Cell Phones - A Headache and a Help

Today's training assignment:  Conquer the mall!

Elder and Sister Turpin received their mission phone yesterday and we have been trying to get it working.  They also have a new android they brought with them and an account with Verizon.  Everyone I know who has brought a telephone with them has had a few problems.   Mine with T-Mobile really put them on my "bad" list.

Apparently Verizon isn't behaving any better.  No matter what you are told in the States, when you get over here, they throw you under the bus.  They aren't even remotely interested in making it even a little bit easier for you in a far away country.

First on the list in the mall was to visit some of the telephone companies to see if anyone could help.  We had limited success.  We also went looking for a hair dryer and alarm clock for the Turpins...with limited success.  And then we were hoping to find a Nisse or two....no success whatsoever.

One quest that was wildly successful was the search for a bakery goodie....we didn't have far to go to find some excellent Danish pastry.  We sat and visited while we munched away.

We took Elder and Sister Turpin to the mission office to have their interview with President Sederholm and also to receive their orientation from Elder Thorne...something very valuable.  They were given the senior binder full of necessary information ...everything from traffic laws to oven temperatures to guidelines for taking the dreaded language test 6 months into your mission.  Hey!  Do you remember agonizing over that with me?  So yesterday!

In the evening, we drove out to President Sederholm's home for dinner with the senior missionaries.  They always gather us together for a feast when a couple comes in or when a couple leaves.  And it was a feast.  (The Turpins told us of a missionary who gained so much weight the mission sent him home to either lose it, buy new clothes or just end the mission....so don't say anything if I show up there looking much larger!)

We drove the Turpin's car there since they went to the President's home with him after their appointment.  Since we weren't in our regular car, we didn't have our GPS system.  And to top that off, SK's iphone with a GPS system on it was not working.  It just couldn't find the address, nor the directions on how to get there.  We practically drove to Sweden!....up north.  Not really that far....but we traveled at least 20 miles farther north than we needed to, and I think if we had gone another 20 we could have visited Hamlet's castle which is way up there.

It was very frustrating because SK had a memory of how to get there, and if we had trusted his memory, we would have been fine, but his telephone had a funny little "dropped pin" close to where we were going, so we tried to get to that.  It was in the middle of a large forest.  We were only 20 minutes late so it all worked out....but SK was rattled....he hates to be late, and hates to be lost.

We have gotten soft!  We can't go anywhere these days without GPS.

Even after arriving late, we had a lovely time visiting with everyone before dinner started.  As always, it was a very spiritual evening, with testimonies expressed, gratitude for blessings given and desires of the heart voiced that our service will be acceptable to the Lord.  A picture was taken, and we all piled in our cars to return home.

Glazed ham, sweet potatoes with brown sugar topping, creamed potatoes, fruit salad and rolls, with cheesecake for dessert.  Oh dear!

A little more visiting with the Turpins, Thornes and Sister Hamblin in our apartment ended a lovely day.