A busy month all summed up in pictures

Beautiful Scenery around one of the many
lakes in Norrland

Wow, we have been travelling and running around the country so much lately that we have not taken the time to update our blog.  Will try to catch up again now.  I will try to give a picture book story of our last month or so. We have traveled a lot and had some good experiences while doing an apartment maintenance tour of Norrland, which is the Northernmost part of the country.  The autumn colors came out absolutely beautifully, but being this far North, the autumn came quickly, and the leaves turned, and then within a week or so they were all gone.  Since then it has been very wet, and gets dark very early.  It makes for a very short daylight period.

Autumn colors have arrived in Sweden

City of Sundsvall at noon
 below is same picture at 3:30 pm

We started our trip to check on all of the apartments in Norrland on early Monday morning, October 28.  We drove all day, about 11 hours North to Boden.  If you look on a map, you will see that Boden is waaaayyyy up the coast right at the top of the Baltic Sea where Sweden meets Finland.  We made our way from the missionaries in Boden, to Luleå.  Then to Skellefteå where we met two special young Elders.

When we came to Skellefteå to do some work on the apartment we met  Elder Knutson (left) and Elder Bressan (right).  Knutson is a native Swede and is a remarkably talented concert pianist. Bressan is from Italy and speaks at least 5 languages.   When we arrived at the apartment, Wendy began to cry when she started doing the apartment inventory, and found that they had ABSOLUTELY NO FOOD.  It was the end of the month, and they had no cash, but they were so positive and pleasant that we were overwhelmed with the sweet spirit they expressed in the service of the Lord.  We helped them fix a few things in their apartment, and Elder Knutson played the piano that he has been GIVEN by some neighbors who were throwing away a piano.  Then we took them to a grocery store and bought them some groceries.  We were truly moved by the beautiful attitude they carried.  This is the stuff that makes our mission worthwhile.

While we were in Luleå  I took the opportunity to look around and see if anything was familiar.  I lived in Luleå during the winter of 1975.  After driving around for a while, I found only one thing that I remembered from 38 years ago.  It was down at the harbor on the Baltic Sea where we used to go down and watch the ice breaker ships clear the harbor for the big Russian freighters that would come into the port.  The FREJ was a ship that I remembered seeing so long ago.  What fun memories.

ALLA HELGONS DAG

While travelling in Norrland, we experienced the last day of October, which is observed as Halloween in North America.  Interestingly enough, the Swedes do some spooks and ghouls and things for Halloween, but no trick-or-treating.  However on the first weekend in November they celebrate "All Saints Day".  It is marked by visiting the cemeteries and putting lit candles on the graves of loved ones.  After dark it creates a beautiful sight.  Unfortunately, we were travelling and did not get to see the result, but we did see the people setting up candles near this unique cathedral in Örnsköldsvik.

Haircuts anyone?

We visited the apartments of 3 pairs of Sister missionaries in Örnsköldsvik and Sundsvall.  When they learned that Sister Tolley could do hair cuts, they lined up with enthusiasm.  One by one, they got their long locks trimmed.

Sister Dawson

Sister Swenson

Sister Guinn

Sister Kalt

Sister Klingler

More blogging coming soon.

September 30th was a very special day for us. Our newest granddaughter (barnbarn) was born in Orem Utah to our daughter Lindy and her husband Shane and other granddaughters Gwen and Mae. This was a day that I was anxious to get our work done so I could get to the computer and wait for a Skype to see our newest addition to the family. And what a beautiful precious baby called Jane Ruby Lewis.

Jane Ruby Lewis

Lucky little Jane with her two big sisters, Mae on the left and Gwen on the right. Are they not a cute family?

And I must also add a picture where you can see all of Jane's beautiful dark hair:

Mom and baby are doing great. I am so glad for technology. I have been able to see the girls and even talk to them while we are so far away. We are so grateful for all our blessings - our FAMILY being the best of all we have!

Here is a picture of her baby blanket that I have been knitting for her.

 

And I just love the birth announcement that Lindy put together.

 

Another kitchen device, only GIANT!! Cheese Slicers and Marshmallows.

We have found another Swedish kitchen device, only this one is pretty common.  The strange thing is that we found a GIANT one.  It is called an "Ost hyvel", and every home in Sweden has one or two.  They are not uncommon in other places as well.  We love it.  While we were travelling this week, however, we found a giant one.

This is some getost (goat cheese) that is
VERY good.  Notice the Ost hyvel slicer.

However, we have not found a block of cheese big enough for THIS one.

Marshmallows?

I think my friend Stuart Foote would be interested to see these.  The farmers here put up their hay in a unique way that I never have seen before.  The balers make big round bales and then wrap them in plastic to keep them out of the excessive rain that Sweden gets in the Fall.  The bales also ferment in the oxygen-free plastic container, and the hay turns into a sweet silage-like feed.  Most of the bales are round like giant marshmallows, but some of them are rectangular in shape.  The fields are dotted with them all over this time of year.

More from the "Swedish Chef" Cinnamon Rolls!!

Wendy noticed an announcement that there was a "National Kanel Bullar (Cinnamon Roll) Day"  last week.  She got in the spirit and mixed up a batch of Apple Caramel Cinnamon Rolls and took them in to the mission office for the missionaries to enjoy.  Needless to say, she was very popular (again)

Yes, they disappeared very quickly.

Been awhile since we posted. Let's catch up!

Warren posting today.  So much has happened the last few weeks and it will take some time to catch up.  We have had some wonderful experiences again, and even a sad experience or two.  first the good ones.  Another group of new missionaries arrived in Sweden last week, so Wendy and I were scurrying around the country again finding apartments and setting up housing for an increase of 12 more.  We travelled to Malmö, on the South end of Sweden, and set up an apartment there.

View from the apartment in Malmö.
 High density housing right
in the center of the City

View the other way.  This is actually the
apartment where we found the
"smorfenbloogen"

After we did the apartment at Malmö, we went up to Halmstad, about an hour up the West Coast.  We rented a beautiful luxury condo there that is the summer home for a family, but they don't use it during the off-season.  It is on a famous beach that has up to 40,000 people on it per day (think of beaches with masses of sealions all fighting for a place in the sun) in the warm summer months.  It is called Tylösand, and is really a beautiful place.  Obviously, in late September there is not much action there, but Wendy and I enjoyed staying in the condo for a couple of nights while we set things up for two young sister missionaries to arrive.

Over twenty miles of walking paths around
the beach

That's my Wendy.  She is sure that the grandkids
will want some shells from Tylösand Beach

It was a little chilly, but we had a lovely walk along the
beach anyway.  September 25.

This was the first day in two months that we just relaxed for
awhile

Tylösand Beach is famous all over Sweden.  Near Halmstad on
the West Coast.

Behind this building is the Tylösand Hotel, which is the
anchor of the resort area.  It is owned by the lead singer from the
Swedish Rock Band "Roxette" Think early 90's, theme song from Pretty Woman
"IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE"

We walked until the sun set.  It was a beautiful scene.

Good night everyone......

New adventures is Sweden

Another week of new adventures in Sweden. We headed to the south end to set up a new apartment in Landskrona. I really like the area a lot. The apartment is spacious with huge windows and a great location. You walk one way to the waterfront or the other way to the central part of town. It is known to have a castle but there was no time to go and check that out. One thing I want to remember about Landskrona is their traffic circles are the most decorative. One has fountains, and another has a bunch of sails from ships. I must mention that I do notice and look for the artistic traffic circles. On the way to the mission office I really like the one with the huge cement whale that has blue lights shining on it at night. And the one on the way to the church looks like a grass roller coaster and then one time we happened by at night and it was covered with tiny white lights - Wow. Back to the apartment ... I just love making a nice home for our missionaries. When Elder Tolley drove to Helsingborg to pick up the elders that were moving in I did the final touches. When they walked in I loved saying "Welcome Home". They were very impressed with the curtains, rugs, nice furniture and right away noticed the big chocolate bars on their pillows. It would be fun to see their faces when they find food in the cupboards and fridge - BUT - we are off to help others. We were going to head home but we got a few phone calls and it changed our plans.

We had stopped in Norrköpping on our way down to fix the sisters bikes that we had found parts for. I just love Sister Merrell and Sister La Fontaine. When they met us they had a bag of cookies for us, and of course I got lots of hugs. The cookies were most delicious. They do not have chocolate chips in Sweden so you buy really good chocolate bars and cut them up for the cookies. I think it makes them extra tasty even though it is a little more work.
We are headed up to Jönköping tonight. We are going to have to get a hotel for the night, as we had received phone calls from two other apartments that needed our help. Since we are staying in Jönköping we had to call our friends, Elder and Sister Coombs. They have settled in nicely in their lovely apartment and invited us to come for dinner. How wonderful is that! Sister Coombs is a wonderful cook so we are excited to have a lovely evening with them.

So on our way to their home, I mentioned to Elder Tolley that we always work, work, work and it would be nice to have a little fun for the first time since we have arrived. So I mentioned to him something that Elder Carpenter (one of the zone leaders from Malmö) told me about Sweden. Looking on the map we could take a smaller side road and stop for an hour and check out Sweden's largest box store in the whole country. I was overjoyed that he thought that would be all right (especially because he is not usually up for shopping). I was convincing him that it was a cultural experience that we would have. As we got close to Ullared where we would find Gekås (the store) we passed a huge field with hundreds of trailers and motor homes. That was something we had not seen here before. We wondered what the attraction was. Then we get to the shopping area - and see the largest parking lot in Sweden with thousands of cars and people. Instead of finding one large store we found a plethora of shopping outlet stores as well. We finally found a place to park and as we were walking to the Gekås store people were coming out with huge smiles and carts and bags full of stuff. Then we noticed big buses loading up people and their shopping bags. This was going to be interesting. As it turned out we only had time to see about 1/4 of the one store. We did find some incredible deals on some things but just watching the shopping frenzy of others was most fun. We will have to return when we have time to investigate more thoroughly (hopefully with my mother when she comes to visit), and our granddaughters would go nuts in the Lego and toy section of the store. I saw Lego Advent Calendars - how fun is that! We did find slow cookers (278 K ) and blenders (199 K - about $30) for such great prices that we will be telling all the missionary couples about it. In fact I called the Coombs that were feeding us dinner that night and they had us buy them a slow cooker and blender. I found some yarn for knitting blankets for my soon to be born grandchildren. So off we must go....

the shopping bag has a map on it so you can find your way back......and it shows all the roads that lead there! It just so happens that this year is their 50th anniversary of being open. An entire city has grown up all around this one store. A must see in Sweden. And notice that the colors are the same as the colors in the Swedish Flag. It is not far from the coast of Denmark - I bet they all come to shop here too.

Other fun things we saw on our side road trip:

Just after this hamburger stand on the roadside we saw a long line of cows coming home to be milked. They were all in single file on a small path along the side of the road with very large udders and knowing it was time to head home. Did I mention that Sweden has the best tasting yogurt? My favorite breakfast is Cornflakes with Musli and Yogurt (Warren calls is Häst Mat - translated Horse Food). I never liked Cornflakes before but it is most delicious with the additions.

And then the beautiful rainbow. More colorful and larger than I have ever seen before. This is only the one end.

This windmill/home is just as we are leaving Helsingborg. It is up on a hill and must have an incredible view of the water with Denmark in the distance.

We drove through the town of Skeppshult. We have to go back there. The special salt and pepper shakers that we had from our last trip to Sweden that were in our home in Kalispell are from there. It is a cast iron company and they have an outlet store at the factory there. How sad I was that they were closed.

I think we will have to take a few more SIDE ROAD TRIPS. So much fun things to see and experience.
We miss you and wish you all could have been with us.

We love what we do! We get to travel all over the country setting up the new apartments for our missionaries. We put in long hours (everything takes twice as long as we think it will), lots of travel time, and it takes a long time to find a place to park (Sweden was not designed for cars in the large cities). A lot of the money collected for the country comes from people who own cars, etc. You have to pay to park wherever you go. They have computerized machines under the "P" sign that takes a credit card. I see why bikes, trains, and buses are a great choice for commuting. However, it does not work for those who are hauling furniture and household supplies. P.S. That is why everything you buy at Ikea is packaged in the smallest box possible and you have to put it all together once you have hauled it up six flights of stairs into you compact apartments. :-)

This last week had some tender moments for us. On Wednesday, we attended a re-baptism of a man who had for sometime chosen to remove himself from the church. It was so wonderful to see his face just shine with love and happiness as he returned to full fellowship. The missionaries did not have anyone else available to play the piano for the baptism. They called me and asked if I would. Well it has been sometime since I have played the piano. I was very nervous and anxious to say the least. But my heart was willing. David called me to tell me the songs he would like (he spoke wonderful English which helped me). It is a very strange thing about playing Swedish Hymns - because the song is all in a different language it seems so foreign and unrecognizable to me. I have to try to play without looking at the words to recognize the hymn (which is hard to do when the words are right there under the notes).We were at a member's home doing our Home Teaching when he called. His baptism was in a few hours. We were going to go to the church an hour early so I could practice, but we were not able to get into the building until ten minutes before the baptism. On top of all this anxiety, I was also in pain from my sciatic nerve causing me grief that day. Well I could only think of praying for help at this point. I confided with my Heavenly Father, that I wanted to be able to play the piano well enough to have the "spirit" at this special baptism for David, and that I would have to have His help. I went straight into the chapel to play some prelude music. I was so thrilled to see a Simplified Hymn book at the piano (and it was an English Version). I was able to sight read the songs! I had never seen one of this books at our building before, not sure where it came from. The one song that was going to be difficult for me was also in the Simplified Hymn book. What a blessing. The other song I was able to play from the regular Swedish Hymn Book. And so....the meeting was beautiful; the spirit was so strong; and you would think I was a real piano player! I am so grateful for the help from above. There were lots of people at the baptism that we had not met before. One of the men that we were visiting with after the meeting was a Bishop from another city. Come to find out that he was a missionary while Warren was a missionary many years ago. He was serving in the Mission Office and was almost done with his mission when Warren was just starting his mission way up north. They had not met then - but had a great time talking about all the people they both knew. I re-learned that day that we need to do our best and the Lord makes up for our inadequacies.

Yesterday (Saturday) we shared some tender moments with our fellow missionaries. We had just delivered some new couple missionaries (the Coombs) to their new home in Jönköping. We had met them in SLC before we went into the MTC. It was so good to see them again. The Wheeler's are getting ready to leave for home in a few days, and the Coombs will be taking over for them. I wish we had been able to get to know the Wheeler's sooner, they are awesome. Sister Wheeler was born in Sweden and even has family here. They sent us on our way with some delicious home baked cookies and Swedish Sweet Rolls that were amazing. I am collecting delicious Swedish recipes everywhere I go.

Then on our way home we stopped to help Sister Merrell and Sister La Fontaine in Norrkoping. They were struggling with bad smells in their apartment and had broken down bikes. So that day we repaired their bicycles and became Odor Detectors. It is so wonderful to be able to rescue others and be of service. One thing we had not expected though was the best thing of all. Sister La Fontaine was especially glad to see us. We had been in the MTC together and it was a sweet reunion. She shared with us that she was experiencing home sickness for her Mom and I got lots of hugs from her. She was so happy that I could be there and be her Mom. We both shed some tears of joy at being together. These are tender moments that I had not thought would be so rewarding and special and a very important part of our mission. What a great day! I love being a missionary and being where the Lord knows we are needed! He knows each of us personally and we can be an answer to someone's prayer.

And then to top of the week we had our four missionaries from our ward over for Sunday Dinner. Elders Haddon/Schindler and Elders Beus/Sheldon. They were so happy to have their favorite food - Homemade American Pizza with Brownies topped with Ice Cream and toppings for dessert. They were wanting to call me Mom they felt so at home and cared for. I love to cook, they love to eat  - it is a good arrangement. Please take the time to welcome missionaries into your homes and feed them and care for them for they are all working hard to help our brothers and sisters around the world find true happiness and fulfillment, as they come unto Christ and follow the Plan of Salvation.
We love you and miss you, and think of you often. May our Heavenly Father's angels of mercy surround you all and may others come by to help you in your times of need as answers to your prayers. I am so grateful to be a member of Christ's true church, and the opportunities it has provided us to be so blessed, as we work together to serve others. I never want to live just ordinary every again!