Grand (and I do mean grand) Opening

Our day began with baking another batch of cookies, followed by a very large batch of meatballs, followed by an enormous amount of sour cream puffs.  I was so grateful for Erin and Ethan who helped in so many ways.  They went with SK to do some grocery shopping and to find a very large piece of oil cloth to cover the pool table and they stood in the kitchen helping with all the food.

SK and Ethan doing the shopping.

 I stopped to shower and clean up around 1:30 and rushed to be ready to leave for the center. SK dropped me off with the food and he and Erin and Ethan went to the temple.  I was so glad they were able to go, because it is such a lovely temple.

In the meantime, we had several young people arrive around 4 to help get the food on.  They  washed fruit, chopped and assembled various kinds of finger foods. They were wonderful.  Ann Marie is the secretary of the institute and she pretty much came up with the whole menu for tonight.  It was pretty much spectacular and I think everyone felt that it was an extra special meal for a grand opening.

We had well over 70, including all the young missionaries and the stake presidency and their wives. That is a lot of people!   Brother Andersen managed to get 60 chairs set up despite the pool table, piano, book shelves and other important items.  The hallway is narrow, and the kitchen is small and it seemed like we were wall to wall people, but everyone seemed to enjoy being there.

The program started at 7 and ended around 8:30 and there were about 15 of us standing out in the hall.  By the time the day was over, I figured that I had been on my feet for about 9 hours and my back and legs are complaining.

When the last YSA left the center, it was late, and there were quite a few dishes to be done.  So Erin and Ethan and I cleaned up, while SK vacuumed.  

SK and I will go early on Monday to clean.  That is on our list of responsibilities now, so it is a good thing it is small!  We will be at the center more starting next week.  Brother Andersen felt it would be a great idea to have the center open every day from 10 to 10, and the YSAs heartily approve.  It
would be a wonderful thing if the center were used more.

The new center is in a super location, close to everything downtown Copenhagen.  Missionaries can drop in with an investigator to teach a lesson, students can come between classes, and people can take a break from work and just go to the center to spend 30 minutes....or an hour.  This is a good thing.

Tomorrow is our last day with Erin and Ethan.  We are planning to see the castle in Frederiksborg.  It is the palace where the beautiful paintings of Carl Bloch hang.  SK wants to be up and off by 9.  It is after midnight now, and I hope to be able to do that.

I spent precious time tonight with Marie- a delightful young law student, Jennifer- a wonderful young woman who sounds like she is American, Joakim- a good young man who translated the whole meeting for me and others, Heidi- who is a beautiful example of her testimony, Natalia- who has such a nice outlook and so much wisdom.  I spoke with many others, but I so treasure that time with my young friends.

One of our young men is worried about his mother's health.  She has just been hospitalized with a possible scary diagnosis and my heart hurt for him.  They will find out tomorrow what it actually is, and I hope and pray that it will be alright.

I think Erin and Ethan fell in love with all of them.  I know they have fallen in love with Denmark.  Why not!  It was inevitable.

A Day Fit For a King.....or Queen

I am not sure that it is even possible to fill a day more than we have filled ours today.

SK was eager to begin the day early so that we could cover as much ground as possible.  As soon as everyone was ready we set out in the car to see "The Little Mermaid" statue in the harbor and then on to see the statue "Kristina" by Dennis Smith, also near the sea in Copenhagen.  They were both spectacular.

Erin and Kristina

 Next on our list was the Rosenborg Castle and gardens.  We were in awe.

 

oohing and aahing over the king's crown.

A trip to Royal Copenhagen outlet, and Georg Jensen outlet was all kinds of fun.

Next we toured the grounds of the Frederiksberg Castle.  They were utterly spectacular.

In the meantime, we have a grand opening for the new center tomorrow evening and it was time to begin our preparations.

A trip to the center to unpack boxes and organize utensils, dishes and other kitchen stuff was very productive and with Erin and Ethan's help, it went smoothly.  There is so little space and I am worried how we will serve so many people tomorrow.  It will all go on one plate, which will be held standing up most likely.  We will have several speakers and then we will serve what is basically a finger food dinner.
Erin and Ethan did the shopping rounds with us...to the Turkish Marketplace and then to our regular grocery store. ....which was a good thing because there is no way I could have carried it all home!

We tried out a recipe for tomorrow evening at the new center....I am happy to say it worked.  Erin made a recipe of baked ziti so that I could see how it is made and taste it.  I am sure that it will be a winner at the center.

We made a batch of snickerdoodles for tomorow night....and we will make a double batch of chocolate chip cookies first thing tomorrow morning, as well as 200 meatballs and 60 sour cream cheese puffs.  We still have some shopping to do.

I think our backs are all hurting from the hours we spent in the kitchen this evening!

We are thinking we could have as many as 70....maybe fewer than 50....who knows.  However many are there.....it will be a marvelous evening.

I will take some pictures to show you tomorrow night!

All's Well That Ends Well

Our normal P-day was a sight-seeing day.  We left Copenhagen in the morning, stopped by Peter Madsen's hometown (He was born over 150 years ago and was the first in SK's family to emigrate to America.) and then continued on to Odense.

We stopped at the little church where SK thinks Peter Madsen was christened.

Odense was the city where Hans Christian Andersen grew up, and the place that he is most closely associated with, besides all of Denmark.

We stopped first at Sankt Hans Kirke where we sat for awhile in awe gazing at the magnificent Carl Bloch altarpiece.

Ethan and SK were intrigued with the beautifully carved pulpit.

We had a quick sandwich from a Danish Bakery....note to self:  when buying a sandwich in Denmark, it is ALWAYS best to get it from a bakery.

We made a trip to the Hans Christian Andersen Museum, gift shop (oh joy!) and childhood home.

We left Odense, and within 15 minutes had a blow-out tire on the freeway.  It was scary!!!!  SK immediately pulled over as close to the guard rail as he could get, but it was perilously close to the lane of speeding trucks and cars.  Each time a truck passed, that little car rattled like a plane in turbulence!  The traffic was so heavy that SK didn't dare open his door to get out, and there was no way at all that he could change the rear driver's side tire with all of the traffic hurtling by.

We climbed over the guard rail and sat on a hillside.  Erin used the time to write postcards!

Much as I love it, this would not have been fun in the rain.

He called and within 45 minutes a tow truck came, scooped the car off the road and up onto the bed of the truck, and carried us all back into an area of Odense we hadn't seen....mostly industrial.  While we were riding along in the back seat of the tow truck, SK used his Danish to explain to the young driver who we are.  He hadn't ever heard of Mormons.

We waited for an hour or so while the tire company located the right tire and put it on, and returned to Copenhagen over a great bridge.

We finished out the day at a cozy little Danish restaurant a couple of blocks from our apartment where we had a very Danish dinner....including old-fashioned apple cake with whipped cream.

See!  It all turned out just great.

It's a Grand Night!

Can you believe that it is September????

We went on a mini tour of the island of Amager today.  Erin and Ethan are willing to go along with our grand sight-seeing plans which are pretty ambitious for the time we have, but it is fun because they are great sports.

We took a couple of detours and saw some great sights.

We drove out by the beach to a little town that is old old old and walked around the battlements overlooking the Baltic Sea.

Then we went to the top (some of us) of a local church.  It is the 3rd highest structure in Copenhagen.  It was 400 steps up!  I made it up 250 and looked out over the city from the observation platform and decided that was good for me.  Erin, Ethan and of course SK continued up the small spiral staircase to nearly the tiptop.

 

We all went into the interior of the church and were blown away by its beauty.

We stopped and had kebabs...something we were excited to share with Erin and Ethan.  They were appropriately impressed with it.

We hurried home to make cinnamon rolls for the center.  Erin and Ethan each worked at kneading a batch of dough.  Erin rolled them out and spread them with cinnamon/sugar and I cut them into 70 cinnamon rolls.  They were not thick, but they turned out great, even though for some reason it took them longer than usual to rise.

SK and I took the finished rolls plus several other supplies to the center, where we stayed until about 10, and Erin and Ethan spent the evening at Tivoli....going on all the daredevil rides.

It was a great evening at the brand new center.  I think we had nearly 40 there, and it seemed awfully crowded.  There were unpacked boxes everywhere....unpacked because we don't know what to do with the contents.  There is so little room.

There is a lovely brand new kitchen, which is a bit of a worry.  All of the instructions for the appliances are in Danish, which will take some time to decipher.  We still need to put away as much as we can fit into the cabinets there.  And the stove is an induction stove, and we have no pans that will work there.  So we need to find some that won't break the bank.

I enjoyed the YSAs so much tonight.  They were all happy regardless of the size of the place.  They were happy to be there, even though many had traveled quite a ways to get there.  The CRUD table will be delivered tomorrow, but I will be amazed if they let it stay.

I talked to several YSAs about various things....have I mentioned how much I love them?  They are wonderful.