Mission Memories

I started this post a while ago, but finally was able to finish it - sorry about that!
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Today, May 26, 2008, I have had the opportunity to spend the day with my kids (which normally is pretty hectic), but I just got them down for a nap (and in Caden's case, quiet time, which is better than nothing). Anyway, my thoughts have turned to my mission.

I served in the Denmark Copenhagen mission from 1997 - 1999. I took four years of French in high school, so I was thinking that I was a lock for a french-speaking mission, but that was not the case. The good news was that having studied a foreign language for four years, I think my ability to learn Danish was enhanced. On the other hand, I have now lost most of the French that I knew at one time (and the little that I do remember, I have a hard time distinguishing it from Danish). Anyway, back on topic.

I loved my time in Denmark and made a ton of friends. I met members there who would (and did) do about anything for missionary work. Since I am not creative when it comes to thinking of things to post about, I am going to share mission stories every once in a while.

This first story will relate to my time in the mission office. I had been in the office a few months and I was finalizing the schedule for an upcoming Zone Conference. I had just received a phone call from the member who was supposed to come to Zone Conference and provide language training and he said he could no longer make it. After hanging up the phone, I sat there wondering what I was going to do - we really wanted to have language training from the members so we could learn from a Dane as well as develop a better relationship with the members. As I sat there pondering this dilemma, the phone rang. I answered the phone to find Thomas Kofod on the line. He is a member from Fredericia, a recent convert, who was calling to refer the missionaries to his mother. I took down the information to send out to the missionaries in that area. Before hanging up, I felt impressed to ask Brother Kofod what he was doing the next day (Fredericia is about 2 hours away from Aarhus, where the Zone Conference was being held). He said that he had to go to Aarhus for an audition (he is an actor) and he had a couple hours of dead time. He even went on to say that he had been wondering what he could do with his extra time. I asked him (immediately) if he would be willing to give the language training at our Zone Conference. He was ecstatic and said of course. As we continued talking about the details, he mentioned how glad he was that he had called at this moment (as was I).

Now, the story would be pretty amazing if it stopped right there, but in case you did not know, Thomas Kofod is the actor who played Jesus Christ in The Testaments. While we were on the phone, we decided to give him some extra time and allow him to bring some pictures and other items from the set of The Testaments and share some of the stories with the missionaries.

We had our Zone Conference and it went perfectly! Thomas did a great job on our language training, but the memorable part of the Zone Conference was the time that he took in explaining some of the experiences he had while filming The Testaments. He concluded with singing "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". This song is powerful by itself, but after hearing him share stories about the making of The Testaments (which would not come for almost a year after this event), the song was that much more powerful. In addition to being a great actor, he is an amazing vocalist.

Every time I watch The Testaments, I think of Thomas and my experience with him. From that experience and others with him, I cannot think of a better person to play the role of Christ. He truly is one of the most Christ-like people I know. This post is getting long, but here are two quick stories that he shared with us.

While they were filming the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, the directors wanted the water to be perfectly clear. One of the cameramen had been walking around trying to get the best position for the shot. However, as he was walking around, he had been muddying up the waters, so the directors were forced to call a break to let the waters clear up. This cameraman was a little frustrated. Thomas pulled the cameraman aside (away from the group) and asked if they could offer a prayer to make everything go ok. They said a prayer, the water cleared up quickly and the shot was done with 15-20 minutes. The interesting part about this story is that this cameraman was not a member of the church, but his wife and kids were all members. After this experience (and I am sure, a few others), the cameraman asked Thomas to baptize him. This experience was very sweet to Thomas - he mentioned that he had no idea this man was not a member of the church, he was just doing what he felt should be done at the time, which I feel is very similar to the way Christ was and is today.

The one scene that the directors wanted to be perfect, and therefore, planned an entire day's worth of time to shoot correctly, was the Garden of Gethsamane with Christ suffering for our sins. Thomas mentioned that he, too, was concerned about this scene. He was thinking, how can I possibly portray even a sliver of what he went through? Thomas fasted and prayed for days before the shooting of this scene. He studied about Christ and did everything he could, spiritually, to be ready for this scene. He mentioned that he did not worry about any specific actions, but merely prepared spiritually for this scene. When it was time to shoot the scene, they spent a good portion of the day getting everything right, but in the end, it was the very first take of the scene that made the final cut. Thomas said that his testimony grew a lot during the shooting of the film and all of the events leading up to it as well.

My first time meeting Thomas was a Stake Conference about 6 months prior to our Zone Conference experience. He had long hair and if you did not know him, he looked as though he did not fit in with the typical 'clean-cut' member. The rest hymn was Thomas singing in an auditorium (for Stake Conference here, they rented out the largest auditorium in the city) with no microphone, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". I was in the balcony and I could hear him fine. As we sat and listened to him there sing an amazing song with an appearance very similar to that of Christ, it all made us realize how important it is for each of us to take upon ourselves the name of Christ each and every day.

Hopefully this has been somewhat coherent - I hope that everyone reading this post will think about their lives and how they can become a little more like Christ - in their families, at their jobs, with their friends or in their personal lives. We all have experiences waiting for us but we have to be willing to put forth the effort of doing the right things and opening our mouth when the Spirit directs us.