"Til We Meet Again"

Well, here we are in the president’s office one last time, holding a white Dalahast, presented to us from our Office staff.  It has the autographs of many of our missionaries on it.  We will forever love our time here in Sweden and the wonderful associations we have been able to build over the last three years.  We thank our Heavenly Father for this great blessing in our lives.  We will be forever grateful to Him.  May the Lord continue to bless the country of Sweden, the missionaries who serve here, and the wonderful people who call Sweden home.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!!

Arrival of President and Sister Youngberg!!!!!

 Friday, June 30, 2017, we traveled to Arlanda Airport with our Assistants, Office Elders, and two Senior couples to pick up the new mission president and his wife.  Lots of excitement as we waited for them to come through customs with all of their luggage.  After a wait, they came through the arrival doors, looking somewhat tired, but with smiles on their faces.

President Youngberg pushing his luggage.

Sister Youngberg, with her flowers from Sister Beckstrand.

President and Sister Youngberg greeting the office staff.

The mantle of presiding over the Stockholm Sweden Mission is officially transferred from President and Sister Beckstrand to President and Sister Youngberg.

Welcome to Sweden, President and Sister Youngberg!  Pictured left to right: President and Sister Beckstrand, Elder Benson, Elder Stapley, Sister and President Youngberg, Elder Jamsa, Elder Craun, Sister and Elder Anderson, and Elder and Sister Hales.

 After the airport, we traveled to the mission home in order to give our handoff to the Youngbergs.  We spent a couple of hours with them, providing some orientation, tour of the mission home, and answering any questions that came up.  After this, our Assistants loaded up our luggage and we traveled back to Arlanda Airport, where we had a hotel room for the night and then, our flight back to Salt Lake City, Utah, to be reunited with our children and grandchildren.

Farewell Dinner with folks from the Stockholm Temple!!!

Sunday evening, June 25, 2017, we spent the evening with friends who work at the Stockholm Temple.  They came to say good-bye to us and we had a wonderful dinner with them.

Birgitta Jalmbrandt, who I tracked into 40 years ago as a young missionary in Umea, Sweden.  She currently serves in the temple with her husband, Torbjorn Jalmbrandt, who serves as counselor in the Temple presidency.

“3rd Annual Viking Volleyball Tournament”

Monday, June 19, 2017, the missionaries throughout Sweden met together with their respective Zones to battle it out in the “3^rd Annual Viking Volleyball Tournament!”  This is a great opportunity for our missionaries to get together, have fun, and celebrate the hard work which has been done over the past 12 months.  Here are some pictures of some of the action in Stockholm.

 

The Final Two Weeks for us in Sweden!!!!!!

These last two weeks for us have been incredibly busy, meeting friends made in Sweden, traveling to finish up the last of our Norrland District Conferences, seeing what sights we had time for, cleaning the mission home, packing up what is left of our belongings, and preparing for the arrival of President and Sister Youngberg.

Our good friends, Rolf and Anya Haglund, wanted to go to dinner with us one last time before we left for home.  We met them at the Communications Tower in Stockholm, which has a restaurant at the top with a 360 degree view of the city.  We had a great dinner there with them and they presented us with a wonderful gift of a picture book of Sweden.

Here we are, President and Sister Beckstrand and then Rolf and Anya at the entrance to the Tower.

A quick selfie of us all at the top of the Tower.  Rolf, Anya, Sister Beckstrand and President.

The weekend of June 10-11, we flew to Lulea, picked up a rental car, and then drive to Skelleftea, for Branch Conference.  This is the smallest branch in the District and we had 5 members attend our meetings.  These members are so faithful and we will miss them dearly.  On Sunday the 11^th of June, after our meeting, we drove back to Lulea to catch our flight back to Stockholm.

The following week was spent with our last Mission Leadership Council meeting, missionary interviews in Vasteras and Norrkoping, working the final transfer board with my assistants, and then a little “Roast the President” get together which was purt together by Seppo Noso, Mads Held, and Felix Sahlin.  It was so good to see them again and to be able to spend some time with them.  These three Elders were some of my very best missionaries and they represented the Scandanavia (Finland, Denmark, and Sweden) extremely well.  Sister Beckstrand and I count them as our own sons and we will love them throughout the eternities.

The next morning, Saturday June 17^th, we flew back to Lulea for our final branch conference.  We were picked up at the airport by President Robert Naslund, Branch President for Lulea, and 1^st Counselor to President Hakan Stegeby of the Norrland District.  Sister Beckstrand and I were invited to spend the weekend with the Naslunds.

They showed us some of the unique sights around Boden, were they live, which was great.  Brother and Sister Naslund at the old village outside of Boden.

More pictures of our time with the Naslunds.

Storfors at midnight.  Yes, it is midnight in Norrland, and we took a little side trip to Storfors to see one last time.  This is one of the wonders of Europe and is the river that the loggers used to send their logs down to the Baltic Sea.

Brother and Sister Naslund at a view point.

President and Sister Beckstrand at the view point