one-track roads squeezed between houses and hedges.

Stevns Klint is named for limestone cliffs towering high above the Baltic.  The main industry used to be fishing and slicing off yellow limestone from the cliff (used for bricks, mortar, and chalk.), but now the main industry is tourism thanks to a scientific discovery in the cliff layers. Hidden between the thick layers of limestone and chalk is a thin layer of dark clay called  Fish Clay.  Stevns Klint is the best place in the world to study this clay which, according to scientist, proves the theory of an asteroid hitting the earth which led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.  They are quite proud of this.

 The old church there was built in 1250 out of this limestone and perches right on the edge of the cliff.  In 1927, the whole choir loft fell off the church when a huge section of the cliff collapsed and tumbled into the sea.  The structure is tall, with the peculiar stair-step double tower of many Danish churches.

Notice the headstones.  The churchyard is a cemetery.  This is very common. The low stone wall at the back is the cliff edge.

Side view.  Cliff edge to the right.

Inside, faded murals cover the plaster walls and the pews line up ram-rod straight on wavy, uneven stone floors. A typical old Danish Church.  To the right and out of view, a little white-railed balcony sits on the cliff edge in place of the absent choir loft.  Yes, you can walk out on it!  No I did not!

How would you like to spend three hours on these seats?  

The back of the church looking up from the beach.  You can see the balcony part way up,  in place of  the choir loft.

The beach below the church showing the white cliffs.  The fish clay is the shadowing right below the overhang about half way up.  This is the BALTIC SEA!  Wow!  The waves make a peculiar sound when they suck backwards across the rocks.  Like pebbles rattling in a tube, but muffled.

The newer church in the near-by village of Hojerup snuggles in a lovely cemetery.  Tiny, elegant grave plots are sectioned off with clipped shrubbery, covered in gravel, planted with flowers and foliage and carefully tended by families. The shrubs give a maze-like feel, and larger trees and bushes punctuate the edges. You rent the grave site for 20 years, then have to renew.  If you don't, then the bones and headstone are removed, and someone else gets to use the space.

Notice the tiny, maze-like plots. 

So well-kept.

The prettiest cemeteries I have ever seen.

Unfortunately, rent wasn't paid for these.  Next to the outer fence for you!

Back of the newer church with the choir loft (round part) still attached.

A ONE-DEACON BRANCH AND A VIEW FROM THE TOP

Stan woke up this morning with a sore foot.  Don't know if it was from our trip yesterday or what, but it is sore on the top and he is limping like an old guy.  Oh wait, he is an old guy.   Anyway, not normal for him.  And not good for him.  You have to understand that we walk a lot and especially for errands at the office.  Down to the deli for food,  over a block or so to the temple or the post or a dozen other places.  Of course, Brother Thorne is a walking fool and has probably strolled down every street in Copenhagen.  Truth.  He walks early in the morning, and late at night and sneaks out of the office as often as he can.  All legal errands, of course.  He actually has a huge map of Copenhagen pinned to a wall and is trying to walk on every street.  Marks them in red.

We drove to Amager this morning to our branch and attended our first fast and testimony meeting.
The sacrament is blessed by Elders and High Priests mostly, and our ONE Deacon helps pass the sacrament.  His name is Caleb, and he takes it very seriously, standing stone still until the Branch President is served,  He is our one Aaronic Priesthood holder.  His father is a pilot in China and is here a month, then gone a month, but his step-mother brings him religiously.

We also have a translator who sits in the back and we use headphones if we want to understand every word.  I generally put one ear on and one off, so I can hear the Danish as well.  A whole new meaning for the term "bi-lingual." I catch a word here and there.  This little branch is wonderful.  Everyone who spoke bore a humble, but powerful testimony.  Isn't it amazing that all over the world, you feel the same spirit at  testimony meeting?  By the way, if you speak in English at the pulpit, the first counselor stands up to interpret for you.  So you have to say a sentence at a time.  A little fragmented, but it works.  Our missionaries bore their testimonies as well.  Elder Nielsen and Elder Thurman.  What powerful, spiritual young men - confident, and exuberant!  We actually went with them last Wednesday to a member's house for dinner, and I can tell you that they are for real.  And I can tell you that Elder Thurman surely can eat a lot of food.  He told us he ate so much because he was getting ready to fast.  But, his fasting was not a food one, but an English language one.  No English for 4 days.  I think he survived.   At least the language fast.

Danish Sunday School is not interpreted, so I just listen and probably stare blankly.  But in Relief Society, Anna interprets.  Bless.  The lesson was on being a good visiting teacher and was taught by the Relief Society president, Mona, step-mother to our Deacon, Caleb.  There are few bodies in Relief Society, but lots of good feelings.  A good day at church.

Elder Thorne took us on a little tour of Amager on the way home.  The beautiful, graceful bridge to Sweden stretches across the white-capped water from here.  The first part of the bridge is an under tunnel so the boats can sail through.  Being a clear day helped us see the shores of Sweden  glistening on the other side - about 2 miles away. We plan to go one day.  I will post a picture another time

Some pictures from our roof-top patio.  Tiny roof-top patio.

This is looking south east.  There is a walking trail around this lake.  There are five  I think and used to be the old moat,  but not sure that is true.  Man-made.  Rectangular.   There are generally swans on the lake - a mother and her young.  The young ones are still gray with white underneath the wings.  Right out of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.

At ground level, our back door leads to a tiny patio. Shrubs divide us from the pathway around this lake  (all Danish have either shrubs or fences for privacy.)  Oh.  We have rats in the shrubs.  Really. They show up particularly when there is a gas leak.  They love the smell and the repairmen look for the rats to locate the leak.  I think our rat was fed by Sister Hamlin, the missionary before us.  This rat will have to find another food source.

View to the north from the patio.

ROSKILDE AND RAIN

We woke up to blustery, fitful blue skies and decided to run a quick errand a few blocks away for the President before our excursion to Roskilde, a small town west of here.  Its claim to fame is the church where the current Queen will be buried, and where the Queens and Kings are traditionally laid to rest.  We walked to a little office supply store and waited outside for it to open at 10.  This is one of my favorite shops here.  It is tiny.  Aisles are pretty much just suggestions and so narrow that you have to suck in and turn sideways to slide around.  It has everything you could possible need in a riot of colors. Sticky notes and markers and office gadgets you never even knew you needed piled to the ceiling.  I think it's a sales gimmick.  You want to buy one of each.

It is like a candy store for the office gadget geeks.  

As we headed home, it started to rain and blow.  Oh well.  What's a little rain to a Dane?  We first boarded a bus and rode to a little loppemarked (flea market) on the way.  I found a piece of Royal Copenhagen porcelain called "Goose Girl".  Porcelain used to be very precious to the Danes, but has lost it's popularity so you can pick it up fairly cheaply.

Goose Girl

Still raining and blowing.  We trudged a block or so to the train, avoiding puddles as best we could. We were getting wet and our umbrellas kept snapping inside-out.  At the station, we realized that the train was uncharacteristically late, so we huddled in a little alcove and watched other trains whiz by in both directions in a confusion of tracks and platforms. (We have pensioner passes and can ride the busses, trains, s/tog  [like a front runner], and the harbor boats around an amazing area in Denmark.)

The trains are on time and clean and confortable.  They have places for bikes and even cars which are "quiet cars."  Whisper or you get glares.

We were glad to finally board and get out of the whipping wind.  This is when I decided I was not a Dane weathering the storm effortlessly.  These people!  At Roskilde, we strolled through this beautiful village and headed  to a plaza with a gardener's market and another loppemarked.  We passed huge pots of flowers, cute little shops and open market stalls with things like bread, fish and cheese.  Colorful sights teasing your eyes and smells tugging at your nostrils.  Busy even in the rain. This is a beautiful jewel of a town.  We will return.  They have a big Christmas market in their square in December.

Flower stalls.  They are everywhere, on every street.

Roskilde  cobblestone streets.

Unbelievably big flower pots.

Yes.  And they use them.

Den Domme Kirken (The Queen's Church)  This is where the Queen will be buried.

  
                                                       

Building next to the church.  Housing for the priest?  They still hold services in this lovely old church.

We think this is a nunnery, tucked next to the Queen's Church.

                                                    
By the time we finished, the sun was trying to shine, although it was still cold.  The Thornes had just said good-bye this morning to company who had been here for 2 weeks, and were so kind to escort us around when I'm sure they would rather be home cleaning.  They got up at 5 to do some of that.   Good people.  And when we got home, the Parkers who live downstairs and work with the youth, invited us to eat corn chowder at their house.  We are blessed to be surrounded with some new friends who are so warm and welcoming.

COMPACT COPENHAGEN

• Can I tell you how compact this city is?  Everything is smaller in size, then crowded and squeezed together in a tight fit.  Except the buildings.  The funny thing is that you have these enormous apartment buildings towering over these little, tiny side streets.  You can't even get a good camera shot because you can't back up far enough.  So here is what I mean:

This is our tiny Opel.  Notice the suicide doors.

This is where you park your Opel.  You get approximately 5 inches leeway between cars.  More or less.  These Danes are masters at squeezing into tiny spaces.  We actually have an apartment parking lot, but same rules apply.

This is where you drive your Opel.  Yes, folks, it's a two-lane street.  Except only one car can squeeze by at a time.  Unless you're a Dane.

More compactness.  This is a shopping cart.  (Laugh here.)

 It does help that the food is packaged small.  This is as large a carton of milk as I've  seen.

             

 .

It's an obstacle course walking back to the apartment.  You have (from L to R)  restaurant tables, a two-way walk-way, parked bikes, bike lane with lots riders whizzing by and then cars.  Every.  Street.  Bicycles have the right of way.

Pretty apartment building.  Barely could get the shot on the narrow street.

THE OFFICE

Our first Monday in the office was hectic as we were trying to learn the ropes and get ready to send 8 elders home on Tuesday.  That wouldn't be so overwhelming except that right on their heels we had 12 new elders arriving.  So the president got up in the wee hours and dropped off 8, then waited a few hours and picked up 12.  Can I say that the paper work for this is astounding!!!  Both ways.  Good thing the office staff who left on Friday and the Thornes had most everything ready for them.  All we had to do was get them to sign a bunch of stuff, copy their passports and driver's licenses, collect their driving records and oh yeah, FEED them.  Some of them were not too sure about the bread, jam and cheese. So Danish!   And, their luggage was scattered about like beached whales in our little office.  Think BIG suitcases.  In multiples of three.

We met these elders in the MTC.  Nice young men.  It's a good thing you can't see how wrinkled their suits are.

The president schedules a full day for them so they can adjust to European time.  They are pretty tired by mid-afternoon,  but no sleeping until night.