Missionary Week 75

Missionary Week 75            February 17, 2020 ~ February 23, 2020

We’ve had a great week at work.  We are now on a trip to Gotland, which is an Island to the East of Mainland Sweden.  We took Friday off and traveled by Ferry to Visby – the major city on the Island.  We are traveling with Elder & Sister Salls. 

Monday – This day went fast, we had lunch with both couples.  Home at 4pm.

Tuesday – We’ve decided to go on a little get-away this weekend to go see Gotland Island, with the Salls.  They have been there before on a cruise of the Baltic. 

Wednesday – Going in to work, it’s getting lighter – and the sun hasn’t set at 4pm.  We see more than we have for a long time.  Today we got 3 boxes done – each!  You never know what the next box will be like.  My smallest box was 838 images.  We sure miss our family.

Thursday – Feb 20, 2020 – Colder this morning, no clouds.  Talked with Jaylen – we got to see more new things done on his house.  Saw Jennifer picking up the twins from pre-school and all their crafts from school.  We got our shuttles ready to ship and we left early today – because we had to run home and do laundry.  We leave for Visby tomorrow.

Friday – We packed, had breakfast and left before 9am to go pick up the Salls.  We drove to Nynashamn port to catch the Ferry.  We got there pretty early, and watched the Ferry come in, dock and unload Semi’s, cars and passengers.  Then we got to get on.  We left our car in the bottom bay and headed up to the 7^th floor to our assigned seats. 

We went to lunch and sat and talked for a while.  Headed back to our seats so we could watch as we came into Visby.  Really cool to see, it was a little windy, but we drove off and our hotel was really close to the port. 





It’s a cute hotel. We got unpacked and then went to walk around the city today.  Had a wonderful meal at the Bad Wolf -BBQ – Texmex restaurant.  It was so good, and the owners made it fun, they come out and talk to you and were very gracious.  We ate so much – we were miserable – happy but miserable.

Beads found in grave

Ruin Stone

Saturday – We had breakfast at 7:30am.  Then we walked around Visby – the Souvenir shops were closed, but we ended up at the Gotland Museum – which was fantastic. 

Then we went to a Crepe Shop for Lunch – Yummy – chicken and bacon and then a dessert crepe – chocolate, almonds and Ice Cream.  We shared today! 












From the Crepe Shop we walked around the wall of the City.  They claim to be the oldest walled City that is left in Sweden.  It’s an amazing wall.  It was windy and really cold, but we walked a long time. 

Inside

Outside the wall

For dinner we went back to the Bad Wolf and shared a Fried Chicken dinner, fantastic again. The Salls didn’t go with us, their daughter was having her first baby in Tucson tonight – so they wanted to stay and talk with their family.  It was a great day.

Sunday – Went to breakfast and came back to the room until time to leave for church.  Church was 5 minutes away in a building with other offices in it.  The church has the top floor, so we found them, and everyone was welcoming us there.  There was a total of 20 people there!  It’s a small branch, with 2 young missionaries and we were surprised when we saw them – It was Elder Thompson and Elder Ward that we sent pictures of last week from Zone Conference!  That branch loves Elder Thompson.  After church we came home and changed clothes and went for a drive around to the other side of the island. 

We saw awesome churches, I found a group of graves that stood out, they were dark crosses and there was a sign in three different languages and a memorial plaque on a huge rock next to them.  It read that the locals built a war hospital in Lärbro and received hundreds of former concentration camp prisoners from Europe.  They were cared for by the Red Cross between July 1945 and 29 May 1946 and those who died here during that time were laid to their final rest right here.  Their tombs are marked with crosses, which depicts their names, age and nationality.  Also, within the hedge there are 9 Jews buried.  This makes Lärbro cemetery unique in the way that people of different religions are buried together. 

We have seen a lot of Swans!

These sea stacks are not at the waters edge.

We went on to find a fishing village, Sea stacks – which are claimed to have been made by erosion by the sea, a Windmill and we ended up back in Visby at dark.  What a cool day.  I will not be able to send pictures tonight. I will add them when I get back to Bromma and I can download them and send them out and put on the Blog.  We will be here until Tuesday when we catch the Ferry back home.  So until next week – we hope you have a wonderful week and enjoy your family!

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