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!

Week of July 19th

It is hard to believe we have hit hump day on our mission! Half way!!
This week the big outing was going into Handen and buying three new polo type shirts for dad. We also got another battery pack for our new camera. We love it and are taking great pictures.
The summer flowers around the temple are so pretty and they work hard to keep them that way.
We have had such hot weather and no rain so things are really getting dry. But on Saturday and Sunday it really rained hard and has been much cooler.
Our Swedish Culture Class this week was on poetry. We both love poetry but it was not the kind we enjoy. But Dr. Oscarson is such a good teacher that he made it enjoyable. I am glad we did not have to take a test and do our own interpretation!
Emilie Krus and David Renman were married this week. She is the daughter of Bryan’s former baby sitter. Emilie looked so beautiful. She is so talented, and she has such a strong testimony. She will make a fabulous wife.
We have been doing our power walking, a couple times a week, through the woods and over to the Viking Burial Grounds.
It is so awesome and there are so many different kinds of flowers and plants that it always seems to be changing. We enjoy the exercise and our time together.
We have both finished Vol. III of the Work and the Glory series. Now we are on #4 and one of us usually reads while the other is on the computer doing ‘indexing’ with family history names.
They have a lot of open air fruit and vegetable stands close to the grocery stores. It makes me wonder about the gardens at home and what is being produced right now. I do miss playing in the dirt!
The visiting group, at the temple, was from the Norway Mission. There were not as people as last week but they did have their own sessions. We met an Elder and Sister Johnson from Mesa, Arizona who are assigned to be at a Young Adult Center in Norway and their mission costs them $4000 a month. Wow, what a blessing to be where we are.
This week we had the last concert in the series of concerts celebrating the 25th anniversary of the temple. Because the visiting group was from Norway they had a famous Opera singer from Norway. Veslemøy Fluge Berg sang and the famous concert pianist Anneli
Rebecka Larsen was absolutely wonderful too. Both of these sisters are good members of the church.
We also had a darling couple from Latvia who came to be sealed. Viklorija Lljina and Aleksej Volegov were here last spring for the first time. It was so exciting to have them return to be sealed. They had one other couple and her parents come with them. We were invited to attend the sealing and it was wonderful and there was a strong spirit in the room.
We had a great skype or ooVoo visit with Brent and Piper. We got emails from all our family this week – AWESOME!!! Keep up the good work, smile and make others happy. We love you and are grateful for your support.

Week of July 12th

I started the week out with a haircut! I actually found a lady I liked and she did understand some English. Most of the ladies in the guesthouse have this lady cut their hair so I gave her a try. Sister Evensen walked to Jårdbro with me (45 minutes) and waited for me then we bought an ice cream and ate it as we walked back home. It was a very hot day and my hair was straight and wet when I got home. Oh well, I like the cut!
The weather has been VERY HOT with high humidity and they say it has not been this hot since 1880. Wow, how lucky are we to be here during the coldest winter in 130 years and now the hottest summer. We have no air conditioning but we manage with the fan and it cools down on most nights so we can sleep. We get up at 5:30, when it is still cool, and do our power walking. About the only thing you hear at that time of the morning are the birds! We usually go walking in the woods by the Viking Burial grounds.
The missionary couple, Raymond and Christine Sheen, from Canada finally got their visas so they arrived on Thursday afternoon. They will start at the temple tomorrow and we are thrilled to have them. On Sunday we had a fun dinner to get to know them. They are having problems with jet lag!

(Chuck & Brother Höglund)

The Family History missionaries that live in the guesthouse taught us how to do ‘indexing’ and it is very addicting! Chuck and I have both signed up and he has done over 150 names since Thursday and I have done over 100. Maybe if we help in this way we will be blessed to find some on our own lines!
Our Swedish culture class this week was on Swedish art and writers. Dr Chip Oscarson really knows his subject matter and it is really interesting to be in a class like this.
We enjoy the 3rd concert of the series in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the temple in Sweden. We have one more next week. This week Pres Jan Evensen talked and a wonderful Norwegian concert pianist, who is also a member of the Church, played the piano for about half an hour. Sister Anneli Rebecka Larsen was absolutely marvelous and it was exciting to watch her perform. She will perform next week too.
This week the traveling group has been from the Oslo Stav (stake). They had so many people come that the guesthouse was full and there were at least 25 families camping at different campgrounds. The youth did almost 5000 baptisms this week. They had double sessions, two ‘init’ booths busy and three sealing rooms full. What awesome people they are to spend a week’s vacation here in The House of the Lord.
The Swedish people have gone on vacation so the number of workers on our day shifts were low. But we did have some good sessions and there were some wonderful people who
Chuck & Brother Höglund
attended. Oh how we love the temple and the peaceful spirit that is there. I was blessed with a wonderful tender mercy on Saturday. I love when the spiritual help comes.
We have enjoyed the weekly emails this week and our skype time with the Tobler family. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts and support.

Week of July 6th

On Monday the 5th we met our good friends, from the Salt Lake Temple, the Lake’s and Wirthlin’s in Stockholm.
They were here for a few hours before their cruise ship left for a Baltic Cruise. We walked them around the Palace area and saw the changing of the guards. We also saw the church where Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel were married, a German church, and the narrow street in Gamla Stan, and had a delightful lunch with them at Sten Sture. It was so good to see them but I was not homesick to go with them! Before we left for Sweden Barbara North said she would be in Stockholm on July 4th and could we meet her, but we have heard nothing else from her.
That same day the American couples were invited to the Swedish Mission Home for a celebration of the 4th of July. Since we were already in downtown Stockholm we just caught the subway and then a bus and then walked a few blocks to the mission home. We had a great barbeque and played a fun game called Kubb.
I think the family would like this lawn game. We had a tournament and Sister Oscarson, Sister Lundquist (from the mission office) and I were on the winning team.
We have been setting the clock for 5:30 and getting up and power walking for 30-40 minutes. I have been sleeping better at night and it is usually cool that time of the morning even if the sun is part way up the sky by then.
Our Swedish lessons are cultural lessons for the summer. Pres and Sis Oscarson’s son Chip and his family are here for 7 weeks bringing a study abroad group to Sweden. Chip and his family are living with the Oscarson’s but the students are living with people from Sweden. Chip is a professor at BYU in Scandinavian Studies so he taught our class about Swedish films. He did a great job and it was very interesting.
On 2-4 July 1985 the Stockholm Temple was dedicated. To celebrate the 25 years since the dedication they have been holding a mini concert and speaker every Thursday night. This will continue during the month of July at the church. This week Pres Oscarson was the speaker along with great musical numbers including a trumpet, violin, piano, organ and vocal solos. They have been very good concerts.
On Sunday, July 4th, the Söderqvists and we went to the Höglunds for dinner.
He was the former temple president here in Sweden. They have a home with a beautiful view of the sea. Brother Högland also took us on beautiful walk in a protected area where the landscape is protected from any development.
We watched the bronze game of the World Soccer Cup and the Gold game. The bronze game was actually the better game. Too many yellow cards in the gold game!! But Spain is the champion!
We are the Shift Leaders at the temple this month and last week the traveling group was from northern Sweden. They did not have enough people to do their own sessions so they were with us. We therefore, worked with their shift leaders to plan the schedule. The Karlsson’s were on Tue and Wed and they were fun to work with. She does not speak much English and me not much Swedish so we communicated by the spirit! Chuck and Bro Karlsson got along great because he used to be a policeman. On Thurs and Fri the Jälmbrant’s were the leaders and they were a little bit more of a challenge. But the week turned out great and we all had a spiritual week. This group will not be back until the end of Sept or first part of Oct.
Emelie Kruse (daughter of one of Bryan’s baby sitters many years ago) came to the temple for the first time on Saturday. She looked so pretty dressed in white and was so excited to come. She will be getting married on 24th of July.
We enjoyed a good visit on Skype with the Packer’s on Sunday. Thanks to all for your emails, letters, support and prayers. We love and appreciate you.

Week of June 21st

Happy Birthday to Chuck (22nd) and Bode (26th)
Monday we finished our trip and went to see the Läckö Castle.
It began to be built in 1298 by the Bishop of Skara as a stronghold for control of the ships going in and out of Stockholm. Gustav Vasa was the first royalty to own it. It went through many owners. When the royal families would move from one castle to another, during the summer, they would take with them all the furniture, wall coverings, dishes and etc. It took 300 people to work for them to run the castle and to move them. The chapel was small but elegant and I really liked it. It is still used today for weddings and the blessings of children.
We went to Brother and Sister Berggren’s home for Strawberry Torte (cake).
She was so excited to have us come to her house. We used the torte as Chuck’s birthday cake and Sister Berggren got him an easy chair to sit in and we sang happy birthday to him in English and Swedish! She also took us to this field close by her house to see some very rare wild orchids growing. They were beautiful. We then had our 3 ½ hour ride back home. It was a great long weekend.
Stockholm South Stake had ‘a week at the temple’ this week. The temple was only open Tue, Wed and Thurs because of the Swedish Mid Summer holiday. The stake had it all organized with the wards to have the temple open from 8:00am to midnight. They had to furnish all the shift leaders and workers for each session. Tuesday we were assigned to be in the temple from 17.00 to midnight. Wednesday from 11.00 to 18.00 and Thursday we were there from 9.00 to 18.00. It was a very interesting week!
Mid Summer is a big national event here. There are many places to go to join in the activities but our stake was going to a nearby National Park. We, (Evensen’s, Söderquists and us) fixed picnic lunches and went to enjoy the day.
It was a blue sky and perfect for their traditional activities. They decorate this big pole with flowers and greenery and then dance around the pole. All ages participate and have a great time, including the young Mormon missionaries. There were some people dressed in the traditional costume for this area and the girls made wreaths of flowers to wear around their heads. Part of the tradition of the holiday is to eat Sill (raw Herring)! The Klarin’s invited the American couples over for this part of the tradition. It was not that bad if you ate it with a bite of potato, sour cream and chives!! They also had many other good things to eat and ended with a delicious Strawberry Torte that Brother Klarin made. It was a wonderful eventful day!!
On Saturday we took the train and went into Stockholm but our thoughts were at home with Bode and Tyson being baptized. We are proud of their choice to become members of the church. We saw the changing of the guards at the palace and walked around Gamla Stan.
We saw the place where Carl Larsson was born and ate lunch at the Formosa, a Chinese café. We walked slowly back through Gamla Stan to the train station eating an ice cream cone on the way. It was a great day for people watching and the town was really full of tourists.
We have been watching a lot of the World Cup Soccer matches. Sad that the Americans lost in overtime and are now out.
Sunday I gave my talk and testimony in our ward Sacrament Meeting. Yes, I did it in Swedish and the people were very complimentary and appreciative of me speaking their language. I was more nervous this week but hey, I did it!!!
We are reading the series of books The Work and the Glory. There are nine books in the series and Chuck has read 1, 2, and 3. I am just about finished with volume 2.
Well, that is it for another week. Thanks for your thought, prayers, support and emails and packages. We do love all of you and consider you as blessings in our lives.