Missionary Week #19 January 21 - January 27, 2019

Missionary Week #19 – January 21-27, 2019

Hello Everyone!  We had a marvelous week – and it went by really fast.  Monday when we walked to the train station to head for work we saw the Blood Moon!  My picture does not do it justice at all but it was pretty cool to see.  

Blood Moon at
Train Station

The boxes of Military cards that we are now working on had fewer supplemental medical papers with them – so we have been breezing through 3 boxes a day at least!  We worked until 4pm and headed home and we were able to catch a couple of our kids on Duo or Marco Polo and hear and see them and see what was happening in their lives.  We are so grateful for the technology that surrounds us – especially when it works! 😊

Tuesday was another great day – worked for our 8+ hours and noticed that it was snowing at lunch and when we walked to the train station at 4pm and when we went to bed it was still snowing!  It’s such a light snow – you feel it hit your face and it does cover the ground – but it just kind of swirls around – we can’t figure out why it looks so different than what we see at home.

Wednesday – We went to work – and left at 4pm.  Came home and drove to the grocery store and stocked up on food and supplies.  It is so much nicer to go a little later at night – 6-7pm there are not so many people! 

Thursday – We went in to work later than we have ever gone 8:45am.  The trains were much more crowded, and we’ve decided our original schedule of 7am was best.  But there was a reason we went in later – because we knew we were working later – we worked until 5:20 and then we went with the other Senior Couples to A “Viking” Restaurant.  It was so fun, the food was great, but the atmosphere was even better!  I will post a lot of pictures on the blog for you to see.  




You walk down a stair way to get to the restaurant, they have a coat check room, and then the  MaitreD – guy dressed like a Viking, he even had a long braid in his beard, blows on a horn and says “Ladies & Gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to and names the people in the group and where they are from and everyone cheers and claps and the people are seated at long tables – We were with 6 couples and we got our own table – but smaller groups were just seated next to the other guests – sometimes a chair in between groups, but the restaurant takes reservations – and you get 2 hours and then you have to leave because somebody else will be coming in.  Anyway, It was so fun, they introduced us as The Missionaries – and then they brought a huge wood cross (Probably 10’ tall, to put by our table!  



There was a man and his wife that were introduced – their given name (I have forgetten) and the man was celebrating his 30^th birthday and (the MaitreD said) and “he is in exquisite attire!”  They were both dressed in costume of the Viking era and they got to sit at the best table in the house!  They had to climb up this ladder to get to the table that was above our table – the waitress had to climb the ladder to take their order and serve their food!   I hope the pictures aren’t too blurry so you can see them.  




The lights were from candles and it was beautiful but not enough light for good pictures.  The waitress would give us historic facts about the Vikings and I wish I could have heard more, one tid-bit was that the Sweden Vikings were really just farmers – not plunderers!  It’s a must see if you come to Stockholm!  The food was great – John and I split a sampler of lamb, flap steak and dwarf chicken with root vegetables with Lingonberries.  We liked it all – the root veg’s were carrots, parsnips, one looked like a potato – but actually had an onion flavor – so not sure what that actually was.  So that was an exciting night and fun to see some of the other couples.

Sampler plate with yummy Lingonberries and sauces, red wine, mushroom and apple cider

Our Silverware

Front Door - "No Horns---
Unless Home Grown!"  haha

Friday, We worked until 2pm and then we walked to City Hall – and we got copies of 6 pages of the floor plan to my Grandmothers Apartment building that she lived in until she was a bout 3 years old.  Our helper was Anders, and he said it has always been a single-family dwelling and that there have not been any structural changes in it since it was built.   I always figured it was just apartments within that building, but I guess they had the run of all the floors including the basement!!!!  Now, I feel a little weird that I looked into the window in the door!  There were children’s bicycles by the door in an entryway area.  These are all in Swedish, of course, so I'm going to have to get them translated.  Wherever you see W.C. I know that's the Water Closet - and the Kök is the Kitchen.  I'll try to find out more and update you!  

JT Wins  with a Pin for 5th Place

Then we came home and started following our Grandson’s State Wrestling Tournament held in Prescott Valley.  The website www.trackwrestling.com kept us informed of when his matches were, which mat he was on and then scores as it refreshed about every 30 seconds.  He pinned the first 4, one was a girl the rest boys, and he had more matches on Saturday.  In his weight class 111 lbs. there were 47  wrestlers, the most of all the weights classes.  There were 58 Middle School Teams there.  They had 8 mats running like clockwork and it ran from all Friday afternoon into the late evening and All-day Saturday probably until 7-8pm or later.  Since we are 8 hours ahead of Arizona time, we finally went to bed at 1 or 2am and set our alarm to wake up every 15 -20 minutes to check to see how he did on his last match!   All in all he had 5 pins, 2 he won by score and he had 2 losses (But he was never pinned!)  He placed 5^th in the State!  We are so proud of him.  He has made it to State before –but he never placed, so this was amazing.  Jon & Rachel (his parents) were able to send us Marco Polo’s of his matches so we could see him wrestling.  Some of the other Mom’s and the Coaches wife posted on Facebook so we could see some great pictures. 

Kyson Price, Clance Wiltbank and JT Richardson during a break - photo credit to Cherie Wiltbank

 Love our Coaches, the whole group of boys in this group and families that cheer together and for each other.  We noticed last year we were one of the only groups who wore our school colors and cheered for every boy or girl on our team.  We were happy for the successes and sad for the losses, but the boys knew they had support!!! 

The AZ Middle School State Wrestling Champions 111 lb. Weight Class
JT's in RED - 5th Place - And ALL SMILES

Today, we went to church and The Whiteheads (Senior Couple that we work with) came to visit our Jacobsberg (pronounced Yakobsberry) Ward (our church) to see an older lady that Elder Whitehead baptized when he was on his mission here in Sweden when he was young!  The Whiteheads will be going home to Price, Utah on February 12!  So they are trying to see everything and everybody before they leave. 

We hope you had a wonderful week and that you all are safe and warm!  We are thankful for the thoughtful emails that you have sent back to us – we do miss home, our family and friends!  Have a Happy last week of January!!!!   Love, John & Linda

Just A Reminder:  This is the link to our Blog – same e-mails but more pictures

https://adventureswiththerichardsonsinsweden.blogspot.com/                                                             

Missionary Week #18

Missionary Week #18                     January 14 – January 20, 2019

Hello Everyone, We are on the mend and feeling better day by day.  We started off our week heading in to work and clocking in about 7:15am.  We are still working on the Military Boxes which consist of cards for each Male and then if there are any medical papers – we capture them for the archive but because of their nature will not be put out on the internet.  As I have said before, it’s probably a real good thing that we don’t know the Swedish language because your eye catches a term and you would be wasting a lot of time reading not capturing the images.  So it’s best we just keep moving the cards under the camera!  I love it when there are pictures of the people – usually in uniform, some look like our Navy and others look like our Army – very interesting.  We take a late lunch to miss the crowd in the lunchroom – so we usually go for lunch a little after 1pm.  We take about 30 minutes and head back to work. We decided to try leaving at 4pm so we could have a little more time at home.  As we were walking into our building we got a call from Jaylen.  It was fun, we talked for an hour!  Got to see Edwin, Max and Millie – we missed Lucy because she was already at school.   

Tuesday was the same thing – work, lunch, work, home. 

Wednesday at lunch we noticed that the little river that we can see from the lunch room had snow on top of it, and you could see some ice.  We went back to work and decided to leave around 4pm, we walked out the front door and there was snow on the ground and snow was coming down, it came as a complete surprise!  It didn’t let up for the rest of the evening, by 10 pm it was turning into rain.  We were able to talk to Jenn today to wish her and Matt Happy Anniversary --- 10 years!!! Hard to believe it has been that long – but they have accomplished so many things and have a lot to be proud of!    We talked with her the next day and she was asked to speak in Stake Conference at the Adult Session, lead the music in a leadership meeting AND she has a new calling in the Stake Relief Society Presidency as Secretary!  That’s a lot to take on and my brain would have been swirling with all of it hitting at once!!!!!  We can’t wait to hear from her and how her weekend was!

Friday, we worked until 1 o’clock and headed for the Temple.  It was nice to see the Temple in the daylight and then to come out and see the pretty lights.  We enjoyed dinner at a Chinese restaurant close by.  We went home for our date night…..Laundry at 7pm!  Not complaining – we don’t have to drive somewhere (or walk a long way) and haul it all, we just walk out the door and into the next door building for the laundry room.   We got to see some Marco Polo’s of Avery’s Basketball Game – she is an aggressive player and did great – she fouled out towards the end of the game – but she is a great asset to the 7^th Grade girls Basketball team! 

Saturday – We took it easy in the morning – we had a Baptism to go to at 4pm – so I tried my hand at making cookies.  By the end of this trial I could have taken 6 cookies!  Where do I begin, the brown sugar does not look like USA brown sugar – it looks like bigger granule white sugar – only brown.  The baking powder – I found out later – is not like USA baking powder – you should really double the amount in the recipe.  Then there is the oven – Still learning which 6 Pictures is for what – you can have heat from top and bottom, you can have heat with a fan – don’t know what the others are yet – the cookies baked OK – but the ones in the right back corner were burnt.  And they could have been used for hockey pucks!  I may stick with banana bread.  We left empty handed for the baptism, but it was for the best.

 Julius was baptized, he is an impressive person!  He has been investigating the church for 3 years!  He has an amazing story and we are only hearing piece by piece so when I get it all put together I’ll share his story. For example, we met him probably the first or second week we went to our ward.  We were able to talk to him in Sunday School - the next week we noticed him getting off the same train we were on.  So we walked with him a ways headed for the church building.  He said - "I have to go to an ATM so I can get cash to pay my Fast Offering I'll see you there." As he learned a principle, he lived it!  This was back in October.  

In the picture attached is Julius in the white Baptism suit, the Sister Missionaries and the man was one of the First guys who Julius met when he moved to Sweden.  The family has been close to him and really helped him in all aspects of his life. They wanted to be there for his Baptism and they wanted pictures!  The man, spoke at the Baptism, he played the piano for everyone after the Baptism too.  

 After the Baptism was over they have “Fika” (pronounced feeka)  = treats!  I talked to some of the ladies and asked them about baking cookies – I got a few tips we’ll try next week! 

We were offered a ride home and we were just in time to watch – you guessed it – Marco Polo’s from Jonathan.  They were at Tempe High School –(where John went to High School ) for our grandson’s  (J.T.) middle School Wrestling State tournament.  This tourney – they allow anyone to enter – clubs, schools etc.  Next week is the “real State” for Middle School – as you have to be a Middle School Team to compete.  Anyway, his first match was a little tougher – he lost 4-6 points.  But he went on to pin the next 3 matches within .23 - .26 seconds of the first round.  The last match he had they were evenly matched – at least it looked like – but JT almost had the other guy pinned but time ran out and then the other boy won by ONE point!  But still was a great match and got the team ready for more competition next week.  They will be in Prescott Valley next Saturday – Can’t Wait to watch!!!!!  We were up until midnight watching!!!  It was an all day meet for the kids – starting at 7:30 in the morning – he finished out around 4pm!  We are so proud of him for being a good sport and not arrogant, in fact the last meet he talked with his competition and asked the kid how old he was and what grade he was in – when the boy answered he was only 1 year below JT, and JT told him “Well, you’re pretty good, keep it up!”  - that may not be a direct quote but he was kind and I know he’s been that way all his life!   

That gets you caught up on our week – we hope your week has been wonderful – we think of you all the time and miss you  - but here it is January!!!!!  It really is going by fast!  Have a wonderful week and know we will be thinking of you! 

Love John & Linda 

Missionary Week #17

Missionary Week #17 -  January 7, 2019 – January 13, 2019

Hello All!  Our week was quite a mixed up one and it seemed really short!  Neither of us went in to work Monday!  Then, John went in on Tuesday but he was home by 3pm!  There were no more boxes of Military records to do, so until new boxes are delivered, we don’t really have to go in to work!  Wednesday – John decided to go see if the boxes came in and they were finally delivered and he had to put them on the shelves. Thursday, only John went to work!  Friday, we both went to work and stayed most of the day – til about 5pm.  It was a long day but felt good to be at work. 

Saturday – we didn’t feel like walking a whole lot so we ran some errands and to the grocery store.  Sunday we went to church and had a great day.  That was our week!  Hope your week was more fun and eventful!  

We have gotten to see some of our kids on Marco Polo, St. Johns is still getting Snow!  Janell was at work on her submarine, and Millie turned 2 on the 11^th of January Happy Birthday Millie! 

We love and miss you all!  Have a great week!

Missionary Week #16

Missionary Week #16   - December 31^, 2018 – January 6, 2019

Happy New Year Everyone!  On New Years Eve we went in to Stockholm and tried to see a couple of more museums, most were closed!  We did find where we were last week when we found the Ice-Skating Rink – it’s at Kungsträdgården.  So, it is paying off going back to places we’ve been because we are recognizing places – It’s a learning process for us!  We walked around more and headed home to Celebrate New Year’s.  We got in touch with our kids through Marco Polo and were able to show them what Sweden does for New Years!  It was a little wet outside, but we stood on our balcony and watched fireworks all around us!  “It sounded like a War Zone” – John said, and he should know! It was crazy – the clouds made it even prettier – they had red flares that would just take off and go for a long time.  There was a group of people on the street counting down to midnight.  The fireworks started early – like 10 – 15 minutes early and then at midnight it went like crazy! 

New Years Day we tried to see the Medieval Museum – but it was closed – so we took off for Skansen – a little Island that has a Zoo – with Nordic animals (Reindeer, Moose, Wolverine, Wild Boar, Sea Otters, Lynx, hopefully my pictures turn out so you can see some of them!  

Farm

Swedish Yellow Ducks

Wolverine

Neat building with brick fence

Wild Boars

Shetland Ponies

Reindeer

Moose

Sheep

Grey Guinena Pigs

Black Guinea Pig

more Sheep

Reindeer - he was camera shy

They have a great indoor children’s zoo and buildings have been moved there to show you how a summer farm looked in Sweden – There was the post office – which was also the postmaster’s home with his family.  I loved the thatched roofs of the farms.  They had a demonstration in one house of “Flat Bread” The girl was dressed in 1800’s clothes and there was dough that she would roll out and showed us how the ladies made the Flat Bread – Kind of reminded me of tortillas!  Course there was plain, or they could add spices to make it taste different.  She rolled and rolled and the rolling pins were wood and had grooves so the flour wouldn’t stick to the dough, Very interesting and it was warm inside – because she of course put the dough finally into the hearth and turned it with wooden spatulas – it didn’t take very long and they were browned and ready to cut up to sample.   There is a Christmas Market they hold every year – it closed down on the 16 of December so we missed it this year – but will catch it next year for sure!  There is also a kids amusement park but we didn’t walk into it – I don’t really do it justice!  I’m pretty sure because it is winter not all of the homes etc were open – so we’ll have to go here in the summer too! It was a good look at Swedish history.  

We got home to Marco Polos from the kids in St. Johns’ they got the 7-10” of snow in one day!  That hasn’t happened in a long time and they are still sending us the weather warnings of more snow! 

We went back to work Wednesday – and it actually felt good to get back!  And then I came down with a sore throat and John has had to take care of me!  He finally caught a little bit of the cough and sore throat too.  So we did not go into work Monday the 7^th but hope to be able to get in tomorrow!  He did go to church and our new 2 hour schedule and he said it was great!  

We appreciate all of your prayers and kind words.  Until next week!  Stay Warm, Dry and Healthy!