Missionary Week #12

Missionary Week #12       December 3, 2018 – December 8, 2018

Our Monday started out by going to work, we got into our room to turn on the big lights for our cameras, and a Fire Alarm went off!  So, we filed back outside, and waited for 10 minutes or so and another girl came to work and wondered why we were all outside!  She then remembered it was a planned drill, so she told us to all go back in!  Whew!  We wished our daughter-in-law a Happy Birthday and she said that her day started out with a bomb threat at her daughters High School!   Everything turned out o.k. but still scary. We worked late again and got home, I fixed dinner and John trimmed our Christmas Tree!  It’s a little table top, live tree we got at IKEA!  It’s pretty cute!  Then we watched the Christmas Devotional from Salt Lake City for our Home Evening. 

On Tuesday we worked long again – since we are having Christmas Events for the rest of the week we decided to work as hard as we could!  Our Granddaughter Lucy was to tell her class about Christmas Traditions in Sweden.  We had heard of a neat tradition over here, so we sent the info to her Mom and called to make sure she had received it.  I’ll share it with you, back in 1959 Sweden aired on their public T.V. channel a Donald Duck cartoon.  **Walt Disney Presents Christmas special, "From All of Us to All of You." Or as it is known in Sweden as Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul: "Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas."** Everyone loved it, they had never seen animation like that before!  So every year since they have aired this same program at 3pm on Christmas Eve afternoon, and everyone sits down to watch it again.  They also get previews of what new movies from Disney are coming out for the New Year.  The people we talked to said “It is a must nobody goes outside – you sit down and we all know the lines by heart!” The country tried to change this tradition, but the top official said “No we can’t! There will be an uprising!”  I hope we get to see it!  The Google articles say 40% or 50% of the population, says it is their tradition.  They call it “Kalle Anka” for short. 

Wednesday, we went in an hour later than normal – and worked until 1:30.  That is when our Archive Christmas Party began.  We took two trains and then walked to Pier 7, where we boarded a Ferry boat.  It was all decorated for Christmas, and all 105 of us workers from the Archive sat down at tables and were treated to dinner.  First you get your choice of drink – soda, non-alcoholic and alcoholic types of drinks. We chose “Jul Must” The Swede’s say it’s like Coke – only better! We thought it was good – but it did take a bit to get used to!  Then they served a hot drink called Glögg (pronounced glug) and they had almonds and raisins to put in your cup.  It was delicious – it was like a warm cider, dark in color.  Then they brought out a tray with 6 types of different herring in different sauces.  They were actually pretty good – none of the fermented stuff that we had heard horror stories of.  Then you went to the Buffet table – or Smorgasbord and had your choice of bread, cheese, salmon -fresh or smoked, sausages made from Reindeer or Elk, meatballs, salads, beets, the list goes on!  Then dessert was down stairs.  While you are eating and chatting, they are taking you around the passages around Stockholm and back to Pier 7. This took about 2 ½ hours!  It was beautiful – of course it was day light when we started and then turned dark and we could see the houses with Christmas lights and décor as it got dark – it was just Beautiful.  We then walked back to our train station and headed for home. 

The Smorgasbord 

This was the menu for the herring

Warm Glögg with Almonds / Raisins
Don't mind the beer bottle - they had all the drinks available on the table!

Jul Must - Only sold at Christmas & Easter

On the way back to the train station we walked past an area where these Moose were! 

Thursday was the beginning of our Senior Couples Retreat!  There were 11 couples that came in from all over Sweden to be apart of this.  We all met at 1:00pm at the Mission Office and all drove to Vaxholm Castille which is a Fort that protected Sweden from Russia – way back when. 

The Sun was actually shining and we could see it!  So I took a picture of it so we could prove there is a Sun in Sweden!  This was close to 2pm.

We boarded another ferry boat to take us just a little ways to the Fort.  





When you got off the boat you were ushered into a line for a warm drink – Glögg!  We were glad to have it because it was chillllllllly out there!  You drank and then put your cup in a fire that was by either side of the sidewalk – it was nice and warm by the fire too.  Then inside the fort it was all tables and chairs and it was crowded!  We were taken up a huge flight of stone stairs to a room all to ourselves.  The room was all in brick with a rounded ceiling.  Really pretty.  Then we all went back downstairs – for the food and back up to your table.  We all had a good time trying things – it was basically the same types of food we had on the boat but had more variety.  Then the desserts were set out and you had your choice of fudge, brownies, crisp waffle, candies etc.  They let you stay as long as you want – however we had to catch the ferry boat back to shore but we didn’t lose anybody!  Then we all gathered back at the Mission Home for a devotional with President Youngberg.  He asked us to share one favorite Christmas traditions that we had from our family.  It was fun to hear all the stories.  Ours was John’s Dad reciting Christ’s birth from Luke. With all of our children around the fire listening to their Grandfather.  We had taped him on VHS – and later put it on DVD, and now we still watch him and our grandchildren get to hear their Great Grandfather who they don’t remember or some never met.  Then we had dessert and went home.

Friday – we all met at the train station “T-Centralen”. After we found everyone, we took the train to Gamla Stan – the island that has the Royal Palace – and we had 3 or 4 groups that went to different places.  We went to the Vasa Museum.  This is a ship that was built in 1600’s for the King as his Flagship – war battle ship.  It took the 400 workers 2 years to build and they launched it and it didn’t make it one mile – it didn’t leave the harbor!  A gust of wind made it list and the gun ports were open, and another wind gust came up and it sunk right there.  They tried to salvage it at the time but gave up and only recovered most of the canons to be used on other ships.  In 1962, it was found and recovered, and they spent may years preserving it and putting it back together.  They built a museum for it and pulled the ship into the building.  It’s an amazing story and amazing to see!  It’s huge – We will be going back.  

This picture was taken from the 2nd story

We had lunch with our group and then headed next door to the Nordic Museum – didn’t have enough time for it – we only got through 2 floors of it so we will be going back to that one too! 

This is the back of the boat, covered with sculptures - amazing and when it was new it was painted in vibrant colors.

Then we met back at the Mission Home for dinner and sang Christmas Carols – President and Wife played the piano for us, separately and then a duet!  It was so fun.  Then we had a white Elephant gift exchange that was also fun.  More dessert 😊  And home. 

Saturday, We met for breakfast at the Mission home.  Then we separated, and some went back to Gamla Stan for the Christmas Market or other museums – we had to come home and do laundry or we wouldn’t be going anywhere next week!  Then Saturday evening we met several of our group at Storkyrkan  a church that held a St. Lucia Celebration. (Side note the current King and Queen were married in this church – it’s close to the Royal Palace)  It was a beautiful ceremony – singing children walk in holding candles and they sang for one hour.  We recognized Jingle Bells ad Carol of the Bells, the rest were in Swedish but it was beautiful.

This is a little off center - but you can see the white risers where the children stood up front. They walked right past us - as you can see we were in chairs in the isle.

 If you get a chance go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLycexat2xk  to view one of the shows.  (There is a narrator that speaks Swedish – but not for long -stay with it!)  This is not the one we went to but it’s still a good representation.  Our choir had no instruments except one song they held glasses of water and “played” the glass while they sang.  It was one of my favorites.  Then we left and had dinner with 2 other couples and headed home!  It was a great retreat and we look forward to next years!!  There were no picture taking allowed, so we only got pictures before and after! 

Saint Lucia 

As we get closer to Christmas, our wish for you is to have a Merry Christmas filled with your traditions and family.  Take the time to enjoy and remember the reason for the Season is the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ!  Love you all and think of you often!  Until next week!