Dearest Family and friends – here it is, Sunday night once more and I have the opportunity to write to all of you while Dad naps. He stayed up last night and watched the TCU football game (the Rose Bowl) until the final batted down pass and is very tired today. Luckily, I resisted and went to bed about 10:45!! (Although it was an afternoon game for you guys it was a late night game for us, starting at 11pm.)
Our weather has warmed and we have had 2 beautiful days of blue skies and sunshine, with the temperature around 0 C. The snow is slowly melting, only to refreeze as soon as the sun sets. Rather than melt and soak into the ground, which is also frozen and not thawing, it melts and just sits there only to become ice about 4pm. In many places the ice is so thick it doesn’t melt at all. One of the roads we have to take to get to the center has some ice mounds in it that could high center the car if Dad didn’t drive just right. I knew it would warm up as soon as Dad bought me my Christmas/birthday present – a new Swedish coat! It is marvelous with a fur trimmed collar/hood, a thinsilate layer between the lining and the coat, made of wool and cashmere, and as long as 6 inches above my ankles. I love it. But it is definitely for the cold weather, and our weather has definitely warmed up. But I wear it anyway!
Last week was a real lazy one for us. We went to the center on Monday for family night but no one else came so we turned around and came home at 8pm. Tuesday and Wednesday were laze around and do very little that didn’t absolutely have to be done days. Thursday we had district meeting at the center at noon. The missionaries had gone for kebab pizza at 11am and we met them at the center afterward. The lesson was on goal setting and achieving. The young elder who is our district leader is an amazing young man. The message was very well organized and well delivered and everyone gained something from it – even the 2 old missionaries on the end of the row! After the meeting we went shopping and bought my coat then came home and had the last of the leftovers for dinner. Friday we had to pick up the zone leaders and take them to the airport. Pick up time: 7:15 am! That is an excellent way to make sure we are up on time. Later that day we decided to go grocery shopping. The line of cars to our usual store was longer than ever so we decided to go to one that is fancier and more expensive, but less crowded. We wandered around inside for about an hour, finally buying some window washing fluid for the car. As we came out and were putting the cart away we heard some fireworks going off. They appeared above the store so we decided to drive around and find them. The neighboring store had several clerks in the parking lot shooting off the fireworks by the boxes full. We watched for a few minutes then came home. For about 4 days every evening we had been hearing fireworks but hadn’t been able to see them. That evening (New Year’s Eve) they started again about 8. By 10 we could see them shooting into the air all around us. Our bedroom window has about a 150 degree view and we counted 9 places where the fireworks were happening. Our living room window has a 90 degree view (the building is an ‘L’ and we are at the bend.) and we could see 6 places where they were going off. They are the kind that shoot into the air,  like Genola or Junction does. They are available to be purchased at several of the stores we shop at as well as at kiosks, and apparently anyone can buy them. I don’t know what the laws are, I only saw one sign and it said they could only be used December 24 to January 1. The display New Year’s Eve was amazing. It lasted over 2 hours! Just when we thought that must be the end, they would start again. They didn’t seem to be at parks, but came from housing areas. It was a real thrill. If that’s what happens on a ‘normal’ New Year’s Eve, what did it look like at the turn of the century?
At church today a ward member (Sister Jeaneen Andersson) came up to me and said they had missed us New Year’s Eve. I wondered what she was talking about and she said her husband Benny had invited us by talking to Dad. Dad had told me the young ward mission leader had asked us, which Benny is NOT. I spaced it until that evening and when we remembered we decided not to go (to the wrong house, I might add) because we didn’t know when or if we should take anything or what. Sister Andersson said that in the ‘feed the missionaries’ notebook several of the families that invited the young missionaries had also written ‘äldste and syster Anderson, too’. I said I don’t even look in that notebook because I thought it was just for the young ones. So now I guess several families in the ward think we are anti-social. We have to speak in church next week so I will use part of my allotted time to apologize to everyone for our ignorance of the local customs and our lack of knowledge of the Swedish language. That alone gets us into more trouble than anything.
This coming week we are driving to Enköping (pronounced: en-shepping) for a YSA conference called Fokus. Hopefully we will be staying at the only hotel in Enköping. If not we will be on an inflatable mattress at Fokus with the students. We could call ahead for reservations but don’t know where it is in relation to the conference, if it is decent, or anything. Hopefully it is a mini-Hilton! (keep your fingers crossed.) We will be there from Tuesday to Friday, possibly Saturday depending on timing. We also hope Google knows where Enköping is compared to where we are and can get us there! (keep your fingers crossed.)
We hope all is well with each of you. A very happy birthday to all the January birthday people
We love you all and would enjoy hearing from you. How did your Christmas go? What fun things did you do while the kids were out of school? Have any bears been to your house this winter? (I just threw that in to see if you were paying any attention!) any way, we love you all. May this coming week be great for each of you. Remember your names and always remember that someone way over in Sweden is praying for you.   Love, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Elder and Sister Anderson