Time Moves Fast!

Beautiful birch trees...These trees are everywhere.

We have been here in Finland for the three months!  What a country...of beauty and diversity.  We have had some wonderful highlights this past month with baptisms and helping to teach four investigators. The weather is turning cold and we are now wearing our winter coats, scarves, gloves and hats.  We are told that this is a very mild fall.  Last year at this time, there was snow on the ground several inches deep.

Where has the past month gone? It has sped by.  We have been super busy here.  L.ife for us has settled into a somewhat predictable routine.  We get up anywhere from 4:00am-6:30am, leave for the office at 8:00am, arrive at the office by 8:45am-9:00am depending on traffic, work until about 1:00pm then eat lunch.  Leave the office between 5:00pm and 6:00pm.  Come home and eat dinner, work on our computers or I read mostly. Grandpa Finland brings a lot of work home from the office.  We usually do our laundry on Mondays and Tuesdays. We try to attend the temple every week on Friday evenings. Even though we have a somewhat routine schedule our challenges this month have not been routine.

Just after we posted last time I had an accident.  I woke up in the morning came out to the living room and said, "Good morning..." which was the last good thing that morning.  As I went to walk into the kitchen for a drink, I hit my foot on the door trim while walking full stride.  Crunch! Yup!  Grandpa says, "Didn't you see the four foot opening?" No sympathy there...Here is photo of the culprit that changed my life for this past month.

Sharp and ugly!  Believe I broke my toe and really bruised the foot as well.  What a pain!  Literally...didn't slow me down to much...I just hobbled everywhere for a month.  Feels better now, still tender...no foot rubs for awhile still.

We found an apartment for a senior couple arriving on the 12th of November.  We looked at five different apartments and found a great one.  Then the work of furnishing it began.  We had so much fun.  I developed a blister putting together IKEA furniture.  We only bought a few things and had a lot of furniture from our storage to contribute to the whole thing.  It turned out super!  We pick them up today and they will be in charge of the Helisinki Young Adult Center.

We walked (and hobbled) to the bank one day and took these photos of downtown Helsinki on a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon.

Taking time to smell the flowers...roses!

Famous Finnish Restaurant

Wedding Photos made us reminise... 

International BANK!
See the stars and stripes...

 We had another birthday party for one of the sisters we serve with.  It was fun and the food was marvelous.  Cooking here in Finland is with the metric system so it can be a challenge!

                                       

Homemade rolls and I made the cake!  This pan fits in the whole oven and slides in like the rack might...

We went to dinner at a Finnish home.  The people live in our ward here and went to America and stayed in our home while touring the area.  They loved their time there!  They saw the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and had a wonderful time.  They visited family in Salt Lake and took in Conference.  From this kind sister I learned how to make Salmon Soup, the Finnish way, and also a very popular Finnish dessert, Rahka.  It has whipping cream and rahka (which cannot be bought in America and is somewhere between a cream cheese and yogurt).  I have since made both for our own company and they were delicious!  Finland has so many breads and so many cheeses.  It is quite delightful!

We found an unbelievable FLEA MARKET!  Forgot to take photos, but I will next time.  It is a hockey arena, huge place, where people (like you and I) bring their stuff and sell them.  You could call it a big garage sale, all in one place.  Each person has their own tables.  The Market spans the entire arena, just to see what is there takes hours.  We had so much fun!  All the prices were rock bottom prices.  Many of the items were brand new with tags still on.

A blessing that came our way was discovering that we could live-stream our favorite radio channel from back home:  KMGR  We especially love the "Sounds of Sunday" programming all day every Sunday!  It's worth checking out...

Fall wrapped up so beautifully here...colored leaves and sunny days. Now it is already getting completely dark by 4:00pm in the afternoon.  Seems so strange...  Finnish people love Christmas and they have no Thanksgiving holiday so they have already begun to decorate everywhere!  It is exciting to see and we will be posting some wonderful photos of the store windows and their magnificent decorations.

We took a drive to Sipoo to teach an investigator and it was a beautiful change from the city.

Granite rises up out of the earth...I find it breathtakingly beautiful!

 Two more Language Trainings...missionaries come to Helsinki for training at 6 weeks into their missions and at 6 months into their missions.  They come in groups and have language (Soumi) proficiency training for an entire day.  We, the office staff, provide a home cooked lunch for them.  It is hard work, but we love it!

Welcomed seven new missionaries!

Said goodbye to nine!  

Our President and his lovely wife hosted a farewell dinner of delicious Finnish food, all home cooked by her.  She has amazing culinary skills!

Fun photos of the mission home where the President and his wife live. This is the basement set up to accommodate in-coming missionaries.  They will stay here over night, at least, be interviewed by the President and then sent by inspiration to serve throughout Finland.  Trainers who have already been chosen will have arrived in Helsinki to meet the new Elders or Sisters and become their new companions. Sometimes the trainers sleep at the Mission Office.  Change week is a big and busy time!

 

All of these are photos at a baptism...some photos of members, investigators who are always invited, refreshments provided by the ward and ward mission leaders.  Of course, Elders who performed the baptism interview and the baptism.  Confirmations are performed in the ward meetings on the Sunday following baptism.  Baptisms are so special; the spirit of love is present!

Here is a little story that brought laughter to us in our travels to and fro.  One Friday evening after attending the temple, we were hungry and wanted to stop for a sandwich.  We passed a sign and I said to all..."Oh, Oh! McDonald's is only 1.5km down the road.  Well, we drove a bit and it felt farther than 1.5km so all the way everyone, Grandpa Finland and the two sisters, laughed and teased Grandma Finland all the way that I saw a sign advertising McDonald's and it must have read - 1.5 Euros, NOT km.  I told them it did so, but they were merciless and Grandpa Finland never let up...he even took this photo of the sign at McDonalds. AWK!

The teasing went on for days and days...whenever I would say something, point out something, someone would be so kind as to remind me that "my vision was not what it used to be" or "are you sure that is right?  You know you see things differently than they really are."  It was a source of laughter for all...

Well, here is the rest of the story.  The last time we were at the temple we had occasion to drive home again that same way.  AND, here is the sign that I saw...

A, Ha!  There were heart felt apologies all around and now it was Grandma Finland's turn to laugh!  Don't let others laughter or fun making let you doubt what you know you saw or felt in your heart!  I never backed down from what I knew I had seen...let's always stand as witnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ in all places and at all times, no matter who may ridicule.  Fun story for me to tell, but a life lesson to live!  (As an addendum to this story, I would like to add a link to the profile that our oldest grandchild wrote. We love her so...She is an example to us all!  Raye Elizabeth )

Okay, time to wrap up this entry...it has been a modge-podge of information. We are feeling the effects of being so far from family and friends.  We are lonesome for the feel of our grand kids kisses and hugs.  We miss the laughter and smiles of our adult children.  We work hard and get so tired out!  But, we love the Lord and His gospel...it is such a wonderful feeling to know that we are serving Him and helping His work to go forth to those who seek after His happiness and peace.

We will be having a Thanksgiving dinner for all who reside in the mission home zone...twenty missionaries, office staff of five and the President and his wife.  There will be twenty seven of us!  We will play games, eat lots of good food and reminisce about our forever families that we miss everyday.  We will listen to the miraculous stories of conversion and change. Elder France (Grandpa Finland) will play billards and fuseball.  He's a champ at that!  We will watch Mr. Krueger's Christmas and be filled with thanksgiving for the Lord's blessings upon us.

A Christmas trip is planned in December.  Guess where we are going?  We are going north to visit the home of Santa Claus.  You knew he lives in Finland, right?  Yes!

May your month be wonderful as you gather for your Thanksgiving celebrations.

Know that we are grateful for each of you, more than you can ever know.  

I want to share in parting something my sister shared with us.  She is doing better now and is rehabilitating in preparations for going home.  Thank you to all who prayed for her!

And who can say there is no God ???
Fascinating, I've never given most of this a thought!!!!
God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.

For example:
-the eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
-those of the canary in 14 days;
-those of the barnyard hen in 21 days;
-The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days;
-those of the mallard in 35 days;
-The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
(Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week!)
God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant... The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs... For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.
The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first. How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!
God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.
-Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind.
-Each orange has an even number of segments.
-Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
-Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
-Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.
-The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.
All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold - all even numbers.
God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!

The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only the One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a profitable end.  Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can arrange the life that is entrusted to His care in such a way that it will carry out His purposes and plans, and will be fragrant with His presence. Only the God-planned safe life is successful. Only the life given over to the care of the Lord is fulfilled.

  

   

Love and prayers to you and yours!

Work! Worry! Wonderful!

Who can guess what this is? Everyone guess...we will put the answer at the end of the blog.
Let me know who guesses right!

Hello again! Has it really been three weeks since our last blog update?  We have been working and working and working.  We are trying to catch up with what needs to be done and we are beginning to know what to do.  We stay late at the office when necessary and worked Saturday.  We have had a few challenging mistakes, which of course, challenges attitude and perspective. But, we are remaining diligent and determined!

It has also been weeks of worry and prayer concerning my older sister who had heart surgery.  She is doing better, but has been and still is in ICU.  Her family, goodness, special ways and my favorite memories have been on our minds daily.

We have had some very special spiritual experiences with missionary work and the power of prayer. We have had several opportunities to go to "teachs" with the young elders and sisters.  Those have been interesting and enlightening.  These young people know how to love investigators with open hearts and minds. We attended a baptism for a gentleman from the Congo who has made Finland his home for the past 14 years.  It is Conference week end and watching it at our chapel has been great.  I especially appreciated a talk that one of our leaders gave for the women of our church.  Forget Me Not  It is funny and gives some amazing advice applicable for all christian women.  He is such a fine speaker!

Last Blog entry I mentioned the street signs,
but I neglected to give you examples.
Here's how they are on 99% of the streets.

You can't see them? Nope, neither can we.
These are not helpful when driving!

I want to share a few photos now of some of the architecture of the buildings.

It is beautiful and unusual!

First, here is a photo taken off our balcony...notice the date on the building itself...1907.  

The building and those around our office are very old buildings.  This one is 104 years old!

Sometimes we go out on the balcony to take a breath of fresh air and look down to the sea.  

Fountain in center of town...

 

This is where the President of Finland does business...see the soldier guarding the entrance!    

He stands very still all day...but he is alive!

It has turned fall here very quickly and the leaves are all turning red. 

We are wearing coats and the wind has a chill in it foretelling that winter is around the corner.

This is the entrance to a beautiful park in downtown Helsinki.

At the temple grounds...

This is a tree near our home, but I know the photo does not do the color change justice.
It was beautiful with the sunlight beaming through.

We go to the Sports park each week and thought we would share a few photos taken there outside.

Entrance to the Sports Park...
there are beautiful birch trees all over  Finland.
Ikea uses their excellent lumber to build some of their furniture.
Finland does a wonderful job of managing their forests
...always planting  new trees whenever they cut them down.
Consequently, lumber is one of Finland's best exports.

The last time we went to swim we were not able to swim, again.  More competitions going on!

However, this time it was local youth competitions.  Swimming...which we loved watching and 

another new sport we had never seen before called "European Team Handball". 

Team Handball

It was so fascinating and such a fun sport! We watched some amazing young women athletes compete.

There are several of these fields at the Sports Park.
 Look along the sides how they fix them so that the fans can sit and watch.
 It works almost like bleachers... 

This is instructions on how to do exercises on the outdoor equipment  provided.
The Finnish people generally are very health conscious concerning their diet and exercise!
 There is a terrible problem with their young people smoking that they are trying to thwart.

This photo above is for the Grandkids to see!  Remember what we had on our vacation shirts?

You are are in our thoughts every day...

Remember this funny photo!
Thanks for the heart back there..we love ALL your funny faces!

This photo shows a sailboat race...it was fast and furious!
In each boat is a young person trying to finish the race as a winner...hey, just like each of us!

Did you make your guess about the first photo?  

Here's a hint photo...the machine is at the grocery store.  

See Grandma packing up our groceries.  

In Finland you pack all your own groceries and 

you bring your own bags or you can pay .17 Euros per bag.  

We save our bags, take them each time and reuse them. 

Finland is very big on recycling everything!

  

All our garbage at our apartment has to be sorted and placed in its appropriate bin.  

Grandpa had to pay someone in Kanab so that he could recycle.  Here everyone does it!

Okay...here's the answer:  It is a Bottle Recycling machine.

You put your bottles (glass or plastic) in the hole and the machine tallies what you have put in.  

Then it gives you a credit slip to use inside the grocery store...

sort of like when we used to get money for collecting pop bottles. 

Thanks for reading our blog...it is fun for us to do.  We have some fun ideas for upcoming blogs:

"Churches of Finland"  - "Cruise to Sweden" - "Soumenlinna" 

We love your emails keeping us up to date on what's going on.  

Thank you especially to you Grandchildren for your fun messages!

Keep them coming, we need them to keep 

Mr. Lonesome monster away!

Signing off for now...

Love to all!