Else Bränstrom (on the right) invited us out to her summer stuga (home) on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia.  Else is a widow who lived below us and was always so friendly and helpful with the language.  Many times we were in her apartment to visit and sometimes have fika (refreshments).  She showed us pictures of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  Often we would talk to her about different aspects of the gospel and we gave her a Mormons Bok with our testimony in.  We invited her, along with Eva Pettersson, to our apartment for dinner one evening.  We had a very enjoyable time.  We took Else an orchid plant the night before we left Byske.  She was teary eyed and made us promise to see her the next day before we drove off.  When we stopped in, she had prepared us lunch.  We had planned on stopping on the way, but this was a pleasant surprise.  As we drove off, she stood on her patio and waved goodbye to us with tears streaming down her cheeks.  It was very hard to say goodbye.

Below is a picture of Eva Petterson (on the left).  She invited us and Else over one afternoon for middag (lunch).  She is a cousin to Else's husband. 

Also shown in both pictures is Sten Boström.  He will soon be 88.  He was the one who drove us to the stuga.  He lost his wife about the same time as Dick's mother passed away and he missed her very much.  We talked to him about the plan of salvation and read to him from Alma Chapter 40.  Before we left we gave him a Mormons bok with our testimony in and we underlined the verses in Alma that we had read to him.  He was unhappy we were leaving and wondered why the mission president couldn't leave us there and send somebody else to Växjö.  Now that there are elders in Skellefteå, we will contact them and have them try to teach him.   

This is Melanie and I as we stand next to Storforsen (the great rushing water cascading).  This path we are on is right along the edge of the falls and goes all the way down to a hotel at the bottom.  These falls are one of the longest (not highest) but longest falls in the world.  After eating some snacks at a picnic table nearby, we took the path from near the top all the way down to near the bottom.  They were really rushing, but we understand that it is nothing like in the spring with the runoff.  This was in July.  We spent a wonderful afternoon there.  As we traveled there it was raining, but when we arrived, the sun came out and it was beautiful--cool, but beautiful.

Dick and I had talked about maybe spending our 50th wedding anniversary at the hotel here, but it's a good thing we didn't make reservations since now we are in the south many hundreds of miles away.

This is a model of the Vasa, a ship that was painstakingly built to be the biggest, most elaborate war ship among the european nations.  However, on its first voyage as it was going in the habor, it sunk in front of everybody.  Hundreds died.  It laid in the bottom of the harbor until 1962 when they raised it.  After many years it has been restored as shown below and is housed in a museum under strict temperature control.

The carved figures on the boat, of which there were many, were all painted with colors and goldleafing as the examples show on the left.

This is the St. Clara Church in Stockholm and below are views of the inside.  I hope you can see all of the carving and gold leaf.  It is very elaborate.

Solveig Nyström accompanied us on our excursion in Stockholm.  Dick taught her the gospel 52 years ago

L to R  Äldste Astin and Äldste Ingalls (yes he is related to the Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie.  They were our zone leaders.  We are here inspecting their apartment.  We inspected the apartments of the elders in Luleå, Skellefteå and Umeå every three months.  This apartment is in Umeå.

 

I played a special number for the Distrikt Konferens Saturday evening meeting and accompanied the congregation in the Sunday Session

 

Inside Central Station (train) in Stockholm.  This is on our way back from a zone conference where Elder Kearon spoke.

 

 

A fall view on our way to visit Viola Johansen out in the forest about a 50 min drive

 

This is the little car we drove around some and below are the garages where we parked the car.