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