The personal and family histories of Mats and Veronika Ekelund are diverse, yet their lives are harmoniously woven together, as if some glorious pattern had been followed on a grand loom.
He is a convert, having been baptized at age 14 in Malmo, on Sweden's southern coast, and is still the sole Latter-day Saint on his side of the family. She grew up in Borlange, about 150 miles north of Stockholm, in an active Latter-day Saint family. Her parents, Gustav and Agnes Palm, were baptized just a couple of months before she was born. Her father, now a sealer in the Stockholm Sweden Temple, was a branch president and a district president during the years she was growing up. All her brothers and sisters are active in the Church.Mats Ekelund and Veronika Palm met in Denmark at the Church's 1970 Scandinavian Youth Conference. They became good friends and, Mats thought, they would date upon their return to Sweden. "For some strange reason, she avoided me for three years," he said. In late 1973, he asked her to dance at another youth conference in Stockholm. "She obviously didn't want to avoid me any more," he said. They were married in the Swiss Temple on June 9, 1974.
The efforts they made to get to the temple were indicative of the commitment they had to "marry in the right place." They had planned to marry in August. However, Veronika received a telephone call the first Tuesday in June, informing her that the Swiss Temple would be closed in August. She was told a temple excursion bus was leaving from Sweden in five days. She didn't see Mats until Thursday at 2 p.m., and thought Mats would not like the new schedule. They had about 28 hours to make all the arrangements to go to the temple. The arrangements included getting a license and being married in a government-required civil ceremony before they went to the temple to be sealed.
The temple and those who have put forth extra efforts to attend have been sources of inspiration to the Ekelunds. "When Veronika and I were a young married couple, we went on temple trips to the Swiss Temple," said Pres. Ekelund, president of the Eskilstuna Branch, which is located about 70 miles from their home in Handen.
"There was a sister who lived in Lulea, which is a day and a half's travel north of Stockholm. She would take the night train on Friday and travel half way down through Sweden to the city of Sundsvall, where she would stay overnight with members. She would then join a temple excursion group traveling by bus. This sister would travel all through Sweden, Denmark and Germany to arrive Monday night in Switzerland, just to participate in one afternoon session of baptisms for the dead. Her husband was not a member of the Church. At that time, she couldn't go through the temple. Seeing her make all that effort for just a little bit of the temple experience taught me about commitment. I saw that when you are committed and anxious to serve, there is nothing that can stop you from doing the Lord's work."
Pres. and Sister Ekelund have always felt close to the temple, whether traveling all the way to Switzerland in the early days of their marriage, or attending and serving regularly at the Stockholm Sweden Temple, which was dedicated in 1985 and which is just four miles from their home. The town where they live, Handen, about 15 miles south of Stockholm, has one of Scandinavia's highest-density LDS populations. Some of their neighbors are friends and many are Sister Ekelund's relatives, including her parents.
"When I was growing up, it was hard for me to not have friends and cousins who were members of the Church. I felt so alone," Sister Ekelund said. "My father told me to be patient, that one day I would have many friends in the Church. He said, `You have brothers and sisters, and they will have children so you will have many relatives in the Church.' Now, my brothers, sisters and I have among us 30 children, all active in the Church." The Ekelunds have three sons and a daughter: Glen, 21, who is on a full-time mission in Sweden; Johan, 18, a musician; Kristian, 16, an athlete; and Anna-Maria, 11, a horse enthusiast.
Pres. Ekelund said he was "kind of absorbed" into the Palm family. "I've learned a lot from being so close to a determined, dedicated family," he said. "I've seen the gospel work in everyday life in this family."
Church activity is part of the Ekelunds' lifestyle. An environmental economist, he travels frequently on business, mostly in Europe, but also "to the edges of the world." His work has taken him to 43 countries. Still, the gospel is a major focus in his life. In addition to being president of the Eskilstuna Branch, he has been since late 1994 a member of the Stockholm Sweden Stake high council. This is the third time he has served as a branch president. Sister Ekelund, now serving as Church Educational System Coordinator, has been a stake Relief Society president, an early-morning seminary teacher, institute teacher, Young Women president and Primary president.
About 10 years ago, they accepted a call to move to Gavle, where they served a leadership mission in a branch of the Church. He was branch president and she provided leadership and training in the auxiliary organizations for nearly a year.
"Being a Latter-day Saint in Sweden is an exciting experience," Pres. Ekelund said. "We have about 10,000 members in all of Sweden. We sort of look for each other when we travel; we know each other quite well. We have so many challenges and opportunities to live up to the words of President David O. McKay, `Every member a missionary.' "
Pres. Ekelund seemed genuinely thrilled to report that the first convert baptism in more than five years in the Eskilstuna Branch has been scheduled. "We had not had missionaries for 2 1/2 years," he said. "I told the mission president, `I know you're short on missionaries, but I can offer you a willing branch with a good spirit now.' The mission president called a couple of weeks later and told me if we could find an apartment by Saturday of that week he would send us missionaries. I called the branch Relief Society president and her husband and asked them to find an apartment. `Pray about it,' I said. `You need to find an apartment by tomorrow.' They found a perfect apartment, just like it was designed for missionaries. The missionaries don't go out knocking on doors. They spend their time teaching."
One afternoon, Pres. and Sister Ekelund took some time out of their schedules to show a visitor some sites of interest in LDS Church history. The route took them to a park near downtown Stockholm, Lill Jan Forest. Here, in this oasis surrounded by city traffic, Pres. Ekelund spoke about Sweden's rich and inspiring Latter-day Saint history. Somewhere in this forest, he said, early members held some of the first meetings of the Church in Sweden.
The impromptu tour then proceeded to a building on one of Stockholm's "old-town" side streets. The building served as an LDS meetinghouse from about 1903 until about 1974, when a new meetinghouse was built. Pres. Ekelund, a first-generation convert, speaks of Sweden's early LDS stalwarts as if they were his own ancestors.
"I met missionaries in Kalmar when I was 12," he said. "My family then moved to Malmo. When I was 14, the missionaries knocked on the door of my home. They didn't come on a referral; they were just out tracting. I recognized them as missionaries, and went in and got a Book of Mormon from a shelf and showed it to them. I had to blow the dust off it. I had read only a few verses, but after I had heard all the discussions I recognized something of value. The missionaries wouldn't baptize me without my parents' permission. My dad said to my mother, `Let him go. He'll be out of there in no time.'
"I was 14 then. I'm now 40. I'm still here. I'm a very fortunate man. I'm married to the sweetest of women. Veronika is from a strong family with a long tradition and an excellent record of faithfulness to the Lord. We have been blessed with wonderful children. All these blessings have come because of the gospel."