Behind by a Nose

Last September, we were unloading some items at a garbage sorting area. While I put the last few items into their proper bins, Olivia decided to close the back door to the van. The door doesn't always close on the first try, so she brought it down hard. Unfortunately, she neglected to step back and instead of closing the door, she slammed it onto her nose and knocked herself to the ground.

Sort of what it looked like. This person
apparently had a similar accident.

The nose has been sore on and off since then, but last week it became almost unbearable. She had trouble concentrating and needed more rest to alleviate the pain. She had been asked to give a talk, in Church, so she braved it and made it through the talk. Then we left  right after the Sacrament Meeting because she was not feeling at all well. Her nose and sinuses were throbbing. She had a headache and just felt ill overall. We called Elder Hall, who is serving with his wife as the Stockholm YSA missionaries. He is also an MD and has helped numerous missionaries over the last 15+ months. He contacted Aetna and over the rest of the day, went back and forth about what was necessary to do in order to see an ENT doctor. It was finally determined that the best approach would be for her to go to the emergency room on Monday.

There are several hospitals in the Stockholm area and the one they required us to go to is Karolinska Sjukhuset (literally, sick house). It is a huge campus, so finding the building housing the emergency room was no easy task. I finally found the campus map on a sign and figured out where to go. In unfortunate Stockholm fashion, even though there are buildings to care for thousands of people, there are only 10 parking spots. I found one that was clearly marked as something other than for the emergency room, but I could not figure out what it was for, so I took a chance. 

We needed the Vuxenakut (adult acute care)  of course, I didn't
take the time to learn the Swedish before charging in, so we
figured it out when I finally looked at the map

We took a number and waited for her turn to have a brief interview, so she could wait for the ENT doctor to be available. I returned to the car and discovered that we not only did not have a ticket, but that a spot in the area clearly marked for emergency room parking had opened up and no one was there to take it. I moved the car and paid for parking, then went back in to wait. We watched the Swedish women defeat the Japanese women in the Olympic curling event. Almost two hours later we were able to visit with the doctor. 

It was discovered that the problem had nothing to do with the broken nose (he confirmed that it was truly broken), but was a viral infection - sinusitis. Basically, she was told to take some pain pills to alleviate the pain and reduce the swelling, and keep her nose clean until it had run its course.

We sort of laid low much of this week taking care of matters from home. She is feeling better and we are back to a full schedule this week.

Normally, we would do laundry, cleaning and the like on Monday, but with the emergency room adventure and office meeting (where her head felt like it would explode), Monday was out. Tuesday, we caught up on what we would normally do on Monday, except at a much slower pace. Wednesday, she still wasn't quite up to a day out, so we stayed home and I worked on items that had been neglected, both personal and mission. It was good to catch up, wrap up tax matters, apartment matters, and do some research regarding where we will settle after this mission.

Dust bunnies multiply faster than real bunnies
in our apartment. It felt good to get rid of them.

A former ward member returned home to
Mongolia and left the ward Relief Society
a gift. It is a cross stitch of the Savior.
The ladies in the ward take turns filling in
the stitches. It gave Olivia something to do
while she recovered.

By Thursday, she was feeling much better, so we began the process of gathering the items we will need to outfit a newly acquired apartment for Elder and Sister Donohoo in the city of Skövde, where we will be going later this week.

We have a lot of items in our little storeroom, but it also meant a couple of shopping trips for the few items we don't have there. She was exhausted at the end of the day, but glad to be out of the house.

By Saturday, she was ready to do something fun, so she made arrangements to go to the Kaknästornet for lunch. The office and adjoining apartments are being repainted and carpeted this week, so we helped move furniture in preparation for that, then went with the Hales to the top of the tower. We had an excellent buffet lunch and then went to the very top to get pictures outside. It was kind of a gloomy day, but when our kids come in May and June it will be a grand adventure and beautiful day for pictures.

With Elder Hales. A view of the water and the island of Lidingö
below us.

The tower is a radio and TV communications
tower. It has a cafe and a restaurant near the
top, so you have an amazing view while eating.

Elder and Sister Hales

Olivia took pictures from all around the tower

Other than getting a little behind, we were able to prepare for the coming week, assist some elders and sisters in little emergencies, eat a dinner featuring spaghetti squash with the Hales, share lunch with the Jakobsberg district and make some repairs to various things, which is always fun for me.

When closing an apartment, we discovered
that the elders, some years ago, allowed
a family in the building use their storage
area. By now, no one knew which family
it was. With Olivia's sleuthing we found
them, but they didn't want the toddler
bed . We told the lady we would try
to find a good home for it..

A young couple in our ward who are both
doctoral students, have a toddler and an
infant and were happy to accept it.Olivia
found a small crack on one side, so I
repaired it. We delivered it after church
today.

Today, it was my turn to speak in Sacrament Meeting. They asked that I take 5-7 minutes, but with translation services, it always takes longer. 

This week is Sportlov (sports break) in this area of Sweden. Other counties have their week off at other times between the weeks of February 12 and March 5. School is out and families take vacation so they can take advantage of the ski resorts for the week.
As we traveled to church we saw car after car with skis strapped to their roofs. I told them that it reminded me of a time Elder Glen L. Pace spoke in Conference. He told how he and his wife tried to impress the value of keeping the Sabbath Day holy by telling their children that they would always be happier in church than if they were involved in some recreational activity. One beautiful Sunday as they pulled out of their driveway they saw another family pull out with a big ski boat in tow. One of the children remarked, "There goes a carload of miserable people!" I could tell most of the congregation speaks English, because they laughed before the translator started.

I spoke about Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life. At the beginning, he was invited to follow, by a man dressed in a white robe. He found himself in a mist of darkness, apparently abandoned by the man in white. Why did he not attempt to turn back, curse his situation or just give up in despair? Because he had the spiritual tools to continue in faith. He was ultimately rewarded by partaking of the fruit of the tree. I related that to our lives. We go through mists of darkness periods from time to time. If we have developed the tools, we can remain faithful and will ultimately taste of the fruit again.

Where was the man in white? Why did he not take Lehi at least
to the iron rod?

We can taste the fruit again.

We hope you had a wonderful Sunday and a great week. We were happy to see that northern Nevada got some snow. Hopefully, more will come. You can have some of Sweden's if you could arrange it. Norrland has had record breaking amounts of it this winter. Our love to you all.