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.........

LASTS

We are starting to tick off the last agenda items before we head home.  We shipped a bunch of packages today to the USA, so things are starting to look a little bare in our apartment.  Lots of nails.  No pictures.  We had our last zone conference a few days back and so that means our last feeding of large groups of missionaries,  our last instruction from President O'Bryant and our testimonies to the missionaries.  It was a tender moment..........

Zone Conference at the stake center at Maglegårds Alle

Last Zone Conference in Den Danske Mission for us.

Our last Zone conference picture, and of course, Elder Buxton is no where to be found.  Off picking up 25 large pizzas. I am far left.

 

A couple of crazy Sister and Elder shots.  You would think the sun was shining or something after a long winter.

Sister Baggaley, Sister Hughes and Sister Sorensen

Sister Petersen and Sister Dietch

Elders Reed, Erickson, Jeppson, Lex and Jensen

Kitchen Crew:  Me, Sister Jenson, Sister Hall and Sister Shurtliff.  I will miss working with these ladies.  They are the best!

Next week, we will have our last transfers and our last group of departing and arriving missionaries. A hectic few days, but some of the most enjoyable.  We will miss the busy days.  Elder Buxton will soon be pacing at home in Mendon.  If anyone has any ideas...............

QUIRKY STUFF

It is April!!!  Wow!!!  Our time is drawing short.  When I get home, I am going to publish my blog in book form and want to include memories of missionary moments, people we've met and places we've seen.  Customs.  Favorites.  And "Quirky"  things we don't typically see in Utah.  So the next few posts will be  a mish-mash of things I want to remember.

PASTRIES  (well of course)

How do you pick just one?

The words  "Danish Pastries" does not even begin to cover the width and breadth of the term. Multiple bakeries on every street and inside every grocery store display their goodies behind big class cases: fruit tarts, pies and cookies,  muffins and sweet rolls.   Stuffed with jelly and creme fillings or almond paste and topped with whipped cream just waiting to mustache your lip and add a few pounds.  Think buttery, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth layers.  Think cinnamon.  Think works of art.  The shelves are filled  and emptied every day.  Evening rush hour brings crowds buying bread for supper and sweets for breakfast.  You have to take a number for service for Pete's sake!  We met a visitor from Utah who brings an extra suitcase when visiting and fills it with Danish pastries to freeze until he can come back again.   Addiction.

TRANSPORTING LIL'UNS

Portable beds no less

The ride of choice for babies:   gigormous buggies which convert to strollers .  They are everywhere. You see moms, dads,  grandmas and au-pairs wheeling these down the streets.  Stair-less escalators accommodate them as well as buses.  A whole section of the bus is reserved for strollers and buggies, and the bus actually lowers on one side (hydraulics) so it is easier to enter and exit.  If the bus is crowded and you are standing in a buggy area, you move.  Buggies get on and off first.  Everyone knows these rules and no one bats an eye or complains.    AND parents will often leave sleeping children outside a cafe or church snugged up in these sleeping bassinets.  Yes.  True.

Deluxe Buggy

The nursery school version of the buggy.  You'll often see a procession of them out for some fresh air.  And refreshingly, men are behind the buggies as much as women.

Bike Transport

When the kiddos can sit up,  they bob along on the front or back of mom or dad's bicycle. The tiny ones are almost always asleep with chin on chest. Ninety per-cent of children from age 2 (or younger) attend nursery school or kindergarden.

Christiana Bike

Then we have the all-purpose carrier.   All sizes of children, whole families, dogs, groceries, home repair supplies, big screen TV's and neighbors can wedge into what is called a Christiana Bike.  The front section swivels to make turning corners easy.  Plastic covers on fancy ones zip up in bad weather to make a snug trek to school.  Pricey, though.

To be continued...............

TIME SLIPPING AWAY

[Note and Update:  Proof of old age.  I wrote this on March 5th and thought I had posted it.  Hello! Since I wrote this our baby Teddy has spent 2 1/2 weeks in NICU and  came home yesterday.  Happy Day!!]

Wow!  Where is the time going?  It seems like I just post and then the weeks slip by.  We have had an eventful few days waiting for a new grandson.  Little beggar decided to come 6 weeks early (due April 11 and born February 28) and really put a wrench in his mom and dad's schedule.  (Jor and Em) You know how you orchestrate the arrival of a new baby:  paint the bedroom, up-date the bedding and find the box of used clothes,  buy diapers, stock up on baby supplies.........?  Well.  They went from bedroom re-do straight to new baby.  His name is Theodore Scott Buxton and he is a tiny 6 lbs. 1 oz.  Now that sounds not so small, but when  10 pound babies are the norm, he's bitty.  Probably be in NICU for a few weeks, so mom and dad will be scrambling to take care of three others and spend time at the hospital. Good thing for help from ward and family.  Every baby is a blessing! Can't wait to see our Teddy.

BABY TEDDY

Another big event for us was a baptism for our little branch.  There hasn't been a baptism on Amager for quite some time, so the excitement was high.  I think half the branch attended in support of our new member (Mads) and the sister missionaries. The branch president welcomed Mads and told him that he was now a part of our family and that we all take care of each other.  He told him in his humble way,  "You need us and we need you."  How true that statement is.  Our new convert brought his young adult daughter and two friends.  The woman friend cried through the whole program and told the missionaries afterward:  "I need to do this. There is just something here."  Special day.

Sister Ludlow, Sister Holbrook and Mads

On a sadder note, we said good-bye to our dear friends, the Warnsdorffs, the missionary couple who finished their 2 years in the office.   They live here in Copenhagen, so we can still see them, but we have worked with them for 72 weeks, taking care of missionaries, attending the temple and hanging out at the flea markets.  It will be a big adjustment not having them around.  Very dedicated and so cheerful and positive.  And patient.  Especially when it came to my trying to speak Danish.  Elder Warnsdorf spoke to me  v e r y  slowly and with lots of hand gestures, but he persisted even when I looked at him blankly and had no clue.  Elder Warnsdorf is a 4th or 5th generation Mormon, stalwart, faithful and soft-spoken,  Loves to sing and pulls this booming voice from somewhere deep down when the hymns start.  And Sister Warnsdorf.  She  faithfully stood for hours in lines at the immigration office to hand-deliver papers to make sure things were all OK for the missionaries to be legal here. She didn't trust the mail for something so important to the mission.   She worried about forgetting something.  Lost sleep over it.  Dedicated.  She is an avid hand-ball fan and gave up her position as the goalie on the Danish National Team years ago when she joined the church because they played on Sunday.  She still follows her team, but never watches the games live on Sunday and no one better tell her the score on Monday morning before she gets a chance to watch the game.  And, she can host a lovely, elegant Danish dinner better than anyone I know. The missionaries love the Warnsdorfs.

Us.  The Warnsdorfs, Elder Bryner (back), the Kochs and O'Bryants.  Farewell dinner for the Warnsdorfs at the mission home.  The Kochs are replacing the Warnsdorfs.  They are a local couple and will be wonderful.  They will be in the office for 2 years, so will break in a new president in a year.  We love these people.

RELEASE DATE

So, while folks at home have been dealing with record snowfall (!!!!!!) we have been waiting for a replacement couple to pop up in the church system.  Our original release date was February 17th, then April 4, and then "indefinite" because there was no one on the radar.   Finally a couple showed up last week in the system and so our release date is officially May 9th. (Nothing better than spring in Cache Valley.)  The new couple is coming at the end of April and I think it will be a bit of a stretch for them to be ready, but, thankfully they are excited to come.  We have chatted on the phone with them directly from Gilbert, Arizona, and we will have about one week to turn the office over to them in May............I am sure they will be super!  It certainly creates a mixed-bag of emotions, though. Really miss the family and friends, but we are typical missionaries and it will be hard to leave.

We have had a lovely winter so far here in Copenhagen.  Temperatures mid 30's and 40's and not a lot of wind and snow.  KNOCK ON WOOD. It has been really foggy and misty, though, so much that we have a lot of sick missionaries.  In fact, half the city is sick, according to reports.  We were at the hospital last week with one of the sisters who was having trouble breathing.  The damp settles in the lungs and stubbornly refuses to budge;  biking outside in the mist for most of the day does not help. Hopefully with the new, more flexible schedules, the missionaries can get in a little earlier at night and get out of the damp air.

Pretty much the only snow this winter thus far.

Some of these missionaries are healthy.  Some.    Last week, a few brought a new convert to do baptisms in the temple; others had business at the office and all are more than happy to share germs with each other if they can eat lunch together.  At least their appetites are healthy.  One pizza each.  😋 

Christmas Nisser (mischievous elfs)  You can't find nativities in Denmark, but lots of these.

Thankfully, we have  avoided the flu and since we had a couple of free days recently,  and a bucket list of places to see, we headed out to the west coast of Jylland.  Here you find scenic lowlands, gentle hills and meadows, and a lot of coastline along with beautifully preserved medieval towns. This part of Denmark is famous for its Viking origins and wouldn't you know it, a whole branch of Christensen ancestors.  One of the couples, always ready to explore, agreed to travel with us, so we headed west to pick up the Larsens in Århus. Sister Larsen's collection of Nisser greeted us at the door.

This church does not have the typical Danish stair-step steeple.

You can see all the additions over the years in the brick, stone  and rock work.

Egtved

Old font in Egtved

Along our way to the west coast we stopped at Egtved kirke.   Some of the first settlements in Denmark came from this area,  so the churches can be very old.  Located in Egtved By, this ancient church has been added to at least 3 different times, but the oldest part of it was there in the 1600 and 1700's where my relative Anne Jørgensdatter (Anthonius Andersen Buck) and her ancestors worshipped for many generations.  The baptismal font is of a type found in this part of Denmark and is from 1100 AD, and the altar is from 1425.  Such history in these old parishes!

One should meditate here.

Yes.  Very large.

We poked around a bit, then drove on to Esbjerg.  Outside  Esbjerg is an oddity that has a timely appeal for today - a sculpture called "Man Meets the Sea."  Four stark, white, 27-foot tall men, sitting stiffly upright, tower above the beach on a small incline.  Completely devoid of decoration, they stare blankly out to sea.  The sculpture is meant to have a "universal appeal to represent all of man as opposed to any one ethnicity."  Hmmmm.  Sister Larsen and I clambered up near the feet for a photo shot.

Jylland (the west part of Denmark)  is almost 3 times larger than the rest of Denmark and so distances between villages is greater.  Which means more driving when visiting.  Jylland is the only part of Denmark that is not an island and the bottom section of the peninsula borders Germany.  Missionaries sometimes serve in Sønderborg - within hollering distance of the border.   We would have loved to slip over the border  (against mission rules) but headed north to Ringkøbing Fjord.  We drove up a narrow strip of land about 22 miles long and one-half mile wide which separates the Fjord from the north sea.  This spit of land is mostly sand dunes and marsh grass and summer cottages.  Thatched roofs in one cottage-cluster looked like hobbit huts hidden away among rolling hills of sand and sea grass.

Aren't those just the cutest little homes!  

Wind-blown sea grass

Dog walkers on the beach with Elder Buxton.

Blustery beach  day - aren't they all?

We drove until the road petered out and our front wheel dropped into a grassy covered hole.  Stuck. It is a good thing the mission cars are small enough to maneuver because the men had to wrestle it back to a level spot.  The wind was no help.  It whistled around the dunes and down the beach with icy breath  tosseling scarfs and hats, looking for any exposed fingers to numb.  One of those "lean-into" winds which never seem to change when you turn back.  A surprisingly large herd of vacationers walked the beach  throwing sticks into the waves for their dogs.  The strange thing was that they were all going the same direction like correographed traffic.  We stayed, mesmerized by the ocean waves until our faces were stiff, then slipped, slid and climbed our way back through the dunes to the car. Balancing on one foot after the other, we tried to remove all the sand from our shoes and pant legs, but finally gave up and climbed in.  The sand salt-shakered all over the car seats and floors within seconds. Well, our sleepiness from the drive was definitely over.  Wide awake and cold.

One last stop, a light house on a beach called Hvide Sande (White Sand), with a beautiful coast and spectacular sunset from the top.

Hvide Sande lighthouse

Conical circular stairs to the top

Don't you love beach sunsets!

Nice trip and all in less than two days.  Yes.  Denmark is relatively small............ for those of us who are used to 20-hour road trips to Texas.

Then, we got back to the office to this:  Did I mention that I have to forward all the missionary letters by writing addresses by hand?  The post will not allow labels.......

One thing you can always count on - the mail does not slow down when the Buxtons slip away for a few days.