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. 

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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