3 Days of the Convention...Equals 3 Days of Love

 Hello Blogees!  I hope and pray that everyone is well after those crazy storms ripping across the area.  That's insane!  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  I truly appreciate you taking this journey with us!  💖

The time has come for our 3 Day Eternal Happiness International Convention at the 3Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

Day 1!  Can't you see the excitement on our faces!!?!?!?

 These friends are from South Africa.  This is Susan, Amoo and Nozi.  I said...huh?!?!  She laughed hard!  Yes that is her nickname!  I can't remember her full name but she said that everyone calls her Nozi.  LOL!

 We met friends from Dangriga, Belize!  I'm so upset at myself because I didn't even break out into my Belize Kriol!  😦 (Sorry Marisol!  I know!  Ah mi mes op baad! LOL!)

 In the subway station keeping an eye on CN1-ARE!!!!

When we get off the train and started heading towards the venue...we start to see our brothers and sisters singing...some dancing...holding signs!  From old to young!  They were there EVERY....SINGLE...MORNING to greet us!!!!

 These brothers and sisters were from South Africa as well....I'll get back to them in a moment!

 This is Havve!  He and Gordon hooked on to each other!  He was such a sweetheart!

 We get inside and there are already a sea of people!  So you know what we needed to do first...that's right!  Find a seat!!!

 The spiritual program did not disappoint.  I was thinking in the back of my mind which member of the Governing Body would we have here in person with us...

They served all of the international delegates lunch.  The bread on this packaged sandwich was soooooooooo soft!  OMG!  I wanted to eat the whole thing, but controlled myself.  Inside it was a chicken salad type of situation going on.  It was delicious that's all I know!  LOL!

We then spent the rest of lunch and after each day's program to meet and greet and show love to one another.

 Isn't he cute!

 Here's my girl Ester again with some of her friends.

So it's time for the talk with the member of the Governing Body...we sit and wait in anticipation to see who it is.  There were other conventions being tied in to hear the talk (one of the conventions was being held in Greenland...so cool!)  And guess who it is?!?!  Brother David Splane!  I just love the way he teaches.  

 This is Evita and Isabelle from Sweden.

Remember I said that I would get back to the friends from South Africa.  Well, check them out! 💗

 The sister in the black dress name is B.  She wouldn't tell me her full name because she said that I wouldn't be able to pronounce it!  LOL!  She is from South Africa.  Gordon asked her to give him a shot...she told him her name and we humbly started calling her B!  LOL!

Day 2!

On this day our guide to the convention site name was Pontus.  Gordon kept calling him Pilate!  LOL!!!  My husband doesn't have any sense what so ever!  He's so funny!

 We were walking with Pontus and Max from Costa Rica and asking how we say different words in Swedish like good morning and things like that.  So Pontus told us we can say Hej hej!  So Max decided to count day 1...2...3...and every volunteer that we passed along the way, the group of 25 people would yell...Hej hej!  It was so much fun!

 What did I tell you!  Day 2 and they are here to welcome us again!  Now this day we decided to leave the hotel a little earlier, so we left at 7am.  I can't imagine what time our dear brothers and sisters had to leave their homes or hotels to reach in time to greet us.  Now ya'll know if that was me, I would have been running down the street trying to set my stuff up and would have been ready about the time that the program started for the day.  LOL!

 Lunch for Saturday.  It was chicken quinoa salad.  It was so good.  I was surprised at myself.

 We were able to see Noomi!!!

 It's time for the baptism.  At our location we had 175 baptized!  This pretty cool because Sweden is known to be a very atheistic country.  So for a person to take the time to get to know and learn about Jehovah God in this environment is remarkable.

 There's my Ester again!  

 I just had to exchange gifts with this young man. 💖

 Gordon received a beautiful gift from Tobias.  A leather bracelet with Stockholm inscribed on it.

 Check out this service dog with his buttons/pins!!!

 I told you they were dancing!  💗

Day 3!!!

 Gordon and his new friend Aran.

 Thomas and Carina came to say our good-byes.

 This brother is from Sweden but has been living and serving in Mozambique. 

Ok, so there was a sister was sitting in front of us and she had this sign that said Crazy Monkey Challenge.  I asked her what it was.  She had this candy called Crazy Monkey and if a person ate three pieces they would get an award.  I had already tried it when Noomi visited in Belize, so I knew not to do it, but Gordon nor Antonia would listen to me!  These are the results!!!!  LOL!!!

 Gordon had 3 pieces...

 Antonia just one....

It's like a black licorice but very very very very very salty!!!

It was then time for the final song and I told myself that I wasn't going to cry.  And I didn't.  I held on!  I was so proud of myself!  And then no one wanted to leave.  We just stood there and clapped and clapped and clapped.

The thing that was really really cool...was that there were about 7,000 international delegates singing all of the songs in their own mother tongue.  But when all of the voices combined, it just all blended so perfectly and beautifully...like a pure language.  

Then after the last song, the prayer the clapping, they played 2 additional songs where we all sang together in English.  It was beautiful as well.

 Saying good-byes

This little girl was hilarious!  We were leaving the convention site and she was handing out little gifts!  Sweet right?!?!?

 I was just snapping pictures!  She looked in her bag and she had one bag left...

 She looked up at me and I asked, "Is that one for me?"  And she got real sad because she wanted one for herself!  LOL!  It was hilarious!!!

 While exiting the building (and it raining once again) we accidentally ran into Jason and Liza from Pioneer School!  It was a great surprise!

 Now this time we thought we were grown.  We don't need a guide to get back to our hotel!  No sir!  We know where we are going!  But just to make sure we did double check with one of the volunteers.  We discovered a train that would take us directly to our hotel location.  We were so happy because it allowed us to see more of the city.

 And no matter where we go, Gordon finds a friend!  LOL!  This brother was really cool, especially when him and Gordon started talking tennis!!  

The convention was truly encouraging.  I know many of you haven't attended yet, so I'm not going to spoil anything but the information was truly humbling and encouraging.

So, I fought really really hard not cry at the end of the day.  I was still recovering from the cold I had developed and I was determined not to cry.  When the final session was over on Sunday, we were speaking to a sister and her husband who normally sat in front of us, but on this day they weren't very close.  I couldn't see where they were sitting.  But I did get to see her as we were leaving to tell her good-bye.  She has 3 sons, and the middle one's name is Jonathan.  She said, "Jonathan has something to give you and he wanted to give it to you himself."  Okay.  So here comes Jonathan, who's about 12 or 13 years old I believe and he hands this to us...

It was a gift bag with a postcard and he wrote a note to me and Gordon!!!! 😢I started reading ya'll and then started crying!!! We both gave him a big hug and I told him, "Jonathan, I was doing so well not crying...and you made me cry!"

It was so beautiful!!!

 Swedish Fika is what they call their time to just slow down, drink coffee, have something sweet and just enjoy each other's company!!!

I'm waiting for the pic of Jonathan and his family.  I didn't take it with my phone!!!

Well, that's all for today.  I'm just about caught up!  Yahoo!!!  Today we shared in the ministry with a few congregations from the country.

Thanks for reading and proofreading!!!  Until next time!!!