To Valborg and Beyond

By Phillip

[This is a post that was nearly ready to publish when we got word that we were being transferred to Gotland.  Now that we’re operating on a more even keel, we’ve finished this up for your enjoyment.]

April 30 is a festive day in most of northern Europe signifying the end of winter. Forget about the vernal equinox. While the heavy coats have been mothballed for a while we’ve still been huddling up in our jackets to keep warm.  May Day is the day Sweden depends on shaking off the winter’s chill.

While many countries still celebrate Valborg (or Walpurgis Night) as a religious event, Sweden’s observance is mostly of the secular type. With bold, bright bonfires we fuel nature’s intentions to resurrect the verdant earth. 

It is also a good time for barbecues and sports. In the distance of the shot below, you can see a neighboring bonfire.

 I was most excited about the chance to roast some marshmallows.

All this celebrating seemed to do the trick. Within a week of Valborg we noticed more and more sun worshippers venturing out of doors, shedding unnecessary clothing and basking on the lawns. Cheeks become rosier and sunburn ointment prices escalated.

Shortly after this we had opportunity to venture into another remote branch of our stake.  This time we headed to Karlskrona to support the baptism of Sophia, whom we had the opportunity to meet and teach in Växjö.

 The Växjö branch does not have a baptismal font, so their investigators have the choice of an hour and a half drive to Kristianstad, an hour and a half drive to Karlskrona or a stroll into one of the local lakes (still a little too cold for that). From Lund it’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive, but it was through the verdant Skånish fields and Blekinge forests so we didn’t complain… much.

Karlskrona is near the south eastern point of Blekinge county. It is a port city where, up until about a century ago, most of the Swedish Fleet was constructed. But on this trip we didn’t get much chance to look around before the baptism. We’ve had a couple of other opportunities to visit here allowing me to catch this panorama shot of the town square.

The Karlskrona branch is blessed with a freestanding chapel. Although it is small it is on a piece of land that allows for expansion. We find many members from Växjö already present, and Sophia is so glad to see that Sister Hurlbut has come.

After some pleasant socializing, following the baptism, everyone makes the ninety minute trip back to Växjö, where on the next day Sophia will be confirmed a member of the Church. Kim ended up offering a prayer for each of the three meetings that day.  The Bishop mentioned, “We are a small branch. We all pray a lot.”

That evening we visit a sister from Iran who has been so eager to meet with us since our first visit a month before, when our ‘swing by’ intersected with her combined celebration of her birthday and wedding anniversary. We  could tell that she was conflicted wanting to let us in but knowing she couldn’t.

This time she greeted us with open arms and bounteous refreshments. She is attending the university there in Växjö to become an interpreter in the Persian/Farsi languages.  She is originally from Iran so she feels very confident in the language, but her instructor is from Afghanistan and the two of them butt heads over which variants of the language are correct. 

She hasn’t been to church since her wedding and the elders suggested that we start from the beginning of the Missionary lessons to give her a new start.  In our conversation, with her we learned that her university studies keep her from going to church.  We have found that there is a strong sense among the students, probably propagated by the universities, that their studies must dominate their life until they graduate. 

We promised her that God would bless her in her studies if she would make time for God through daily prayer and scripture study and weekly observance the Sabbath. We advise the elders to continue inviting her to make room for God in her life.

The next day, Preparation Day, the Elders joined us as we visited two of the castles in the vicinity. Pictured below is Kronoberg Castle. 

While the entrance features a drawbridge crossing a man-made moat, the rear of it is protected by a large lake.

Original construction of the fortress began in in 1444, a time when the Danish borders were dangerously close. It saw many a battle and at one time it held as many as fifty cannons. 

Featured in it's early history is a Danish cavalry charge across the frozen lake to lay siege to the castle before the cannons could be delivered to the stone fortress. Sadly for the Danish, the attack was short lived as they were repulsed by cannon fire from the castle. A timely delivery of armaments had saved the stronghold.

 After the border was relocated to Öresund, (the waters that separate Malmö and Copenhagan) the castle held no strategic value and fell into decay. 

Teleborg Castle is far from a ruin.  However, it has had a lot less opportunity to acquire a history.  It was built in 1900 emulating medieval styles. Count Fredrik Bonde of Björnö commissioned it as a gift for his 17-year-old bride, Anne Koskull. In 1964 the city purchased it and its surrounding park. It doubles as a Hotel and place for civic meetings as well as offering a pleasant dining experience.

The entrance to the restaurant is geared to work up your appetite.  This is Sister Hurlbut and I half-way there.

About a week after we get home from this trip,  we took the Sister missionaries out to Skellinge, a small coastal village on Skåne’s south eastern shore, about an hour out of Lund.  Our drive took us through the familiar farmlands. However, at this time of year the raps fields (canola) are bourgeoning with yellow blossoms.

The Doctrine and Covenants may say that “the field is white, already to harvest”, but, here in Skåne, the fields are definitely golden.

That’s Uppåkra Church in the background, just a few kilometers south of Lund.

But meanwhile, we are still on the other side of the country in Skellinge.  We arrived early for the visit so we spent some time taking pictures of the swans inhabiting the shores there.

Below, Sister Irene arouses envy among the mermaids.

But then she and Sister Bourelle spot something.

While they don’t recognize it, I know exactly what it is.

You can see it, can’t you?

It’s really out there!

It is a straight shot to the land of my mother’s parentage, L I T H U A N I A !

I could only get closer if I was transferred to Gotland… 

Hm….

Wiveca, the sister we came to visit, lives within walking distance of the beach.  She is of an artistic nature and her home reflects that. Here is a shot of her kitchen. Kim loves the pitchers hanging from the ceiling. 

Within the week of this visit Wiveca will visit the Sockholm Temple to receive her endowments.  Here is a sweet shot of her with Sister Bourelle and Sister Irene.

Skellinge is  very close to one of the best preserved medieval fortresses in Sweden: Glimminge Castle. 

Note the golden raps field in the background. Also note that Sister Hurlbut and Sister Bourelle are oblivious  to what ever it is Sister Irene is up to. 

This appears to be a blatant attempt to upstage the moment.

Well, the folks in Glimminge know how to handle this kind of behavior.

Although, for a moment there was a little confusion as who the real culprit was.

As for Sister Hurlbut...

It was just a frame-up.

Here is a photo of the full complex.

During the Skanian wars when southern Sweden was constantly changing hands between Denmark and Sweden, Swedish King Charles XI ordered Glemminge Castle to be destroyed to prevent it falling into the hands of the Danes. A first attempt, in which 20 Scanian farmers were ordered to assist, proved unsuccessful. An additional force of 130 men were sent to Glimmingehus to execute the order in a second attempt. However, before they could carry out the order, a Danish-Dutch naval division arrived in Ystad, and the Swedes had to abandon the demolition attempts.

Alcoves built into the wall,  like this one pictured below, are an indication of the wealth of the family that commissioned the original structure…

…as is this table.

So that’s the end of our foray into the wonderful world of spring in Southern Sweden, except for the now traditionallly accepted feature -

Additional Photos

Close to the Malmö Stake Center stands the Turning Torso, the tallest skyscraper in Scandinavia.

Those three black dots above the diagonal reflection are window washers. 

Here is a tapestry from Glemminge. This one is incuded for my medievalist brother. Sorry it's a little fuzzy. 

Of course, being a tapestry, it's bound to be fuzzy.

A common desire among the sister missionaries was to be photographed in the golden raps fields. 

We were glad to oblige them.

‘nuff said.

Floral Moment:

I realized that our last post featured a photo duplicated from a previous post.

Here are two new shots as compensation.

This does seem to be the last of the amarylis photos.

I hope you have enjoyed them.

Transitions

By Phillip

Sorry for such a long silence at this site, but the following will clarify the reason for that.

Early in May we received word from President Beckstrand that there might be a change in our mission assignment in the near future. He was sensitive enough to ask how we would feel about that. We assured him that we were prepared to serve where we were needed. The subject didn’t come up again for another month.

Twice a year, the Senior couple missionaries gather for a Senior Retreat.  It is a nice opportunity to meet with missionaries of our own age, share war stories, old and new, and recharge our batteries. We also get to see areas of Sweden that we wouldn’t normally be exposed to.  This year’s June retreat took us to Gotland, an island off the coast of south east Sweden.

You notice that there are two islands there.  You’ll also notice the two large lakes in western Sweden that almost mirror the shape of the islands. Swedish folklore tells of a grouchy troll who, in his ire, scooped out a sizeable chunk of earth and tossed it into the Baltic Sea. Not satisfied, he scooped out a smaller portion of earth and lobbed it in the same direction creating Öland, the smaller of the two islands. Considering that Gotland is approximately the size of the Phoenix Metro area you can see that we are talking about a very large troll.

Gotland, is a visitor’s paradise. Those who seek summer vacationing find beaches, forests and open countryside. Gotland also has an amusement park and narrow winding city streets rivaling anything I’ve seen on any Mediterranean island. (Granted, the only Mediterranean isles I’ve ever seen have been in the movies).

Geologists flock to Gotland to see its abundant limestone monoliths towering over the hills and shores. 

It is also an archeological mecca for historians, boasting a medieval walled city, Viking graves, buried pirate treasure and church ruins.

In order to reduce the cost of the ferry for our trip to Gotland we left half of the cars back in Stockholm. Kim and I were assigned to ride with President Beckstrand and his wife. As we headed to Nynashamn to meet the ferry, the President told us that our experience on the retreat would probably be different than any of the other couples.  He asked us to be attentive to the people and places we visited because I would be replacing Äldste Madden who had been serving here as the Branch President for the past eighteen months.

Much of the time we spent on Gotland was with the Maddens who were glad to share with us the status of the branch in Visby, the main city and port of Gotland. The Maddens, for those of you with connections to Hood River, come from White Salmon, Washington.

The retreat ended on Sunday with the Fast and Testimony meeting at the Visby Branch.  Here we had a chance to meet some the church members. Out of nearly 60,000 inhabitants on the island [in the summer] less than 50 are latter-day Saints and only half of them attend regularly. (this includes 2 too sick to really come, 2 Elders and 2 Senior missionaries). But we made every effort to get to know a little about all who were there before leaving the island.

From the time we returned to the mainland our focus was split between preparing to relocate to what missionaries call, “The Rock” and tying up the loose ends of our service in Lund. This included making visits to every missionary apartment in the Malmö Stake to finalize apartment inspections and installing new Smoke detectors in each residence (14 total). Sometimes, coordinating our travel with the missionaries’ busy schedules was a little bumpy, but we got it done. Still the list of things to complete was so predominant that blogging fell to the wayside.

There were several members in Lund who wanted to invite us into their homes before we left, and at the last minute I was asked to perform a farewell number at the quarterly music event held in the Lund Ward. I sang “No Ordinary man.” by Janice Kapp Perry.

The move to Gotland required two trips.  Unlike the young missionaries who are used to moving every couple of months or so and are ready to travel light, Senior Missionaries tend to put down roots and collect stuff. (At least that’s what we did.) However, the two trips did help facilitate some of our apartment visits.  It also allowed us to slip in a visit to Kalmar Castle, site of the signing of the Kalmar Union in 1397.

On Sunday, June 26, Elder Madden was released as the president of the Visby Branch, and I was sustained and set apart to take his place.  My first act was to catch a boat to the mainland and head back to Lund for our second load of baggage.

This also kept us out the Madden’s way as they moved out of the apartment.  The apartment is really a miracle in and of itself.  The Madden’s were on the verge of being transferred to Växjö. because the contract on their original apartment ran out, without them being able to find a replacement. Rumor has it that housing on Gotland has a 14 month waiting list. But, at the last minute a member of the Stake presidency found a very nice, newly renovated apartment. This was also a move from a third floor apartment to a ground floor location – a blessing for us, as well any other feeble senior couples who follow us.

As I said we live on the ground floor. The carport on the far side of the building has stairs that go up to the second floor. It is as nice as the apartment in Lund and we cannot believe how blessed we are to be assigned to the two best apartments in the mission.  Maybe it’s compensation for some of the 

… shall we say ‘dodgy’ apartments I had to live during my first mission.

On our third trip to the island (counting the retreat), we were seated at the front of the forward lounge which gave us a prime view of our approach to Visby.  Despite all my apprehension of this new responsibility, I felt a sense of coming into the right place for us to serve at this time. 

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Here are some more shots of Kalmar. The first two are some of my favorites portraying the majesty of the castle.  This is no ruin.

Here is the throne room. 

Here is a view of the courtyard...

...followed a panoramic view of it (making it look much larger than it really is.)

Kim wanted to get a shot of this seal found above the main entrance.

Knowing that photos are more interesting with people in them, she had me pose below it on the drawbridge.

I took a pose looking off to the left where I could contemplate the moat and the Kalmar Straits beyond. Note the nice clouds.

But when she finally snapped the photo with the best glimpse of the seal it included an unexpected element.

Elder Hurlbut: Girl watcher.

You must admit it is a good clear shot of the seal.

FLORAL UPDATE:

This red Amarillis was purchased at the same time as the white one, but bloomed later.