Missionary Week 62

Missionary Week 62– November 18, 2019 – November 24, 2019

This was a fast and busy week, as we got our car out of the shop, met our new Sr. Couple that replaces the Borgs and had a Welcome/Farewell party at the Mission Home.

Monday – We left for work when after breakfast and go to work at 6:45!  We didn’t realize how early it was!   We were able to get in, so somebody was already in the building and working!  I still didn’t have room on my computer, so I did more Genealogy – taking the time to look at the Swedish records and translating with Google Translate. 

After lunch I got an email from Germany with a file so I could delete old files and I was good to go.  I now have 56% free space!  Tonight, after dinner, we watched the “Face to Face with Elder Gong” on the new Children and Youth Program of the Church.  We were excited to see Hunter Ober – MarjAnn (Baker) Ober’s son in the program.  He did an awesome job and is growing up to be a fine young man! 

We talked with Jennifer tonight, but the service was so bad we ended up using Marco Polo to finish out our conversations! We also heard from Jaylen that they did arrive home safely from Disneyland!  

Tuesday – Today we walked in a light mist going to work and rain when we left at 4pm!  Work went well, John left about 10 to go pick up our car out of the shop.  The new Senior Couple Elder & Sister Salls flew in today from Salt Lake.  We called to welcome them to Sweden and told them we’d see them at work on Thursday.  They get a day to re-coop from travel and settling in. 

We went to the Mission Office to pick up some pans and kitchen items that the Sisters in our Ward needed. We will be visiting them Saturday.  Then we went to the grocery store to re-stock after 2 weeks.  We were having some pretty strange concoctions!  But the fridge and freezer got cleaned out! 

Wednesday – Work was fine today; at lunch we saw some blue skies behind the clouds!  My camera started screeching at me when I would take a picture.  We called our Supervisor in Germany so he could hear it and since he is coming next week to do some training with the Salls – he’s bringing me a new camera! 

Tonight, I made a dessert Swedish Kladkaka – a chocolate cake – it’s pretty good – how could it not be – it’s mostly butter!  With a little flour, sugar and 2 eggs and cocoa.  I was asked to bring a dessert for Friday’s party at the Mission Office.  I’ll just double the recipe on Friday. 

Thursday – We went to work in what we now call FOG.  You can see, but you just get a mist on your glasses, hair and clothes. I calibrated my camera and tried it out, it is still screeching. I don’t have to work until we get the camera changed out on Tuesday. 

I worked on the Hallmark line today – Johns’ Grandmother’s line.  He got a message from another lady who is related to us on this line and she asked him if he knew he was related to Jennifer Garner?!  Nanny’s mother was Carrie Garner, that is why Janell’s middle name is Carrie. 

When the Quist’s brought the Salls to work today they came up to meet us.  It was great to finally meet them- we’ve been emailing back and forth for a while.  Today was the Borg’s last day at the archive!  We were able to sit and chat at lunch with everybody, that was fun.

Friday – A little misty today going to work.  I didn’t even calibrate the camera – but I had to have the light on in order to work on the computer.  At lunch it looked like it had rained a little. 

Came home and made the Kladkaka (they pronounce it gladkaka) for the party and we made it to the Mission Home safely with it!  We had 2 new couples; The Rudd’s from Utah are going south to work with the Young Single Adults – they came in today!  We had to keep waking them up – but we’ve all been there!  The Salls are the other new couple so they all got to meet almost all our Sr. Couples.  We said our farewells to the Borg’s, they leave at 10 tomorrow morning – they’ll get to Denver with a 3hr layover and then on to California. 

 

Saturday – After breakfast we headed for Örebro, we texted the Sister’s there – we have to do their apartment check and because we would be arriving about noon – we wanted to take them to lunch.  They were excited with that – they picked a Thai restaurant they’ve wanted to try.  It was beautifully decorated, and the food was excellent. 

Sister's Adams and Jensen with
Elder Richardson

We had fun getting to know them. Then took them back to their apartment, they had a lesson scheduled and had to be to the train by 2:15, John had to oil their bike chains and we drove them to the train station. We had texted the Elders, but they never responded. 

Längbro Kryka -Church

Beautiful Marker

Front Door

Längbro tower

We went to the Längbro Church and Cemetery - It’s beautiful.  The cemetery is huge.  We could see lights and people in the church, but it was locked.  I’ll have to call the Pastorate office next week and get some more information.  We took a lot of pictures and I was glad to see where Augusta Elizabeth Carlstrom Carlsson was buried in 1912.  Don’t know if we’ll ever find a headstone, but it’s the right place.  We will go back.  I will have to dig into her children’s records to see if one of them might have been living there and that’s why she was in Örebro.  We tried to get John’s phone to work and it was acting crazy – no internet- we had no way of calling anyone so we headed back and went right to the Mission Office to have the Elders fix the phone – then we figured out why the Elders never responded to us – because they never got our message. 

We went to Ikea for a few things and then to the Sisters in Jakobsberg – our ward to check on them and get their kitchen items to them.  We had a good visit with them.  End of a great day.

Sunday – We went to church today, and it was our Primary Children’s Program.  They did so good.  Few in number but sweet children.  It’s been a great day.  We’re looking forward to a new week.

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Week.  We are Thankful for our Family and Friends, for being able to be here in Sweden and doing the work we are doing and for our health.  We are grateful for all our blessings we’ve been given and continue to receive. 

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

Missionary Week 61

Missionary Week 61 - November 11, 2019 – November 17, 2019

Happy Veterans Day to all those who have served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard!  Sweden doesn’t celebrate this holiday – so my Veteran had to work today!   This is another week that has flown by. 

City Hall Tower from the front door
of the archive at 7am - 

Monday – On the way to the train this morning it was spitting rain but not bad.  We see some of the same people on the trains – we have a particular car we ride in (usually because of the spot on the landing where the train stops – so we try to get close to where the stairs are that we need to go down to the other train.)  We had a good day at work, left at 4pm – you could see rain coming down in front of headlights but only felt a mist on your face! 

Our son Jaylen & his family video called us on their way to Disneyland!  The kids were so excited, we are looking forward to more Marco’s from Disneyland.

Our kids sent Happy Veteran’s day messages to their Dad today.

We still don’t have a car.

Tuesday – Work was fine, it was pouring rain when we came home tonight.  We got a call from Jennifer and Gunner was in bed sick now, so it’s going around!  So hard to be away.

Wednesday – Off to work and it was spitting rain again – no umbrella needed.  We were able to catch Jonathan home at lunch and caught JT home too.  Good to catch up.  They are headed to quarterfinals in the valley this Friday. 

We did get some Marco’s from Disneyland – Millie was asleep in the stroller; she was so worn out her gum was hanging out of her mouth!  Every night we get a Marco Polo and Max is in the stroller asleep slumped over – not even waking up after going off the curbs!

Thursday – Went to work in the rain – we did need the umbrella!    When we went to the lunchroom today it was raining outside but it was just wet sidewalks when left at 4pm.

Got a Marco from Jennifer, and now – the other 3 are down sick, Porter, Bo and Lily were on the couch, each one with a bucket beside them – Hope everyone is better by now!

Friday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our granddaughter EVANNA!  She is 12 today!

We called but she was off fishing with her other set of grandparents!!!  We hope you had a great time Evanna!  Jon and JT were on the bus going down to Phoenix Christian for the big game. 

We got the shuttles sent off and went to lunch a little early -11:30 – and it was freezing – the big window that was broken a long time ago, was finally being replaced and they had taken the 2^nd pane out.  COLD BREEZE – we ate in a hurry and took hot chocolate back with us.  We warned the Quist’s to take their coat to lunch!  When they got back, they told us that the window had just been set in.

No glass yet!  Cold Breeze in
the lunchroom

 My computer was so short on room it wouldn’t let me capture anything more, so I was able to do a little genealogy for about an hour.  We left at 2pm today and headed home to get laundry done.

 

Saturday – Since we don’t have our car back – evidently the mechanic has called in sick all week, we stayed home and worked on family history and we did get out in the afternoon in between rain falls and walked to the grocery store.  We were able to get a few needed items to get us through the weekend. 

We found the score for the football game and it was a close one – we were leading at halftime, but we did lose but only by one touchdown 27-20!  Sounds like the boys did a fine job.  Next year we’ll be able to watch all the games! 

All the boats have been put in dry dock

Sunday – We headed to church it took us about 40 minutes to ride the train and pendletag, but it wasn’t snowing this time!  It was our friends the Borgs last Sunday here in Sweden they leave next Saturday – they work with us at the archives.  They were to speak in church today, Sister Borg was the piano player, then spoke, then Elder Borg spoke, then Sister Borg was playing piano for the primary kids to practice for their program next week and Elder Borg gave his last lesson in the English Speaking Sunday School!  Full day for them!  We had Fika afterwards which was fun.  Fika is treats!  There were a lot of goodies and then hugs and goodbyes. It was another good Sabbath Day.

We hope you are healthy and happy and know that we think of you often and miss you!  Love hearing from you!  Love, John & Linda, Mom & Dad, Gramma & Grampa

Missionary Week 60

Missionary Week 60 – November 4, 2019 – November 10, 2019

Hello Everyone!  We had another great week.  We hope that you are enjoying Fall weather – and maybe even some Winter weather!

Tree outside our church - with Snow!

Monday – We were off to work and got in before 7 am.  Good day at work – however, I finished 1 Box!  I posted a picture of Dörby Parish on my Facebook page and Elder & Sister Borg that work with us said, “we noticed the picture of the church – we went there too!”  One of Elder Borg’s family went there too! We wondered if our families knew each other!? Small World! 

We had a video call with Jaylen & Blaire and got to talk to Millie and Max!  It’s so fun to talk to the little ones who weren’t talking when we left and now, they are talking so well!  Millie, Titus and Porter are all 2 going on 3! 

Tuesday – We are wearing our heavy coats and scarfs to work – it’s cold and today even a bit of wind – so it feels colder!  I got one box done at work.  We had a Marco Polo from Jennifer and Porter; Bo & Gunner and they were trying to cheer up Bridger who was home sick. 

John called for service on our car – it has a hard time starting up.  So, they sent a wrecker to bring it in to their service center.  John had to ride the train home to give them the keys and he was back in about 1 ½ hours.  

We left at 4pm and after dinner we watched the highlights of the St. Johns vs Morenci football game and we saw JT on several tackles. 

Wednesday – We really left early this morning and got to work at 6:45!  I was able to finish 2 boxes and we had a late lunch.  John checked on the car – no it’s not ready yet!  We were hoping to go to Örebro this weekend…. we can’t make plans yet without a car! 

Thursday – We were at work by 6:50 today. We had lunch at 1 and it was raining.  When we leave at 4pm it’s DARK!  We miss our barn and barn barn (children and grandchildren!) 

Friday – We had breakfast, set off to work, had time to send a Marco Polo to Janell from one of our train stops at Fridhemsplan.  Got our shuttles sent off to Germany.  We left at 3pm today and then we had to wait for 30 minutes or so for a train going the right way!  Something was happening – couldn’t read the notice that was in Swedish but we did notice the word “Policen” so there was something happening with the Police.

We had our Friday night date night at 7 tonight – for laundry.  Somebody got our 4pm schedule somehow. It worked out just fine. 

We were hoping to catch the first-round playoff game for St. Johns against Arizona Lutheran, but we couldn’t find it anywhere online.  John got a Marco Polo from a friend, Von Stradling – who let him know they were missing him on the chain gang at the game and that they were in the playoffs.

Saturday – We got up at 4am to check on the football game – still couldn’t find it or any score being reported.  By the time we got up in the morning we learned we had won 35-7 so great job Redskins!  With that win our head coach Mike Morgan got his 336^th win and tied Coach Paul Moro from Blue Ridge for most wins in a career.  Pretty impressive.  We are a little partial – we love the coaching staff - our son Jonathan is one of the Defensive Coaches with Coach Garcia.

We left at noon to go to Kista for a movie and shopping. It was raining when we left and raining when we got back.   We watched the new movie “Midway” it was great to see and learn a little more history.  Then we walked through the food court and found IKKI…. we said – it’s gotta be good – RIGHT?  It was a Korean shop and we did enjoy it.  It reminded me of one time we had Lily and we took her to lunch with us at Subway and asked her what she wanted – and she said it’s the Yucky one.  I couldn’t figure out which one that was until I came across the Teriyaki sandwich…then I knew what she wanted!!! LOL 

When we got home – we ran around the corner to get some milk and eggs since we are out of almost everything!  We found out we might get the car back next Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed. 

Sunday – We got ready for church and left about 10am headed for the train.  We got to church in time! In the SNOW!  It rained all night and was raining when we got up and as we were getting ready – John looked out the window and said, “I hate to say this but It’s Snowing!”  Of course, it would snow on the day we have to walk and ride trains to church!  It snowed while we were in church and on the way home – it is really pretty!

John got a new calling in church today – he will be the new English-speaking Sunday School teacher when the Borgs leave in two weeks. 

We hope you have a wonderful week – Happy Veterans Day to all our Veterans out there and be safe and keep on smiling! 

If you look REAL close up by the roof
you might see little white streaks of
snow falling!

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

Missionary Week 59

Missionary Week 59 – October 28, 2019 – November 3, 2019

Hello Everyone!  We have had a great week – we finished off our trip to Kalmar and headed home and back to work. 

Inside Dörby Church

Organ - upstairs

Taken from upstairs

Monday – We enjoyed a sunny morning breakfast – all by ourselves – then off to Dörby Church Office.  We stopped at what we thought was the office – only to find out it was the Parish Priests home!  So, he pointed us in the right direction a couple of blocks away.  There we met Tina and Lotta!  They were both willing to help but we didn’t get any new information from them – other than Lotta thinks there still may be living relatives of Carl Johan Karlsson’s brother Gustaf Fritz.  They don’t have the old record books there, like I thought they would. They gave me the address of the National Archives in Vadstena and suggested we go there. 

Lotta is still doing some searches for me and we will stay in touch.  Lotta called the workers at the cemetery, they were mowing and leaf blowing, and they opened up the door to the church so we could go inside.  We took a lot of pictures.  To stand where you know your ancestors stood is pretty amazing! 

We then headed off to see the Kalmar County Museum, we learned about the history of Kalmar.  There were exhibitions of the royal ship Kronan, a Swedish illustrator, Jenny Nyström who went to Paris to learn her art, and Sandby Borg – where archeological excavations found gold artifacts located on the site. 

Stairwell

Then we went shopping in Kalmar – and ended up having a late lunch at a Taco Bar.  Then we made it back to the hotel and we were able to watch the homecoming game between St. Johns and Benson.  We won but it was a close game. We sure miss watching our boys play football. 

Tuesday – We woke up to frost on the pumpkin!  We went to our last breakfast and said goodbye to the lady.  We packed up and headed for Vadstena, which was about 3 ½ hours North west of Smedby.  We went right to the archive which was inside the Vadstena Castle!  It was a beautiful castle. 

I got settled in at a computer to look through the records, and right to the left of where we were sitting was 2 girls at camera stations, capturing record books that they had!  I found a few things on-line that I had not found before on the parents of Jonas Gustaf Karlsson and Augusta Elizabeth Carlström.  John didn’t stay too long with me at the computer but went wandering.  He went all around the castle and sent Marco Polo’s!  We left Vadstena about 3 and headed on home.

Vadstena Castle

 Our friends The Bakers – who are on their mission in San Francisco/Oakland were in their 3^rd day of blackouts.  Their Marco Polo's to us are black but we hear them!  We’re so glad we can stay in touch.

Yummy Vegan BBQ Chicken

We stopped at a MAX hamburger – Sweden’s answer to McDonald's.  John ordered his BBQ sandwich, then we noticed on the receipt it said ***Vegan*** - we were a little worried but he said it was great and couldn’t believe it wasn’t meat!  We got back home about 6:30 and unpacked and got all emails and things refreshed when we hit our wi-fi. 

Wednesday – We have frost here also!  One of the days we were gone, the clocks changed – for Daylight savings!  We had to reset all of our clocks.  It is now lighter when we go to work and we are seeing some cool sunrises.  It was a cold walk this morning – we were in our heavier coats and scarfs. 

Work was fine, and we left at 4pm.  We went to City Gross (grocery store) and came home and made Scotcheroos – minus the Scotch..Butterscotch chips that is.  The American store has them, but they are $7 or so a bag. We are in charge of Lesson and treat for our Senior Couples Family Home Evening tomorrow night. 

Thursday – Happy Halloween!  We saw several people in costume but nothing like the states.  Work was ok – got a couple of boxes done – the new boxes we’re working on have a military card, a medical card and usually an envelope of more medical papers for each soldier – so the work is slowing down a bit. 

We got home, had a quick dinner and headed to the Mission Office to set up our treats and we had a record number of Senior Couples there tonight, 6 couples to be exact.  We had a great time and even remembered to schedule next months date.    John gave a lesson on All Saints Day and All Souls day since this Friday is All Saints Day.

Friday – It was -1*Celsius this morning – 30.2*F.  Work was good, we got our shuttles sent off and we got to leave a 2pm when the Archive closed for ½ day holiday because of All Saints Day.  We came home for laundry and got Marco Polo’s from Rachel, Blaire, Jennifer and Jody of the Halloween costumes and parties they were going to!  So fun.  Later tonight we heard from Janell.  I cleaned the apartment for Halloween.

 Saturday – We had breakfast, and I worked on ArkivDigital – Swedish records on-line.  I re-read a death record of Augusta Elizabeth Carlström Karlsson – and I was able to pick out a word that I had seen before but because I didn’t read Swedish, I didn’t know what the column was for, but today I saw the city name of Örebro.  That was where she had died, in the notes it says that a certificate from the Pastor states she was buried in Longbro.  I always thought that was a city – I went to Google Maps to find all cemeteries near Örebro – and the first thing I saw was “Longbro Cemetery!”  All this time and I figure it out on ALL Saints Day! I’m imagining it wasn’t just me.   Next weekend we are headed to Örebro, we’ve been there a couple of times to do apartment checks and had no idea what we were so close to!

 This afternoon we headed out for a Music Concert at St. Jacobs church in downtown Stockholm, it was a quartet of singers.  It was a beautiful church, they had candles lit on each end of the pews, the sound resonated through the high ceilings and it was very pretty.  They sang songs from Mendelssohn, Bach, Grieg, Brahms, Schubert and Mozart and a few others – including Engelbert Humperdinck = who lived from 1854-1921…. not the Humperdinck I remember but maybe a relative!?  His song was from Hansel and Gretel.

After the concert we walked around the building to the center of Kungstragarden where the ice rink was last year, and people were skating on it. There is a big stage and there was a music concert going on “Shockholm” for Halloween/All Saints day!  A singer named “Miss Sister” came out with her singers and dancers and sang one song and left and they were introducing someone else when we left. 

We headed to Gubbängen for our Stake Conference – it’s the Stake Center – where we hold most of our Zone Conferences.  It was a good meeting and saw lots of our Ward members and some of our Senior Couples were there also.  They had “Fika” afterwards which was a roll with cheese and ham, it was wonderful – we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and this was after 7pm.

That gave us enough energy to go through the Skogskyrkogården that we went to last year.  It’s a huge “woodland cemetery & UNESCO Heritage site” It did not disappoint.  Mass of people, tons of candles and flowers or pine wreaths, pumpkins, rocks, etc. It is a huge place and everywhere you turn there was light.  Last year we were there in the afternoon and left 3:30-4pm ad it was dusk, but this time we were there by 7:30 and it was pitch dark, so we saw the lights through the forest a lot more.  We were more prepared this year, with coats, scarfs and gloves!  Much more comfortable.  We took pictures and sent Marco Polos and came home and watched “COCO”. 

Sunday – We had breakfast and headed out to Stake Conference.  Found a parking spot on the street right by the church.  It was a great meeting.  Wonderful choir and they brought up on the podium about 8-10 children from Primary to sing “I am A Child of God”.  They did so well, there is always one little body that everyone watches – today it was the little boy that was rushed up there at the last moment and they threw him on the end – and he looked out and saw all the people and covered his eyes, first with one hand and that wasn’t good enough so he used both hands!  He eventually got brave and the hands came down!  So cute.  The Choir came in behind the children and it was just beautiful. 

Our Mission President and his wife both spoke, it’s so good to hear from them.  They asked for the members to help the missionaries out – by asking them to come into their homes and teach the lessons to their families.  He said it will only take 15-20 minutes and you will be blessed.  What a great idea. 

That is the end of another week for us.  Tomorrow is Monday, again!  Time truly flies.  We are grateful to be able to stay in touch with all of you and hope that you will enjoy this time of year.  We pray for you and hope you are happy and healthy!  

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