You Say Gothenburg, I Say Göteborg

Göteborg (pronounced yut'-ta-bory) is the only city in Sweden I have heard of that has a separate English name. People here use the names Gothenburg and Göteborg interchangeably, maybe because they know we speak English, I'm not sure. Why we call a certain country Germany, they call it Deutschland and Swedes call it Tyskland, or Sweden vs Sverige or any number of other examples, I have never understood. I can see why Göteborg has an English equivalent as no one knows how to pronounce the ö, but why not call it Goteborg? I digress even before I start.

We have spent most of the last two weeks in Göteborg, thus the title of this post. We did have other matters to attend to prior to traveling to Sweden's southwest that involved finally finishing the tree house apartment (see prior post) and turning it over to the landlord. Glad to see the last of it.

I made no post last week because we were in a city not far from Göteborg called Alingsås where the Young Single Adult (YSA) conference was held. We left on Friday morning, but were not required to be there until late that evening, so we did a little site seeing.

The route we took was along the E4 freeway and Olivia had done some research. Not far off the freeway is the city of Vadstena which has a good deal of history related to it. We only had time to visit the castle which is one of the best preserved in the country. It has a moat surrounding it and part is used today as a land archive, where, I suppose, land records are preserved. Like most of the sites in Sweden, it is really only open for visitors from May to September. We need to go back as the first Bridgittine monastery built in 1350 is still being used today as a hotel. Santa Bridgitte was a type of prophetess who wielded much power with her abilities to bless, curse and to see into the future. A fascinating character.

[Selfie from the shore of one of the largest lakes in the country. A lion guards the bridge. The bridge across the moat is permanent, not a draw bridge.] 

[The castle from various angles.]

[You may have guessed that it was a bitterly cold day with a sharp wind]

[A close-up of the gate. Olivia in front of the entrance and me on the bridge overlooking the moat.]

We continued along a road that would eventually take us to the largest rune known to exist. It is called the Rök Rune (pronounced rock, but it means ellipsoid shaped stone). It dates back to the 9th century and was written in the most ancient script that contains code that no one, even those who claim to be able to read rune can interpret. It is thought that the writer was familiar not only with two or three rune alphabets, but also a code that, perhaps, contains magic and was intended not to be interpreted. There are lots of rune stones all over this country, as you have seen in prior posts, but nothing like this one. It has inscriptions on all sides except the bottom, which was meant to be buried. 

[Farms, fields, local ski resort, and a windmill along the road. Note the window at the top of the barn. They are like that all over the south of Sweden. We had not noticed that anywhere else.]

 The town also has an ancient glass artist shop. The owner is fourth generation and his son, who now does most of the work is the fifth generation. The pieces we saw were beautiful. We were not supposed to take pictures, so you will have to take my word for it. I had to take a phone call while Olivia continued her conversation with the owner. When I returned, she told me that he did glass engraving. I asked the same question that you are no doubt asking, "You mean etching?" No, engraving. The glass in one of the churches is about an inch thick and of the finest glass. He then carves into the glass. He showed us pictures of beautiful engravings of Mary, and some of Sweden's flora and fauna. There were some items I would have loved to buy, but did not for two reasons: 1. we would have to find a way to get it home and 2. they were priced at about $600 to $700. We did buy a piece for about $40.

[It was Valentine's day (almost), after all. She deserved it!]

[The rune from various angles. The church was built in the 13th century, a wall torn down and turned into a granary and storage facility for hay, then restored in the 18th century. It is just behind the rune. Click on the pictures for a close-up view.]

Then, on to Alingsås where we checked into our room at the hotel and found our way to the school where the YSA event was taking place. We still had a little time so we found a Turkish restaurant and had a nice meal of things I could not pronounce or guess what they were, but it was probably lamb and vegetables along with something I did recognize - French fries. It was all very good.

At the school, we were immediately put to work making pizzas. They had kits with cold dough and a small bottle of sauce. We pressed out the dough with our fingers, applied the sauce and added such things as cheese, meats, pineapple, etc. The school had 20 or more ovens for the cooking classes and we used them all. Part way through, however, the breaker flipped and we lost half our ovens. Security was called to restore the power. In the meantime, we moved the baking to the other half and continued. We prepared close to 80 pizzas for the crowd of about 240. We could have prepared more and they would have eaten them. This was not dinner, it was a midnight snack. Young people can eat. A lot.

Because they had us working so late, we didn't have to show up for Saturday until time to assist for the evening meal. It was a catered event, so we just had to set out the dishes and utensils and keep the lines moving. Of course, we had to make sure the garbage was properly sorted. After the dishes and clean up we made sure that everything was otherwise in order. We went into the school where the young folks were preparing for the dance. It was a Great Gatsby theme and the costumes, especially the dresses and makeup were a lot of fun. One young woman approached Elder Swenson and me saying that she needed a blessing, but that she was prompted to have one of the young men offer it instead of a couple of geezers (not exactly her words, but we got the message). I loaned my oil to a couple of young men from England, one of whom recently returned from serving his mission here and they did an excellent job.

Sunday morning we were there early, to prepare breakfast and sack lunches. I helped put out the breakfast food which included lots of cereal and muesli upon which they poured milk, yogurt, or buttermilk (seriously). There was also a variety of juices which included orange, apple and rose hip juice, some breads, cheese, and much more. Olivia helped pack sack lunches for all 240 attendees. There were special meals for gluten and lactose intolerant, vegan and those allergic to certain fruits.

Following the meal we cleaned up the lunch area and got to the sacrament meeting just as it started. The meeting was presided over by a member of the stake presidency. It was a testimony meeting and, as is often the case, there was not enough time for everyone who wanted to participate. Attending it made all the work worth it.

 Elder and Sister Watson, advised the YSA Council in Göteborg for the event. Sister Watson is a tireless worker, but she came down with a case of the flu and was so weak, he had to take her home, so we and the others proceeded without them. There were several people from the Göteborg stake who helped and knew what to do, so we were grateful for them. We also worked with many of our senior couple friends. The Pettits who were traveling on to Malmö after the event, made themselves available. The Halls who are the YSA couple from Stockholm and the Mitchells who came up from Malmö were also pressed into service. We met the couple who are responsible for the YSA programs for all of western Europe, including Scandinavia, and much of eastern Europe, Elder and Sister Swenson. It turns out that they are from Salem, Utah and know my brother Rudy and his family. We had a wonderful visit with them. 

[L to R: Pettits, Mitchells, Swensons, us at MAX Burgers on Saturday. The Halls were at the conference registration desk.]

[The Swensons with us. Rudy's family will recognize them. We loved getting to know them.]

[The conference ended Sunday with a testimony meeting. As is usually the case, there was not adequate time for everyone who wanted to bear testimony. It was a gratifying experience.]

[The Watsons had invited us all for Sunday dinner, but with her being sick, these four Sisters,on Saturday, made a menu and went to the store so we could still have our dinner. The Mitchells, who stayed in the empty apartment in Väster Förlunda (vester furloonda), which is nearby, invited us over and we still had a wonderful meal. Halls were also missing as they were driving back with the van of the YSAs from Stockholm.]

Monday the real work began. We met Elder Watson at the apartment in Kållered (coal'-ah-red) where we would be moving the elders who are vacating their apartment in Kungsbacka. We went over all that needed to be done and once again called the apartment company about getting parking for the missionaries. We spent the rest of the day and the next cleaning the apartment and repairing what needed our attention. Elder Watson, by this time had contracted the flu and was out of commission. 

We then moved the elders into the apartment and started taking things out of the Kungsbacka apartment. It was a bit confusing because the information sheet said that everything in the apartment belonged to the mission, but Elder Watson identified only a few items that were actually moved into the apartment, the rest being there when the missionaries arrived one year ago.  We breathed a sigh of relief that we only had to store a few items, but when we got back to the apartment (we stayed in the Västra Förlunda apartment after the Mitchells left), I emailed the former apartment couple who are now back in Utah and asked for an explanation. They explained that when the former residents moved, the mission paid them an amount to purchase everything they left behind! Now we had to find more storage space and move everything out.

I rented a large van from the local OKQ8 gas station and Elder Watson, who recovered much faster than his wife, drove the trusty Ford van. Elder Watson was a genius at packing the van and storage units. We called the sisters who are serving in Väster Frölunda and found that their storage space was almost empty, so between theirs and the elders' storage in Kållered we had barely enough space to store everything.

[This is much bigger than it looks. It held the two couches, kitchen table, chairs, coffee tables, boxes and boxes of dishes, pots and pans, etc. etc. By a miracle we got them all into the sisters' storage space.]

The elders, Elder Watson and I loaded and unloaded the big van and the Ford and the sisters helped Olivia deep clean the apartment. They were all hard workers and looked for opportunities to serve without complaining; in fact, the opposite. They were cheerful about it.

[Not sure what, but I am repairing something in the apartment]

[After moving the elders in, we took them to Burger King. Elder Roylance and Elder Liljenquist (he likes the Swedish pronunciation lil'-yen-kveest)]

[The cleaning and moving crew at the Kungsbacka apartment. Olivia, Sister Heaps, Sister Olsen, me, Elder Watson, Elder Wilson (Elder Liljenquist was on splits with Elder Wilson's companion) and Elder Roylance whose long arms make him the selfie master.]

By this time, Olivia came down with the flu. She asked for a blessing and thus had strength to assist the sisters with the cleaning. She was still not feeling good, but well enough to accompany me to meet with the elders in Halmstad who took us to an apartment we may be interested in renting if they open the area for sisters, there.

[Olivia and Elder Porter in the prospective apartment]

[Elder Porter and Elder Groberg in Halmstad]

[Exhausted and sick at the end of the day]

Friday morning we returned the keys to Elder Watson and headed home by way of Örebro (ur'-a-bro) where we stopped, delivered two desks and two chairs to the sisters there. They were still in boxes, so we assisted the sisters in putting them together. 

[We worked on one desk while Sister Pickett and Sister Christoffersen put the other one together. They did two chairs and most of the desk while we worked on one desk. We did assist with the final touches and repairing a couple of things that were done wrong. We had done them wrong on ours, so we knew what to fix.]

Finally, we were on our way home. We arrived Friday evening and I tried to do whatever I could so Olivia could rest, but she still had to fetch and carry a little. We were so happy to be back to our little apartment, in familiar surroundings, eating in our own kitchen and sleeping in our own bed.

Saturday, Olivia stayed in bed except to get up for meals and to watch a Poirot episode with me. I did all the laundry, ironing, prepared the meals, did the dishes, washed the car and filled it with gas, and went to the office where I could drop off all the cleaning, painting, and packing supplies and picked up some items for the elders in Uppsala. I do not want to be a housewife - ever!

Sunday, I went to church alone while she stayed home and slept. Much to her dismay, she still was not well enough to accept an invitation to have dinner with the Clouses, Beckstrands and some young men who had served their missions here and returned for a visit.  Today, she is much recovered, but is still not at the top of her game. We are taking it easy. We need it. I am still doing the kitchen chores, primarily because I want her touching nothing!

We hope all is well with you. We love the opportunity to serve these young missionaries and lighten the load of the mission president. It is satisfying work - and it is work.

Please keep in touch.