VASA

 One of the main Stockholm Attraction is the Vasa Museum. 

The Vasa Museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, The 64-gun warship Vasa  sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990 and, according to the official web site, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. 

The ship was christened, sailed into the harbor, 800 meters, gave a 20 gun salute, listed to the side, the water came in the open cannon holes, filled up the ship and it sank. 30 of the 450 people died..

In 1961 it was rediscovered and brought up from the bottom.  Since then it has been sprayed with propylene glycol which permeated the wood and replaced the water and permanently preserved it.  Well at least for a long time.

After extensive research and putting together artifacts, this model is what the original ship looked like.  It was commissioned by the king and elegantly decorated with many colorful carvings.

Nobel Awards

Stockholm is the home of the Nobel Prize Awards. Since 1901, the Nobel Prizes have been presented to the Laureates at ceremonies on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. As stipulated in the will of the Swedish-born inventor and international industrialist Alfred Nobel, which was opened after his death in 1896, the Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, while the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo.The Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm has, almost without exception, taken place at the Stockholm Concert Hall (Stockholms Konserthus) since 1926. The Ceremony is followed by a banquet at the Stockholm City Hall (Stockholms Stadshus) for about 1,300 people.
 This The Stockholm City Hall  where the banquet and dance take place.

If you are a winner you come through this door on the balcony

Walk down these stairs specifically researched and designed to be the most comfortable for such an occasion, to the banquet for 1300 people in this room.  Each person has 60 cm(24") of space at the table.
This is a 3 minute video of the banquet from set up to the end.  
http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1796

 After you would go up the stairs to the gold room for dancing.  The room is mosaic tiles made of a thin 24 C sheet of gold between two plates of glass, tricky to photograph

A Taste of Stockholm

 I have always visualized Stockholm with snow and sleighs.  Imagine my surprise to find out it is situated on a bunch of islands and there is water everywhere.  It is a beautiful city with lovely colorful buildings.  Here are just a few pictures to give you a taste.  I took over 300 in the 4 days we were there....

Sunday in Stockholm

Pres and Sis Evansson invited our whole party of seven to dinner Sunday after church.  It was beautiful,

                                              ....... including the food presentation

Afterward they invited the American Temple Missionaries plus a couple who served a mission here in Copenhagen, over for dessert.  We all had such a good visit and I gleaned lots of good ideas including a delicious recipe for carrot/shrimp soup.

Swedish Sites

Pres. and Sis. Evansson took us on a lovely little site-seeing trip to Nynaeshamn.  It was a little coastal resort with everything you could want: beach, mountains, forests,  walking trails, exercise paths and a little shopping center.  A lovely place to go back to.

 Look close for the kayaks

How fun to shop here!  Too bad it was closed for the winter.

Stockholm Temple

  The main purpose of our trip to Stockholm was to see the temple and meet Pres. and Sis. Evansson, the President and Matron.  They were so kind to us the whole trip.  They met Us (all 7 of us) at the train station in the Temple Van.  They took us to the guest house and what a guest house it is!  12 plus apartments for workers, plus guest rooms for patrons.
   The Stockholm Temple District takes in Norway, Sweden and Latvia., so you can see why they need somewhere for the patrons to stay.  The Temple is beautiful with lotsof  light blonde wood.  It is all built around the baptistery in the middle.

The temple is nestles in some pines and it was so refreshing for me to see green grass and pine trees, not to many of them in downtown Copenhagen.

Tender Mercy

We are back from Sweden and had a wonderful time.  More details coming.  But today we had such a sweet tender mercy. We attended the 10 am session at the Stockholm temple and who should walk into the session but our grandnephew, Garret Christensen. His brother, Tyler is serving in Denmark and we have seen him a couple of times. We had hoped to be able to see Garret and it was a lovely surprise.

 

To Abroad

We are off to Stockholm until Tuesday.  If I can figure out how to do the blog on my I Pad, I will.  Otherwise check in again on Wednesday for great pictures of Stockholm and the temple there.

From Abroad

This darling couple came to the temple today.  They are from Estonia and just here for the weekend.  They were both contacted by missionaries on the street and joined the church 10 to 15 years ago.  Very sharp and dedicated.  It was fun to meet them.  Yes Mom was tending their two children at home.....

Danish Modern

  Denmark is known for their furniture design, Danish Modern.  There are schools of design all over Copenhagen.  It is a clean, modern look.  Last Sunday we spoke at a fireside at the Stake President's home.  These were the chairs in the kitchen.  They were comfortable and they gave the room the illusion of lots of space as they didn't  seem to take any.
 Check out the variety and  decor possibilities  with pads and pillows.

Off to Work

I am usually not out on  the bike paths until mid morning.  But as we drove out to take the test, I couldn't believe how many bikers there were going to work.  This isn't even the biggest group we saw waiting for the light, but it gives you an idea. There are no doubt children in the black cargo bike.
 I went out to day on my bike, in the rain...that was a new experience.

To Celebrate

Our language test is over!  It took 30 minutes and I think I probably passed.  You only have to get 70 percent.  I missed several for sure, but hopefully not too many.  There were are a lot of things they taught you about the Danish Culture. Some interesting things they emphasized.   You are free to control yourself.  No one can tell you what to wear or whom to marry or what to believe.(addressing some Middle Eastern Cultures, I think) You can criticize anyone or anything in the newspapers and there is no discrimination for race, sex or religion.  Everyone is expected to have a job and continually educate themselves.  Tax is about 40 percent and  covers education, through university, health care and care for all those who can't care for themselves.  18 year olds are expected to be independent and rarely do several generations live in the same house.  There is help for anyone old or sick.  It is a Christian Country and most belong to the Folkekirke, but most do not attend.  It is a democratic nation and has a parliament (folketing) and a constitution since 1849 allowing many freedoms, including religion, which was one of the reasons the missionaries could come here so early
   Tonight we went to the Knudsen's for their monthly dinner. They have been having the missionaries for 30 years and her mother did it before her.  It was delicious curry sauce over rice and roast.  Chocolate mousse for dessert.  Always excellent and something different. A good way to celebrate.

This is the view from the Knudsen's window. The S Tog is Copenhagen's train system.  The bike means you can take your bike on this car.

Danish Test

To get permission to stay in  Denmark you have to pass a Danish Test. You have 4 months to prepare.  I hope it is pretty basic as we have to take it tomorrow.  Send a little prayer this way.  I have spent all day studying as well as several other days.  They say none of the sisters have ever failed...hope I'm not the first!  We have had material to study per example, about 50  pages. There is knowledge about Denmark you need to know and be able to understand simple conversations.  The test came in just as we left Denmark 7 years ago,   They use the Mormon missionaries as good examples of people coming in and learning the language and assimilating the culture.

Greenland Connections

Yesterday our counselor's granddaughter, Stine, married Mark Hvistendahl. We met Mark, his sister  and his parents 10 years ago when we went to Greenland to organize a branch with the Hvistendahls and one other sister.  They were a wonderful family and as knowledgeable and dedicated as any LDS family we knew.  We found it amazing as they were 4 and a half hours by plane from the nearest organized unit.  How did they do it?  They held regular Sunday meetings with the 5 of them and watched BYU TV.  They knew things about the church before we did.
   We were so thrilled to see them again yesterday. And what a wonderful connecting of two great families.

A Magnificent Day!

    Today was a great success even though the adversary tried to thwart things.  The wind blew all night and closed the bridge between Sweden and Denmark plus there were some terrible storms in some of the areas of Sweden and some of our sisters were unable to come.  A carload  did manage for the second part of the day so  there were more than 55 that made it.
     Our temple workers were fabulous and every time someone didn't show up they were able to make changes to cover it. They all earned their heavenly blessings today.  Jim and I set things in action and everyone carried on magnificently.  Our two new endowments had great experiences as did the sisters plus the high priest group and the wedding was lovely.  It really was a wonderful day.
    Afterward I joined the Swedish Sisters for their lunch and a little meeting.  Four sisters bore sweet, and inspiring testimonies of their temple experience and then I talked for a few minutes.  It was a special meeting thanks to the spirit.

When this stake Relief Society Presidency came in 4 years ago they had 10 sisters come to the temple for this event.  The Stake has caught fire and understands the strength and blessings from temple attendance and keeping their covenants.  You can feel it in their meetings.

Scheduling

 We have spent most of the week putting together a schedule for tomorrow at the temple.  We have 67 sisters coming from the Malmo Stake for their Relief Society Birthday,  a group of 20 from Odense and 12 more sisters from a Copenhagen Relief Society plus a baptismal group from Aarhus. Add to that a wedding and two people coming to the temple for the first time. We will be running at maximum capacity tomorrow and have sandwiched in a couple of sessions.  I hope this schedule works.  Put us in your prayers.  We are excited and it will be a good day.

Party Time

 We arranged things for the High Priest Party today as we are all in the temple tomorrow and Saturday until the party.  This is what it looks like. The Sister Temple Missionaries have an apartment just 3 doors down, so we borrowed their chairs and the missionary couple on the first floor are contributing a few more as well as added silver and plates.  We are expecting 27....more pictures to come.

Flower Boxes

 Besides being beautiful weather to be outside, we are having the Ward High Priest Party here Saturday night. So I finally pulled up the dead flowers ad planted some pansies in the front window boxes.  Amazing what a little color can do .The clean windows also helped....... This is way to our front door.

Funerals

This has been a week of funerals and remembering.  Jim's youngest brother, John, passed away last week and our great children represented us well.  One spoke, one sang and one prayed and the rest either attended or sent flowers.  Thanks kids you are fabulous!
  The next day we attended our friend, Per Mielsoe's, funeral. It was also lovely.  All of the children as well as his wife, Kristin, talked with several lovely musical numbers.  The most interesting difference was the hearse and flower placement.

People brought their own arrangements, gave them to the mortician in charge, who distributed them artfully about the chapel.  There were some around the casket, on the podium and then down both aisles.  It was a nice way to appreciate them.

Oh What a Beautiful Day

I think today was the brightest  and warmest day since we arrived in Denmark.  Light was knocking at the window before I was ready to welcome it.  In honor of the day I rode my bike down to the harbor.  This is what was going on there today.

                     The Queen is not boarding her yacht from her own private pier...

 The yellow water taxi is busy going back and forth.

And mothers with their baby buggies were out in droves.  Note the lovely little crocus in the middle of the lawn.

Malmo,Sweden -Stake Conference

 This morning to drove the 45 minutes to Malmo, Sweden for their Stake Conference.  It was a beautiful day and the saints were so welcoming and pleased to have us.  It was delightful to see so many of the good members that come to the temple regularly.  The stake has been concentrating on the temple for months and you could actually feel that spirit and happiness among them.  Most of the talks were about temple experiences and blessing.
       This is a favorite picture.  These dear sisters are regular temple attenders and are now going home from conference  on their bikes.

       We cross another long bridge plus go through an under-ocean tunnel to get to Malmo.  It is even more expensive than the one in Denmark, almost $60 one way!

A Long Day

We have had a long day, good, but long.  We started at a funeral, checked on three baptismal groups at the temple - the Copenhagen Stake brought all of their youth and then finished by driving  3 1/2  hours to Aarhus for their Stake Conference where we talked in the Saturday night session.  We have now driven 3 1/2 hours home as we are speaking at the Malmo Stake Conference in the morning.
   These are two of our favorite sites on the trip.

 The 18 kilometer or about 12 mile bridge that crosses the ocean between Sjaelland and Fyn, two of the major islands that make up Denmark.  It costs $40 to cross one-way.

   And, this picturesque little lighthouse just as you come across the bridge.  Yes both were taken as we drove along in the car.

Reunion

Today one of our missionaries from 10 years ago, Rene' Nielsen came to the temple with his wife, Elizabeth.  He was one of the few native Danes we had serving in the mission.  He was almost totally deaf in one ear from about the age of 11.  He was a wonderful missionary and one of our Assistants.  He has had a cochlear implant and now hears almost everything.  He has gone in to audiology and he and his Swedish wife live in Sweden.  They came to the temple to celebrate their first anniversary.  It was so nice to meet again and find he is solid in the gospel and building a righteous home.

Bike Garage

 This is the bike storage for our apartment building, well part of it.  My bike is the third one in.  It is a bit of a squeeze but I sort of think everyone always parks in the same place.  It is a nice warm place and my bike neve

 r  gets wet.  All of the ladies I have seen coming for their bikes are about my age, well retired anyway.

Food

I don't think I have ever planned food as much as I do here. Monday and Tuesday are normal, Wednesday we eat at 2:30 before we go to the temple and then something when we come home at 10 pm.  Thursday we go at noon so need to take something to eat for dinner and Friday it is all day so we take two somethings. The trick is figuring out something to eat when you come home late at night, hungry.
      It is usually soup, but tonight we had this yummy shrimp and egg salad.  It was something Jim's mother used to make on Sunday nights when the big meal was a noon and people were still around and hungry again.  Just lettuce, small shrimp, hard boiled eggs, and tomatoes moistened with Miracle Whip or mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

Thanks To The Olsens

Dorrit and Per Olsen have been serving in the temple for a year as stake missionaries.  They have come everyday and have been fantastic.  They live close by and will still come in a couple of times a week, but we will miss them everyday.  They are so dependable and upbeat.
   Tonight we had a dinner to honor them with the other temple missionaries.

The Olsens are the first couple on the left. Their two sons live in America so they will taking some time to go visit.