I am out in Denmark with my lovely wife for our anniversary. It is thus far a wonderful experience. I am sorry I have not updated my blog recently. I have been feeling down about myself due to my limitations and have felt burdened by them.
In Denmark, people speak Danish, full of long street names (like Løjtegårdsvej 99 - which is our hotel address) and hard to pronounce. I do have a decent understanding of Danish as that is where I was called for my mission several years ago (before most of you probably started high school). The good news is that 99% of the Danes speak English and are willing to help you. So, Laura and I leave our hotel this morning and head from Kastrup to downtown Copenhagen (by bus it was about 20 minutes - 7 or so kilometers). We did not have any real plans - we pulled up many ideas of what we wanted to do. Canal rides, bus tours, seeing castles, all the good tourist stuff. We ended up seeing lots!
We came across the canal rides by accident, just choose a random destination off the bus and started walking. We ditched the boat (it had one stop at the very end, but offered to take you back to the start at no charge with your ticket) and decided to walk it. We saw this amazing Catholic Church (check out facebook next week when we upload the pics). We first decided to skip the Little Mermaid Statue - which is one of the highest tourist places and the boat stopped right at it. It was like destiny. Again, those pics will be coming. We saw Rosenberg Castle and the grounds which were not like a castle as I thought (no towering ramparts, no gallows) but was awesome. We even saw a Nordstroms that had some 7-8 floors to it! Everyday at noon, at the castle, the changing of the guards take place. We had no idea where that was, but at like 11:55, we were in the right spot (and I have a 12ish minute video in high def of it).
So, everything was falling into place. All things that we had not planned to do was just fitting perfectly. Way awesome! Well, until we get to go on the bus to get back to our hotel. I remember busses going in circles. You can get on at one stop and keep riding. Apparently, there are final stops here. And Laura tells me busses in the States have final stops as well (remind you, I have not taken a bus in probably 20 years). So, I ask the bus driver how to get to Kastrup, he tells me to take this other bus (we took 350 to get out there, he tells us to take 5A to get back). Well, 5A dead ended at the airport, which is about 2.2 km from the hotel. And 5A was almost 2 times expensive as the other bus. I tell Laura we are ditching the bus, I can remember how to get back to the hotel.
I do have a good memory. My family will vouche for that. I can remember things that happened on specific days, specific times, specific routes that were taken and were asked of me to remember. I have close to an identic memory. Not trying to brag as with my condition lately, I have sometimes forgotten my name, who my wife was and where I am going. Back to topic, I recalled how our taxi driver got to the hotel. Kinda. He used the freeway and we were on foot. Laura was upset, tired and we wanted to get to the temple tonight before it got too dark. That is not going to happen due to my error.
I did not take a wrong turn, but I should have listened and took the other bus, the 350, just heading in the opposite direction. I did not listen to my wife. We spent like 2+ hours on the bus, then like 40 minutes walking back to the hotel. Yes, I knew the way. Landmarks marked the way for me. Yes, there were times that I thought I was lost. Then, I saw a restaurant and knew I was on the right road. It was like the Holy Ghost. When you get lost, as it will happen in life, or get stressed, or have no idea what you need to do, the Lord will give you a landmark and you will know where to go. You may be on foot, you may be delayed by several hours. You may have to put off the temple for a day. But the Lord is there for you. And today he gave me a sign I could not deny. There is no doubt it is his will I sit here now and share this story. And yes, my feet hurt. No scripture reference for this posting as it was on the whim and I wanted to share a personal experience as it is still fresh (I literally walked into the room and started typing this).
