January 2011

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January 1 We were invited to dinner at Hyacinth and Annie Anyanwu home. Annie was with her kids in another country so Brother Hyacinth daughter fixed us a delicious dinner. She will be leaving for NY City on a dress designer’s scholarship. She is not a member but his son Michael is and goes to our YSA Group.

 

January 4^th This is a manger in front of the Helsingborg Church.

I went with Neal to Helsingborg. He had a High Council Meeting. I took my computer and was hoping to get caught up on lots of paper work. One of the women saw me and we had a nice talk. Everyone is trying to be so helpful with me in teaching me how to pronounce the Swedish words. Believe me it is not easy!! But it is fun to have them help me. They also give me lots of tips on Sweden and lots of places to go and see.

After the meeting we stopped in the Big Torg to take a photo of this beautiful lit Christmas tree with the Castle in the background.

January 5^th We noticed tons of teenagers walking up and down our street and all over town. They were always in a big group with adult supervision. We found out that during this time when school is out the parents sign their kids up for Sports Camps. They come from all over Sweden and are put up in dorms and play basketball tournaments. We realized the big gym where the games were played was in our big park by our apartment. So we went over and watched them practice. They were very good. Then we also found in the same building we have a huge indoor pool and it was full of people, with their kids. It had many different pools and hot tubs. (Too bad I did not bring my swim suit!! Ha ha )

 

January 6^th Everyone walks in Sweden. They love to walk their dogs. Weather means nothing to them. It is very cold outside but the dogs and their owners walk no matter. I just love the dogs. I guess it is because we really miss Lilly. I know she would sure like Sweden.

This is at the entrance to our park. Brrrrr

 

Here is a woman with a white coat, walking her white dog in the white snow!!

 

I finally got a photo of this dog. He is holding his owners gloves and walked a whole block with them in his mouth. Then I was able to get the photo.

Oh by the way it is against the law in Sweden to cut off a dogs tail. It is a very hefty fine and sometimes jail.

We also like to walk. We like to go to the duck pond in our park. The ducks are a crack up. Notice the ice slope, well they love to get to the top, grab some bread and then go back into the water (that by the way has to be very cold!) Well I do not know if they forget or if they just love to slide into the water but it is sure fun to see them line up and slide down the slope. Some get going so fast they flip over. It is very entertaining.

Here are some photos of us on our street and also on the road that we walk to our center on. The bridge that is behind Neal is the train track. Boy does he love to watch the trains.

 

 

January 8^th 

Here is a sign showing the name of the town we are visiting, Bjärred.

The scenery is so beautiful. Every turn there is something new to see.

We saw the blades of this windmill and followed a road that led to it. It was built in 1849.

We also came across this old Church. They are so fun to walk through and see all the headstones. They date back to 1800s. The ground in some places was frozen and we had to be real careful not to slip and fall.

Then we came to a church called Löddeköpinge Church. It lies along the Pilgrim Way. It is a road that many churches are on but they will all lead to the Dom Kyrka (Dome Church) in Lund, which was built in 1145! It is the hub of the route.

Every Church has a story to tell.

We then continued on as we heard that we could see the ocean in Bjärred.

As we traveled we came across a boat storage area.

Then we saw horses with blankets on.

 

 

Then we saw the ocean. Wow it was frozen. I told Neal to pull over and I wanted to go down to the shore. It sure looked frozen to me. So I wanted to “WALK ON WATER” Neal about had a heart attack. He was so afraid that I would fall in and then he would feel obligated to rescue me! Ha So I did not go out too far as I thought what if he decided not to rescue me!!!

 

 

There was a very long pier and at the end of the pier I could see 2 boys wind surfing. So the water was frozen way out there. That was a fun experience.

 

January 15, 2011

We had heard from the missionaries that Viggo served really good hamburgers. It is right next to the train station. So we decided to give it a try, and then walk around Lund. This is a photo shows Viggo and the train station.

This is the front of Viggos, the front patio has electric heaters for those who want to sit outside. We sat inside!!

Here is my plate. I all ready ate ½ of my hamburger and thought I should take a picture of it! Now this was funny to me, the Swedes eat their hamburgers with a fork and knife. I told Neal “I am going for it” I did cut it in ½ and then picked it up and ate it, it was so good. A McDonald hamburger is $10. US money

 

On our walk we heard a lot of noise and looked back and here came a bunch of College kids. Most were wearing diapers! I thought what the heck!!

 

Then I asked for a picture of them and they told me to get in the picture. They said it was “ “ week! A new semester started so they were out cheering with their groups.

 

A man was waiting for his girlfriend, who was in the book store. He had 2 beautiful dogs. I asked if I could pet them and as you can see I was in “Dog Heaven”. He had lived in Salt Lake City for awhile so knew about the church. He was an atheist, as are most people in Sweden. I gave him a “Pass along card” with information about our church. We had a nice time.

 

Here is another college Dorm group. They were Rats! Notice their ears.

This is the front of the Lund University administration building.

 

We continued our walk down the cute streets in our neighborhood.

I love the colorful apartments. Where we live all the living places are apartments. There are no single family homes.

The homes are located in the farmland areas. They are all old homes and they still cost a fortune.

 

This is where the sister missionaries live. Their apartment is to the right of the door and we think secret service people live left of the door! Ha ha

 

This is a beautiful building at the end of the Sister Missionaries street. Notice they still have their Christmas decorations up and on!! They do not take down the decorations until the end of January!!!

 

Swedes love flowers. This business swept away the snow and planted flowers in the pot where they had a tree growing.

 

January 17, 2011

Tonight was Family Home Evening. The Young Single Adults who have a family in town go with their family, those who do not have family in town come to the Center and we have a lesson and activity.

The missionaries gave the lesson

The activity they planned was called “Gingerbread Houses”. It was a lot of fun and very active. Everyone gets into a gingerbread house, 2 people stand and make the house and the 3^rd person gets in the house. The person that is IT calls out change houses so everyone inside the house runs to get into another house including the IT person. Whoever is left out becomes IT. If Gingerbread houses is called out then everyone moves, no one can be in the same spot so different houses are made and someone in it, then whoever is left is IT. As you can see by the photos it is wild!!

 

January 20^th

We have a zone conference one month and a sharpening another month. These are both exciting meetings to go to. This is when our Mission President and his wife come to give us training. The mission home and office is in Stockholm. All of the young Elders and Sisters in our zone are there. We have approximately 85 Young Missionaries in Sweden and our zone covers the cities of Helsingborg, Halmstad, Malmo, Vaxjo, Karlskrona and Lund. We have 14 young missionaries in our zone and us. So it is a lot of fun to get together. This month it was held in Lund.

We had a nice lunch and then we celebrated the January birthdays. Elder Webster (who is Elder Russell M. Nelson of the 12 Apostles grandson) and Sister Page had birthdays in January.

We have tons of talent in our zone and this is a group that got together and sang a song for us. They were amazing. They were: Elders Haines on violin, Elder Bush and Davis and Sisters Page and Erickson

January 23

We traveled to Helsingborg to attend Fred’s baptism. He was taught by Elders Davis and Bush. At the baptism the Elders sang a song.* It was so good. Fred was so excited to be baptized that after he was baptized he just threw his hands over his head and said Yes!

* Now this is a side note but interesting. The Elders sang from a little tiny devise that was hooked into the sound system. No piano or any accompaniment. I asked them after the baptism how they did it. So they showed me their MP3 player. I got so excited about it that I contacted our kids and told them to go in on one for Neal’s birthday!!

Here we all are as a group shot with Fred.

 

Here is Fred with Elders Davis and Bush

 

January 24, 2011

We went to Mormors Bageri (grandmas bakery) and bought a Princess Cake for the January birthdays at the Center. They call it the Princess Cake because it was the cake that was served at the wedding of Princess Victoria and Daniel of Sweden, last June. It is cake and whipped cream and light green marzipan over the top with a pink rose. Delicious.

January 25, 2011

The month of January has Lund in a dither. Lund is a host city for the World Handball Games. It lasts all month. To celebrate the city put Blue and Yellow lights down our street as our street leads to one of the places that they play.

Here is the sign for it and then a huge ball on display.

 

Sweden was in the playoffs but did not win. At our center we have YSA from France, Sweden and Denmark WOW it got heated at times on who was going to win!! (All in fun) We have many sports fans in our group.

January 28, 2011

Today was a big day for us. We traveled to Helsingborg

(Pronounced: Hell sin bory)

We were doing an apartment inspection and then Neal had a High Council Meeting. We left early so we could sight see in between assignments.

I bet you wonder why we have to inspect the Missionary Apartments every quarter. Well you see it really helps to keep things in order and help the missionaries out. When we arrived at this apartment the missionaries told us that their vacuum did not work. They said it goes on but has no suction. When Neal looked it over this is what he found.

There was gunk from the top to the bottom of the hose. They worked a long time to get it cleaned out. He had to use a wooden rod to force the gunk out. Oh my what a mess. So we taught them how to replace vacuum bags!!!

Here is a photo of the Missionaries Elder Davis and Bush. They are great missionaries and so nice to be around. They are always so appreciative of anything we do. They are also very hard workers. Just not so good on vacuums! But now they know!!

 

This is a view from the top of the “Terrestairs” that lead to the Kärnan Castle. The castle was built in the 1300s. It was a Danish Fortress and when Sweden took it over they destroyed most of the castle and just left the core. We plan to go into the Castle this summer. But this is the view of the colorful rooftops and the Öresund Ocean.

 

Terrestairs

 

We went to the Harbor.

 

This Pier was really pretty. We walked to the end of it. But it was freezing cold outside. We could see Denmark.

 

There were a lot of boats in the harbor and some fishermen were working on their boats.

I am at the base of the Pier by the harbor. I thought this was a cute spot to explore.

In the evening after Neal’s meeting we went back to the Kärnan castle, it is so pretty all lit up.

 

This is a view of the town square from the castle at dusk.

 

 

(Look past the Town hall Tower and you can see Denmark.)

January 31, 2011

CHINA NIGHT

Some of the YSA who are Chinese wanted to have a China Night at the Center. They wanted to cook the dinner (Whew: I do not know if I could have pulled that one off!) I did tell them I would make the Almond Cookies.

 

Here is Leo Woo at the stove.

 

Here is Sister Erickson and Page, Elders Owens and Haines and an investigator playing Foos Ball. Everyone loves this game and they are very good at it.

Leo is at the table with the dumplings, eggrolls, fried rice and other yummy food.

The committee: Wong Bo,?, Hannah Wikström and Leo Woo

We had over 40 in attendance.

All of the Missionaries sat at the pool table. I put a big board on it and covered it with a tablecloth. They are so fun to be with. Always horsing around and having a good time.

 

Then Leo did a power point on China. It was very good and informative. He has a mother and a brother who live in China. He came to Sweden to go to the University.

Then

We played a game. On the board were Chinese symbols (words) the group had to match up the symbols to American words. It was fun.

 

Getting our Mail in Sweden

I just get a big kick out of how they deliver mail in Sweden.

So I thought you might enjoy it too.

This is our mailman on his mail bike. He knows that we are missionaries and takes real good care of us. If we are waiting for a package he will keep a lookout for it. Sometimes we get mail that does not quite have the right address but if it says our name and missionaries on it we get it. We told him we love him because he brings us letters from HOME.

In Sweden they do not deliver mail on Saturday.

Here is another way to deliver mail. This bike is motorized. She got a kick out of me taking her photo. I asked her if I could!

Now the grand Daddy of all the mail, a mail train!!

 

It goes by our house at least once a day and sometimes twice a day. We can see the train coming from the Center 3 blocks away. It is very regular so Neal knows exactly when it comes and grabs my camera and goes to the train station to get a good shot. It has an engine and 12 mail cars.

We are 2 minutes from the station from our apartment and maybe 5 minutes from our Center. But if need be, if he sees a train, he can get to the station in record time!!! He has even practiced going to the station to know exactly the right spot to take the photo. You just gotta love him!!

Seriously could life get any better for Neal!!

Well I have now finished January

I hope to work at this blog a little faster but the time on our mission flies by. We are kept quite busy and we come back to our apartment and crash!