Missionary Week 71

Missionary Week 71             January 20, 2020 ~ January 26, 2020

This has been a busy week!  Our workdays were uneventful, but we had a great trip to the Western part of Sweden that we haven’t been to.  Sorry our email is a little late – we didn’t get back till late on Monday Jan 27.

Monday – Work was fine – pretty fast days.  When we walked out of work we were amazed at the pretty sunset – at 4pm.  After we had dinner, we picked up the Quists and headed out to Lidingo for the Stockholm Sister’s Apartment check.  They were a little late because their lesson ran a little longer than planned but we were A.O.K. with that! One of the Sister’s remembered us checking her apartment in another area!  She asked Elder Richardson to tell them another Vietnam story!

 

Tuesday – We made it to our normal scheduled train at 6:33 – we see the same people every day, going to work on the same schedule as we have!  We get worried if we don’t see them!  It’s still dark in the A.M, and today was a little windier than usual.   I had a good day at work I finished my one box at 3:57!  (We leave at 4pm).  We got to talk to Jaylen while he was on his night shift – we were just starting our morning.  Always good to catch up!

Wednesday – It was a little colder this morning.  We didn’t need gloves but my ears sure got cold.  Had a fun Marco Polo from Edwin – he’s been in school for 100 days and all the kids had to dress up like they were 100 years old.  You’ll have to see the pic!

100 Days in School - Edwin 

  He did a real good limp and scowl! He's to the right of the teacher - he's got the dark brown hat! 

January 22, 2019 - Freezing River

January 24, 2020 Warm River

Thursday – It was chilly again today – but last year at this time I took a picture of people skiing on the river that we can see outside the lunchroom – it is not frozen this year.  Our temperatures are between 48-42 usually! 

After dinner we headed to the Mission Office and met the new Office Couple the Tories. (Not sure of spelling) They are from Canada. They have served a mission in Nairobi 2 years ago and are here now.  They had 3  days with our Office Couple that just returned home – so their heads were still spinning. (That’s not enough time for training!)  We got a call that the Elder’s in Skövde needed another box of Books of Mormon and a heater, so we will go there Saturday and take those things and check out that area.

 We mailed a box home to see if we can lighten the luggage a little 😊 we’ll see if it makes it! We are betting on two weeks – we shall see.

We got Marco Polo’s from Jon & Rachel at JT’s meet in Snowflake – we are so proud of him and his hard work – so fun to watch – but it wears us OUT!  We are very grateful to get these updates from family! 

Friday – Off to work and got the shuttles ready to go.  We left a little after 2pm.  Had laundry at 4pm – but were able to get a head start because no one had the earlier time scheduled. 

Saturday – We got up and packed for the weekend.  Went through Västerås and Örebro but then it was all new territory.  Still green and some brown, they are still farming and planting.

Karstorp

 We checked in to the Hotel and then met the Elders at their apartment.  Everything checked out fine.  Then we went to eat lunch and found “China Town” and it was wonderful.  We walked around a big church there.  Then around a different cemetery.  Then we gassed up the car and went to the grocery store for some fruit and water.  It’s a real cute city. 

Sunday – We were up and ready for breakfast at 8am in the main dining hall.  It is decorated Victorian style – so pretty.  Breakfast offered is – bread/rolls, cheeses, deli meats, cucumber, yellow bell peppers, tiny sliced pickles and fruits( pear, pineapple, orange and grapefruit slices and/or yogurt with granola, seeds or dried fruit.

Then we went to church and met the Elders in the front door, when we walked into the chapel, we saw another couple from our home Ward in Jacobsberg!  The Fohrs – our old Bishops parents!  They were surprised to see us! They actually grew up in this city so they go there quite often.  There was a young man going to the University there that translated the talks for us during Sacrament meeting.  In Relief Society a sweet lady, Anni, translated for me and we exchanged emails because she loves doing Family History and said, “If you ever need help, let me know!”  I can always use help! 

Varnhem

 This afternoon we traveled around to see what we could see, and we found Varnhem, a beautiful huge church with Viking burial grounds around it.  It used to be a monastery and the rock wall ruins were still there.  So neat and they had little signs all around that even had a paragraph in English!  It was a little misty, but we didn’t get that wet. 

Then we went by Ekornavallen, there are graves from prehistoric periods it stated about 3000 BC the first people were buried there.  It got too dark while we were there, but I got what pictures I could and then we drove back to Skövde and ate at the Thai Thai restaurant, it was wonderful food too.  This is another beautiful area of Sweden.

Next week we’ll fill you in on the rest of our trip to Katrineholm.  Tomorrow we will go back to work!

We hope you’ve had a great week, and you are happy and healthy!

Deep Fried Banana with Ice Cream
at Thai Thai

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

Missionary Week 70 ~ January 13, 2020 – January 18, 2020

Hello everyone!  Last week I failed to tell our Granddaughter Millie Happy Birthday!  We caught her at home and was able to hear about her day.  We are so glad to be able to keep in touch with family and friends.

Monday – We headed off to work, we are still getting through at least one box a day.   Our day seems to go fast.    

Tuesday – Work was great, when we went to the lunchroom, we could see it was raining so hard that it was running down the windows. We left at 4pm, it wasn’t raining but it was dark.  We had a Marco Polo from Jennifer and Bo.  We sure love our grandkids and all of their growth; they are looking older and taller!

Wednesday – We walked to the train in rain this morning – but we didn’t need an umbrella.   Work was fine, we transferred our files to the shuttles while we went to lunch.  We heard about a bad accident that happened back home and our son filled us in on what has happened.  Our little community comes together to support the families involved.  We are so glad that the young man that was hurt is doing better day by day. 

Moon behind the clouds 6:30 a.m.

Thursday – Happy Anniversary to Jennifer & Matthew!  When we went to work, we saw the moon and it was behind some moving clouds, it was so pretty.  The new boxes are great but instead of little papers we now have a ton of staples to remove!  We are happy for variety!  We had a fun lunch with the Salls and the Quists.  Tonight, we went to the grocery store. 

Friday – We are now at our Count down of 60 days left on our mission!  We got a Marco Polo from Bo, who read us a book he made.  It was so fun to hear him read.  At work we got the shuttles sent off to Germany.  We had lunch early and left at 2pm.  We got Marco Polos from Janell – showing us a quilt that Joshua’s stepmom made for them for Christmas it is beautiful!  And Rachel & Jon sent us one from Avery’s basketball game in Sanders. 

Blaire & Jaylen Richardson
at the St Johns Police Department
Awards Banquet

We were able to watch the St. Johns Police Department Awards Banquet tonight – we are proud of Jaylen, he received 3 different awards – including Officer of the Year for 2019!  Not bad for your rookie year!  We were so happy that the department streamed it live on Facebook so we could see it. 

Saturday – We had a nice lazy day today.  Tonight, we picked up the Quists and took them with us to do an Apartment check of the Sisters in Lidingo.  The Quists will be taking over our list of apartments when we leave so this was to show them what all needs to be checked.  We sure have fun talking with the Junior Missionaries and hearing about the work that they are doing.

   

Sunday – Today we went to church.  The new men in the Bishopric each spoke to us, telling about themselves so we would know them a little better.  It was a great meeting.  John lead the discussion in Sunday School – English speaking – it was so interesting. 

Jennifer & Matt called us and told us a joke; I hope they don’t mind that I share it. 

Here goes: Why does the Scandinavian Navy have bar codes on their ships?

So when they come into port all they have to do is Scan da Navy In!!  

We thought it was pretty funny!  We’ll be sharing that one at work with a few Scandinavians!

We hope you will have wonderful week! 

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

Missionary Week 69

Missionary Week 69   January 6, 2020 ~ January 12, 2020

Windows decorated in Sigtuna
at The American Food & Gift Store

This week has gone by just as fast as some of our other weeks – it just seems like it was 2 or 3 different weeks rolled into one!

Monday – Holiday - Epiphany (/ɪˈpɪfəni/ i-PIF-ə-nee) is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation (theophany^[1]) of God incarnate as Jesus Christ.

In Western Christianity, the feast commemorates principally (but not solely) the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child, and thus Jesus' physical manifestation to the Gentiles.  It is sometimes called Three Kings' Day, and in some traditions celebrated as Little Christmas. (Thanks to Wikipedia)

Information Center & Gift Store

New Hair Cut

The archive is closed today – so we set up hair appointments and another little trip to Sigtuna!  John wanted a haircut, and as he says – he got ALL of them cut…. short!  It looks great, but his ears are cold now on our way to and from work!

Then we headed to Sigtuna and some of the shops were open, so we were able to find a few things that I had wanted to take home.  We walked around some more and saw that the church (St. Peters) that had scaffolding around it when Janell was here – we noticed there was no scaffolding!  So, we were able to walk in and take pictures of the inside of the ruins of that church.  It is really an amazing rock structure.  You can see where the roofs and floors were. 

****************

What I found ABOUT,    S:T PETER’S CHURCH RUIN

King and church – with common goals

When Sigtuna was founded by King Erik the Victorious around year 980, the intent was to seek control over people and create an empire like the European kingdoms. He already had the knowledge of building a town, but he needed the church to cooperate.

Erik was a modern Scandinavian king. The goal was a kingdom with one king and one God. He would be the king and head of Church. The project was exciting and curious for the powerful men in the area of Sigtuna- a Christian city!

Sigtuna was founded to be the first Christian town in Sweden – the centre of the new religion.

During the Middle Ages, as many as seven large stone churches were erected by merchant guilds and wealthy townspeople.

Today, the ruins of three remain: St. Peter’s, St. Lawrence’s, and St. Olaf’s (St. Per, St. Lars, and St. Olof).  

When we got home, we walked to the little shop by the train stop and got dinner to take home and eat.

 

Tuesday – We headed to Zone Conference in Gubbängen and got there about 8am and were able to help The Baileys finish putting table runners on the tables -  it really looked nice. At 8:30, we had 15 minutes of personal study and then went into the presentations from the District Leaders. 

Today’s theme was Faith, Hope and Charity.  There were some fantastic thoughts presented.  We had lunch, and the Birthday song and then we moved into the chapel for testimonies and musical numbers.  This was a sad day, because our friends, the Apartment Couple, the Clouse’s are finishing up their mission and will leave next Tuesday.  The Bailey’s, our Office Couple are leaving about a week later – We all cried. 

Our Mission President and his wife will be leaving in July  – so our Mission as we know it – is not going to look the same!  People change, the work is still here, and the Gospel remains the Same! 

Wednesday – We are back to work today!  It was nice to get back, I didn’t finish my box today, but I will early tomorrow.  So many little papers. 

On our way home we saw a girl almost get hit by a car today.  I’ll give you a lesson on the Transportation rules here in Sweden! 

There is a hierarchy here, Buses are #1, Bikes are #2 and Pedestrians #3.  For example, if anybody sees a bus coming, you let them go first - they have the right of way – because they have a tight schedule.  Bikes have the right of way – except when they have a red light – and yes there are tiny signals just for the bikes – they have their own lane on the sidewalk, next to the lane for Pedestrians.  Then Pedestrians have to obey signals – but if there are no cars, buses you can walk across the street – but you understand it’s at your own risk.  Generally, the lights are synced when there are two lanes of traffic, but at our round-a-bout they are not.  The lights stop the cars going east and we can walk to the center island and wait for the light to change for the cars going west.

 

There was a lot of people walking home today, and there was a girl out in front, with her ear buds on and she was looking at her phone, she didn’t stop in the middle island and a van had to stop fast to not hit her – there was another car coming that stopped and all of us in the middle were just shocked and gasping.  No one was close enough to her to pull her back, she didn’t hear anything and merrily kept walking and I don’t know that she even knows how close she came to being hit.  We have safety videos we watch to remind Missionaries to have “situational awareness” …know what is going on around you! 

We were able to talk to Jennifer and then Jaylen and we got a Marco Polo from Janell.  Janell and Joshua are headed to California, Arizona and Utah for a quick break before Joshua goes back to school. 

Thursday – Work was good.  The Sall’s have been working on a list of forms that we don’t tag to redact and it’s in alphabetical order, so it has been a great tool. All three of our couples ended up in the lunchroom together – we had a great discussion.  We walked to the train after work with the Salls today.

We got a Marco Polo from Janell; they were in St. Johns staying in our Motor-home!  It was 1 am AZ time, they made it to Arizona! 

Friday – Work was fine, we got the shuttles shipped off, had lunch together again.  We left at 3 pm to get home for laundry!  We had corn on the cob, that’s not out of the ordinary – but this corn comes in a vacuumed packed package!  It tasted…just like corn!

 

Saturday – Busy day today, we went to the Temple for the 10 o’clock session.  It was good to be back; they were closed over the holidays for cleaning.  We took the Quist’s home from the temple – they had to ride the train to the temple. 

Clouse's and Richardson's

We left for the Mission Home for the farewell dinner for Clouse’s and Baileys.  It was a great meal, lasagna, salad and the staple bread and cheese.  There was a carrot cake, Princess cake and chocolate cream pie. We found out that the Swedes don’t take down their Christmas decorations until the 16^th!  They were asking if anyone got their decorations down, and when I said January 1^st – one of the ladies said “OH, So early?”  Oops

President Youngberg showed us some Mission History books, and a First Edition of the Book of Mormon in Swedish – one was dated 1878. 

Pres & Sis Youngberg - with Elder & Sister Bailey

 We were able to get pictures afterward and said our Goodbyes. 

Sunday – We had a Ward Conference today, and they changed our Bishopric.  It was a great meeting and then we went into Relief Society and it was packed!  The Stake President and the new Bishop came in to say a few words at the end of the hour.  They had “Fika” after church, but we didn’t stay.  On the way home we saw the beautiful SUN!

We are pretty sure we won’t have any more holidays now, so we will have to get used to working 5 days a week!

 

SUN!

We hope you are having a wonderful New Year!   Hope you are warm and healthy.

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

Missionary Week 68  - December 30, 2019 ~ January 5, 2020

Sunset - with clouds in front

Happy New Year!!!  

This was another Holiday Week!  We don’t have to be to work until Thursday!  Enjoying our time off from work and spending some time with friends.  Hope your Holiday was full of fun memories and excitement!

Parking Garage

Map to Garage on -2 level

Monday – We relaxed in the morning and then we drove to the Mall of Scandinavia. We found our parking place, and then took pictures of all the signs so we could find it again!  We walked all 3 levels, didn’t find what we were looking for.  We went to BauHaus (their Home Depot) and City Gross- our Grocery Store and more.  We are finding some good Christmas sales!

Bacon

Tuesday – New Years Eve!  We had another lazy morning, and then decided to go to the movies today. It was a clear day with SUN!  Still cold. The last show was at 3pm today, so we went to see the new Star Wars movie.  We took the train, so no parking involved.  We were a little early, so we went and bought the tickets and then walked around that mall.  I have some favorite stores there, so we hit all of them. 

Then it was time for the movie.  We went to the counter to get our treats – usually we get popcorn and a drink, today we decided we had to try their other “snacks” which are  close to the texture of  pork rinds – these were a little smoother – they come in Bacon or Sour Cream.  They were okay – but we’ll go back to Popcorn!  But we tried them!  We enjoyed the movie (although I had a small nap), when we left, the whole mall was closed up or closing as we walked out.  They take their holidays seriously!

We came home and watched movies and waited for Midnight!  

We heard a few fireworks around 9 pm.  Then at 10:30, then way more at Midnight.  We went out on our balcony and could see about 90* around us…. It really sounds like a war zone.  Amazing how big some of them were.  There were some people right down the street shooting them off in the street.  A pretty good show from our neighbors also.  We sent Marco Polo’s to the family and wished them a Happy New Year!  

We warmed up some Glögg and put almonds and raisins in it – tradition.  It’s a nice “Merry Christmas mulled wine” ours was Alkoholfri 😊.  The ingredients are water, grape juice from concentrate, oatron juice, citric acid…made by a flour company for over 100 years.  It smells and tastes like cinnamon and cloves.  It really is a nice warm drink.  We stayed up til 1:30 and called it a night.  Hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day!

Wednesday – We forgot to cancel our alarm, so we were up at 5:30 but did get back to sleep for a while!  We fixed breakfast and I decided this year I am going to tackle things that I don’t’ do well at!  I made cinnamon rolls today!  Sweden has some wonderful yeast – there is a yeast for bread and a yeast that is for sweet breads.  They turned out pretty good – I know that if I practice more often it will become easier and I won’t make as many mistakes! 

Then I put away our Christmas Decorations – when I was little we always took down our Christmas tree and decorations on New Year’s Day – while we watched the Rose Bowl Parade!  No Rose Parade here, but we are clean for the new year.  We got some cute Marco Polo’s from our kids in St. Johns at Jenn & Matt’s house playing Minute to Win It games!  So funny to see the kids.

Thursday –January 2, 2020.  Back to work today!  No rain or snow.  It’s about 40* F in the morning.  Work was good with 2 boxes done.  It is a little lighter when we leave at 4pm but within 20 minutes when we get home it was dark.  We are on the swing the other way now.  John found an app that tells you the amount of daylight for each day – we were right at 6 hours of daylight this last week.

We checked our mail when we got home, and low and behold, Janell’s Thanksgiving Card arrived today!  She mailed it on November 20, from Hawaii.  So we called her and showed her that it had arrived….Finally.

 

Friday – Went to work and it was pretty windy this morning.  When we arrived at the archive, there was a lady – that we recognized as working there – sitting just inside the front door.  She jumped up when we came in and said that her badge got her in the door but not into the stairs/elevator, so she was waiting for us!   We got 2 more boxes done today and mailed off the shuttles.

We left at 3pm, and we got ready for a dinner out with some Senior Couples.  We met at the Mission Office and took off to Taby Mall, for TACOS.  We rode with Clouse’s and Nielsen’s and the Ashby’s were going to meet us at the mall.  They called while we were in route.  They had hit a curb and blown a tire.  They had to stay with the car, and the road service told them they were going to have to tow the car, so the Ashby’s took a bus home!  Elder Clouse offered to go get them, or deliver some tacos to them, but they said they were okay!

Saturday – John got up early and did the laundry at 7am.  I helped him on the 2^nd hour.  

Then we met the Clouse’s and Nielsen’s at the Mission Office again and took a day trip up to the Viking burial grounds at Anundshög.  We were there back in June, but we wanted to go again.  It was cold, but it is an amazing area.  I’ll send more pictures.  We went into the little café and had some “Fika” – treats.  They have wonderful bakery’s here. 

An insect attractor - I'll get a better
name for it.  You put them outside
and the insects want to move in.

 On the way home we stopped for our weekly groceries.  We got Marco Polo’s from Jon with JT in Prescott for the big tournament there.  He won match on points and pinned his next guy.  Great job JT, they were tough matches.  He was one of 4 boys from St. Johns that advanced to Saturday’s match.  We found out that he lost his next match, but what a good showing he had. 

We had more Marco Polo’s from Jaylen to catch us up and Jennifer with her kids wanting to say hi!  Gunner said “Grandpa, can I come visit you?”  John said “Sure, have your mom put you on a plane!”  They are already planning for when we are home, the boys go on an annual Father’s and Son’s Campout, and the girls have a sleepover with movies! We can’t wait!

Sunday – Fast Sunday today.  Great meeting and John was the Sunday School English Speaking teacher today.  We had a great discussion and are ready for the new year!  We came home and watched the new Book of Mormon video’s the church put out, there are several and more to come.  They really help you see and feel like you are there.  I think they are on YouTube.

You might be able to see snow falling
by the street lights -snow on road

It snowed a little this afternoon but turned to rain a little bit later tonight!    Too warm for snow!

Tonight, we got to talk to Jody and see all of their new critters!  Jody and I did some Family History together.  Then we talked to Jaylen for a while, then Jenn’s kids sent us more Marco Polo’s.  So fun! 

 I was so busy, I totally forgot it was Sunday night and I was supposed to be doing this email!  So, it is a little late – but I am getting it done before we go for John’s hair cut!! (It’s Monday – and another holiday….13^th day of Christmas or Epiphany.)  Tuesday we won’t be at the archive because we will be going to Zone Conference….so another short week!

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