Our Weekend Trip to Mantyharu!!

Forty-five years ago, when Wayne was serving here as a young missionary, he taught a family by the name of Mulkamaki. They were baptized one week after he was transferred. Sister Mulkamaki well remembered the young Veli Allgaier! We were very excited to see her after all of these years! Her husband passed away in July 2008. Too bad he was not still alive so Wayne could have seen him as well. Here is a picture of Sisar Multamaki as we arrived at her home. (Her home is actually on the grounds of her young son and his family. Makes it v

ery convenient for them to look after 'grandma' and still let her have her

independence! And be close to some of her 25 grandchildren!)

Here is a picture of her youngest son, Laurri, and his wife, Mervi,

and their 3 children. They are such a sweet family!

Wayne was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting in the Mikkeli Ward on Sunday. It is about a 30 minute drive from their home. We both spoke in Primary about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy and how that can strengthen our families if we do. It was fun to be in their ward!

On Sunday afternoon Mervi and Eelis (their youngest son) took Wayne and I on a walk in the woods along the lake and on the ridge to pick some berries! It was a beautiful walk and a beautiful view of the lake!

I have to include the importance of these 'ridges' along the lake. When Russia had control of Finland they somehow knew the German's were going to invade. They made the Finns dig these huge trenches along the lakes so the German's could not invade. If you could see all of the rock and how huge they are, you could realize that this was no small task! There are many, many, many of these trenches that had been dug. There is a map that shows how many miles of trenches had been dug.

And then it was Sunday evening and time to take us back to the Mantyharu Train Station so we could head back to Espoo!! What a wonderful 'weekend'......all 30 hours of it! Both Sisar Multamaki's took us to the train station. We look forward to going back again!! Thank you Multamaki's for a wonderful mission memory....both from 45 years ago and from 2009!!