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| Home Sweet Home |
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| Our Little Temporary Apartment |
We are still a bit in limbo since arriving back in
Portland. We are home, but not
home. As you know we are
interested in going back out in the Mission Field as soon as we can, so we have
taken up temporary residence in a one-bedroom apartment several blocks from our
permanent house, which is occupied by Kae and Kerry and the kids. It doesn’t make sense for them to move
until we finish the next mission.
We have enjoyed spending time with the family. The grandkids seem not to have
forgotten us and enjoy spending time with us. Thanks to skype they were able to recognize us without any
hesitation. We look forward to
spending time with each individual family, separate from the big group, during
the next few months, so we can create some unique memories for each of the
grandchildren.
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| Fourth Of July Breakfast |
When we arrived at the apartment we found it furnished with
some of our own furniture and the kitchen stocked with food and utensils. Enough stuff to keep us alive for
awhile; however, we have been invited out to eat almost every day we have been
home. We celebrated with food
several days at McAllister and Denita’s wedding events and again on the fourth
of July there was more food than we could eat. If you thought we had lost weight while living in Denmark,
don’t worry; we will put it back on at this rate.
Last Sunday we had the opportunity of attending church in
our home ward and greeting our many friends. They were very gracious in their “welcome homes”. We enjoyed the testimonies and the good
feeling of being home. I must say
however, that it was not without thinking about our Frederiksberg Ward back in
Copenhagen. In fact, throughout
the past two weeks we have frequently checked the clock to fantasize what was
happening in our favorite Temple.
I have, on many occasions, visualized passing the recommend desk and
walking down the circular stairs to the dressing rooms. I have visualized being in the
Baptistery, the ordinance rooms and the Celestial Room. We don’t ever want to forget the
wonderful feelings we had while serving there.
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| Kids Bicycle Parade |
Tuesday morning we attended a session at the Portland
Temple. It was unusual to see the
ordinance room filled to capacity (I have been to many sessions in the Portland
Temple when there were only ten to fifteen in attendance). I thought back to Copenhagen, when
there were only ten to fifteen in attendance and started calculating which
temple experienced the higher percentage of attendance. If a Stake has approximately 2,800
members the calculation is thus:
The Portland Temple District with fifty stakes has 140,000 members. A session of fifteen has a percentage
of .0001. The Copenhagen Temple
District with three stakes has 8400 members. A session of fifteen has a percentage of .002. Even when the Portland Temple has a
full session of sixty-two, which we had last Tuesday, the percentage of
attendance is .0004. The
attendance of fifteen has no significance; it was used only because it was a
common figure for both temples.
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| Emerson and Dakota |
On Wednesday we celebrated the fourth of July by attending
the Flag Ceremony and breakfast at the church with Milwaukie and Clackamas
wards combined. Kae and Dakota and
Emerson came with us. Later in the
day we gathered at Sellwood Park for a picnic. In the evening we sat on the
ridge overlooking Oaks Park and the city to watch the fireworks on
display. Tova and Jeff, Rick and
Pam, Kitta and Peter, and Karen were there with the kids, Kyton, Simon and
Case. It was a wonderful summer
day. The first since we arrived in
town. Up to now, the weather in
Portland and Copenhagen has been very similar; however, our forecast and
Copenhagen’s forecast for the next week is quite different.
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| Us With Kyton |
Friday evening we were invited to Bill and Peggy Self’s for
a get-together with family and many old friends from the old Alameda Ward. Bit by bit we are getting connected to
our former “life” again.
Saturday we celebrated Kyton’s birthday at Jan’s. She always put on a great feast. We were there with Kyton & Simon,
Tova & Jeff, Rick & Pam and Jan & Dave and Gigi. Again, it was a wonderful summer
evening with enough breeze to make the air comfortable.
Tonight we gathered at our house, which is Kae & Kerry’s
for now, and celebrated Kyton’s and Norma’s birthdays. Everyone was there except Kirsten whom we haven’t seen since
we arrived home. We hope to get
together with her this week at her workplace.
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| Angie and Dash kissing Kae |
It is a very unusual circumstance that has us being invited
to our own house for dinner, and seeing someone else driving up to the dinner
in my car, and leaving our house after the dinner together with the rest of our
children. I guess we’ll get
used to living in a makeshift environment.
I hope you all found our new address.
I’ll close for now.
We love you all.
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| Teresa and Quentin |
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| Bo and Toby |
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| Karen and Ben |
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| Jan, Jeff and Tova |
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| Us With Simon |
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| Dakota |
Norma and Gary.
