Update On Our Temple Mission: A June Weekend On Fyn

Ilskov's Farmhouse

Farmhouse Before

We are back from Fyn, where we had a wonderful time with the Ilskovs. They were exceptional hosts! They thought of everything and treated us like royalty. They are both

“visual” people, so everything they provided for the three-day visit was carefully planned to be pleasing on the eye. Every meal, every resting space, every tour and every activity was worthy of a photograph. I don’t have room for all the photos, so you will only get a sampling.

President (Karl Ove) Ilskov is an electrical engineer and owned his own electrical/lighting firm prior to his Temple Mission. Sister (Inge Karin) Ilskov owned an upscale ladies clothing store on the street level of his electrical company and their apartment where they raised four children. After providing some small snacks for the husbands while they waited for their wives to shop for clothes, her business evolved into a clothing store with a small café/restaurant.

What to keep and what to throw away

Their story of having enough money to go on a mission is very similar to ours. They sold the building which housed the clothing store, café, electrical company and apartment. A man walked in off the street and said he wanted to buy the building including the businesses. They hadn’t thought they would sell so they asked him to come back in a couple of years. Two week later he came back and asked how much they wanted for it. In the mean time they had received three professional estimates. They told him the largest of the estimates and he said: “sold”. The amount they received from the sale was enough to buy the “beat-up” old farmhouse they now live in, bring it up to a livable standard, debt free, together with enough to pay for their missions.

Ilskov's Farmhouse

He is a former bishop, and counselor in the Stake Presidency. He is second generation in the Church. She is first generation in the Church. That would mean their children are second and third generation in the church and they are people who are wonderful to spend time with.

We saw castles. We visited churches. We walked through gardens. We hiked the north Fyn coastal trail. We crawled into a Viking grave, and climbed Denmark’s largest stone. We followed a mother swan and her little flock. The weather was beautiful, but the sun surprised us and gave us some serious burns. We had picnics, ate ice cream and traveled on suspended footbridges scattered throughout a forest, where at each station we pushed a button and listened to birdcalls. Fyn is definitely Denmark’s garden.