Dark Days are Behind Us

 These are some of the pictures Olivia took as we drove home from church today at between 2:45 and 3:00 PM. The days are definitely getting longer. Now the sun comes up at 8:40 AM and sets at 3:10 PM. On December 21 the sun came up at 8:45 and set at 2:50. She took the pictures because we seldom see the sun, let alone a sunset and today it was exceptionally dramatic.

We had a nice Sacrament Meeting today. It was Fast Sunday, so we heard a number of testimonies. Surprisingly few mentioned the death of President Thomas S. Monson. That of itself is a testimony.

We do not concern ourselves in the Church with what kind of jockeying for position is going on behind the scenes because the transition takes place very smoothly. We will always have a president/prophet. Until the next prophet is set apart, the Quorum of the 12 Apostles serve as head of the Church, the president of the quorum presides. He becomes the next president of the Church unless he declines, which has not happened since the Church was restored.

Taken from the website www.lds.org 

President Monson is loved here in Sweden as he is all over the world. In the Gubbängen chapel are photographs of him at the time the temple was dedicated. The royal family attended the open house and the pictures show him meeting them and presenting them with their genealogy.

Of course, his and Sister Monson's ancestors are from here, as well. He had visited here on at least three occasions and wrote in the mission home guest book. Here is one of his entries made November 27, 1973.

What a truly delightful experience to be with you in beautiful Stockholm. I feel as though
I have returned to my homeland when I appreciate that it was here  my ancestors and those
of my wife first heard the glorious truths of the Gospel. Thank you so much for your genuine
friendship and hospitality. I look forward to a time when I can return to Sweden.
Thomas S. Monson

It was kind of a fun day, too, because our Ward Mission Leader was absent. Usually, when he can't be there for some reason, he calls one of the sets of missionaries and asks them to take over the class. Today, he didn't, so the young missionaries asked me to do it. We only had one visitor, so it was us, the other missionaries, Evelyn who is back from The Philippines,  and Julia, who likes to come and practice her already fine English. As usual, I took too long and had to cut the lesson short.

This was transfer week and we lost Elder Harrell, who has been here for several months. He is an excellent missionary and we will miss him very much. He is now in Norrköping, near Sebastian's hometown. Sebastian was baptized a few weeks ago, but is a student, so he is back home for the time being. Elder Harrell made sure he was attending church services and this week arranged to see him in church. He never stops caring - the sign of a dedicated man.

Elder Harrell with Sebastian and Elder Grover

We received Elder Carlson who bore his testimony in church today and told of his ancestors who joined the Church in Sweden and immigrated to the US. We have had him in our home when he was laboring in Jakobsberg, near where we live. It was he and his companion that we rescued after the terrorist event in Stockholm last April. We were able to give them a ride home when all transportation systems were locked down and they were in Märsta, several kilometers from their apartment. Since then he has served as a district leader and trainer. He will be a great addition to the ward in Uppsala.

Elder Carlson last November when we
visited his  apartment in Kristianstad

We got seven new missionaries from the MTC this week; all sisters.
In preparing for them, Elder Hales and I took a bunk bed, a desk and bedding to the sisters' apartment in Stockholm, and took out a bed that was replaced by the bunk bed. The apartment will now have four sisters staying there for a couple of transfers, when a number of sisters will be going home. Unfortunately, Olivia was not there to take pictures. Maybe it was not that unfortunate because we had to make so many treks up and down 70+ stairs in a very narrow circular stairway, carrying heavy objects, so we were not that presentable. I was very grateful he offered to come, as it would have been very difficult with just Olivia and me.

Sisters Nilsson, Anderson, Adams, Keogh (from Dundee, Scotland),
Pesci, Judd, and Kenworthy with Pres. and Sister Youngberg

The new sisters met their trainers and had a traditional Swedish
meal together. The APs and POEs helped move them around
and carry their luggage.

The YSA missionaries, Elder and Sister Hall, hosted the lunch

We have been praying and fasting for the last several months for apartments. With the housing shortage and a predisposition against renting to institutions, it has been a real challenge. We are currently looking for 7 new apartments and have not until this week found any. 

We were finally informed by a member of the Skövde Branch that an apartment might be available there. Normally, we would drive down and inspect it ourselves, but with the current need, we looked at the photos of the inside and asked the local missionaries to look at it for us. They were good salesmen and we were able to obtain it on Friday, before it was rented out to students on Saturday. Pres. Youngberg wants to move the Donohoos, a senior couple, to the branch where their strength and abilities are sorely needed. They will likely go there the first week of March.

We have now received word of three more apartments that are willing for us to inspect for the possibility of moving missionaries into them even before they lose their current apartments. We are very happy at the prospect, so we keep praying for more.

The rest of the week we were busy repairing and taking needed items to various apartments. Clothes dryers here are not vented to the outside. Instead, the water is extracted and either collected in a receptacle to be dumped out after each use, or sent through a hose into a drain. 

The dryer in the Västerhaninge sisters' apartment had been leaking for some time. Elder Pettit mentioned it and after the Pettits left for home, Elder Bell looked at it and determined that it needed a repairman. I called a repair facility that specialized in Electrolux and gave them the needed information. They informed me that the machine was so old that parts were unavailable. Not prepared to haggle with the landlord about getting a new one, I decided to look at it myself. I was preparing to remove the back of the machine when Olivia noticed that a hose was detached from the drain in the back. We reattached it and the machine is fine, now.

We had to replace a special type of hinge on the vanity/medicine cabinet, and the flush mechanism on the toilet. We (Olivia) got to know the sisters there quite well while I worked in the bathroom.

I seldom remove my coat, these days. We
tend to go in and out of places, so
 often I don't bother.

It took some time to figure out this
flush system

 The Handen and Hägersten elders needed things taken away from their apartments that had been left by departing missionaries. We also needed to bring items to them and assist in installing and repairing other items.

The door to the balcony leaked cold
air. They had been shoving a
towel against it. I stapled weather
stripping in back and front.Not
perfect, but better.

We replaced  arm rests on their study chairs and reattached
boards to their box springs/beds. Elder Strong (who first
served in Uppsala) and Elder Lee.

Notice the Christmas tree in the back. Christmas decorations stay up until January 13, after which it is bad luck to have them up. We are having a party in the ward to take down the decorations on the 13th. Christmas is celebrated until the 13th day of Christmas, January 6th, which is also a holiday. Today, like last week, we still sang Christmas songs in Church.

So, for the most part, this was a back-to-work week. We like that. We get to be with the young missionaries, we get to perform more one-on-one service, and we certainly get our exercise. 

Whatever your New Year's resolutions, we hope you are enjoying the winter days and the promises of God through his prophets, ancient and modern.

Jul (Yule) Love Visiting Sweden

Gott Nytt År!! Happy New Year everyone! It is January 1, 2018 and as we look back over the past week, I realized that the time between Christmas and New Year's Day is the perfect time to visit Sweden. It is not so crowded, the cool Christmas things are on sale, the traffic which is usually impossible seems light and the tourist spots have very little competition. 

Our holiday week was especially wonderful thanks to a visit from Sydney Reynolds and Emily Jolliffe, friends of our niece, Jessica Smith who, with her mother (Olivia's sister) Jennifer, were our first visitors here in Sweden back in 2016. More about their visit, below.

Christmas day came and went as I reported last week. We did open our presents to discover they hadn't changed since we bought them together and put them under the tree several weeks ago. Olivia surprised me with a stocking stuffer  -  a cheese slicer, and in her stocking was a butter knife. Both of them have reindeer horn handles and will be very useful in the kitchen when we return. We also stocked up on Christmas items that are particularly Swedish.

Plates from  Fjällräven
that will be used for
camping

The butter knife

The moose-shaped cheese slicer

Of course, the most enjoyable of all was visiting with family most of our evening and the following morning. It seems that everyone had a happy, generous and fun Christmas. Family is the frosting on the cake for us while we are so far removed from them, so seeing
the grandchildren enjoying their treasures was especially joyful.

We also enjoyed a short office meeting on the next day where we said goodbye to Elder Porter who has been an especially excellent POE. He will be transferring to Alingsås, in the Göteborg Zone. We will miss him, but they will be happy to have this dedicated, hard-working missionary. It will be good for him to get back into the everyday missionary routine again. I know he has missed it, even though he has been able to use his computer skills to improve and automate much of the POE work in the office.

Elders Lee, Hambrick, Harper, and Porter with the traditional
pillow. 

Elder Lee will finally have a companion. Elder Benson left and no other Assistant was assigned until this transfer, so he has been using Elder Hambrick as his companion, except when meeting with the President. Elder Berlin will be coming in as the new Assistant. Things are about to get even more positive! Elder Berlin has featured prominently in past posts. He is a natural leader, but has never been a zone leader and is currently a senior companion. President Youngberg has said that he wants to end speculation about who will be "promoted" so missionaries understand that we do not move up or down in the Church. We only move forward or not according to how we magnify our particular callings.

On Tuesday we also picked up Sydney and Emily from the airport and, after bring them home for a light breakfast, took them to the Clubhouse to change clothes. They wanted to see and go to the temple which is on the other side of Stockholm, so we quickly made the trip. We arrived a little early, so we walked to the forest where hundreds of burial sites have been discovered and where some have been excavated.

The burial sites are rather specialized in this area. Some even date back to the Stone and Bronze Ages. Many, probably most are Viking era. Some areas are for children's graves, and others for young adults (roughly teenagers to about 25-years old). The temple is set very near an ancient temple, the remains of which were discovered some time ago, so it is fitting that posthumous work is happening in this area.

Emily and Sydney with us at the temple

With the Moroni spire

The path through the forest in which the large grave site is located

One of the many monuments still
standing in the forest.

The rest of the week was mostly dedicated to showing and seeing the sights and sites of Stockholm and other areas nearby. I will mostly put up pictures and captions of this especially wonderful week.

I had to include this pumpkin.. It was so different from those
we are used to but it made a huge pot of the most delicious
pumpkin bisque. We have been enjoying it for the past week.
I am married to an amazing, talented woman.

Our guests for the week. Sydney and Emily
by the tree in our apartment

It is almost mandatory to visit the Vasa Museum. We also visited the new Viking Living and Nordic Museums which are on the same campus.

The restored ship

Emily at a display in the Vasa

Sydney viewing the Viking children
display with a little Viking

In a replica of a burned out Viking long boat

Scary? Not so much

At the entry to the Nordic Museum

We found a map of the lights of Stockholm, so we scouted them out.

This one is nearer our apartment in Upplands Väsby, a few
kilometers north of Stockholm, proper.

About 1.5 hours from us is Anundshog, a Viking burial area that has the highest grave mound in the country, though there are some about this large in Uppsala's old town. This one has 5 burial sites where the graves are marked in stones in the outline of a ship. 

The sun came out for a few minutes

But it was still quite cold. Olivia at the base of the
mound.

One of the stone outlines of a burial ship. 

The stone in the center is where the ashes
of the deceased are buried

Two of the larger grave sites

A rune stone in the royal road called Eriksgatan

From the top of the tumulus

The beauty of the area was captured by Elder Hale's
photographic expertise.

A little hard to get the perspective, but these are some of the stones that
mark the path of the royal highway, Eriksgatan. It was this road
along which the prospective king would pass to visit the nobles
of the country. The kings were elected by the nobility. The
road ends in Uppsala, where the king would be crowned in
 the Dom Kyrka.

A panoramic view of the area from the top.

We hurried off to get back to Stockholm, so the two friends could tour on their own. We joined them that evening for dinner at a little restaurant they had found earlier in the week and wanted to share with us.

The decorations on the wall are graffiti from prior patrons. We
asked for a marker, so we are now immortal, as well. 

That is not soup, it is a bowl of hot
chocolate. 

They remembered Emily from their first
visit. She is passionate about everything
it seems, but especially about a bowl
of hot chocolate!

We will be back

We picked them up early on Sunday so we could see some of the sights in Uppsala and Gamla Uppsala before church.I have posted information and pictures of both previously, so we took only a few this time.

A nativity scene in the old church that is out only during the
Christmas holiday period..While not ancient, this nativity scene was
carved in 1927, and depicts the animals of the region, rather
than those in Bethlehem.For instance, the wise men
are on draft horses.

Going to our ward, the guests were
able to meet many of our friends
as well as the missionaries.

Outside the Dom Kyrka

Because we had only one meeting, we had time to return home
and have birthday cake for Emily. Her birthday is Jan. 2. We
serenaded her with the Swedish birthday song, of course 

Emily had to fly out Sunday afternoon, so after the birthday cake, we took her to the airport and then took Sydney back to the Clubhouse as she was not feeling well. She thought she would be able to rest. Obviously, she does not know Stockholm on New Year's Eve. 

We were invited to spend the evening at the Bells' apartment with the Smiths, Donohoos, and Hales. Before the new year commenced, people were setting off a lot of fireworks, but when the clock struck midnight, the sky absolutely turned bright with fireworks, professional and amateur, in every direction. The fireworks, available here for anyone to purchase, are amazing. We were high in the apartment and could see 360°. In every direction the sky was ablaze, the noise was awesome and the excitement of the children who were allowed to stay up and participate was evidenced by their shouting and laughter.

Sydney was awakened by the noise and light just in the neighborhood where the mission office is located. She did get some sleep afterward, but will be glad for some quiet time on the train back to Germany where she lives and teaches school. 

We took her to the train station and helped her find her track about an hour before she needed to go, so we left her to window shop until the train arrived. 

We will miss both of these cheerful, faith-filled women and wish them the best.

Now, back to work. New missionaries tomorrow. Lots to do this week and we are looking forward to serving, again.

We wish you all the best of the new year ahead. It will certainly be an eventful year for us.