May 15 – Long long ago it seems

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