CHRISTMAS TORRI IN DOWNTOWN HELSINKI OFFICIALLY OPENED TODAY!

WELL, Christmas Officially began today in downtown Helsinki with the opening of the Christmas Torri! It is HUGE!! And there are so many wonderful 'wares'.

The crowds began to get bigger and bigger the longer we were there.

We 'found' some wonderful things in the shops!

This little Finnish girl was totally mesmerized with this kaleidoscope player. He was so good and added a lot of festivity to the event.

As we headed back to Espoo, we were happy to see the office buildings decked out with lots of Christmas lights in their windows.

It was a very, very fun morning in downtown. We had to come back early because I had a hair appointment. Maybe we will go back next Monday again....spend the day, use our hand and toe warmers we got from the Monocacy Ward YM / YW.

WEEKEND TRIP TO MIKKELI

We had been invited to come to Mikkeli to visit a long-lost contact that Wayne had from 45 years ago......Marketta. Found her through the Ojala's! With this trip having been planned several weeks ago, President Haikkola gave us permission to use the Chrysler mission van. We left after the temple on Saturday and arrived Saturday evening in time to have a fun evening with everyone!

I LOVE Sisar Ojala's stove....traditional german style stove! In Finland!! Go figure.

This is Veli ja Sisar Ojala with Marketta. It was fun for Wayne to catch up on what she has been doing these past 45 years. And to find out she is still active.......he was glad to see that. Wayne actually taught the Gospel to her former husband and he was baptized.

Sisar Ojala decided we should all load up and head to the Christmas Market in downtown Mikkeli! It was soooo fun. They were open until 12:00 midnight that particular night.

We found a lot of fun things.......didn't buy much but it was fun to be out and about in the local culture!

Loved the candles. The Finns love their candles too. They are everywhere!!

We stayed in the Cumulus Hotel in downtown Mikkeli. The view of the big local Lutheran church from our window on the 3rd floor was just pretty in the morning.....foggy and all! It snowed a little dusting during the night.

The Hotelli must have had a gingerbread contest recently because there were 8 'winners' from the contest. These are displayed in the restaurant area of the Hotelli.

This sweet young lady was my intrepeter at the Mikkeli Branch on Sunday. She was very good. I gave her a little round Helsinki Temple picture that I made. I had an 'extra' one with me just in case. I usually take one along for occasions like this! I usually find someone to give it too.

The Sunday Sacrament Meeting was actually the Primary Program! They had put it off until now because there had been so much sickness in the Branch. We were so lucky that we could be there for it. The Primary did a WONDERFUL job!! Mervi Multamaki is the Primary President. Her little girl, Leea (pictured here with Wayne and Mervi) had a little accident as they were headed to Primary after Sacrament Meeting. She fell and cut the back of her head. It was bleeding quite heavily. Mervi ran and got Wayne and he took care of her. Got her all bandaged up. She was as good as new. After church and lunch with the Ojala's we headed to the Multamaki's home to take a few gifts to them and check on Leea's head. The wound was all better but wanted to keep the bandage on 'because'!

Because Sunday, December 6th is Finnish Independence Day, all Finns were suppose to put candles in their windows and burn them. We were driving home from Mikkeli and wanted to make sure we got our candles a burning! There they are......with the nativity and temple in the background. What a wonderful day. Lots of highlights ....... actually EVERYTHING we did and saw! We love being here in Finland. It may be a bit hard to go home in a year!! Maybe we can get an

extension??? :-)

HEADED TO MIKKELI ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON!!

We have been looking for a gal that Wayne knew 45 years ago!! We have heard where she might be! Through some mutual friends from the temple, the Ojala's, we have found her!!! Yeah! We are so excited. She married a convert that Wayne was instrumental in teaching all those many years ago.

The Ojala's have invited us to come see them and have her there. We will leave as soon as we finish working in the Temple tomorrow afternoon (Saturday). We will go to the Mikkeli Ward on Sunday and then head home in the afternoon / evening. It will be a fun weekend. We will report when we get home!! Have a great weekend! (We will NOT be taking our computer with us.....just my iphone!)

CHRISTMAS MARKET IN DOWNTON HELSINKI TODAY!!

We had heard about the Christmas Market opening this week in an old warehouse near the Harbor. Sisar Vorimo gave us good directions of where it was and the Groberg's decided they wanted to go with us! Done deal.....we were off this morning at about 9:00 a.m. to catch a bus, then a trolley and transfer to yet a 2nd trolley.....then we were there!! As we were walking to the bus stop by the temple, we couldn't help but notice the heavy frost on the ground. It looked more like snow. It was a whopping 27 degrees. A bit nippy!

When we finally arrived at the Torri, we were so excited to finally get to go to one. This is Sisar Groberg and I at the front entrance!

It didn't take us long to find a 'find'.......a handmade nativity set by this sweet Finnish lady. There were 18 pieces to the set and it really was quite amazing. We each bought a set. I had been looking for a Finnish nativity set that was unique! This fit the bill!! This gal was so thrilled that she just sold 2 of them.....she gave each of us an 'extra' sheep to go with out set that already had 3 in it!! :-)

Good eye honey!! I have been looking for a 'graduated wood bead necklace' made by local Finns. Wayne found one and this is the lady who made them!! I really love it.....adjustable and all AND a matching necklace! Merry Christmas!!

These next couple of pictures may just give you a good idea of the vastness of the event. It was just huge and kept going on and on and on and on.........

well......you get the idea! It was just so fun. Our time was up and we headed back to the asuntola by way of the same 2 trolleys and bus!

Made it back with 10 minutes to spare.....that is enough time to change clothes and get up to the temple for our afternoon and evening shift! And you know what........that same frost was on the ground as when we left. The sun is now going down and it is about 1:45 p.m.!

KIITOS PALJON for a great day!!

RUSSIAN CHRISTMAS CARD and Dental Floss!!

So this week at the temple is Single Adults from Finland and Russia. The asuntola if completely booked. More women than men though, about 4 women to 1 man. That seems to be the norm. One of the Russian gals brought us a Christmas Card and Candy bar from the Vasilajev's.....the Temple Missionary couple that left back in October. How fun to have that as our first Christmas Card this year so far.

And then, just a little interesting tidbit about a purchase we made today......Dental Floss!! Yes, Dental Floss. We bought some at the apteekki because we actually saw some.....haven't seen it before today! It was the Oral B brand....costing 4 euro 55!! That would equate to about $7.50 in US money. Then, wouldn't you know it, we found some more dental floss at Lidl!! We decided to buy it and try it out just to see what it was like. The cost for it? 1 euro 45......a whole lot cheaper and it has more floss in the container!

SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS AND PICTURES!!

SO, Thursday morning we decided to walk to Lidl to pick up a couple of things and walk to the Posti and mail a couple of cards. We are on the afternoon shift and we decided to take that walk. Get out and enjoy the 'beautiful' weather....the sun was somewhere 'shining'. Don't know how long this weather will last so we better take advantage of it!

The 1st picture of the temple was taken at midnight again.....sorry, there was a full moon and we haven't seen that for a while! Thought I best get a picture in case it disappears again!

And then at about 8:30 a.m. I noticed just how dark it still was....the outside lights on the asuntola and the temple and the nativity are still on. They don't go off until about 9:30 - 10:00 a.m. nowadays! The longest, darkest day of the year is December 21st. Can't wait to see what that is like!

We had several interesting 'things' as we were taking our walk:

1) we have seen thee busses with EMMA on the side and we were trying to figure out what they were advertising. I thought maybe it was a movie about Emma Smith!! Go figure! Actually the EMMA stands for 'Espoo Museum of Modern Art'....clever huh! It might be a nice place to go see.

And then as were walking from the Posti to Lidl I looked up and saw this 'cloud formation'! I mentioned that it looked like the Northern Lights we had seen in Lapland in Inari back in September.....only during the daytime. Do you think that would be possible? I have to wonder. I think it was!!! :-)

DARKNESS, DARKNESS, DARKNESS......

Just could not resist yet another picture of the temple.....You have to admit that this is a fun one......from the Christmas lights in our window follow on to the Christmas Nativity Scene and your eyes ending on the Temple! We just can not get enough of this! We will soooooo miss it when we have to go home next year! The amazing thing to us is just how dark it really gets here now!! This picture was taken at about 9:00 am. Still dark enough the outside lights are on. And even in the middle of the day, say around noon, it is still quite dark. Cars drive with their headlights on all day long! It may just be a longgggg winter!!

So, at our FHE last night with the other temple missionaries, Sisar Haikkola reminded us that we need to be taking our Vitamin D tablets several times a day. We actually bought this bottle last month and started taking them. It has the Vitamin D and Calcium! We need to keep those bones strong!! This bottle will last us about a month and the cost of 18 euros.....that would be about $27 in US money. Well, what is a senior missionary to do!