Transfer Week

Wow, we can hardly believe that we have been here in Finland for 4 weeks already!

We are still discovering things that are new to us.

Last week we found this little gizmo in a drawer. We decided it would be great for hanging socks to dry.

In Finland, they use studded snow tires during the winter and then switch over to regular tires for the summer.
We were going to do that last week on the cars at the mission office, but then it snowed last Monday.
It was decided on Monday this week that it would be a good time to make the change.
Elder Shurtz and Sister Romberg shuttled cars and tires to a shop to get the tires swapped.
Here is a picture of Elder Shurtz using the mission van to take the studded tires back to the storage unit.
 

This week we had transfers, and missionaries arriving and departing. The new missionaries arrived on Tuesday.

We were especially excited to have the new sister arrive. We met these seven amazing sisters at the MTC,
and were anxious to see them again. (There were no Elders this time, just Sisters.)
The assistants and Pres. and Sister Aura go to the airport to meet them, but we did get to see the picture.

We were excited to learn that one of them, Sister Nielson, is assigned to our ward, so we will get to see her fairly often. We actually had a chance to teach a less active member with her and Sister Quick on Thurs.

Tuesday, the departing Sisters came to the office to drop off their suitcases. We were able to get a picture of the six of them. It was a beautiful day and we stepped outside without our coats to take a picture.

Wednesday was a busy day. The departing missionaries come into the office to pay their office dept,

drop off luggage and take care of other last minute business. They spend the day doing last minute shopping, sight seeing or going to the temple. The temple has been closed for the past two weeks, so that was not an option this time. 

Here is a picture of the 7 departing missionaries (6 sisters, the same ones pictured above and 1 elder).

The office gives them a 200g Fazer bar (Finnish chocolate). Sister Airto wraps them and has a note or poem or something on them as well. (That is what they are holding.)

I stayed at the office (so it can be kept open for mail delivery or other business) 

while the rest of the office staff went to the mission home to give some orientation to the new missionaries. 

Here are a couple of pictures that Pres. Aura took during orientation. You should recognize Elder Shurtz. The other picture is of Sister Airto. She is a Finnish sister serving in the mission office. She has been doing that for over 6 years! She takes care of any matters that involve speaking or reading Finnish. We would be rather lost without her.

While the office staff is orienting the new missionaries, Pres. Aura is training their trainers. The office staff came back to the office at lunch time. In the afternoon, the new missionaries meet their trainers and they head out for their new areas. The departing missionaries meet at the mission home for dinner and they spend the night there and are taken to the airport early Thurs. morning. The mission home is a very busy place on transfer week!

By Thurs. morning, the transfers are complete in the computer and my work begins! I have to update the contacts in outlook, write the letters to the new missionaries, to their parents, and to all the missionaries with new leadership positions. This transfer we got a new assistant to the Pres., 4 new zone leaders and 7 new district leaders, and 9 trainers (two of the new sisters are in trios and both of the other sisters in each are trainers). That is a lot of letters! We also have to update all the rosters and phone lists. We will still be finishing up on some of the things this week.

It is continually a challenge to live when you can't read/speak the language. 

We had the following notification in our mail slot one evening. 

At least this paper is not too long and we were able to use google translate to help us try to understand what it means. They are doing some work on the cooling system in the apartments and will need to enter the apartments to replace some things. (We have been missing a big panel in the ceiling that we think is related to this project and we hope will be replaced when they are finished.) The work will take place between April 13 and 20 between the hours of 8am and 4pm. If we still have questions we take it to Sister Airto and she helps us figure it out. There are sometimes notices in the elevator or on a door. It is frustrating when we have no idea what they are saying. 

We are learning a few new words each week though, so once in a while we do recognize a word or two. Each morning as part of our devotional, we have a short Finnish language study. Sister Romberg leads this, but Sister Airto helps us with correct pronunciation and grammer. This week we have been working on the days of the week.  Starting with Monday, they are: maanantai, tiistai, keskiviikko, torstai, perjantai, lauantai, suununtai. Sister Romberg had us sing them to the music of "Are You Sleeping" so we would be able to remember them.

The Finnish calendar looks a bit different than what we are used to.  Huhtikuu is April.

The first column viikko, or week, and the numbers below it represent which week of the year it is. 

The week starts on Monday or maanantai and ends on Sunday or suununtai.

It takes some getting used to. 

Vk Ma Ti Ke To Pe La Su 13 1 14 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 15 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 17 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 18 30

Phases of the Moon: 8: 16: 23: 30:

Holidays and Observances: 1: Pääsiäispäivä, 2: 2. pääsiäispäivä

The mail is a bit interesting as well. If you would like to send us a letter, here is how you should address the envelope. (This is what we send to the parents so they will know how to address a letter or package to their missionary.)

The first two lines are the name of the Church in Finnish. If a letter comes addressed to the missionary without the name of the church the posti often won't deliver it and won't release it to us because we are not who the letter is addressed to.  When the mail comes, Sister Potter adds labels to the letters with the missionary's current addresses, along with C/O MAP (The church name is too long so the posti here uses the abbreviation MAP from the first line of the name). All the missionary apartments have MAP on the mail slots and the posti won't deliver the forwarded mail if the letter doesn't say Myöhempien Aikojen Pyhien or MAP because the missionaries change so often. 

We had Elder and Sister Ames come for dinner on Friday evening. 

We should have gotten a picture, but we didn't think about it while they were here. 

They are temple missionaries. They have been here about 4 months I think. Sister Ames is a native Finn, but she has lived in the USA for over 50 years. They are from Missouri. We enjoyed getting to know them better.

We went for a walk on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining. The temperatures were in the upper 30s when we left our apartment, so we didn't wear our heavy coats.

We noticed that in a few places they have been sweeping up the gravel that they use for traction with the snow. Here is a picture of the walkways with the gravel on them. We went past this playground and noticed that the swings looked like the swing that Truman had just shown us on Marco Polo the night before.

We also saw some piles of the gravel that they use.

We were especially interested in the skiing trails that we saw. The walking paths are mostly all clear now, so we were surprised when we saw snow trails. We think they are just groomed in the winter and are so much thicker that they are still there, but they are melting and probably won't be around for too much longer. There were many people out skiing. 

It was interesting to see the ski trail right next to a walking path without snow. 

We were also interested in what looked like a ropes course up in the trees.

The ski trail seemed to go just outside this running track at this stadium.

We were excited when we could see the temple in the distance. (In the center of the picture.)

We continued along the walking paths until we reached the temple grounds. We are anxious for the temple to reopen.

We stopped at Lidl on our way home to buy groceries. In Finland, you either bring your own bags or you can buy some at the store. The bags are thicker and stronger than the plastic grocery bags in the USA. They can be reused many times. Here is Elder Shurtz folding the grocery bags into a neat little triangle like a true Finn.

Today we have 14:35 hours of daylight here, compared to 13:17 in Provo.