There is a Prophet in the Land

You will recall the story of Naaman in the Old Testament. He was a great general over the army of the king of Syria who had contracted the disease of leprosy. An Israelite servant maiden told his wife that a prophet in Israel could ask God to cure him. On hearing that the great Naaman was coming to Israel, the king of Israel rent his clothes and put on sack cloth and ashes, fearing an attack from Syria's army. Elisha, hearing of the king's torment sent word to the king saying to send Naaman to him, "...and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." Naaman's leprosy was healed as soon as he chose to be obedient to the prophet.

That is how I felt after hearing the testimonials of President Nelson in the Saturday morning sessions, hearing of the restructuring of the priesthood in the priesthood session, culminating in the prophecy-filled talk he gave on Sunday morning. I couldn't help exclaiming, "There is a prophet in the land!" I am sure you felt the same.

We were especially touched when the camera caught him wiping
tears as the members of the Church sustained him in the
solemn assembly

That's how our week ended. We had four senior missionary couples come to our apartment Sunday to watch the Saturday evening session, eat a wonderful meal to which every couple contributed, then watch Sunday morning session live at 6:00 PM here in Sweden. It was a special, sacred time together.

Ready for our Påsk feast. Check out the feathered twigs with
the witches. Odd tradition that we have come to love.

We also celebrated Sister Hall's birthday. Olivia made her a
gluten/milk free cake

Around the table L to R: Olivia, the Halls, Smiths, Bells,
Whiteheads and me with the Påsk must. Another tradition
I will miss. I have to say, however, I am among the few who will. 😆

For only the second time in over 18 months, we were unable to attend the office meeting because of our responsibilities. President Youngberg does not announce transfers until Sunday evening so that people are not using valuable time for anything other than proselytizing work. That meant that a set of sisters in Västerås was going to become a set of three, but we could not get them a bunk bed until Monday. Of course, we had many of our own chores to accomplish before we could collect a bed, drive two hours, set it up, acquire a couple of beds for the Västerås elders, remove their old ones and get everything done before coming back to Stockholm for the meeting. We couldn't. We called in some action items and hoped others would let us in on anything important.

We took apart their old bed to make room for the new. Unfortunately,
they were not at home during all of this, so no photo.
For our record the three sisters are Judd, Edwards and Anderson.
We know an love all three.

Elders Buchanan and Young have been sleeping on the floor
because their bunk bed is broken and creaked so loudly it was
keeping both awake. They were happy to put the legs on the beds
themselves. 

Tuesday began the ordeal of closing another apartment and readying it for return to the owners. We had been working on this one for about three months beginning when we got a letter telling us that the property board (similar to a property owners' association) had ruled that the owners could no longer lease the apartment out. This is not unusual here or in many places in the US, as  well. A difference is that the property owners must allow an owner to lease out the property for at least two years. After that, it can be restricted.This apartment is a real exception in that we have rented it for over ten years. It is not in the elders' area, but close to trains and buses. It is also an area where it is unusually easy for us to park the Ford van. 

We have been burned in the past by not looking deeply enough into the file to see if there is an inventory of items belonging to the landlord that must remain, resulting in destruction or loss of items that had to be replaced at some cost to the mission. This time we not only found an inventory, but photos of those items. We carefully cleaned them all and were about to repair them when we noticed that one picture featured a bed, which we did not have and a night stand, which we did have. We texted the owners and asked if they expected to find a bed when they inspected. We got a reply that they expected the apartment to be totally empty.

It turned out that the owner of the furniture sold it all to the Church several years ago. There was a receipt in the file indicating so, but we missed it. That meant that we had to spend another day and a half hauling items away from the apartment and the attic storage area, as well as cleaning. In all it took four and a half days to complete the project. We are tired of it, but have to buck up because we will be doing the same this week.

The moving crew. We recruited the POEs and the sisters who
share the Jakobsberg area to assist in taking everything needed
from the old apartment and hauling it to the new one.

Elder Liljenquist hauls off bunk bed
parts.

Sister Neilsen and Elder Francis fill boxes

Sister Hall stayed to help clean after
the elders left to unload the van

Elder Liljenquist cheers on Elder Harper
who is taking the dresser down alone.

Elders Francis and Petersen in the attic storage space of their
old apartment.

Elder Petersen collecting kitchen items

Elder Jarman poses for his glamour shot.

Sister Neilsen won't waste precious
cleaning time turning around for a
picture. Smile 😁

Sister Hall cleans baseboards

Repairing windows so they can be cleaned
inside and out.

We all break for lunch 

The cleaning crew remain behind

Putting things together in the new apartment.

A couple of happy elders. The apartment is smaller, but quite
modern and it has an amazing view of the river.

 We had to take time away from the cleaning and repairing to assist with the newly arrived missionaries. We usually help with lunch, sneak into the chapel when they find out who their new companion and area will be and help to take them to the train station. At the station, we pick up the missionaries who are returning home and go with them to the temple. That is always a welcome respite.

Elder Liljenquist trained this couple's son. Brother and Sister
Ahonen came from Finland to deliver a phone to the office for
their son. Our mission is going all digital with smart phones
beginning this month.

Welcoming Elder Lee who will be our new POE

The other Elder Lee is among those leaving for home. Next
transfer will not be on that map.

Sister Mendenhall will be training the only sister in the new
group, Sister Payne

Elder Malone will be a district leader and trainer to Elder Bjornn

Elder Hambrick just completed his time as a POE and is now
a trainer to Elder Balls

The returning missionaries: Front are Sisters Shin, Datwyler,
and Hill. Behind are Pres. and Sister Youngberg, Elders Lee,
Porter, Anthon, Pack and Hawkins
We will miss these missionaries!

In front of the temple with the elders

And with the sisters

One nice perk is that we get to join them for their final dinner
after the temple. Olivia makes a chocolate cake that is
always a hit.

We wrapped up the week by extending it another day - today. We finally finished that apartment with the kind help of Elder and Sister Smith who will be leaving at the end of the week to spend a few days in Ireland, then returning just long enough to gather everything, do a batch of laundry and fly home. They finished their mission as they began it - helping us deep clean an apartment that had to go back to its owner. They are a joy to be around, even when they are not cleaning for us. Their mission has been with Records Preservation. For eight hours a day, they take images of record books at the Stockholm Archives, one page at a time. They deserve a medal and a raise!

Loading up the heavy stuff to haul
away. 

By the time we unloaded everything
the ladies had finished cleaning every
nook, cranny, corner, floor and tile.

Our week was busy, exhausting and exalting with the conference sessions. We hope yours was as blessed.