A Hodgepodge of Pictures of Beautiful People, Things and Places

My Kenya blog (kenya.torriefamily.org) still gets many views every day.  That's not surprising, since Africa is such a foreign place for many people and we had such a remarkable experience there.  But we have found Sweden to be interesting and beautiful too.  The fall leaves and heather are gorgeous.  The missionaries are fun and enthusiastic and happy to be here.  So this post is a hodgepodge (is that one word?) of many things -- scenery, including the interesting motorway tunnels, missionaries, our recent zone conference, and the Stockholm Temple. 

Swedish mushrooms, homegrown here in Sweden.  Not sure what they taste like.  I need to try them.

Heather is for sale everywhere here.  It's supposed to bring good luck.  It's an evergreen and its blossoms are gorgeous in their varying colors of pink, lavender, red, white.

Floral Christmas decorations are starting to pop too.

Beautiful fall colors in the parking lot of the Coop store where we often shop for groceries.  It's Coop, not Co-op.

Are these maple leaves?  The red maple leaf is the symbol of Canada.

Interesting spire on one of our churches.

Sunday evening sing-along with Elder Nordgren, Elder Walker, Elder McGill.

Beautiful men's choir with Elder McGill, Elder Olson, Elder Hoyt, and Elder Stinson.  Don't you love that zebra picture on our wall?

I'm working on my blog posts.  It takes a very long time to go through all my pictures.  But my hope is that, besides sharing our experiences with our friends, it will be a good memory of our mission when we are finished.  All I'll have to do is print it into a book.

Another evening of singing.  Elder Olson, Elder Stinson, Elder Nordgren, Elder McGill, Elder Hoyt.

Elder Torrie loves to play his keyboard.  Not quite the same thing as a grand piano, but he can't go without music for very long.  He's addicted, but that's okay.  The first thing we did when we got here was to order a keyboard.  The keyboard he got in January went to Utah with the Youngberg's when they left in June.  Here's Elder Walker, Elder Olson.

Love those suspenders Elder Nordgren, Elder Olson, Elder Stinson, Elder McGill.  You look really sharp!

Syster Davis made this creative platter with a yogurt dip for the apples.  She always makes a treat for our office meetings.  She likes to cook as much as Syster Youngberg did.  So fun!

Our fearless leaders -- Syster Davis and President Davis -- along with Elder Walker, one of our office elders.  Elder Walker, where are your suspenders?

Here's Elder Torrie and Elder Hoyt ready for our weekly meeting to start.  We counsel together about mission concerns and upcoming events.  Working with these young missionaries is invigorating!

Elder Hall (on left) served with us in the mission office in February.  So nice to see him again.  He and his companion, Elder Jackson (on right), have stopped by for a visit before going on splits with the Assistants, Elder McGill and Elder Hoyt (in back).  LeRon took Elder Jackson's place in the office in October.  So fun to see these wonderful young men.

Now we're setting up for zone conference.  Lots of stuff to carry in.

Hungry missionaries at zone conference:  L-R: Elder Bair, Elder Childs, Elder Ward, then Elder Walker, Elder Hoyt, Elder Nordgren, Elder Seely.  We served with Elder Seely in the office for our first two months and then he took Elder Torrie's place when we went home.

Glad I don't have to cook for all these missionaries!  I just get to order the food and pick it up.

  

Syster Kuhn, Syster Locher, Elder Childs, and Elder Seely are teaching at zone conference.  They are the zone leaders and the sisters are Syster Training Leaders.  They did a great job of teaching!  At the table are Elder Mangum and Syster Hall.  It was great fun to be at zone conference.  

Now we're at the Stockholm Temple with Syster and President Davis.  Elder Torrie is on his phone.  The phone calls never stop.  Some missionary is always in need and that is what we are here in Sweden for -- to make sure the missionaries are safe, taken care of, and are legal in the country.

Syster and Elder Johnson are a new senior couple in the mission.  Their focus is on working with Young Single Adults in the area.

The Stockholm Temple is in a beautiful wooded area near the grounds of an ancient Viking temple.

Fall is definitely here.

This plaque commemorates the visit in 1995 of Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia to the temple grounds.

The Stockholm Sweden Temple was dedicated in 1985 by President Gordon B. Hinckley, who was a counselor in the First Presidency at the time.

Two syster missionaries, Syster Evenson and Syster Wilson, by the Sweden Temple

The Stockholm Sweden Temple was the 4th temple built in Europe and the 1st temple built in Scandinavia.  The church now has 230 temples worldwide, either announced, under construction, or currently operating.

Stockholm has several motorway tunnels that go underneath water or city.  So cool.  We've been in the longest one, which is 4 1/2 km long.  Interesting things to break up the tunnels, such as this moon and stars sculpture.  I didn't get a very clear picture of it as we were zooming by.

Here's another cool sculpture.  And in another intersection, there were butterfly sculptures.  I didn't get a picture of them.  

This is my favorite intersection.  Looks like the MacDonald golden arches!