BY BUS AND TRAIN AND TROLLEY.....

WE HEADED TO DOWNTOWN HELSINKI

FOR PREPARATION DAY TODAY

With Kent and Barbara Michie (the new Temple Missionary Couple)

It was quite an overcast and foggy and drizzly day today but decided that is FINLAND and we just go anyway!! Such is life here!

As we headed out the gate we saw President Haikkola walking 'his' dog so we decided to take advantage of the FOTO OP! Kiitos President Haikkola. And a cute dog too.

The TORI.....all socked in with fog.

We walked over to the RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH across the street from the Tori....you can barely see it in the background....look really, really hard.

Barbara and I 'FOUND' spring today......we knew it was out there somewhere. And sure enough!

A little better picture of the RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH....still fogged in though.

This cute reindeer is outside the Russian/Finnish souvenir shop across from the BIG WHITE CHURCH.

We found out today that TOURIST SEASON officially began this week.....we actually heard the CRUISE SHIP WHISTLE blowing while we were having lunch at the TORI!! Fun.....

We did a little shopping in STOCKMAN'S DEPARTMENT STORE. The guys were tired and decided to 'have a seat' and wait it out! Good sports that they are....

Fun day today!

ÄITIENPÄIVÄ

in Finland......

Yes, Sunday was MOTHER'S DAY here in Finland. I think it was around the world. Wayne did a GREAT job with making it a great day for me!! I am not quite sure how he 'pulled it off' because we are always together!! But, he DID!!

I woke up to beautiful red roses, a beautiful new Finnish-made pin (I love pins!) and TWO Mother's Day Cards.....one from Wayne and one that Wayne picked out from all of our children.....in Finnish, of course.

How FUN it was.....all day long. And we got to SKYPE with most of the kids as well. I heard from almost all of them.

We went to church in the HÄMEENLINNA BRANCH today. With the Peciulius and Michie's. While there, I had made and delivered a BOOKMARK to Sisar Hannele Pöystilä. She is a friend of the Grobergs who had been inactive for 31 years!! Yes, 31 years. She recently (in fact earlier this year) came back to church. She is now preparing to come to the temple later in the year. Very deserving of a bookmark don't ya think!! :-)

The Peciulius both spoke in Sacrament Meeting. With a little time left, Veli Michie was asked to bear his testimony, which he did. And Barbara was asked to give the closing prayer, which she did in English. Very sweet meeting. And now the Michie's have a speaking assignment there on July 11th!! We spoke there a few weeks ago.

In the evening we were invited over to the Michie's for dessert. It was fun. I had made Barbara a bookmark, so of course that meant a picture!

The Groberg's joined us as well. A fun little bit of 'hang out time' for the ending of a great day.

WRAP UP......

YEKATERINBURG JA

HELSINKI VIIKKO

It has been a very good week with a lot of great people from both YEKATERINBURG and HELSINKI STAKE. The wonderful people that we have come to know and love will not be back again. The Kiev Ukraine Temple will be dedicated on August 29th. How sad that we won't get to see them again! :-(

Sisar Pokidko was here with her son. Her son, Oleg, just loved talking with Wayne and 'practicing his English'! They became best 'buds'!!

Here is a group picture taken on Friday night after their Testimony Meeting. President Haikkola is in the middle, front row.

Came home a couple of days ago to an INVITATION to an upcoming SCRAPBOOKING EVENT to be held while Becky and David are here. Becky is going to be a 'guest' at this event.

It looks like it will be a great event!!

Tonight we went to the HAAGA WARD 50TH BIRTHDAY PARTY event. It was truly decked out like a real party.....beginning at the front door. Lots of balloons ....... some folks really worked hard in making this a great event.

This sweet little Sisar, Irja Haikonen, was baptized just one year ago. She is 80-something. Just as spry as they come. She came to the temple this week for her own endowment. I made her a bookmark, of course! She really liked it.......'kaunis', she said!

A little look at the inside of the party!

'OUR' RUSSIAN MISSIONARY....

You may have 'met' Margareta Ledneva before. She is from Russia. We first met Margareta back last summer 2009 when we arrived here in Finland. She would come with the youth from Russia who would do baptisms. She, in fact, came several times. Recently she came to receive her own endowments. You see, she decided she wanted to serve a mission. She got her mission call to serve in the Samara Russian Mission.

When we asked her what she still needed for her mission, she replied she still needed a few more clothes. We were more than happy to help her out......she came to the arrived at 3 a.m. this morning here at the asuntola. And she was on the 9:00 a.m. session! With only one hour of sleep she was anxious to get going to the temple! We met her at the Distribution Center (located here in the asuntola) on her lunch break.

We thought the back-drop of beautifully planted pansies was the perfect place. She is a great young lady and will make a wonderful missionary!

LITTLE UPDATE......TUESDAY

Since last I wrote, Sunday into P-Day, there has been great PROGRESS on the landscaping on the Temple Grounds. You can see below the beautiful flowers that are being planted. Can't wait for the final product! They are soo pretty, healthy and will only be in the ground for about one month. All that hard work!! Then a different kind of flower will be planted for the 'summer'!

YEKATERINBURG RUSSIA WEEK (in addition to Helsinki Stake Week). Unfortunately, this will probably be the LAST trip to the Helsinki Finland trip for these great people because the Kiev, Ukraine Temple will be dedicated the last of August! All of these folks will be going there. We will miss them so much. We may have to serve a Temple Mission there next so we can see all of our many friends that we have made over the last 11 months we have been here. Wouldn't that be so fun to see them all again!! What a great reunion we could have!! :-)

This sweet gal brought US a gift this time.....I made her a cross stitch temple picture last time. Her name is DANILINA.

Russian chocolate and other food!!

My goodness.....we are going to miss them so much!!

SUNDAY INTO MONDAY

AND ANOTHER P-DAY.....

Over the past few weeks I have been working on another NEEDLE-FELTING project. Loving to work with this, I was trying to figure out what I could make next....after making the hearts and Easter Eggs. I decided to make a HOT PAD for each of the other missisonary sisters. I thought yesterday, Sunday, would have been a perfect opportunity to give them to the sisters and let them pick the color they wanted. You see, yesterday was the FHE dinner with the Michie's introducing themselves. Perfect, right? I guess not. When Wayne and I arrived to the dinner (with the freshly baked SALMON right out of the oven.....that was our food assignment), all of the girls had just finished with a 'group picture'! I thought it a little strange since we were not suppose to begin until 3:00 p.m. and we walked in right at 3:00 p.m. They went ahead and took pictures ...... with the gifts that I had made for them......and withOUT me in the picture. I have to say that I was 'crushed'! Needless to say, I chose to go on a walk around the temple grounds instead! Maybe not feeling well for a couple of days contributed to that, but, oh well.....here is a picture of the HOT PADS!! Would have been a group picture IF.....

Because I have been sleeping so much the past few days, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. It seemed awfully bright outside. When I looked out the window, sure enough it was BRIGHT! The longer days have definitely begun. I think I like that phenomenon!

Another 'sighting' that is hard to come by.....the TEMPLE HARE!! Sitting out on the ground this morning, in plan sight, there he was. Just surveying his little kingdom!

THEN.....right at 8:00 a.m. the FLOWER DELIVERY TRUCK APPEARS! YEA!!!

We are so excited to see this. We LOVE the flowers on the temple grounds.

AND.....it truly means WINTER may be gone until November-ish!!

FLAG DAY......

VAPPU PÄIVÄ

MAY DAY!!

And that means the FLAG goes up!!! How many guys does it take to raise a flag?? Well, let's see.....how many do you count! ONE and the rest to have a 'social activity'!!

We had a good breeze most of the day......... I was home sick from the temple today. I feel like I got hit by a MACK TRUCK. Don't know if they have Mack Trucks over here, but IF we do, it hit me! Terribly sore throat, fever, chill. The works. Hopefully it will be gone very soon!! I don't get sick that often, so this is definitely NO FUN AT ALL!! :-(

This sweet couple have been here this week doing baptisms!! The wife and son have been here previously so it was good to see them! They will be back in AUGUST to be endowed and be sealed. They are very excited about that. We are also very excited to see them come back.

Getting settled in on the bus!

Wishing they could stay a while longer!!

Interesting 'event' this morning at the temple. One of the Lithuanian workers came in the Temple while Wayne was at the Recommend Desk. He told him that there was a woman outside, sitting on a bench, who was distraught and wanted to come in 'God's Temple' so she could pray. Couldn't understand why she couldn't come in. Wayne got President Roto out front with him and the two of them (Wayne and President Roto) took her into the Waiting Room and talked with her.

As it turned out, she felt there was no reason to go on living. Her husband died 10 years ago and her children (5 of them) were grown up and she felt all alone! She 'perked' up when Wayne told her that she COULD be with her husband again!! Bottom line.....the missionaries have the information and will be in contact with her tomorrow. They are on LOCK DOWN today because of the HOLIDAY (LOMA).....the Finns have a habit of drinking way too much for holidays such as this.