Odense & H C Anderson

It's after midnight here but I wanted to write a short post about our day.  

We all were ready by 9:30 and left the hotel to catch the train to the airport.  Today was the day we picked up our rental cars.  We have been getting around really well with the Public Transit System but we thought early on that we might want to have a couple of cars for our last two days here.  After getting our car we drove a couple hours over to Funen.  It is the next island over from where we have been about 170 K from Copenhagen.  We went to the city of Odense where Hans Christian Anderson was born.  Brad also spent time here on his mission.  We enjoyed visiting HC Anderson's Childhood home and a museum with many artifacts of his.  It was really interesting.  He was a pretty interesting man!  I loved reading about him and seeing the many displays about his life.  Before leaving, Rick and I bought a book with 12 of his Fairy Tales.  Hopefully that will be a treasure for our grandkids through the years:)

Rick and I in Odense.

Rick behind HC Anderson's boyhood home.

A Danish Church (Protesant) in Odense.

We witnessed a huge miracle today.

After leaving the museum which was just closing we decided to do a little shopping.  After we had been gone about 15 minutes Ruth discovered that her purse was missing.  She thought she might have left in in the restroom of the museum before we left.  Her and Brad hurried back to the museum only to find out that it was completely locked up:(  Unfortunately, Ruth's purse had their passports, her wallet with credit cards and ALL of the cash for their trip inside.  They were both worried sick.  

We met up with them at a department store where they had tracked down a security guard to try to get some help.  He made a few phone calls but decided that since the museum was closed there was nothing he or the police could do until tomorrow when they opened back up.  Truly, we were all very worried! Brad had his wallet with a little cash and credit cards so he was thinking they would just get a room in Odense and wait to see what tomorrow would bring.  

Well, interestingly enough, Ruth caught sight of the missionaries serving there in Odense.  They were riding their bikes and she turned to find Brad and looked back and they were gone.  Just a few minutes later Brad turned to Ruth and said, "look."  Ruth saw the missionaries standing in front of them and reached out to shake their hands and one of them said, Are you missing your purse?"  In shock Ruth said, "Yes, yes, I am!"  (Mind you, there were many people around.  How did they know to approach B & R)  The missionaries proceeded to tell them that they had just been at the church and the senior missionaries had gotten a call from someone at the museum who had found the purse.  Apparantly, the person at the museum had seen Ruth's passport and saw that she was from Utah and wondered if they might be LDS so they called the church to see if anyone had lost a purse!  Within 45 minutes they were talking with Brad and Ruth in the shopping district.  No coincidences here!  

This was truly an answer to prayers!  

Unfortunately,  Brad and Ruth had to wait to hear back from the person/s who called the missionaries because they did not leave a call back number.  We ended up taking the missionaries to dinner and enjoyed a nice visit with them:)  The person never called back so Brad and Ruth had to stay the night in Odense.  Hopefully they will retrieve the purse tomorrow (with all of their belongings) and be back on their way to Copenhagen to meet up back with us.

In the shopping district with the missionaries.

Elder Jensen and Elder Lawless

The heroes of the day!