Week of August 16th

We have had an uplifting and spiritual week. Many wonderful things have happened and the Lord has truly blessed us.

It now starts to get dark around 8:30 and it is really dark by 9:00. But it is light about 5:00 in the morning. It is amazing how fast it changes. There is a feeling of fall in the air, and it is wise to take an umbrella when you go someplace.

Chuck has now read Vol. 6 of The Work and the Glory and I have about 50 pages to finish in Vol. 5. These books are really hard to put down!

This week’s P-day we went with Soderquists and Evensens and caught a boat and went to see the Drotningholm Palace.

It is where the Royal Family lives except for formal appearances and then they are at the Palace in Stockholm. They have English and French gardens there and I bet we walked 4-5 miles trying to see it all. We took a tour through part of the Palace, walked through the gardens, and saw the China Palace where the Queen used to have lunch with her friends! We were there for about 5 hours and then caught the boat to return to Stockholm. It was a really fun day but we were very tired when we got home.

Our floor in the guest house is very quiet now. Soderquists have gone to Prague with their son Brian and Evensons have gone home to Norway. So Saturday, after getting out of the temple, we went for Pizza with the new couple from Canada, Elder and Sister Sheen.

The group visiting this week were the saints from Latvia. It was so good to see them again and they are so thankful to be able to come to the temple. They have their own session and do 4 sessions a day. They seem so happy to be here. They brought two sisters to the temple for the first time.

One day at the temple a tall blonde walked by me and looked at my nametag then she said “I have a hug for you from Sister Mayfield in Zimbabwe” and then she did give me a big hug.

I worked with Sister Judy Mayfield in the Salt Lake Temple. She and her husband are now serving a mission in Zimbabwe. The sister who gave me the hug Cecilie (CC) Lundgreen and she is from Norway. She is a professional golfer and is such a happy and positive person. You just love to be around her. Her golf coach is from Zimbabwe so she spends the winters there. Her coach and another golfer from South Africa are the ones that introduced her to the church. Now people call these three golfers the Three Mormons. She said her

whole focus in life has changed since she became a member of the church. These three ladies are really involved in many charities in Zimbabwe. I really connected with her and she really lifted my spirits.

This has been the last week of the temple being open because of the maintenance shut down. During the week there was a wedding for a couple from Norway. Some of the sessions have been big and others on the verge of being canceled but the Lord does provide and the people came. What an awesome place to be 5 days a week. On Saturday, the last day the temple was open, we were really needed as we had a lot of patrons but few workers. But, it was a wonderful day.

We have several fun things we are going to do during the shutdown but you will have to wait until next week’s update to see where we go and what we do!

We so much appreciate your faith and prayers in our behalf. We have now been on our mission for 10 months! Wow, where does time go.

Palace Gardens

Palace Gardens

Week of August 9th

On Monday, our P-day, we went with Söderquists and Evensens to Nynäshamn. The train track is being repaired so we took the bus. Nynäshamn is a cute harbor town where a lot of private boats come in and out, plus Ferry boats taking passengers to other islands.

We walked around the church on the hill and then went inside. We walked up and down the main street looking in the cute shops. Bought an ice cream cone and sat in the sun at the harbor and watched the boats come and go, then ate an early dinner at Nynäs Röker. I had been told how wonderful the shrimp was so I ordered a bowl of shrimp.

Well, I have peeled shrimp before BUT not with the heads still on. I hated their little beady eyes looking at me!! It was good but a lot of work for the small amount of shrimp I got. Definitely not the Roof!! Dad had cold smoked salmon and it was good.

For our Swedish class this week we watched a video of cooking on the Götta Canal. It was fun to see the background of the video because we had been there but the cooking was nothing I would cook!! Dr. Oscarson (Pres. Oscarson’s son) and his family have returned to Provo. You will remember that he was here for several weeks with a group of students from BYU on a study abroad program.

Shannon’s father-in-law, Harmon Tobler, passed away this week. Papa T was a very generous man and he has helped many people in his life. Our hearts are sad but it has been a blessing to know him and we love Dan and his family so very much.

Our indexing is coming along but some of the records are so light you cannot get any information. We are both around 400 names now.

Friday night was our last night at the Young Adult Center in Stockholm. They have a missionary couple coming in two weeks for that assignment so they no longer need us to assist. We have really enjoyed going there and being with the wonderful young adults.

A young man from Latvia went with us this week. His name is Maxim Kornev and he is 23 and a returned missionary. He is the only member in his family and he went to Russia on his mission. His parents are Russian and that is the language spoken in their home. It was movie night at the center and we watched ‘Sister Act 2’. I think Chuck and I laughed the most as they had a hard time understanding the subtle humor! We did not get home until 10:30 (22:30).

This week at the temple the visiting saints have been from the Norway Mission-South end. They had enough people to do their own sessions and they were very busy. The regular sessions for the rest of us were very slow until Friday afternoon when the Norwegian saints joined with us and then we had big sessions. It was our wards turn to work the Tues 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM sessions so after we had completed our day shift we stayed for the 5:00 session. It is nice to be in the temple with ward members.

Saturday, Handen 1st ward had the temple assignment for the day. They had plenty of workers so we came home early. I cleaned the apartment, both of us did indexing, read The Work and the Glory (I am finished with vol. 4 and dad is finished with vol. 5); and then we went to the mall in Farsta with the Evensens and also had an early dinner.

Sunday was my week in Primary. When the three year olds get so excited to answer questions and blurt out talking Swedish I think how can they talk Swedish at 3 years of age and I can’t? Sunday was a beautiful, peaceful day. We Skyped the Packers and that was fun. We attended a birthday get together for Brother Sheen (missionary from Canada). There were 17 people in their little apartment. But we had a good time.

Well another week has come and gone! Time is going so fast. We pray for each one of you and enjoy your letters and emails. Thanks again for your support and prayers in our behalf. We love you!!

Nynashamn Church

Week of 2 August

Happy Birthday Summer!

This week has been rainy and cloudy and we now really understand why these people worship the sun! It has been much cooler and we have even had some lightening and loud thunder.

Monday we ventured into Stockholm, with the Evensen’s, despite the rain!

It really rained hard and the museum we went to see was not open so we went on a boat tour called “Stockholm under the bridge”. It took us around the little islands and by some of the tourist places we might want to go see. The boat ride lasted almost 2 hours and it rained the whole time. Oh well, we made a wet day a fun day. On the way home there were train problems. The train was late, then it broke down and we had to get off and wait for another train. Instead of a 30 min ride from Stockholm it took us over an hour.

Our month as serving as Shift Leaders is over and it is wonderful to be able to participate in the ordinances again. The visiting group this week has been the Stockholm Stake and most days have been busy. Saturday was really busy with a lot of sealing’s and big sessions. This week we had a darling girl from Norway come for the first time. She will return in 14 days to be married.

We usually go out to dinner on Saturdays with the Söderquists and Evensens. This week the Söderquists were not home so we went in the car and went to the Grekiska Kolgrillen (a Greek restaurant. We get tired of the places around here to eat so it was fun to go someplace new. And it was raining!!

Our cultural class this week was taught by Bryan Söderquist from Denmark. He and his son have been here visiting with his parents. He talked about famous philosophers from Denmark. It was very interesting, and he is a good teacher. He has a PhD and teaches at the University in Copenhagen.

We are still having fun with indexing and each of us have done around 400 names now.

On Sunday we were invited for dinner with the Bautista family. Brother Bautista is an assistant engineer at the temple. He is from the Canary Islands and she is from Sweden. They have 9 kids and are very musically talented. They do concerts all the time and really are awesome. The youngest son, John, is going to the MTC on the 28th of Sept. He will be serving in the Utah St. George Mission. We had a great dinner and really enjoyed being in their home. We did not get back until after 10:30 (22:30). They are planning to do one more concert before John leaves and we are excited to go.

Well, that is about it for another week. Again thanks for Skype (what a blessing), emails, letters and prayers. We love our family and special friends and neighbors. We feel your love, concern and prayers in our behalf. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Zach!!!

This has been the last week of Swedish vacations. It seems the whole nation goes on vacation. Stores have a sign in their window saying ‘gone on vacation’. Because of vacations some days at the temple have been slow and others very busy.

We have both enjoyed doing ‘indexing’ for family search. We have both entered close to 300 names. It is easy to do and needs to be done and we are working on marriage records from Utah. It does not take very long to do a batch and we feel like we are helping someone!

The last of Aug we are going to attend the Swedish National Family History Convention in Örebro. We are going to help Elder and Sister Merritt with the church booth and we will NOT be allowed to wear our nametags, since the convention is not affiliated with the church. We will be gone for 4 days. We will tell people about indexing and how important it is. We will try to encourage others to get started doing it. Maybe some of you would like to do it. We are excited to go help but I certainly hope the Lord will help me with answers. They will have 8 computers set up to teach people.

Our Swedish class this week was on the Vikings and Rune Stones. It was very interesting and knowing that the Stockholm Temple is built on a Viking Burial ground made it even more meaningful.

This has been our last week of being Day-Shift Leaders at the temple. The shift leaders have the responsibility for scheduling all the work assignments in the temple. It does involve many hours of extra work. This past week we had the group from Göteborg and they were very helpful and wonderful to have. They did not have enough people come to have their own sessions so they were included in the day shift. They had a man’s shift leader but not a woman’s shift leader. We had a great week with some great people.

The sessions this week have been big. For three days we had 2 or 3 sessions going at the same time at 10:00, at 13:00 and then a large session at 15:00. We were very busy in the other ordinances also. One day we had two Swedish sessions and an English session going at the same time. We had a Slade family group who came from the United States and wanted to do their own session. Then on Saturday we had two sessions with one session being in Spanish.

Dad got to use his Danish this week as a couple came from Denmark. In talking to them we discovered the man is the 1st counselor to Benny Jensen in the Branch Presidency in Silkeborg. Benny is the husband of the last person Dad baptized before leaving Denmark. Vera and Benny had sent their greetings but the couple could not remember our names. Small world!

There was also another young man here from Denmark this week. He had been doing his own family history names. I kept calling him ‘the guy from Denmark’. Finally I asked his

name so I did not have to call him ‘the guy from Denmark’. His name was Hans Christian and he said he could tell I loved the temple.

We have had some very spiritual experiences this week and we are so grateful for the kind hand of the Lord and His influence in our lives.

We enjoyed our Skype turn with the Owen family and hearing about Scout Camp, seeing the wood projects, Summer’s poses and Addie’s smiles. It was good to talk to Zach this time and we always enjoy talking to Ginet.

Thanks for your prayers, letters, emails, love and concerns. We love you!