Back to the Future, Present and Past

This week included matters for the present, past and future.  It has been a rather relaxed week in anticipation of a couple of months that will be anything but relaxed.

As to the past, I mentioned that we went through the mission history and copied pages containing any mention of Olivia's father and her uncle. We scanned those pages this week and emailed them to her siblings and a cousin. We got back some interesting memories especially of a funeral her father conducted on behalf of a man who was not a member of the Church.

 [A close-up of the binder]

[The Book with a beautiful model]

From Drew:  "When I read the entry of May 10, 1936 about Dad speaking at the non members funeral it reminded me of the time I must've been nine or 10 years old because we had come back from Virginia and Dad and I were staying at Hotel Utah. We got on the elevator with one other man. He stared at Dad for awhile then started to talk to him.  Dad responded to him I could not understand earthier one of them. When we got to our room Dad told me that when He was on his mission He had spoke at a funeral of a man He had got to know but was not a member of the Church. The man on the elevator had attended that funeral and was so impressed with what Dad had preached that he investigated the Church and had become a member."

From Claudia: "Drew's story reminded me of what Dad said at one of the Grock's funeral (graveside service). I don't remember if it was Walt's or Wilda's or Art's, but there were a lot of people there. Dad was the speaker. He told of a funeral he talked at in Sweden, and he and his companion and the wife and son of the deceased were the only people there. He said how nice it was to have such a caring community as Starr Valley, with so many friends in attendance. He was right - Starr Valley is a cool place!"

[Anyone who has visited Starr Valley would agree with Claudia!]

From Jennifer: "Do any of you remember hearing the story of when Dad and his companion did a funeral for a man and they had to dress him and he had been sitting in a wheelchair so long his legs were bent stiff so Dad told his companion to push down on the dead guys knees and the knees went down and the dead guy sat up, face to face with the missionary. About scared him to death.

Have any of you heard that?"

[Lucky there weren't two dead guys after that!]

As to the future, we attended an extended mission office meeting that included a preview of the worldwide missionary broadcast that will take place on January 25th. Because of scheduling issues, our missionaries will get much of the information before it is officially announced. The announcement at the broadcast will make some significant changes to the missionaries' schedules and the agenda of the mission presidents. I will save the details for after the official broadcast which we will watch from a not-as-yet-determined location in Skellefteå (pronounced shell eff ' tee o). Stay tuned!

We and the Clouses met with a Church employee who supervises the facilities management for Scandinavia and much of Europe and his counterpart, a woman from Örebro (pronounced something like ur' eh bro) who is responsible for Sweden. We reviewed the needs of some of the facilities owned by the Church, but which are assigned to the mission; primarily the room below the mission office which is currently used as living quarters for short-term visitors and various meetings. Behind the living space is a good deal of storage for items we need for the missionaries and lots of really good tools.  It seems that they want to convert the living space to an apartment for senior missionaries. Probably won't happen before the end of the year, but it is a great idea. It would be ideal for us and whoever takes our place. We found them to be most accommodating and gracious. We also found them to be quite creative in determining the use of space.

We got a call at a very early hour (Sarah, "Are they even up, yet?" Cedric, "They are now!"), announcing that they had found cheap flights to Sweden for the whole family. They will have a 16 hour layover in Iceland - thus the cheap tickets, but a chance for the kids to get off the plane and run around a bit. We are thrilled, of course.They will be coming in May, but we are already making plans for things to do and places to see.

[Don't you just want to hug them? Well, the smooth-faced ones, anyway.]

As to the present, we found ourselves traveling and assisting missionaries. The missionaries in Handen have a neighbor family who bought a new sofa set and needed to get rid of their old one. It turned out that the "old" one is less than a year old and that it came with two easy chairs, as well. We will need this furniture for the new apartment in Stockholm (more on that apartment, below). They helped us load them into our little van and we stored them in the office garage until we have the time to move them (probably only the chairs as the apartment is quite small) into the new apartment.

 [Elder Mecham and Elder Johanson moving chairs] [We actually got the couch and both chairs in]

[Elder Jensen and Elder Castleton-Rudolph show up just in time to offer congratulations]

[This is a stock photo, but our van is exactly like this one, including the color. It was no small feat to get all three items into it and close the rear door afterwards]

We traveled to Eskilstuna (this time it really is pronounced like it is spelled) by way of Hägersten (pronounced hegger' sten). In Hägersten we assisted the elders in taking up a small table that we had earlier repaired as well as a clock and some appropriate pictures for their blank walls. They were anticipating a visit from the Pettits who were about to inspect the apartment, so it looked very nice. Our impression is that these elders keep it that way. Good missionaries!

[Art work being prepared for missionary apartments]

In Eskilstuna we took our extra key and entered the apartment in the absence of the sisters who were in a meeting. 

[The fabled key board with the index to the keys on the door to the safe]

With their approval, we disassembled the bunk bed we put in there just a couple of months ago and replaced it with a bed we brought for them. They no longer have three sisters living there and we needed the bunk bed for the new apartment. The design of the bunk bed is genius, but not without peril. It is very easy to drop the hardware down inside the pipes that make up the frame (the voice of experience). 

From there we went back to the apartment in Stockholm and reassembled the bed to save having to do that later. 

Some are asking what travel is like. OK, maybe not, but I thought I would let you know because it is somewhat different from the US. The maximum speed on the freeways is 120. That sounds fast, but it is in kilometers per hour, so we are only doing about 74.5 mph. Still pretty good. Most freeways close to us the speed is 80 - 100. In town it is 30 - 50. The problem for this trip was the wet roads. The snow is melting and leaving a lot of sand, salt and gravel, so we ran out of washer fluid on the way back. I have learned to keep a four liter bottle with us for that very reason.  Our weather has been alternately quite cold (exacerbated by the humidity), to snowy, to above freezing, and back again. We are hoping that the trip north will be good weather for a couple of reasons. One, we prefer to be safe and two, we hope to see the Northern Lights this time.

The Stockholm apartment is one I have mentioned before. It is owned by a member of our stake presidency. His son's family outgrew it so he wanted to rent it to the mission. We thought everything was set, but before it could be finalized, he had to run it by the association president. The president was not willing to let an organization be the renter, so they went round and round looking for a solution. Finally, they and we agreed that the first set of elders would sign the contract. What authority do the elders have to bind the Church? Very little.

The end result was good, however. The elders met with the landlord and got situated as to where to put the various trash separations and the storage units associated with the apartment. Side note: the landlord got a letter addressed to all the tenants of the building stating that someone (you know who you are) had been placing the wrong type of garbage in the inappropriate bins (and we know who you are because there are video cameras there and everywhere in the building) so straighten up or face a fine. This is the apartment where the Israeli Ambassador lives, thus the video cameras everywhere. 

We were able to not only talk to Cedric and Sarah this week, but also Jordan and Ruth who were on their anniversary cruise and to Olivia's sister, Jennifer.  It is always a thrill for us to hear from friends and family. 

We would like to know more news of our friends, but some are at least on Facebook, so we have heard of a couple of surgeries and a C section. Some shun Facebook (as we usually do), so when you have news, please let us know about it.

We love our mission and are quite happy, here. We miss all of you and wish you the best in your homes and families.