Jul (Yule) Love Visiting Sweden

Gott Nytt År!! Happy New Year everyone! It is January 1, 2018 and as we look back over the past week, I realized that the time between Christmas and New Year's Day is the perfect time to visit Sweden. It is not so crowded, the cool Christmas things are on sale, the traffic which is usually impossible seems light and the tourist spots have very little competition. 

Our holiday week was especially wonderful thanks to a visit from Sydney Reynolds and Emily Jolliffe, friends of our niece, Jessica Smith who, with her mother (Olivia's sister) Jennifer, were our first visitors here in Sweden back in 2016. More about their visit, below.

Christmas day came and went as I reported last week. We did open our presents to discover they hadn't changed since we bought them together and put them under the tree several weeks ago. Olivia surprised me with a stocking stuffer  -  a cheese slicer, and in her stocking was a butter knife. Both of them have reindeer horn handles and will be very useful in the kitchen when we return. We also stocked up on Christmas items that are particularly Swedish.

Plates from  Fjällräven
that will be used for
camping

The butter knife

The moose-shaped cheese slicer

Of course, the most enjoyable of all was visiting with family most of our evening and the following morning. It seems that everyone had a happy, generous and fun Christmas. Family is the frosting on the cake for us while we are so far removed from them, so seeing
the grandchildren enjoying their treasures was especially joyful.

We also enjoyed a short office meeting on the next day where we said goodbye to Elder Porter who has been an especially excellent POE. He will be transferring to Alingsås, in the Göteborg Zone. We will miss him, but they will be happy to have this dedicated, hard-working missionary. It will be good for him to get back into the everyday missionary routine again. I know he has missed it, even though he has been able to use his computer skills to improve and automate much of the POE work in the office.

Elders Lee, Hambrick, Harper, and Porter with the traditional
pillow. 

Elder Lee will finally have a companion. Elder Benson left and no other Assistant was assigned until this transfer, so he has been using Elder Hambrick as his companion, except when meeting with the President. Elder Berlin will be coming in as the new Assistant. Things are about to get even more positive! Elder Berlin has featured prominently in past posts. He is a natural leader, but has never been a zone leader and is currently a senior companion. President Youngberg has said that he wants to end speculation about who will be "promoted" so missionaries understand that we do not move up or down in the Church. We only move forward or not according to how we magnify our particular callings.

On Tuesday we also picked up Sydney and Emily from the airport and, after bring them home for a light breakfast, took them to the Clubhouse to change clothes. They wanted to see and go to the temple which is on the other side of Stockholm, so we quickly made the trip. We arrived a little early, so we walked to the forest where hundreds of burial sites have been discovered and where some have been excavated.

The burial sites are rather specialized in this area. Some even date back to the Stone and Bronze Ages. Many, probably most are Viking era. Some areas are for children's graves, and others for young adults (roughly teenagers to about 25-years old). The temple is set very near an ancient temple, the remains of which were discovered some time ago, so it is fitting that posthumous work is happening in this area.

Emily and Sydney with us at the temple

With the Moroni spire

The path through the forest in which the large grave site is located

One of the many monuments still
standing in the forest.

The rest of the week was mostly dedicated to showing and seeing the sights and sites of Stockholm and other areas nearby. I will mostly put up pictures and captions of this especially wonderful week.

I had to include this pumpkin.. It was so different from those
we are used to but it made a huge pot of the most delicious
pumpkin bisque. We have been enjoying it for the past week.
I am married to an amazing, talented woman.

Our guests for the week. Sydney and Emily
by the tree in our apartment

It is almost mandatory to visit the Vasa Museum. We also visited the new Viking Living and Nordic Museums which are on the same campus.

The restored ship

Emily at a display in the Vasa

Sydney viewing the Viking children
display with a little Viking

In a replica of a burned out Viking long boat

Scary? Not so much

At the entry to the Nordic Museum

We found a map of the lights of Stockholm, so we scouted them out.

This one is nearer our apartment in Upplands Väsby, a few
kilometers north of Stockholm, proper.

About 1.5 hours from us is Anundshog, a Viking burial area that has the highest grave mound in the country, though there are some about this large in Uppsala's old town. This one has 5 burial sites where the graves are marked in stones in the outline of a ship. 

The sun came out for a few minutes

But it was still quite cold. Olivia at the base of the
mound.

One of the stone outlines of a burial ship. 

The stone in the center is where the ashes
of the deceased are buried

Two of the larger grave sites

A rune stone in the royal road called Eriksgatan

From the top of the tumulus

The beauty of the area was captured by Elder Hale's
photographic expertise.

A little hard to get the perspective, but these are some of the stones that
mark the path of the royal highway, Eriksgatan. It was this road
along which the prospective king would pass to visit the nobles
of the country. The kings were elected by the nobility. The
road ends in Uppsala, where the king would be crowned in
 the Dom Kyrka.

A panoramic view of the area from the top.

We hurried off to get back to Stockholm, so the two friends could tour on their own. We joined them that evening for dinner at a little restaurant they had found earlier in the week and wanted to share with us.

The decorations on the wall are graffiti from prior patrons. We
asked for a marker, so we are now immortal, as well. 

That is not soup, it is a bowl of hot
chocolate. 

They remembered Emily from their first
visit. She is passionate about everything
it seems, but especially about a bowl
of hot chocolate!

We will be back

We picked them up early on Sunday so we could see some of the sights in Uppsala and Gamla Uppsala before church.I have posted information and pictures of both previously, so we took only a few this time.

A nativity scene in the old church that is out only during the
Christmas holiday period..While not ancient, this nativity scene was
carved in 1927, and depicts the animals of the region, rather
than those in Bethlehem.For instance, the wise men
are on draft horses.

Going to our ward, the guests were
able to meet many of our friends
as well as the missionaries.

Outside the Dom Kyrka

Because we had only one meeting, we had time to return home
and have birthday cake for Emily. Her birthday is Jan. 2. We
serenaded her with the Swedish birthday song, of course 

Emily had to fly out Sunday afternoon, so after the birthday cake, we took her to the airport and then took Sydney back to the Clubhouse as she was not feeling well. She thought she would be able to rest. Obviously, she does not know Stockholm on New Year's Eve. 

We were invited to spend the evening at the Bells' apartment with the Smiths, Donohoos, and Hales. Before the new year commenced, people were setting off a lot of fireworks, but when the clock struck midnight, the sky absolutely turned bright with fireworks, professional and amateur, in every direction. The fireworks, available here for anyone to purchase, are amazing. We were high in the apartment and could see 360°. In every direction the sky was ablaze, the noise was awesome and the excitement of the children who were allowed to stay up and participate was evidenced by their shouting and laughter.

Sydney was awakened by the noise and light just in the neighborhood where the mission office is located. She did get some sleep afterward, but will be glad for some quiet time on the train back to Germany where she lives and teaches school. 

We took her to the train station and helped her find her track about an hour before she needed to go, so we left her to window shop until the train arrived. 

We will miss both of these cheerful, faith-filled women and wish them the best.

Now, back to work. New missionaries tomorrow. Lots to do this week and we are looking forward to serving, again.

We wish you all the best of the new year ahead. It will certainly be an eventful year for us.