Time to Relax and Recharge

Hello Blogees! How are you? Ok today I'm going to try to catch up. Sorry Mom, this might be a long one, but I'll give you some commercial breaks 😜 

Let's see…. Where did I leave off!! Oh yes! After we checked into the hotel we were on cloud nine, so we decided to go next door to the mall. Yes, I said that the mall was right on our doorstep which can be quite dangerous for a sista!! 😆😆

When we walked in the mall I couldn't believe what I saw!! It was one of the two things that I actually wanted to do while in Sweden besides the convention of course!! You're going to think I'm corny but hey! Who didn't already know that!! 😜 But I wanted to go to IKEA while in Sweden. 🤣🤣 And yes! Right there in front of me in a mall of all places was an IKEA!!! 🎉🎉. I was so excited!! 

After my lovefest with Ikea we of course ran into other friends and we were waiting to meet our friends Tobias and Yonna for dinner. 

A sister knitted/crocheted whatever it was,  this bag!! The talent was amazing!!

Tobias is a brother that we met 10 years ago in Belize. He and his friend Andre came down and he and Gordon just hit it off!! He is the reason that Gordon has been wanting to visit Sweden. To see his boy Tobias. And we had the privilege of attending his wedding to his lovely wife Yonna on Zoom during the pandemic.

Now by this time the high that we were on from the fabulous welcome was starting to fade and the exhaustion was setting in. So we quickly grabbed food at Max's, a Swedish fast food place that we heard about and went back to the hotel to catch up. 

It was so great seeing Tobias. And Yonna is the perfect match for him. They were telling us about their role in being volunteers for the convention. How last year the Branch asked for 10,000 volunteers to help with the convention. 10,000!  There are only about 20,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in the whole country. Could they pull off that number??? Some of them live 9 - 10 hours away in different parts of the country. They definitely pulled it off!!!

Yonna was explaining how this convention was such a blessing for the country. And by the way, the whole country would be attending the convention together. She explained that Swedes typically like things to be perfect but they were encouraged to not focus so much on things being perfect that you lose the emotion. They were told that the important thing was to show love to the brothers and sisters that were coming. And love they have shown. They have been thanking us for coming, while we see how much work they have put into preparing for us. 

We wrapped up for the evening, said our goodbyes and we headed to bed because we have been traveling for two days. And the next day in the afternoon we had our first “experience”.  The Relax and Recharge Cruise which didn't disappoint. 

Time for a commercial break from our local sponsor…IKEA!! Shop Ikea for all of your decorating needs. Now back to the show. 

We enjoyed an amazing breakfast buffet…I must take pictures for you next time and then we meet up with our group for the Relax and Recharge Cruise. 

Here in Stockholm almost everyone takes the trains/subways instead of driving. Gordon remarked how few people there were on the road. And talk about clean!! I almost fainted when I saw this young lady throw trash into the trash can! 😱 Like that unfortunately isn't very common today. Everyone really has pride in their home. 

Antonia and I here with two of our sisters from Madagascar❤️

Oh wait!! Why did Antonia run into a sister who she used to work with named Linda in our group?!? "Listen Linda! Listen!" 😆

We take the subway following behind our guide. They did an amazing job to help us feel secure and safe in such a complex system of trains and tunnels. We had a guide in the front and one in the back to ensure that we were all together. And they had volunteers with their orange lanyards stationed throughout the streets and the stations to be there in case anyone got lost or turned around. So you didn't have to stress if you by chance didn't make it onto the train with the rest of the group. 

And altho everyone was rushing to and from work, everyone was so polite! I've never seen anything like it! 🙃 It wasn't like people rushing about in New York City or Belize City trying to catch the bus. Everyone was so chill! It was quite pleasant.

We finally reach the boat dock and we were once again welcomed by our loving Swedish volunteers. 

We go aboard and they have beverages ready for us and they have a delicious meal.  Brothers and sisters are singing. They have a slide presentation in the theater to show the behind the scenes preparations for the convention activities. 

We're milling about talking to different ones of our brothers and sisters. Exchanging hugs and gifts. Taking pictures and sharing laughter. We met brothers from Guatemala….”Oh! We used to live in Belize!!” That gave us a lot to talk about. 

Then someone overheard that we were from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “Really?!? So am I!” There was a whole crew of them. One being Ms. Ann Smithson!!! I was talking and she came walking over..”Ann Smithson!??! What are you doing here!?!?” 😆. The reason I responded that way was because I had just spoke with her as I was working one of my jobs to save for the trip and she never said a word that she going to be there too!! 😆 She said, “I said I'm not going to tell her I'm going to surprise her. Then I heard your voice and said I'm just going to wait!”. We laughed and hugged so hard!! It was a great surprise along with the rest of her crew!!!

Oh! Guess who we ran into!?!? Remember the sister that I mentioned got sick on the airplane?!?! I told her that I was just talking about her in my blog and hoped that she was ok. She said that she got to her room and slept the day and night away and felt so much better!! We were so happy to hear that. She said, “so you can tell your blog readers that I'm doing fine!” 😆. And we took a photo to prove it!! 

Then Gordon met this brother named Tim and they hit it off. Both silly!! Well…Gordon was telling Tim a story and all of a sudden Tim grabs his eye and says…(wait!!! I'm sorry…let me finish laughing so that I can type this. One sec!! 🤣🤣🤣 O..k…I'm ready.) Tim says “you spit in my eye!” Gordon says, “I did?!?” “Yeah! I couldn't even play it off! If you would have got me in my face I could of played it off.. But you got me right in my eye!!” 🤣🤣😆🤣😆😆 They laughed so hard and so long, the photographer for the activity came over and was taking their photos!! 😆😆😆😆 They nicely reenacted it for you!!  You're welcome!!!  

So now this is the only way that Tim will talk to Gordon...

It was then time to head off the boat. As we were waiting for our group we met a young fleshly brother and sister. The young man was so happy to hear that we lived near Hershey Park that he was already making plans to come visit because he's always wanted to go to the park. They were from California. 

His sister was so tickled when she found out that my name was Erika Hill. She kept saying your name is Erika Hill?!? And I said yes…I thought that she was making reference to the news reporter Erica Hill (no relation). Her dad approached and she told him, still laughing. Then she said…. My mom's name is Erica. Oh ok, I said. Cool!! She gets her mom and says, “Mom, this is Erika Hill “ and starts laughing. Her mom asks me if I knew why she was laughing. I told her because I have the same name as a news reporter. Her mom says, “No. She's laughing because before I married her dad I was going to marry someone who's last name was Hill!” We all busted out laughing!! 🤣🤣. She said, “Mom this could be you!! Erica Hill!!”. It was so funny!!

Me with the almost other Erica Hill.

Our group started heading back to the train and we had to walk thru the mall to get back to our hotel, so we decided to stay a little while. While in H&M I saw a young girl and I had some kids gifts with me, I said, “Wait! I have something for you! Do you like Hershey chocolate?” 

“Oh yes! I do!” 

“Well, I live near there. I have a pair of earrings shaped like chocolate bars.” She was so happy and so sweet. I asked if I could take a picture with her. She says, “yes!” I told her that I was asking your parents. She said, “they're going to say yes!” Her dad tried to get in the picture and she explained to him that the picture was to be of me and her!! 😆 

But I was able to sneak one in of the family as well!! ❤️

Gordon and I then stopped at my store again…yeaaa that's right, you guessed it! IKEA!! And as we were close to the register there was the check-out girl and I asked her a price and of course y'all know Gordon, he had to start picking with her!! 😆. Her name was Charlotte and she was so sweet. She was half Cuban and half Swedish. There in the store was a spiritual brother and sister from Columbia, South America, and Gordon started to explain to her why we were there in the country, not only us but this Columbian couple. He gave her an invite for the convention and then the brother gave her a JW.org card and showed her the QR code to get the website.

After she told us that she was part Cuban and that she still had family there, I asked how they were doing. She said not too good. She explained that she just shipped a large container to them with cereal and powdered milk and things like that.

She explained that her mother raised her to be very “Cuban” so she had a hard time at first fitting in Sweden. So she's had to learn to read the room, but she knew that she could be silly and full of energy with us. We gave her a hug, gave her our card to keep in touch and took a pic. ❤️

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Back to the hotel we go. We met my "Sweden Laila" at the hotel with her mom. She's so sweet! She wants to come to the States to live with me and Gordon because she thinks we're fun! 😆 Imagine that! 

We chatted with the sisters at the hotel before heading upstairs. Gordon got himself into another predicament!!😆😆😆. See what had happened was…I was trying to take a selfie...

And all of us couldn't fit...

So the one sister said I'll move to this side…

Next thing you know Gordon exclaimed, “you got my head in your armpit!!” We hollared!! It was too funny!!  He later told me that it felt like a suction cup!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Man!! That was too much!! Ok. I'm trying to keep it moving so that I can get caught up to the current day, but I need to get to bed for now.

I had so many more pictures to share with you but once again my app isn't cooperating! 🤦🏾

So thanks for reading and proofreading!! Until next time! Stay safe!! 😘