Kaere Venner - Dear Friends

After a lengthy absence, our Danish class reassembled today.  It was good to be with those dear sisters again.  I enjoy them immensely.  Did I tell you we are reading "Pippi Longstocking?"  Well, "Pippi Langstromper" in Danish.  It is great fun.  Among other books we have read are "Little Nutbrown Hare," and "Curious George" - aka "Peder Pedal" in Danish.

SK helps me with my homework, and gets caught up in the story.  Mette assigns us 3 pages to read and translate, and he can't stop with three.  He wants to find out what happens in 5 pages etc.  I should be working on this daily, but I have let it go for awhile, and am behind....so I hope to get back on schedule.  I also have not been reading as much in the Book of Mormon to stay on schedule.  Slacker!

I enjoy the companionship of the other ladies.  We spend so much time with the YSAs, and I love the time with them....and I love them.  They have so much enthusiasm and energy....and life for them is fast-paced and exciting with its' ups and downs.  But being with women closer to my own age brings a different kind of enjoyment.  It is relaxed....comfortable.....heart-warming.

Mette has some grand activities planned for us for the next six weeks of class.  In July, Pam and her husband will be leaving for her home in Utah.  And since it won't be too long after that we will depart for Arizona, we made the decision to stop the classes at the end of June.  I will miss the classes and the sisterhood.

We attended the temple with the YSAs this evening.  This was the first night it was open after a 2-week closure.  It was beautiful.  We had about 10 of our young people there....and it was deeply satisfying to be there with them.  They have an appreciation and love for the temple that I didn't have at that age.  They go out of a desire to be there and draw from the strength and inspiration that is available in the sacred House of the Lord.

As I type, I hear the pitter-patter of the rain outside....it is a soft soothing sound.  There is an occasional voice out on the lake path, and a faint clanking from some metal somewhere far away.  I love having the windows open.

My sweet friend Doris is doing well.  I called her earlier this week, and I am so happy that she sounds like her old self.  I just know that someday she will make one of the dearest relief society presidents possible.  She invited SK and me to her fiancee's birthday party on Saturday.  It will just be the two of them, his mother, brother and us.  She was excited about it.

I love Denmark.  I love the land, the landscapes, the sea, the seascapes, the old buildings and the new, the weather in all its varieties and the ducks, swans and all related birds......and so much more.  But it is the wonderful relationships here that will color my memories of this place so vividly.

For that I will be eternally grateful.