Che Bello!

What a beautiful day it has been!...in every way.  The sunny weather is holding constant...and predicted for several more days.  The sun is beautiful and bright and so welcome.

We had the car today and went to church early because SK had a meeting.  I visited with people as they came in.  Rita came today!!!  She is a lady originally from Belgium who married a Dane and moved here several years ago.  She is 61 years old and an artist...."A modern artist" who specializes in very large colorful works on paper.  She gave me her phone number and address and I am going to go see her work sometime in the coming weeks.

You may not remember that we joined several people from the ward ...as well as the young elders at a large shopping mall in early December to hand out invitations to our branch Christmas Sacrament meeting.  We stood outside in the freezing weather and were able to engage a few people in conversation.  Rita was one of those people.  She came to church several times after that, and took a couple of missionary discussions.  Then she decided that was enough, and we hadn't seen her since early January.  I was thrilled to see her today.

Elder Jewkes sang a solo "I Stand All Amazed" in sacrament meeting.  His companion accompanied him as he sang.  It was beautiful.  He is really a great young man....and he IS young.  He turns 19 tomorrow.  We first met him at the branch dinner the day after we got here.  He had been here all of 4 days and was already conversing with people in Danish.  He and his companion are in church every Sunday no matter what.  They have come to the center several times with young single investigators.  He was one of the 8 young missionaries who spent New Year's Eve with us.

He is being transferred bright and early tomorrow morning.  He will take his bicycle down to the bus station tonight and lock it up there, and then in the morning he will somehow get all of his luggage down to the train station...and the young ones have as much as the old missionaries!  He will have to load his bicycle and all of his luggage aboard the train and then travel by himself several hours to a little town south of here on another island.

In the evening, we went to our fairy tale prince and princess's home for dinner, and Elder Jewkes and Elder Willardson were there too.  The fare for this evening was Italian!  This couple is amazing.  They have a classically handsome young 4 year old son, they both work (she is dancing in two different productions this week), and both have heavy responsibilities at church.  They not only fixed this meal from scratch, including the ciabatta bread....but they presented it.....they are cute! ...and they do everything with great love.  It is such a treat to eat with them.

The meal began with a lightly carbonated lightly flavored drink from Sweden, then to bruschetta (sooo good!), then to canneloni, then risotto, ending up with raspberry pie in vanilla sauce.  Each course was served to us with flair, then cleared up with the utmost decorum and the next course set in front of us. Ask me if we felt like very important persons!  YES.

When the meal was over, Elder Jewkes shared a message with us from 3 Nephi where the Savior takes the children one by one and blesses them....and weeps. It is such a tender account of the Savior's love for each little individual.  Then Elder Jewkes said that the Lord has that love for each of us.  I have heard that message many times, but from this dear young elder, who wept as he shared it....it was powerful.

Elder Willardson is on the left and Elder Jewkes is on the right.

We will miss him.