Missionary Week 54 – September 23, 2019 – September 29, 2019

This has been a great week!  We worked on Monday and we picked up Janell at the airport on Tuesday.  We have had a wonderful week together running all over Stockholm.  Fall has arrived!

Monday – It was 0*C this morning (32*F).  Had a good day at work.  We heard from Janell, she made it to Show Low after the weekend in St. Johns.  Jay gave her a ride to the valley (Thank you Jay) and we watched her flight to Chicago, which didn’t take off for over 2 hours!  She finally made it to Chicago with time to spare for her connection to Helsinki, and then on to Bromma Airport, which is right down the street from our apartment. We can’t wait!

Waiting to see Janell

She's HERE!

Tuesday – We decided to not go into work today, until we picked up Janell and got her settled into our apartment.  We found a parking spot – later we found out it was the car rental parking lot …. But we didn’t get towed! We found the arrival building and we weren’t there long, and she had landed.  She only brought her carry on, so we didn’t have to wait for baggage.  We took her home and unpacked, and we took her to see the Archives and so we could finish our boxes and transfer files for the week.

 

On the way home we picked up food at the new owner of the little Take-Away at the train station that is now called Krua Charoen.  We brought it home and had dinner.  We got to see her pictures of the weekend in St. Johns.  

On the news we heard that a 3.1 earthquake hit 14 miles outside of St. Johns!  None of the kids have called to tell us about it so we figure they must not have felt it, or it wasn’t that bad.  That’s never happened since we’ve lived there.    

 Wednesday – We woke up, had breakfast and headed out on the train to get to the Stockholm Palace. 

Changing of the guards

A very wide dress

We also saw the Church where we saw the St. Lucia Program last year and all the museums at the palace.  The Treasury where they keep the crowns, sabers and some of the robes.  We walked around Gamla Stan (The Old Town) and went through a few souvenir shops and ended up at an Italian restaurant and had mouth watering pasta and then we HAD to stop at Ben & Jerry’s for a waffle with ice cream on it!  It was a great day.

Ben and Jerry's

Thursday – We were up and had breakfast and decided to go to the Vasa Museum today.  This is the ship that was on its maiden voyage and only stayed afloat for 15-20 minutes back in 1628.  They found it and recovered it and restored it and now it’s in a building built around it.  It is amazing.  They keep doing work on it and they had new displays that we didn’t see the last time we were there.  

We left about 2pm and walked around and stopped at the ABBA Museum!  It was a fun museum – they had a lot of the costumes from the Mama Mia Movies and then all about how they became the group and their music.  Very well done and at the end – at least we thought it was the end they had a movie playing that had footage from their concerts and live on the road.  Janell fell asleep, we were drowsy and kept looking at our watches thinking it would end soon….it was a full-length movie!  We watched until the bitter end!  So now we laugh about it.  We walked out singing ABBA songs all the way home!  We left a 6pm. 

We walked to La Neta’s a Taco shop and we had an assortment of tacos. Then we went home.  It was cold outside today.  We made a list of all the places we want to go in the next 2-3 days and figured out when and where we were going before she leaves.

Janell in the Blue Cat Costume

Friday – We got up early, had breakfast and headed for the Temple today.  Janell was able to get some good pictures around the grounds before we headed in and when we got out.  Then we drove to the Drottningholm Palace that’s closer to our apartment.  

 It is really a beautiful Palace and we walked all over the 2 stories we could go in and all around the grounds.  We saw the Chinese Pavilion that a King had secretly built for his wife’s 33^rd birthday.  They had a café that we had sandwiches and shared a carrot cake.

Chinese Pavilion

City Hall Tower

We made it back home in time to do laundry!  Fun!  We had dinner and then we had to subject Janell to grocery shopping!  It sure has been a fun week!

Saturday – Today after breakfast we headed out to see the City Hall.  John & Janell walked the tower steps, I stayed out so I wouldn’t slow them down!  I took pics of them when they got out on top of the tower and they took pictures of me.  

Our Guide - Sven Larsson and behind
hiim is Consens the youngest horse in
the stable

We then took a bus over to the Royal Stables for a wonderful tour there.  The guide was the same one we had last year, he has such a good sense of humor and knowledge and keeps us on the move.  Last tour they had us use hand sanitizer and we had to step in a solution to clean the shoes so we didn’t pass any bacteria on to the horses. 

This time they opened up their stalls and you could touch them, the one by Janell kept nudging her.  The horses are trained to not come out even if the door is open until they are commanded. 

There are carriages, sleighs and cars at the stables that are used in getting the King & Queen and the Royals around for ceremonies and to escort dignitaries like Presidents or Kings from other countries and Ambassadors.  All very interesting and it took an hour for the whole tour.

From the stables we walked around the street to the Army Museum and then to the church that my Grandmother was Christened at Hedvig Eleanora Parish. 

Add caption

Since it rained the whole day, we didn’t go on the ferry ride.  We took the train back to Alvik and took Janell to our favorite Italian place.  Then we walked home and collapsed!  Our feet and legs are worn out!

Sunday – Today, was our Fast Sunday, we left for church 10:30 and we got to introduce Janell to our Ward Family.  She got a lot of hugs today!  We listened to all the meeting through our translator, Jonathan and then there was a special broadcast we watched about the new program for children and youth activities. 

It has been a wonderful week and we miss all our children and grandchildren – glad we have been able to see them as they send Marco Polo’s or do video calls.  That will get us through the next 6 months. 

We hope you have a fantastic week, stay healthy and happy and love your family!  Janell has plans to leave Tuesday for Home in Hawaii, we will miss her but glad we had this time together.  AND it will be OCTOBER next week!!!!

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

Missionary Week 53

Missionary Week 53 - September 16, 2019 – September 22, 2019

Hello Everyone!  This week we have moved into some colder days!  I believe our Summer is over!  The leaves are changing colors and we are gearing up for some more cooler days & nights. 

Leaves changing some change to
yellow this one turns red

Monday – This morning the outside temperature was 10*C which is about 50*F.  We both wore sweatshirts today.  When we got to the train station, we were going to have to wait 2 minutes for the next train …. two minutes came and went, and an announcement finally came over the speakers…That our train was delayed due to a passenger who got sick.  Surprisingly, the first announcement was in Swedish, but we were so happy they also spoke in English!  So, we waited a little while longer, and still made it to work by 7 am.  I feel bad for the sick passenger – there is nowhere to run on a moving train. 

Our day went really fast and tonight we headed for groceries.  We went home and put away the groceries and then took the car over to the Borg’s for the next week.  Our daughter, Janell is planning on coming next week, so we needed the car for that week.  We parked the car, handed over the keys and had a pizza at the pizzeria across the street.  It was huge!  Nice thin crust and tasty.

  Then we went to the new apartment that the new couple will move into as soon as they get here in a couple of weeks.  We just wanted to check on it to make sure it was ok, ran some water through the pipes and flushed the toilets. Took some more pictures to send them with pictures of their building at night.  We took the tram back to Alvik and then a train back to our station. 

Tuesday – This morning it was 4.3*C which is 39*F.  Broke out the light jackets today!  Good day at work. We got a Marco Polo from Jennifer and the boys showing us their new bunnies and pigs.  So cute.

Wednesday – We normally don’t use our phones on the train – everyone else is either listening to music or scrolling. Today on the way to work we were looking at a Facebook post and we missed our Fridhemsplan stop!  When we looked up and we saw where we were …oops we didn’t jump up because we knew we didn’t have enough time to get out of the train…(we have seen several people do this in the past) so we rode to the next stop, got off and got on the next train going back to where we needed to be. 

We got a call from Jaylen and Blaire because our washer had stopped working!   We tried to remember when we bought it, did we have a warranty and finally Jaylen pulled out the washer and fixed it!  Yeah!  We’ve been gone too long! 

Thursday – Work was good, the temperature is still getting lower, it’s now down to 4*C and we are wrapping up in blankets to watch a movie. 

Friday – Our daughter, Janell made it to Arizona and Jenn picked her up in Show Low.  Then she will fly over to see us Monday/Tuesday!  We were home to do laundry at 4 pm. 

 

Saturday – Our Granddaughter Lucy’s baptism was today!  We did get a Marco Polo at the party afterwards and got to see almost everybody. 

We cleaned the apartment – took us a half an hour.  Then we headed out to the Science Museum.  We took the train to T-Central and then walked to the bus to get to the “Tekniska Museum”.

It is a huge building; thank goodness they had a map.  Technology is amazing.  The displays would show you the original invention and then move forward as the world progressed. We stayed until it closed at 5pm.   

John's Favorite

Interactive room

Different lanterns used in mines
There was a mini mine here

Bumble Bee

Crushed SAAB

Aromatic Oils from India  that were exhibited at The
Great Exhibition in London in 1851**** JODY! and soap
There are 48 samples of these Aromatic Oils They were made
from plants and were used in perfumes

Steam Engine

Bicycles

The most real looking Robot - she moves her eyes, and hands 

Sunday – The Borg’s picked us up for church, it was a full crowd today.  Great to see. We had a nice relaxing day today.  Ready for another week! 

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

Missionary Week 52

Missionary Week 52 – September 9, 2019 – September 15, 2019

This week, we have reflected on what was happening in our lives last year at this time.

 We spoke in church on the 9^th of September and had a fun day with our family. We were busy with the last-minute things we needed to do before we left for 18 months!  Packing and hoping the luggage scale would be kind!

On the 11^th of September, we had a fun Birthday with the twins and some long hugs from our children & grandchildren as we kept going back around the room for more hugs. 

On the 12^th of September our daughter Jennifer, drove us to the Valley to catch our plane to Utah and a grand send off at Grover’s Hill outside our town. 

This year has gone by fast.  We have enjoyed our time here and the things we’ve learned and are still learning, the sights we’ve seen and plan on seeing.  We do miss everyone, and we are pretty sure that the next 6 months will go by fast also and then we’ll get to have some more long hugs.

Monday – We had a great day at work and were able to finish 2 boxes each.  When we went to lunch one of the huge double pane windows was shattered from the outside.  We haven’t heard what happened yet.

Tuesday – Today we got 2 boxes done each today.  The walk to work is a nice cool one, we are holding out on bringing out the jackets.  Our son Jaylen that just bought a house took us on a video tour of all the renovations he’s been doing!   

Wednesday – Happy Birthday to our Twins – Gunner & Bo who turned 5 today! AND Happy 10^th Anniversary to Jaylen & Blaire! We were able to video call and talk to the twins, they were more excited to show us all the balloons that they had and had an impromptu “sword” fight with them for us! 

Thursday - We were up and off to work, it was windy today.  We got a video call from Jaylen and he told us all about the September 11^th ceremony they had in town.  The town has a walk from the Post Office to the Veteran Memorial by the Library.  Then they had a program there. He was in the Color Guard there.

Soccer games are in full swing, we know where we would be if we were home!  JT is playing JV and his games are on Thursday and then he plays with the Varsity on Friday Nights.  John misses running the chains at Varsity games. 

Friday – Friday the 13^th – My Swedish Grandmother’s birthday.  She would’ve been 130 today!  She was born on a Friday in 1889.  She always told me, Friday the 13^th – isn’t bad luck, she was lucky to be here!  

We took a long lunch and went to Gamla Stan (Old Town) to buy our tickets for the St. Lucia Program on Dec. 13 this year.  We went last year and loved it.  It is a part of our Christmas Retreat with the other Senior Couples in the Mission.  We got great seats. Then, we went to lunch at the House of Burgers – we have gone there several times, and it is always good.  Then back to work and we left at 3 so we could get back home to do our laundry. 

Saturday – Happy Birthday to Titus who turned 3 today!  We went to Kista (pronounced Shista) today and went shopping for winter accessories.  We ate at the Taco Bar in the food court and had our first enchiladas and tacos.  It was great – not AZ Mexican Food but close.  They even had chips and salsa that had refried beans in it.  We haven’t found canned refried beans – you have to make your own. Our daughter, Janell & her husband Joshua was moving into their new apartment today, they are excited to have a little more room! 

Sunday – Elder Borg picked us up today for church, Sister Borg has a cold, so she stayed home today.  We had a great Sunday School class, with great participation and discussion. 

We are expecting more cloudy days this next week with chance of showers at the beginning of the week and a temperature of 57 for our high.  The sun is going down a little after 7pm nowadays – and the sunrise is just after 6am.  It’s a little easier to sleep now! 

Have a great week and enjoy your time with family!  OH! Update on my pictures from last week, I found them on Google Photos…. now I just need to figure out how to get them out of Google Photos….I only lost one picture after all.

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

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

Missionary Week 51

Missionary Week 51 – September 2, 2019 – September 8, 2019

We had a great week at work and a Wonderful weekend. Hope you did the same.

Monday – Off to work in high hopes that Fridhemsplan would be open and they did not disappoint!  They are still working on it, but people can walk around and get to the other trains and exits. It sure saves us a lot of time!   We had to remember how to get to our other train – but it came back to us pretty fast! 

It was a cool walk to work but still did not need a sweater.  A lot of people wear jackets already and ask us if we aren’t cold! 

It took us only 20 minutes to get home today and we went to the grocery store tonight.  We got calls or Marco Polo’s from our kids telling us about their Labor Day weekend.  Everyone is safe at home and had a good time.

Tuesday – We got to work before 7 this morning.  Work was fine, getting 2 boxes done a day. At Lunch, the sun was shining and darker clouds when we left a little after 4 p.m. 

Wednesday –HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ALYVIA!  She is 10!  Hard to believe that.

Left for train a little early.  While we were waiting for our 2^nd train, a guy that we have seen before there, was going through the garbage (This is an everyday occurrence, lots of people look in the bins and pull out pop cans and plastics  to get the rebates), but this guy picked out a coffee cup, took the top off and poured it into his coffee cup! AARRRRGHHH!  That is not an everyday occurrence!  

Tonight, John took me to Relief Society – Game Night.  What a hoot.  We played Bingo! 

You know the game where they call out numbers in rapid succession?  In SWEDISH!  So, the Relief Society President tried to translate for me, she is from Arizona and she does know Swedish – and she knows her numbers except 7’s are really hard to say and so is 70’s and so she’d yell out a number and somebody down the table would say NO it’s 73….. instead of 48…. It was hilarious.  I’ve gotten my numbers down pretty good to 10. BUT as fast as it was going I was not getting it and I’d never branched out to learn the teens or any other numbers…but, I did win once!  They are a great bunch of ladies and we did have fun and great fika…. Snacks.

There was a group practicing several songs, in Spanish for a funeral on Thursday, in another room.  They sounded so good. 

Thursday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MATT!  It was raining today as we left for the train.  We had to use the umbrella!

 John had to go to T-Central to buy more ink for our printer, right before lunch and he said it wasn’t raining then. 

Friday – We left at our normal time and got to work at 6:45!  We don’t need to leave that early anymore!  We got all the files transferred to the Shuttles and ready for UPS pick up.  We worked until 2:30pm. Laundry is done. Got Marco Polo’s from Jon and Jenn – Our Apache County Fair has been going on this week, we really miss it!  The kids have so much fun entering their drawings, crafts and hobbies.  It’s right up the street from Gramma and Grampas’ house.

Saturday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LUCY!  She is 8 years old today! She got a bunny! We also got a Marco Polo while her family was up at the Mud Bogs at the Fair.

We got ready to go to the Temple, picked up the Borgs and headed for the Stockholm Temple.  It was a nice day there and then we left about 1:30 to head to the Stake Center in Gubbängen for the David Archuleta Concert!

We were able to get a parking spot right across the street – unheard of – and we got great seats – because we were there an hour early.  He is very talented, and he had some great stories from his life – before “stardom” and after and how he stays grounded. It was fun to have 4 young girls in front of us loving his songs, taking pictures and mouthing the words to their favorite songs he sang, they were so cute.  He sang and talked for 1 ½ hours.  He stood up front and you could get in line to shake hands; he couldn’t speak because he was saving his voice for the 7 o’clock showing and we got our picture taken with him. 

I know a few of our granddaughters would’ve liked to have been there!  Grampa sent several Marco Polo’s so they could see him in action. 

We took the Borg’s home and ran to the grocery store and topped of the car with gas to hand over the car to the Borg’s tomorrow.  It was a fun day, felt like several days rolled into one!

Sunday – We picked up the Borg’s for church and they sustained a new 2^nd Councilor in the Bishopric today.  Several weeks ago, they announced the 2^nd Councilor, Brother Mitchell was being put in the Stake Sunday School Presidency. So today they replaced him with Brother Bendixen, who is from New Mexico but working here in Sweden at one of the Universities in Genetics.  Young cute family.  They came to Sweden a couple of weeks before we got here last year.

I thought I had some great pictures of the concert and I was going to update you on the rebuilding of the house across the street that burned.  But Alas, I lost my pictures off my phone for this week.  Luckily, we used Johns phone for our picture with David Archuleta!  I don’t know what I did different than any other week, but I did something wrong!  Glad John sent the Marco Polo’s at least we have those to look at!

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