Did you know that Fiskars are Finnish?

Vanhin Shurtz looks like a giant in this picture (compared to the small woman on the other side).   

Ha Ha 😉

Giant marshmellows in the field for the giant vanhin?

Giant vanhin, or very small potato?

On our walk on Monday, we found that the field was covered with a sort of mist.

On Friday, it was more of a thick fog.

Once we got in the forest though, the fog was not so thick through the trees.

On Monday evening, we had the chance to go teach with these two cute missionaries!

This is often the parking spot that we find. It is the visitor parking spot. We are not sure just what the big metal thing is, but we wonder if it is filled with the gravel that they use in the winter. We can't pull in too far, or we can't open the car doors.

Sisar Airto was not able to come into the office on Monday or Tuesday. 

We were very happy to have her there for the rest of the week. Here she is trying to see if we can fit this package through the mail slot, or if the missionaries will have to go pick it up from the posti.

Thursday morning, we saw some unusual activity in our garage. We were glad that it wasn't right over our car.

When we got home that evening,Vanhin Shurtz was very interested to try to figure out just what they were doing.

During the month of September different sections in the garage will not be able to have the cars parked for about a week at a time while they are doing work on the pipes. We are not sure why this section was having some work done on it. That section isn't scheduled until the 3rd week. From what we can understand, we luck out with our parking spot because there are no pipes running above our car, so we can continue to park in the garage during the work.

Thursday evening there was a Relief Society end of summer activity. It was held at the Lehtinen's house. Elder Shurtz drove me and sisar Ames (temple missionary) to the activity. He stayed in the car and worked on some things.

We had a fun time at the activity. The food was delicious. A wonderful message about unity and sisterhood was shared and then we all sang karaoke songs together. (Familiar Beatles and similar songs - in English!) 

Funny selfie with sisaret Virsu, Lehtinen, Shurtz and Ames.

These are such wonderful sisters whom I truly have come to love.

Friday was sisar Airto's birthday. We have been celebrating birthdays when President Aura and the Assistants are in the office on Mondays with cake or other treat. I had kind of planned with sisar Herttuainen that vanhin Shurtz and I would take sisar Airto to lunch on Friday (just the 3 of us) and then on Monday we would do some sort of dessert/treats. 

Sisar Airto was not in the first couple of days and the week went sooo fast. We were about 1/2 way through lunch when vahin Shurtz was talking about something that involved the date and all of a sudden he exclaimed "aaaaahhhh, today is your birthday". Needless to say, we didn't go to lunch. (We are planning to go on Monday now.)

A little bit after lunch, the buzzer rang at the office door, which was a bit odd because the door wasn't locked. 

I went to the door, and the man had a bag and was speaking in Finnish. I told him to come in and that sisar Airto could help him. As he started to speaking to her, I saw the note on the bag was addressed to her. 

He left and she opened the card. It was from (sisar) Romberg! She was so surprised! She couldn't believe that "(sisar) Romberg would send something from halfway around the world". I was so grateful that even though we had forgotten that it was her birthday, she was not forgotten. So grateful for (sisar) Romberg!

Oh, how we love sisar Airto! We love being able to work with her. We sure missed her when she wasn't here.

Friday night, we made sweet potato fries and omelets for dinner. They were yummy!

Since the temple is closed, the temple missionaries are doing some traveling. 

The Ames had several children and grandchildren here visiting and had done some traveling with them earlier, so they were the only ones around for the weekend. We invited them to join us on Saturday for a little outing.

Interesting crossing signs that we saw on our outing.

We went to Fiskars Village. (Yes, it is the place where those orange handled scissors came about.)

Fiskars village is the site of the iron works, which was founded in 1646 and gave rise to the company Fiskars.

 It rained most of the drive there, but it stopped just before we arrived.

One of the first things that I saw was these boots made into a planter. 

I had made something very similar early in our marriage with an old pair of  Steve's worn out boots.

We started out in the museum with a "buggy ride".

Just look at all those scissors!

 And yard tools.

 And pots and pans.

There were some fun little cupboard doors that you could open and learn about some items from different time periods.

There was a place upstairs to try on some clothing and take pictures, which of course we did!

We tried the other things that were suggested as well.

It was a peaceful area with lots of fun buildings.

 
(and even some sheep)

The weather was almost perfect. We thought that the morning rain made it even more enjoyable.

We found a picnic table and sat down to eat our lunch. As soon as we started eating, it started to lightly rain. We thought it would stop right away, but it got a little heavier and kept raining. So, we had a picnic in the rain.
Sisar Ames and I put up our umbrellas that we had with us and we just kept eating in the rain. I took some pictures of us having our picnic in the rain. Even though we saw them on my phone right after they had been taken, they are now nowhere to be found. Sadly, we only have the memory of it instead.

💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧😢💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧
I found the pictures!

Just a few minutes after we started walking through the village after lunch,
the rain stopped and we enjoyed seeing the other buildings and things.

I always enjoy the doors and the windows.

I thought that the grandkids would have fun at this playground with the sandbox and all the tools.

And with the train slide.

Charming old buildings from the 1800's.

Vanhin Shurtz at what we thought might be an old phone booth.

Vanhin Shurtz at his modern day "phone booth" getting a call from some missionaries who's car wouldn't start.

Interesting piece of art from the Nordic championship forging contest a few years ago.

We enjoyed looking at the birds more closely in detail.

Elder Shurtz trying to figure out what the black brick was made of.

It is slag brick, made from by dross from the iron process.

Interesting tree stumps.

Vanhin and Sisar Ames.

It was a lovely day!

Sunrise today at 6:17, sunset at 8:22, 14:05 hours of daylight.
Provo, sunrise at 6:55, sunset at 7:56, 13:01 hours of daylight.

Another wonderful week here as missionaries in the Finland Helsinki mission.
Although we miss home and family, we love being here!