February 2011

February 2^nd Lund Museum

We went to the Lund Museum. It dates back to 1400s.Many items go back to the Viking Era. There are many rooms to stroll through. Each room has a theme. The first room had very old pottery and gold medallions and metallic ornament. Neal really liked the Spears and Arrowheads

 

I thought of my brother Bill, when we got to the coin collection. Many coins were dated 1481-1513. There were also many other items in gold, I liked the hair clips and necklaces.

 

When the Lutheran Church took over as the Church of Sweden, the Catholic cathedrals had many beautiful scared items in their churches. They did not want them in the hands of the Lutherans as they were afraid they would destroy them. They hid them in the attics of the cathedrals. They were there for hundreds of years and then when they were discovered many of the items were put into museums

So here are some items from these attics.

Neal is standing by a big wooden door and some of the pillars.

I am standing by some beautiful stained glass windows.

 

These are some of the old bells they recovered.

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This is a mock up of the Dom Cathedral. The actual Cathedral is one of the largest in Sweden. It is located within walking distance of our apartment.

Neal is standing by the columns

I was very fascinated by the beauty of the priests Robes. The photos are taken in front of a glass display so it does not do it justice. They were beautiful silk with gold threads.

I loved this room with all the statues. We had been in the museum for several hours and I was really tired. They had a big round blue cushion in this room and I collapsed on it to get a rest!! But I so enjoyed all of the statues and there were a lot of them.

 

Plus the best part was as we left there was a gift shop and Neal bought me a silver necklace of a Viking Ship.

(We were in the Museum for many hours we are showing only a very small sampling of what was in the museum.)

February 4^th V Varms Kyrka

We went to Kristianstad to do a missionary Apartment check. We like to stop at this cute church, V Varms Kyrka. The cemetery is very interesting with dates going back to the early 1800s. All the cemeteries are kept up real nice.

 

Elders Deen and Werner. They are so fun to be around. Elder Deen had just opened a package from his mom and she sent him several jars of Skippy P-nut butter wow did I get excited. (Swedish peanut butter is awful) He said here Syster Lundwall you can have this one. I told him no, that was his but he absolutely insisted. Yum, Yum, Yum for me.

Well they had told us that there kitchen nozzle leaked. I went over to it went to turn it on and they started to say NO but I all ready had turned it on and boy did we all get a laugh. When you turn it on you get sprayed in the face!!! They told us that they loved having other Elders over and would have them turn it on!!!! Here is what the nozzle looked like. Neal replaced it!!

The Missionaries told us of a good pizza parlor. Swedish Pizza is not like American Pizza. It may look like it but it taste very different. My pizza has French fries on it! Go figure!

They also told us about a big sports building so we went there and February is a big Hand Ball Tournament. When we went into the building they had a huge hand ball there. Neal is standing by it. Swedes love their sports and get very competitive. They also have their favorite teams. The finals are between different countries and Sweden and Denmark are real rivals.

 

 

Across the street is a train Museum. It was closed but we could wander outside and “Climb on the trains”

Neal is standing by steam locomotive wheels

 

There was a display of various Swedish Railroad cars built in the early 1900s

Mary on a refrigerator car and a tank car

 

Neal standing by an old gondola

February 5^th Steve Niamkey baptism

Steve is an immigrant from Africa. His mom and dad had been killed in wars over there and he was able to come to Sweden. He is living with his grandma. The sisters found him by the train station and invited him to come to the Center. He was able to meet friends his age and he so enjoyed all the activities. It was like he found another family and he was so happy. He was so excited to be baptized. He is also very musical and plays with a band that travels around Sweden and Denmark. We really like him. He is so appreciative of anything you do for him.

Neal, me, Bishop Saffer, Steve, Syster Erickson and Syster Page

February 7^th Family Home Evening at the Center

After a lesson they wanted to play musical chairs. As you can see it gets pretty intense towards the end.

Then they turned the music on and danced. They are all good dancers

Foos ball is a big hit with all the Young Adults and it too can be very competitive.

February 11

Today we went to the Syster Page and Erickson’s  apartment for an apartment check.

Their apartment is the 2 windows on the right of the door. (The door divides the 2 apartments.)

They are really fun to be with and love to whip up a pan of brownies.

I saw a trap door in their kitchen and asked what it was for. They had never even noticed it. So Neal and I opened it up and went down to a basement. It was totally full of junk and stuff. When we talked to the landlord he said renters would just put stuff down there and leave!! YIKES What a mess.

February 12 Bike Repair

We were at the large Torg (town square) When I saw this scene. It was a mobile bike repair shop. I guess if your bike breaks down with a flat or the chain breaks and you do not have the extra parts, you can call a mobile repair shop and they come out on a bike and fix the problem. Pretty slick. Remember there are thousands of bikes in Lund!!

 

Later that day I went by a bakery and bought a Semla Bun. In Sweden they have a holiday for everything. The Semla bun is only sold from the end of December to Easter. It has something to do with Lent so the last Tuesday 40 days before Easter they call fat Tuesday and everyone stuffs themselves with the buns. In fact more Semla buns are sold on Tuesdays than the rest of the days. During this season of Semla buns a bakery will sell about 200 buns a day but on Tuesdays they will sell 350 buns. They are delicious. They are made of wheat flour spiced with cardamom, the top is cut off and the insides scraped out and then a layer of almond paste and whipped cream fills in the bun. They are delicious!! You can see that I bought ours at Café Uven.  (I am in our kitchen in our apt)

 

February 18^th Zone Conference

After zone conference they always recognize the birthdays for the next 2 months. Here is Neal and I and Elder Werner. They sang happy birthday to us in Swedish. It is a lot of fun. I have recorded them singing happy birthday in Swedish but I do not know how to get it on the blog!! We are lucky to just get photos on. ha ha

In Sweden bathrooms are called Toaletts. If you were to say you wanted to know where a bathroom was they may direct you to a “Badrum” which is a bath house or swimming pool!! Elders and Arko are showing the way!!

February 25^th Neal’s birthday

We always get excited to get a package and Neal was dying to open it up. He had no idea what the kids were going to get him and boy was he happy. They sent him an IPOD. These things are amazing. One of the missionaries had one and plugged it into the sound system at church and they had recorded a song and the music played and they sang to it. Wow that was exciting. So I told the kids to go in on one for Neal as he loves to sing. He has really had fun with it. It is so small it is about ½ the size of a credit card.

Notice in the package is a photo of Lilly. Boy I think that just made his day. We sure do miss Lilly.

Instead of a cake I got Neal a Semla bun we did not have candles so I stuck a match on the bun!

February 25 Karlskrona

On our way to Karlskrona it was cold. We saw a couple of kids ice fishing in the lake and then we pulled off to go down to the lake. It was completely frozen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next to the lake was such a cute typical town in Sweden.

 

We got to the Elders apartment. Here is Elder Lampian and Arko. Elder Lampian is from Finland and Arko is from the USA.

After the apartment Check we went into town and got some sandwiches. They make the best sandwiches and wraps in Sweden.

The missionaries told us to go to the Marine Museum in town. On our way we came across a few Swedish Soldiers. Sweden does not have a large military so it is rare to see the soldiers walking around.

We just could not get over the frozen Baltic Sea.

Here we are at the Marine Museum.

This was a very interesting display. It was by the front door and it caught your eye. Then when you look closer you can see the whole tree is made of guns!!

The museum has displays depicting the 1700s this was a picture on the wall of ships during that timeframe.

They had a nice display on diving bells.

Also on display were many models of the ships and also ships with cannons

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum was also kids friendly! Here I am with the pirate gear on!

They had lots of areas kids could interact with they sure had fun.

Here is Neal by a big cannon

There was a huge area both inside and outside that displayed the wooden sculptures on the front of the ships

Neal is standing by a big bomb and then a big machine

We went outside and could see the lighthouse and also the cannon that guards the port.

This boat is an ice cutter. Many people live on little islands around the area and so they have an ice cutter that goes back and forth to keep the passage open for the ferry boats that take the people and their cars back and forth from island to island. Or maybe this is the ferry and the ice cutter had all ready cleared a path!!

Sometimes all the ships/ferries/ice cutters look the same to me.

Neal is standing by a huge anchor

OK now in Sweden they have some strange ideas. This one cracked me up. It is a big head that is a slide for the kids located in a park!! Go figure. I guess that is the way they can get into your thinking!! Ha

During the summer this is a diving platform.

I decided to go and check it out; Neal was warning me to be careful

Now you know why. I had to maneuver around these big chunks of ice!! Without falling!!

Can you tell Neal is freezing? The apartments in the background are on the other side of the bridge that separates the Island where the museum is and the main land. There is a river between the main land and the island.

This is a photo of the old light house. When the sailors would see a ship coming in they would light the basket on fire and that would warn the incoming ship.

On our way home we saw lots of deer.

February 26 Viki’s Baptism

Sister Page and Sister Erickson met Viki in Lund and invited her to come to our activities at our center. She was a delight to be around. She is from China and is a student at the Lund University. She met one of our YSA Leo who is also from china so they hit it off. They could speak to each other in their home language. Viki wanted to know more about the church and the Sister missionaries taught her the missionary lessons. Viki wanted to be baptized. I spoke at her baptism. She is a delight to be around.

Kronetorps Mölla (Old windmills near Lund)

This is a beautiful windmill close to where we live. The first windmills in Skona (Southern Sweden) were built in the 1300 time frame. Windmills became common about 1800. This windmill was built in 1841. We have a photo in our January blog but thought we would add more photos of it now that we are in February and it is warmer!!!

Odd things happen in Sweden they have Caribou in the grocery store

Again we are hoping to be able to catch up with our blog. I am telling you we are kept very busy and come home too tired to think.