Conference in Växjö

By Elder Hurlbut

Did you notice the elephant that just entered the room?

Well, as long as it is here we will address it.

“Conference in WHERE???

Växjö.

It is pronounced ‘Vek-hwa” but the ‘k’ is just barely heard.

Try it out three or four times before continuing. (especially if you are reading this to someone else.)

Now, on with the post.

The Växjö Branch of the church is one of the more remote congregations in the stake. (The Malmö  Stake is comprised of seven different congregations spread across southern Sweden.) The contact we've had with the missionaries serving there indicates that there are about a dozen Young Single Adults on the rolls, with only one of them actively participating in church. Early in the week we contact the Elders, asking if they can arrange some meetings with the less active YSA's for us when we come for their conference.

The drive takes us a little over two hours.  Emma Køster, Kim’s language tutor, told us that even the landscape in Skåne  (Southern Sweden) is more similar to the flat farmlands of Denmark, who  had rule over it for most of its history. The rest of Sweden features forested hills and mountains in contrast. The long drive to the northeast of Lund bore witness of it. We were very conscious of the change from farmland to forest.  It was very like driving out of the desert foothills of Pheonix to the forests of Flagstaff. You have to keep alert to see the change.  The highways kept us out of most of the towns but we did see an impressive monolithic add for the Lego Museum in Osby.

Our drive took us past many lakes.  As I opened up the road atlas I was surprised to the water/land ratio.  It seemed to me that the landscape had been modelled after a sponge.

In addition to the two Elder’s serving in Växjö, the branch has historically had a senior couple serving there as well.  But mission needs had transferred them to another city up north, so their apartment was available for us stay in.

Up until three or so years ago the Växjö Branch had met in a house.  They now rent a corner office/ retail space in a building in the heart of the city. Sitting through the meetings reminded me of the early days of the Cave Creek/Carefree Branch where I attended church through my adolescence.  The only difference was that while the Cave Creek Branch made do with what they had, there was obvious remodeling to the Växjö facility to give it a sense of being a church. 

Our arrival at the church created quite a buzz, when they saw our name tags.  Everyone asked expectantly if we had been assigned to Växjö to replace the Delgados who had transferred out so many months before.

I believe that the stake representation at the Branch conference equaled the Växjö numbers.  Their congregation included no one under the age of twenty.   But the meetings bore a spiritual charge.  At one meeting, Kim was asked to bear her testimony.  She bore most of it in Swedish.  She is getting very good at it.

That evening, Elders Gergetz and Murtonen took us out to meet some of the less active Young Single Adults.  There were several who were not at home and we learned that one had moved to Norway. We did have a couple of wonderful encounters with members at the door.  In each case, despite inconvenient circumstances that prevented them from letting us into their homes, we could tell that they loved the missionaries and were glad to make appointments for a later time.

In the middle of the apartment complex where most of these contacts reside was a statue that captured Syster Hurlbut’s fancy.

Can you tell which is the real Mombo?

It’s easier if you can see which one is wearing the black tag.

The next day, being P-Day the Elders had tasks throughout the morning. So we drove around a little bit.  There are three castles in the area, but the main ruin was not open for visitors until May. We’ll be back here plenty of times before we are done here.

We did stop by the Växjö Cathedral which is only a block away from the LDS Meeting House. It has a unique set of twin spires, that are actually a new addition to the building replacing the single spiral back in the 1960’s.

This stock photo gives you a better sense of the cathedral than the one we took, but our photo has the advantage of portraying the ethereal encounter I experienced...

Behind the cathedral we found an ancient rune stone During one of the many renovations the cathedral has gone through, the rune stone had been found plastered in as part of a stone wall.

Translation:

“Tyke –

Tyke Viking - erected this stone in memory of Gunnar, Grim's son

. May God help his soul."

Later that afternoon we accompanied the Elders to teach a mother and daughter who have been investigating the church.  We had met them the day before at the branch conference.  In fact, this was their first time to come to the meeting house. They were a little uncertain about what to expect. But the first person to meet them was Syster Hurlbut, who greeted them so openly that they immediately felt at home.

We stopped at a food truck for dinner. We had seen it early in the day very close to our apartment and were glad that it hadn’t moved on.  We were glad that it was still there, but Syster Hurlbut noted that there wasn’t much risk of it departing since it had four flat tires. 

Contemplating a tough decision in Växjö

After dinner, we had one more visit scheduled. This was with a young lady in her mid-twenties who had not been to church for several months.  She had been through some poor health and some poor decisions, but once again, she was so happy to have the missionaries visit.  She truly missed the Delgados. who were last assigned here.

I recognize that senior couples are needed all over the world. Here in Växjö, we could see the vacuum created by their absence. 

The Elder’s, are doing a great job here.  It’s been nice to see them in action. We appreciated the opportunities we had contribute to teaching the gospel.

We administering priesthood blessings in two of the households. I am grateful for the restoration of the necessary authority that allows us to draw down power from heaven.

Elder Gergetz is between Syster and I. Elder Murtonen from Finland, is on the end.

This photo represents our first success with a selfie-stick.

On Tuesday, our trip home took us through Kristianstad, as we had some new chairs to deliver to the Systers apartment.  This was the day before transfers, so, not wanting to complicate a crazy time for them, we made our delivery.

We then wended our weary way home looking forward to a good night’s rest.

ADDENDUM:

We spend the rest of the week preparing our talks for Sacrament Meeting in Helsingborg. We both present out thoughts in Swedish.  Syster Hurlbut gets high praise, which she deserves.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

A Few weeks ago we had the chance to visit The Citadel in Landskrona [the exact center of Europe]. This castle also served as a women’s prison for a while. 

Yes, That is a moat surrounding around it.

This next set is our attempt to capture a final glimpse of some of the elders we have worked with since we arrived here, three transfers ago.

The Lund Elders

The Zone Leaders  

 You can imagine some of the craziness Syster Hurlbut had to put up with…

But in the midst of it we caught …

…this quintessential picture of Sister Irene

Finally, a crazy thing happens to me.  Every now and then I reach out to pick something up and I see this…

I am always startled by this.  You see, the sweater I am wearing belongs to my brother, Jesse. Shortly before I departed to Sweden he gave it to me to keep warm.

And every time I reach out for something while wearing it. I am startled to think that Jesse might be in the room.  Even if my eye catches just a glimpse of the sleeve it recognizes it as Jesse’s and signals to my brain, “Jesse must be here.”

On my next mission.  I’m going to borrow clothing from everybody I love.

FLORAL UPDATE:

Week 12

We’ve learned that in Sweden and possibly all of Europe, the weeks of the year are numbered. So here is what we did in Week 12 of 2016

Sunday, March 20 – Helsingborg Ward Conference.

By Kim

As I sat down in Helsingborg Ward Conference the Spirit witnessed that I needed to bear my testimony… Don’t be silly! Today is Ward Conference and I am a missionary without any responsibilities over this conference J. I pushed the prompting aside and sat back to enjoy the meeting. Their new Bishop was put in about three weeks ago but we have been to his home twice over the past couple of months and are already fast friends. I wore a translator because I was being lazy and wanted to understand the meeting ~ and Helsingborg always translates for several people in their congregation anyway.

Sacrament meeting was lovely. As Sunday School began so did that nagging feeling that I still needed to bear my testimony… the stake Sunday school president who is also a member of the high council was teaching the lesson… and he didn’t seem to need my help. Third hour was a combined Relief Society / Priesthood meeting and the compulsion to bear my testimony was becoming urgent. The meeting began with the Relief Society President and her counselors teaching and then a member of the Stake Presidency. He finished by asking the Elders to pass out an Easter pass-along-card to each of the members while he showed the church’s new Easter Message #hallelujah.

And that is when it happened… as soon as the Easter message ended I stood and bore my testimony of Jesus Christ, that He atoned for our sins and rose from the dead that we can live with God again. I testified of the importance of sharing the Easter message with a friend and the power of doing it in their own homes with the missionaries present.  And I was a missionary. And I am in Sweden. And I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

 ]

Monday March 21 – P-Day / Ales Stenar!

By Phillip

A few kilometers from the picturesque city of Ystad, atop a bluff that overlooks the southern portion of the Baltic Sea stands an ancient megalithic structure known as Ales Stenar (Ale’s Stones).  It is often described as a stone ship because of its hull-like shape.  Similar to Stonehenge, the stones are arranged in accordance to the astronomical calendar.

Our District decided to make the excursion there and invited the missionaries from Kristianstad to join us.

Access to the stone ship is from the small fishing village, Kåsaberga seen behind us here.

The sea wind was so brisk that day that most of our photos give the impression that that we were wearing fight wigs. And, despite the warmth we had been experiencing in Lund,  the wind chill proved to be so nippy that Phillip was unable manipulate his silverware to eat his lunch at the end of the excursion.

The village disappears from view as we reach the top of the bluff.  To the right you can see Syster Stetler and Sister Cambell practicing gymnasitcs on the expansive.  Syster Stetler is the one on the right. 

We were so excited to catch our first glimpse of the stones.

It was quite a challenge to capture the sense of the area in a single photograph.

 

The younger missionaries produced a more energetic expression.

Thursday March 24 – Traditional Easter dinner for the Young Adults

By Phillip

Kim decided that in honor of the Easter week we should serve a special meal for the institute students.  We prepared our traditional Easter fare of ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, fruit salad and green salad. 

Sometimes we feed up to 25 people on Thursday nights. This week we fed six. The long holiday weekend took its toll on Institute attendance that week.

Friday March 25 – Zone Conference in Göteborg

By Phillip

We left Institute early, to make the long drive to Göteborg, so we could arrive at the next day’s Zone Conference refreshed.  The hotel we had reserved was called the Dockyard Hotel. I couldn’t help but picture a creaky, rat infested building hosting a seamy constituency of sailors. Arriving in the dark after some misguidance from the GPS device we were pleasantly surprised at the comforts offered by the facility. The desk clerk never figured out whether I was speaking Danish or English (my fault, not his), and the elevator button for the third floor was particularly unresponsive, but the room was more than we could have asked for.

The first thing I noted at the Zone Conference was that one of the missionary cars had cardboard taped over a shattered rear window. Someone had executed a smash and grab bit of larceny getting away with nothing that would be of valuable to the culprit, but were precious to the missionaries. Being the Fleet Coordinator for the mission I missed the opening of the Zone Conference while gathering the necessary plastic sheeting and tape to patch the car up for its long drive home to Stockholm, where it could be repaired.

The Conference itself was full of wonderful instruction. We were admonished to update our language study plans, and taught how to more effectively work with the members of the church. President Beckstrand taught us how we can overcome the fatigue of our winter labors by relying on the divine support promised to those who are called of God.  Sister Beckstrand led us in a discussion on how we can and should be using this time in the mission field to deepen our relationship with the Lord.

Sunday March 27 – Glad Påsk

By Kim

We decided to spend Easter Sunday with our own congregation in Lund. The spirit was strong and the music was beautiful. A young woman and her sister-in-law sang “I’m Trying to be Like Jesus” accompanied by the young woman’s father. One of the speakers, Terez Nilsson, who had us to dinner Christmas day, is the mother of nine. Terez and her husband Michael both served missions to England where their son Oscar is currently serving. He is her 4^th missionary. Her parents were visiting from the Gubbängen Ward in Stockholm, a congregation Phillip served in 40 years ago. Her father sang, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” with the congregation joining for the last two verses. It could have been my dad. It was wonderful! I love you Dad! Vi ses.

For Easter Phillip updated my Mombo board (thank you Cassandra – wonderful mission gift!)

All he got was a Disney figurine…

But he seemed okay with that.

We hope this finds you all well and safe!

We would love to hear from you,

Äldste och Syster Hurlbut

Sweden Stockhom Mission

Trollebergsvägan 77A

227 31 Lund

Sweden

Kimandphilliph@gmail.com 

Additional Photos:

Here are some of the sight we caught on the way to Ystad.

Sweden's landscape is peppered with windmills. And southern Sweden has enough wind to warrant it. I (Phillip) get a thrill at the concept of these gargantuan sentinals stoically standing, capturing the gusts (that we on the ground simply strive to withstand) to create the electricity that powers our communites,

No, I really mean it.  I really do thrill.  

Ystad at Easter:  This is Kim's favorite community Easter display.  I think that it is the 'fire and ice' motif that makes it so dynamic.

In 1906, Selma Lagerlöf published the book, “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils” about a boy who is magically shrunken and ends up touring Sweden while riding on a goose.  The concept was born from a request from the Swedish school boards that she write a book that would teach about Sweden’s history, geography and wildlife without it seeming to ba a textbook. If you zoom into the image of this roadside statue commemorating the book you can see Nils between the goose's wings.

We pass by a lot of farms as we travel in Sweden.  This one seems to have had an exceptional crop of marshmallows this year.

Amarylis Update.

Kim purchased this red amarylis at the same time as the white one.

Springtime For Lund

By Kim

We have had a great week! We are at the end of the 1^st quarter so we are trying to get the missionary apartment inspections completed. in fact on Tuesday we did 3! Weeks ago the Senior Couple serving in  Göteborg, Äldste and Syster Hawley from Montana, invited us to join them in Landskrona and Helsingborg  on the 15^th of March. The Hawleys are headed home next month and have picked up some extra apartment checks throughout the mission to give them a chance to also do some sight-seeing. We had been looking forward to spending the day with them and had even looked up a few things we wanted to see in Helsingborg.

That morning we inspected the Systers apartment here in Lund. They needed a few screws tightened and we taught them how to clean out the vacuum cleaner. Their place was as clean as we expected! And then we were off to Landskrona/Helsingborg, about a 45 minute drive. We met the Hawley’s at one of the Elders apartments and did 2 apartment checks with them. And that was it… no sight-seeing at all… they had other plans… So we drove on home to our work in Lund.

That’s not to say we didn’t see any sights.  You can’t travel through Sweden with without seeing sights.

Here is Phillip standing in front of the Landskrona  Cathedral. This is the view from the Landskrona Elders’  entry.  Landskrona, Sweden has been calculated to be the exact center of Europe.  They never would have qualified if Norway didn’t stretch so far north.

This is Helsinborg’s City hall, caught on the fly at a stop light.

And here’s a sample of the sort of landscapes we drive through. Lutheran churches dominate the cities and villages. From this particular spot we could see two other steeples. While the Church of Sweden was considered the state church the government was obligated to provide a enough churches to the populace. The government severed its ties to the church in 2000.

We see quite a few windmills as well.  This is one we pass by frequently, but there's hardly ever an opportunity to stop.  As for today we’ve got a meeting in Lund to hurry back to.

In April 22-24 the Malmö Stake will sponsor about 200 young adults for a weekend called “Create”. I sit with the young adult council that is planning the weekend. When we arrived at this week’s meeting our food chairman had prepared a lovely dinner for us including a fancy table with elegantly folded napkins. We started with crawfish followed by pike in a horseradish sauce with boiled potatoes. It was a pleasant surprise; especially for the young adults on the committee who arrive straight from work or school without dinner. It was delicious, but there were more bones in that piece of fish then I have dealt with since I was a child! The food chairman’s name is Kalle and he is a non-member. He has been socially converted for years but doesn’t want to hear anymore missionary lessons right now. He does attend church on Sundays – He is from Columbia and speaks Spanish and Swedish… We do a lot of sign language in the kitchen.

So, on Wednesday we had another apartment inspection in Malmö, and needed to shop for the Institute dinner the next day.

On Thursday night I fed the Institute students taco soup. Everyone raved… but they always do :).  I have purchased 2 large crock-pots since I got here and I love them! I dumped all the ingredients into them that morning and then Phillip and I left for the day! We were back at the center 45 minutes before meal time and everything was good to go. I used combined recipes from Sarah McBride and Sherri Barrow. Thank you for your cooking skills. I feed about 20 YA’s each week. My budget is about $2.50 per person. I am welcome to other ideas because figuring out what to feed them is the hardest part! OH! … and it has to be gluten free!

On that same Thursday (after the taco soup was in the crock-pots) we drove about 30 minutes to Vellinge Blomman, my favorite store in Sweden! It is a greenhouse / holiday store. Elizabeth is in the Malmö congregation, but has problems getting to church because of her health. However, she likes to go to Vellinge Blomman quarterly. We went with her in January and purchased our Amaryllis. This time the store was decorated for Easter! I bought an orchid and several small plants. The small plants were about $1.75 each and I plan to give them as birthday presents next month to the systers I visit teach because it is my birthday!

Here are some photos of the audio animatronic displays we saw at Vellinge Blomman. They had about ten diaramas representing a variety of folk tales featuring eggs.  For example, the dwarves from Snow White were portrayed by eggs wearing beards.

The Three Little Pigs

Rapunzel

An eggland village.

Swedish traditions for Easter include witches.  They represent the forces of evil that were thwarted by the resurrection of Christ.  It is not unusual for small children, especially girls, to dress up as witches for Easter

Witches for sale

Another tradition is to tie colorful feathers to birch twigs.  In former times on the night before Easter the twigs would be waved in the air to scare off the witches flying overhead.  Now they are mostly featured as decorations

Some have even made it into our home.

The next day was our weekly District Meeting. Our district leader conducted a discussion on how hope is connected to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is such a joy to sit in these meetings and hear these young missionaries share their keen insights on the gospel.

Afterwards, we went to a Chinese buffet on Kyrkogatan which gave us another unexpected chance to see some of the sights, all from the same bus stop.

Domkyrkan (Judgement church)

Nearly 1000 years old

Lund University's Universtyhuset

(Note the sphinxes on the upper corners)

The Southwest access to Lund University

As we ate in the courtyard patio, both Phillip and I noticed the layers of brick walls rising above us. We each reached for the phone to take the picture not knowing what was going on in the other's head. I got there first.

New photo of Amaryllis.