Shurtz Start to Finnish

On Monday we were invited to a welcome-get to know you FHE at the Pickerings. Elder and Sister Evans are a new temple couple. We had a great time getting to know them and the other senior missionaries. Sister Airto told us about the time when she was working in Moscow and and important man (that she didn't know who he was) told her that when he was at a party everyone drank vodka and she needed to get rid of her orange juice and get vodka. She went to the bar and asked the bar tender to give her some water and make it look like vodka. He did and when she went back over the man came back over and said now we drink. I am not exactly sure now what she was saying, if they crossed arms to drink, or if they exchanged cups or whatever, but apparently he knew she just had water. He said "I knew Finnish girls were beautiful, but I didn't know they were also clever." Her friends and coworkers were afraid that she would no longer be working there, and she was worried as well ...

On Monday we received an order of copies of the Book of Mormon. They get them by the pallet load here.    Elder Shurtz, and the Assistants helped Sister Potter get them moved from the pallet in the hall to the storage room.   It is springtime and the remaining snow is melting. Here is a pile of snow/gravel we saw on our morning walk.  I guess as they clear the snow, it removes some of the gravel that is already there and it ends up in the big snow piles. Now that this pile is almost melted, there is a pile of gravel left. Here is a picture of what was left at the beginning of the week of the giant snow/ice pile near our office. You can see that it is also made up of a lot of gravel. We have been interested to see what they do with all the gravel that is left on the walkways.  This week we saw a sweeper truck going past the office and then later saw one outside of our apartment. Here is the path that we usually walk to the ...