Week of September 6th

Happy Birthday Ginet!

The temple shut down was a very fun time being able to do and see so many things. But, we were excited to get back to the temple and leave the worldly concerns outside and enjoy the happiness and peace we feel there.

There is a touch of fall in the air and the leaves are beginning to turn beautiful shades of yellows and reds. We have had some rain so that makes it a little cooler too.

At our Swedish culture class this week we each shared the pictures we took in Narvik and Abisko. We saw still pictures and movie pictures and it was so fun to share our trip with the temple presidency and their wives, and a new couple from Idaho Falls, Brother and Sister Lundgren, they have come to serve in the temple for a year.

We have both finished vol 6 of the Work and the Glory and now have three volumes to go. Dad has started to read vol 7.

The traveling group at the temple this week has been from Norway. Most of them came by car but it is a 10 hour drive for some of them. The spirit they bring is wonderful and they brought enough people to have their own sessions. There were some people who we had met before and others that are our now new friends.

Our temple attendance was a little low this week until Saturday and then we had to have extra chairs on one of the sessions. We had two new people come to the temple this week for the first time. They are both preparing to go on their missions. The sister is going to Denmark on her mission and leaves in two weeks and the brother is going to Australia in a couple of months.

There was one Sister in the temple this week that I was helping and I noticed on a card she had written in pencil: ff mmm. When we were through I asked if those letters meant how she was related to that person. She confirmed it meant her: father’s, father’s, mother’s, mother’s, mother. Or it was the sister’s 3rd great grandmother. It was a tender mercy to be able to help her do this marvelous work. Also, this week we finally got to meet Camilla Rose’s (our niece) mother. Her name is Bella Wadling. She and Camilla look a lot alike and it was fun to have her here. Your dad was the session leader and he asked her to be one of the witnesses. We didn’t get to talk to her too much but she will be coming back and we will talk to her more then.

Please know of our love for all of you. Thanks for your support and we hope this finds all of you in good health, happy and living close to the Lord. The gospel is true and we love serving the Lord here in Sweden in His Holy House.

Week of August 30th

Welcome to the family baby Mia!

Happy Birthday Stacie!

After our weekend in Örebo we had to get clothes washed and packed for our trip to Norway. While I was doing laundry a man was in the lobby with Elder Olson and he said “well hello Sister Rose”. It was Brother Colburn, the Managing Director of the Temple Department. We knew him when we were serving in the Salt Lake Temple and it was good to see him and visit with him.

We did receive the news that we have a new little granddaughter before we left on our trip. We were grateful for this as we did not know if we would have any computer access on our trip. Mia Rose Pratt was born on 31 August weighing 8 lb and 2 oz and 21 ¼ “ long. We even got to skype and see her in the hospital. What a blessing.

We left on the train to Narvik, Norway on the 31st at 6:15 pm. We were in for an 18 hour train ride in a sleeping car. The scenery was beautiful but I could not handle sleeping in those tight quarters, so I slept in the chair car sitting up!

Narvik is a harbor city and is at the base of a fjord. It is around 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The mountains were tall, jagged and covered with snow. Just after we got off the train Chuck noticed that he had lost his credit card holder with all his credit cards. We did not realize it until the train had left the station. We ran back to the station and explained what had happened and what sleeping compartment we were in and they called the conductor. It was a great blessing and a miracle of sorts to learn that the cleaning people had found it on the bed in the compartment we had been in. The conductor walked it back to the station from where they were cleaning the train. While in Narvik we stayed in little cabins up high on a hill that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean and the fjord.

We had to walk/hike, dragging our suitcases, about a mile to the place we stayed. It was a little windy and cool but that did not stop us enjoying this beautiful land.

The next day we rode the train for 1 ½ hours back into Sweden to Abisko National Park. The scenery was breath taking as we left Norway. We took lots of pictures. The mountains in Norway are tall and jagged but the mountains in Sweden are more round on top. We stayed in little cabins here also. They reminded me of the condos at East Canyon.

We got settled, ate lunch and then took the ski lift up this high mountain and looked down and enjoyed the panorama view of Lake Torneträsk. We were hoping to see the Northern Lights but it was cloudy that night!

After breakfast the next day we hiked down the river to the boat ramp on the lake. It was a beautiful hike and we stopped many places to enjoy the view of the river and take pictures. After lunch we hiked the Kungsleden trail to Meditation Place #1, about three miles up the Kungsleden trail. It was a beautiful day and we even saw a reindeer out in the wild.

It was a beautiful clear sky all day but no matter how much we wished we did not see the Northern Lights this night either.

We ate breakfasts and lunches at the diner and then Brother and Sister Klarin fixed our evening meals. They are such wonderful home teachers!

We left Abisko at 4:24 pm on the 4th and arrived back in Stockholm, after another night on the train, at 9:15am of the 5th. We dressed in our Sunday clothes on the train in order to be ready for the special 2-stake conference. So, after arriving in Stockholm, we locked our luggage in lockers at the train station and took a bus to Stake Conference. Elder Russell M Nelson and his wife (Wendy) were there and also Elder Kopischke (President of the Europe Area) and his wife.

Sister Nelson talked about things in Sweden that reminded her of Christ. The big rocks on which Stockholm is built……Christ is the rock of our salvation and strength when the winds of life blow against us. The tradition of Sweden having lights in the windows to guide the children home from school……Christ is the light that is guiding us to come unto Him. Sweden is a land of many islands surrounded by water…..Christ is the living water and if we follow Him we will never thirst. Sweden is green and filled with nature…..Christ is the Living Vine. Sweden’s delicious food….feast on the words of Christ. She also cautioned a person to take a spiritual inventory of their homes and get rid of anything (CD’s, videos and etc.) that prevents the spirit from filling our homes.

Elder Nelson left the 1,480 saints in attendance with a blessing to feast upon the words of Jesus Christ, to taste of the goodness of Jesus Christ, a blessing of healing with faith of the saints and the Lord’s will and blessed all to be a good example to others of the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have had an awesome week both physically and spiritually but we look forward to returning to the temple tomorrow and once again feeling the peace that abides there.

Week of August 23rd.

This has been a busy week even with the temple closed for cleaning and updating. We had a little get together for Sister Norling who just received her visa and will be leaving for the rest of her mission in Salt Lake at the Family History Center. We had this little social at our apartment and she was very appreciative. She is excited to go since she has been serving here for 4 months waiting for her visa.

It is very weird not going to the temple every day. It took me one whole day just to wash and press our temple clothes so we are ready to go back when the temple opens on 7 Sept.

Elder and Sister Bylund from Lehi arrived this week and will be staying here in the guest house until they can find housing for them in Stockholm. They are the missionary couple that has been called for the Young Adult Center. It is sad not to go ourselves but they will be great with the Young Adults. We took them over to the Centrum (shopping area) and walked through the grocery stores and showed them a few eating areas.

It has been rainy and cooler this week, definitely a feeling a fall in the air.

This week it has been 3 years since GG Rose died and what a great , compassionate and faithful lady she was. We all miss her.

Thursday morning Chuck helped load a big van and then we went with the Family History missionaries to Örebro to help them set up the display and work in the Family Search booth at Sweden’s National Genealogy Convention. The convention was Saturday and Sunday but we left on Thursday so we could set up on Friday. On Thursday we went to see the Örebro Slot but it was only open on the weekends. Then we went to see Statsparken and it was this huge park with awesome flowers and a few statutes.

We stayed at the Scandia Grande Hotel and it was just across the street from the convention center. Friday we were at the center at 8:00am to set up. We unloaded the van, and set up the display then took all the empty boxes downstairs to a holding room and we finely finish about 4:30pm.

The convention opened at 10:00 on Saturday and closed at 5:00. Sunday it opened at 10:00 and closed at 4:00. Then we had to bring up all the empty boxes and disassemble the display and pack it in the right boxes and then pack the van to take all the stuff back to Germany. We did have some youth who came to help take things down so it only took 2 hrs. The convention was very successful. We had 8 computers in our display and they were all busy the entire time helping people and getting volunteers to help with the indexing of records from around the world.

It is a process that comes to your home computer and allows you to index

public records that have been digitized to that they can be retrieved on your computer at home. Both Chuck and I have done close to 700 names this last month and we really enjoy doing it. Let us know if you would like to do it and we can give you instructions. We returned home about 8:00pm Sunday night. It was a physical weekend but a very enjoyable one and fun serving the Lord in a different way.

Aug 31st Mia Rose Pratt came into our family weighing 8 lb 2 oz and 21 ¼ “ in length. What a blessing and also a blessing to have Skype!

Thanks for your continual support and for the example you set in living the gospel of Jesus Christ. We love you.

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!