Mission Preparation

On April 26, 2011 we received our mission call to Helsinki, Finland! We joined family on Skype and shared the opening. All were excited to hear where we were going! Daylen, Jimmy's son, won the family guessing contest sponsored by Grandpa and Grandma. He guessed "Russia" winning him $100.

Preparations began immediately! We were encouraged to begin language training and met with a tutor on Skype three days a week. The Finnish language is difficult, but very beautiful! We found a virtual tour of the office in Helsinki. (Please check out the link on the side of this page. It was posted by a visitor to the mission office.)  As you can see we also found a few photos of the street where the office is on Google Earth. As you can see from the photos we are very near the sea.

We had shots, purchased new luggage, put Passports and paperwork in order and worked to get our home in order. With the amazing help of our daughter, Betty and her husband Jeremy, we decided to open our home for vacation rental while we were away through an international website VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner). Time passed quickly!

We had our farewell weekend on July 16th. Our fellow La Estancia residents threw us a farewell at the Clubhouse which was delightful! We spoke in church on Sunday. Thank you again to those who traveled so far to share with us. We were set apart by our Stake President, Robert Johnson. Thank you daughters for helping us pack. The night before we left this beautiful double rainbow appeared!  Magnificent...

Monday morning, 18th July, we flew out of St. George to Salt Lake City. We were shuttled to the Missionary Training Center and our adventure began!

We have been here now for one week and it has been a busy week. We have been studying and learning every day. Next week we begin our office training.