A Muddy Missionary Day

Rain was the order of the day, but Mary Poppins did not go with us.  We traveled everywhere in the car, and I just put my hood up and ran whenever we got out of the car.

We traveled to Roskilde - again - to attend the mission farewells for two of our young women.  That ward is phenomenal.....they have had 5 missionaries leave in the last five months....that is amazing.  And the ward is dynamic, friendly and enthusiastic.  We always enjoy visiting Roskilde.  I love the charming building.  I have sat in that chapel in every season of the year and watched the trees outside bending gracefully in the breezes....today they were bare, but I have seen them budding out, clothed in varying shades of green and in brilliant Fall colors.

It was Fast and Testimony meeting and they opened it for testimonies for the first 25 minutes, and left 5 minutes each for the two young women to give their "farewell" addresses.  But that is the way it is all over the Church these days.  Nothing special, just kind of noting when they are leaving and coming home.

We stayed to the three hour block and then drove 30 minutes to the home of one of the girls where an open house was held for both of them.  It was lovely.  It was a beautiful rainy drive over country roads and through beautiful quaint little towns and green fields (yes they are still green in December). The family must be farmers because their home was in the middle of a large area of land that looked like it had recently harvested hay and rolled it up in whatever you call rolls of hay.  They lived down a long unpaved road.  Like everyone else, we parked in a field.

There was a great crowd there, and a lot of our young people.  We had risengrod again!  Second time in a week....and we hadn't had it before this week.  I am positively in love with it.  They brought great steaming bowls of this white milky rice in....we dished it up hot....topped it with butter, sugar and cinnamon and nuts.  It was so good!

After being there for a proper amount of time we said our good-byes and left.  We got in and started backing up and got stuck!  SK went forward and then backward and the more he tried the more mired in mud we got.  Finally, he had to eat a little humble pie and go in and ask a few of our young strong men to come outside and help us get out of the mud.  I guess all cars here are front-wheel drive, which is why, when the front wheels got mired in....we were stuck!

They came right out and pushed us out.  Benjamin was laughing the whole time....I just had to laugh at him laughing at us.  He loves to tease us, and we enjoy it. We traveled home in the dark.  It is dark now before 4 p.m.

We had time enough for a light dinner before leaving for the church over by the temple to attend the Stake Christmas Concert.  The chapel was full....probably a third of them were missionaries!  Probably a fourth of the special and beautiful musical numbers were by the young missionaries.  There were a many enthusiastic stake members there to partake of the music, and there were some investigators who must have been amply rewarded for taking the time to be there.

Between special musical numbers an emcee had little spiritual thoughts to share...once again SK came through for me and translated.  What a guy!