Baptisms and Fire

First an apology for this late posting.  I am having a hard time with this because my nose and eyes are flowing like rivers. I'm a little better today, but not going anywhere. I missed church Sunday and laid low yesterday. Today, Olivia is helping supervise planting the spring colors at the Stockholm Temple. The Head Gardener and we finally met in person last week and he asked if she could help supervise the missionaries in the Stockholm Södra (south) Zone in planting the flowers. She was beyond delighted, so she is there today and I am trying to keep a throbbing head and runny nose in check.

Apparently, such dangerous substances as Benadryl, Theraflu, Alka Seltzer Plus and the like are only obtainable by prescription. Luckily, someone had left a small stash of some antihistamines in our apartment, but I have gone through them.

Enough about my poor luck. As most are aware, there are many people in Sweden who are far worse off thanks to an Uzbek man who had both been placed on a watch list for his extremist views and who had been denied asylum, but had gone underground by filing a false address. According to the news, approximately 12,000 people who have been denied asylum are underground in Sweden at the moment. The man had hijacked a beer truck as it was being unloaded. He drove down a street that is known for heavy pedestrian traffic, purposely hitting people as he drove. He rammed into an Åléns store where the vehicle burst into flames. He escaped into the T Central which is like a central station for trains and buses. All this was apparently well planned. An explosive devise consisting of explosives, bottles and nails was found in the truck, but failed to detonate.

We only know that 4 people are dead including a young female tourist from Belgium, a young man from England who was here working for Spotify, an 11-year old girl and one of two "elderly women" who were being given first aid by a couple who witnessed the event from a nearby coffee shop. Of the 15 who were injured, 5 were treated and released 10 remain in hospital including "a young child." The police and media are being very tight lipped, so we don't know a lot more.

This all occurred while we were preparing to travel to a baptism in Uppsala, where we attend church. Uppsala is 30+ kilometers north of Stockholm. We picked up a couple of sister missionaries from our nearby train station to take them with us. As we traveled they were getting texts and reporting their status. We tried to get information from the radio stations, but it was all still too fluid. During the services, the missionaries got a text telling them to remain in their apartments until further notice. All were reported to be fine; none were near the scene.

On our way home from the baptism we got a call from the elders who serve in the same district that they were stranded in Märsta because buses and trains were stopped. Märsta is between Uppsala and Stockholm and we were just coming up on the exit, so we arranged to pick them up, as well. They had been scheduled to be at the T Central to meet an investigator, but had receive a text that he was unavailable, so they went to Märsta, instead, to visit a member family there.

As we were driving, we saw a series of police cars speeding in the opposite direction. Today, in reading some of the reports, I discovered that they were also going to Märsta because the perpetrator was discovered there trying to make his way to Arlanda where the Stockholm airport is located. He has apparently made a statement that he is proud of what he did and that he took orders from ISIS, even though ISIS has not taken credit for the attack. We have seen pictures of at least one other man who was wrestled to the ground on the scene, but police refuse to confirm or deny arrests of any other person.

That's as much as we know at the moment.

The baptisms, on the other hand were special moments of pure light.  On Wednesday, the daughter of the Mongolian family that lives in Uppsala was baptized. She has been 8 for a few months, but her parents don't speak Swedish very well and understood that the baptism had to take place on a Saturday. He works every Saturday. The ward has its own baptismal font, so when the misunderstanding was discovered, arrangements were made for the baptism to happen on Wednesday. The witnesses did their best assuming that the prayer was right because it was done in Mongolian. Olivia has had a special fondness for the two cute little girls of the family, bringing them little things that we find when the missionaries clean out their apartment and have us haul things away. She wanted to give her a set of scriptures, but didn't want to set a precedence, so she arranged for the missionaries to tell her someone wanted her to have them. She also made her a special bag to carry them in and gave it to her on Sunday, telling her that we noticed that she got scriptures at her baptism and that she made a bag for her to carry them in.

Proud of her scripture case!

Confirmed at the baptism

Lots of ward members attended, along with
several investigators

Olivia and her friends

The other baptism happened on Friday, the day of the terrorist attack. This time it was a young woman from Iran, Marzieh, who was baptized by her husband, Mohammed. He is a convert of a couple of years and a Priest. They live here and are gainfully employed, but her job requires her to travel back to Iran from time to time. She will have to keep her status as a Christian secret from her family. It is dangerous for her (meaning almost certain death), but she seems to take it in stride. She has been receiving the lessons for several months, and seemed reserved about the Church, but after her last trip to Iran she was absolutely certain of her decision. She glowed with testimony. Again, the witnesses had to hope for the best as Mohammed recited the baptismal prayer in Farsi. She was confirmed by the bishop on Sunday, but I had to miss it. Olivia tells me that he had Mohammed stand next to him and interpret as he confirmed her in Swedish. She doesn't speak Swedish, so her lessons have been in English, which she speaks well.

Marzieh and Mohammed

Next to Olivia are Sisters Young and Hatch. Sister Wilson came
with us from Jakobsberg by permission as she taught Marzieh
prior to her being transferred.

Sister Young, Marzieh, Sister Hatch, Mohammed

We have spent a lot of time with this couple as they attend the Gospel Principles class. We taught the class the week Marzieh announced her decision to be baptized.

We assisted with providing lunches for the zone conferences held in the Stockholm area. We made it a bit less complicated this time by providing cold cuts, cheese, a variety of breads and various condiments. We decorated the tables with candy eggs and Sweden's version of Peeps (no better than the US version. They are really only good for the entertainment value in a microwave).

Sister Clouse and Olivia. Notice the name tags on the witches.

Elder Clouse decided that the candy eggs were yucky

They decided to put them to good use.

He swings, she ducks

He never hit one, but they broke up on the floor -
almost as satisfying

You may wonder what the feathers on the branches with the witches are all about. Påsk (Easter to us. Pronounced poa' sk) is celebrated by putting feathers on the branches that are about to blossom, or bringing in cut branches and decorating inside. 

Some local branches covered with feathers

The have a special drink called Påskmust that tastes exactly like the Julmust that is sold at Christmastime. We haven't heard of hiding Easter eggs, but they do decorate them and every store sells giant Påskäggs that are to be filled with candy for the children.

On Palm Sunday, witches are said to fly to a certain mountain in Germany where they cavort with Satan. They fly back on the Thursday through Saturday prior to Easter, filled with evil energy, so there are bonfires and fireworks to scare them away. Young girls dress up like witches and carry copper pots, Påskkärring - going from door to door asking for goddis (go' dees - candy) like Halloween. That's why little witches are placed among the branches of feathers when decorating.

Stock photo. We haven't gotten there yet. 

We got a call from some missionaries who want bikes. President Beckstrand has put us in charge of making an inventory of the bikes and determining their state of repair, so we have begun that task. It will not be easy as many don't know whether there are bikes or not in their areas. Some have storage space, but haven't been there to check. Here we found some in the garage at the mission office. We pumped up the tires and went for a ride. A short ride as it has been a few dozen years since we rode bikes and the roads around the office are all hills. Time to shape up!

That was our week. We hope you enjoyed yours and wish each of you a very happy Easter as we contemplate the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We are so grateful that the Atonement is infinite, that Christ was willing to suffer beyond what we can comprehend, and that we can be a part of the ongoing movement to bring souls unto Him. We love Him and love serving Him.