Let me introduce you to MERJA and her family!

I have seen Marja before at the temple. Several times in fact. I wasn't sure what her name was or where she lives but she has an infectious smile and always seemed friendly enough! I didn't realize what her friendship would mean to me when I first saw her. Let me back up a minute.....

Several days ago we got an e-mail from Becky. She is serving as the Relief Society President in her ward in Arizona. It was a 'shot in the dark' but there was a sweet sister in her ward who was dying and she has family here in Finland. Not quite sure how close either of the sisters would be to where we live here in Espoo. Would we be able to see what we could find out. Within a matter of hours we had located one of the sisters......right here in Espoo and not far at all from where we live!!

We had arranged a month ago to attend the Espoo 2nd Ward today.......just 'happened' to be

the ward that one of the sisters is in.....Merja. I was looking forward to 'finding' her on Sunday. However, on Saturday while working in the temple, Sisar Haikkola, temple matron, pointed to a sister and said....'That is Merja, the gal you are looking for!' I totally recognized her but just didn't know her name.

There was an instant bond between the two of us. I told her who I was and told her why I was looking for her......that our daughter was her sister's R.S. President in Arizona. Becky wanted her to know that her sister was being well taken care of so very far away from her here in Finland.

The plan was to talk with Merja more at church today and find out what travel plans to the states would be for she and her other sister, in Turku.

As we were leaving for church this morning, we got an e-mail from Becky letting us know that the sister had passed away last night, Saturday night, Arizona time! When I saw Merja at church this morning, I was able to tell her that important information. She had not even found that out yet.

The plans had changed for her in a matter of minutes. Instead of just she and her sister going, it would also be her husband and 17 year old son that would leave early on Tuesday morning. I was able to get a picture of Merja with me before she left church.

And a family picture to send to Becky and David. They have offered to have them stay in their home for the couple of days they will be in Peoria.

What a blessing to have the spirit whisper little promptings to us and for us to be willing to listen to those promptings! It has been amazing to be a part of this little 'miracle' unfold before my very eyes! It has certainly strengthened my testimony that the Lord knows each one of us and is looking out for each one of us! He puts people in place to take care of the things....big and small......that are important to us!

Merja and her family will have quite a reunion when all of her family, spread out all over the US, once they get there. And I am sure her sister, Hannele, will be there as well!! :-)

TEMPLE MISSIONARY AND OFFICE STAFF

CHRISTMAS PARTY

The Haaga Ward Christmas Party was tonight but we missed it. The Temple Missionary and Office Staff party was already scheduled for tonight. That was where we needed to be. It was held at the Vorimo's home. It was so much fun. SO....I couldn't decide which ones to post. Just too many fun ones to pick from......I did get it down to just 10!

Ronda Groberg and I are always being called by the other person's name. I don't know why everyone is always getting us confused!! We call ourselves the 'temple twins'! Sisar Haikkola is standing with us.....the Temple Matron.

Line up for the most delicious food ever!! And we didn't have to fix any of it!

We all had to 'sing' for our dessert. Here are the Russian and Lithuanian couple singing for theirs. They are just the cutest things ever!!

It must have been a 'good one'!!...............

And maybe it was Dad trying to figure out the right 'keys' to play Jingle Bells on his little recorder. Sisar Groberg also played her recorder with dad. How fun!!

So it was the American's turn to sing for our dessert!! JINGLE BELLS it was!!

Veli Zaretskie was so anxious to sing O' Tanenbaum with Sisar Haikkola! It was so cute!

And then it was everyone's turn to sing for their dessert!! Just plain FUN!!

The Vorimo's in a little bit of a relaxing mode!! They worked so very hard putting everything together for all of us!

After we all had our dessert Veli Vormio (who has a beautiful singing voice by the way) and Dad decided they wanted to sing a couple more Finnish Christmas songs. It was just so much fun.

DESPERATE TIMES!!!

We just didn't have a lot of extra time this week to walk to Lidl's to pick up milk or bread. We normally need to do that at some point during the week.

SO.....Friday night when we finished at the temple, we were desperate and had NO MILK at that point!! NOT GOOD!

PROOF OF OUR EMPTY MILK SHELF!!!

It was OFF to Sello (in the mission car) and get a couple of things. We didn't even stop for dinner until we got back home. And for dinner we picked up a 'roaster chicken' to eat on! Not fancy but good considering I didn't have to cook!

And, as we got home, the snow was gently falling. It just looked so pretty. I know I haven't posted a temple picture lately, and you have been missing those, so, here ya go.......another beautiful night shot! OH, SO PRETTY!!

The WEEK PROGRESSES.......and it is Friday already!

I am never quite sure how we get to Friday so quickly each week, but it happens! Somehow! I wanted to share a picture that little Kristyn Marie Allgaier sent in our package from the Monocacy Ward YM / YW that arrived this week. It was just the cutest little thing! KIITOS PALJON KRISTYN! We will be writing back to you and will take it to the Posti on Monday when we are 'out ad about' in Helsinki for P-Day.

The mail system is a bit different here in Finland: NO Saturday deliveries, not many 'drop boxes' where you can just put your mail for pick-up, most of the time we have to take out mail directly to the Posti so they can put the stamps on it for us.......because we don't know how much postage things will cost to mail! The posti men/women NEVER pick up outgoing mail when they deliver mail!! That is different. At home in America, if a mailman drops mail off at an office (for instance), they will take outgoing mail with them. No, NOT here......you have to take it to the Posti yourself!

Well, Kristyn Marie....we will be taking your return letter to the Posti in downtown Helsinki on Monday to mail. That is a long-g-g-g-g answer to when you can get a letter back from grandma and grandpa Allgaier!! :-) Sorry, sweetie, but it will be there eventually! We love you....Kiitos for writing to us!

The saints from St. Petersburg, Russia will be departing tomorrow! They, of course, are sad about that. They want to stay. Hopefully we will get to see some of them in another 6 months.

Next week: Tampere Stake.....looking forward to having some familiar Finnish faces return!

JARI SARI came by today to bring more Temple Jewelry. While he was here be decided he needed to put an 'ornament' on our Christmas tree on our apartment door. He thought the tree was just the coolest thing....couldn't believe that I had made it all by hand! He picked an angel......he said he loves angels! Perfect 'pick' for him.

Above, Jari is placing his Angel on the tree! He loved doing this!

And, in case you missed it earlier, the temple jewelry are very nice temple pins, pendants, tie bars, necklaces that Jari has made. Jari is not a member of the church but brought the idea to the Luthy's about a year or so ago. It wasn't until we got here that this came to fruition. We have been asked by the Luthy's to 'oversee' this little jewelry thing in the Distribution Center downstairs. We have had a lot of fun doing this! A picture of one of the pins is above.

THEN......AND NOW!!!!!

Anastasia's back from Russia!! Back in June, 2009, she was here with her family from Moscow. She was such a cute little thing. Sh was 12 years old then. Below is a picture of her drawing a picture for us.

Also in June she showed us on a map where she lives. The young guy with her shows where he came from with his family!

When the St. Petersburg group arrived yesterday we saw her and her parents right away. How fun to have them back! We could tell how much taller she had gotten. She had a cute little haircut and seemed a little less shy! She is growing up before our very eyes! We found out that today was her birthday.....13 years old she is! We just had to give her a little gift. She was so pleased.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANASTASIA!! :-)

CHRISTMAS PACKAGE FROM MONOCACY WARD

YM / YW!!!

KIITOS PALJON young men and young women from our home ward!! You are so sweet to remember us at this time of the year!!

How fun to come home and find a package from you! So many fun things in our package! PEANUT BUTTER (a really BIG container......we were breathing our last bites from our current jar), large containers of HAND LOTION....yeah....breathing our last bites of that too!!, CANDY, and lots of great kinds, SNACK BARS which will come in handy on our long days in the temple. With no cafeteria we need to take things with us to munch on....these will be perfect; DRYER SHEETS.....they just don't exist here and we live by them; wooden round hoops for my temple cross stitch pictures......I was about to run out of those!; a present wrapped up that we have put under our Christmas tree (even though the tree is only about 20 inches high), chili mix, taco mix and so much more!!! KIITOS PALJON!!! :-)