We spent this past week working with some of our new Self-Reliance missionary couples in Sweden and Austria. We left with great hope for the future of the Self-Reliance initiative in the Scandinavian and Germanic countries in Europe. This hope was fueled by committed priesthood leaders and members who want to improve their lives. We know that our mission is coming to an end, but we pray that this inspired initiative can continue to grow and impact the lives of the saints in this Area.
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| In front of the original Christus Statue in Copenhagen, Denmark |
Last Monday we started our last Self-Reliance trip of our mission, accompanied by Elder and Sister Carroll, who are replacing us. We planned on visiting our new self-reliance missionary couple in Stockholm, Sweden and arranged to stop for a short visit to Copenhagen, Denmark on the way.
Visit to Denmark
We left early and arrived in Denmark before noon. We took a taxi and visited the site of the LDS temple in Copenhagen. Being Monday, it was closed, but we always enjoy seeing the temple and being near it. We had the taxi driver wait for ten minutes while we visited the grounds and took a few pictures.
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| Sister Rueckert on the side of the temple |
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| Both of us in front of the temple |
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| Elder and Sister Carroll and Sister Rueckert in the front of the Copenhagen Temple |
We then had the taxi driver take us to the Church of Our Lady or the Copenhagen Cathedral. This is the home of an ancient Church in Copenhagen, first built in 1209. It was destroyed several times from fire and war and was most recently rebuilt in 1829. At that time Bertel Thorvaldsen, a world renowned Danish sculptor, was commissioned to decorate the interior with statues of Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles. Paul was included in the place of Judas Iscariot.
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| Church of Our Lady, statues of King David and Moses in the front |
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| Inside of the Church, Apostles on each side and the Christus statue at the end |
We were very impressed with the beauty of the Church and the sweet spirit that we felt within. While there we were able to hear organ music from the magnificent organ while we pondered the beauty and significance of what we were seeing. The Christus statue has three scriptures imprinted, all of which are profound.
The scripture above the statue is from Mark 9:7, "This is my beloved Son: hear him". On the base of the sculpture the scripture is from Matthew 11:28, "Come unto me". Below the base are the words from Matthew 28:20, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world". As we pondered these words, the Holy Spirit testified to our souls that He is our Savior and that these words are inspired.
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| In front of the Christus, inscriptions above, on the base and below |
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| Close up of the Christus, very inspiring |
Stephen L. Richards, a member of the LDS Church Quorum of the Twelve, purchased a replica of the Christus (he had been inspired by the original in the Church of Our Lady on a visit in 1950) and presented it to the LDS Church as an anonymous gift. Even before it was put on display at the Visitor’s Center on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, the Church commissioned another replica to be shown at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. The Church has since commissioned about 15 more replicas and has placed them in visitor centers in Los Angeles, New Zealand, Hawaii, Mexico, Japan, Iceland and other locations. Pictures of the Christus are displayed in many LDS publications and web sites and for many people the Christus has become “synonymous with Mormonism.”
The Christus statue is amazing and each of the twelve apostles is depicted with a symbolic tool in their hands. Many are related to their death or to other facts of their lives. For example, Peter has "keys" in his hands. My namesake, Thomas, has a carpenter square, representing the Church that Thomas is said to have built with his own hands in India.
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| View of the twelve apostles, taken from the Christus Statue |
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| Apostle Peter, holding the Keys |
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| The Apostle Thomas with a carpenter's square, representing his involvement in the construction of a Church in India |
I remember hearing about this Church and the sculptures from a talk by Elder Boyd K. Packer in 1995. Boyd K. Packer relates that in 1976 he was with Spencer W. Kimball, then President of the LDS Church, at a conference in Copenhagen. President Kimball invited a small group to the Church of Our Lady to see the Christus. While standing near the statue of Peter, depicted as holding keys in his hand, President Kimball turned to Johan H. Benthin, President of the Copenhagen Stake, and told him, “I want you to tell every prelate in Denmark that they do not hold the keys! I hold the Keys!” (“The Shield of Faith,” Ensign (CR), May 1995, p. 7)
More details of all the images and history of the sculptures and the Church can be seen in the link below:
As we traveled throughout Copenhagen, we were impressed by the architecture. Most large buildings have a beautiful corner to the building with a dome to the top of the corner. We were impressed.
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| Example of Danish architecture |
With additional time available, we stopped to visit the Church of the Savior near the center of Copenhagen. While there, Sister Carroll and I decided to climb to the top of the spires of the Church and see the view from the top, which was amazing.
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| Top of the Church of the Savior in Copenhagen. I walked all the way to the highest point of the Church |
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| Panorama view of Copenhagen from the top of the Church |
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| View from high up on the tower. Bridge connecting Denmark to Sweden can be seen in the back of the city |
When we returned from climbing the tower, Sister Carroll discovered that her backpack that she had left at the side of Elder Carroll was gone. Apparently someone had managed to take it undetected. This started the worst part of our trip. The backpack included passports, credit cards, cash and other personal items. Fortunately we had a few hours before we would catch our continuing flight to Sweden and E/S Carroll spent it at a Police station filing a report and canceling all of their credit cards.
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| Danish Police Station where E/S Carroll filed the report of the theft |
Visit to Sweden
Finally we returned to the airport and continued onto Stockholm, Sweden that night. Since there was four of us arriving, we would not fit into the car that Elder and Sister Bell were driving. Hence, we had decided to rent a car for this portion of the trip. We got our car, covered with ice, and drove to the island of Lidingo, just outside of Stockholm, where we had a hotel reserved. Traffic at 11:00 at night was quite nice and we arrived safely a little after midnight.
The next morning, the Carrolls were off to the Australian Embassy in Stockholm to try and get new passports. We drove to the apartment where E/S Bell are living on the same island and started our training. We were joined by E/S Carroll a little later. We spent the rest of the day discussing the challenges and opportunities of the Self-Reliance initiative in Scandinavia. The Bells came to their mission very well prepared and had already facilitated Self-Reliance courses in their home ward. They had many well thought out questions that we enjoyed discussing.
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| View of the ocean bay from the Bell's apartment. Beautiful fall colors. |
By the time we had discussed the doctrine, process, stake committees and their questions, it was late in the day. We did have a late lunch with them and returned to our hotel with some fruit and treats that evening, not needing another meal.
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| Elder Carroll picking out some treats from an impressive display of bulk candies in a small store |
The next morning (Wednesday) we again went to the Bell's apartment and continued our training process. They had additional questions that generated several hours of discussion. We also reviewed the PEF loan recipient list and the loan incentives. We had a Self-Reliance group to attend at the Young Adult Center in Stockholm that evening, so we left for a later lunch in the city. We lunched at high tower that allowed us to see a panorama of Stockholm.
One of the unique things about Sweden is its position in the far north. During our visit the sunset time was 3:30 pm. It made for a strange feeling to be in the dark beginning in the early afternoon. This photo was taken just after lunch, at about 2:30 pm, the sun to the south was already setting.
We then took a train to downtown Stockholm, since the parking is almost non existent.
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| Elder and Sister Bell with Elder and Sister Carroll on the train, crossing one of the bridges into the city |
We didn't need to be with the Young Adults until 6:00 pm so we took the time to make a short visit at the Vasa Museum.
The Vasa ship capsized and sank in Stockholm 1628. After 333 years on the sea bed the mighty warship was salvaged and the voyage could continue. Today Vasa is the world's only preserved 17th century ship and the most visited museum in Scandinavia.
The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden
Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with
Poland-Lithuania (1621–1629). It was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed primarily with bronze cannon cast in Stockholm specifically for the ship. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However,
Vasa was dangerously unstable and top-heavy with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze.
The order to sail was the result of a combination of factors. The king, who was leading the army in Poland at the time of her maiden voyage, was impatient to see her take up her station as
flagship of the reserve squadron at
Älvsnabben in the Stockholm Archipelago. At the same time the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to openly discuss the ship's problems or to have the maiden voyage postponed.
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| This photo shows the masts of the ship going out of the museum. The photo was taken at 4:00 pm, already dark |
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| The upper portion of the ship, masts go above the ceiling |
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| In front of a model of the ship, with the actual ship in the background |
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| Panorama photo of the bottom section of the ship |
That night we participated in a self-reliance group in the Center for Young Adults and mingled with the young adults before and after the group meeting. Sister Rueckert and Sister Carroll attended the Book of Mormon class, as the room for the Self-Reliance group was too small for all of us.
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| Opening meeting of the Young Adults in Stockholm on Wednesday evening |
One of the young adults in the education group was Ting, a member from Taiwan. She shared some of her experiences in her own business. After the group meeting, I asked her if she was aware of the Starting and Growing My Business Self-Reliance course. She got excited and announced that she could put a group together with at least 5 or 6 individuals that she already knew would be interested.
This confirms a thought that I have been pondering all week. Doctrine and Covenants 84:112 states:
"And the bishop, Newel K. Whitney, also should travel round about and among all the churches, searching after the poor to administer to their wants by humbling the rich and the proud."
The Lord's plan is for Bishops to search after the poor to administer to their wants. We can't administer to their wants if we don't know what they are. That is why it is so important to offer the different self-reliance options to all members, usually in a My Path devotional. When we do, we discover what their wants are and we better administer to their needs.
The next day we had planned to go to the Stockholm Temple before our meeting with the Stockholm South Stake Committee, which is right next door to the temple. However, the Carrolls needed to return to Stockholm to obtain their new passports after 2:00 pm. So we decided to go to the morning temple session at the temple and then have them return to pick up their passports before the evening meeting.
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| The Bells, Carrolls and Rueckert's in front of the Stockholm Sweden Temple |
The Bells returned to Stockholm with the Carrolls and we stayed and did some temple sealings. We were able to seal 10 couples together. Some were very emotional. The first couple that we did was for Leonard and Anna Jckelsheimer. They are my grandparents from 10 generations back, born in the early 1600s. We had both had very spiritual experiences doing their previous ordinances in the temple. As we acted as proxy for their temple sealing their presence was so strong. We were both in tears. We had similar feelings for the next couple, which were Sister Rueckert's 9th generation grandparents, Jeremias Höpher and Martha Catarina Eisenhardt. The next couple was a Rückert being sealed to a Müller, which also brought strong feelings. We know that this work for our ancestors is essential to their being liberated from their captivity on the other side of the veil. We are so grateful to have been able to be part of these wonderful experiences.
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| Evening photo (3:30 pm) of the Stockholm Temple |
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| Sister Rueckert playing the piano in the Temple Housing room while we waited for the Carrolls and Bells to return |
The Carrolls and Bells returned and the Carrolls did get their new passports which helped partially heal the pain from earlier in the week.
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| Elder and Sister Carroll with their new passports, issued in Sweden |
We finished up our missionary training before joining in the Stockholm South Stake Committee meeting.This was a very positive committee meeting. The entire committee was in attendance and the stake president also joined later in the meeting. They reviewed the process of each ward and branch in the stake and outlined plans to help each of them to move forward with their efforts. They were very open to our ideas and made very specific plans to involve Elder and Sister Bell in several next steps within their stake. This was a very positive way to end our training visit to Sweden.
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| Stockholm South Stake Committee meeting with six senior missionaries in attendance (and a translator) |
Visit to Austria
On Friday morning we woke up at 3:15 am to leave the hotel by 4:10 and arrive at the airport by 5:00 am for our 6:55 am flight. We arrived in the Frankfurt airport shortly after 9:00 am and from there boarded another flight to Innsbruck, Austria shortly after noon, arriving just before 2:00 pm. On our trip to Austria we flew over part of the Alps and saw the beautiful mountain tops. We had hoped to try one more time to get to the top of the Alps while in Austria, but the weather was once again overcast, so that was not a possibility.
We then went to our hotel and relaxed before meeting with he Bishop and his wife and the Ward Specialist and Elder and Sister Kitterman, our German Self-Reliance Couple for dinner. The Kittermans shuttled us and the Carrolls to get to the restaurant. The bishop helped in the rides back to the hotel after.
We had a wonderful dinner with these good local leaders. The Ward Specialist, Anna, is amazing. She has facilitated self-reliance groups in Berlin and now in Innsbruck. She is dynamic and inspired. The bishop has also taken charge of this experience and is very inspirational. What a wonderful evening to get to know these good people better before our facilitator training and devotional the next morning.
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| At Friday night dinner, ward specialist and bishop on the left front |
The next morning we went early to the Church to begin facilitator training for three additional facilitators, the bishop and the stake self-reliance specialist who had come from Salzburg, Austria. Elder and Sister Kitterman did the training in German exceptionally well. They used the concepts from the non translated Facilitator Guide and adapted it to use existing materials. We couldn't have a better missionary couple for the German speaking stakes than the Kittermans.
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| Facilitator training for the Innsbruck Ward |
At 10:00 am we had a My Path devotional for the entire ward. They filled 4 tables and ended up forming 4 different self-reliance groups, about 20 people joining.
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| My Path Devotional for the Innsbruck Ward |
We had started this process with the Innsbruck Ward when we met with some of our friends on a visit to Innsbruck in July of this year. These are people that I had known in Brazil, many years ago. They adopted three sisters of our son Abraham. Their family had participated in Perpetual Education Fund loans in Brazil before moving to Austria 5 years ago. When we had visited about this, the mother had asked how they could get Self-Reliance courses in Innsbruck. From that visit we had invited the Bishop to let us do a devotional and we planned on making it part of our training with the Kittermans as they arrived. After a few months of planning with the bishop, it all turned out perfectly. This shows what we have always felt, even in the German speaking wards there is plenty of opportunity, if we let the members decide what they "want". In the end we created several groups including:
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| Job Search Class to be facilitated by the Bishop, including a non member invited by the bishop |
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| Starting and Growing My Business,including our friend Ingrid (on the right) and her daughter in law who was not present |
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| Finance Group, including non present husbands of two of the daughters of the Jäsche family, our friends. |
After the devotional, we were invited to lunch at the home of the Jäsche family. They fed us and the Carrolls and another MLS missionary couple that was helping us with transportation. The Kittermans needed to return back home to Nürnberg, since they still had about a four hour drive.
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| Lunch with the Jasche family |
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| Photo outside of the Jäsche apartment, cloudy with beautiful fall colors |
Four weeks ago we were in Granada, Spain and met a member who told us he had a daughter in Innsbruck, Austria. We arranged to invite her to participate in the My Path Devotional. Unfortunately, she had to work and missed the devotional. However, she said she could meet with us after 4:00 pm. We arranged to meet her at 4:30 pm before leaving for the airport at 5:00 pm. She was delayed and did not arrive at the Church until 5 minutes before 5:00. We were able to stay a few minutes more and met her and introduced her to Anna, the ward specialist and young adult leader, and Karin, the Relief Society president. Hopefully this will help her
to feel more at home in her ward away from home.
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| Melissa with Anna and Karin at the Church |
It was a very busy week full of many activities in many countries. We found that the two missionary couples that we visited were amazingly capable and responsible. In spite of the loss of documents, credit cards and money, the Carrolls were able to participate in most of the activities and seemed to be much more comfortable in their role. It feels like it is time for us to leave.
Next Visit to the USA (Utah)
With a few more days to prepare and transition, our next stop next week will be to our home in Utah. We will be arriving in the SLC airport on November 16 at 7:07 pm.
We have been advised that we will be speaking in our home ward on November 26 at 1:00 pm. That will be at 1409 West Shields Lane (9800 So.) in South Jordan, Utah 84095.
We will also be speaking at our previous ward where we spent most of our married life on December 17, also at 1:00 pm. That address is 7645 S. 3200 W., West Jordan, Utah 84084.
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