Well, That was a Mess! Good Stuff, too, Though.

Perhaps I am just easily offended, but it bothers me, actually borderline offends me, when someone calls young single adults, youth, kids, boys, girls (less so this), etc. They are quite capable of accepting challenging callings and doing them well. This is especially true of missionaries. They are doing work daily that would try the faith, patience, confidence and courage of most who are more mature in age and experience. Yet, they do it joyfully and well for 6.5 days a week. They are adults and deserve to be thought of as such.

Except sometimes.

In the last few weeks (2 this week), we have inspected a few apartments in areas that are being closed, at least temporarily and found a couple of them quite cluttered, but worse, they had left food that was rotting and growing mold. They had not even taken out the trash. After inspecting one bad one this week, Olivia said to me, "I don't care about your feeling that they are men doing men's work, the missionaries who lived in this apartment are KIDS!" It's like they have no mothers; yet, I don't think we have any orphans currently serving.

We also spent 3 days moving elders into a new apartment (as I mentioned in the last blog) and then cleaning the apartment they left. In that case there was less in the way of trash and perishable food items, but things left behind and accumulated grime that had to be cleaned up. That sort of thing happens in any home, so we were not as troubled. Besides, it was nice to finally get the elders moved in to the new apartment in Södertälje.

Elders  Fawsett and Dean in their new apartment.
They have named it "The Loft". It is probably
the smallest apartment in the mission, but it is
nice and they seem to appreciate it.

We did have the help of the Assistants and POEs in moving the freezer and refrigerator out of the old apartment, because the one in their apartment had died. They host a lot of other missionaries during zone conferences and transfers, so they needed the replacements.

Can't leave yet, we
found ripe cherries!

Moving helpers: Elders Craun, Stapley, Benson doing his
Marlon Brando/James Dean/Paul Newman impression, and Jämsä

This week was the week for transfers. New missionaries coming in and seasoned missionaries going home. We had 15 new missionaries and 20 returning missionaries, this transfer. Thus, the need for closing some areas, at least temporarily.

This time the events were quite emotional, for some reason. As we were waiting for the new arrivals, a couple from Utah approached us to tell us the missionaries were coming off the plane. They introduced themselves as Elder Duke's parents. He is being released and they came to pick up him up. We were so happy to meet them, because we could report that their son was an especially dutiful, happy missionary. That always brings a lump to the throat.

Among the new missionaries was Mary Grace Johnson, who is a close friend of Olivia's grand niece, Deseret Johnson. Desi had emailed us that Sister Johnson was coming some months ago, so we have anticipated meeting her. Sister Johnson already has a reputation that has spread around the mission, because as she waited in line at the Forex to exchange money, she started a conversation in Swedish with a man in the airport and gave him a pass-along card. Later that day as she and the other missionaries waited for their turn to apply for their registration at Migration, she started a conversation with a man and his mother, again in Swedish.

Sister Johnson and others coming into the airport

On the left are missionaries from the office staff. Beginning at the
flag are the new missionaries: Elders Gordon, Winkle, Buckley,
Jackson, Lee, Waters, Simmons, Lewis,  and Grover.
Sisters Hopkins, Oehler, Cook, Hickman, Johnson, and Woodman.
This is President and Sister Youngberg's first group. They had
met at the MTC

Sister Johnson contacting at Migration

The new sisters at Lake Mälaren with the City Hall behind them.
Sisters Johnson, Hopkins, Oehler, Hickman, Cook & Woodman

Arriving Elders Lee, Simmons, Grover, Buckley, Lewis,  Gordon, Waters, Jackson, and Winkle

Sister Johnson with the Youngbergs

Sister Johnson couldn't ask for a better
trainer than Sister Gow.

Elder Simmons being trained by Elder Beveridge
who was trained by Elder Benson

 A couple of 3 generation pictures - trainers with
the elders who trained them.

Elder Buckley being trained by Elder Black
who was trained by Elder Olson

The only picture of the departing missionaries was this one. For some reason, Olivia (my official photographer) was so caught up in the emotions of the day that she failed to take any pictures.

Elder Olson is going home
to Provo. He was a great
leader as well as an
exemplary missionary.

In the group were all the sisters who entered Sweden with Elder Benson who is currently serving as an Assistant to the President. He lost the battle of controlling his emotions, so he put on his dark glasses and I gave him a tissue as he said his good-byes.  Leaving were Sisters Anderson, Hatch McClatchie, Pullins, Moffat; Elders Baquedano, Blattman, Cragun, Duke, Gergetz, Goffe, Kendall, Lohmeier, Mecham, Muirhead, Nelson, Olson, Swenson and Williams.

We worked in some degree or another with all the sisters and most of the elders during the last 10 months. We were sad to see them go, but confident of their commitment to the Gospel of Christ and of their abilities to make a difference in the wards and stakes where they will spend the rest of their lives.


Friday, we were asked to assist Elder and Sister Pettit who have the assignment as Self Reliance missionaries. They presented a PowerPoint lesson on TIPPs for Teens (Time, Intensity, Partner, Problem Solving - surprisingly the words are very similar in Swedish) to a group of youth from several cities in Norrland. We used some of our initiative games to supplement their presentation reinforcing the principles of unity, leadership, creative thinking, dealing with time, etc.  It was great fun to use these games again. It has been awhile, but they still make the points.

This group of youth came from several cities to participate in temple baptisms and stay a week. It takes between 6 and 10 hours (depending on the city from whence they came) to come to the temple, so they stay as long as possible. Unfortunately, the young women didn't stay for our meeting, but the young men enjoyed it and learned from it, I observed.

There is a way, I promise

That's not it

Norrland District leaders,
President and Sister
Kronberg, thinking
outside the box

These guys broke the string
and thought they had found
the solution. Nope.

Elder and Sister Pettit

Today we welcomed Elder Harrell and Sister Argyle to our Uppsala Ward. Sister Argyle was an exchange student there three years ago, so it was a nice homecoming for her. Both bore their testimonies at the request of the bishop and both have excellent Swedish. They will do a great job and we are excited for them.

We are looking forward to the coming week. It is the week of Festinord, which is the largest gathering of young single adults in Europe. We will let you know how it goes next Sunday.