March 2013

Here it is almost the middle of April and I haven't written anything about March yet. I'm kind of a slacker. So here we go. On the 3rd we attended a stake conference in Århus where Shawn spoke and did a great job as usual.
On the 5th Shælland held their zone training and on the 7th Jylland held theirs.
We celebrated Jarom's 17th birthday on the 8th. I can't believe he is that old. None of my kids listened to me when I told them to stay little.
On the 12th Shawn along with the assistants traveled to Iceland where they met Elder Olsen from Sweden and had a Iceland conference. It was a very good conference and enjoyed by all who attended. They returned back to Denmark on the 18th just in time for a Shælland zone conference on the 19th. And then on the 21st we traveled to Jylland for a zone conference.
Jarom and Heather had there Spring break starting on the 25th-April 1. They did the same thing they did for their break in February, a whole lot of nothing. I had a hard time convincing them to even just go to the store with me.
On the 26th we had a departure dinner for Elder and Sister Telford. They served in the Young Single Adult center in Copenhagen and worked with the young single adults. The youth loved them, they will surely be missed.
On the 27th we brought missionaries that have been here for a month, along with their companions, together for some training.
And also on the 27th, the Iceland youth travel here to go to the temple. Shawn and I had the opportunity to be there with them. They spent 2 days here doing work in the temple.
We celebrated our first Easter here in Denmark. Little did we know that all the stores are closed on Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday. I went to go get groceries on Thursday for the weekend and was surprised to find them all closed. Next year we will know better and plan ahead.
An update on Jacob on his mission. He is doing great, he loves his mission. Two zones from his mission will go to the Federal Way mission but he will stay in the Tacoma mission. He was just made a zone leader and loves doing mission work.

Shælland Zone Conference

Jylland Zone Conference

Missionaries standing outside of a Church in Iceland

Elder & Sister Telford's Departure

Specialized training for new missionaries and companions

Iceland Youth at the Copenhagen Temple

Elder Sederholm & companion

February 2013

Another month has gone by. It seems like I am always trying to play catch up.
On February 7th we had a departure dinner for Elder and Sister Nielson, they served their mission in the mission office. They will be sorely missed. They traveled back to their home on the 8th.
Jarom and Heather had a week winter break at school, February 11-15. It was a much needed break, they took advantage of the break by doing a lot of sleeping in. I think they maybe left the house 2 times the whole week. I guess you could say, "Boring." They really enjoyed the break.
On the 19th we received 4 missionaries, Sister Tew, Elder Gines, Elder Westergaard and Elder Francis. One of their flights got canceled and we didn't hear a word from them. We were hoping they were coming on a later flight but we didn't know for sure. They did arrive a few hours late really tired after an extra long trip here to Denmark. We love getting new missionaries! Sister Swett was unable to travel to Denmark with her MTC group because she did not get her visa so, she is temporally assigned to another mission until her visa is approved. We hope she will be able to join us very soon.
On the 20th we had a departure dinner for Sister Olssen and Elder Pierson. We are going to miss them but wish them the best. Elder Pierson was one of the assistants that met us at the airport when we arrived. They both returned to their homes on the 21st.
On the 22nd Shawn traveled to Iceland with Elder Westergaard. Elder Westergaard will serve his mission there. While in Iceland Shawn attended a zone training, fireside and church meetings. He traveled back to Denmark on Monday the 25th.
On the 26th we had a zone leader council and then on the 27th Shawn and I traveled to Germany to a mission presidents seminar. The seminar was wonderful. Elder Holland was in attendance, he is such a powerful speaker. He spoke in the final session and I don't think there was a dry eye in the whole room. It was nice to see all the mission presidents and their wives that are serving in the Europe area. We returned back to Denmark on Friday the 1st of March.
Wow! What a busy a month!

Elder & Sister Neilson

Elder Wooden, Elder Gines, Elder Jesperson, Elder Francis, Elder Westergaard & Sister Tew

Sister Olssen & Elder Peirson

Frankfurt Germany Temple

Mission Presidents Seminar - February 2013

January 2013

Wow! It is already February and I haven't posted anything for January. I'll give you a quick update of what has been going on here.
On the 4th & 5th of January, we had zone and district leadership training at the mission home, it was fun to have a house full of Elders. I will say these boys can put away the food. On Saturday we all attended the temple together, what a great session.
On the 7th had a departure dinner for Elder Trevor Peterson and he caught his flight home the next day.
Shawn traveled to all the districts to have a personal interview with each missionary. What a great opportunity to get to visit one on one with each one of them. He was in Iceland on the 18th-21st doing interviews and welcoming Elder and Sister Calloway to the mission.
On the 22nd we had a departure dinner for Elder and Sister Despain, and on the 28th we had a departure dinner for Elder and Sister Schvaneveldt. Oh no! We are losing senior couples and there are not any coming to replace them. We love our senior couples!
On the 30th Shawn flew back to Iceland to start a mission conference with Elder Patrick Kearon. On the 31st they flew back to Copenhagen where we brought the rest of the mission together for a conference on the 1st of February. It was a great conference even if we had to have a sick room for 2 sick Elders. And Yes, I had to speak again, I tried to think of a good excuse but none of them worked. The Gladsaxe 2nd ward Relief Society fixed us a wonderful lunch of Danish open faced sandwiches and æblekage for dessert. We were both spiritually and physically fed.
If you are interested in seeing more picture of what is going on with the missionaries, there is a blog for our mission at cop-den-mission.blogspot.com.

Zone and District Leadership training

Departure of Elder Trevor Peterson

Departure of Elder and Sister Despain

Departure of Elder and Sister Schvaneveldt

Mission Conference in Iceland

Mission Conference in Copenhagen

December 2012

Wow! What a busy month. We had a great month to finish out the year. We barely had time to breath but being busy is good. On the 4th-6th we attended a couples conference for all the senior couples. It was fun getting to know the couples better. We attended to temple, visited some sights and had dinner together. On the 7th Shawn traveled to Iceland where he attended the zone conference and had a dinner for Elder and Sister Merry, they have been serving in Iceland for 23 months, before they returned home. On the 11th we had a departure dinner for Sister Moore and then on the 18th Elder Gifford arrived. It seems like people are coming and going all the time.
We had lots of visitors to help us celebrate the Christmas season. Jared and Hilary arrived on the 16th, Dallas (Jared's fiancé) arrived on the 21st, Josh arrived on the 22nd and Jaela (Josh's girlfriend) arrived on the 24th. We had such a good time together celebrating the birth of our Savior. On Christmas Day we had the opportunity to talk to Elder Sederholm. He is doing awesome, he loves what he is doing and his smile could not have been bigger. It was great to have everyone together even if one was on Skype. What a great day we had.
We visited lots of sights while the kids were here. The day after Christmas we went to see the little mermaid statue (Den Lille Havfrue), the Marmokirken or Frederike Kirke, saw where the Queen lives with the guards, Vor Frue Kirke (the church were the original Christus is located) and then to Tivoli gardens (an amusement park were Walt Disney got the idea to start disney world). On the 27th we toured Kronberg castle and then on the 28th we visited Fredriksberg castle. On the evening of the 28th we all went to the temple and did baptisms. It was wonderful to be in the temple together. And then on the 31st we went on a canal tour. We had such a good time together, sometimes I wondered what people thought of our family cause sometime they can be a little strange. I wonder who they get that from.
On the 29th, Shawn and I traveled to Esberg to speak in church on Sunday. We received a call in the middle of the night informing us that Shawn's mother had passed away. Her health had really deteriorated lately so it wasn't a big shock but it is still hard to have a loved one pass away especially your mother. After we heard the news and had gone back to sleep. I had a dream of Shawn's mother running to his dad, them embracing and her saying "You didn't forget me" and his response being "No, I didn't forget you, I love you." We have been comforted so much and know she is right where she wanted to be, in her husbands arms. We were blessed to be able to listen to her funeral service via Skype.
On New Year's Eve we went into Copenhagen, the Shælland zone was having an activity at the senior couple apartments. We had a dinner together and then watch the fireworks over Copenhagen as the new year came in. The fireworks were amazing, they started at midnight and continue all night long. We stayed until about 45 after midnight and the fireworks were still going strong when we left. We could hear them going on all night and for a couple of nights after that.
Josh and Jaela flew back to Oklahoma on the 1st of January and then Hilary, Jared and Dallas flew back to Utah on the 4th. We made lots of memories while they were here but it was really hard to have them leave.

Christmas Eve

Den Lille Havfrue

Vor Frue Kirke

Tivoli

Kronberg Castle

Fredriksberg Castle

Canal Tour

November

Alright I have not done a very good job of keeping this blog updated. I'll catch up on what has happened since our last post.
Jarom traveled to Amsterdam, on the 7th, to play in the playoffs for his soccer team. His team did well, they took 4th place. I got a message from him on the 10th that said, "Hey mom, its Jarom. I'm fine but they had to call an ambulance to look at me cause they thought I might have a concussion. If you want you can call one of my coaches they said that would be fine." Of course I immediately picked up the phone and called his coach. I guess he was going for a ball and so was a kid from the other team. The ball was quite high, the other kid lifted his leg up high and kicked it right in Jarom's face. His nose started to bleed, the coach pulled him out and noticed that his eyes looked funny. The expression his coach used was, "his eyes were swimming." They called first aid who called the ambulance and they came to check him out. Everything ended up being alright, other then Jarom had a head ache for a couple of days. I guess he really does have a hard head, we thought so.
On November 9 Elder Olsen, from Sweden, traveled to here to attended the Zone Leader Council. It was nice to have him in our home for the meeting and lunch, we had a nice visit with him. At this Zone council half the people that attended were there for the first time. With missionaries going home and transfers, it changes things a bit.
On November 10, two couples arrived, Elder and Sister Ivie and Elder and Sister Garriott. We went to the airport to welcome them here and then had lunch with them. It's always nice to have more missionaries arrive.
On the 15th, Shawn and I traveled to Århus for a Jylland zone activity. The missionaries had a Turkey Bowl, talent show and a nice Thanksgiving Dinner. It was fun to see their different personality as they participated in the talent show. The next day we attended a Zone training in Århus also.
On the 17th we attended a baptism for Ann Jacobsen. She has been an investigator on and off for about 30 years. It was great to see her get baptized and see the great change in her life.
For Thanksgiving we were invited to Travis and Lindsey Sivey's. He works for the US embassy here in Copenhagen. There were 5 families that had dinner together. We had a nice time visiting and of course eating.
On the 23rd, the Sjælland Zone had their zone activity. They also had a turkey bowl, talent show and dinner. We are very thankful that there were no injuries at either turkey bowl only some very sore bodies the next day. The mission couples fixed the dinners for both zones and did a wonderful job. Some of the food that we are use to eating on Thanksgiving is a little hard to find here, they seemed to be able to find everything they needed. After eating 3 fabulous Thanksgiving dinners we are having to adjust our belts a little bit bigger and I can be thankful for elastic.
What a wonderful month we have had, we have a lot to be thankful for. We are now looking forward to the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior; and to help us celebrate our children will be here. Yay!!!

Jylland Zone training

Ann Jakobsen's Baptism

Shælland Zone Turkey Bowl

October 23-November 6

Okay, where do I start. This last couple of weeks have been crazy busy. On the 23rd of October we received 11 new missionaries to the mission. We were very glad to get them here. We found out on the Thursday before they got here that their visas had finally been approved. It takes about 4 months after the missionaries have had their fingerprints done to receive their visas to come to Denmark. We were excited to see that all 11 would be here as scheduled. 3 of the Elders will be serving in Iceland for their whole mission. They arrived in Denmark about 9:30 a.m., were brought to the mission office for some paperwork and interviews and had their 1st opportunity to go contacting. That evening they came to the mission home for dinner and a good nights sleep. The next day they found out who their companions were and were off to their new areas except for the Iceland Elders who had to wait until Thursday to go to Iceland.
On Wednesday we had a dinner at the mission home for the 6 missionaries in Denmark that were on their way home, one senior couple, the Bowlers, 1 sister, Sister Johnson, and 3 Elders, Elders Bailey, Veach and Sandstrom.
On Thursday Shawn flew to Iceland with 3 new missionaries to replace the Elders going home. On Saturday he took the 3 missionaries that had completed their mission in Iceland to the airport to return home. He returned home on Monday the 29th about noon and then about 4:00pm, he was off to the airport to pick up a senior couple, the Hansen's, that had arrived. He brought them to the mission home where we had a dinner prepared for them.
On Tuesday Shawn and I flew to Madrid Spain to a mission presidents seminar for the Europe missions. There were 30 mission presidents and wives, the Area Presidency and wives in attendance. What a wonderful conference! We left Jarom and Heather at home to fend for themselves. In the mornings they would ride their bikes to the train station to get school. There was only one accident, Heather hit the curb with her bike causing her to tip over, scrap her leg up and have the chain of her bike come off. Jarom was kind enough to help her fix her chain so she could ride her bike home. It's nice to see that they are willing to take care of each other. After a couple of days of being alone, Elder Bailey, one of the elders that was on his way home, and his parents stayed a couple of nights at the mission home with them.
Friday night we returned from Spain and attended Stake conference on Saturday where Shawn spoke to the bishops in leadership meeting and Shawn and I both spoke in the Sunday session. And by the way I'm still not a fan of speaking in church.
On Monday we had parent teacher conferences where we talked to Jarom and Heather's teachers, it was great to hear that they are doing well in school. On Tuesday we had more parent teachers conferences and Shawn made another trip to the airport to pick up a senior couple, the Johansen's, that will be serving here in Denmark. That evening we had a dinner at the mission home for 4 of the senior couples to welcome the new comers. So in the last couple of weeks we have hardly had time to breath. Shawn has made about 9 trips to the airport, 23 beds have been changed and bedding washed, and 5 dinners for different groups have been fixed. Isn't there a saying that says something like "no rest for the wicked." Haha! We love being with the wonderful missionaries here in the Denmark Copenhagen mission. They are the best!

Mission Presidents standing in front of. Peter holding the keys

Europe Area Presidency, Mission Presidents and wives.

3 Iceland Elders completed their missions

6 Denmark Missionaries completed their missions.

11 new missionaries ready to serve.

Escorts for the US ambassador

It was a wonderful General Conference weekend. Hearing the announcement about the change in missionaries age makes us excited to get more great missionaries.
On Monday the 8th we had a dinner for Elder Tolman and his parents as he finished his mission. The very next day we had another dinner for Brother and Sister Olsen as they prepared to return home to their family after completing their mission. It is always mixed feelings as we see missionaries leave the mission. We are sad to see them leave but happy for them that they are returning home after completing their mission.
On October 12th Shawn and I were asked to be escorts for the US ambassador at one of our ward buildings for a cultural night. Her name is Laurie Fulton, she has been here in Denmark for about 4 years. She was very nice and she has Danish ancestors so we enjoyed hearing about them. She will be returning back to the states in January to her family and job. She has a sister that is a member of the church so she knows a little about it. It was a nice evening.

Well I decided I probably should do an update since I haven't done one in a while. Jarom and Heather are doing well in school. They are making lots of friends and I haven't even had to pay anyone to be their friend. Jarom is on the schools soccer team. His first game was in Hamburg, Germany. He was excited to ride for the first time on a double decker bus. His soccer team is a young soccer team that has lots of room for improvement so we will not mention the score. He stayed over night at a hosts home in Germany and had a good time.
Heather has started violin lessons. We were referred to a lady that lives a couple houses from us. She is from Ukraine where she played the viola in the Philharmonic orchestra. She does speak English but sometimes she doesn't know the word she is trying to use and asks Heather in Danish but all she gets is the deer in the headlight look.
We are enjoying working with the missionaries. Our life stays busy with Zone Conferences, Zone Councils and missionary work. Oh, and don't let me forget the wonderful opportunity we get to speak in church. A few wards have asked our whole family to speak. Jarom and Heather do a wonderful job. The members are amazed when they hear the messages that they have prepared. They give much better talks then I do. My hope it that they will ask Jarom and Heather to speak with Shawn instead of me.
Shawn travels to Iceland the last weekend of every month where he has 3 days of non-stop action. He meets with the missionaries, does a fireside, interviews members and takes care of the branches needs. By the time he returns home he is ready for a few hours of sleep.
Life as a Mission Presidents family never has dull moment from finding out someone has committed to baptism or getting a call because an elder has cut his leg open and needs to go to the emergency room. Excitement, got to love it!

Sjaelland Zone Conference

August 13-27

These last 2 weeks have been really busy. Hilary left for BYU on Monday the 13th. She helped out so much and it was great having her here for the first month. We are sure going to miss her. Now I have a confession about the blog. Yes, I am the one who has been writing about the experiences we are having here but once I had finished I would hand it off to Hilary and she would make it just a bit more lively. So now the true test comes to see if I can make my writing interesting. I may have to call on Jarom and Heather to help.
Jarom and Heather started school on Wednesday the 15th. Getting them to school was a new experience. We live about a 20 minutes by car from their school without a lot of traffic. We left for school 45 minutes before it started, we hit rush hour traffic on the out skirts of Copenhagen and then within the city there were, as Jarom calls it, flocks and flocks of bikes. We finally arrived at their school 5 minutes before it started and could not make a right turn into their school because of so many people riding bikes. After sitting through the light changing from green to red 3 times, Jarom and Heather finally decided they better jump out of the car and make a mad dash to school. It is different driving here, you cannot make right turns on a red light and bikes have the right of way. We decided after a few days of driving to school that the train was a better form of transportation. It gets them there faster and we don't have to worry about hitting a biker.
On Sunday the 19th, we left the house at 7:30am to attend church in Odense. Shawn and I were asked to speak in both wards they have there and Jarom and Heather spoke in 1 of the meetings. I think the Danish members are going to get tired of hearing from me and the kids and just ask Shawn to speak. At least that is what we are hoping for. After the second meeting we hurried back to Copenhagen for a fireside where we listened to Elder Groberg speak. Such a busy Sunday! Shawn and I retuned around 9:30pm ready to go to sleep.
On Tuesday, the 22nd, we had our first group of missionaries arrive from the MTC; Elders Nordfelt, Lindstrom, Strong and Vandenberghe. After a very long flight they were really tired but excited to be in Denmark. The Assistants, Elder Bailey and Elder Pierson, took them out to do some street contacting and sightseeing. Church of My Lady and Frederiksborg Castle were two of the places they got to see. After that they came back to the mission home where I fixed them dinner and we had a testimony meeting and then they were more than ready for bed.
On Wednesday the new elders met their new companions and were off to their new areas. Three Elders, Elder Feil, Elder McCleary and Elder KLC, completed their missions, had their departing interviews and departed for the mission home for dinner and testimony meeting. We enjoyed having new Elders and Elders returning home in our home on two different nights. What a special spirit they bring.
On Thursday, we took two of the departing Elders to the airport to return back to their homes. Elder McCleary's parents came to pick him up at the mission office. I even shed a few tears to see parents and son reunite, it brought back lots of memories.
On Friday Shawn left for Iceland for his monthly visit. He hardly had time to breath, he went from the airport to interviews to zone conference to more interviews to church to fireside back to airport. Wow! What a weekend. He had a wonderful time but was spiritually and physically drained. This next week looks to be not so busy but only time will tell.

Hilary on her way back to BYU.

4 new Elders

3 Elders on their way home.

The new Elders and their companions in front of the Temple.

Week of Aug. 5th

This week was full of new opportunities, new experiences and new . . . . Royal titles? That's right, this week Shawn and I were dubbed a King and Queen; or else we would have been if we were living in the time before the world wars. Either that or we would have been servants and I prefer to look at the glass half full. On Friday and Saturday we were in Frankfurt, Germany for a new mission presidents training. We stayed in a beautiful hotel that at one time was a palace for the royal family. They spoiled us with all the food and accommodations; so even if we really weren't dubbed as King and Queen we sure were pampered as if we were. It was fun to see some of the mission presidents and their wives that we got to know in the MTC. It was sure nice having Hilary here so Jarom and Heather were able to stay at home with her. Returning home was a little bit scary because teenagers home alone never results in anything good, but we were pleasantly surprised to return home to nothing broken.
On Tuesday Shawn and I traveled to Århus for a zone training meeting and to another one on Thursday in Copenhagen. It was good to see all the missionaries again and see how excited they are to see each other.
On Friday we took Jarom and Heather to an open house at their new school. Well, new might be too strong of a word, more like used school. It is a school you would find in a used school lot rather than at a dealership where only new schools are sold. You can tell the building used to be an old office building. But once you get on the inside it is actually quite nice. At this new student orientation that they attended they both were able to meet some students and take a tour of the school.
On Sunday we attended Stake Conference in Herning for the Århus stake. Elder Craig Wright an area seventy from England was there, and he did an excellent job speaking. Shawn and I were asked to speak also. With an interpreter my talks only need to be half as long as normal talks but I still am not very fond of speaking. I did bear my testimony in Danish for the first time and I hope someone was able to understand me. Shawn did his in Danish and did wonderful as usual. After conference, Shawn was able to reacquaint himself with many members of the church from thirty years ago. It was a delight for him to see them again. Many of the children are now grown with their own families and serving in bishoprics and leadership positions. What a blessing it was to be among the valiant saints in Denmark. They are firm in their faith and love the Lord. How blessed we are to have the good news of the gospel in our lives and share that wonderful message with all who will receive it. We miss and love you all, yet know in our hearts that we have been called of God at this time to do His work. Yes we are inadequate for the task, but in the strength of the Lord all things are possible, even for us.
Thanks for your love and support and especially thank you for your prayers.
The are needed and greatly appreciated.

Week of July 30

On Monday we had a dinner for Elder and Sister Jensen at the mission home. It could have been seen as their last super here on the mission; just to give you a visual. We had 3 other senior couples there to help us honor them before they left to head home. It was a wonderful evening, we enjoyed getting to know all the couples better.
On Tuesday afternoon, we went to the senior couples apartments so Shawn could interview them and check to make sure their pond side apartments are up to par. Each couple made a part of dinner for us so when we combined all the offerings we were able to partake of quite a wonderful feast.
On Wednesday we traveled to Børnholm, an island south of Sweden. This is the island where our ancestors joined the church before moving to America. Brother Franz Bøving took us around the island showing us where our ancestors' family farm was located. He showed us the well that our ancestors hid the missionaries in when the mob was trying to kill them. It was such a cool experience to not only hear of these stories, but actually see where all this happened. We traveled back home on Thursday.
On Friday one of our missionaries had to return to his home for medical reasons. It is hard to send a missionary home before completing his mission. We hope that he is able to get the medical attention he needs so that he can return and complete his mission. After a trip to the airport we had a zone leader council at the mission home. It is always nice to have missionaries in our home; for their company and because when they are here we just have that many more repair men to fix anything that needs fixing. This trip they fixed the basketball hoop that had fallen face down and bent the hoop.
On Saturday we went as a family to Tivoli gardens, an amusement park here in Copenhagen. This theme park is where Walt Disney got his ideas to make his theme parks. It was a beautiful day for activities and perfect for family fun. When we first walked into the park there was something off about it, but we could not quite put our finger on it. The kids road on one ride on which they participated in their ritual of screaming like havoc routine and light was quickly shed on our curiosity from before. What made this park so different from what we were used to was that no one screamed. As soon as the ride was over, Shawn and I quickly walked away before our kids could claim us as their parents. Later we told them it was because we wanted to see more of the park, but that was only part of our reason. After being spun in circles enough times to confuse their simple directions as up and down, and flipped upside down so much that heather began to resemble Pippy Longstockings, the kids decided they had had enough so we returned home.
On Sunday we had a fireside at the mission home for investigators, new members, less actives and missionaries. We had a wonderful evening with around 35 in attendance.
Wow! What a wonderful week; quite busy, but great none the less. After all those meals made, cookies baked, and juices concocted I decided it was time for a vacation. . . Hm maybe in three years ;) I'm just kidding we love being here with these wonderful missionaries and being able to serve the amazing countries of Denmark and Iceland.

Standing in front of well where the missionaries hid from mob

A day at Tivoli!

Week of July 22nd

On Monday Shawn and I we're invited to attend the opening session of a YSA conference for the Nordic countries called "Festinord". Each year it is held in different locations in northern Europe and this year Copenhagen had the privilege of holding it just 15 minutes from our house. Hilary and Joel, a friend of hers from Brick Oven, were lucky enough to be participants of this conference all week long. Brad Wilcox a professor at BYU, Tomas Koford who portrayed Jesus Christ in the movie "The Testament", Brother Mathew Richardson from the Sunday School General Presidency and Elder Olsen an Area Seventy from Sweden were all in attendance. Brad Wilcox was the perfect person to open the conference. He spoke about dating and had everyone rolling in laughter.
On Friday, we celebrated Heather's 14th birthday. I can't believe our children are getting so old. Pretty soon they are going to catch Shawn in age because we all know I stopped aging after 21. As a special birthday present we took Heather to the temple to do baptism with her brother. The temple is beautiful. While we were there a temple worker explained the paintings that are located in the baptistery. One of the paintings has some prominent people from Denmark depicted in it. After the temple we returned home for birthday cake and got more of a surprise than was expected. Elder Bailey and Elder Pierson (assistants to the president) showed up to bring Heather a little gift for her birthday and joined us for cake and ice cream. It is wonderful to have such good missionaries that our children consider good friends.

Week of July 15th

This last week has been a busy one for Shawn. He has had the opportunity to travel back around Denmark to interview missionaries and get to know them better; their cleaning habits and all.
Christmas came early for us this year because Santa, although not in a sleigh, but in a moving truck, brought us our shipment we sent out months ago. This contained books, pictures, games, movies, clothes, etc. It's a good thing too because although Jarom didn't mind wearing the same clothes multiple days in a row, I think we were beginning to scare the neighbors.
Last Saturday, for Shawn's pday we went to down town Copenhagen. While we were down there we found a street known as the walking street. We know for a fact that cars are not allowed on this street because Hilary decided to try and drive on it and boy did she get some strange looks from many people. I think this is the first time I have ever seen Jarom hide his face in embarrassment. We decided it would be smarter to park like a normal citizen and walk along the street. This street turned out to be longer than a mile of endless shops on either side of you. And just like in the movies there are singers, guitarists, dancers, magicians, and performers of every kind on each block trying to make their living from the tips of shoppers. Now we are surrounded in this Danish culture and when Shawn and I ask the kids where they want to eat they looked around and all quickly agree on Burger King; yes those are my wonderful uncultured children. I will admit though, it was nice to have an old fashion fat filled burger. You don't see many burger places in this organic environment; something about fast food being unhealthy, I don't know.
A couple days later we had the opportunity to have Elder Bailey and Elder Pierson in our home to teach an investigator. The investigator has a brother that is a member in Holland, which is how he had heard about the church. He had lots of questions about things that we don't really think about; basic questions like, What is prayer? Who are the Jews? Why did they crucify Jesus? Shawn was gone, but Jarom was able to participate in the discussion. It was a good experience for everyone involved.

Iceland Trip

On Friday we traveled to Iceland to meet the missionaries and to have our third zone conference as a family. We arrived on Friday evening and had dinner with 1 of the senior couples, the Paulsens; what a super couple they are. After dinner we had the opportunity to meet 4 of the Elders and Shawn had missionary interviews with them. On Saturday we attended zone conference where we met 2 more Elders and another senior couple. What a special group of missionaries they are in Iceland.
On Sunday we attended church, at which our family was asked to be the sacrament meeting speakers. We eagerly, some of us more eager than others, accepted and all prepared talks that made Shawn and I proud. Due to the surprising fact that none of us speak Icelandic we had to have interpreters for each talk. After church the branch had a meet and mingle where we had the opportunity to meet and visit with the members. It is amazing how strong in the gospel such a small group of people can be.
On Monday we had our 1st preparation day. We went on a tour of Iceland called the golden circle. Our first stop was where the US and Iceland techtonic plates meet; we could see the prime minister of Iceland's house from there. An hour later our tour bus pulled up to the Golden Waterfall Gullfoss; it was beautiful. There were 2 waterfalls one right after the other. I guess you could say it is comparable to Niagara Falls. After seeing the waterfall we went to Geysir Hotspring where we watched geysers shoot up. Then it was back to the bus for us. On our bumpy ride, especially for Hilary and I because we sat in the very back, we saw many horses and sheep. The horses were short and stocky and the sheep look like a cross between a goat and a lamb. On our way back to Reykjavik we passed by Skálholt, the first Christian church in Iceland, and stopped to see the crater Kerid. After a long, yet eventful tour we made it back to our hotel. Tuesday morning we left for the airport at 5:30 to travel back to Denmark.

Where the 2 plates of US and Iceland meet

Gullfoss Falls

Geysir Hot Springs