Home (in Finland) Again

This week (November 12 - 18) has gone by fast. 

We of course were catching up on things that had been postponed while we were in Virginia, 

as well as the things that needed to be done this week. 

We have no idea how it got to be the middle of November already!

We love getting pictures of Lucia! I got this one on Monday.

This one is fun because she is awake. She is not liking having that tube in her mouth. 

Stephanie says that she smacks at it and turns her head trying to get it out.

Sister Airto brought a treat to share with us. 

These reminded me of malted milk balls, but they are gingerbread flavored. 

The center is actually a little bit different than malted milk balls,because it is like a ball of crunchy gingerbread cookie.

Christmas has begun at the mission office. 

We have been getting Christmas packages for the missionaries. 

We have mission tour coming up at the end of November and that is the last chance 

we really have to deliver packages to the missionaries before Christmas. 

The packages are piling up!

The ones on the desk here are going to  a meeting this week, so we can get some of them distributed.

I am not sure how some of the missionaries are going to get these packages home though. 

The large box just in front of the shelves in the picture below weighs 22 kg. that is almost 50 lbs.! 

It cost over $193 dollars to ship it here! 

I think that a small package and money added to a bankcard would have been much more useful,
but I guess not everyone thinks the same way I do!

You can see from the picture of the Christmas packages that it looks dark outside. 

The interesting thing is that it has been looking dark outside all the time. 

It looked a little more light in the midday, 

but because it has been so cloudy and rainy alot of the time, 

it always looks dark when I look out the windows. 

On Wednesday, I looked out and could almost see the sun. 

It looked a bit filtered, but I could see it shining on a nearby building. 

I mentioned that we could almost see the sun. 

Sister Herttuainen said to look now because it wouldn't last long. 

A few minutes later, it was completely gone. 

Later I heard Sister Herttuainen telling a missionary on the phone that it was a good day, 

we actually got to see the sun. 

It only lasted about 3 minutes, but we did see some sun.

Our Christmas cactus has more blossoms. It started blooming almost 2 months early, but it sure is beautiful!

On Saturday, when we went shopping, Prisma had bags of clementines for 49 cents. 

We put a couple in our cart. Then I found another display and picked up another one. 

When I put it in the cart, Elder Shurtz said that now we had 4. 

He had seen another display as well and had also picked up another bag. 

He decided to add one more before we checked out. 

We tried some when we got home and they were really good. 

So later when he went back over to the mall to pick up some pizza, he went back and got 3 more bags. 

So we ended up with 8 kgs of clementines. The picture shows half of them.

Saturday we went chasing the sun, but we couldn't quite catch it. 

When we got up on Saturday and discussed the things that we needed to get done, 

we thought that if we saw the sun that we would like to go out and walk in it. 

However, when we went grocery shopping the sky was very cloudy 

and we thought that we would not be seeing the sun. 

When we got back from grocery shopping, 

we could see the sun shining on the tops of the buildings, so we went chasing it. 

Because we live amongst tall buildings and the sun is low in the sky, 

we thought if we could get over to the field near the forest where we walk 

that we could maybe be in the sun for a few minutes.

But when we got almost there and could see the sun, 

we realized that it was already setting and we had missed it. 

At least we could see it for a few minutes still.

We had Stake Conference this weekend. 

We knew that on Sunday all those needing English were to meet in the Marjaniemi building. 

But for Saturday night it looked like they were only meeting at the Haaga building, 

but they had a webcast you could join at home for either Finnish or English.

We went to the Haaga building assuming they would have English translation. 

When the meeting started, we could hear that someone was translating, but the headsets couldn't tune in. 

Turns out the translators were translating only for the webcast. 

When Elder Shurtz went to find out if there was a way for us to get English translation, 

they ended up helping him get hooked up to the webcast. 

Even though they got him on the English site, he could only hear the Finnish. 

They had to make adjustments but there was a 5-6 minute delay, so it took a while before they knew if they had it correct. 

Elder Matis was translating for his wife, by the next talk he tried to translate for me as well. 

Elder Shurtz came in at the end of the rest hymn and we tried listening with my ear buds plugged into his phone. 

It worked, but we heard it 5 minutes later than what we were seeing.

We found out later that those watching in English at home could only hear Finnish for the first 25 minutes. 

If Elder Shurtz hadn't gotten on the webcast there in the building they may not have figured that out for the entire meeting.

We were glad to be there in the building though. We sat by the Lehtinens. We also met a man that we would not have met if we hadn't been there. His sister (Anitta) used to be Elder Shurtz's secretary.

We got another cute picture of Lucia who was wide awake and trying to smile.

On Sunday, for Stake Conference, they had all of those needing English translation go to the Marjaniemi building. 

We picked up Elder and Sister Matis to come with us. We thought  that things would run smoothly. 

Unfortunately, when they first started, the English translation was so soft that we couldn't hear it. 

We could barely hear the Finnish. 

There was a 6 minute delay, so everytime they tried to make an adjustment, 

it took 6 minutes before we could tell any difference. 

Finally by the last half of the conference, they had things adjusted so that we could hear it in English. 

One of the speakers was Brother Johtenus. He is the new temple president. 

As a young man, he was a missionary companion with Mark Hewlett who was our bishop in the Creekview ward. 

We were also able to meet him on Saturday night.

When we got home from Stake Conference today, we could see the sun shining 

through the windows in the hallway of the apartment building. 

We decided to go do our Finnish Book of Mormon reading in the common deck/sunroom area. 

It was a bit chilly in there, but it felt nice to get a little bit of sunshine. 

By time we finished reading, the sun was no longer shining in there, 

but we could still see some just down the hall from our apartment, 

so we went and stood in the last of the sun for a few minutes.

Sunday evening we made cookies. Oatmeal craisin for me and oatmeal raisin for Elder Shurtz. 

Now our freezer is stocked again. 

We like to take a cookie with our lunch and often take them to share with the others in the office as well.

I read an news article that said that if November has felt a little darker 

and more depressing than usual this year in Finland, there has been a reason. 

This has actually been the darkest start to a November in Finland since 2000. 

The start of November has seen a total of 4.9 hours of sunshine in the Helsinki-Vanntaa area where we live. 

That is not a 4.9 hours a day, it is a total of 4.9 hours of sunshine 

from November 1st until when the article was written (on the 17th). 

Sunday Nov. 18 sunrise in Espoo 8:27 and sunset at 15:44 for 7:17 hours of daylight.

Sunrise in Provo at 7:15 and sunset at 17:07 for 9:51 hours of daylight.