Answered Prayers, Again & Again

Fasting is a principle of faith in many religions and is, as far as I have experienced, basically for the same reason. It makes us humble and, as a result, draws us closer to God. Fasting in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is typically done on the first Sunday of each month. We refrain from eating or drinking for at least 2 meals, and we donate the amount we would have spent on the meals (usually considerably more) to the Church for the relief of those in need. That Sunday, instead of having assigned speakers at our Sacrament Meeting, the members of the congregation are given the opportunity of bearing testimony to the principles of the Gospel.

Typically, our fasts are accompanied by prayers for a special purpose, person, or situation. Often Olivia will ask me, or I will ask her, "What are you fasting for today?" The answer may be a child or grandchild with particular challenges; a friend or ward member who is ill or in need of attention for some reason. Several times, in the last few months, we have fasted and prayed to find apartments in areas where we were about to lose them.

Today, I fasted and prayed simply as an expression of gratitude. 

As I wrote last week, we were, at the last minute, able to secure an apartment for the Västerhaninge sisters, but we were not as successful for the Gubbängen elders. They were forced to move in with the zone leaders, whose apartment is adequate, but it is quite crowded. President Youngberg informed us in our office meeting on Monday that he felt that having these missionaries together was for a very good purpose. We were happy to hear that, but still felt that it needed to be a temporary situation.

As we were about to leave our apartment on Friday, I checked the emails again and found that one of the messages I had left in answer to an ad for an apartment had been answered. Jonathan asked that we call him to set a time to see the apartment. This, after answering 50+ ads for apartments in that area. We immediately called and found that he spoke excellent English and that he was more than willing to show us the apartment that day.

When we met with him, we discovered that he had been an exchange student in a little town outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was aware of and has great respect for the Church and was happy to inform other applicants that the apartment was taken. With that the last urgent need was filled.

When we started our fast yesterday, I thought, "What or who needs a special fast and prayer." It was immediately obvious that it should not be for more blessings, but to simply express thanks.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but it allows you to picture in your minds what it means to us and you to act in faith and receive the needed blessings.

With a little respite this week we were able to take a couple of days to organize the storage areas where the items we have accumulated from closing apartments are now spread all over the floors and shelves.

Olivia's before picture. We are not quite ready for the after
picture, yet.

Normally, I would be turned the other
direction, organizing tools and
hardware. Olivia caught me making
notes for some reason.

We drove back out to Västerhaninge on Monday to sign that apartment contract and that evening we met for our office meeting. It was our turn to give the success story and associated scripture. We, of course, retold the success stories of finding apartments and related that to Doctrine & Covenants 98:1-2

1 Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks;

2 Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

Expand the picture and you will see that it is
a ski slope. It is right inside  Stockholm.
We were traveling to Västerhaninge
by a different route and saw it. 

The president's assistants and  Proselyting Office Elders
No one is being transferred for a couple of weeks, but
they wanted the traditional picture together for some reason.

One evening Olivia left me to fend for myself (it was kind of nice, really), while she met with other senior sisters for a crafts night. Sister Hall wants to have a crafts night for the young single adults and asked these women to make samples to show the young sisters and have them sign up for the ones that interest them.

Olivia painted this flower pot. Now who would
not want to make that?

The craft night crew: Sisters Hall, Smith, Bell, Hales and Olivia

We helped with zone conference this week. It was a combined conference because it included a mission tour by Elder Paul V. Johnson. Elder Johnson is the Europe Area President, having served as a counselor with Elder Tim Dyches prior to Elder Kearnon's call to serve as a President of the Seventy. Elder Johnson gave us a boost by announcing that he wanted to inspect a few apartments as part of the tour. Every missionary was just sure it would be their apartment and a lot of cleaning happened on Monday.

Olivia was able to hear him speak, but Elder Hales and I had to travel back to pick up the food for the luncheon. As a side note, the menu included curry chicken. The chicken comes in a pan full of sauce. Two of the pans slipped and spilled. We no longer have the new-car smell in our new Ford van.

We were able to hear his counsel at the end of the conference which was a Q & A session. We were also able to have a long conversation with Sister Johnson and briefly with Elder Johnson, as well. They are both very congenial and kind. We enjoyed the entire conference, even though we spent much of it setting up and cleaning up before and after the meal.

The ladies decided that a Valentine's theme with tulips would
be the perfect touch.

Sisters Johnson, Olivia, Hales, Smith and Bell

Me with Elders Bell, Smith and Hales. Elder Johnson was
in the conference meeting

Senior couples at the zone conference: Johnsons, Hales,
Donohoos, Bells, us, Halls, and Smiths

The first Swedish missionary we met at the MTC, Sister
Botchway. Her group of sisters goes home this month.

Sister DeMordaunt always looks us up. She has become an
outstanding missionary.

Don't be confused; we have our own Elder and Sister Johnson who are serving on the island of Gotland. They come in for Zone conferences; this time to listen to Elder and Sister Johnson of the Seventy.

We ended the week with a little outing to see a movie (yep, senior couples can go to the movies) with a few other couples and then we delivered 9 cases of Book of Mormons to the theater. We will be doing this every Saturday until the play ends in March. We won't normally stay to the bitter end as we did last Saturday, however.

At the theater with Elders Strong and Lee; Sisters Anderson,
Hopkins, and Johnson with a brother from the Västerhaninge  Ward.

Today, we attended our meetings in Uppsala, but took our time returning because our landlord and landlady were showing their home and our apartment to a prospective purchaser. We are assured that we can stay until we leave, but we may be looking for alternate housing for the couple who replace us in August.

We decided to visit some churches we see as we travel. We knew there was little hope of looking inside, but wanted to at least see the outside and learn what we could about them.

We have dozens of pictures of this church because it is in a
perfect position with fields between it and the expressway.
We wanted to show the wind-blown snow on this very
frosty day.

At the Husby Ärlinghundra Kyrka.
This was built first in 1150 replacing
a wooden church  that was built many
years prior. It was added to in the 13th
and 14th Centuries. Unfortunately,
we were not able to enter, but could
see through the windows old sculptrues
dating from the 1300s and 1400s.

No idea of the age of the tree near the
gate, but it is interesting due to its
being so gnarly.

Many of these old churches have incorporated rune stones into
their walls. Where they have been discovered, they are now
exposed to view. The sign explaining this on has been
removed. Typically, they are in memory of a deceased
loved one.

This is part of the cemetery which is the largest in the Märsta area.

The Norrsunda Kyrka near our off ramp. Olivia was impressed
by the variety of architectural styles from stone to brick; Greek-
style columns, copper and tin roof on part and tile on the rest.
It, too, dates back to the 12th Century replacing a worship hall
of wood from the 9th Century. Again,it was not open
and the windows are hard to see through.

This church had a couple of visible rune stones

There are graves dating back to the 1600s, but they are inside.
In these cemeteries, if no one is interested in paying the
annual rent the graves are re-used. This is a pile of headstones
that used to be over graves that now hold someone else's remains

This is near the Arlanda/Stockholm airport.

The second runestone

This is Eds Church. It is not named after
a man named Ed. Ed is Swedish
for oath. We had visited here
on All Saints Day to see all the candles
 placed on the graves. We came today
because when we arrived at our
apartment, the prospective purchasers
were still  there and we needed
to make ourselves scarce for
a while longer. It is unique
because of the lighting on
and around it.

Just after we arrived home, we got a call on Messenger from our son Micah and his wife, Camille telling us that they have secured tickets to come to Sweden. Of course, Nigel did a little research and discovered that Sweden is near Denmark and Denmark is where Legos were invented, so part of their time will be spent in the real Legoland.

We are excited for the visits that will start taking place in May and go through June. 

We appreciate each of you. I know it is not easy to slog through these blogs and we certainly don't expect you to do so. For those who read them from time to time, thanks and we hope your lives are blessed.