Week of March 21st

On our P-day we went to Sister Ingegerd Olsson’s. I call her my Swedish mom. She had some pictures of her daughter and family that live in Colorado Springs, Colorado that she wanted to show us. She used to come to the temple everyday but she seldom comes now because of medical problems that the doctors here say she is too old to help (socialized medicine). We told her we would come and see the pictures but to fix no food. But she fixed a light lunch anyway and we had just eaten breakfast. We took her some flowers and I hope we brightened her day. We will miss her.
Our Relief Society this month was entitled ‘Extreme Makeover – Home Style’. We talked about traditions and ways to have more united families. We suggested ways to enjoy working, playing and doing gospel things (FHE, scriptures, praying) together. It was a fun evening. Since the women were all going to be gone, the men got together at the President’s house for a movie night (church movies) including all the goodies. They also had a fun evening.
We have a new volunteer couple from Salt Lake that has come for 7 months to serve in the temple. He served his mission here in Sweden and she was born in Sweden. They are the Thomas’ and they live on the top floor of the guesthouse by us.
Saturday night the American couples enjoyed an evening in the home of Rolf and Annya Hägglund. She is the daughter of Syster Mejer and they fixed us a wonderful dinner and a very yummy desert. Rolf is also who we rented our guitars from. While we were there we participated in ‘Earth Hour’ and only used candles in the house. We will miss the Hägglund’s and Mejer’s when we come home.

Sunday we fed the missionaries and they were hungry. Elder Bloomfelt is from Snowflake, Arizona and Elder Marchant is from Cincinnati, Ohio and they are great missionaries. I fixed 16 chicken sour cream enchiladas and only one was left.

This week was our first week of being shift leaders. We had small groups most days so it was a challenge to be able to fill all the positions needed. But because it is the Lord’s House it all worked out.
The visiting group this week has been from Latvia and these saints always inspire us with their reverence and dedication to temple work. They are so humble and so excited to be in the temple. They bring with them so many names to be done. It was hard to tell them good bye for we don’t know if we will ever see them again.
 Sister Greve is going home to Norway. I call her my Norwegian Mom because she reminds me so much of my own mother. She has been here for 4 months. She is really a special sweetheart.

We just found out that we will talk in our home ward on Easter Sunday. Our Sacrament Meeting starts at 12:50 and we would love to see as many of you there can make it.
Thanks again for letters, emails and skype times and for all your support and love we have felt on this wonderful mission in Sweden.

Week of March 14th

Happy Birthday Brent
Sometimes the days look and smell like spring (vör) and other times it looks like winter (vinter) will hang on for a little longer. It is getting light by 5:20am and it stays light until 6:30am. We change our clocks this coming Sunday (söndag) to Daylight Savings (Sommartid böjar). We already sleep with our black blind down as it gets light so early.
We had green for St. Patrick’s Day with napkins, candy, gum, and clips sent to us by the Pratt family. Thanks, the other missionaries thought they were fun too.
We packed two big suitcases for Michael and Kristen Krus to take to America. She is the lady that used to tend Bryan when he was little. They were going to the US with two empty suitcases so they could bring more back with them. They said that they would take some of our things to Stacie and Bryan for us to that we did not have the expense of additional luggage when we travel home. We filled both suitcases. I can’t believe how much we have accumulated. They are going to Kennewick so they will unload the suitcases at Stacie’s house and she will bring them when they come to Utah. We could not send as much as we wanted to because it weighed too much. We are just grateful that we could send some home this way.
We went looking for this big American type mall called Nacka Forum. We were unable to find it but did go in the Globen City Mall and walked around. We found a flower shop and dad held out his coat so Sister Evensen could not think about buying flowers.

 Instead of eating out we came home, fixed dinner and ate with the Evensen’s.
Sunday after church we were invited to go home with Bishop Krylborn and his family for dinner. They have 4 daughters and have a great family. They all helped with preparing the food and it was a very tasty dinner. Bishop Krylborn called on me for the blessing on the food and I did it in Swedish and when I opened my eyes they looked very shocked. After dinner their daughter, Anna, conducted a Family Home Evening as one of her personal progress goals. Then their girls sang several songs for us. They sang without music or any accompaniment and they sang in perfect harmony. It was a very enjoyable evening.

This week the traveling group has been from Göteborg and we were very busy. They did not have enough for their own shift so we just had one large shift. It was so good to see so many friends again but it was very hard to say good bye as we will not see them again before we go home.
Saturday was our ward’s day in the temple. We had good attendance for the sessions and many youth came for baptisms. It turned out to be a very busy day; the kind you like in the temple.
Just four more updates and this wonderful mission will come to a close. Oh what a blessing it has been in our lives. We did find out from Bishop Robinson that we will be reporting in church on Easter Sunday. Our church is from 11:00-2:00 and we think our Sacrament Meeting is first, but the website shows it last. We will let you know for sure next week.
Thanks for your weekly emails, letters, love, support and prayers. See you soon!

Week of March 7th

Happy Birthday Drew (8)
We have been good this week with our goals, of personal scripture study, reading the Ensign together, indexing, using the exercise room and working on baby booties.
Our biggest time consumer this week was practicing our talks for Sunday. Our prayers were certainly answered as we were able to give our talks in a calm manner and they seemed to understand. One sister came up and told us that we had no idea what love we showed to the Swedish people when we would give our talks in their language. I went over my talk ten times every day for almost two weeks. It was scary but a good experience. After the meeting was over the Bishop invited us to dinner next Sunday. Chuck has been their Home Teacher while we have been here.
At Swedish class this week it was a Cultural Class. We talked about Fat Tuesday and how it relates to 40 days before Easter. Then we ate a Swedish Easter treat called Semlor. It was a fun and yummy evening.

Ingvar and Maja-Lisa Karlsson from Umeå will not be back to the temple until we have been released. On Thursday they gave us a long stemmed yellow rose and some Swedish chocolates. They have been very good friends and we have worked together as shift leaders. She speaks very little English so we communicate through the spirit and a lot of hand jesters.
Woke up Friday morning with my eyes bright red and almost swollen shut. This was the first day I have not gone to the temple our entire mission, but I could not go. I tried a cold rag on my eyes, cucumber slices on my eyes and nothing worked. Saturday morning they were just pink and not as puffy so I went to the temple. Someone suggested that it was nerves. One sister gave me some allergy pills that she takes when she is stressed because her eyes do the same.

This week has been a busy week at the temple. The visiting group has been from the Swedish Mission and there were a lot of sisters but not as many men. On Tuesday we also had a large group of saints from Finland and they had their own session. They were touring different temples. We worked late on Tuesday evening and then Chuck had the recommend desk early on Wednesday morning.
Saturday was very busy. We had double sessions at 10:00 and 12:00 plus all the other ordinances too. The baptistry was very busy. We had groups come at 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00, plus some walk—ins. It was wonderful. We did almost 700 names in the baptistry in about 4 hours. The young people are wonderful.
Again this week we had to say our final good-byes to many of our good friends and temple workers. What a blessing they have been in our lives. We do have a lot of email addresses so we can keep in contact. One friend we will not see again is Syster Rachel Björklund. She calls me her Rose Bud!

Not too many week left in Sweden and we thank you for another week of your love, concern, prayers, Skype time, emails and letters. We love you and appreciate all you do. We are grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and for all the blessings we have received on our mission

Week of February 28th

We have been asked to talk in church, again on the 13th of March. We wrote our talks as soon as we could so that Bror and Syster Klarin could translate them for us. We are both going to give our talks in Swedish. The Klarins are our Home teachers and they brought us homemade dinner rolls this week.
The treadmill in the exercise room has been worked on and now it does not squeak when you use it. We try to work out 2-3 times a week. Chuck does 20 minutes on the treadmill and then 10 minutes on the bike. I do 10 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the bike and then 10 minutes on the treadmill.
We have started to make plans for when Kris and Ginet come to visit. There are so many things we would like to show them and it is hard to choose. We hope they enjoy their visit.
At our Swedish class on Wednesday night we had to identify different cities on a Scandinavian map. I also realized that I really have to do a lot of thinking before I can communicate in Swedish. I made cinnamon rolls, after we got home from the temple that day and we took them warm to the class.
We are still working at our goal of doing one indexing batch a day (at least I am) plus I also try to work on knitting baby booties for humanitarian aid. I have now completed 32 pairs. They are relaxing to do.

Sunday President and Syster Evensen were going to the Hägersten ward and asked if we wanted to go with them. That is the ward that Syster Ofasuah lives in and we said sure we would go. It was a very warm and caring ward and we saw many people that come to the temple regularly. Syster Ofasuah gave the Relief Society lesson. It was an excellent lesson on how our hearts and attitudes should change when we become members of the church and live the gospel the way the Savior wants us to. We were back to our own ward in time for Relief Society and Priesthood. After our block of meetings the ward had a “break the fast” meal together. It was a great success with several kinds of homemade soups, breads, and cheese. Members just signed up if they could bring something. I hope they give out the recipes.
The visiting group at the temple this week has been from Drammen, Norway. It has been great to see and visit with so many people that we know or met when we were there. But the hard part was to say goodbye as the next time they come to the temple we will be home. This is the hardest part of seeing our mission come to a close; saying goodbye to the people we so love.
There were 15 new missionaries who came to the temple on Wednesday. I was able to help issue them their temple clothes. One missionary said “Syster Rose, do you remember me?” When I looked up at him I knew exactly what family he was from and remember him
from Kindergarten at Canyon View. Aaron Gygi will be an awesome missionary and it was great to see him. I gave him a hug and I think I embarrassed him!

We worked Saturday at the temple and we had very few workers in preparation meeting but as the day progressed the patrons did come. We had two different sessions at 10:00am, one was Norwegian and the other was Swedish. We also did initiatory, sealings, and baptisms. Our dear friends, the Cordova’s, were the shift leaders. They will be one couple that will be very hard to say goodbye to.
Well another week has flown by and thanks once again for your love, prayers and support. We pray that all is well with you and your families and we thank you for your letters, emails and skype time. We love you

Week of February 21st

I started the week with doing a deep cleaning of the apartment. I even got rid of the dust bunnies under the beds! We went to Pizza Hut and had the buffet for our lunch on Monday. We went to SIBA and bought a cord to connect the computer to the TV so we can watch what is on the computer over the TV.
The beginning of the week was very cold -19C but it did warm up some and we received some snow. Saturday was a beautiful day with mostly sun and temperatures around +3C.
We did exercise three times this week in the exercise room. Once in the morning (5:30), once while we were waiting for our clothes to wash and because we worked the Friday night shift we exercised on Friday morning. Saturday we did a lot of walking but it was all outdoors.
We served Friday night in the temple so it was a little later when we got home. We had not eaten since breakfast so we were a little hungry. I had crackers and cheese and some hot chocolate and Chuck had a dish of cold cereal. It reminded me of Shannon and how she survived on cold cereal while she attended BYU. Knowing we did not serve on Saturday we watched some skiing on TV and then a movie. After the movie a concert by Rozanne Cash came on and we watch it until 1:00am. It was so fun to hear western music we even took off our slippers and danced! Crazy? Yes, but it was fun.

After sleeping in a little on Saturday morning and after breakfast we took the train into Stockholm to do some gift shopping for the grandkids. We walked and walked and walked some more. We could have taken the bus or trolley but we saved the money and got our exercising done in the sun. When we got home we were very tired and a little stiff.
I was released from my calling in the Primary on Sunday and then we were asked to talk in church (again) in two weeks.
The visiting group has been from Skein, Sandvika, Tönsberg, Romerike and Hamar all from Norway. They had plenty of people to have their own shift and they had a lot of youth come for baptisms. They had rented a bus and 65 kids were on the bus for 12 hours. They came to the temple in three groups on Tuesday then some of them returned Wednesday morning. They got back on the bus about noon on Wednesday and traveled for 12 hours back to Norway. Great kids and they were so excited to come and spend the time in the temple. It amazes me that they would give up half of their winter vacation from school and travel that far and be so excited to come to the temple. What an example they are to everyone.
They changed our Shift Leader calling and now we will only do it the last two weeks in March. Bro and Syster Mattsson are going to be the new shift leaders. They have been here at
the temple for six months and have not had this opportunity so they will be the leaders for the first three weeks of March. They go home to Göteborg the first of April. They will do a great job and it would be just fine with us if they did it for the whole month.
Thanks for Skype time, emails and letters. Thanks for your love and prayers, your support and concerns. We love you and we are so thankful for the blessings you are in our lives. Have a great week!