On Saturday, September 11, 2010, we made a trip to Denmark with the single young adults from the center to visit the Copenhagen temple for baptisms and a session or two.  For economy’s sake, we rented 2 9-passenger vans.  All in Sweden don’t drive –  getting a driving license costs about 6000SEK  (roughly $850) and few can afford it.  But 2 of our YSA have licenses and they were the official drivers.  We left the center at 6am!  Driving south we picked up 3 passengers in Kunnsbacka and continued for 2 more hours to a town called Helsingborg where we got on the ferry for Denmark.  There was a 30 minute trip across the sea to a Danish town also called Helsingborg, but in Danish.  There we exited the ferry and drove south another hour to Copenhagen.  Once in the city we followed some busy streets through a business district.  Just as I was thinking “where in the world is this temple?”  the kids shouted “there it is!”  And sure enough, there it was –  right in the middle of a busy area of the city.  Sort of like the Salt Lake Temple — right downtown.  It is quite small, having been built on the spot of an old chapel that the members had been using.  There is no ‘temple grounds’ per se.  The front of the temple has several flower pots arranged on a brick foundation, with a couple of trees, but no lawn to be seen.  We drove behind the temple to a building that had the church logo on it, through a passageway in the middle of the building to a parking lot  (with spaces for about a dozen cars).  We parked and walked back to the front doors.  Oscar and Elder Anderson went in to see the schedule while the rest of us took some photos.  Robert and I didn’t know if we would be able to participate as the Copenhagen temple doesn’t rent temple clothes.  (We thought about bringing ours from home but opted to bring  winter coats instead!)  They came back out and took the 10 who were going to do baptisms in then the rest of us went in and dressed for the session.  (Luckily, the temple president and matron had a few dresses and trousers we could use.)  The temple is beautiful, with danish furniture and wood throughout.  There is only one endowment room.  They were doing 3 sessions that Saturday with a grand total of 9 workers.  When we all finished, we went back to the cars where we ate a lunch that we had prepared.  Then we went our own ways for about an hour before starting for home.  There was an LDS bookstore about a block from the temple that Robert and I wandered around in.  We arrived back at the center about 10pm, tired but well filled after a fine day.

What a week!!   It started with a really good family night.  The elders gave a lesson on revelation and how we get it.  Then we played ‘I have never,’  which was a hoot.  We were having zone conference the next morning, so several sets of elders were in town to spend the night.  The zone leaders split up with one of the sets that were here.  The one took the car and at nearly 10 still wasn’t back to get the other two.  So we had to give them a ride home.  Elder Bloomfield said he knew a shortcut to his apartment.  Well it may have been shorter but it wasn’t quicker.  The Gothia Cup was having its opening ceremony that night and the stadium was emptying just as we got to the corner of the stadium and the road to the train station.  We waited through 3 red lights because the people crossing the street wouldn’t stop when their light turned red.  Finally a car in the lane next to us had had enough and inched its way into the crowd.  That gave them a hint and the rest of us were able to go.  Anyway, we didn’t get home until 11pm!  The Gothia  Cup is a huge soccer tournament for youth from around the world that just ended today.  They play in every available soccer stadium in the city.  Thursday America was playing Norway in the downtown stadium but we don’t know who won.

Tuesday was zone conference.  On Sunday evening I found out via a voice message (because we had left our phone in the car on Saturday and didn’t get it out until Sunday evening)  that I was supposed to speak in the conference.  The message gave me the topic so I laid awake in bed most of Sunday night writing my talk in my head.  Monday just before FHE Dad called President Newell for something, he asked to speak to me, and gave me what I thought was a completely new topic!!  Then FHE, then take the elders home then get to bed about midnight and spend most of that night awake trying to prepare a new talk.  Tuesday morning I was up and showered and figured I had about 45 minutes to fine tune my talk when we get a call from the zone leaders (at 8:45) can we be to the airport by 9:10 to help pick up the president and the assistants?  Well, Dad hadn’t showered yet, and the airport is 30 minutes from our house on a good day, but we got there by 9:20.  There went my fine tune the talk time.  We got everyone to the center for the conference by about 10:10.  The elders had done their best to set up the center for the conference but of course didn’t know where the tables were stored, where the pitchers or glasses were kept, and a number of other little details.  They did their best but the center looked like it had been ransacked. Of course, my part on the program was after the opening prayer so I totally relied on the spirit and gave a portion of each of the talks I had in my head, praying that somehow they would make sense.  Dad said they did, and I only went over my time by about 3 minutes.  (of course that doesn’t say that I was only supposed to talk for 3 to 5 minutes in the first place!)  President Newell talked too long, his wife talked too long, lunch was better than an hour late, while everyone else was eating lunch, President Newell took all the missionaries’ shoes and lined them up perfectly in the hall.    We had planned to go out to dinner with the couple from the Jönköping center but didn’t get to because of the lateness of the interviews and the unknown fact that we were supposed to drive them to the train station for a 7:30 train to Halmstad.   What a day!  To top it off perfectly, we got on the wrong road leaving the station and ended up driving around in a circle for 20 minutes trying to be in the correct lane to make the turn to get us home. (Dad to me:  I think we’ve seen this area before.  Me to Dad: we have but I can’t figure out the stupid GPS!)  We hadn’t eaten since 1, it was 9, and I was ready to collapse. We had pancakes for supper and went right to bed.  I hope to never repeat a day like that again.  If I hadn’t been so tired I think I could have spent the night crying!

Wednesday was summer institute and we had a real crowd – they spilled over into the pool room there were so many.  A counselor in the Stake Presidency spoke about his job.  He is a police negotiator for terrorism, kidnappings, etc.  I didn’t understand the Swedish so I just stayed in the kitchen getting the treat ready.  We had zucchini  brownies and a fresh fruit compote.  Everyone like it.  Thursday was slow and Friday was chill.  They learned to do the Lindy Hop.  I used Saturday to recuperate, laying in bed for over half the day.  Tomorrow we leave for Fest-I-Nord for the week.  I would like to say it will be a relaxing time, but it won’t.  We are part of the crew of helpers that goes from before breakfast till after the last one is finished dancing.  Most of the kids from the center are going.  In spite of the long hours it should be a good time.

Our weather has been strange as well.  A day of sun then every other day cloudy and rainy.  A couple of days even had huge thunderstorms that roared across most of the country, knocking down trees and knocking out the power.  Right now it is only 60, our high of the day.

There was a horrible happening in Norway Friday.  A fellow set off a bomb in a busy place killing about 7 people, then went to a place where a group like the Young Republicans was having a meeting, opened fire on them, and killed at least 80!  Oslo, the rest of Norway, and all of Sweden is in total shock.  They showed a picture of him in yesterday’s paper and he looked to be in his 30’s and very average, not with a shaved head or anything.  It has probably been on your news and you know more than we do because of the language barrier.

You are always in our thoughts and prayers.  We’d love to hear from you whenever you can take a few minutes to drop us a note.

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

There isn’t much to tell about the past week that is new.  We just keep trucking along with FHE and Chill.    Family night was a mini adventure this week.  The sister missionaries had contacted a fellow on the street and in the course of the conversation had said that there was a meeting at the center tonight and that they would be there if the fellow wanted to come.  Well, he wouldn’t give them a phone number or an address and sort of gave them the run around so they figured he surely wouldn’t show up for FHE.  Well, about 6:55 there was a knock on the door (it has a coded lock) and Dad opened it to find 2 young men who said they had been invited to the center by Sister Brown.  So Dad welcomed them in and they played some pool until FHE started then they joined right in for FHE.

About 2 minutes before the lesson was over Dad came to me and said we were the activity!  I quickly figured a game we could play and after the closing prayer had the YSA put their chairs in a big circle in the ping pong room.  We were going to play “do you love your neighbor?”  someone stands in the middle and says ‘I like boys but not boys with blonde hair.’  Then all the blonde haired boys have to hustle and change seats and the middle person has to try to get in to one of the vacated seats.  Well the game went on for several minutes then one of the new comers was in the middle and he said, ‘I like people but not people who drink coffee’  when nobody moved he said it a little louder and one of the YSA said well, none of us drink coffee.  And he said none of you?  And everyone said yea, none of us.  So his friend said well I’ll save you because I drink coffee!  And traded him places.  Everyone was laughing so hard they were nearly on the floor, even the new comers.  After the game and the treat  one of them asked one of the YSA what is this ?  she explained family night to him and he said Wow cool.  Then the sisters sat by them and started to ask them a few questions and about 6 or 8 of the YSA sat down too and joined right in on the teach.  Before the new comers left, they gave the sisters their phone numbers.  We don’t know where it will go, of course, but it was a very positive experience for them and for the YSA.

Chill was supposed to be a picnic at the park but it rained for several days leading up to Friday and all Friday morning and early afternoon.  So we just played games, set up the Wii and chatted.  Saturday Dad and I went to dinner.  We found a Texas steak house we wanted to try but when we got there it was closed.  We ended up at the same old place we have been to 2 or 3 times before.  We had lamb.  It was excellent.  Then we went to a baptism in Utby.  Several months ago a young man from India was baptized.  He introduced his roommate to the elders, and the rest is history.  The first young man baptized him.  It was a great service.  The mission leader in the Utby ward has a beautiful wife who plays the harp.  She played one of the hymns from the children’s song book and it was really nice.

The zone leaders had a meeting in Stockholm last Monday and were told that Zone Conference will be tomorrow!

We inadvertently left our phone in the car Saturday evening and when we retrieved it Sunday afternoon there was a missed call from the mission president.  We listened to his message and he wants me to speak in zone conference about strengthening the church.  He called the senior sister in Lund as well.  She called me and said she would much rather talk than do the lunch.  Well, I would rather do the lunch!  Thinking about what to say kept me awake until 1:30am last night.  But I think I finally have it figured out.  Now to cut it down to the 3 minutes he wants me to take!

Most of Sweden is on vacation this month.  There are parking places at the mall and the roads aren’t nearly as crowded with walkers or cars.  However, it has rained so much that I don’t know what the vacationers are doing except sitting in their motels watching the rain!  We are shopping for a GPS as the one in our car is so old that some of the freeways aren’t even on it and it is always telling us to return to the selected route.  We go to Fest-i-Nord next week and need it so we can get there and get back.  We also hope to go to the place where they make the Dalahäst  –  those little (or big) wooden horses that are painted red.  And we definitely need it to get there.  Fest-i-Nord is just south of Stockholm and the horses are just north.  We had a great part time missionary from Borlange (the horse place) last winter and hope to see her while we are there.

We hope all is well with all of you.  That you are healthy and happy and having fun for the summer.  You are always in our thoughts and prayers.  We miss you and would love to hear from you when you have time.

All our love,

Mom and Dad,  Grandma and Grandpa,  Nikki and Robert

We have had a busy, good week.  Monday was family night.  Although Dad thought he had to give the lesson, and I had been worrying about finding a decent watermelon big enough for 30-plus people, we were both relieved of our worries that afternoon.  The YSA who is over FHE told us that Daniel ( a YSA returned missionary who really likes her) was doing the lesson AND bringing the treat.  He did an exceptional job with both.  He works in a big food warehouse that supplies restaurants and grocery stores.  Product that is somehow damaged and unsellable is just given to those workers who want it.  He brought 2 large boxes of some delicious cookies that had been tipped over and were unsellable.  They had a cookie bottom with a marshmallow-sized drop of chocolate mousse on top and then were dipped in chocolate.  Yummy!!!

The new mission president wanted to get the entering missionaries into the field sooner so he moved transfer day from Thursday to Wednesday.  As a consequence we had our good-bye ice cream party on Tuesday.  Although there isn’t normally anything going on in the center on Tuesdays, we had a big group of new members, investigators and missionaries there for the party.  2 of our local missionaries were going home and nearly everyone else was being transferred.

On Wednesday the 6^th we had our second summer institute class.  Christopher Malm and his wife Mary were the speakers.  They are not very far removed from being YSA themselves and are very well liked by all.  It was well attended.  I made banana bread for the treat.

Thursday was a not usually busy day that had several YSA show up in the late afternoon and hang around until into the night.  So far we didn’t get home until after 10pm every night.  And Friday is still to come!  Friday morning we shopped for the ingredients for the pizzas for that night.  And in the afternoon we began chopping the veggies.  The YSA in charge got there about 5:30 and the others started arriving before 7.  They made 11 huge pizzas,  ate 10 of them,  talked and played pool and watched a silly movie called “Despicable Me” (about a fellow who is trying to steal the moon and some little girls.  It’s animated.)  Dad asked if they were ready to call it a night about 10:20pm and the last 12 left the center at 10 minutes to 11!!  The YSA did a wonderful job with everything, the center was hopping all the evening, and I didn’t wake up until 9am Saturday morning!

On Saturday afternoon we decided to drive to Manstrand,  a coastal town about 40 kilometers north of here that the couple before us said was a must see.  The last 20 kilometers were a narrow 2 lane road with no shoulder and about 25 cars in a row trying to get there, that we could see.  When we finally arrived the town was packed with people, there wasn’t a parking place anywhere, and there wasn’t a way out of town except the road we had just come in on!  The end of the road was a circle so we just drove around it and out of town again.  On the way back we decided to stop at a little building that said ‘keramik’ on the sign in the front and beside that said ‘öppet.’  Well, öppet means open but we had no clue what ‘keramik’ meant.  (we pronounced it ‘shar-a-mick’ with the accent on the ‘a’, after all the Swedish rules we have been taught.  The lady in the building pronounced it ‘care am ick.’  It was a ceramic shop!!  We visited with her about the things in the shop and Dad asked if she knew what was going on in Manstrand.    She said it was the weekend of the yearly yacht race with entrants from all over the world.  One weekend a year the place is packed with people and that’s the weekend we choose to visit!  I think we will try again in a week or two.  On the way home we stopped at the only grocery store in Göteborg that sells root beer and bought 4 cans!  Then it started to rain and poured on us for over 2 hours.  Thank heaven week 27 had only 7 days in it!!

We hope all is well for each of you.  All our love,

Mom and Dad,  Grandma and Grandpa,  Nikki and Robert

–  Another week has come to an end here in Göteborg.  We have had a busy time.  Last Sunday the girl in charge of FHE called to see if we knew who was doing the lesson for family night on Monday.  I said I didn’t know who it was but that I was certain someone had signed up.  Monday when we got to the center we discovered that the person who had signed up had crossed her name off.  I called the chairperson back and she asked if one of us could do it.  Well, of course we could.  Dad had done it last time so I did it this time.  We talked about ways to get your testimony into your heart so it is the essence of who you are instead of like a coat you just wear.  Wednesday was the first summer institute class taught by the institute director.  When he was a teenager he and 2 of his brothers won a huge European singing contest with a song called “the golden shoes.”  They were big celebrities here in Sweden for a long time.  He did his talk on the art of walking in golden shoes, or how to have a happy life.  It was mostly in Swedish so I didn’t sit in the class but there were about 25 there to listen and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  We had spent the morning traveling to TrollhÃ¥tten to inspect the apartment there –  1 ½ hours to get there,  20 minutes to do the job, 1 ½ hours back home!  But it was the last one so we are finished for another 3 months.  Thursday was so slow we came home about 7:30.  And the center was closed on Friday because it was that excuse for a party the Swedes call ‘midsommar.’  We had plans to attend the celebration in Utby where most of the missionaries were going, as well as several of the YSA.  The party started at 11.

The rain started at 11:30.  It was windy, rainy and cold most of the day.  But we partied anyway.  Next summer when Dad and I are home we should have a Swedish reunion and do all the fun midsommar things  –  except we won’t eat the pickled herring or the raw smoked salmon.   Saturday was a rainy day too so we didn’t do much outside.  There was a baptism in Utby and we had to take some cookies.  I made chocolate peanut butter cloud cookies.  They are simple to make and very delicious.  They are made from a cake mix!  The elders claim they are addicting, but I doubt it.  Today, of course, is a beautiful day of blue skies and sunshine, no wind and about 70.  Hopefully it is a sign that summer is here at last in the frozen north.  The sun comes up about 3am and it gets dark about 11:30pm.  Thank heaven for the black blind!!

We hope all is well with all of you –  that you are healthy and happy and enjoying your summer.  We love you and think of you often.  You are always in our prayers.  Whatever you do,  don’t forget your name!!    love,  Mom and Dad,  Grandma and Grandpa,  Nikki and Robert

 

Dearest  Family –  We have just ended a very good week ( #24 on the Swedish calendar).  On Monday we had a good family night.  A young man from AlingsÃ¥s gave the lesson.  He had never given one before but he did a marvelous job.  He has been taking the missionary preparation c

lass and will soon be putting his mission papers in, we hope.  His name is Victor Åkebrand.  A funny thing happened to him.  He has been taking the drivers’ education that is required here in Sweden and went on Monday to get his picture taken for his driving license.   He came to the center right from the picture taking.  He had on a white shirt and tie and a “Mr. Rogers’ sweater”  and a ball cap.  When he took his cap off, everyone could see that he had cut his hair.  He had cut the top very close to his head and had left the sides a little longer, but not much.  He looked lik

e a 50 year old man!  It was uncanny.  I couldn’t get used to it.  When we saw him later in the week, he had cut it all the same as the top and called it his missionary haircut.

Tuesday was a zone conference.  We had been asked to make cinnamon rolls for the breakfast so had made them on Monday.  We had to be to the church before 9 but got a call about 7:30am asking us if we could pick up the assistants at the airport at 9:25am – but please bring the cinnamon rolls to the churchfirst!!  So we hurried to the church, hurried to the airport,  hurried back to the church and got one of the last cinnamon rolls for our breakfast.

Lunch was supposed to be at 12:30 but nothing is ever on time at a zone meeting.  Lunch was about 1:45, the meeting that was supposed to end at 2:30 ended about 3:45.  It was President Anderson’s last zone meeting with our zone (he and Sister Anderson go home July 1) and all of us senior couples had planned a dinner with them at a restaurant near the center for 4pm.  Nobody wanted to eat at 4 because lunch had been so late.  We had another meeting at 6pm so decided to go after the last meeting.  We got to the restaurant about 7:30, without the President because he had still another meeting.  He got there about 8 and we had a nice dinner and visit.  It stays light so late around here that we didn’t leave the restaurant until nearly 10 – we were sitting out in the summer dining area on the sidewalk.  2 of the senior couples had 2 or 3 hour trips ahead of them to get home so we were plenty late.  Wednesday and Thursday were very quiet at the center.  We closed the center on Friday because the Friday chill was a campout and canoe trip up in AlingsÃ¥s.  On Friday dad and I went shopping and made a trip to Bohus Fästning  –  Bohus fortress – a huge castle

that lies in ruins about 8 or 10 miles north and west of Göteborg.  It was an interesting place, sort of like Dover Castle in England.  It had been built in 1308 to protect Norway’s southern-most border.  It had been under siege 14 times and never conquered.  One of the main towers is still intact and most of the walls are up.  We took several pictures so we will try to either send you some or put them on the blog.  Saturday was the day of the seminary and institute graduations.  ( it is strange here.  They call vacation, ‘semester’ and they call graduation, ‘examination’.)  it was being held at the church and we were asked to be there at 5 to help get the torta ready.  It’s a good thing we got there.  The couple from Jönköping was also there. The 4 of us made 8 three layer strawberry torta!  The layers are:  cake, pudding, cake, jam and crumbled meringue and whipped cream, cake, whipped cream and strawberries.  They look really good and taste good too.  All 8 were eaten after the ceremony, which amazed us.  The institute sponsored a dance right after the ceremony.  We stayed for a while but the music was way too loud for us old fuddy-duddies.   It was good to finally get outside into the quiet.  Today was Stake conference –  a broadcast from Salt Lake for all of Scandinavia.  It was quite strange.  Instead of being a conference where people were in attendance, it was only the 4 people who were on the program sitting in chairs behind a pulpit in a very small room.  All the singing and the prayers took place on the local level.  Three wards were meeting together in our chapel for the broadcast –  when on a normal Sunday just one ward fills the place 2/3 full.  Dad and I went down to the center to see if we could get it on the system at the center.  We could, so we stayed and watched it alone.  We will report to the stake president that we could get it so that next time they can use the center for some of the members.  It has been very cloudy and rainy all week around here and the weathermen are predicting more of the same for the coming week.  This week marked the one year anniversary of our arrival in Göteborg.  Last year it was sunny and warm and wonderful.  But we are told that this is much more normal.

We love you all and hope that you are busy and happy and healthy.  Have you got plans for the 4^th??  Whatever you do, be safe and have fun.  You will all have to eat some corn on the cob for us.  And a good bar-b-qued steak!  We have a new little market near our grocery store that advertises ‘US beef’ –  we looked and they were asking 310 SEK per kilogram for T-Bones (that’s about $22 per pound!!)  It can’t possibly be that good.  So please enjoy your cook-outs and have a bite for us!!    You are always in our thoughts and prayers.  We love you,  Mom and Dad,  Grandma and Grandpa,  Nikki and Robert

Dearest Family and friends  –  Another week has passed and here is another letter, full of things you probably don’t want to know.  But what can I say,  we miss you all so much.  This last week was probably the slowest week we have had at the center since we arrived.  There were only 6 at family night.  A just home from England missionary reported his mission to us.  I truly hope his mission was better than his talking about it.  Even the questions Dad asked couldn’t get him to really open up about what he had done. On Tuesday, nothing.  Then, on Wednesday, the last institute class was cancelled because of all the graduations taking place.  High school kids here in Sweden can pick whatever high school they want to attend, they just have to be accepted.  And the high schools specialize in something  –  music, college entrance, mechanics, whatever.  There are no school busses here, you just have to get to school on your own –  parent, bike, taxi, tram, walking.  Each different school held its graduation at a different time during the week that just ended and continuing for another week or two.  After the ceremony, the graduates all get in the back of a big open top truck and are driven around the downtown area with loud music blaring and them shouting and singing and the truck horn honking.  As we are right downtown, we had about 3 different trucks full each day.  On Thursday, nothing.  On Friday we had a council meeting and then chill, to which about 8 kids came.  We wrote letters to the missionaries that have gone from the stake (11 so far this year.)  we have decided to change our hours for the summer.  We won’t start until 3:30pm and will go until 9:30pm.  Very few come into the center during those first 2 hours and we just think we can use our time better than sitting at the center.

Saturday was our wedding anniversary.  We went out to dinner at what is supposed to be the best restaurant in Göteborg.  It is called Heaven 23 — a very imaginative name as it is on the 23^rd floor of a large hotel called the Gothia Towers.  Anyway, we had a reservation for 5:30 and arrived promptly.  We were told that all the tables were by the windows so you could see out.  Our table was not next to a window but had a table between us and the window.  As no one was at the other table, we figured that it didn’t matter.  We ordered a three course “menu” dinner  –  a starter, a main course, and a dessert.  The starter was Duck Comfit.  It came on a 16” diameter plate but only took up about 4” in the middle.  It was very tasty.  We also got a bread basket, which no other restaurant here has ever had.  The main course was lamb and was on the same sized plate.  It was only marginally bigger than the starter and consisted of scalloped potatoes (1”x1”x3”), 3 pencil thin carrots, 4 slices of lamb (1/4” x 1”x3”) and 3 tablespoons of slow-cooked lamb in a red pepper sauce.  The dessert was a round of chocolate pudding (¼ inch thick and 4 inches in diameter) topped with ¼ cup of banana sorbet, 1 tablespoon whipped cream, 5 meringues as big as chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon brownie crumbles.  And for this we paid 1100SEK  –  about $90 each, 2 week’s worth of groceries and a lunch at McDonalds.  Thank heaven for the bread basket!!  We talked during dinner about the anniversaries we could remember from the 40 past years.

The sisters had a baptism this morning at 9:45.  He is a young man from India, well prepared by the Lord to accept the gospel as soon as he heard it.  He will be a great asset to the church either here or in India.  He is here as a student.  He was confirmed during sacrament meeting.  The whole of the European area is fasting today for the missionary work in Europe, “that our voice of invitation be heard,” as the letter from the area presidency states.  We have also been asked for every member to bring someone who is less active or a non-member to church each Sunday this month.  Dad and I have been racking our brains for someone to bring and can’t think of anyone.  Well, we have 5 days to find someone!!

We hope all is well with each of you.  That you are happy and healthy and having a wonderful beginning of summer.   You are always in our thoughts and prayers.

Love,

Mom and Dad,  Grandpa and Grandma,  Nikki and Robert

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