Last full day in Sweden

We woke up and walked to the train station and thought we bought train tickets but apparently they were bus tickets. So we got on the bus and went to meet the Norback family. We got there and he picked us up in his new dream come true....the mustang. Interesting note about gasoline. We saw it cost 15 kronos or so. That equals about 2 usd. We thought that was pretty good until we realized it was 15 kronos for 1 liter of gas, not one gallon. Gas is more like 8 usd. And we thought we had it bad. Before going to their home we stopped by a kingdom hall. Yes there weremore mics at every seat. And the colors were interesting. We got to the house and we had coffee and hung out. Then we went to a big shopping store and then to a little restaurant next to it where we had some normal Swedish food. A shrimp sandwich and a meatball sandwich with a beet sauce. It was pretty good. We drove back and met some sisters from new York that were going to stay with the Norback family for a couple days. Sister Norback's sister got to take brother and sister Pierce out on a boat for the day.....on their way back we could have met them but we were not at the house. :( oh well. Brother and sister Norback took us to a little island with amazing views and we just walked around. It was very relaxing. We went back to their house and they made us a big dinner. Salmon, hamburgers, potatoes, salad, fries and some delicious sauces. Sister norback's parents came and their son and his friend and the sisters from new York. It was already time to head home, so this time we had the brother look up the TRAIN schedule so we were actually on a train and not a bus. We were sad to leave and they were such a loving family...As we we leaving they kept handing us gifts! It was an amazing day.... We are not able to post pictures right now for some reason...but we will post them as soon as we can....ooor if we don't get to it then you will have to see them in person. :) we are leaving our hotel right now for our journey home. Will be home tonight very late...we miss everyone and will see you soon.

Individual Mics

I forgot we wanted to post this earlier...

By the way...the Norback family whom we had just met days earlier on the island of Marstrand invited us to stay the night at their house tonight. Nowhere else but in Jehovah's organization would something like that happen. We are so loved and so well taken care of. We're feeling a little under the weather tonight but we will take a train tomorrow to their town and spend the day with them. It will be our last full day here in Sweden.

The Convention is over :(

Here are some interesting facts... Whenever Brother Sirenko (not the Sirenko we are used to, this one is assistant to th GB) or Brother Pierce gave a talk we tied in AV to the other two convention sites in Sweden, Stockholm and Sanssvall. All the brothers and sisters total in Sweden simultaneously watched and heard those special talks. There were over 25,000 in total attendance. 151 were baptized. A couple of other interesting things...the McDonald's on site was open during the convention. Weird. Some brothers brought their own lawn chairs to set up on the convention floor. It was crazy because some sprawled out and had blankets. There was also an entire section for families with young children. The seats were separated by 5 or 6 feet so they could sit with their strollers right in front of them. Because the stage was centered in the arena, the drama had a small changing booth. It was completely enclosed and when it was time to change two sisters would hold up this cloth room over the brother or sister that needed to change. Another interesting thing was the way people dressed. We are definitely not used to seeing these things in the States. For instance, brother gave a talk and he wasn't wearing a suit. There sure was some buzz from the brothers from the US. Finally, even after the convention was over the love still poured out from the friends. Banners were waving and songs were still being sung. Enjoy the pictures below.......Oh and one final note: Brother Pierce brought an update from the recent France legal issues. The organization finally received restitution for all of the tax problems the government was giving them.

Brother Sirenko.

Brother Pierce.

Lawn chairs.

Parents rows.

Drama changing room.

Definitely not a suit.

Friends singing even after the convention is over.

First Day of Convention

We can't believe day 1 of convention is over already. It was another good day. Brother Pierce gave the concluding talk. He is such a good speaker. He apologized for not knowing Swedish or sign language or Finnish but he said he knew how smile in each language with no accent. Thought that was funny. There was about 10,800 people there today which is amazing for them. They are used to 3,000-5,000 people. They definitely do some things different here...it is always interesting to go other places and see how things are done. We were expecting a section for the us and a section for the other countries for some reason...but everyone sat where they wanted so we were all scattered about which was nice. It reminded us a lot of long beach! Here is one picture of the inside before it started and one outside afterwards. We flooded the streets of Gothenburg! Now we are ready for day two of convention!

Mars grand

Today was our tour of the beautiful island of Marstrand. (On the drive out we saw an Ikea, so we had to snap a quick pic.) It was out of this world. The island is typical Sweden, but it is famous for Carlstens fortress. (It was used as a fort to protect southern Sweden and it doubled as a prison). It's been around since the 17th century. It's name indicates that King Carl the X had it built with stones. The building started in 1658 and din't finish for 200 years. Each stone had to be carried by hand to the site. The prisoners held there were the ones providing all of the labor. The views inside and out were amazing. The Norback family took us around for some nice pictures and gave us some background on the brothers there. They also spent some fika time with us. Very nice family. We also received a guided tour of the fortress. Here we took more pictures, learned interesting facts, and found "secret tunnels". :) We also threw in a picture to show the view from one of the prison cells. Upon completing the tour we had lunch and then traversed the island to meet many of the Swedish friends. We met so many who were so loving. Young Jack provided refreshments and many others shared gifts and so forth. We're excited - tomorrow is day one of our convention!

Second Day

The first picture is what it looked like last night at 9:45pm! It doesn't get dark here until about 11pm or midnight. It is hard to get used to!! Today has been the warmest day for them and it's in the low 70's. They say it does not get much hotter here. We did a city tour today and learned some interesting facts about Gothenburg and some theocratic background which was nice. We had a break at a kingdom hall where they had "Fika" (a word that can not be translated but basically means a break of some sort with a little something to eat or drink). They have 5 congregations in that kingdom hall. A Chinese,Farsi,English,sign language and Swedish. All their chairs had their own microphones attached...we told them what we had and they said oh that is from the 90's. Haha. They had snacks set up...a traditional Swedish bread with cheese and lettuce and red bell pepper on top. It was pretty good. And brothers and sisters would just come and go...it was very nice. There were 2 sisters that gave us the tour...one was in the farsi group and one was in Chinese. They were both very sweet. The other people on our tour were all Swedish and from Gothenburg. But one couple has been living in Bolivia for the past 2 years to help where the need is great. Overall it was very encouraging!

This was the kingdom hall where we had "Fika"

This was our tour group.

This is the Schillerska Gymnasium where Brother Rutherford gave a public talk in 1913. It also was a convention site.

This is Haga, the first suburb. This is where the first Kingdom Hall was located.

This is a statue of Charles the IX. His official royal motto which is inscribed on the statue says "Iehovah Solatium Meum." Jehovah is my solace.

This is the Gothenburg Holocaust Memorial. Jehovah's Witnesses are specifically mentioned on the placard as one of the groups targeted by Hitler's Nazi Regime.

First day

So we woke up this morning very early. The time change is rough. But we are adjusted already. We had our first Swedish Meatballs at breakfast. They were right there next to the bacon, sausage, and eggs. Overall breakfast out here seems a lot like what our lunch is back home - sandwich stuff. We noticed that we could see the Scandinavium from our hotel. That's the building we will be in for our convention. And that's the first picture we posted. We went out in service our first day here. It was nothing like normal service. It was refreshing. We were inviting everyone to the convention. But we were walking the streets of Gothenberg handing them out to anyone we made agreeable eye contact with, which were our instructions. That didn't happen too often, but we had some good contact. We even walked through a mall and witnessed there. Our Swedish guides were named Yessica and Kenth. They were a lot of fun and taught us a lot. With us was a couple from Queens NY, a brother and sister (fleshly) from Santa Maria, and a brother from Burbank. It was encouraging for all of us to have so many out in the field. We were an army marching in groups of 7 or 8 all over the city. We felt powerful as if we outnumbered everyone else. It was awesome. Tomorrow should be a city tour. Looking forward to the background of Sweden related to our organization. Interesting facts: We found out Brother Pierce from the Governing Body will be giving our special talks. Also, the Swedish don't seem to believe in ice. :?

Officially in Sweden!

Yesterday we were sad to leave our friends in new jersey. We had a great time even though it was short. We will be back there sometime in the near future....so we look forward to that...we arrived at the airport with 20 minutes to spare. We rode a double decker plane. A lot of people stared at us because of our badges..and some people that worked at the airlines would tell us they were brothers and sisters. Hopefully we were able to give a good witness. We arrived in Paris...not an easy airport. Haha. But half our plane was full of brothers and sisters, so that was nice. We arrived in Sweden and were met by brothers and sisters to help us find the right buses to our hotel. We walked outside to a group of brothers and sisters singing kingdom songs in swedish and then In English. It was pretty amazing. We arrived at our hotel and signed up for the tours we wanted to take. We were met by 2 sisters there too that helped us with information. We were hungry after we got to our room so we went to this pizza place around the corner...they gave us a pizza and apparently they don't cut their pizza into slices. Everyone just tears off a piece. But the waiter saw us cutting some into pieces so he was nice enough to come over and cut it for us but he said they don't normally do that. We have not gotten sleep in 24 hours so we are going to bed for the night. :) hado (that is bye in swedish, and not sure if that is how you spell it)

The trip begins!!

It has begun. We are on our layover in Phoenix and the flight was delayed but we should be departing soon to Newark until Sunday! Nothing too exciting yet....but it's our first delayed lay over of many we are sure. All together we will be on 7 flights...ugh!

Swedish Money

This is the swedish money we picked up today....looks kind of interesting. They are called kronor (kronas).

Pre-Sweden Post 2

These are the gifts we are taking with us to Sweden. Thanks to our friends for helping us put these together. :) The reusable heart tins are "safeguarding" mints for now...and the baggies have a mixture of candies. What's a convention without some mints and candy?!? Hope everyone likes them!

Pre-Sweden Post

Prep Time

     Just days to go until we leave for Sweden and the preparations are in full-swing.  Part of those preparations are preparing a blog to share our adventure with friends and loved ones back home while we are abroad.

     We'll be posting as often as possible.