Dear Family and Friends,
Happy New Year to all. We hope this finds you all feeling well and happy after a ' fantastiskt' holiday time with your families. ( We wish we could say that we are learning a little Swedish, but so far the best we can say is that we are happy when we see a word that has enough of an English base to recognise.)
Speaking of New Year though, we think we should first share our New Year's Eve celebration here in Sweden. We have been so blessed to be invited to such fun holiday traditions. Our invitation came a little by default, but we were so happy for the result. A very nice family in our ward had invited us to Christmas Day dinner after Church--but then on the day, many of their family were not well, so they asked if we would mind coming instead to New Year's Eve. Of course it sounded fun--even better, since Christmas Day itself is not traditionally the big celebration.
Well New Year's Eve was the lovely home of a Stake Presidency member who is a prominent architect. There house is and may always be a work in progress, but it sits up high (with a great view (for fireworks) and has so many nice features. Grandkids, you may be interested to know that this architect loves Legos and so do his young adult children. They have more Legos than even you guys!---and are making a Lego town in a special apartment area. It has skyscrapers, along with many other buildings that are more classic. You would love to see it and even better, you would be great help on it! It reminded us of the view out our windows, so now we call our view The Lego Village---which we are still fascinated with: trucking, trains, and especially the ships. The main recreation activity for the night (except for the fireworks) was that the big boys and the cousins were working on their Lego city before and after dinner.
The evening began with a nice dinner--and NICE it was. After the introductory Glogg, the salad was exotic with shrimp, salmon, caviar, avocado and wonderful cheese. Then they had a lovely patio grilled pork dinner followed much later by dessert which was quite different from home. The main feature of dessert was a big variety of crackers and CHEESE! and fruit. Grandpa must be European because he loved it--especially since it also featured a very rich CHOCOLATE torte cake. We brought Chocolate Chip cookies which were a big hit--but honestly we are struggling again to get the recipes to adjust so they weren't quite right.
With a lot of time between dinner and the fireworks we had a nice time getting a tour of their house (and plans) and a very good time to talk about Self Reliance. It was good to learn that not everyone sees the socialist order as ideal--in fact they share the concern that even with free (better yet, paid) educational opportunities, the upcoming generation is a concern. Many apparently see no real need to make the big effort to get an education or plan for a significant career because the government will take care of them. One reason this might be an issue of the generation is the love of video gaming. It doesn't seem to matter where people live, the ' addiction' to video games is a pretty big threat to society. It is easy to see that this is at least one of the reasons why Self Reliance needs to be taught throughout the Church. We were able to share our understanding of how Self Reliance has many levels of application---like most principles of the Gospel do. Both the Stake President counsellor and his brother who is a leader in another Swedish stake were very interested in how we can help them lift the level of what SR has been here---and of course we felt blessed that this was the outcome of not going there on Christmas Day. Not only did we have a wonderful time, but we were doing as much good as if we had made special arrangements---and no one was in a hurry!
So then it came time for fireworks. Of course we watched the TV with the countdown ---we should have practiced our Swedish counting! Because we are in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, they have a very nice fireworks show, which was not too far from us. We could watch it down and across the waterway---and a variety of private displays as well. Then, they had one of their own. Their family consists of 7 children, and two grandchildren. Their oldest daughter has severe Cerebral Palsy and they did so much to get her ready to go outside, along with the little grandchildren. The one little boy was quite afraid of fireworks so he wore a helmet. It reminded us of Samantha not liking them---too bad we didn't think of a helmet for her! Do you remember that Samantha?
Then on Sunday, we had Sacrament Meeting and many testimonies recognised the blessing of a New Year. One thought came out clearly in a way we had not thought much of before: that every day is a new day to do our best and have a new start, but even better, with every Sacrament Meeting we can have that chance to look at our lives and change the things that we need to. Repentance is such a blessing. Today we were also reading in Alma 41 that emphasises the mercy of Heavenly Father in giving us the chance for repentance in this life. It really is a great way to end the Christmas Season---to recognise the Gift of our Savior, and because of Him, each and every one of us has the blessing of being able to have new starts.
Well, with a new start here in Sweden, we are finding a lot of things of interest. We have learned a few things you might be interested in. One thing we see out our window is a huge smokestack (and there are quite a few smokestacks around.) We wondered what it was because there doesn't seem to be any industry by it. We learned that it is a back-up heating supply for when the weather gets extra cold. Under the city are huge pipelines that bring the heat to big apartment buildings and make the roads thaw faster. A few mornings we have seen fires near the stack. Great idea!! And we are happy for the landmark it is for us as well. Story to follow:
We were happy this week to discover a new place to run. We felt sad to leave our nice running path in Ireland, but as we tried new directions and interesting ways to go, we found one day a little path through the woods and along a little lake. It really is amazing. It has a nice packed wide trail that has resting stops with benches, and stopping spots with exercise equipment! Seriously. We have been doing the one that you sit on and use your arms to lift your own weight. Grandpa is pretty good at it, and Grandma---well she tries. We also discovered a "camping site" that just puts a new twist on features. The log shelter is wide but just sleeping height and leaves an open side toward the lake. Firewood, grills, and all are provided. After awhile the trail comes to a residential area with classic homes along the lake.
One morning we decided to extend our fitness run to go all the way around the little lake. We knew it was possible because we saw a map at the trail head, but apparently we missed the trail that stayed close to the lake, because when we finished we were way off from the start and had no idea where to go. We ran in the direction we thought was right but when we finally could spot the smokestack again, we were so far away and not sure what side of it we were even seeing! It was lucky we didn't have any appointment that day because it took us a few hours to get home! New resolve: either just go to the village, or run the circuit from the other direction. Needless to say we didn't run up the stairs when we got home!
Another nice thing about Sweden is the tunnels we mentioned. We knew they were a good method to connect the island rather than so many bridges, but we didn't realize that they also take care of traffic congestion in the busy parts of the city. When the older narrow city roads would not be adequate, they just put a few bigger roads underground. Because of them we have not experienced any serious traffic problems--except for the day we were trying to go to the temple and the GPS kept heading us for a construction roadblock. We tried to get away from the area so the GPS would lead us another way, but it took a long time and unfortunately/fortunately we were too late for the last temple session.
When we finally arrived at the temple it was a nice surprise to see it---such a beautiful and small glowing place to be. The lights were all on, but the door was locked and no one came for the doorbell for a long time. It was a cold wait, but when the sister came, we explained why we were late, and she said not to worry, that she would help us be able to do something. She arranged for Grandpa to be a witness for baptisms and for Grandma to do initiatory work. Grandma had the experience of part Swedish and part English--which was fun and she was grateful for the years of initiatory mornings with her friends in Logan. After we both finished we were then able to have a temple tour (it IS small) and go into the Celestial Room. All of the temple design and decor are so Swedish and elegant. We had such a unusual - and refreshing - experience in the temple that night. It was very peaceful, and we felt like we almost had the entire place to ourselves. It was a time for reflection and quiet worship.
The experience of getting to the temple seemed like a life lesson in itself. So many times when things go wrong or are more difficult than we think they should be, we don't realize that the Lord is really preparing us for something better. If we had been able to drive directly to the temple as planned, we perhaps would have missed the wonderful peaceful experience that we had. Doing a regular session as we had planned to do might have been good too, but at least there was something good that came after we had difficulty. It reminded us of the phrase that one of the sisters quoted in testimony meeting Sunday: "Today's test is tomorrow's testimony."
Happy New Year to all. We hope this finds you all feeling well and happy after a ' fantastiskt' holiday time with your families. ( We wish we could say that we are learning a little Swedish, but so far the best we can say is that we are happy when we see a word that has enough of an English base to recognise.)
Speaking of New Year though, we think we should first share our New Year's Eve celebration here in Sweden. We have been so blessed to be invited to such fun holiday traditions. Our invitation came a little by default, but we were so happy for the result. A very nice family in our ward had invited us to Christmas Day dinner after Church--but then on the day, many of their family were not well, so they asked if we would mind coming instead to New Year's Eve. Of course it sounded fun--even better, since Christmas Day itself is not traditionally the big celebration.
Well New Year's Eve was the lovely home of a Stake Presidency member who is a prominent architect. There house is and may always be a work in progress, but it sits up high (with a great view (for fireworks) and has so many nice features. Grandkids, you may be interested to know that this architect loves Legos and so do his young adult children. They have more Legos than even you guys!---and are making a Lego town in a special apartment area. It has skyscrapers, along with many other buildings that are more classic. You would love to see it and even better, you would be great help on it! It reminded us of the view out our windows, so now we call our view The Lego Village---which we are still fascinated with: trucking, trains, and especially the ships. The main recreation activity for the night (except for the fireworks) was that the big boys and the cousins were working on their Lego city before and after dinner.
The evening began with a nice dinner--and NICE it was. After the introductory Glogg, the salad was exotic with shrimp, salmon, caviar, avocado and wonderful cheese. Then they had a lovely patio grilled pork dinner followed much later by dessert which was quite different from home. The main feature of dessert was a big variety of crackers and CHEESE! and fruit. Grandpa must be European because he loved it--especially since it also featured a very rich CHOCOLATE torte cake. We brought Chocolate Chip cookies which were a big hit--but honestly we are struggling again to get the recipes to adjust so they weren't quite right.
With a lot of time between dinner and the fireworks we had a nice time getting a tour of their house (and plans) and a very good time to talk about Self Reliance. It was good to learn that not everyone sees the socialist order as ideal--in fact they share the concern that even with free (better yet, paid) educational opportunities, the upcoming generation is a concern. Many apparently see no real need to make the big effort to get an education or plan for a significant career because the government will take care of them. One reason this might be an issue of the generation is the love of video gaming. It doesn't seem to matter where people live, the ' addiction' to video games is a pretty big threat to society. It is easy to see that this is at least one of the reasons why Self Reliance needs to be taught throughout the Church. We were able to share our understanding of how Self Reliance has many levels of application---like most principles of the Gospel do. Both the Stake President counsellor and his brother who is a leader in another Swedish stake were very interested in how we can help them lift the level of what SR has been here---and of course we felt blessed that this was the outcome of not going there on Christmas Day. Not only did we have a wonderful time, but we were doing as much good as if we had made special arrangements---and no one was in a hurry!
So then it came time for fireworks. Of course we watched the TV with the countdown ---we should have practiced our Swedish counting! Because we are in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, they have a very nice fireworks show, which was not too far from us. We could watch it down and across the waterway---and a variety of private displays as well. Then, they had one of their own. Their family consists of 7 children, and two grandchildren. Their oldest daughter has severe Cerebral Palsy and they did so much to get her ready to go outside, along with the little grandchildren. The one little boy was quite afraid of fireworks so he wore a helmet. It reminded us of Samantha not liking them---too bad we didn't think of a helmet for her! Do you remember that Samantha?
Then on Sunday, we had Sacrament Meeting and many testimonies recognised the blessing of a New Year. One thought came out clearly in a way we had not thought much of before: that every day is a new day to do our best and have a new start, but even better, with every Sacrament Meeting we can have that chance to look at our lives and change the things that we need to. Repentance is such a blessing. Today we were also reading in Alma 41 that emphasises the mercy of Heavenly Father in giving us the chance for repentance in this life. It really is a great way to end the Christmas Season---to recognise the Gift of our Savior, and because of Him, each and every one of us has the blessing of being able to have new starts.
Well, with a new start here in Sweden, we are finding a lot of things of interest. We have learned a few things you might be interested in. One thing we see out our window is a huge smokestack (and there are quite a few smokestacks around.) We wondered what it was because there doesn't seem to be any industry by it. We learned that it is a back-up heating supply for when the weather gets extra cold. Under the city are huge pipelines that bring the heat to big apartment buildings and make the roads thaw faster. A few mornings we have seen fires near the stack. Great idea!! And we are happy for the landmark it is for us as well. Story to follow:
We were happy this week to discover a new place to run. We felt sad to leave our nice running path in Ireland, but as we tried new directions and interesting ways to go, we found one day a little path through the woods and along a little lake. It really is amazing. It has a nice packed wide trail that has resting stops with benches, and stopping spots with exercise equipment! Seriously. We have been doing the one that you sit on and use your arms to lift your own weight. Grandpa is pretty good at it, and Grandma---well she tries. We also discovered a "camping site" that just puts a new twist on features. The log shelter is wide but just sleeping height and leaves an open side toward the lake. Firewood, grills, and all are provided. After awhile the trail comes to a residential area with classic homes along the lake.
One morning we decided to extend our fitness run to go all the way around the little lake. We knew it was possible because we saw a map at the trail head, but apparently we missed the trail that stayed close to the lake, because when we finished we were way off from the start and had no idea where to go. We ran in the direction we thought was right but when we finally could spot the smokestack again, we were so far away and not sure what side of it we were even seeing! It was lucky we didn't have any appointment that day because it took us a few hours to get home! New resolve: either just go to the village, or run the circuit from the other direction. Needless to say we didn't run up the stairs when we got home!
Another nice thing about Sweden is the tunnels we mentioned. We knew they were a good method to connect the island rather than so many bridges, but we didn't realize that they also take care of traffic congestion in the busy parts of the city. When the older narrow city roads would not be adequate, they just put a few bigger roads underground. Because of them we have not experienced any serious traffic problems--except for the day we were trying to go to the temple and the GPS kept heading us for a construction roadblock. We tried to get away from the area so the GPS would lead us another way, but it took a long time and unfortunately/fortunately we were too late for the last temple session.
When we finally arrived at the temple it was a nice surprise to see it---such a beautiful and small glowing place to be. The lights were all on, but the door was locked and no one came for the doorbell for a long time. It was a cold wait, but when the sister came, we explained why we were late, and she said not to worry, that she would help us be able to do something. She arranged for Grandpa to be a witness for baptisms and for Grandma to do initiatory work. Grandma had the experience of part Swedish and part English--which was fun and she was grateful for the years of initiatory mornings with her friends in Logan. After we both finished we were then able to have a temple tour (it IS small) and go into the Celestial Room. All of the temple design and decor are so Swedish and elegant. We had such a unusual - and refreshing - experience in the temple that night. It was very peaceful, and we felt like we almost had the entire place to ourselves. It was a time for reflection and quiet worship.
The experience of getting to the temple seemed like a life lesson in itself. So many times when things go wrong or are more difficult than we think they should be, we don't realize that the Lord is really preparing us for something better. If we had been able to drive directly to the temple as planned, we perhaps would have missed the wonderful peaceful experience that we had. Doing a regular session as we had planned to do might have been good too, but at least there was something good that came after we had difficulty. It reminded us of the phrase that one of the sisters quoted in testimony meeting Sunday: "Today's test is tomorrow's testimony."
This is Caroline, the Karlsson's daughter, dressed up to go see the fireworks.
This is Gunnar, the Karlsson's grandson, with ear protection and helmet - all ready for the fireworks!
Not bad for "home" fireworks!
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