Our first snow in Sweden!

First snow this year. This picture is taken from our living room window. What a beautiful winter wonderland.

Vicky in front of the Stadsmuseet that has the history of Stockholm and its people.

Rex, Sister Judith Thunell, Elder Bruce Thunell our good friends with whom we toured the Stadsmuseet and then had dinner together at our apartment.

Vicky in the courtyard of our apartment complex. First snow on 22 November 2008.

Rex in the courtyard with the beautiful snowfall. Gorgeous day!

L to r: Elder Hartman, Elder Lewis, Elder Spjut, Elder Glenn, Elder Ashworth -- Great elders!!

One of our Friday lunches together! Great missionaries and fabulous food!

We have had a nice week working at the temple one day and attending a district missionary meeting. This mission experience is a daily blessing and reaffirmation that serving the Lord is truly a choice opportunity. Four senior couples joined with Pres. and Sister Anderson to clean the mission home, inside and out. We did a major cleaning job in preparation for the big Open House on 26 November. The guys cleaned outside and put up twinkle lights, while the women did a thorough cleaning inside. It is a BIG tri-level home with 6 bedrooms, and 6 bathrooms, a huge 10 bed dormitory in the basement with 3 washers and dryers. It took us a long time but it felt so good when we finished. Then Sister Anderson had a nice meal for everyone before we headed home. Service and working together to accomplish something are great blessings. The 2 AP’s and 2 Secretaries to the Mission President came to our lunch and two of them sang while they played the piano and the guitar to entertain us. Such great talent! Then everyone read a limerick he/she had made up, which is one of the fun things we do when we get together for a meal. Some are very clever.
I am so excited as I got approval today from Salt Lake that the pdf file we can use to translate the Family Enrichment Manual into Swedish is being mailed to me. I will now work with the translation department in Frankfurt, Germany to get them translated and printed so we can move forward with our Public Affairs work regarding the strengthening of families. We feel this can be a very positive approach and non-threatening since it comes from BYU and is sponsored by LDS Charities. Each of us would like to strengthen our family.

It was Stake Conference this weekend. The saints who are active are very strong and their testimonies are powerful. Our Stake President has only been a member for about 15 years. Now 12 of his family are members of the Church. One of the speakers shared a comment from Pres. Hinckley when asked why we don’t have crosses in our churches to represent Christ. He said that the members are the symbols of Chris; how we live our lives each day as an example of Christ. A few other thoughts were that we might not have knowledge of all things, but we know enough. Our faith is a decision, not a feeling. Our faith is knowledge put into action. Our patriarchal blessing is our “liahona”. Read it often and let it guide our lives.

One member of the Stake Presidency has a little autistic child and he shared several stories of his little boy running through the neighborhood half naked. His child was found a mile away playing in a sandbox. He said that he knows there are legions of angels assigned in heaven to watch over their son as he just disappears so quickly. We each have our challenges but the Lord is ALWAYS there to help us, if we just seek him all the time for the help and guidance we need.

We woke up to about 4 inches of snow this morning, 22 November, and it is so beautiful. I am just grateful we don't have to drive in it. From our living room window it looks like a winter wonderland paradise.