Why Senior Couples Should Serve Missions

This was a week that had everything a senior couple could ask for: service, a couples' retreat, an inspiring conference and the opportunity to share the Gospel.

Spring keeps promising to come with warm, beautiful weather one day, then changes her mind and laughs at us for only bringing a jacket the next. Still, the spring flowers are bravely popping out all over and the flowering trees are blooming. It is a beautiful time to be here.

Some hardy wildflowers making their appearance 

Olivia has been watching these daffodils,
just outside our door, waiting for them to open

The elders in Örebro (uhh'-re bro) needed blackout blinds as it is getting to the time of year when the sun will still be up when it is past their bed time, so we made a trip out there. After installing the blinds, we checked the sisters' apartment at President Beckstrand's request. The sisters have been pulled out of the city due to a lack of missionaries at the moment. In the last few transfers more missionaries have left than there were new missionaries arriving. It will continue like that until July, so we anticipate that sisters may come back to Örebro at some point in the not-too-distant future.

President Beckstrand was concerned that something may have been left to spoil or lights left on in the vacant apartment. He was right to be concerned as the fridge had a wrinkled carrot, a ripe Kiwi fruit (happily, Olivia does not like Kiwi fruit :-)), and there were open packages of items that could go bad, which we were able to toss out. We found a closet filled with winter coats and another with a pile of old clothes. Those items we carried out and will give to the second hand stores.

As most of you know, when we travel on assignment, we try to see some of the historical sites or other sites of interest. We did not have time to see everything that Örebro has to offer, so we will hopefully get a chance to go back, especially to see the castle. This time, however, we wanted to see Anundshög, the Viking burial ground that is near Västeros, which was on the way back. We thought it might be a nice place to take visitors. We were not disappointed. The grounds are well kept and spacious. There are several informational signs all through the area explaining what the grounds were used for and how it came to be a burial place.

Viking nobles were cremated and their remains buried. On top of the burial spot a stone was placed, and around it other stones were quarried and placed in the form of a viking ship. Others were buried under huge mounds of dirt called tumulus. This particular burial spot is along Eriksgata, the road where a candidate would travel to be recognized by the nobles who would eventually elect him king.

The giant tumulus is the largest in Sweden
200' in diameter and 30' high. It dates some-
where between 210 and 540 AD. 

This rune stone says all the stones were in memory
of Anund's brother and gives the name of the writer.
It was a mark of academic honor to be able to write.

Just to give some perspective of the size
of the stones

These stones mark the original
Eriksgatan

You can see the outline of 2 of the Viking
ships. Viewed from the top of the tumulus

The week also saw the well organized senior couples' retreat which took place in the Dalarna region. You may be familiar with the Dalahäst (Dala Horse) that has, since the 1939 World's Fair in New York, become the symbol of Sweden. I have written about the workshops where the horses are manufactured in one of my earliest blog posts (October 2016). This outing was especially enjoyable because we knew more about the history and were among great friends. Olivia got a rooster, rather than a horse, this time.

Shown here with the horse (häst) she bought last time,
the rooster will have an honored place in our kitchen
window, however.

This time we not only got to see the painting process, but also the carving, which is usually done by people in the village who are trained and hired to carve from the rough piece that had been cut out by a band saw.

Cutting the basic design
with a band saw.

Carving a small häst. All
done by hand.

Carving a large piece which
will be a lot more expensive

Painting the final flourishes. Very folk artsy and beautiful

Some of the final products drying and waiting to
go on the shelves.

Near this village is the city of Falun which has been famous for over 1,000 years for its rich mineral production; primarily copper. There is some evidence that it started as early as 870, but there is absolute evidence that it was producing by 1080 and continued in one way or another until 1992.

There are legends of how the copper was discovered, but the most popular is that a farmer noticed that his billy goat returned from grazing in the forest with red clay on his horns. Following it one day he discovered a deposit of the dirt that he knew identified the presence of copper. In the 15th and 16th centuries copper was used extensively for the manufacture of bronze from which armor, bells, cookware, and many other items were made. It is said that this mine provided the country with the greatest resource of its wealth for hundreds of years.  Queen Christina is said to have come into Falun to look over the mine, (as many monarchs have done), sniffed the sulfur in the air and exclaimed how wonderful it smelled, because it meant the mine would continue to bring money to her kingdom. Of course, the sulfur killed the forest and gave the inhabitants lung diseases, but little was known about that in those days.

Then in 1687 when hundreds of men were employed there, the mine collapsed. It could have been a major disaster in terms of lives lost, but it happened on Midsommer Eve one of the two days the miners had off (the other being Christmas Eve). So, while it was a short-term economic disaster, no lives were lost and more attention was paid to safety.

Even though the mine no longer operates as such, the tailings are still used in the manufacture of the classic Falun red paint. The ore contains vitriol which is a sulfate having preservative qualities. I mentioned in my October post that it was considered patriotic to use the red paint in order to keep the coffers filled. Today, it is still used because the structures don't have to be repainted for up to 10 years. We still see most of the houses and barns in the countryside painted with Falun red paint.

Typical Falun red paint on a large barn

In 1677 there was a small collapse of a tunnel in the mine that no one bothered to open until 1719. When they removed the debris they found a man sleeping. His clothes were oddly out of date for such a young man. They soon discovered that he was dead, but the vitriol had preserved him almost perfectly; even his skin remained soft to the touch. He was brought up to the surface, but no one could identify him until a woman in her 70s saw him and knew right away that he was Fet Mat Isrealsson, her fiance, who had disappeared over 40 years prior. Fet means "fat" today, but back then it was a nickname for a hardy or buff man. He had gone back into the mine for some unknown reason after work had ceased and was there when it collapsed. The body was placed into a glass case and became a tourist attraction until it became too disgusting to be much of a draw (except for flies, I guess). He is buried in the Stora Kopparbergs Kyrka (stora koe-pair-berrys shirka) churchyard. 

 

Fet Mat's grave

The women who went into the mine

The mine became an open pit, but only a portion.
The rest is underground as deep as 400+ meters

Our guide through the mine

She refused to consider going into the mine, but succumbed
to peer pressure. She was glad she went. 

The men  who went into the mine and our guide

Hardhat and cape to keep
from getting injured or wet

Beginning in the 19th century, royalty who
visited the mine would write their names in
chalk on this and an adjoining wall .
Skilled workers then carved the signatures
and filled them with gold. The present day
royalty have their signatures here.

Sorry about the weird picture placement. The program went berserk and I can't seem to control it.

The Stora Kopparbergs Kyrka is a beautiful old church. We entered just as a high school choir was rehearsing a couple of songs in English. Later that day Sister Pettit saw several of them in town and spoke to them. She told them of her and her husband's mission regarding self reliance. They all had goals for what they wanted to do after graduation, but listened intently to her advice. She was bold but harmless, as the Book of Mormon says we should be.

The church is surrounded by graves
as are most churches. Behind and
to the right is the grave of Fet Mat

The church has many old, magnificent statues
and paintings, but is well known for the folk art
paintings of flowers and flourishes around the
base of the walls, around the windows and arches
and on the ceiling

Close up of folk art on the ceiling

The high school choir practicing for the
concert to take place that afternoon.

One of the many small wooden statues
covered in gold plate. This is the virgin and
baby Jesus. Peter is depicted with a large key;
John has a large sword.

The highlight of the retreat, at least for Olivia, was a visit to the Karl Larsson home which is now a museum. It is only open when you have a guide to take you through the house. So much of the house is depicted in his paintings. He is most well known for his paintings of home and family. He married the sweetheart, Karin, whom he met in an artist village in France. She was an artist, as well, but in textiles and in interior design. Although she was well known in her own right, his fame has continued through the centuries. We have several of his prints and a beautiful calendar. We added to our collection at the gift shop, of course.

Our tour guide on the steps
of what is now the gift shop.

The back of the house 

Back of the house at a different angle

Christmas time in the house

Karin Larsson with one of their seven children

Back home we arrived just in time to go to the Gubbängen chapel for the adult session of the Stockholm Stake conference. Yesterday and today we heard from Elder Patrick Kearon, our Europe Area President and a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. You may recall that he spoke in General Conference about the plight of refugees leaving President Uchtdorf so emotional it was difficult for him to continue conducting the session. He recently conducted a mission tour, so you saw a picture of Olivia and me with him in a previous post. We saw in the Church's news post that he will serve as a member of the Presidents of the Seventy beginning in August. We will miss him. His talks were very poignant and spiritually motivating. We were particularly happy to see our good friend Elsa from Uppsala who is investigating the Church at both sessions. 

We had invited the Jakobsberg missionaries to come to dinner afterward together with Elder and Sister Smith. The elders were going to bring a family from India with them, but the family ended up not coming, so the elders asked to invite two single sisters who are members, but haven't been active for many years. Of course, we were happy to have them. 

We had a wonderful discussion about the Gospel, the temple and what God expects of us when He has blessed us so abundantly. Elder Walton and Elder Carlson quite naturally explained the fairness of a loving Heavenly Father. Olivia and I both found ourselves bearing witness to the truth that the elders had expressed. It was a great day all in all.

Olivia, Sister and Elder Smith, Macarena, Scarlet, Elders Carlson and Walton, and the camera holder.

It is late and Olivia refuses to do her part as editor and moderator of the blog post, so I will call it a night. We love each of you and wish you the best of everything. We pray for you and your well being.