Set Apart to Serve in the Danish Copenhagen Temple

Last evening we were both set apart to serve as ordinance workers in the Denmark, Copenhagen Temple. For sometime the Temple President has been talking to us about serving as Ordinance workers but initially he was of the opinion that we would need to transfer our membership records to our ward in Denmark. While it was our understanding that our membership records were to stay in our ward in Boise. He apparently got it worked out because last evening as we entered the temple he said he wanted his counselor to interview us and set us apart. So we went through an endowment session and then had the interview. (On a side note one of the things I really like about doing endowments is, it is one or the few places that I can understand almost all of the narrative. Of course that is from hearing that narrative in English so many times.) Our interview was interesting because the counselor in the Temple Presidency that did the interview did not speak much English and I could only understand parts of what he was saying in Danish and of course Sister Anderson could not understand any of it. We got through it and were both set apart in Danish. I translated for Linda what I could of what was said in her blessing. When I first learned the initiatory language in English I thought that was a bit challenging, I am not sure I am ready to attempt it in Danish. We told them we actually may only have time to serve during their Tuesday evening session and then assist when our Young Single Adults have temple days. It was a special evening.

An Interesting Family Home Evening with the Young Adults

 One of our Young Adults, Holly from England who is in charge of planning the Family Home Evening Activities came up with what I thought was a creative and novel Idea. She planned kind of a game night where the participants divided up into teams.

She had gathered a number of quotes from Elder Uchdorf and from Dumbledorf from Harry Potter books and movies. She would read the quote and then the contestants would guess who the quote was from. I thought she found some pretty good quotes and I was a little surprised at how often the Contestants got it wrong. Of course it likely helped if a person had read all the Harry Potter Books and was familiar with Elder Uchtdorf's many talks. I thought if our teenage grandchildren got assigned to plan a young adult activity, that might be something fun for them to try. I believe they have read the Harry Potter Books and of course they would all be very familiar with Elder Uchtdorf's Talks. 😃

It has rained most days this month

We have had a lot of rain lately, it seems it has rained most days. I was thinking I do not remember it raining this much while on my mission 50 years ago. But then I really do not remember a lot from 50 years ago. Then today I saw this headline on the news:

Denmark experiences wettest February in 150 years (and it's not over yet)

So i guess what we are experiencing is somewhat more than normal.

The Spirit was in attendance during our Institute Class

We had another special institute class on Thursday evening. We had 5 attend again but two were different than last week. The new ones were Benjamin from Denmark and Jamie from Germanyl  Kristine the non-member came again and we talked about how we can come to know Christ and the truthfulness of his gospel. And the role the Book of Mormon plays as evidence that Christ has restored his Church in our day. Several Class members bore their testimonies to Kristine. Holly shared her conversion story of being raised in the church and of her best and closest friend growing up. How he had been in to drugs and had a mohawk painted orange. He called Holly one day and wanted her to cut his hair. He said the Bishop had called him to serve in the Priests quorum and he was making changes in his life so he would be worthy to serve. He told her that he was planning to serve a mission and the Bishop had told him that it would be possible for him to serve. 
She was so pleased and happy about all that her friend was doing. However the following week this friend fell off a cliff and died. She said when that happened she blamed God or decided there was not God. She went through a number of years where she would not have anything to do with the Church. If someone came from the Church she would go in the other room. She basically cut off any contact with anybody or anything having to do with the Church. Then one day her Bishop came by to talk with her. She did not want to let him in and did not want to talk with him. She said then something came over her and she allowed the Bishop into the home. In her conversation with the Bishop he asked her if she had ever read the Book of Mormon, She said, well ya. Then he said no I mean have you ever really READ the Book of Mormon. 

The Bishop challenged her to sincerely read the Book of Mormon. After the Bishop left she read the Book of Mormon non-stop for 16 or 17 hours. She said that after she completed reading the Book of Mormon she prayed to know if it was true and this overwhelming feeling came over her, she said it felt like someone had their arms around her giving her a warm hug. She came to know that her friend who had died was okay and doing what he was supposed to be doing. As she shared her story and testimony, Kristine had tears rolling down her cheeks. It was really a very tender moment. I visited with Kristine both before and after class and she asked questions and shared some experiences that really made me think the Lord is preparing her to become a member of his Church. Several of us shared experiences that added to the spirit that was felt that evening and those in attendance commented on what a special evening we had.

Our Nykøbing visit

Yesterday we drove one hour and forty minutes south of Copenhagen to do an apartment inspection for the Elders in Nykøbing. We had a nice visit with them and as we were about to leave Elder Krueger suggested we have a prayer. Well his companion called on him to pray and when he did I immediately felt the spirit come into the room. It was pretty special. As we went down the Stairs we met a couple trying to take a washing machine up to the 5th floor. The man was from Uganda and spoke very good English and I forget but the woman may have been from Ukraine. The Staircase was narrow and winding, he had a rope and a blanket, so he had a plan but I questioned how effective it might be. So I told the couple they needed to meet their neighbors. I went back up and knocked on the missionaries door and suggested they come and meet their neighbor. They came out and offered to help him get the washer up the stairs. It turns out the missionaries live above the Church building in Nykøging and as we were leaving I suggested to this couple they check out the Church that meets on the bottom floor. Hopefully this will become a contact for the missionaries. We later talked to the missionaries at zone Conference and they mentioned they were teaching this couple. 

Our Walk around the Lake at Frederiksborg Castle

Prior to going into Frederiksborg Castle we completed our daily walk by walking around the lake surrounding the Castle. While on the walk Sister Anderson started up a conversation with a young man, he told us he was a professional Soccer player here in Denmark, he said he is not at the highest level but that he gets paid to play. He offered to let us come and watch one of his soccer games and we invited him to church, he said he would come but we probably did not give him clear enough directions. We are still doing missionary work while visiting some of the historic sites. I will credit Linda with following the missionary admonition of talking to everyone.

An apartment inspection in Allerød and a visit to Frederiksborg Castle

On Friday we drove to Allerød for an apartment inspection with Elders Jaursch & Elder Langmann, they are both from Germany one from East Germany and one from West Germany. We had a nice visit with them. We have started leaving a spiritual message with our apartment inspections and since the Tabernacle Choir is coming this Summer we have been sharing a story from one of Gerald Lund's books about an experience he had years ago while on his mission in Wyoming. He said that someone in the Ward they were assigned to asked him and his companion to go and visit his mother who lived way out in the country. He told the Elders that she had her own Church and so she probably would not be interested and but asked if they would go visit her anyway. So they drive all the way out in the country and it is pretty remote they see deer in the yard as they drive up. They go and knock on the door and she answers the door. They introduce themselves and she explains to them that she is not interested because she has her own church. Then she says that since they drove all that way she would invite them in. After visited with her for sometime Elder Lund said he asked her "What is your Church"? She said, "it is the Church of Evans and they have a television program every Sunday morning and a wonderful Choir that sings." 

Elder Lund realizes she is talking about the Tabernacle Choir and back then Richard L Evans an apostle did the spoken word. So Elder Lund say's Well that's our Church. Her response is "Oh it is not". It turned out that he happened to have a picture of the Twelve Apostles with him and so he pulled out the picture and pointed to Elder Evans and was able to convince her it was our Church. She was soon baptized. 

After completing our apartment inspection and visit with the Elders we drove to about 7 minutes to Frederiksborg Castle. 

Frederiksborg Castle (Danish: Frederiksborg Slot) is a palatial complex in Hillerød, Denmark. It was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway in the early 17th century, replacing an older castle acquired by Frederick II and becoming the largest Renaissance residence in Scandinavia. Situated on three islets in the Slotssøen (castle lake), it is adjoined by a large formal garden in the Baroque style.

This castle has a a number of Carl Bloch paintings you can see at the site below.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_by_Carl_Bloch_in_Frederiksborg_Castle