Missionary Week 72

Missionary Week 72 – January 27, 2020 ~ February 2, 2020

Continued from last week – we are still on the road home.  Beautiful country, nice weather for traveling.  Even though some trees have no leaves on them they are pretty without them in their own way. 

Birch Trees

Monday – We are still in Skövde. We were up and ready for breakfast.  Had another good breakfast at the main building.  We then packed the car and took a walk around the area and gathered some moss.  I’m going to see if it will dry – and not get moldy- I’m hoping it will go good in our Christmas Village as landscaping material. 

Fire Station

On our way to Katrineholm, we found a Fire Department and Elder Richardson went in to see if he could trade a patch.  (We have Police and Fire patches from our hometown, and we have been most successful getting Fire patches.)  He came out to get his phone for pictures and didn’t come out for about 45 minutes!  They gave him the GRANDE TOUR! 

We headed on in to Katrineholm and found our Elders in good spirits and health.  They both turned 19 a day apart this last weekend!  One was packed for a transfer tomorrow.  The Apartment was in good repair and the bicycles were repaired.  They use them every day.  The Elders told us about a Fire station they go by all the time – so we went that way out of town and found it.  They were happy to give Elder Richardson a patch. 

We traveled back into Bromma and got gas and a much-needed car wash and dinner all in one stop.  Daisy’s is a “50’s” diner, they even have a Life size statue of Elvis.  Good food, the owner knew we were from the US and he was upset about the news of Kobe Bryant’s death.  This man played basketball when he was younger, and he said – we’re brothers!

At Daisy's - The Kebab on FRIES

We got home and got a Marco Polo from Jonathan and we were able to message back a couple of times to catch up.  We got a call from Jaylen and Janell and we found out that one of Jaylen’s best buddies had just lost his wife to cancer, she’s in her early 30’s with two little girls.  We are praying for the Prentice family.

Tuesday – Back to work!  It was misty again.  We got across one street and was stopped by the light in the middle of the road.  Here comes a police car from our right and the 2 lanes were lined up and not moving so the police car hops up on the bicycle/pedestrian lane – on the sidewalk and goes around all of them.  Another Transportation tidbit: People don’t have to pull over to the right like we do in the U.S. if they are stopped they point the front of the car to the right or left and move up as far as they can so the police/ambulance/fire can go down the middle – but sometimes it’s impossible so  if they can they’ll go all the way around them.  It’s the craziest thing we’ve seen. 

It was nice to get back to work.  We heard from Jaylen on his night-shift patrol.  We had lunch with the Salls and Quists and left work at 4 pm in the rain.  We needed the umbrella today!  We were able to call our friend Sandy and get caught up with her.

Kelly's Truck - Twin

Wednesday – This morning it was raining again but it’s so light you don’t feel it.  When we leave in the morning – we see the same people on the train and we also see some of the same vehicles – this truck reminds us of Kelly’s truck in Orem, this one has a bit more rust but we think of Uncle Kelly every time we see this guy.

We started a new project today – lots of cards and not many little papers – so it goes fast, but the boxes are heavy!  We went to lunch at 1 – when it is usually cleaning out but it was packed today – all 3 of us couples had to sit at a little table by ourselves.  We left at 4 pm and it seemed to be a little lighter outside than usual. 

Thursday – We stayed home this morning because we had an appointment at 8 am with a guy to inspect our ventilation in the apartment.  Luckily, we had Marco Polo’s from Jon on JT’s wrestling match at home in St. Johns!  ALSO, it was live streamed on Facebook – bonus! We watched wrestling all morning – JT’s was a long match, in fact it was the second period, and, in the end, he pinned his guy with 19 seconds left!  I learned - Don’t ever give up!  We are sad because we will miss the rest of his season, State will be right before we get back.

We went to work and worked until 5 pm to make up for some time!  We went to the Club House for our Senior Couple Family Home Evening.  The Salls’ gave a great presentation of Book of Mormon places and foods that were around at that time.  It was very interesting; they had a lot of pictures and then our “treats” were chips and salsa – using corn for chips and tomatoes and pineapple in the salsa.  Mixed nuts and Brownies and ice cream – Brownies of course are made from the cacao bean and vanilla bean is used in the ice cream!  Then our new office couple came, and he played the piano and had us all singing and requesting songs. 

 

Friday – End of January!  Off to work, got our shuttles ready to go and had lunch at 1 with the Quist’s and Salls.  Marco Polo from Janell and Joshua who are in Houston for a wedding.  We left work at 3 to be home for our 4 o’clock laundry.

 

Saturday – February 1, 2020 – We had breakfast and Elder Richardson worked on his Sunday School lesson and I cleaned – a little – and wrote out some shopping lists and things we need to do before we go home.  It rained all day, or we would’ve gone out. 

Sunday – Went to church, the SUN was out and SHINING SO BRIGHT and so many more people are out enjoying it.  We had a great Fast & Testimony meeting and Elder Richardson led a great discussion in Sunday School. 

We see a lot of tree thinning - this one
has a mushroom carved on it.  We saw
several like it on the way out of Skövde

We hope your February is a fantastic one.  We have 6 ½ weeks left.  But who’s counting!?

  

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