Monday, December 20, 2011

Nu er det jul igen!

 

Hej.

So, I know I've talked alot about christmas. You're probably sick of hearing about Christmas in Denmark every week for the past 4 months. But that's about how much they talk about it here, so you're getting a good taste. But now I will proceed to lay out the Christmas plan for the week and then it will be done. Hang in there.

 

This week we had our ward Julefrokost (directly translated: Christmas Lunch). It's their version of thanksgiving. Huge feast. Family, friends, etc. We also had our ward Juletræsfest. (Christmas tree party) We sang songs, ate lots of yummy food, and played christmas games and danced around the tree as a ward. It was alot of fun. We've got a great ward. Just a fun group of people. So it was a big party week.

 

Last night was also our ward Christmas koncert. Went pretty well. Sang in our church with the Ældresagens kor. ("Danish national church" choir from Frederikshavn). Our little branch choir is only 9 strong, but we busted it out. It went really well. We definitely held our own. If it was a battle of the choirs, we would have won. We sang a mix of english and danish traditional christmas hymns and stuff, it was pretty fun. Had a good time. Its helped us strengthen our relationship with the branch a ton as well.

 

So, this week:

We'll be in Aarhus again for two days for zone conference/mission julefrokost. Be back in F-havn friday night.

 

saturday is Juleaften. (Christmas Eve). But in Denmark, it's on that day that all the celebration takes place. So we'll be spending the whole day with a family from the branch. Eating, opening presents, singing songs, eating, dancing around the tree, playng games, eating, hanging out, and eating some more. Should be alot of fun. And its a very proper occasion, believe it or not. Apparently we will be wearing suits. And not becuase we're missionaries. I'm told tradition goes that it is a very important occasion. Everyone wears their sunday clothes. I'm sure it all depends on the family so i'm not positive exactly what will happen but that's the plan as of right now.

 

Sunday, Jul. (Christmas). Not sure what exactly what I will be doing that day. I'm calling home! That'll be great. And we'll have a short church service. But if i was Danish and not a missionary I would be just eating and hanging out all day with my family at home. Not sure if its as formal of a day for danes, but you just enjoy time with family and eat. Did I mention we eat alot around christmas?

 

Monday, andenjul (Second Christmas). Danes take the 26th and have another christmas day to hang out with their families. Stores are shut down, everyone's home, and the streets are pretty much dead from the 23rd to the 27th. So not sure what we'll be doing. Its p day but the library will be closed so i'm not sure how we'll write home. We'll find out what happens i guess. I'll probably just be eating and drawing and playing musik all day. Really looking forward to it to be honest.

 

So there it is. I apologize with the christmas overload. Its just so contagious! I love it. There's alot more traditions dealing with food, candy, songs, presents, and gatherings and more food but its hard to remember them all. It's just great. We'll leave it at that.

 

Jeg må skundte mig, men jeg håber i har det godt alle sammen. Tillykke til Josh Dahlin, hjemkommende missionær! Jeg håber alt er i orden og I alle kan ha' en glædelig jul med sine familiene. Fryd dig, o jord!

 

god jul!

ældste wooden

Monday, December 12, 2011

Hej med jer, jeg håber alle har haft en rigtig god veekend.

So i'm getting the impression its going to be January 2012 before I know it. Time is speeding right along. Christmas is upon us! And with Christmas comes joy and charity and love and hygge. Hope you're all thinking of someone else this juletid. When we look out for others they look out for us. So don't worry about yourself. Life is to short to waste it thinking about yourself. On top of that, Christmas is alot more fun when your with people, lemme tell you. I love my companion and all, but christmas time just isn't the same when you're not with the ones you love. So this christmas, be a people person. There's my little message for this month I guess. Be a people person. Think about someone else.

 

Fluffy stuff aside, lets get down to business. Food, Talks, Peruvians, and Storms.

This week we experienced som of the craziest weather I have ever seen in my life. I was very close to being blown over by wind. Not even kidding. I don't know what ticked poseidon off but he was pissed. We went up to Hirtshals on the worst day of all of it and saw the biggest waves i've ever seen. It rained/hailed all day, and by the time we got back to Frederikshavn it looked like a warzone. Banners were were torn off buildings, trees blown over, it was great fun. This was also the same day that we had to carry lots of christmas packages and a duck that a member gave us. So tomorrow night we're making JuleAnd (Christmas Duck). I'll let you know how it goes. I am rather excited. I don't think I've ever had duck.

 

I gave a talk in Church yesterday. It didn't go too badly actually. My topic was inspiration. I even went overtime. It was a whopping 7 minutes of danish. I imagine the members found it pretty dry due to my limited vocabulary and simple sentence structure. But "by small and simple means", right? That was my motto for the day. I was feeling pretty good about myself. They just said afterwards that I should have spoken up a little, apparently the mic is turned way down since the room is so small anyway. But not bad in my opinion.

 

The Peruvian family we're teaching is extremely extremely close to baptism but they all want to be baptised together but they're at different points in their journey. It could happen by the end of the year though. Its possible. Pray for us. We gotta help them make the jump. They're ready. Time to act.

 

Mad. (food)

Danske julemad er den beste mad på jorden. I love Danish food. Especially Danish Christmas food. Kartofler, brun sauce, frikedæller, æblekage, risengrød, ris alámand, grønlandskål, and, kylling, I could go on and on. Its so delicious. So don't worry too much about me food wise. But I do miss a good american burger. Alot. And homemade cookies. Danes don't do cookies, i've found. Just marzipan and pastries and småkage and a bunch of other delicious things. But oh what I would do for some snickerdoodles. 

 

Anyway, I'm short in writing today, but as usual time runs out. Too many good things to talk about!

Monday, December 5, 2011

goddag!

So not much time to write at all, really. we gotta go get some things done. but. Thought i would give all an update from the High Plains of Denmark. (Name that literary reference)

 

This week's been up and down. Sometimes it feels like no one cares. In fact, lots don't. But theres some that do. "Going for the one" was our motto this week. We did find a few people who were interested, and One we are especially excited about. An old woman who lives in Sæby. We're excited to start teaching her this week. Go for the one! They're worth it!

 

We've also done lots of experimenting with food lately. We've winged some ideas for food that have been delicious. Homemade æblekage. Deer meat. Piskeflød. Thats all I can say. Can't give out too many secrets. But its good.

 

I've also become very interested in old Danish books.

Here is a good time to explain a little background/cultural info about Genbruger. A "Genbrug" is a store thats basically a small D.I. or Salvation Army. A secondhand store? is that what they're called? anyway. Denmark is historically Christian, and so theres lots of conservative and charitable traditions that run in their culture. They're recycling fanatics. Danes also WILL NOT cross a street unless it is within a crosswalk and the green man is shining. But in every city there's a couple Genbruger where people just go drop stuff off. Usually sponsored by the Danish national church or Jehovah's Witnesses. No Mormon genbruger. Yet. But yeah they don't like throwing things away. So everything goes to Genbruger. They're gold mines! The have the coolest old stuff. We've furnished our apartment solely on Genbrug art, for example.

But they always have sweet old books. For example, I now have in my possession a 1925 Danish leatherbound copy of Charles Dickens' To Byer. (A tale of Two Cities). I'm gonna keep a look out for more classics. They're pretty sweet. One day i will be able to read them. My danish is a little too primitive right now, and its really old Danish anyway.

But yeah there's your fun fact for the week, I gotta run.

 

med venlig hilsen,

ældste wooden