Dearest Everyone – Happy Easter to all of you! We have had a wonderful day. We had 2 (yes, two) baptisms this morning in Utby. Ope, a woman whose husband was baptized in January and was ‘infected’ when the missionaries taught him, was baptized by Elder Olsen and Sari, a young man from eastern Europe, was baptized by Elder Carlyle. It was a great baptism.
Ope and Sari Baptism
There were about 50 ward members present! It was held at 9am and church started at 10am, which was a good arrangement. The confirmations then took place during sacrament meeting. These two young elders have been on fire here in our district the last couple of months. If my counting is correct, these are baptisms 4 and 5 in just a 2 ½ month span. And Elder Carlyle goes home in 10 days! We had a non-member there, even. Then he wanted to attend church at our home ward so we took him there and missed the confirmations. Oh well.
We have had a good week. It started with a wonderful Zone conference on Tuesday. The conference was held in the chapel by our house. The zone leaders had planned kebab pizza for lunch – they went to the pizza place and got it and brought it back. I suggested that they may want some veggies and a dessert to finish up the meal which they readily agreed to. The other senior couple in our zone brought the veggies and I made cinnamon rolls for the dessert. Both were a big success, as was the pizza. (However one of the zone leaders said that the most important thing he learned at zone conference was that Mossen’s pizza is better eaten at Mossen’s than as take away!)  As part of the conference the assistants had a message about working together with the members for greater success.
Almost ready to fire
The missionary companion ships then made these ‘caps’ for the top of a 2 liter coke bottle with a lid, a thumb tack and a mento. They screwed the ‘cap’ onto the coke bottle, pulled out the tack, which made the mento fall into the coke, and the coke exploded through the little hole in the top of the ‘cap.’ There are about 10 companionships and they all pulled at the same time which gave us 10 old faithfulls shooting into the air at once. My first thought was “what a fun cub scout activity!â€Â (or maybe reunion activity) Anyway, it was quite amazing.
This past week was Påsklov (Easter vacation) here in Sweden so most schools were closed. We even closed the center on Thursday and Friday because it was so slow.
Haga
On Thursday after we got the laundry done we went downtown and meet our friend Mazio. We then walked through a part of Göteborg called Haga – a part of the community where the workers lived in the days of long ago. The streets are very narrow and the apartment buildings are large but full of small apartments. Now it is a trendy place and has a large student population. There were lots of cafes and shops. Just to the south of Haga is a hill with an old fort on top, which we desired to visit. The fort is visible from the road we take to and from the center each day. On the very top it has a tower with a large gold crown on top. It was originally constructed as a defense outpost for the city. The canon point out to sea in case of invasion.  It was built in the 1700’s and by the time it was finished, it was obsolete. It’s canon were outdated. It was never used for anything. The town had run out of funds so they couldn’t replace the canon with the newer type. They didn’t even have enough money to tear the place down. So there it sits.
Elder & Syster Anderson sitting on the cannon
Nowadays it has a Sunday brunch inside it and you can rent the place for receptions and parties. We had to walk up about 300 stairs to reach the top! They were on the steepness order of the stairway in our Junction house (just less steep than a straight up ladder!). I made it, but just barely. When we got to the top we found a nicely sloping road that zigged up the right side and a steeper pathway that zagged up the left side. We took the sloping road down!!
On Friday we met our friend from the center, Talitha, at the tram stop and went out to the Göteborg archipelago – the bunch of islands that are just off the coast to the west. To get there you take the #11 tram to the end stop which is called Saltholman. There you get on a ferry that visits each of the inhabited islands, getting off at the one you want. Your tram ticket will get you on the ferry (if it is less than 90 minutes since you got on the tram.) For us it was, just barely. The tram ride takes about an hour and our wait for the ferry was 20 minutes. No autos are allowed on the islands at all, so all the island residents park their cars at Saltholman, which means there is little or no parking for visitors, hence the tram ride. It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed the ferry ride.
one of the islands
We rode to the last island before we got off. Our guide book said there were 3 eating places on this island but we only found 1 of them to be open. We even walked through the inhabited part of the island without finding anything but nice houses and 2 harbors full of boats. Because there aren’t any cars the streets are narrow and most people either walk or ride bikes. We did see a couple of scooters that had been converted into 3 wheeled motorized carts. We walked from one side to the other in about 15 minutes and ended up back at the beginning to have a hamburger at the only little kiosk that was available. The burger was unusually good and for dessert we had a Magnum ice cream bar, possibly the best ice cream bar I have ever tried.  The ferry captains could drive those 80 foot boats like they were in the family car, docking at the islands, backing away, turning to head out into the sea. It was amazing to be a part of it. The ferry ride was an hour in each direction so we were 4 hours in transit and 2 hours on the island. It was enjoyable but I don’t think it is a destination for enjoying the beach.  The islands are huge rocks and they just jut up out of the sea with no gentle sloping sandy beaches or rocky beaches or any beaches. There is dirt on the islands for growing grass and flowers and such but where the island touches the sea, it is rock.  There are quite a few of these islands, some inhabited some not, but all of the same composition.
Both of these trips were recommended to us by Göteborg residents as places not to miss. We have included some photos that we hope give a feel of each trip. When Dad posts this to the blog he is going to add more of the photos. They won’t all fit in an e-mail. So in a day or two check out the blog for some more pictures.
To finish up our Easter Sunday we had all the missionaries in our district to dinner. It was the typical Easter dinner – ham, cheesy potatoes, jello salad, rolls, veggies. Then to end, birthday cupcakes and ice cream (2 of our elders have birthdays this coming week.) They enjoyed Dad’s stash of cinnamon candies and they enjoy being together. As they were leaving one of them said, “Why don’t we make this a tradition – Sunday district dinner at the Anderson’s every week?â€
Sunday Dinner at Easter
I didn’t say anything but….. there were nine of us in this little place, Dad had to unbolt the legs from the kitchen table to move it into the front room so we could all sit down together, the kitchen has about 3 square feet of counter space, and we have dirtied nearly every dish we have trying to make a place setting for everyone. Other than that, I think it should be a tradition, too!! Dad had everyone give a report (of course) on the most important thing they have learned on their mission, so far. It led to an interesting conversation. In fact it was the perfect ending to a wonderful Easter Sunday that had started in the perfect way, as well.
We hope your Easter is wonderful, too. You’ll have to eat an orange jelly bean for me because I couldn’t find any jelly beans in Göteborg at all. In fact here they don’t do Easter baskets, they do Påsk ägger (Easter Eggs) which are paper Mache eggs that open in half and get filled with candy and prizes. Another thing they do is put Easter feathers on the bushes in their yards. These are brightly colored – orange, pink, yellow, blue, green – large ones that are very wispy. The bushes look very nice.
We love you all. Hope all is going well. You are always in our thoughts and prayers. All our love, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Nikki and Robert