The March Marathon Has Begun

We looked at the activities scheduled for March and wonder how we will fit it all in. It began in February, of course, and will not end until the second week of April. We will see a lot of highway between now and then and as you likely know, all of Europe is having an especially long and very cold winter. The snow here refuses to be bullied by snow plows, so it just blows right back onto the roads. So much came in such a short time that many of the roads are still covered with six to eight centimeters of snow. The road crews are good about spreading out the sand, so the travel is less slippery, but it has been dangerous in many streets to travel the speed limit.

On this major artery it is important to be in the proper lane at the
right time or we will miss the tunnel and have to manage the
impossible streets of Stockholm. We couldn't see the lines,
so we hoped we were getting over at the right time and place.

Even after the snow plow cleaned the driveway at
the mission office, more came
and covered everything back up. It is
so cold that the snow doesn't pack down.
It does, however, turn into icy roads.

In a way, it is a good thing that the weather has been so cold. It has been an agenda item to re-carpet and paint the office and the office couple's apartment. Monday night, after the office meeting, we went to the office with the office missionaries and moved all the furniture, file cabinets, etc. out of the office and onto the porch to accommodate the workers who would be coming on Tuesday. If it had been warmer, the snow would have melted and caused a lot of damage to the things that are still stored there pending the upgrades. Computers and other electronic equipment went into the basement. We didn't take a chance on those things.

The Poes remove snow from the walkways. Elders Liljenquist,
Harper and Jarman

The large cabinet is out. More to follow

The Hales bring more stuff to clear out the office

Moving out the large desk. Björn from
the Church's Facilities Maintenance
came to supervise.

The Assistants finally cleaned out their office. Elders Berlin and Lee.

Someone has to test the hand truck
Elders Harper, Jarman and Lee

It takes more than brains to move this desk. It takes delusions
of grandeur. Elders Hales, Harper, Berlin, Lee and Liljenquist 

Wondering where to put the rest of the stuff.

Sister Hales stands in front of her kitchen
where everything they could put there was
stored while their apartment got new carpet
and paint, as well.

Sister Hales tried to find space in the
basement for some of the truly delecate
items. It was already full with items
we had gathered to take on our next day's
journey.

We had little time for typical P day stuff because we had to make an emergency run to Västerås (vest' er ose') where the sisters had broken their shower head and needed it replaced before the next time we would pass that way. Luckily, a trip to Bauhaus and then an hour trip to Västerås and we were able to fix the shower, re-hang a closet door and repair a cupboard knob. We got back in time to do a little laundry. Then it was off to the office meeting and moving the stuff mentioned above.

Sister Judd is in her second transfer and still training. Sister Cook
tells us she is doing exceptionally well.

A timed selfie with Sisters Judd and Cook

We dropped them off near the ward building
for their lunch appointment.

The Västerås chapel

Early Wednesday morning, the Hales took two of the Swedish sister missionaries to the airport. Sister Nilsson has been waiting for her visa to the US and Sister Huldin has been a special case trying mission life to see if she was a good candidate for a mission. She has been an exemplary missionary. She is off to  the MTC in England, and then to serve in the Preston, England mission.

On their way back from the airport, the Hales picked up a moving van which we filled with all the things we would need to move Elder and Sister Donohoo to Sjövde (shove' duh or hwhev' duh, depending on where in the country you are from) where they will be a support to the branch president in reactivation efforts. They are especially well suited for that assignment. They regularly run out of pass-along cards wherever they go.

I drove the van to the apartment that we are soon closing to get
much of the furniture we would need for the Donohoos. What
would normally have taken 45 minutes from the office, took almost
an hour and a half in the winter whiteout conditions on the roads.

We had a great moving team there: Elders Peterson, Lee, Liljenquist, Jarman,  Harper, Cook and Langford

Enjoying the cookies Olivia rewarded them.

Loading the rest of the items that had been put aside at the office.
The POEs got double duty that day. Elders Donohoo, Liljenquist,
Hales, Sis. Hales, Elders Jarman and Harper, Sister Donohoo

There was a good deal of relief in the basement and garage at the office when we were finally able to move some of the furniture, dishes, lights, lamps, and other household items out. We can walk around without having to move things around just to make a trail.




Tuesday, ( know I'm going backwards, here, but it just worked out that way) we went to the airport to pick up the new senior couple, the Whiteheads, who will be helping with records preservation. They will be in the Stockholm archives with the Smiths taking pictures of the pages of books all day for five days each week. They have been working at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for the past 2 1/2 years, so they know the value of the work they will do here.

The welcoming party at the airport: Elder and Sister Hales, Pres.
and Sister Youngberg, Elder and Sister Donohoo, Elder and
Sister Whitehead, Sisters Smith and Hall, Elders Hall and Smith,
Olivia and me

The Donohoos, Smiths and Andersons
Help the Whiteheads into their new
apartment. Donohoos have been
living there, so they could tell them
all the secrets to running the appliances.

Wednesday, Elder and Sister Bell had a welcoming party at their
 apartment for the Whiteheads. Sister Smith, Sister and Elder
Donohoo, Elder Bell, Elder Hales.

The other party participants: Elder Whitehead, Sister Hales,
Sister Whitehead, Elder Smith, Sister Bell

Early Thursday morning we welcomed clear weather and headed out to Sjövde. The Hales drove the moving van with the Donohoos following them. We live closer to the highway, so we were a little ahead of them. The van has some kind of weird governor that slowed it down some. Still, we all met for lunch in a little town called Mariestad and then caravaned into Sjövde because the Hales didn't have a GPS. Elders Cluff and Jordan were supposed to meet us there to help unload the heavy stuff from the van, but their train was delayed so we unloaded most of it until Elder Hales declared that the rest would wait for the elders to appear.

Obviously a union man 😉

The elders finally arrived and we got everything into the apartment, assembled and mostly put away. The next day the Hales drove back in order to turn in the van on time. The Kelleys came up from Göteborg and helped us put things away, install curtain rods, hang a heavy mirror and some pictures and generally made themselves exceptionally useful. 

Elders Donohoo, Cluff and Jordan on the newly assembled sectional/
hide-a-bed. Our friends the Clouses will recognize this from the
time we tried assembling it for the Halls.

Elder Hales and I trying to figure out how to hang this heavy mirror

The Scandic Hotel where we spent the night. They are not
usually this grand looking. Inside, it was a typical Scandic.

Olivia and Sister Hales met these two
returned missionaries in the hotel. They are
both from Sweden and working for the same
company.

Donohoos and Kelleys in the new apartment

Thanks to Elder Kelley, I didn't have
to stand on a chair to install this curtain rod!

On our way back home, we again stopped in Mariestad, but this time we went into the city center to find lunch. As we drove in we saw an unusually large church building for a small town, so we drove to it. It is a dom kyrka or cathedral that was built from 1593 to 1615. Right in the middle of the Reformation. It became a Luthern  cathedral when the Uppsalla Möte (council) determined that once and for all, Sweden would be Luthern. Interestingly, it never seated a bishop, only a superintendent, so it was never technically a dom kyrka, though that was the original intent and that is still how it is designated. It is among the best kept churches we have visited.

Amazing architecture. The church is
also amazing.

Testing the doors to see if it is open
to the public. It is.

The angles from this vantage point
were worth trying to get the photo.

The pulpit is decorated with Christ and the apostles.

Peter with the key from Jesus

The ceiling is worth enlarging to
see the detail.

Back outside Olivia tried to capture the entire front of the building.

Back home late Friday, we took much of the next morning to chart our plans for the coming week, and shop for the items we will be taking with us. We needed to take an easy chair to the Whitehead's apartment. When we called to set a time, they invited and we happily accepted an dinner invitation from them. It was Elder Whitehead's birthday, so we sang the Swedish birthday song to him. 

At home with the Whiteheads.

As the evening wore on, we spent some time with our daughter, Hannah, on Messenger, then drove, as we do every Saturday night, to the theater where the Book of Mormon musical is showing to deliver 180 copies of the Book of Mormon. Members from an assigned ward and the missionaries hand them out to the audience members as they exit the building. 

I was happy to just place them where we usually do, wait for some missionaries and leave, but Olivia kept insisting that we stay until all the missionaries arrived. Soon, two sisters came with a member in the member's car. They couldn't find a place to park, so they drove away! Before we knew it the audience was pouring out of the exit doors and we two were the only ones there to give out books. Many took them from the stacks we had made, but we offered them as best we could. 

Olivia spoke to them in English and I used my (exceptionally) limited Swedish. "Ta boken?" "Varsagod!" "Mormons Bok" I was surprised at how many actually seemed to understand me. Of course, that meant that they talked back and expected that I would know what they were saying. Sometimes I did. "Gratis?" "Ja, javist." and she took one with a quick "Tack!" Usually, though, it was "I'm sorry, I only speak English." They always spoke back in English after that.

About half of the audience had left, I had given out all my books on one side of the building and was moving to the other side to help Olivia when the sisters returned and we managed all the doors on the main side. Of the 180 we brought we gave out all but 14 books. Not too bad for a crisis situation. It was actually quite fun, but it meant that we didn't get home until after 11:30 PM.

Twenty books to a box. We bring nine
boxes. We take them out of the box,
then turn the box over and put the
stack on top, so they are protected
and easy to reach.

Sisters Back (from Finland) and Hickman. Thank goodness
they came!

That little adventure left us rather sleep deprived for our Sunday meetings, but we managed to get through them. It was a particularly good fast meeting. We had several visitors all of whom seemed to enjoy the services. Olivia and the sister missionaries were particularly attentive to a woman who was quite inquisitive about the Church. The sisters were excited to follow up with her. They were also anxious to tell us that Michael, a Chinese man who had been attending regularly and desiring to learn about the Church had called and asked to have them teach him again. He had found some anti-Mormon stuff on the web and did not want to continue, but now he is finding that without the principles of the Gospel, there is a hole in his life. We are all hoping that he continue in his pursuit. He is a microbiology PhD working for the county. We hope his wife and child are here, now, so the whole family can be blessed by the Gospel.

As we started this process tonight, Olivia noticed a helicopter land very near our apartment and evacuate someone in a stretcher, so she got as good a picture as she could, as well as a video. This mission is full of excitement!

Enlarge it to see the chopper in the field just below the trees.