Danish Letters

7/2/02

Dear Myrna and Trauntwein

A long time has past. We are all doing fine incl. my mother. She is doing as fine as expected. I usually tell her when I hear from you and she always says. Be sure to say halo from me too. So that I have done now.

Here they have rearranged our wards. Closed down a few to be specific. We get about 50 and thereof about 20 active, most elderly people. We are now going to meet at Maglegårds Alle. The new chapel which was build 1965-66, until our new chapel is build. It is OK. There is more room and it will take us the same time to get there. It takes us about an hour to get to church. They have not started to build yet. We have been meeting in the chapel on Kretavej, Amager. The Temple is still scheduled to the summer 2003. I have been told that they only plan the dedication meetings so that the members in the tempel district can attend so if you want to be there why don't you try and write the missionpres. And see if you can get a ticket there. You must know him Trountwein; you probably were in the mission at the same time as he was. 

I love this time a year when everything is fresh green, and everything's grow. The weekend before last we went on a ride up along the cost to Elsinore and Gilleleje and it was just beautiful. I become more and more thankful that I live in this beautiful country. I love to get your stories even I do not always answer the mails I hope that you are all doing well. By the way I copied the picture you send me, so that mother also got

one. She was very happy about it. 

8/25/00

Dear Else and family:

It was good to get your E-mail. It is always good to hear from you. I was happy to hear that your mom was doing better. As soon as I finish this letter I will be writing her one. 

You were talking about the two statues that brother Smith has made and is bringing them to Denmark. At the last general conference they had a 150 year celebration at the BYU. We had to pay to go but then they served us some American style Danish food. Myrna and I went to it and it was very interesting. One of the key speakers was the first Danish Stake President and then became the Mission President and is again a Stake President. He gave a very good talk, his wife also talked.

During the meeting a Brother Smith ( who was a returned Danish Missionary) told us about the two statues that he had made and he was 

taking them to Denmark for the Rebildfesten and one was going down in the harbor near the Little Mermaid. He showed us miniature models of the statues. He told us that they were modeled after his great-grandmother who left Denmark as a young girl. From journals and pictures he sculpted the statues.

I hope the family reunion went well.  Did the kids come from Sweden? We have a family reunion in the first week of August. It is  just for our own family. My brother and sisters have their own reunions. My Brother and his wife are going to Tasmania on a mission in July. It is a tiny island of the tip of Australia. They are excited. My sister-in- law is from Perth, Australia. They will be gone for 18 months.

Congratulations bedstemor og bedstefar. How many great grand children does your mother have? We have seventeen and two ninths grand children.

My oldest daughter lives in Boston (which is clear on the other side of America). She and her children will be flying out here this next week end. They will be here for three weeks. It has been some tome since they were here. We flew to Boston twice last year and spent time with them. She has two girls and two boys.

I am happy to hear that you and Erling are coming to America. If there is any thing that I can do to help you please let me know. If you want to stay with us and tour places in Utah you will be more than welcome. We are  centrally located. We are only one hour and twenty minutes from Salt Lake. My oldest son lives just north of Salt Lake and he would be delighted to have you stay with them,  if you think we are too far away. My sister lives in Salt Lake and she lives by herself and she would be delighted to have you stay with her. Let me know what you want to do in Utah and we will help you in any way we can. You can use our home as your base, we are centrally located, that is if you want to. When do you think you will come over here?

It sounds like it will be a while before they will dedicate the temple. What happened with the villa, were they able to tear it down? We have a temple in Utah that is a remodeled tabernacle or Stake House.

My dad’s grand father and grand mother came from Danmark and his mother was born in Danmark. On my mothers side her grand mother came from Danmark.

I will be closing for now. Hope you will have a happy day.

3-31-02

Dear Elsa and Family:

I want to thank you for the joke and the update on the temple. It is always good to hear from you and how things are going. As I am sitting here writing this letter, I am wondering how your mom and my second mom is doing. 

I was just reading one of the letters you sent before, about Easter time. I am so grateful that Jesus did for us what he did. In Sunday School today the teacher showed a video on what happened to Jesus in the last days of his mortal ministry. It was a good film and had such a good message. It made you want to cry. Some did and the rest of us just had big lumps in our throats.

We are all doing good. Julie is going to get married on August 2 in the Manti Temple. Her future husband is from Idaho and he served a mission in South America. He is a real nice guy and he will be a good addition to our family. In the next couple of months we will have two more grandchildren. They are both boys. One is our son Eric’s and the other is our youngest son David’s. We will then have twenty one grand children.

We are still working at the Manti Temple on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. We used to work both afternoon shifts, however on the first of November the school superintendent ask me if I would help them out and come back and teach half a day till the end of this school year. I told him I would have to talk it over with Myrna and if she did not have problem with it I would then call the Temple President and ask him if I could switch from an afternoon shift to a night shift. I told him that if the Temple President said that he would rather I stay on the afternoon shift then I would not be teaching school because I was not going to give up the temple work. After talking to President Goeslund and he told me he did not see that is would create a problem so I made the shift and now I teach half a day at the high school. I teach one World History and have a preparation period and then I teach two U.S. History classes.

12/20/00

Dear Myrna und Trauntwein

Thanks for your Christmas greeting and Myrna's letter about Pres. Kimbell. I was going to send Christmasgreetings, now that I had most of my friend on E-mail, but I still didn't get aroun to it, but I do hope that you had a nice Christmas and that you will have a nice year 2001. Trauntwein do you remember br and ses Dressøe. He is now 102 years old. I just got to think that he has been living in 3 diferent hundreds years and two different milleniums. How about that.

I do not remember, I am getting old, did I tell you, that the temple in Denmark probably will not be finished the first 2 years. All the permissions has now been given, but first they have to drow the tempel , the interior and then they will start to build, but that will not happen before there isn't any chance of frost, that will be in April, the last part of April. But we are still looking forward to get a tempel.

We had a nice Christmas. Christmas eve all our 5 children were home, with 3 in laws and one grandchild. Then we also had 3 missionarie, and we have a tradition for Ritas two sons coming around later in the evening. 1st day og Christmas we were all going to mother to have "Julefrokost". We all brougt something to eat. All my sister and brothers were there with in laws and children, so that was quite a group, but is was fun. My mother also always tell me to tell you halo, when I write you. She is doing fine, but her hands shake too much to be able to write, so that one can read it. But she is always happy when I give her a greeting from you.

Love Else & Erling

8/11/00

Dear Trauntwein

I regret to say that we have postponed our trip once more. We were looking forward to seeing you and all our friends, but I must say I have had a little nagging feeling, so when we could not get the tickets we had planed

on, all seats sold out, and they would cost us almost the double price of what we first were told to get some other,we would not have much pocket money left. Then I was also told yesterday that they had kept my mother at the hospital, when se was in "dialyse" and had oprated her one tou off because of an infection,you know the toe gets black, I am going to see her on my way home from work. We are now planning on going about the 15th of april to the midle of may, So we wil still have the joy of looking forward for another 8 month, and now that Erling has work again, we should be able to save some more money. I saw my mother and she was doing fine, and was happy.

Love Else

8/22/00

Dear Trauntvein

Thanks for your mail. It is so nice to hear from you, that is a very neat thing about www you hear a lot more from your friends, even if it is sometimes just short notes.

My mother is doing fine now, but she has a big hole, where they have taken her toe. I do not know why, but they haven't sewn it together. But she is feeling fine, and is happy. I called her and told her I got your mail. She told me she got your letter last Friday she also gets Ensign every month, she didn't know why she started to get them, but it is very nice. I get them after her, so I thank you too. Mother would like to write you, but her hands

are shaking so much, you wouldn't be able to read it. She tells me to be sure and thank you both for the magazine and for your letter. It made her real happy. That was for my English. No it doesn't bother me to write

English, I just write as I go along, but I thought it might bother you as a teacher to see me manhandle the English language. 

Så nu for dit danske.

Det er interessant at høre at Joseph Smiths oldebørn begynder at blive døbt i kirken og får udført deres endowments. De er ikke kommet i gang med at bygge templet her endnu. Der går nogle rygter, men vi får ikke rigtig noget at vide, hvilket jeg synes er forkert, fordi det net op skaber grobund for rygter som måske ikke er rigtige. Jeg glæder mig til at komme til USA, jeg har lovet mig selv at denne gang skal jeg i Templet derovre. Sidste gang jeg var der, kom jeg til Gunnison den dag, de lukkede templet, for rengøring. Typisk, jeg er altid heldig. De havde også lige slutte The Pagent. Nu ved jeg godt at det er for tidligt, til at se det, det kunne jeg ellers også godt tænke mig. Jacob synes det var rigtig godt at se "The Legasy". Arne har lige fået en datter, det er mors 16 barnebarn og så har hun 1 oldebarn. Det er hun meget stolt af. Rita er meget sød til at hjælpe mor. Hun er den eneste af os børn her i Kbh som har bil og så er hun også på pension. Men det er rart at vide. Line er også flink til at hjælpe hende. Line er min yngste datter, og hun besøger mormor mindst en gang om ugen. Da farmor døde fandt hun ud af at hendes bedsteforældre ikke levede evigt og hun lovede sig selv at hun ville besøge mormor en gang om ugen og det har hun stor set gjort siden. Jacob og Daniel plejede at være flinke til at besøge hende og hjælpe hende, men det er de ikke så flinke til mere, men nu bor de heller ikke i København. Jeg er nu heller ikke for flink til at besøge hende. Man kan godt mærke at man bliver ældre. Men jeg har det da heldigvis godt. Hils Myrna, jeg mindes hende tit med glæde for de dage jeg boede hos jer. Hun er lige efter mit hoved.

Kærlig hilsen 

Jonna

2/15/00

I do not think you shall fly mandarin airlines, when you come, but at least they didn't have to swim. 

 <> Else

2/10/00

Dear Leonard

Thanks for your mails, yes I did get your first mail, I have just been very slow to answer. The family is doing fine. My mother is OK again. There was a while that I thought we wouldn't have her for long, she kind a gave up I think, but she is fine again, as fine as she can get. She went to a place to see if she was fit for a nursing home, which she wanted but I guess she found out, that she wasn,t that old and disabled. They are trying to find her an apartment down by the ground, but that is very hard. She can't take the stairs to the second floor anymore. She doesn't know how she will live when the time for the dedication come, or she would have offered you to stay with her. I think she will still want that if she is able to have you and then I think you should stay with her, but under any other circumstance you are welcome to stay with us, and we will be happy to have you. There still isn't a time set for the dedication. They haven't even started on the building yet. Brother Madsen who is in charge of the building isn't even in Denmark at this time. Do not count on it being this summer, because it will not be. I might be like it was yesterday I was baptized, but I am going to be a grandmother in march, I feel like it was yesterday I am just a little bigger, my mothers size, a little slower, more forgetful as the song goes "the old gray mare she ain't what she use to be." We are happy thou, filing fine. I will let mom see your mail, and if you call her, she isn't home Monday, Wednesday and Friday before 4 in the afternoon. Those days she is in the hospital.

Love to your wife too

Else

6/16/00

Lige en kort hilsen for at fortælle hvordan det går her. Der er planlagt en del aktiviteter i forbindelse med 150 års dagen for de første missionærers ankomst til danmark. der vil blive afholdt specielle nadvermøder. En af afpostlene, jeg må med skam erkende at jeg ikke kan huske hans navn vil tale ved et specielt møde i København Stav og et i Århus Stav, og så vil han også være årets gæstetaler ved Rebildfesten i år. Der vil være en afsløring af en statue ved rebildfesten og en på Langelinie, ved Amerikakajen. Der vil også være medlemmer klædt ud, som mennesker der levede i Kbh for 100 år siden og de vil få en sejltur i en gammel skonnert, man har lejet. I løbet af sept vil der også blive vistet show over kirkens udvikling og aktiviteter i Danmark gennem de 150 år, henholdsvis i København og Århus. Man havde håbet det kunne falde sammen med indvielsen af templet, men sådan skulle det ikke være. Jeg ved ikke hvordan det går med tempelbyggeriet, d. v. s. jeg ved det ikke er kommet igang endnu. Vi bliver ikke informeret om hvad der sker. Jeg har bare hørt, at meget af problemerne stammer fra, at man han fundet ud af at fundamentet til kirken smuldrer og skal forstærkes og det vil fordyre templet betydeligt.

Det går eller fint, vi har rigtig dansk sommervejr. Blæst og regn og indimellem sol. Mor har det meget bedre for tiden, så hendes humør er også bedre, og hun er også i stand til at komme i kirke næsten hver søndag. På næste søndag skal vi have familyreunion. Mors søskende børn og børnebørn og oldebørn. Jeg er forøvrigt blevet bedstemor for første gang, til en lille dreng der har fået navnet Gabriel. Han blev velsignet i søndags. Jakob har det fint, han er lige blevet færdig i militæret. Han ønsker at komme med i Siriuspatruljen, en enhed som patruljerer på Grønland. Han skal søge ind til september, så han har blot fået sig et midlertidigt job som kok i Magasin på Kongens NyTorv. Jeg må hellere slutte, men det var lidt for dit danske, så du kommer lidt i træning til du kommer her over.

Erling og jeg planlægger at komme en tur til USA, Utha og vi vil gerne en tur til Seatlle. Vel Erling vil gerne se så meget som muligt. Nu får vi se.

De kærligste hilsner Jonna