Adventures of The Richardson's in Sweden!: Missionary Week #28

Missionary Week #28 ~ March 25, 2019 – March 31, 2019

Hello Everyone! We have had another great week. Our weather is trying to decide if it’s Spring or Winter. We never know what we will encounter day or night. So, we live by our Boy Scout Motto “Be Prepared!”

Monday - We headed to work and the sun was bright and beautiful! We had a “normal” day at work – other than the other couple brought their Son & family for a tour of the archive. John let the 2 boys sit and take a picture of the records. They thought that was pretty cool.

Tuesday – We went to work and worked until noon. We had made an appointment with the Elders in Stockholm to come and check their apartment at 1pm. We walked to T-Central and caught the bus that would take us to their apartment. The Elders were in good health and their apartment was clean! It was good to visit with them – they have a very big area that they serve in and they are on foot and use the bus/train system where ever they need to go.

We came home and ordered lunch at the ASAP Wok, at our train station across from our apartment – new owners – it was pretty good – but when we got there, they didn’t have rice so you could only order one thing, Pad Thai! It was good, we will probably try them again – later in the day!

Our daughter, Janell and her husband Joshua had been in North & South Carolina for Spring Break. It took them a couple of days to get back home to Hawaii – they travel on buddy passes – we were glad to hear they finally got home. Jaylen & Blaire sent a Marco Polo of the huge snake they found in our front yard, so it’s warming up in St. Johns too!

Wednesday – We went to work and it was another beautiful day – it’s warming up, you can see little flowers and plants popping up. On the way home the train was packed – I finally got a seat but John had to stand all the way to our stop.

Thursday - We went to work, we had to send in our shuttles today because we get a day off tomorrow. The archive is having a planning meeting and they will not be in the building and they don’t want us there without them. We worked until 4pm and headed home. We got in the door at our apartment and John realized he had left his phone. His phone is the only phone that has a Sweden phone number, it’s our only means of communication and is our life line to Google Translate and to the bus/train schedule and maps. He turned right around and headed back to retrieve it. We would not survive the 3-day weekend without it! We got a Marco Polo from daughter Jennifer – and her Bridger had fallen on his skate board. His Nose took the brunt of the fall – but the scrapes were all along his cheek,ear and his shoulder blades, his right arm and left arm. But he was pretty tough! He didn’t go to school the next day – it was a tough night for him, he didn’t sleep well. When he went in the next day and the teacher saw his face (and I’m guessing she was in shock) he looked at her and all he said was “Skateboard” ! 😊

Library Room

Dragon Vase

Friday – Our day off! The sun was shining, and it was windy. We went in to Stockholm to the National Museum, there has always been a huge line out the door when we’ve tried before, but we got there before it was open at 11am. There was a lot of people waiting to get inside but not bad. There is no entrance fee, so that is a must see! There were 3 floors and it is a beautiful building and the exhibits were amazing. There were a lot of paintings – including a couple of Rembrandts. It had very old items and very new items!

Crowns

Art - Made from Antlers, Bone and Fur

Carved Funeral

On Ferry - The Grona Lund Amusement Park - Roller Coasters and rides

Then we walked to a Ferry and went for a ride. This was a first for us – the bus/train passes work on the Ferry’s! It took us to another little island and we saw the Grona Lund Amusement park – it’s not open yet but it looks like a lot of fun. We walked to the Viking Alive museum. They try to dispel the myth of the Viking helmet with the horns on it. The Vikings never wore them – they would have been easy to grab or knock them off. There was a cute little ride like Peter Pan at Disney land – about a story of a Viking Family that was done very nicely. From there we went to a trolly that took us into downtown Stockholm – there was an accident investigation – ambulance and a stretcher and a lot of “Polis” so the trolly had everyone get off – you just start walking to wherever you wanted to go! We found a TGI Fridays right there and had an early dinner! It was about 4pm. Food was good – they pack their tables in tight! The waitresses had to squeeze through to get your order and serve the food! Then we finished walking to T-Central to get our train home. Busy Day but fun – Sun was shining all day.

Saturday – We looked at a few places we wanted to go – but they were either closed or not open at the right time. We decided to head out and go to a movie – We saw Dumbo – it’s really cute. We saw a lot of trailers of new movies that Disney is coming out with “Live” characters of their animated movies, Aladdin, Lion King are a few that we saw….we don’t get TV so it’s new to us – you guys probably already know it! We got a Marco Polo from Jody with her daughter Jayne’s dance performance – it was really cute to see her dancing around!

Sunday – We woke up to a drizzle of rain and then it started Snowing! It didn’t last – but we still took the umbrella with us as we walked to the train to go to church. It was Fast Sunday because next week is General Conference. We are excited to watch that. We have to wait until later Saturday and Sunday night but we can watch on-line as it becomes available. It was a great weekend and we look forward to Monday!

We hope you are enjoying Spring wherever you are and enjoy the beauty. Happy April!

John & Linda

More Pictures from the National Museum:

Light Fixture - made of Junk!

Porcelain Artichoke

"In an anamorphosis, the artist works with distorted perspectives. It must be viewed from a special angle or in a custom mirror to be understood. Charles I (left) & Charles II (right) are depicted on each side of the wooden panel. In the portraits, the fates of both kings are shown; the deposed father is depicted with a skull and the son, who rebuilt the British monarchy, with a crowned orb. the symbols also indicate where to place the cylindrical mirror - we thought that was pretty cool!

And More Pictures from the Viking Museum: