Dearest Family and friends  –  Well, we have had another regular week here in Göteborg.  After a grand month of lessons and baptisms our missionaries have been experiencing a drought of sorts.  They have many new and promising investigators but no one with the desire (yet) to be baptized.  The young investigators who come to the center all seem like exceptional young men.  They are here working or going to school.  A couple are from India and one is from Sao Paulo, Brazil!!   Anyway, the mission activity has been very slow over the last several weeks.

It has rained every day during the past week,  not continually but off and on, mostly on at night.  Although the temperatures are in the low 50’s, it seems very cold because of the wind off the sea that seems to blow every minute, day and night.  The lilacs are out in mass  –  from white through all the shades of lavender to dark purple.  They are beautiful and very fragrant.

Last Friday was the day we were supposed to go to Stockholm for a dinner for the mission president who is going home in a month.  But it was canceled.  The church sends in to the mission home cleaners of every description, including painters and the carpets, when a president leaves before the next one comes.  The current president and his wife have to have all their stuff packed and ready to ship out before the cleaners get there.  So the mission home was (and probably still is) a huge mess of packing boxes.  We would have had no place to stay.  So all of us from this end of the country stayed home and those in the Stockholm area still had the dinner.  We will have one with them on June 14 when they make their last trip to south Sweden for a zone conference.  Dad and I are in charge of finding a restaurant.    In place of the  Stockholm trip, the 3 couples down here got together in Jönköping for the day on Saturday.  We went sightseeing and just visited and had a good time together.  We went to a little village called Gränna  (pronounced  grenn-a).  It is on the shores of the largest lake in Sweden and is a picturesque little place.  It claims to be the place that invented candy canes!!  There are several shops along the main street that make polkagris  (the Swedish name for the striped candy that the canes are made from.)  Just as we entered the first little shop, a boy in the back was starting to make the candy sticks.  He had a large mass of the boiled sugar and water that was a semi-clear color and started by “pulling it”  like we used to pull taffy.  He worked it on a large slab of marble for several minutes then took it, stretched about 6 feet long, and looped it over a hook in the wall.  He then proceeded to toss and stretch and toss it over this hook until it had become very white.  Then he took a piece of the same stuff that was colored  (it looked black and we thought it was licorice flavored but as he continued to work it we saw that it was actually blue)  and put it around the white mass that he had formed into a block.  He continued to stretch and roll and stretch until it was the length he wanted, then he cut it into thirds and did the same thing to those three then cut and stretch and cut and stretch until he had a dozen of these striped like a candy cane sticks that were about an inch in diameter.  Then it was one final cutting and wrap them up for sale.  We bought some of the original polka in bite sized pieces.  Boy, does it have a good pepperminty flavor.  Another claim to fame for this little town is back in the late 19^th century one of their residents flew over the north pole in a hot air balloon, landed, and shot several polar bears.  For some reason he died at the north pole, but they have a big museum called an Arctic Museum, in his honor.  They even had a polar bear rug for sale.

Institute is over for the summer.  So we are starting the cut-back version of activities at the center.  We will only have family night on Mondays and chill on Fridays.  The center will of course still be open from 2 to 9 every day.  I have started a project of inventorying the library books and gathering the English ones together and the Swedish one in another section.  I don’t think I will alphabetize them or use the Dewey system on the shelves, but at least we will have a list of them and a little bit of order to the whole mess.  Dad will put my written list in an Excel spread sheet when I get it done.

We love you all.  You are always in our thoughts and prayers.

All our love,

Mom and Dad,  Grandma and Grandpa,  Robert and Nikki

Dearest Family and friends –  there isn’t much to tell about this past week in Göteborg.  Dad and I just keep plugging along and the days just keep on passing.  We have had a lot of rain during the last week,  either during the day light hours or in the night,  and of course the sea breeze always picks up when it rains.  The rest of this week is scheduled for rain as well.  That’s what keeps the place green, so we put up with it without too much complaining.  Nothing special happened during the week.  The missionaries continue to give discussions here but no one is even close to being baptized.  The mission is shooting for 100 baptisms by July 1, and we are only at 53.  That’s 47 more in just 5 weeks,  just over 1 per companionship.  President Anderson goes home July 1 and it is some sort of gift for him from his missionaries.  The ones in our zone are doing everything they can think of but nothing is happening the way they want.  Our chill nights are becoming a bit unorganized and many who normally come are getting fed up and not coming.  Our YSA president is backpacking through China and the girls (his counselors) are overwhelmed with work and finals and are having a very difficult time keeping up with things.  Saturday was a big race here in Göteborg.  It is an annual ½ marathon held every year on the third Saturday of May.  There were nearly 50,000 runners!!  They started in waves at 1:30pm and continued every 10 minutes until nearly 4pm.  They ran right past the center, at milepost 18K, out of 21K.  the street was closed at 1:45pm and the trams weren’t allowed downtown either.  We had to be down here at 3pm so drove down about 1pm to park the car in our little courtyard.  We walked around on Avenyn for a while then came back to the center about 1:45.  The lead runners came past the center at 2:20!  The first 20 or so runners were all Ethiopians or Kenyans.  The winning time was 1 hour 42 seconds, I think.  About 2:45 the road became packed with runners non stop.  We had to cross the street to go to Marzio’s for dinner.  About 3:15 we decided to try.  It took us 10 minutes standing by the side to find a space wide enough to dare to cross, then we had to run for it.  The runners just kept on coming until after 6.  When we left to go home about 8:30, the road blocks were down and everyone had vanished.  Several of the YSA ran.  One that I spoke with ( a young man who returned from his mission in England last summer)  said that 43,000 plus finished.  He ran it in 1 hour 43 minutes.  He said the course was so full of people he couldn’t pass and had to slow way down until an opportunity opened up for him to get around the slower runners in front of him!  The dinner was another candlelight supper without the candlelight. (It doesn’t get dark enough for candles until about 10pm these days!)   I wasn’t as nervous as the first time and it was really quite enjoyable.  I can’t believe the spirits they can down during a meal, however:  white wine with the fish course (this time it was fish soup, a Swedish staple), red wine with the meat course, brandy with the cheese and fruit course,  then after dessert and coffee, a flute of champagne.  And it was never just one glass, but as many as they had wine to fill them.  One of the guests was a man named Peter who is a professional guitar player.  (Well, he was once but now he is a school principal because he says you can’t make a living playing classical guitar!)  but he still plays a lot and he played for us between courses and afterward.  It was absolutely amazing.  He played Bach on the guitar and it sounded like 2 or 3 guitars playing at once.  I watched him closely and he never even looked at his right hand, yet every finger was playing, plucking the strings with amazing speed and agility.  I later asked him about it and he said that to look at his hand only confuses him!  And he played a piece by Schubert that was fantastic.  It was like he was inside the music or something.  I wish you could all have seen him and heard him play.  Not a sheet of music to be seen.  He said the first thing he does is memorize the notes of the song, then he just forgets about them and listens to the song in his head and plays what he hears.  It makes no sense to me, and that is probably why I can’t play the piano.

We went to Väne Åsaka on Sunday to visit with the people at the farm.  Dad had tried Saturday and Sunday morning to get them on the phone but no one answered.  We went anyway and when dad got out of the car to take a few photos, Johan’s father was there.  He said they had gone on holiday.  But that Grandpa (who is 98, not 91 like we thought they said) was in the hospital.  He is getting out today and the father invited us to come back again soon.  We left and got to Trollhetten in time for church.  After the meetings we put home in the GPS and followed it home.  It took us a different way than ever before,  we got lost in a spaghetti bowl of roads right outside of Göteborg, ended up downtown and had to wend our way through the traffic of downtown to get home.  We were only home for about an hour and had to turn around and get back to the center for a missionary fireside at 6pm.  The fireside was well attended and well received but it was raining and no one wanted to go out in the rain to catch their trams when it finished so they hanged around visiting until 9:30!!  Dad and I got dinner when we got home, about 9:45, then had to stay up until 11 for it to digest.  And this morning was laundry day at 8am.

So, that is all the excitement for around here.  We have only 2 more institute classes until the summer break.  The girls are trying to get a summer schedule fixed but they aren’t getting very far.  Our trip to Stockholm for this coming weekend has been canceled.  We were going to go to the temple as well as the missionary meeting.  Now we’ll have to wait for some other time.

Anyway, we love all of you tons and tons.  May Heavenly Father continue to watch over you and keep you from harm.   Love,  Mom and Dad,  Grandma and Grandpa,  Robert and Nikki

 

Dearest Family and friends  –  Another week has passed  and it has been a good one here in Göteborg.  We started out with beautiful weather during the first few days then ended the week on a soggier note.  In fact yesterday it started raining about 3pm and rained until past midnight.  Today it started raining during Sunday school (about 12) and is still pouring.  The locals were complaining that it was so-o-o dry, I wanted to invite them all to Utah or Nevada so they can experience really dry weather.  But the rain does help keep this country green.  I have decided that the reason the trees and flowers are so anxious to blossom and leaf is that they know they only have a couple of months to get all their growing and living in before they have to hibernate for another long, dark, Northern winter.  The early bloomers are dying now and the next act is coming on –  the dandelions and the lilacs are gorgeous this weekend.  Many of the lilac bushes in downtown Göteborg are trimmed to look like trees – they are huge.  And of course this first wave of dandelions is being allowed to grow unmolested by Weed-be Gone or the mower.  As the season progresses they will be mowed and dug into oblivion, just like the world over.

Things at the center were normal this week:  a regular FHE (with Dad as the preacher of righteousness), classes on Wednesday with tacos and Spanish rice for supper,  and a regular chill on Friday with the Wii and the pool table.  On Thursday we went to Kungsbacka to the Family History Library there in the ward building and the ward specialist helped us trace Olaus Anderson’s movements in Sweden from just before his father died until 1864.  We lost him that year.  During those years every person who moved had to apply to the parish priest for a certificate giving him permission to move.  He then presented that certificate to the priest in the town he was moving to and was recorded as a resident from that date until his next move.  Olaus moved first to a community not far from Lerum and lived as a farm worker on the farm of his older brother.  After a year he moved back.  Some years later he applied to move to Trollhätten, but was never recorded in the Trollhätten registry, that we could find.  We feel we need to go again and look forward into the next year and search more closely in the 1864 entries as well.  We can do this on our own, but we can’t read the entries other than the names.  The priests recorded occupations and other interesting things and on 2 of Olaus’s entries noted that he was “Mormon.”  We wouldn’t have known any of this without Brother Sandum, who of course could translate the Swedish words for us.  He and his wife returned to Sweden last spring after serving for 18 months in the genealogy library and church history museum in Salt Lake.  Dad has made arrangements to go back to the farm May 22 to visit with Grandpa.  We are excited to go, hoping that he has some early pictures and documents that we can photograph and plenty of good stories.  Dad has a small ipod thing that we are going to record the conversation on and we hope to take Elder Alder with us as a translator.  He goes home in July so we are anxious to have this meeting before he leaves.  Another quest is for a marriage record of some sort for Olaus and Matilda Christoffersson.  And of course we are going to try to trace the siblings forward to see if there are any descendent ‘cousins’ still in the country.  Part of the slowness is we have to have substitutes at the center whenever we’re not there during normal hours, and of course we are missionaries and are trying to fulfill that duty first.

Our young missionaries are working hard at finding and teaching.  It is a joy to see one of the sister’s recent converts passing the sacrament each week in our ward.  He is about 50 but the deacons are very mindful of him and help him quietly when he needs it.  He is allowed to always be in the same place in the line of deacons so he has only to learn the one route!  Today was the commemoration of the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood and our sacrament meeting was done by the young men of the ward.  They all gave talks, the 1^st assistant in the priest’s quorum conducted and at the end, just before the bishop said a few words, all the young men with their fathers sang “We are as the Armies of Helaman.”   At least that was the tune, I didn’t understand all the words.  It was great.  There were about 10 young men, but there were only 8 fathers because 3 of the young men are brothers, one a deacon, one a teacher, one a priest.  It reminded me of 3 young men I used to know!!

On Saturday we went to Kungsbacka to visit a castle that is right on the coast by the sea.  It is called  “Tjolöholms slott” (pronounced:  show-lu-holms and slott means castle) and was built at the turn of the century (19^th  to 20^th ) by a wealthy businessman named James Dicksson.  However, just after he had purchased the ground he was opening a wine bottle and cut his hand.  Wine bottles of that day had lead in the wrapping around the cork and the lead got in the cut and gave him blood poisoning and he died.  His wife then carried on and built the huge home for her and their only child to live in.  After several years the child married and had four sons and everyone lived there.  Then the child divorced the husband and stayed on in the castle with her sons until everyone moved and it fell into ruin.  Then Göteborg bought the place.  Then Kungsbacka bought it from Göteborg for 2.5 million SEK  and have renovated it using the architect’s plans and a letter he wrote to a newspaper describing the place.  It looks like a princess castle on the outside, but the interior is dark, in spite of the large windows, and although it has a marvelous view of the sea, the small beach smelled like the sewer.  Dad and I couldn’t get within 30 feet of the beach without gagging.  One of the bedrooms was called the King’s room, because Mrs. Dicksson expected the Swedish king to come to visit.  The hostess who was showing us around said it was never used because although he came down to go hunting in the adjoining forest,  ” he had lady friends in the neighborhood whom he preferred staying the night with.”  One of the innovations that was clever was a shower that had been installed in 2 of the bathrooms.  She had seen it in Berlin and was insistent that it be in her house.  You stood in the middle of a coiled pipe and this shower squirted you from all around as well as the top and the bottom!!

We love you all so very much.  Please do all you can to remember exactly who you are.  You are always in our thoughts and prayers.  May our Father in Heaven keep you all safe and healthy and happy.   All our love,  Mom and Dad,  Grandma and Grandpa,  Nikki and Robert

Dearest Readers  –  well, week 17 is over.  It was a normal week here in Sweden for us.  Monday was a red day –  which means it was a nationally celebrated holiday.  For some reason the Swedes don’t even know, the day after Easter is a holiday. They call it “Annandag PÃ¥sk”  which kind of means the next day of Easter.   Saturday, April 30 was also a celebration day know as Valborg.  According to the YSA it was originally a day of bonfires to scare away the witches but it has turned into an excuse to drink all you can possibly hold then have a bonfire. (and don’t ask about the witches because they don’t know that either.)  One of our young men recalled a Valborg from his teen years when he and his dad brought the family minivan into Göteborg the day after the celebration and gathered the aluminum beer cans that had been tossed here and there and everywhere.  They filled the van to the max and took them to the store to recycle. (the grocery stores have machines that count the cans or bottles then give you a printout of how many you have recycled and what your “pant” is.  The pant is the money you get back.)  in those days the cans were worth ½ a crown apiece.  They got 10,000 crowns!!  And he claims there were lots more cans to pick up but they had no more room in their van.  The next holiday was Sunday May 1.  It was called “the Workers’ Day”  but we didn’t notice anything actually happening.

As far as our week, it was totally regular until Wednesday evening.  We decided to have a free welcome spring dinner for whoever wanted some.  We had become the recipients of dozens of footlong hotdogs with all their fixings and couldn’t fit all of them in the freezer.  So we cooked hotdogs, had a green salad and some chips and some Swedish kool ade for everyone and anyone who came in and was hungry.  We got rid of about 50 of the critters and everyone had a fun time.  One of our young men ate 10!  He only ate 2 buns, but he downed those dogs like he hadn’t eaten for a week.  Then we served V’s chocolate chip cookies for the after institute treat –  only we had some Swedish M & M’s (which aren’t very tasty) so we chopped them and put them into the cookies as well as the chocolate chips.  I figured we would need about 60 cookies for everyone to have 2.  But we only had 13 show up for classes that night.  So they got as many as they wanted, with milk.  Then on Thursday we had to go to the immigration office to renew our visas.  We had driven to it on Tuesday so that we knew where it was.  It opened at 9am and closed at 12noon.  We got there at 8:45 and had to get in line to get a number.  Our number was 412!  We went in and sat down and at 9:05 the first number came up on the light screen:  number A001!!!  We looked at our number again, and luckily it was B412.  When the B’s finally started being called, the first one was B400.  It took nearly 2 hours to get to B412.  It took 30 minutes for the young man to help us and another 30 minutes for them to decide if they would renew it or not.  We left the building at 11:55am.  We got renewed and can now stay until next June,  if we need to, which I don’t think we do.

We then came down to the center and parked the car and walked downtown to the Pizza Hut.  A man in the ward had invited us out to lunch with the young sister missionaries.  Pizza Hut does a buffet at lunch time with 3 kinds of real American pizza and real green salad.  (Swedish pizza salad is shredded cabbage in a vinegar dressing)  It was a yummy lunch.

Friday was, of course, chill.  They had decided to play ‘kub’  (pronounced:  koob)  it is a really fun outdoor game with wooden sticks and tall cube shaped pillars.  You throw the sticks trying knock down the pillars.  There are more rules than that but that is the gist of the whole thing.

The president of the YSA council has just left on a 3 month vacation

–  he and his best buddy are backpacking around China.  They each quit their jobs, let their hair and beards grow for about a month, and flew out to Beijing on Sunday.  No cell phones, no computers, just some American money and a few Swedish crowns and an airplane ticket.

Robert tried to get in touch with the fellow who is farming Oliver’s farm on Friday to see if we could visit them on Saturday.  He couldn’t get him so we decided to do other things.  We did our shopping then went to Botaniska Trädgårdan.  It is a beautiful public garden that we pass everyday on our way to the center.  The trees and the bushes were in leaf and bloom and there were flowers everywhere.  It must be 40 acres and its right in the center of town.  There were large grassy fields where people were having picnics and there was a band playing in one of the big fields.  We walked all along the main path and sat on benches in several different places.  It was a lovely spring day and the garden was wonderful.  Saturday night about midnight our phone rang and it was the fellow from the farm!  He and dad set up an appointment for Sunday at 2:30.  While we were in sacrament meeting he texted dad and said he wouldn’t be home at all that afternoon.  So we didn’t get to go, but we hope to soon.  Then we will be able to talk with Grandpa and find some answers to several questions, we hope.  We had gone to Alingsås for church so we could get to Lerum in just 30 minutes, and to pick up the elders so they could translate for us.  Since we didn’t get to go, we just went to a local park and ate the lunch I had taken.  It was a long drive all for nothing.

We hope all is going well for each of you.  Thank you for your prayers and your support.  We love you.  Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Rob and Nikki

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.

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.

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!”  (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.

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.

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.

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?”

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

We spent our last preparation day, Saturday, April 16, 2011,  taking a few more steps on the trail toward finding all we can about great grandfather Oliver Anderson.  Most in the family are familiar with the name given for his birth place — Vane Asaka — really it is  Väne Ã…saka –  and the fact that it is somewhere in Sweden.  Well, several weeks ago we met with the ward family history consultant in our ward here in Göteborg to pin point exactly where that place is.  Several local members have told us it is west, or east, or possibly north, of Göteborg.  The ward computers have access to Genline, all the Swedish church records for hundreds of years.  Apparently the local priests were charged with the duty of keeping track of every Swede who lived in their parish boundaries — marriages, births, moves, deaths, literacy,  trade, you name it, they kept track of it.  So, we looked Oliver up in Genline.  The name actually recorded in the book is  Olaus Andersson.

(Both s’s are pronounced, with the accent on the last ‘son’)  Väne Ã…saka (pronounced: ven  oa-saw-caw)  is the name of the church or parish in which he was born.  The town is Lerum (pronounced:  lay- room, with the accent on the last syllable)  and the farm where his family lived at the time (and where he undoubtedly was born) is UppegÃ¥rden (pronounced: oop-a- gor-dun and meaning upper farm).

So, with this new information in hand, Robert and a friend, Marzio De Mari, walked to the Lands Records Office, a government archive with maps of all of Sweden from Then until Now.  Looking at the birth record, the Map Guy pinpointed the location of the parish (Väne Åsaka), the town (Lerum}, and the farm (Uppegården) and allowed Robert to take photos of all the separate maps.  Robert then downloaded them onto the computer and we printed them for our excursion.  We picked up the elders who are serving in Alingsås, a community east of Göteborg about 50K.  We then drove north west from Alingsås toward Trollhättan.

If the maps were right, everything we were looking for would be about 30K from AlingsÃ¥s.  The road was a two lane road through some of the most beautiful countryside I have yet seen in Sweden — forest of pine and deciduous trees on either side of the road with fields of the most fertile farm ground interspersed between.  The farm ground was being readied for spring planting and lay dark and damp in the afternoon sun.  30 minutes or so along the road and there it was — a sign for Väne Ã…saka!!

We quickly turned left and pulled into the first business we could find, a pizza parlor.  Several people were sitting on the front steps and Robert and Elder Alder walked over to ask them where the church was.  (Our Swedish is very limited, but Elder Alder has been in Sweden about 18 months and speaks like a native.)  They gladly pointed out the way to the local Church of Sweden and we happily followed their directions.  The Väne Ã…saka church building is a beautiful edifice dating from the 1700’s.

It looks like it is built out of a cement product,  gleaming white with a green/gray roof and surrounded by a very well kept cemetery.  It looks just like a Swedish country church should look.  We piled out of the car and all 4 of us wandered through the grounds looking at the headstones.  There are many Andersson’s buried there.  And many Gunnarsson’s.

But there wasn’t an Anders Gunnarsson, Oliver’s father, that we could find.  However, we found a plaque that said the cemetery’s warden had moved his office to Trollhättan.  It gave an address and a phone number and we plan on calling to see if there is a record of all who are buried there, and whatever else we can discover.  (Maybe there is another cemetery that is older somewhere else, or maybe some of the other family members are there, or whatever.)  Just as we were heading back to the car, Robert saw an older couple come into the cemetery and he walked up to talk with them to see if they knew where Lerum is.  In just a few minutes he called for Elder Alder and we discovered that indeed he did know.  He gave us detailed instructions which we gladly followed.  Left, over the bridge that spans the creek, about 2K, then left.  There was Lerum!!

We drove down a single lane road that at one time had been paved.  Homes and barns were here and there on either side.  Finally we passed a house with a fellow out front working on his boat.  We parked and the intrepid duo approached him to find out if he knew where UppegÃ¥rden is.  This time he spoke English and he did know –  we had turned left when we should have gone to the round about and turned right.  We piled back into the car and turned around, drove back to the main road, found the round about, and turned right.  On either side of the road were fertile fields while straight ahead was more forest.  About 1K down this lane was a sign for UppegÃ¥rden!!

We turned and drove down the one lane road about 500 meters.  There was the farm!!  A beautiful newer farm house painted bright yellow with stripped yellow and white awnings,  a large lawn with children’s toys,  another dark soiled field, and to the left a barn, part new, part old, with a new roof over the whole of it.  The old part looked just like the church  –  same building material, same white color ( same age?).  The farmer was in the farmyard loading something onto a pick-up truck.  Robert and Elder Alder walked up to him with the maps.  He was friendly (as are all Swedes) and said  that yes, this was the farm UppegÃ¥rden.  No, he wasn’t an Andersson.

His name was Axelsson

and his family had purchased the farm back in the 1880’s.  He couldn’t remember the whole story but Grandpa knew it and why didn’t we come back in a week or two and visit with Grandpa?!!  Come to find out Grandpa is 90 and knows just about everything.  We are going back soon.

So, that is the story of the first few steps on the trail to discovering what we can about Oliver Anderson.  We will keep hunting and asking and will keep you posted.  Hope you like the photos.  If you have anything specific you’d like us to try to do, please let us know.

Dearest Family and friends  –  Well, it’s the middle of March and still winter in the frozen north.  We get tantalized by a day or two of clear skies then plunge into another week of clouds, fog and storm.  Had a Swedish member tell me this week that she never remembers a worse winter for snow and cold  –  and she has lived in Göteborg for the last 69 years!  We had a very normal week otherwise.  Monday we inspected the missionary apartment in AlingsÃ¥s and gave the elders there a ride down to the zone P day activity in Göteborg  (bowling).  Tuesday was an early district meeting because Wednesday the zone leaders and district leaders from our zone traveled to Malmo for a big meeting  (and a trip to the Denmark temple).  Thursday we drove 1 ½ hours north to Trollhättan to inspect another apartment, were there about 30 minutes, then drove 1 ½ hours home.  It wouldn’t have seemed so long but the entire road was under construction.  I am not kidding you.  It is a drive of 70+ kilometers and all but 10 of them were a detour!!   We served shepherd’s pie for the meals this week with pineapple up-side down cake for the institute treat.  No one had even seen a pineapple up-side down cake before!  They all liked it though.

Saturday was the most awesome day of our whole mission so far.  Our district of 3 companionships had 3 baptisms!  The first one was in Kungsbacka, a 20 year old boy who comes to the center a lot.  His name is Kim.

He and Dad have had several long talks during his conversion process and Dad has been the member at several of his discussions (now called ‘teaches’).  The first thing he says every time he comes into the center is “where is Anderson?”  Anyway, he asked Dad to baptize him!  The font in the Kungsbacka chapel is beautiful.  (The hot water heater was broken and going to be fixed next week, so the water was “invigorating”.[Dad])  It is on the south end of the building with windows of etched glass as the south wall, in a v shape, like the hull of a ship.  The ward had placed 2 large planters of beautiful flowers in front of the windows.  The entire program was in the font room.  The sister missionaries sang a beautiful song, Kim’s friend who introduced him to the gospel spoke, Dad baptized him (in English), and I said the closing prayer.  After we dropped Kim at his home we hustled up the freeway to Utby and baptism #2,  a 25 year old Indian boy whom I had not meet before.  Apparently his brother from India sent an e-mail to the mission president at Christmas saying that his brother in Göteborg wanted to join the church.  The e-mail was forwarded to the elders in Utby.  It took them almost 2 months of hunting to finally catch up to him.  At that point he accepted the Book of Mormon, was taught about twice a week or more, never missed being at church, read from the Book of Mormon every day, prayed regularly, and begged to be baptized.  His name is Chandu

.  Chandu, who is about 5’6’’ tall, was baptized by Elder Carlyle  –  who is about 6”9” tall.  The last baptism was in Västra Frölunda.  He is a fellow who is about 35 years old, and speaks very little English and no Swedish.  Fortunately there is a member in Utby from the same country who translated everything into Arabic for him.  The missionaries would say something in Swedish, Shant would say it in Arabic,  and Fadi

would accept it and reply in Arabic, which Shant would then translate into Swedish and tell the missionaries what he had said.  What a process!!  But the center had an Arabic Book of Mormon, which he read.  Shant baptized him.  It was a great Saturday!  All the newly baptized were confirmed Sunday, each in a different ward, of course.  We went to Kungsbacka to be at Kim’s confirmation.  Dad got to stand in the circle with the missionaries and the Bishop and Brother Moraby,

who did the confirming.  It was in Swedish but I could tell it was marvelous.  In the middle of the meeting, the bishop announced that Kim would say a few words.  He got up and bore his testimony and read a scripture out of the Book of Mormon that he said was one of his favorites.  It was great!!  We never dreamed with our assignment that we would get to be a part of something so wonderful.  I need to tell you a couple more things about Kim.  Part way into the discussions, I think it was after about 2 months of teaching and investigating, Kim called the missionaries and told them he had found some videos on the internet that he wanted to show them about the church.  They made arrangements to meet at the center and invited Dad in to the meeting, not knowing exactly what to expect.  Kim showed them 2 or 3 of some anti-church videos and asked them what they were all about.  Dad and the elders explained to him as best they could.  He then replied that he sure had ‘felt’ that they just weren’t right and that each time he watched them he felt bad but when he talked with the missionaries and Dad he felt good. (At that point in his teaches he hadn’t even heard about the Holy Ghost.  He had no religious background at all  –  didn’t know about Adam and Eve, Moses, Abraham, Noah. Had no background in any religion.  Needless to say, the missionaries explained the Holy Ghost to him at their very next teach!)   About 2 weeks before his baptism, the missionaries had a talk with him about tattoos and piercings and about how his body was a temple, etc.  (he had no tattoos but had several piercings.)  He accepted every word they said and removed every one of his earrings.  (Do you call them an earring if they are in an eyebrow?)   His parents are divorced and his father lives in Du Bois. (That island over in the Persian Gulf)  He didn’t remember his father but during his conversion time he somehow located him and with his mother’s permission traveled to Du Bois to meet him.  He was gone about 3 weeks.  When he got back he contacted the missionaries and told them he had given his father a Book of Mormon!  I’m not sure that is even legal in Du Bois.  Anyway, I have probably bored you stiff with my rattling on and on.  But he is an amazing young man.  And now he is a member of the Lord’s church.  And Dad and I love him and wish that you could all meet him and see for yourselves what a fine young man he is.

We hope all of you are well and happy.  Has spring come to your part of the world?  How are work and/or school?  Are the daffodils growing?  We love you all so very much and miss you terribly.  But we know we are here for some purpose and are doing what we need to do for this time in our lives.  Thank you all so much for your support of us and for carrying on in our place while we are gone.  This is such an amazing experience.  I hope each one of you can have just such a wonderful experience in your lives, doing what your Heavenly Father wants you to do.  You know what I mean:  please enjoy being who you are, where you are, and what you are.  And always try to be what the Lord wants you to be.  As we serve Him, we come to know ourselves and to know Him –  two of the most important things to ever know.  We love you.  And your Father in Heaven loves you. You are always in our thoughts and prayers.  We’d love to hear from you sometime.

All our love,    Mom and Dad,  Grandma and Grandpa,   Robert and Nikki

Elder and Sister Anderson

 

 

Another week has past.  It was a busy one and I am having a hard time remembering what exactly we did that we haven’t done before.  Our FHE lesson giver called at 5 Monday night and was unable to be to FHE so Nikki did a last minute lesson –  never as good as when you have time to prepare.  Tuesday and Wednesday we served fried rice and Chinese dumplings for dinner.  Thursday was district meeting.  Friday was chill – one of the YSA taught us all how to paint with water colors.  Very interesting, but I am not Picasso!!  Saturday we had to inspect the missionary apartment in KÃ¥llered and do a bunch of shopping for stuff that is needed in the various apartments as well as groceries.  The apartment isn’t far from the IKEA but of course we were finished 45 minutes before IKEA opened.  So we came home, got our grocery list and decided to return to IKEA via a back road we had never driven on.  I had asked one of the boys at the center about it and he said it ran close to the sea but you had to get off the hiway and go into the little town of Särö to actually see the ocean.  So we did.  And we took some pictures.  It was a trying-to-storm type of day, which was typical for last week  –  it snowed or rained every day all week.  On Sunday we went to Utby for church because one of the investigators wanted us to be there when she was.  She is the aunt of a boy in the Swedish class who often comes to activities at the center and she only speaks Chinese and a little bit of Swedish.  Luckily there is a Sister Falk in Utby who also speaks Chinese and Swedish and a little bit of English.  They were at the center Friday evening and the Chinese was really flowing!!  Talk about a head ache –  Swedish and Chinese at every turn.  Whew!!    Then Sunday evening was a rebroadcast of a CES fireside with Elder L. Tom Perry.  It was really good.  You can see it on line, if you’d like to.  Luckily Dad had downloaded it onto his computer.  Because the US had switched to daylight savings time and we have not, the broadcast was at 6 instead of the advertised 7.  So when we got to the center to get set up at 6:30, it was half over!  But Dad saved us and everything turned out ok.

The work is going well in the Göteborg (pronounced:  Ute-a-bore- ee) Zone.  All our missionaries are busy and happy.  This coming Saturday our district has 3 baptisms!  One for each companionship in the district.  One of the candidates is a young man who comes to the center often with a friend.  He had no religious background at all when he first started investigating.  He and Dad have had several long talks during his conversion process.  And he has asked Dad to baptize him!  His name is Kim Nikius and he is a remarkable young man.  Dad is learning the baptismal  prayer in Swedish.  Kim speaks both English and Swedish but Swedish is his original language.  He had a really good friend die last week (a young man) and we are praying that he still has the desire to follow through with his decision.

We hope all is well with each of you.  We’d love to hear what is happening in your lives.  Remember that you are always in our thoughts and prayers.

 

Dearest Friends and family, we have had a very busy week, full of all kinds of discoveries.   Monday was of course FHE.  We started meeting in the lobby over the Christmas break because there weren’t many of us.  Now when we start at 7 pm, there are still just a few of us so the YSA elect to stay in the lobby.  Then by about 7:20 more have arrived and there are so many of us that we can’t fit any more chairs in the lobby.  We either have to get different couches that hold more people or a bigger lobby!  The YSA claim that meeting on the couches is more like a real family night!  (without the whining or fighting, of course.)  this week the game was sardines.  The one that was the hardest to find was in the lunch room, under the table but on the seat of the chairs.  After about 6 or 8 minutes of looking, no one had found him.  So his youngest brother who hadn’t been playing said, “he thinks just like me.  I’ll find him.”  And sure enough, he did.  He walked into the lunch room and found him instantly!

Tuesday morning we got a call from the fellow who lives across the street from the center, his name is Marzio, asking if we wanted to go for a walk in old Göteborg.  We met him in front of the center at 11 and he toured us through the oldest part of the city.  It was a beautiful clear-sky day with the sun shining brightly.  But there was a wind that shot ice cycles right through you, so we were bundled to the eyes.  Three of the interesting things we saw were:  1)  the Domkyrken  –  the Göteborg cathedral of the Swedish church.  It takes up a block in this section of town.  The building isn’t that big but it has lots of space and garden around it.  It is right across the street from a Pizza Hut.  It is called Gustavi Cathedral after the king who founded Göteborg in 1621.  There has been a church on the site since 1633.  It isn’t a beautiful building –  just plain on the outside —  but it has a huge organ on the south end  and the north end,  where the altar is, has a very unusual cross.  It is probably 15 or 16 feet tall and looks as if it were made of logs.  It is gilded with gold and has what appears to be a sunburst behind it.  The strangest thing is, there is no crucified Christ on it.  It is empty!  The literature says that what appears to be cloth draped over the cross arm represents the grave cloth from the Savior’s tomb.  And there are several angels around it.  The story is that when the Swedish church broke from the catholic church they did whatever they could to be just the opposite of the mother church.  Whatever the reason, I thought it was very interesting.     2)  the old armory  –  it was a huge brick building, right in the middle of a very busy part of the old town,

with huge iron shutters on all the windows.  Apparently Göteborg burned several times and to keep the fire away from the powder that was stored in the building the shutters were made of iron.  No other building that we saw in the whole of the old town had shutters of any kind, let alone iron.  The doors were also iron. 
3)   Christinae Kyrka  –  the German church.   It is named after a queen who gave them her patronage but called the German church by the locals.   The

congregation was established just 2 years after the city was founded by protestant immigrants from the Netherlands, Scotland and Germany.  Their church burned to the ground in 1669 when the entire city was destroyed by fire and another  building was erected in 1672. It too burned to the ground in 1746 and the current building was built in 1748.  It is a yellow building right next to the outer canal nestled between several other large buildings.  Unlike the cathedral which had no stained glass, this church had nothing but stained glass windows.  The pictures in them were mostly the ancient apostles.  Behind the altar was a private ‘chapel’ that had been constructed by a prominent general who was a parishioner.  It contained his large tomb as well as the burial spots of his wife and several of their small children.  (he and his wife had 22 children, only 3 of whom lived to adulthood)  it is a rounded room with nooks and each nook has 2 statues of the ancient apostles in it.  The most interesting things in the building were the window with Peter in it and the Peter statue –  they both pictured him with a large key in one hand and a large book in the other.  I have no clue if anyone connected to that church has any idea what the key means.  But it reminded me of a story of President Kimball and several of the Quorum of the Twelve visiting a church somewhere in Europe (Germany, I think)  and seeing just such a picture and telling the minister that was showing them around this famous church that the key Peter was holding represented the keys of the priesthood and that they were once again on the earth and he and those men with him held them.

 

The rest of the week was pretty normal with taco casserole for dinner and Friday chill was ‘China Night’

–  one of the boys who was doing it brought his aunt and she cooked Chinese food for us all  –  about 15 of us!  Dumplings, a rice noodle salad, some sort of seasoned meat and a wonderful baked chicken with honey and stuff on it.  The sauce for the dumplings looked like soy sauce with some little green onions in it.  The first bite was fine. The second bite, bit back.  And the third bite turned me into a fire breathing dragon!  I have no clue what it was called, but eat it with caution!  Special note:  I ate the entire meal with chop sticks!

 

 

So much for Sweden.  We hope all of you have had great a week, too.  We sure miss all of you.  And we love you.

Äldste and Syster Anderson

Ps.  Hope you enjoy some pictures of the churches and a picture of us and our friend who showed us around, Marzio DeMari. The statue we are standing in front of is King Gustav II Adolf, the founder of Göteborg.

 

I hope this finds all of you well and happy.  January is almost over here in the frozen north.   We have now been in Sweden for 7 months and have seen abnormally warm temperatures in August and abnormally cold temperatures in December.  Our layers of ice and snow are beginning to melt.  Some days the temperature reaches +4, which really helps the melting along.  While other days the temperature remains in the -2 to -5 range all day.  (+4 is about 38F to 40F and -5 is about +20F)  there are still spots that are extremely slick while in other spots we have grass showing.  I saw a swan a couple of weeks ago in the local canal and was told it was a sign of spring.  Spring will be here in about 6 months!!  The kids at the center are hoping for an early spring, about May.   We have also enjoyed (??) some fog recently, the first of the winter.  As close as we are to the sea I thought fog would be a regular part of nearly every day, but it isn’t.

The last week or so have been just normal for us:  at the center every day, doing the normal things.  Last Friday’s chill (Jan. 21) was a really fun ice cream party.  Monday’s family night was well attended and the lesson was interesting, about what makes something precious.  As soon as the word was said I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about “the Ring.”  Gollum, from whom Bilbo Baggins won the ring in the riddles contest, called the ring ‘my precious’ and even Baggins slipped once or twice and called it that.  Anyway, back to FHE, the precious thing the lesson was about was, of course, the gospel  –  not a fantastically powerful ring that can make you invisible.  (see 1Nephi 19:7)   Tuesday was institute and dad had to teach the lesson again, but this time he was asked about 7am by the instructor who was sick.  Wednesday was also institute and we had cake and ice cream for the treat.  Both Thursday and Friday were very slow.  We closed early both days.  Friday was chill. It was sports night at the ward building.  Just as we got there, 5 of the YSA were leaving the building on their way to the hospital.  Michael Baker had crashed into the gym wall (which is brick) and had split his head open.  The Sisters (what everyone calls the sister missionaries)  had cleaned up the blood, which apparently was everywhere.  We shooed everyone out of the building and locked up.  We were no sooner in the door at home than the Sisters called and said someone was knocking on their door and trying to get in.  just as Dad was saying ‘I’ll be right over’ they said ‘oh!’ and ‘it’s a letter!’  The boy that lives under them was bringing them a letter that had been delivered to him by mistake.  When they wouldn’t answer the door, he dropped it in their mail slot and left.  William, the under floor neighbor, asked us in church today if we knew why the sisters wouldn’t answer their door!  I don’t think that they realize it was only William, even now.  Back to Michael – he required 3 stitches and was woozy but was back at the church Saturday for the weekly Innebunde game for investigators.  (It’s a thing the missionaries have organized to get members and investigators together in a comfortable setting so when the investigators are taught the missionaries can have a member who is known by the investigator at the meeting.)  We did our weekly shopping trip Friday before the sport night because Saturday we drove 315 Kilometers to Jonköpping (pronounced: yawn-shepping)  to deliver a vacuum to the missionary couple who moved in to the center there in January.  2 hours to get there, a visit of 2 hours, and 2 hours to get home.  Part of the way is freeway with a speed limit of 110K (about 65mph) the rest is 2 lane road with a limit of 80K (about 50mph).  The highest speed limit I have seen here in Sweden is 120K, or about 70mph,  and all the 2 lane roads have speed cameras on them.  You get about a 20 yard warning that there is a camera ahead.  The worst part of the cameras for us is the picture of the license plate shows that the car is owned by the church so the ticket goes to Salt Lake City, where they determine it is a car from the Swedish Mission and send it to the Mission President.  The office couple determine who the car is being driven by and send them the ticket.  It can take months!  When the ticket finally comes you say,  ‘but I haven’t been there in months! How could I have a ticket?’   One of the senior couples was home before their ticket came!  I guess we haven’t been here long enough to know if we have a ticket or not!  Another funny thing about the cameras is that the government got all these cameras installed then determined that the film was horribly expensive and there wasn’t enough money in the budget for film for all the cameras.  So, many of the cameras have no film in them and couldn’t issue a ticket if they wanted.  But drivers never know which ones have film and which ones don’t!!  it’s a game of Russian roulette.

As we inspected the missionary apartments last quarter we gathered up all the ‘extra’ stuff that was cluttering their places.  It now clutters our place!  One of the things we collected was a large sack full of old Liahonas and Ensigns.  I have been reading through them before I throw them away and have found some very interesting articles.  One of them is an article on Mr. Dahlquist’s family that I thought you might be interested in.  it was in the September 2002 Ensign and is titled “In a Quiet House.”      I think you could look it up on the church’s web site but the archived articles do not include the photos, and the pictures are an integral part of the story.  We have scanned it and could send it to anyone who may not have access to the actual magazine.  Email:  Robert@oranderson.com

Our elders who were shipped to the north of the mission 3 weeks ago have been replaced by a set of sisters.  The missionary apartment for the elders is big enough for 4 sets of elders and has 1.  The sisters’ apartment is big enough for 1 person and now has 4!  We met the new set at church and they are wonderful.  One is Sister Maxwell from North Carolina and the other is a part time missionary from Umeå (pronounced:  oo-me-o) who will be here for 2 months.  Several members asked me why we have sisters instead of elders.  I have no clue.  I’m just  glad that the Lord is running the mission, not me.

We tried for several days to get help in the Family History Center at the ward, but the room was being used or the person was sick, or they didn’t have the key.  Finally we got in and got some help last Tuesday.  We found several original certificates for Oliver and his family.  And we have determined where the family farm was originally located – about a 15 minute drive from us!  It’s in a little town called Larum  (pronounced:  lair-room, accent on the last syllable).  We hope to visit the land registry office and get a map then drive up there on a nice day and take some pictures.  We’ll keep you posted on what else we can find in the Swedish Church archives.

We were invited for a middag on Friday with the Sisters.  Middag (pronounced:  mead-dog)  is the word for dinner.  It’s what the missionaries call an invitation to have dinner with a member family.  This member is a single man who joined the church many years ago when he was 12.  This time he invited us and we all went to Pizza Hut!  It was only about 4 blocks from the center and was a delightful taste of home.  Thick, soft crust pizza with green salad on a buffet.  I ate 3 pieces and so did Dad!  It was heaven compared to the kebab pizza that the missionaries like to eat every week after district meeting.  Now we have two choices when we crave a taste of home that I don’t have to cook  –  a MacDonald’s burger or Pizza Hut.

Thank you very much for your love and friendship.  We hope you remember how much we love you and that you are always in our thoughts and prayers.  We hope you have a wonderful week, filled with happiness and success.