Missionary Week 58

Missionary Week 58 – October 21, 2019 – October 27, 2019

We have had a Great Week!

Monday – We left for work in the DARK!  It was a real quiet day at work – my earplugs quit working last Friday and I forgot to bring other ones!  Work is going well for me – my boxes have few medical papers, but John has huge boxes with a ton of medical.  I am having software problems, I had to restart about 8 times today. 

We talked with Jenn and got caught up with her. She and Matt leave for Hawaii on Thursday morning.  We got Marco Polo’s from Jaylen & Jon – they went and visited our friends Rod & Sandy in Mesa.  Then we went to City Gross for groceries.  The trees in the parking lot already have white lights strung on the trunks and branches!

Tuesday –.  Went to work, had a good day – seems like it goes so fast.  It was very windy today.  I remembered earplugs today!  We were able to watch a highlight video of the St. Johns vs Thatcher football game from Friday night on Youtube and we saw JT and Jon.  It would’ve been better to see the whole game. Pretty proud of them. 

Wednesday – Going to work today we had good seats – sitting together this morning.  We transferred some files at lunch getting ready to finish out our work week tomorrow.   It was windy leaving work and it felt a little colder.  We had to stand all the way home on the train today!

Thursday – We got to work at 6:50, we haven’t had rain for the last couple of days.  I got an email from Ancestry DNA today that said my results had been updated along with my brother Barry’s!  So, I looked at that and where it said a certain percentage was Swedish – now it narrows it down and says Southern Sweden including Kalmar and Blekinge!  I knew Kalmar should be there – but Blekinge is just a little ways further south of Kalmar…..where Johanna Maria Nilsson was born!  I don’t want to jump to conclusions – but none of the other Johanna’s was from there!  So, I think she may be the mother of Elvira Augusta Maria Karlsson! 

At lunch I called the Dörby Church office and talked to a sweet lady who spoke English, I asked her name and she said “Lofta” I asked “Can you spell that for me?” she tried but then said “No I can’t!”  “My English is not so good” The alphabet looks the same, but they pronounce the letters differently! OH, and they have 3 other letters at the end of the alphabet.  ANYWAY, she tried to give me her email address but she couldn’t get through that either so she said she would text a message to our phone!  We never got it but I found an email on the website and took a chance.  I sent her the names and dates like she asked for so she could look up my relatives before I get there.  I’m pretty excited to get down there tomorrow! 

We got a Marco from Jenn and Matt they were at the airport waiting for their flight to Hawaii.  Then a Marco from Janell getting things ready for the week with Matt & Jenn. 

Friday – When I checked my email this morning, I received one from my cousins Jean & Maury!  So good to hear from them, they are interested in hearing about our family history.  

We packed up and headed out about 9am, the drive was 4 ½ hours.  We went straight to the Dörby Church and walked around. We went to the house across the street, but nobody was home.  We will have to see them on Monday.  I have received an email back from her, so I did have the right address. She knows we are coming.  We drove around the little city and ate at a Pizza/Kebab place called the Mona Lisa.  It was very good and then we drove to Klackaberga Church up north a little and walked around.  All the churches have been closed but we’ll call their numbers and see when they can meet us.  Klackaberga is where Karl Johan’s grandfather Carl Persson was born. 

Then we drove to our hotel – it’s a beautiful place – we walked around the grounds; it was a bit breezy but so pretty.  We talked with Jaylen and went over mail – I really don’t miss mail!  There is way too much junk!

This is their conference/banquet house

Our room - The circle windows is the
bathroom - the V with windows is
the bedroom

 

 

Saturday – Breakfast was at 8am.  We were the first there, then 2 ladies came in and then another couple.  There was rolls and lunch meat and cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes, boiled eggs, milk, sour milk, regular milk, yogurt and granola, blue berries, raisins and sunflower seeds!  The owner told us there wouldn’t be any bacon because Swede’s don’t like bacon! 

Peasant Soldier

We then headed out to see Kalmar Castle.  We were there a little early, so we were able to walk all the way around the outside of the castle.  It is right on the water, so there was a strong wind, and it was a bit chilly!  The Castle was amazing.  I took a ton of pictures. 

Peasant Soldier write up

Madesjö Church

Then we went to get gas and went to Madesjö Church, where my grandmothers – grandmother-Augusta Elizabeth Carlströms father and his parents were born in this area. We walked all around the cemetery and church, of course didn’t find our people but I have a ton of pictures of the area and building.  Still windy and cold but we had our scarves today that really help.

  We drove into the town and found a cute restaurant with Kebab (that is real popular here!) Then we walked through Willys– a grocery store and picked up a few things we forgot to bring with us. 

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a beautiful rock church that’s on the road to our hotel.  I took more pictures.  We got in and got warm, had cheese and crackers for dinner and got Marco Polo’s from Jenn and Janell from their hikes, submarine rides and kayaking!

Sunday – We were up and ready for breakfast at 8am!  We were first in the door but the two ladies from yesterday were right after us.  We started talking with them, they were sisters and had been up to this area to visit their Mother’s grave!  They asked where we were from and it was a great time talking to them – they both spoke English – they’d speak Swedish when they’d disagree on what the other one was saying, it was so cute. After an hour the owner said she had to be somewhere else, so we had to leave!    We had a good time asking about Sweden culture and how things worked. They were very helpful and wished us well at the church tomorrow. 

We went back to Dörby church and I took a bunch of pictures – hoping for some good ones – it was windy.  Then we drove around Smedby and then headed over a long bridge to Oland the long skinny island to the east of Kalmar.  It was a nice ride, very windy because they have water all around.  The houses were a little older – but well kept.

 We saw a lot of windmills, old and new turbines.  We drove all the way to the other side of the island and back.  We found a fishing dock – no one there but there were boats and little buildings – made for good pictures.  

 Then we headed for home, stopped off at a MAX hamburger in Kalmar because we wanted to try a Haloumi sandwich.  John got the Haloumi and I saw a Spicy Chicken sandwich that I wanted to try – both were fantastic.  Have you ever heard of Haloumi?  We hadn’t – it’s cheese.  They fry it up and it turns brown and they serve it like a burger.  They had spicy ketchup to dip the fries in.  One of our favorite drinks here is Fanta (kind of like Shasta) Exotic. It’s like orange pop but it must have mango and exotic things in it.  It is wonderful.  We are back at the hotel and looking at pictures and writing this email and having cheese and crackers for dinner! The ONLY thing bad about this place, has been the lack of signal for our phones/internet.  So, you may not get this Sunday!  AND it’ll be a while for me get ALL the photos loaded up, but I will put some of my favorites in, for sure!

We hope your week has been wonderful and that you are healthy and happy. Stay tuned for part 2 of our trip to our roots.  Hopefully, we will have some great stories from Dörby and hopefully they will be able to help me find some areas that are no longer on the map!  

Have a Happy Halloween and be safe!

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

Missionary Week 57

Missionary Week 57 – October 14, 2019 – October 20, 2019

Hello Everyone!  This has been a very wet week here in Stockholm!  The leaves are still changing color and a lot are falling!  We came out of Zone Conference on Tuesday to this beauty on our windshield!     

Monday – We went to work with our umbrella!  It must have rained all night!  Our computers were running out of space and we received our email from Germany with the OK to delete a few files.  My computer was down to 2% and it went up to 36%.  We went to lunch at 1pm and chatted for a few minutes with the Quist’s. 

We are planning a trip down to the South of Sweden for next week.  We hope to find Smedby, the city where my Great-Grandfather and his parents are from.  I’m busy trying to find the records of both sides of his family to make sure we can hit all the little cities around there.  Getting pretty excited to head out!

Tuesday –.  We left for Zone Conference at 8am. It was another great conference.  We helped Elder & Sister Bailey with the luncheon set up and clean up.  We have a lot of talented young Missionaries!  There was a musical number with piano and violin and 2 singing that was beautiful.  They are thoughtful and courteous.  They speak English in the training setting.  When they go into the chapel and bare their testimonies it is in Swedish.  Up pop the 2 Assistants to the President from the front row pew and come sit behind us and the Clouses’ to translate into English.  We met another Elder whose family is from Snowflake! Elder Johnson.  There are a lot of missionaries from Arizona!

We left zone conference at 4pm and headed for our hair appointments.  We were late by 20 minutes because of the traffic and rain, Sister Mitchell is a good sport, luckily, she didn’t have anyone else scheduled to come after us! 

Wednesday – We left for work about 6:30 am it was a little misty today and it rained tonight.  Work was good, David our Supervisor from Germany was still here for training the Quist’s.  He helped us with a few questions that we’ve had, and it was great to have some solutions to our problems!  I was able to send a file that I captured in July!  We finally were given a project # that it could be placed in.  I’m getting more Dcam errors – and the help desk said “yep, that’s normal!”  We worked until 4pm and it was misty coming home.

We got a Marco Polo from Jaylen, showing us his progress on his house re-building!

Thursday – We went to work with a mist all around us.  Had a good day at work! 

Friday – Got a Marco Polo from Rachel, giving us some pictures from JT’s JV game last night at home against Thatcher.  We lost – but that JT had made some great blocks/tackles.  He is having a good time.  Jaylen’s son Edwin was able to go stand by Uncle Jonny on the field tonight for the game.  She sent a picture of his sign he made for JT that was really cute – GO JT!  He had muscle-y arms and a uniform with the #4 on it.  He was pretty excited. 

I finished 2 boxes and sent out our shuttles.  We went to lunch a little early and sat with Elder Borg for a little bit.  We left at 3pm to get home to do laundry.

 

Saturday – We had breakfast and got ready to go to the Temple. The flowers were beautiful. 

The young missionaries helped

 plant them a couple of weeks ago. 

We came home, I worked on Genealogy and we got ready for a surprise birthday party for Elder Ashby who turned 64.  

The theme of the party – was the Beatles “When I’m 64” it was fun, we sang that song and had a sing a long of several Beatles

songs and some Beatle Trivia….I won one question – I could name all of the Beatles!   We had a delicious meal and cupcakes for dessert.  We all left at the same time – we used the elevator – we kept to the rule – 6 maximum people.  We got down to the ground floor (we were on the 6^th floor).  The elevator wouldn’t go back up on its own, so Elder Bailey said he’d take it back up to get the others.  About 2-3 minutes we heard him – from the elevator – and he said, “I can’t get out, and it’s not moving!”

Elder Bailey - in the Elevator for
over an hour!

So, one of the Elder’s called our host and hostess and another one called the number for the elevator company.  The guy on the phone said they would send someone out ASAP!  This was about 8:20pm.  We decided we didn’t need to wait.  There were enough people to help him, but we told them to give us an update!  About 9:45pm we got a text that said, “Elder Bailey is Free!”  So, then everyone was texting back and forth the answer to this question – “What three things would you take with you if you knew you were going to be stuck in an elevator?” 

Once home we got a Marco Polo from Jonathan, and we called him right back.  He showed us the progress on their kitchen remodel and new flooring.  It looks great!  We got to see all the grand kids.  We heard about the Varsity football game in Thatcher from Jon and JT.  We WON!  Thatcher is the State Champion for last 3 years in a row!   Jon said that our boys just played hard and Thatcher couldn’t figure out their defense.  JT got to play on special teams and he said, “It was a fun game!”  The final score was 14-7.  They are pretty happy with that.  Head Coach Morgan got his 333^rd win!  Thatcher had about 80+ boys on the sideline – we had 22!  We don’t know how Thatcher is still in our League!

We also got a Marco Polo from Janell to update us on her week and we got to see their new dog Anu.  We are so glad to be able to keep in touch with all our kids!

Sunday – This morning we headed to church and pulled into the parking lot right behind the Borg’s and Quists!  It was a good meeting and good Sunday School.  We had Chili and Cornbread tonight to warm us up!

We hope you have a great week!  Enjoy the beauty around you.  We are!

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

Missionary Week 56

Our Tree October 1, 2019

Missionary Week 56 –October 7, 2019 – October 13, 2019

We had a full week of work this week!  The sun is coming up later in the morning and setting earlier!  We will start keeping track.  When we go to work at 6:30 the streetlights are still on, but we can see some light in the east.  When we come home the sun is still up but setting by 5:45.

Our Tree October 7, 2019

Our Tree October 13, 2019
- Leaves Falling - 

Our view from the lunchroom

Monday – We went to work this morning and got to work before 7am.  The elevator was broke, so we walked down our spiral staircase for 4 flights.  We are getting 2-3 boxes done each day. Tonight, we watched the Sunday afternoon session of Conference.  We have now seen all of Conference! 

Tuesday – We went to work at 6:15 – still dark!  The Quist’s did not come in to work and we got a little worried but we talked to our other Senior Couple, The Borgs and they told us that the Quists had to go get there fingerprints done for immigration.  So they were a little late.  Today I got 3 boxes done – very little medical so it goes so much faster. 

Wednesday – Today we went to work in a Mist.  We had lunch with the Quist’s in the lunchroom.  We left work at 4pm right on schedule.  

Thursday – It was Misty again this morning, roads are wet and when we got to work it was foggy in downtown Stockholm  really pretty with all the lights on the buildings still on.  I listened to some more conference talks while working, then some US news, then listened to Sunday School lesson and scriptures.  Makes the day go fast!  Got a Marco Polo from Jenn with Porter crying.  Then the next Marco Polo was the twin brothers in the car with Porter – and he was happy.  The twins had been to preschool with Aunt Blaire! 

After work we came home and picked up the car because we had to go get our snow tires from the Mission Office. (When you buy a car here – you get two sets of tires – one for regular driving and one for snow.  So, the office keeps all the extra set of tires in the basement with the license plate number on the stack!) The Snow tires have to be on all cars by October 15 and then they have to be replaced by April 15. 

Friday – We had breakfast and John took the car to the dealership at 7:00 and I went to work.  I made it!  All by myself!  I didn’t miss any connections or get on the wrong train!  I got both of our files transferred to the shuttles, boxed our shuttles up and went and picked up the Quist’s shuttles and we loaded them up and took them upstairs so UPS could pick them up.  John got back to work a little after 10.  We left at 3pm so we could get home to do laundry. 

 

Saturday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to JANELL!  October 12, 2019 we made German pancakes – one of her favorites – when she isn’t on her Keto diet.  We headed out on a little driving tour today up to Nortalje.  It was a beautiful drive – the tree’s are changing to yellow, orange and some red and there was dark gray clouds so when the sun came out it was absolutely beautiful.  It rained pretty heavy for a lot of our drive, but we got some good pictures even through rain drops. 

 

We headed for home, stopped in to stock up at the grocery store and then stopped for gas and dinner at Daisy’s – our diner by the gas station.  We finally got ahold of Janell on Duo for a video call and to wish her Happy Birthday in “Person”.  She was happy she didn’t have to work this weekend.

Sunday – We drove ourselves to church today – first time in our car.  We missed getting to talk with the Borg’s to catch up on what they did over the weekend.  The Quist’s drive with them now.  So, we chatted a little after church. 

It’s been a great week and a greater weekend!  We hope you have had a great week and hope you will make it even a greater one next week.  Be Safe, Be Happy and Keep Smiling!

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