Shurtz Start to Finnish

New arrivals this week: 12 new Missionaries arrived in Finland on Tuesday! And 2 new granddaughters arrived in Virginia on Thursday!  Evelyn and Lucia We wish we could be there to welcome these 2 new granddaughters in person, but since we can't,  we are so grateful for technology (google hangouts, texting, email, etc.) that allows us to see them. We are especially grateful for their safe arrival!  We started off the week by going over to our apartment Monday morning to get some things.  They had started working on the sewer renovation.   They had put protective coverings on the floors. We had left the doors to the office and the bedroom closed.  We were surprised to find the office door open and plastic covering part of the wall and the ceiling partially opened.  We knew that we were supposed to clean out under the sinks in the bathroom and in the kitchen. We were surprised to find that they had taken out a...

On Monday, we woke to find that the temperature was a little below freezing, but we saw a gorgeous sunrise.  Elder Shurtz was happy to have the coat that he is buying from an Elder who is going home next week.  The cars had frost on them. It made us very grateful that we have a garage to park in.  It was a beautiful sight as we got to the top of the little hill and could see across the frost covered field  that the leaves had just popped with color in just a day. I was thinking that I really should come back when the sun came up because then the trees really just pop with color!  But I never made it back so the colors look more muted, but still beautiful!  Even the ferns on the forest floor had turned color, but it is hard to see in the dim light.  The frost, made for an amazing change in the color of things.  After Conference on Sunday evening, someone from a grocery store had brought a lot of food  that h...