Eating at the Hairy Pig

We were intrigued with the name . . . The Hairy Pig . . . a small restaurant in Gamla Stan, the Old Town here in Stockholm. This Saturday, there was no one in the restaurant but us. So cute, complete with a masked wild boar.

Wild boar are a menace here. They dig up crops, cause accidents, and are rapidly increasing in population. Hunters hunt them and people eat them.

We went with Åldste & Syster Wilhite (the couple in charge of missionary apartments) to Gamla Stan to celebrate our birthdays. Syster Wilhite, LeRon and I all have March birthdays, plus, Åldste & Syster Wilhite were married the same day we were, March 6, but we were a year ahead of them.

The food was really good at The Hairy Pig. The owner/cook is a Brit who married a Swede and now lives in Sweden. He's also a hunter of wild boar.  Fun to hear his English accent and eat his delicious food.  We'll have to go back sometime.

Not many tourists or even Swedes here in Gamla Stan.  Things are pretty quiet. Apparently 60% of Swedes worked from home even before the pandemic. Now more stay home, and of course, tourists aren't coming to Sweden right now.  

Our favorite time of the week is 9 p.m. Sunday night, when the missionaries are finished their mission work and come to our apartment for a sing-along, food, and visiting. This is the last Sunday night with elders Rantaniemi (far left) and Olson (middle in suit) as they are both being transferred to other parts of Sweden.

A look at what we are serving tonight. Ice cream, raspberries, my delicious chocolate sauce (1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted; add 1/4 cup cocoa and 1 can sweetened condensed milk. Stir together. Delicious). We also serve a bowl of raw baby carrots, and after the sweets are eaten, the missionaries wolf down the carrots!  So cute! And mandarin oranges. And a few pastries or sometimes I make brownies or other squares or banana bread.

We had also invited the two Syster Training Leaders for our fun evening. They live a 20-minute drive away, so they don't come often and we take them home after so we don't get home until about 11:30. Makes for a late night! L-R: Syster Torrie, Syster Jackson (with Åldste Torrie standing), Syster Hall, Åldste Austin, Åldste Rantaniemi, Åldste Rönndahl, Åldste Olson, Åldste Wrangell, Åldste Nordgren, Åldste Longman.

Last office meeting at the mission home before two of the missionaries are transferred. Longman, Wrangell, Austin, Olson, Rantaniemi, Rönndahl, Nordgren.  (Putting the names for my benefit).

Last office meeting with the Syster Training Leaders, Syster Jackson and Syster Hall, with our mission president's wife, Syster Davis.

Singing the mission song Gud finns i Sverige.

And now we're saying goodbye to two very special missionaries. We worked in the mission office with Åldste McGill (on left) for 6 months and got to know him very well.  And Åldste Deshler took over for us back in March 2020 when we went home due to coronavirus. Both missionaries have finished their 2-year missions and are returning home.

Åldste Deshler (on right) did a great job in the mission office. He understood my spreadsheets and even improved on them. He has an organized mind. I didn't think we would ever be back in Sweden after we left last year, but I was glad to see my files were all still there when we did come back.

Here is one of our very special adopted grandsons, Åldste McGill, who had served as an Assistant to the President. So many goodbyes on a mission!  You just get to know them and love them, and then their time is up and they go home.

And here's our adopted granddaughter, Syster Jackson, going home to Arizona after 18 months in Sweden.

We're going to miss Åldste Rantaniemi in the mission office. He's being transferred elsewhere in Sweden.  Glad we've gotten to know him. His name rolls easily off our tongues now. I don't know why we thought it was hard in the first place.

And Åldste Olson has been a great help to us in the office. Whenever I've had a computer problem, he's been able to easily fix it.  We will definitely miss him as he moves on to another area in Sweden.

We call this room the "war room." Here are the 7 office missionaries working on their social media posts, video editing, and advertising. Our 7 missionaries plus Åldste Christenson (in front, looking toward me) who is waiting to go to his new area.

We love these missionaries, Åldste Austin and Åldste Rantaniemi.  LeRon has almost converted them to being farmers.  For now, this is their "farm" here in the mission office.