Adventures of The Richardson's in Sweden!: Missionary Week#31

Missionary Week # 31 Date: April 15, 2019 – April 21, 2019

Glad Påsk at the back of the Chapel

Glad Påsk! Happy Easter! We enjoyed our Easter Break and hope that you all had a wonderful Easter.

Monday – We went to work in Sunny and pretty weather – more buds here and there – flowers popping up and leaves starting to come out. We worked until 4:30 and then John thought it would be a good thing to check with one of the Young Single Adult leaders – his name is “Promise” – to see if they were still meeting for the Family Home Evening tonight. He texted back saying – no they had cancelled it and thought we would’ve seen it on their Facebook page. We didn’t know they even had one! So we were able to go home! We saw that the Notre Dam Cathedral was on fire! What a shame. We heard from our traveling daughter – Janell- she got home from Arizona after a layover in San Francisco! Our Grandson, JT, emailed to ask more questions of Grandpa about the Viet Nam war – he’s been learning about it in School – so John sent him some stories and then we remembered John had put together a slide show of his pictures taken on his Instamatic camera, which he still has and a few videos on an old cheap plastic video camera – he doesn’t know where that ended up but he got a few movies from it. So we told JT’s, Dad Jon to look it over first and then see if it was OK to show JT and it was ok – so JT looked at it and then asked if he could take it to school. Grampa told him it was Ok and a few more emails back and forth he had some pretty good stories to go with the pictures. JT reported back that the kids loved the stories and thought it was pretty cool and he thought it was Awesome! He only wished that Grampa was there to tell the stories. We did too!

Tuesday – We went to work still wearing our big coats, but it was warmer and sunny – I (Linda) worked for 11 minutes and I was at 0% available space and it wouldn’t allow me to capture anymore pictures! So I worked on more Family History – after doing a few other work chores (like cutting out little slips of papers that we have to slip into any envelopes that we open that says we had permission to open the sealed envelopes) – I found an obituary for my great-grandmother Lucy Isabelle Davis Ashburn – which was first found by Kay Nelson Meyerette my 2^nd cousin (Her grandmother Tressi was my grandfather’s George Anderson Ashburn’s Sister)- I’ll add it as a picture. She died April 30, 1931 – my grandfather George A. died March 13, 1930 – just a year before her. Then I found a marriage application for my grandfather (George A.) that married my Swedish grandmother – but the application was with a different woman! Her name was Ella Case, the application was dated Tuesday, 31 December 1907 but he actually got married to my grandmother on Saturday, January 4, 1908! The record showed that the Marriage License was missing [because it probably wasn’t returned – because there was no marriage!] How crazy is that!? I followed Ella Case through Census and a few other records and she did marry someone else in October or November of 1908. We did get to hear from our son Jaylen this morning at work – who was finishing up his night shift on patrol.

Wednesday - We were up early, it gets light about 5:15 ish – so we left early for work and at our last stop, we got off the train and got to the escalators that take us up several floors to the elevator that takes us outside – the escalators were all at a standstill. UGH! We had to walk up this humungous escalator – I didn’t do very well, half way up I was ready to stop – John kept pushing me – as were the other 8 thousand people trying to get up the same escalator. (I took pictures the next day).

Germany sent me an email to get some more room on my camera so I’m back to 3% left! I was able to work all day. We left work at 4pm and got the car and took it to the post office, IKEA – where we finally got Swedish FOOD! I had Meatballs and John had fish. We were able to talk to our kids, Justin and Jennifer. Always good to catch up on our family.

Thursday – It’s getting a lot warmer – we got to the escalator and it was fixed! If it hadn’t been, we had found an elevator [Hiss in Swedish] I was going to take! We got to work, and our badges wouldn’t open the door! Our janitor was outside too and another guy had tried the cafeteria door and it didn’t work either – we knew the Archive was only going to be open from noon to 3 because of the holidays but we never heard “Don’t come to work” So we came back home and decided to go see Drottingholm Palace and we went on a guided tour – it is where the King & Queen really live now. It was very pretty. We sat on a bench in the nice warm sun and ate our packed lunch! It was great!

Old Books - Close Up

My Favorite - The Library!

John & the Lion at the Entrance to Drottingholm

The Entry Way

Then we went back home and left the car and got our badges and went back to work and we worked until 5. We came home, had dinner and headed out to the Mission Office to have our Senior Couples Family Home Evening! It’s turned out that our group is all from Arizona! In fact the Ashby’s know The Michael Gomeric’s that used to live in St. Johns! The Clouse’s also have several ties – they know one of our Niece’s in Gilbert and our Friends Artie & DeAnn Baker who are on a Mission in San Fran/Oakland California – their niece married the Clouse’s son. We love small world stories!

Friday – This was the original day off that we expected! Good Friday and we will also get Easter Monday – another holiday for the Swede’s. We read scriptures – and studied the Come Follow Me book. Our kids in SJ are carrying on our Easter tradition of camping with the Bakers – so with both Bakers’ and Us on a mission – there were 2 of our kids, Jenn & Jaylen and their families and 2 of the Baker’s sons Spencer & Rhett and their families to carry on the tradition – they went to the Beaver Ponds – by Greer, AZ where we always camp and it sounds like they had a great time – we got a few Marco Polos from them and it was great to see and hear the kiddos laughing and squealing. We can’t wait to see more pictures! We had dinner and did our laundry! We got a call from John’s sister that they weren’t going to be visiting because of a death in her husbands’ family. We were really looking forward to showing them around – but that will wait for another time! We send our thoughts and prayers to the Price Family.

On our walk around Alvik

These are Feather trees at a round-a-bout ~ at Christmas there was
a Christmas Tree decoration with lights.

Saturday – We had a great morning, worked on computers for awhile and then we decided to go for a walk since it was beautiful outside! We went outside for the first time WITHOUT COATS! We walked around the neighborhood and ended up in Alvik and around the water there (Tranebergssund)– they have trails weaving around the water and through trees. It was beautiful – we took several pictures and walked home – it was about a 2 hour walk.

Sunday – Just as we were getting ready for church we heard sirens coming from two different directions from the North and from the East – and they turned right where we needed to go to pick up the Borg’s for church! By the time we got to where they were stopped – two ladder trucks had already turned around and passed us going back. So I guess whatever happened they didn’t need everybody! Church was great – Elder Borg was asked to speak and he did a great job. I got some pictures of the decorations that were around – they have Birch twigs with feathers on them for color – I asked what they represented and they said it was tradition started a long time ago – the Birch twigs represented the sticks that were used to whip Christ and they didn’t know why the feather’s – other than it was for color!

We were invited to an Easter dinner in Handen by the Ashby’s so we took the train and met with them and the Clouse’s for Easter Dinner – yummy enchiladas! Sister Ashby was going to make a Quiche – but then she thought – we’re all from ARIZONA and we all miss our Mexican food! We had fun and a great discussion afterward on Easter and our testimonies. We got home about 9pm and we still have another day off!

We hope your new week finds you happy and healthy and enjoying Spring!

Remember to check out our blog https://adventureswiththerichardsonsinsweden.blogspot.com/

Same email – but more pictures!

An update on the house across the street - It now has a tarp over the burnt and open part of the roof - Not much else is happening - waiting on Insurance?????