We thought it would never happen, but we are finally in Sweden!  On Monday, June 7, Mission Travel called to tell us they had our visas and on Wednesday, June 9, we were on our way.  What a hectic day and 1/2 that was.  Packing 2 years worth of stuff, waiting for Fed-Ex to deliver our passports, trying to finish up all those things we hadn’t quite gotten done.  We left Genola about 5pm Tuesday afternoon to spend the night in Salt Lake as we had to be to the airport by 6:30am Wednesday.  We had a great dinner with the local family members before retiring and hardly slept a wink trying to remember if we had packed this and why did we pack that and are we bringing too much or should we have brought more.

A shuttle took us to the airport, we whizzed through security and waited 2 hours for the plane to New York.  We landed at JFK International in a rain storm a little after 3 New York time  and waited 4 hours for our flight to Sweden. At least that was the plan.  At 8pm the plane arrived, we boarded about 8:30 and sat for 2 hours in the plane waiting our turn to take off.  Because of the storm, one of the runways had been closed and everyone was crowding onto the remaining runways.  It wasn’t a huge jet, just a normal fly across the country one, and was totally full, with its requisite crying baby and rambunctious children.  Try as we might we couldn’t sleep much.  How does one sleep in an airplane, anyway?  We landed in Sweden (!!!) about 11:30 am and stood in the check your passport line for over an hour.

President and Sister Anderson were there to greet us and bring us to the mission home, with a short stop at the mission office to sign some papers.  We took a short (2 hour) nap then walked to the nearby Vik (pronounced veek) for a picnic supper.  A vik is an inlet from the sea that looks very much like a lake.  The mission home is in an upscale neighborhood where the homes are larger with beautiful large yards and narrow roads for cars, walkers and bikers. (we’ll post some pictures soon.)  Everyone’s yard is “natural” — grass with flowers growing in it that they mow around (even the dandylions!) and if you are lucky enough to have a rock in your yard you leave it alone!  It’s about 9pm now and we’ve been told it won’t get dark until 11 and then will be light again about 2.  I’m not staying up to see if its true.  We’re here!  We’re here!

Well, here we sit in Genola — two missionaries without a mission!  We finished our training at the MTC on Wednesday and came home that night.  Mission travel informs us that they got word from the Swedish Consul that he will start looking at the visa requests in June.  We don’t know if that means June 1 or June 30 or which day in between.  Our mission office in Sweden says the people in Sweden have told them that a case worker has been assigned to our request and that usually means things will speed up.  The sad part is, all the young missionaries left for Sweden May 24, right on schedule.  I guess as a senior couple we pose more of a threat or a risk or something. 

We are using the time to get our suitcases packed and at the proper weight and to finish up some of the things that need to be done around the house.  We couldn’t stand the fact that we weren’t going to have a garden this summer so Robert planted 12 tomato plants Friday morning.  And we are putting the cannas in the ground today.  Other than that we are at our rope’s end.  I suppose we could tract Genola, but I’m certain the full time missionaries would be upset at our horning in on their territory.  Our lives are so thrilling I am not going to post again until we leave.

We have completed our week of missionary training at the Provo MTC and what a week it has been.  On Monday we registered and got our name tags in the morning.  That afternoon we were welcomed by the MTC Presidency and the Buchanans — the couple who can answer any question and know just about everything.  They are wonderful (a word I will over use in this entry) and totally amazing (another word I will over use) — always happy and friendly and loving.  We eat in the cafeteria with the young missionaries. What a treat! (the food and the missionaries!)  Tuesday started the real thing,  in class by 8 with only a short break for lunch and finished about 5 pm in time to join the young missionaries for dinner.  The returned missionaries who are teaching us are trying to get us to simplify what we know about the restoration and the plan of salvation (not an easy task.)  Try to tell someone in less than 5 minutes the 8 important facts about the restoration, bearing testimony of each thing you say as well as each point your companion makes.  Tuesday afternoon we met and gave a first discussion to a non-member (actually a member pretending to be a non-member.)   I was scared wit-less.  However, we did it and we didn’t get stoned or run out of town on a rail.  It was an amazing experience.  I would recommend that everyone get a Preach My Gospel book and read it.  What a wonderful tool the apostles have given us for the spreading of the gospel.  After reporting our triumph and eating dinner there was a devotional for everyone.  The young missionaries sang the prelude music.  I have never heard hymns sung with such fervor.  Then a member of the Seventy spoke to us about the Book of Mormon.  The spirit in this place is amazing, always present and always bearing down.  At the end of Tuesday, and every other day we have been here, I am totally exhausted,  mind and body.  I don’t know how the General Authorities live 24/7 like this.  Maybe you can get used to it, I don’t know.  Wednesday was another full day.  We had a second discussion with a ‘non-member’ in the afternoon and I wasn’t quite as wit-less.  After dinner, we had language training (Swedish, of course.)  Our trainer took us to meet the 10 elders who are leaving for Sweden May 24.  They were totally awesome.  We bore our testimonies to them at the end of our time together — in Swedish!!  They were very polite and complimented us on our Swedish skills, which are practically non-existent.  Thursday was another full day of learning, teaching, being over-whelmed with the spirit, and language.  Friday was a repeat, except that at the end of the Friday night session of language tutoring all the couples who are learning foreign languages had a testimony meeting together.  We each bore our testimonies in our own foreign language.  What a powerful and wonderful meeting!  There were Swedish, Danish, German, Mandarin, Albanian, and whatever they speak in Singapore.  I have had 2 full days to try to recover and am still absolutely exhausted.  I am so grateful to be a missionary, to be here in the MTC learning how to be an effective tool for our Father.  The gospel is true.  The Book of Mormon was translated from sacred plates by the Prophet Joseph Smith.  We can return to live with our Father in Heaven again by obeying the principles and ordinances of the restored gospel.  Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer.  I love you all, Mom

Missionary “Farewell” Talk

We appreciate the bishopric giving us this opportunity to tell all of you “Heyda, ha det bra,” which literally means “good-bye, have it good” in Swedish but which really means “until we meet again.” Brother Lundell has asked that I share with you a little of what I have learned in the process of preparation for this event. What is there to learn? You get your call, buy some new clothes, and head out to preach. What is there in that to learn? I submit that the list of what I have learned is too long to even attempt. So I have picked 3 items that I hope will be of interest and may be a help to each of you as you prepare to serve a mission.

The first lesson I learned during this process is the application of Eienstein’s theory of relativity to my life. President Laker forwarded our papers to Salt Lake about January 22. What seemed like 2 months later, on February 10, our call arrived in the mail. Those 3 weeks were the longest 3 weeks of my life, next to waiting for an overdue baby to decide on his arrival day. By week 2, I was certain the Lord didn’t want us and that the missionary committee was trying to figure out a gentle way to say “thanks, but no thanks.” In fact, I gave up waiting and flew to St. Louis to visit Robby and his family. Of course the day after I left town the letter arrived. We opened it over the phone. When Robert said Stockholm, Sweden, I almost said “OK, stop kidding around, where are we really going?” When he read that we enter the MTC on May 17, I said, “what are we supposed to do for 3 months?” Well, 2 weeks later, May 17 is here. Those were the fastest 3 months ever. I don’t know if that is what Eienstein had in mind when he talked about time moving fast or slow depending on where you’re standing, but it sure happened in my life.

The second lesson I learned is you sure can collect a lot of stuff in 40 years of family life. We’ve been getting our home ready for Katie and her family to live in while we’re gone. I’ve made trips to DI and have filled over a dozen of those big plastic containers, not counting boxes and the closet. Of course its all good stuff and can’t be thrown away. My advice would be – start sorting through stuff a couple of years before you think you might be going, and don’t get really attached to anything. 3 months has not been long enough to get everything done. If Katie has a yard sale and tries to sell my stuff, please don’t buy anything. I may need it someday.

The 3^rd lesson I learned was the hardest one of all. One day several weeks ago as I was filling boxes it suddenly hit me – what in the world am I doing? Why am I going off to some foreign country where they speak a language I don’t understand and cannot speak? This is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever done in my entire life. Do you know that Sweden is in the same latitudes as Alaska? In the winter they only have 4 hours of sunlight a day, and in the summer it never gets dark! And I’ve been told they eat pickled fish. I started right then to make a list of all the reasons I absolutely could not go. Topping the list was 18 grandchildren. How can I possibly leave them with their parents and no grandma? Then came 7 children. How can I leave trusting they will raise those 18 grand children correctly, without me to help? Then of course my parents need me. And all my wonderful friends. And this great ward. And what about my rock garden, and all those books I want to read? Oh, my list went on and on. For days I cried every time I even thought of leaving. I was getting so miserable I realized something had to be done. I decided to look at the missionaries in the scriptures – Ammon and his brothers, Alma the Younger, Paul. But I’m certain none of them left their grand children. And they enjoyed all the adventures every young boy dreams of – camping in the wilderness, playing with Indians, sailing ships and ship wrecks, traipsing all over the known world, riding horses and hiking. It was better than an outing to the Havisupi! But I can’t think about Paul without remembering his words to Timothy as he faced the end of his mortal ministry. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Brothers and Sisters, I want to be able to say that. I want to be like Ammon and his brothers when they met Alma on their way back to Zarahemla. “They had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God… they had given themselves to much prayer and fasting… and when they taught they taught with power….” And I want to be like Alma the Younger, never tiring of preaching the gospel for he knew that nothing save the preaching of the word of God and pure testimony could turn men from their evil ways.

Brothers and Sisters, I say to you as Paul said to the Romans: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” The spirit has made me fully aware that my list of reasons for not going was in fact a partial list of the reasons I have to go. Because of the gospel of Christ, my life is full of more blessings – more exceedingly wonderful blessings – than I ever thought possible: 18 beautiful grandchildren, 7 wonderful children and their loving spouses, my totally supportive parents, great friends, a fantastic ward, plus a marvelous world full of wonders and the senses to enjoy it. But if I were bereaved of all those blessings, I would still have the most wonderful blessing of all – a sure testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ; a testimony of Christ as my savior and redeemer; of His amazing and incomprehensible atonement for each of us and for everyone, everywhere; a testimony that I am a daughter of God and the sure knowledge that I love Him and desire to serve Him with my every breath. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission in Sweden with my best friend and eternal companion. I feel I must stand before you as Brigham Young and Heber Kimball stood in the back of the wagon that was taking them from their families to serve missions in England. In their weakness they stood, facing their families, and shouted “Hoorah for Israel! Hoorah for Israel!” Heyda, ha det bra.