Short and Sweet

Today it snowed. Beautiful, heavy flakes, then light, airy ones which were followed by a rain that melted all the flakes. It is a strange sort of time in this bleak midwinter. February has been quite cold so far, but we are told (and it proved to be so last year) that winter turns to spring quite abruptly. The first part of March will welcome Spring. Fine with us.

With all the finding of apartments, we now have to do the heavy lifting - literally. Moving furniture out of and into apartments, deep cleaning and then doing it all over again. 

This week was Västerhaninge. There are currently 3 sisters in the apartment, but they will be down to 2 with the transfers, this week. We moved them to their new apartment on Friday after several days of preparation. On Saturday, they spent most of the day helping us clean the old apartment. We still have to go back for last minute cleaning and moving furniture we can't use in their new apartment.

The original idea was that Olivia and
Sister Hales would stay and put the
IKEA wardrobe together while the
Elders, Elder Hales and I moved
the heavy stuff.

When we arrived we found that
there was still much to do with
the wardrobe, so Elder Hales
stayed and helped.

Sister Hales and Olivia cleaned,
boxed up items that needed to
be taken to the new apartment
 and put things away. We were so
grateful for their help!

Trying to uncurl the new floor mat

Elders Olson and Rasmussen helped with the big stuff, but also had
to check out the kitchen. They scored a very large box of Corn
Flakes and a few other items. I ended up with the Julmust.

At lunch with the moving crew: Sister Hopkins, Elder Rasmussen,
Olivia, Elder Olson, Sister and Elder Hales, me, Sisters Johnson
and Anderson

The sisters came back to clean
the next day:
Sisters Hopkins, Anderson and
Johnson

Sister Manning was pretty sure she would be moved from our Uppsala Ward as she has been there for 6 months, and she was right. She has been an angel with a truly giving heart. She has trained Sister Beck who came to her fresh from the MTC. Sister Beck has been in the country for only 12 weeks, but has now been called to train a sister who will arrive this week from the MTC. She has been well trained and is perfectly ready to step into the role.

Sister Manning

We were surprised to hear that Elder Carlson will also be transferred. He was equally surprised, it seems. He has only been here for one transfer (6 weeks) and expected that he would return home from Uppsala. President Youngberg had other ideas; he has been called to serve as a zone leader. We haven't heard where he will serve, yet. He will serve enthusiastically and kindly.

Elder Carlson

As we entered the church building on Sunday, Sister Sol-Brit Burman asked Olivia if we were available after the meetings. She said she had cake that she needed help eating. We gave the Burmans and Anna Masus a ride to the Burman home after choir practice to find that she had a meal of roast beef, gravy (to which Brother Tore Burman had added something like Postum or Pero), potatoes, salad, etc. The cake was already baked and refrigerated, then Sol-Brit whipped cream and covered it with blueberries and shaved white chocolate.

Tore making the gravy. Who knew
that the cereal drink mix would
 make the gravy so delicious?

We didn't get a picture of their son Christoffer, or Anna, but you can hear their voices in the video.

Adding the blueberries

Shaving the white chocolate

Table conversation was interesting as they talked in Swedish about things they didn't think it was our business to know. Sometimes they would realize that we were not chiming in and they would remember to speak English. "Vad heter på Engelska." "Hur säger man på Engelska." What is it called in English? How do you say that in English? I was surprised to hear that so often in their conversation because they all have a great command of the English language. I think sometimes, like us, they get tired of having to strain to speak in a second language.

There it is: short and sweet. Well, at least short.

We hope your week is wonderful. We are keeping Dawson Allen in our prayers and are grateful to his family for starting a Caring Bridge website so we can all keep up on his progress. They are so good to send us, and many other missionaries, letters from each member of their family. We know they are loved.