Zone Conference and Visitors from Canada

This week was zone conferences. We only attended the zone conference for the Helsinki zone on Wednesday, 

but we were still plenty busy the first part of the week. 

At the end of last week, we told you that we sent out 15 boxes of copies of the Book of Mormon 

that were requested by missionaries in the East zone and the Tampere zone. 

On Monday, we checked with the other two zones and started getting their supplies ready. 

Sister Herttuainen came in on Tuesday afternoon to help with the supplies. 

(Instead of Mon, Tues, Wed, this week, she was going to do Wed, Thurs, Fri. so we could be out of the office.)
Tuesday evening, I got all of the packages and supplies (except for the Book of Mormon orders) put into the red suitcase ready for the assistants to take on the plane to the North zone conference.

We ended up sending out another 14 boxes of the Book of Mormon.

That almost cleaned us out of Finnish copies. Here is what was left of our Book of Mormon stack in the storage room.

We were expecting an order to arrive any day. It ended up coming on Thurs. while we were not in the office, so Sister Herttuainen had to move all of them into the storage room.

(There were also 2 boxes of Finnish and 1 box of English in the office ready to go if they were needed.)

Tuesday evening we got home a bit late and then worked on getting our apartment ready for company. 

We took the big office chairs and one desk out of our little office (2nd bedroom). 

We got the two roll away beds and mattresses from our varasto (storage room) and put those in the office.

After zone conference on Wed. we drove to the airport and met our friends, David and Linda Salmon. 

We had talked to the assistants and learned just where to go to meet someone at the airport, only to get there and find out that they were arriving at terminal 1 and the assistants had always picked people up at terminal 2. 

Elder Shurtz found a place to pull over in front of what we thought was terminal 1,

but it looked like it might just be departures. 

There was another car there as well and they were meeting a couple that came out of the airport just as we pulled over. 

I got out and asked them if we were at the right place and they said the arrival and departure were both in there. 

Elder Shurtz stayed with the car and I went inside. I wasn't sure if I was in the right place, 

but after waiting for 5-10 minutes, they came out of the doors where I was waiting.

We went out to the car and drove to terminal 2, where David, Linda and I went in to find out where we could pick up the Helsinki cards that we had ordered so we would be able to use them on the train the next day. Elder Shurtz again waited out in the car. We are not sure if we just lucked out, or if they are just not as aggressive as in they are in most places about not letting cars just sit and wait. We were glad when we came out and the car with Elder Shurtz in it was still sitting where it was when we got out. We had to get a picture of them with the Helsinki Airport sign in the background.

We had made some Finnish summer soup the night before so we would have some food when we got back from the airport. Elder Shurtz had put the pan of soup in the fridge Tues. night before we went to bed. When we woke up on Wed. morning, we found the the glass shelf that he had set the pan of soup on had broken. 

We didn't really have a chance to do more than just take the big broken pieces of glass out of the fridge. 

We need to figure out where to get a replacement shelf.

After we ate dinner, we walked over to the grocery store to show the Salmons what it is like to shop here. 

Then we walked over to the office to show them around. 

The assistants were there preparing for the zone conference on Thurs. 

We had to take a picture with the four of us and Elder Judd. David's brother, Ross lives in our ward in Provo. 

Ross had told us to watch for Elder Judd, because he (Ross) knew Elder Judd's father. 

We took a picture and David sent the picture of the 4 of us with Elder Judd to Ross.

The Helsinki cards that we bought were good for 24 hours. We had to get the little more expensive regional ones so we could use them on the train from Espoo to Helsinki. We took the train and then walked to the Kauppatori, where we got on the ferry to Suomenlinna. The ferry left just a couple of minutes after we got on which was nice. We enjoyed walking around Suomenlinna and went to the Suomenlinna museum and watched a video telling some background about the island. We spent some time walking around the island and exploring areas of the old fort.

We got on the ferry just two minutes before it left and got back to the Kauppatori, 

where Linda found a couple of souvenirs and we found some lunch.

We walked to Senate Square where we got on the Hop On Hop Off bus. 

We listened to the commentary as we drove around the city. We got off at the Rock Church. 

(We had been to the Rock Church before when we came to Helsinki as part of our Baltic Cruise several years ago.)

Back on the Hop On Hop Off bus to the Sibelius Monument. 

(Another place we had been to when we were here on our cruise.) 

Next stop was the Ateneum art museum.

We hurried back to the Kauppatori where we got on the Canal Cruise. 

All of the things that we did were covered with our Helsinki Card. 

(The cost to do the Hop On Hop Off bus and the canal cruise and the train would have been more than what we paid for the Helsinki card, so we felt like we got our money's worth.)

We all expected that we were cruising on a canal, but we were actually going out and around the islands. 

There was one small canal and it was a bit of a tight squeeze to get the boat through there.

It was interesting to see the big ice breaker ships.

We wanted to go back to Senate Square to get some pictures of the cathedral. 

When we got there, we found that square was filled with people and the stairs were filled with people singing. 

It was many different choirs all combined, and then many people there listening to the performance.

Picture from earlier in the day.

Picture with the choir performance.

On Friday, we drove to Porvoo, the old town has colorful wooden houses. 

(This is another place we had been when we were here on our cruise.) 

It was nice to be here and not be worried about moving through so quickly to be back at the bus at a certain time. We did have to worry about getting back to the car before the metered time ran out, but we could put more money in the meter and stay longer.

We stopped at a bakery and got some bread for lunch.

We ate our lunch in the Runeberg park by where we parked our car.

There were some birds with beady little eyes who really wanted us to share our lunch with them.

We stopped at the Simolin, which is the oldest department store in Finland still in operation. 

In a little cafe inside, Linda bought a Runeberg cake (more like a cupcake) for us all to try. 

They are usually only available around Runeberg's birthday, but are available all year round in Porvoo. 

We had fun with the little speed sign running down the hill trying to get a picture of the green smiley.

We drove to Sipoonkorpi National Park. 

On the way, Elder Shurtz stopped the car so they could see what kind of grain was growing in the field. Notice the two picture signs which I think are video surveillance and beware of dog. (I don't think they saw the signs.)

We have been to Sipoonkorpi before, but this time we did a different hike to the lake. 

It was a nice hike and the lake was lovely.

As we were hiking out, we found what looked like a big pile of pine needles that someone had raked up, 

but it was actually an ant hill!

The Salmons treated us to dinner at Base restaurant across the street from our apartment. It was delicious!

Saturday morning we all went to the temple. It was the last day that the temple is open for the next 4 weeks. 

We are really going to miss going to the temple. We have usually gone almost every week.

We drove the Salmons to their ship and it was time to say good bye. 

We sure enjoyed having them visit us for a few days!

Sunday evening we were invited to get together with the temple missionaries for a little farewell for the Johnsons who are headed home. I realized that we have gotten together with temple missionaries many times, but I always forget to take pictures. I finally got some pictures. We are so grateful for these great people and for the opportunity to get to know them and to see them in the temple.

Nielsens and Johnsons

 Gibbs and the Johnson's daughter

 The Evans

We are grateful to be in Finland and to be serving here as missionaries. 

We are grateful for our associations with other missionaries here!