WEEKEND TRIP COMING UP.....

This is our FREE weekend and we are headed NORTH. We have speaking assignments in the SEINÄJOKI BRANCH. We needed to take care of a couple of errands at Sello this afternoon after we worked at the temple. As we headed out, there was just a little touch of blue showing through the cloudy skies. Worthy of a picture.

Well......guess who is coming this weekend for a visit? YES.....JOULUPUKKI!!! And here is his 'visiting spot' all decked out with a reindeer by his chair and a couple of cuddly bears under the tree and a dog (what Finnish home would be complete without their dog) on the other side of his chair.

I have included a couple of maps to show our location of where we will be....SEINÄJOKI. Can you find it on the 1st map? By the BIG BLACK DOT.....at the bottom of the 1st map. You can also see PIETARSAARI and LARSMO by the top BLACK DOT on the 1st map. We will be driving there on Sunday night and spending the night. We want to go to Larsmo and see if we can find the monument of President Benson rededicating Finland to the preaching of the Gospel. It was covered in about 3 - 4 feet of snow where we were there back in March. Couldn't even get close to it. We hope we are not too late because they already have a lot of snow there.

The larger map below shows the relationship of where we live in Espoo and just how far of a drive we will be making! It will take us about 4 1/2 hours to drive up on Saturday and about

6 1/2 hours to drive home on Monday.

We are looking forward to a great weekend trip and will be 'reporting' on our event!

THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR

SHOVELING......!!!!!

SNOW that is......these are the boots we purchased back in June when Becky and David where here to visit with us. Stockman's was having a great sale. What better time to get snow boots than in the middle of JUNE!

The surprise was that when we woke up at 5:45 a.m. and looked out the window it was snowing! Had not expected that. Wayne went into 'SNOW MODE' and bundled up....headed out to begin the process....

It was 'O-DARK-HOUR' and lonely but he was eventually joined by a couple of other missionaries. We are on the MORNING SHIFT this week which meant he had to get ready to go to the temple at 7:45 a.m.......didn't leave a lot of time, but.....

It snowed pretty much all day.....as we left the temple, we were met by Veli Pecilius....one of Wayne's 'shoveling buddies'! They make a great team. Veli Pecilius shoveled while we were in the temple and Wayne continued for most of the afternoon.

Bless his heart. Can't tell you how many times he has SHOVELED THESE STEPS!!

It did make for a very pretty KAUNIS SUOMALAINEN TALVI

(beautiful Finnish winter).

GLIMS FARMSTEAD MUSEUM

Espoo Outdoor Museum

We have driven past this Open Air Museum so many times. Always in a hurry and have never stopped .......... until today. We went to the Hospital this afternoon to visit SISAR RÖSLIF again and this is on the way. And, we found out that Wednesday is FREE day! No usual 2 euro charge. How nice was that!

There are many wonderful outdoor buildings. This was a 'working farm' dating back to the 1700's....not built just to show how the farm folks lived way back when. They actually lived on these premises!

They had some beautiful carriage-sleds. Well maintained.

Part of their display in one of the buildings was by way of PICTURES! This was my favorite one by far......got to LOVE all of those women out 'traveling' to wherever with their skis and dressed in their skirts. Now, these Finns know how to get around and did it quite well.

No museum visit is complete until the GIFT SHOP is visited at the end. This was NO exception....found some cute little things!

By the way.....Sisar Röslif is doing much better.....still has some bleeding from the surgery in the leg. Not sure why and therefore not sure when she will be discharged. She was in good spirits though and seemed to be glad we were there to see her. What a sweetheart!

ANOTHER WEEK ALREADY!

Remember our little Russian Missionary, Margeta Lednjova? Well, we get an e-mail from her every single week!! Bless her little heart. She is so good about writing to us. And on Saturday (2 days ago) she sent us a little 'surprise package' through a Senior Missionary who was here in Espoo renewing her Russian Visa. That was so very sweet of Sistra Lednjova! She made me a little hanging that says 'Jesus Loves Me' and a key chain from Samara (where she is currently serving) and a picture of us with her taken last spring when she was here at the temple before leaving for the MTCC and a sweet little 'angle card'!

We are on the morning shift this week. That means Wayne has the ASUNTOLA DESK DUTY at least once during the evening hours (and actually he has it twice this week because he is taking Veli Zaretski's night for him!). I thought I would sneak down and 'catch him in action'!

He actually has it pretty easy this week because the asuntola is not a 'full-house'.....it is FINNISH MISSION VIIKO. So Wayne took plenty of 'work' he can accomplish while he is there. (scriptures to read and study, laptop to catch up on e-mail and a medical magazine to work on!

LOVE THE

STATUES

IN FINLAND!

They just seem to be so 'unique'....don't know how else to explain them. And they are everywhere in the country.

We 'found' this one today as we were driving to an appointment in downtown TAPIOLA (a part of Espoo). It was located at a roundabout. Cute guy isn't he.....a little Poliisi directing traffic coming from all directions. If we had these in America it would make driving a little more 'fun'!! We did get a lot of errands done today...our P-Day.

F - O - L - D - I - N - G

THE

FINNISH FLAG

Since Kent and Wayne put the flag up this morning, they took it down at dark (about 5:00 p.m, which was actually about 1 hour after dark). It was a little damp from the light rain that had fallen late in the day. They put in on the table in the main kitchen down stairs at the Asuntola to dry before folding it.

They wanted 'someone' to document their folding process. Guess who that someone was?

Yupper......ME.

They were so PROUD of the great FOLD job they had done!

They are soooo crazy! But.....JOB WELL DONE GUYS!

WRAPPING UP THE VIIKO (WEEK).....

LAUNTAI....(Saturday)

Wayne had asuntola desk duty, which meant he was not at the temple but taking care of patrons signing out of the asuntola (who had been here all week). And to take care of anything else that might be going on in the asuntola. And it proved to be a VERY active day for him. The newly wed VELI ja SISAR KOMULAINEN. Are they not the most handsome couple you have ever seen! The bride is the daughter of Veli Mustonen, the Temple Engineer. She was a gorgeous bride!!

THEN....the Lithuanian and Russian Young Single Adults who had been here all week agreed to let Wayne take a GROUP PICTURE!! What a fantastic group of young people. They were at the Temple every day.....morning and afternoon! Great kids.

Just chatting and having a great time before they departed.

FAST FORWARD TO ........

SUNNUNTAI (Sunday)

It started out as a beautiful day with the SUNRISE on the Temple at about 8:00 a.m. We thought it was suppose to rain today but we were in for a pleasant day of sunshine.

Upon checking e-mail, etc., we discovered it was

HYVÄÄ ISÄNPÄIVÄÄ here in Finland......(or better known as Father's Day)

and that also meant it was FLAG DAY as well.....Wayne and Kent did the honors!

We were off to church to HAAGA WARD with the Michie's and Groberg's. It was a very nice day there.

When we got home from church we decided it was perfect weather for 'updated' pictures in front of the temple.

Then after a batch of homemade mushroom soup and homemade rolls it was RELAXING TIME with the new wool socks that Kyllikki made for us. They are so warm and cozy!

GREAT WEEKEND.....GREAT WEEK!!!

Next Viiko (Week).........FINNISH MISSION