Dear Family,
Sorry this weekly e-mail is a
couple of days late. We just returned from our Visa trip last night from
Stockholm, Sweden, so I had to wait until today to write this. As most of
you know, we must leave Russian every 90 days in order to get a new Visa to come
back. We chose to go to Sweden. Although it is still cold and they
have icy streets there too, we LOVED seeing Stockholm in the winter time
after seeing it in summer about three years ago! The people are so
friendly and most speak English! I will talk a little more about our
experiences there in a minute.
First of all, we had our
three-day conference of our Europe East Area Assistant Area Auditing
Training this past week on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Gpa George and I have worked so hard to get it all organized--especially
George. He had to arrange for so many people to be involved
and planned a wonderful two-day agenda. Then, we were dropped
an unbelievable set-back--since it is International Women's Day around the world,
we didn't realize how seriously the people took that here. We hadn't set
the date for this conference as it was already set up by Salt Lake before we
got here. Anyway, we found out both Thursday and Friday there would be no
one in the office--which we could handle that--but in addition, all electricity
would be turned off for maintenance--and we couldn't handle doing the
conference in the dark. Moving the meeting was quite out of the question
because there just isn't anyplace else that we could hold this that had all the
set up that we needed for the conference without going out and renting
something on such short notice, even if we could find something that was
reasonably priced. So, George and I decided we would do it all in one
day!
Although it made for a long day,
we had the guest speakers, discussion groups, videos, breakfast, lunch, and
dinner, there. We started at 9:00 a.m. and finished about 7:30 p.m.
We tried to provide breaks and change things up quite a bit so it wouldn't just
be speakers, and I actually think, with the help of the Lord, it all turned out
so well! There was such a good feeling among all those attended, and I
know, I for one, truly benefited from it. Gpa George centered everything
around "Teaching in the Savior's Way," because we are definitely more
than auditors--we are teaching skills, but more than that, we are trying to
help build testimonies and help the members involved feel the Spirit of the
Lord in their service and callings. It was a beautiful theme that was
carried out so well.
Since we couldn't have the second
day of the conference, we spent the next two days taking the visitors who had
come in from the Siberian Region, Ukraine, and Salt Lake City, on some tours of
the beautiful downtown area of Moscow--including Red Square and the
Kremlin. They apologized that we were going to places that we had already
seen--we told them not to feel sorry for us. We LOVE seeing everything
there again and again and sharing experiences with those who are seeing it all
for the first time! It never grows old!
We said good-bye to everyone on
Friday night, then left Saturday morning for
Stockholm. After arriving, we took off exploring Gamla Stan--the old part
of the city of Stockholm.
There are so many streets and alleyways just
filled with fascinating little shops, cobblestone streets, and colorful
buildings. The Swedes LOVE the colors of yellow and orange! Almost
every building, still, is either one of these colors or a variation
thereof. We laughed so hard when we went into a little shop and met the
young storekeeper who was watching the Warriors-Trail Blazers game, which
had been played the night before, so George knew the outcome and said how
sad he was that they lost! "Oh, no," the kid said!
"I've been so excited to watch this and didn't know the outcome, and
you've now told me who won!" Gpa George felt so bad!
But the kid was really a good sport about it, and even let us take a pic
of him watching the game! We told the Wildes that yes, there are huge
Warrior fans even in Sweden!
On Sunday, we took a 30-minute train ride from central Station in Stockholm and arrived at the Chapel very near the Stockholm Temple It almost felt like we were back in the states! There were so many families and people filling the chapel and clear back in the recreation hall. Relief Society had 36 women!
Then we walked back to the temple--so beautiful and in such a gorgeous setting.
We had lunch in a little cafe, which we had heard about
from some of the other Moscow Senior Couples who had gone there, and
definitely had to try some of the pastries! What a fantastic day!
Monday was
really quite a day! We first went on a scenic bus tour all around the
city, then transferred to a boat and went out a little ways to see some of the
many islands around Stockholm. It is called the "Venice of the
North," and you can certainly see why because of all the water,
bridges, and archipelagos--(I had to look it up--a group of small
islands.) Gpa George and I will never forget coming in on the cruise ship
a few years ago when everything was so green and beautiful. Now, it was
foggy and snowy, but still beautiful in its own way. Many of the places
were shut down for the winter.
After the boat trip, we had heard from the guide on the boat that this was Victoria Day, so something was going on at the Royal Palace to honor Crown Princess Victoria. We just happened to be very near there, so we went and got in line and got to enter the Royal Courtyard where we saw different troops and horse guards all come in, while the Royal Band was playing. Then Princess Victoria, her husband Prince Daniel, and their darling little six-year-old girl walked in and stood on a raised platform while the band played three different numbers. That little girl stood right there through it all and was sooo good. Flowers were presented to Crown Princess Victoria, then to our great thrill, the three of them went around and greeted as many visitors there as possible. We just happened to be right on the front next to the rope barricade! What a thrill! When we came in front of us, Gpa George told her that we were Americans there to wish her well. I was so excited to record it, and then while still recording, I told her how wonderful I thought it was that her little girl, Princess Estelle, (who will be next in line for the throne after her mother) had stood there the whole time, being so good. She is only six years old! I'm sure because of the cold (and probably because of his age), the two-year-old Prince Oscar, wasn't with them. She seemed pleased that I would compliment her on her little girl and that we were there to wish her well from America. How exciting to meet a real princess! George was such a good sport! It was absolutely freezing and we stood on ice for over an hour--my hands were so cold that the buttons on my camera would hardly work, but George knows how much I LOVE learning about royalty, and this just couldn't have been any better!
Tuesday, after
breakfast at the hotel, we boarded a bus for about 45 minutes and headed for
the airport. The plane ride is only about 1 hour 50 minutes back to
Moscow. So, we were back home ready to start a new day tomorrow!
Well, that's our week. We
send our LOVE to all and hope you are all doing well. This week, we will
be excited to wish a Happy Birthday to Isaac on Thursday and Kent on Friday!
Love, Gma Laura
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