Update On Our Temple Mission: Happy And Sad

On Our Doorstep

President and Sister Andersen

The clock is winding down. As I mentioned before, no one here will let us forget that we are only nine days from closing out our mission. We are excited about getting home to the family, but we can’t come home until we have said “good bye” to all of our friends in Denmark. As you can imagine we are in a constant quandary about how we feel. Are we happy to be going home or are we sad about leaving Denmark? Which ever it is we feel very nervous about the coming weeks.

The past week has been very good. The Danish Mission always invites us to their conferences, which are generally on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Of course our responsibilities at the Temple keep us from attending. This week the mission conducted their last conference under the leadership of President Andersen on Wednesday morning and early afternoon. It was a one-day conference presided over by Elder Marlin K. Jensen who is also finishing his assignment as a Seventy at the end of June. We were able to attend all but the last hour of the conference.

Elder Jensen

President Jens Andersen and his wife are being released a year early due to the illness of their son. President Andersen is only the second homegrown Dane to serve as the Mission President. He started his mission in July of 2010. We arrived on the 7th of August the same year, so we have only been acquainted with his mission leadership while we have been here. He is one of the finest men with whom we have ever been associated. We had the privilege of working closely with him in the design and remodel of the mission office, and the design and production of the missionary street exhibits. He is a born leader with all of the qualifications of a General Authority. We would not be surprised if he were called as a Seventy when their son is healthy again.

A Sculpture in the Playground

Elder Jensen gave two inspiring one-hour lessons to the missionaries. Our mission is different from the young elders and sisters, but we tapped into most of what he had to say. As the Church Historian he used the scriptures, church history and journals as the backbone of the messages. He colored much of what he said with historical anecdotes and scriptures, which made the lessons very enjoyable. Especially enjoyable was the segment on the stages of faith and how to increase it.

We were also busier than usual in the Temple this week. Many came from Jutland and stayed in the guest home.

Getting a New Roof

The routes of our morning walks this week took us to places we haven’t seen before. However, they were not as picturesque as others. There was a fountain in a playground and the installation of a new straw thatched roof. As a result the gallery is smaller this time.