Missionary Week #36

Missionary Week #36         Date:  May 20, 2019 – May 26, 2019

We have had another great week, and we hope that you have a great and safe Memorial Day Weekend! The kids here in Sweden are still in school for another couple of weeks – but they are looking forward to their summer.

Monday – We had a good day at work, toward the end of our day, there is a young man who works there – he is a runner – he gets the books that are ordered from the reading room.  He always says Hey! (Hi) to us and has asked us for help a couple of times when he was trying to find things. He stopped today to tell us that his 6 months was up, and it was his last day and he wanted to say goodbye!  John asked him where he was headed to next and he just said he is still looking for a job!  We don’t know if he was just an intern or what kind of a system they have.  We thought it was nice of him to stop and say goodbye. 

We left work at 4pm and walked to the park by the YSA Center – it’s such a nice place to sit – there was a ton of people eating/drinking at the open air restaurant, some were sun bathing in lounge chairs and it’s on a corner so a lot of pedestrians and bike’s cut through.  It’s fun to people watch.  It was great weather.  We had a Marco Polo from one of our daughters and it was good to catch up on her family!   We went on over to the YSA Center and there was a good group again, about 10-12 kids.  The guest speaker was 16 years old, teaching how to make films!  He went through a good program with a lot of examples then he showed his “Movie” he made.  It was called  “Mission IsPossible” Instead of Impossible!  It was cute – he had his younger brother in it with a few friends.  One of the “actor’s” was there at the Center “Oliver” so it was fun to see some familiar faces.  After we left the center we walked to the train station and ate at a MAX – Sweden’s competition for McDonalds.  It was pretty good too!  They had a few things we had never heard of like “Halloumi” ! John google Translated it and it is CHEESE! The picture looks like a meat/chicken patty!   We shared a spicy chicken sandwich and fries and Fanta has a wonderful pop flavor it’s called Exotic.  I quit drinking soda/pop some time ago – but this flavor has me drinking again!  I sure hope they sell it in the US!  We loved it because we have a grandson Max, we wanted to show him that we ate at HIS Store!  When we got home we were able to do a video call to Jenn, and got to see all but Lily.  Last week of school!  Yeah!

Tuesday – We went to work and finally got an email from Germany so I could delete some files and my computer went from 2% to 24% - I know I’ll make it through the week now!  Got to chat with more of our kids today, we talked with Jaylen and heard his Millie talking! 

Wednesday – We were up early, we don’t need the alarm anymore!  It’s light by 2am and the sun is up by 4am, so we still schedule an alarm but end up cancelling it! It was a nice warm day.  The movers are still removing carts and carts of books to the new archive. We worked a normal day and when we quit at 4 and got to the station there were so many people.  We thought “Oh Great! Now What!?”  We let one go by and waited for another one and it was just as crowded so we jumped in.  We didn’t sit together but at least we finally go to sit in a seat.  Never heard why there were so many people!

Talked with Jaylen and got a Marco Polo from Rachel and JT.  He has been working on a Social Studies Project on Viet Nam.  He was able to talk to John about his experiences and was able to take in pictures and stories to school.  They had to turn in a final project and he wanted to show his Grampa how it looked. He had printed off all of John’s pictures and put in a photo book – then he had his paper written out with word lists and stories. Then it was set up kind of like a Science Project where everyone went around and looked at all the projects.  He said everyone really liked it.  AND his voice is changing!  It’s getting lower!  So many things happen even being gone just 6 months! 

Thursday -  We went to work and the trains were back to normal.  A lot happened today - JT graduated from 8^th grade in St. Johns and Rylee graduated from Highland High School.  Also, Hyrum Jones one of nieces boys graduated from that same High School too.  It was nice to get some video’s and pictures of the graduates and be apart of it even though we couldn’t be there. Congratulations Graduates!

Friday - Happy Birthday to Connor – our oldest grandson, he turned 20! We got to work and got our shuttles ready to ship to Germany and worked until 4pm.  It was a good day. Nice quiet Friday.

Saturday –  John got up and did laundry again!  We had breakfast and then went back to the Military Archives today.  The lady that helped me was really good.  I need help in translating the forms but she also answered a lot of my questions about the time and it was nice to get the extra help that I needed. 

John and I went through 3 different sets of books pertaining to my Great-Grandfather Carl Johan Karlson.  He was Soldier #9 in the 2^nd Regiment of the Royal Troopers – on horse.  I found him 3 times in one year– where he had gotten into trouble!  One was misconduct, for not turning in his buddy who was drunk on duty and Carl got 3 days arrest for that.  Another one – he was on guard duty and was found asleep when it was time for changing of the guard! He got 4 days arrest for that…the lady helping me said “It looks like he wasn’t taking things too serious”.  The last entry he was with 3 other comrades – two of which got in a fight -because of drunkenness and Carl said something he shouldn’t have to a superior and he got 3 days arrest for that…. the two who were fighting got 8 days each.  I asked about his Civil Court matter and she told me to go to the City Archives – (where we work!)  So, I’ll have to stay late after work one day and get a hold of that record! It was a cloudy day and by evening it was raining.  We ordered pizza from the little restaurant across the street!  It was pretty good – odd toppings but it was pretty good with the garlic sauce they gave us to dip!  The pizza had ham, cheese, artichoke hearts mussels, olives and shrimp!

Sunday – Happy Birthday to Jonathan!  He was my first baby, and I remember heading to the hospital in Springerville, 30 miles away – in SNOW at 2 in the morning!  Happy Mother’s Day Again!  We went to church – they had one talk on Mothers.  No singing and we found out later that our little primary practiced a song for the moms but didn’t feel comfortable enough to preform it today!  So we will look forward to that another time!  Evidently it was also Election day today….there is a ton of traffic by our apartment – it’s usually more quiet on Sundays.

Well we hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day Weekend!  We remember those that came before us and those who served in any military conflict to defend the freedoms that we enjoy now.  Thank You for Your Service!

We think of you often and miss you!  Love hearing from you!  Love, John & Linda, Mom & Dad, Gramma & Grampa