Fall Leaves and General Conference

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We are so grateful to have the temple open again after being closed for a month!
We went to the temple for ward temple day last week on Saturday and then we went again this week on Tuesday.
On Thursday, I had Elder Shurtz drive me over to the temple
just so I could get some pictures before all the beautiful fall leaves are gone.

We find it quite interesting that we live closer to the temple here in Finland than anywhere else we have lived.
We find that quite remarkable since our home is in a city (Provo) that has two temples,
but we live closer to a temple while we are living in Espoo Finland.
We live about 2.6 km from the temple (A 33 min. walk according to google. It would be 5 or more minutes less,
if there was a gate to the temple grounds on the side near the walking path.)

On Monday, we had a Family Home Evening with the temple missionaries.
It was fun to get together and to have a gospel discussion along with good treats and good company.
We forgot to take a picture, but we did take this picture of the sunset as we were walking to their apartment at 7:00 pm.
It seemed so strange to have the sun be setting at 7:00, but it was a beautiful sunset.

On Tuesday morning on our walk we saw the path lights lit up for the first time.  
About 30 seconds after I took the picture of the lights in the forest, they turned off.
 

On Thursday morning when we went out walking, my phone said that it was 34 degrees 
(real feel 23 degrees) so we bundled up more than usual. 
Notice the hat/headband, coat and gloves, plus our reflectors since it is now still dark when we are out walking.
 
It was even darker this morning, especially through the forest and we were glad to have the lights.
We had a few challenges to work through in the office on Friday. 
The postage machine was giving me a funny error message that I had never seen before. 
I was trying to send a small package of supplies out to the Joensuu missionaries. 
We were grateful that Sister Airto knew just who to email, 
and we were able to follow the directions that they sent and get it working and the postage printed.
The garbage can got emptied, only to find that we were out of the size bags that it needed,
so Elder Shurtz figured out how to tape a bag in so we would have one for the rest of the day.
We figured we could buy new bags on Saturday when we did our shopping.
 Elder Shurtz and Sister Airto were looking at old electric bills before our time to see if we had paid the electricty on an apartment that we had closed, but the landlord said we still owed him for the electricity.
 Not too long after the postage label was printed for the package for the Joensuu missionaries,
they called and said they needed some other things as well.
The postage for the first package was just over 6€.
When I weighed the other supplies that they ordered, they were going to cost just over 10€ to send.
I put the first package on with those supplies and found that all the supplies together would cost just over 10€,
so I wanted to send them just as one package, but we had already printed the postage.
Elder Shurtz suggested we just print an additional label, but it wouldn't print one for the amount we needed.
I found a way to get the postage to print two labels for 2€ each and put all the supplies into a bigger package
and put all the postage labels on it. Sister Airto thought that was very clever of us.
 

We enjoyed being with these great people (mostly missionaries)
to watch the Saturday morning session of General Conference. 
(There was also a Finnish translation going on in the chapel.)
We listened to it live at 7:00 p.m. Saturday evening.
It was a very historic conference with the announcement of a more home centered,
church supported curriculum and shorter Sunday meeting schedule.
The branches that we have visited here in Finland have been having the 2 hour meeting schedule described.

On Sunday, we met at noon to watch a recording of the General Women's session.
We caught a ride again with some of the temple missionaries.
The men came as well so we didn't have to make so many trips back and forth.
The Saturday afternoon session recording was shown at 3:00.
When it was over at 5:00 we joined the young missionaries for a planned potluck dinner.
We sure love these great missionaries!
 We watched the Sunday morning session live at 7:00 pm.
They don't show the Sunday afternoon session, we just have to watch that one later
as it is broadcast at 11:00 pm. here in Finland.
What a glorious conference, and what a great group of people to share it with!

The sunrise was at 7:41 in Espoo and the sunset was at 18:36 for 10:55 hours of daylight.
In Provo, the sunrise was at 7:29 and the sunset at 18:58 for 11:29 hours of daylight.
We are loosing daylight rapidly!



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