Friendship is born at that moment when you look at each other and say, "What? You too?"

Our friends from Alborg arrived today.....The Middlemases.  We started our missions together at the MTC....where the men reminisced about their missions to Denmark many years ago and speculated with excitement about how it would be to serve here again.  They are taking "The Test" tomorrow morning, doing some sight-seeing and then heading back to the northern part of the country.

Sister Middlemas offered to help with the cooking, but I hate to have her standing in the kitchen peeling vegetables when she and her husband could be seeing some of the great sights in Copenhagen.  They will only have a couple of hours after "The Test" and SK and I can prepare all the vegetables in that amount of time.  That IS what our Thursdays are all about after all.

The four of us went out to lunch at the little Chinese restaurant that we discovered shortly after we got here.  Elder Middlemas also remembers going there with other missionaries way back when.  SK has such happy memories of going there with several other elders often.  It was (not so much now) fairly inexpensive and they must have gone once a month or something like that.  It was a favorite of the young missionaries.

SK and I both got the sweet and sour fish....I know it doesn't sound very good, but it IS.  Neither of us even wants to try anything else.  Elder and Sister Middlemas got other dishes that they liked.

It was great fun to visit with them.  They are here doing the same thing we are doing - SYA.  But we laughed as we shared experiences.  Their mission is much different.  Ours revolves around the center and all of the gatherings there.  Their mission is more missionary work as you normally think of.  They are technically CES/YSA but they also do a great deal of member support and looking after the young missionaries.  Their YSA group is much smaller and only meets once a week, IF things work out right. So they fix snacks or treats for the once-a-week get-together, they teach, and they go out visiting and they do missionary work.

When Elder Middlemas was here before he baptized a man whose family has been a great strength to the Church here, and it is a source of great joy to both Elder and Sister Middlemas.  It is very inspiring.  It is also very inspiring to talk to them and see how their mission call is so right for them.  They both have family lines that go way back.....many of them right to the area where they are serving.

They went to the temple this afternoon, and we had the Danish class at the center.  Afterwards, we all got together here with the Hansens and Sisters Swena and Hamblin and had a pizzookie with ice cream.

The conversation between 8 senior missionaries is always fun....and always upbeat and inspiring!  We learn about excellent talks, books and interesting history.  I am grateful for the times - even though few and far between when we can get together.  Great day.