Today was our stake conference. We had no visiting authority, so the speakers both today and last night were local members, members of the temple presidency, the mission president and his wife, members of the stake presidency and others. It was a difficult challenge to understand what they were saying, but we did have interpreters. You know the interpreter is having trouble keeping up when the congregation is laughing, but you didn't hear the joke. Still, the Spirit prompts, the speakers were inspired and inspiring and the meetings were excellent. Today, we couldn't get the interpretation well at all, but we sat by Sister Hykola, a missionary from Finland whose native language is Swedish, but she also speaks several other languages fluently - including English. She was able to translate almost as fast as the speaker could speak. We were very grateful for her.
We invited the couple who had us over for dinner a few weeks ago to come to our house after conference. Their pianist son would not come to the meetings, but rode the train to our station and joined us. He enjoyed the keyboard I bought for Olivia, because it has all different kinds of sounds from piano, to harpsichord, to carnival organ, etc., etc. We also brought Elder and Sister Smith who came out the day prior to the heavy snowstorm. They have become used to the train system, so we brought them with us from the conference, but they made their way home from our local station.
[Sol Brit and Tore Burman, Sister and Elder Smith and Christopher Burman.]We did what has become traditional and walked down to the viking ship to take pictures. The conversation was jovial and at times, lively (Olivia brought up politics, again. I need to find the page in the white missionary handbook that tells us not to discuss politics. I think it expressly forbids discussion Hilary or Trump. Note to self - find that page). We learned a lot about how traditional birthdays, Christmases, Easters and Midsummers are celebrated. We also learned about their political system, but there was such a diversity of opinion, that I'm not sure we learned much.
We enjoyed an amazing Olivia's Special Dinner. Roast pork, potatoes, and carrots in the crock pot, tossed salad with her special, home-made ranch dressing, corn (all Swedish meals seem to include corn), brown gravy and dessert of oatmeal cake with slivered almonds and coconut frosting. The Swedish contingent was not sure what to do with the salad dressing as they typically don't put dressing on tossed salad. Christopher, the pianist son, put it to great use on several helpings of potatoes. The gravy went on the meat. I'm salivating as I rehearse the contents of the meal. Sorry you couldn't have been here.
We did have time this week to plan out the rest of November and December in order to get in all the apartment inspections we need to accomplish. We will visit 20 apartments, primarily on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, so it comes to 3 each day. This week, only Wednesday is available as we have invited the Uppsala missionaries and a young woman from America who is studying here to come for Thanksgiving on Thursday, and Friday will be a preparation for the tsunami of inspections that will follow.
[A typical scene on our drives]We were able to attend the last session at the temple on Saturday, before taking some items to Elder and Sister Hall, the new YSA couple, and to the Handen elders. We had packed a lunch, which was good because we were just in time for the evening session of the stake conference. The temple was a welcome relief from the hectic pace we have kept. They are so happy to accommodate us with headphones for the English translation. I kept mine off for most of the session, so I could become a little more acquainted with the Swedish language. I am not at a point that I can conduct myself in Swedish at the veil, however. We meet interesting people each time we attend there. This week we met the Richardsons from Las Vegas. They sold their home before their mission and haven't decided where they will live when they return. He served his mission in Norway, so Swedish is close and he picked it up fairly quickly. She has learned all the ordinances in Swedish and can carry on a short conversation. We were impressed with their determination. Their call is as temple missionaries, so it is necessary for them to learn.
[We stopped for a picture after visiting an apartment]Tuesday we put the finishing touches on cleaning the apartment we are turning back to the landlord. The landlord had sent several emails and I had taken several phone calls all about how clean the apartment had to be. We have been told that often landlords will look for any excuse not to return the deposit, plus charge for whatever clean up they had to hire to be done later. This one had sent us 6 pages of what was expected from cleaning the walls, to a spotless oven and stove, to the tops of the doorjambs. We had cleaned one day that I reported on in an earlier blog, but had spent even more time just cleaning what had not been done with the other missionaries. I was fully prepared to go to the mat by explaining that we were only obligated to repair abuse, not normal wear and tear and that we only needed to clean to the degree it had been when we took it over.
When he came, he brought his mother who seemed to be educated and formal. They did not even look above the doors or under the sinks. The place shone like a new marble and they declared that it more than achieved their expectations. We had a nice conversation about her experiences with the missionaries when she lived in New Zealand as a student and how they wished that they could keep the apartment, but state regulations forbids owning more than one property in the same county without special licensing. That was it. He even asked where he was to return the deposit.
We did have an adventure on Friday. The mission office washer and dryer were replaced and when Elder Clouse went down to the "clubhouse" to let the men in to set them up, he discovered that it had been broken into by someone who apparently just wanted to create mischief. They pried open an window and threw the contents of a desk onto the floor, tore the guest bed apart and ate two Twix bars, but didn't steal anything. We went over to do some mission laundry of items we had taken from apartments that could be used in other apartments and the clean up was already done. Elder Clouse was pretty vocal to the office Elders about how Sister Anderson was so upset with Elder Anderson that she threw the pens and scissors from the desk at him and tried to throw the bed, as well. Ya gotta love Keith Clouse.
Since we were already there, we were invited to a meal the sisters who work in the Täby ward made for the Clouses and the office elders. One of these, Sister DeSouza, is a Swede whose parents are Brazilian. She is a visa waiter and has been serving here for the past 14 weeks. Her mission is the Salt Lake Temple grounds and visitors' centers. She made a great pasta dish and her companions made the other dishes. We closed with the sisters singing O Holy Night in English and a challenge to remember the gifts we personally have received from Christ. Sister DeSouza leaves for her mission Tuesday. She has had excellent training and wonderful experiences that will make her mission much more successful. She and her companions, Sister Trotter and Sister Olsen had two investigators attend the stake conference session today. Good missionaries!
We are finally starting to understand the major road systems and have made several forays without the GPS, mostly without getting lost. It is a confusing system because, like most of these ancient cultures, the roads are paved over where dirt roads used to be. The dirt roads used to be oxcart paths. The oxcart paths used to be trails made by a wandering calf and its mother who was looking for her baby. The major highways, however, are quite modern and allow us to get from one side of the city to another fairly conveniently. Knowing the roads does make our work much more efficient and our nerves less on edge.
We are loving it and would love to hear from you.
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