Week of May 10th

Monday and Tuesday our Swedish teacher took the four American couples on a trip to the ‘glass blowing country’ in Southern Sweden.
Wow what a trip it was. The weather was nice and the countryside was beautiful. We went to see the Kosta Boda Glasbruk (been operating since 1742) and saw them blowing the stems for goblets. It is amazing to watch. The Oreefors factory was just getting off but we did visit the store!! Then we went to Bergdala Glasbruk and stayed at a ‘hostel’ for the night. We went to watch their glass blowers in the morning doing custom glass work.
They made a couple of vases that we watched them blow from about 3” of melted glass to about 18-20”finished product. What a talent! They also made crystal dishes with a blue ring around them that is suppose to keep the flies away!
Next we visited an old wooden village in Eksjö. It was very interesting with an old church and cute shops. We really enjoyed walking around and we ate lunch there.
We saw the biggest ‘Rune Stone’ in Sweden by an old church and there were even some of my windmills close by!
Next we stopped in Gränna to see a famous candy factory called Polkagrisfabrik. They made barber pole candy sticks and we all bought some! Then we returned home. But we really had a great time laughing, becoming better acquainted and getting to see the beauties of Sweden.
We had a group from Norway here this week. They had enough patrons come that they completely had their own sessions. They are so faithful to come for a week of their vacations and come every day to the temple and do four sessions each day.
We had a young lady come to the temple for the first time. She was a very spiritual girl and we also got to spend some more time with her at the Young Adult Center.
School has been out for some holiday (Thursday and Friday) so a large group of kids (about 52) came from Norway to do baptisms. They did about 4000 this week. What a neat group of kids to travel all night on the bus to do baptisms for two days and then ride the bus back.
It was our Friday night to go into Stockholm to the Young Adult Center. The attendance was not big as a lot of the kids had gone to Norway to a big Youth activity with the Constitution Day Holiday. But we enjoyed those who were there. We just talked and got acquainted, shared experiences and answered questions. We had a very enjoyable evening.
We are encouraged about summer coming! We have had a couple of days in the high 60’s and blue sky! It now gets light about 3:30 and dark about 10:15. Another month and it will begin to get dark again!! Wow time goes so fast!
Hope this finds you all well and happy; we are! We love serving the Lord and it is not a sacrifice because we are receiving so many blessings. We know the gospel is true and that temple work is so important in the plan of salvation. Thanks for your support and prayers.