Catching Up: LeRon's Birthday in March ~ Our Mission in Sweden

Since we had already celebrated my birthday with our wonderful office missionaries, we didn't expect much for LeRon's birthday 6 days later. But they surprised us by inviting us to their apartment at 9 p.m. Yes, 9 p.m. Missionaries have quite a schedule. They must be up by 7 a.m. to pray, exercise, and eat breakfast. From 9:30 to 10:30 is their personal scripture study time. Then from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. they are involved in active missionary work. 9:00 or 9:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. is personal time, with bed no later than 11 p.m. They have half an hour off for lunch and an hour for dinner. And sometime during the day, when they can fit it in, they have companionship scripture study. It's actually quite the schedule. Thank goodness senior missionaries can pretty much set their own schedules!

So at 9 p.m., we went upstairs to the junior missionaries' apartment, which is about three times bigger than ours. We found them cooking up a storm. Here's Åldste Ronndahl, Åldste Nordgren, Åldste Rantaniemi, Åldste Longman, and Åldste Austin.

We weren't sure what was up when we saw the amount of rice Åldste Ronndahl and Åldste Olson were cooking.

Then we went into the dining area and found . . . sushi making ingredients. We were going to make sushi!!

Åldste Torrie was pretty excited to see the Japanese flag on the Happy Birthday greeting. (Click to enlarge so you can see it). The missionaries know Åldste Torrie went to Japan on his junior mission. Back then there were 3 missions in Japan. Now there are 7 missions.

We didn't know how easy it is to make sushi! You just need to buy the seaweed papers and cut up the vegetables.

Åldste Torrie is helping me roll the sushi. Pretty cool!

Does that look right? Look how many sushi you can get from one roll of seaweed.

The Elders all took turns rolling their sushi. Here's Åldste Olson, Åldste Wrangell, and Åldste Austin.

It's highway robbery how much they charge when you buy sushi. Ours don't look quite so professional but they taste just as good.

Now Åldste Ronndahl is taking his turn at rolling the sushi. There were only two rollers so everyone had to wait. Åldste Ronndahl is Swedish and has been assigned to serve in Japan in the same mission that LeRon went to 50 years ago. He's just waiting for Japan to open up their pandemic restrictions and in the meantime, he's an amazing missionary here in Sweden. As are Åldste Rantaniemi (from Finland), Åldste Olson (from US), and Åldste Wrangell (from Finland).