Shurtz Start to Finnish

This week was Return and Report.  I went with Elder Shurtz to do his vehicle safety training with the new missionaries and their companions. He does a nice job of helping them to understand how they are stewards over their car (and their apartment, their area, etc.).  We are seeing more and more signs of spring. One morning as we walked over to the office, we noticed that they have swept up the gravel on some of the walkways. (You can see where Elder Shurtz is standing, they didn't sweep up that area yet.) We are seeing ugly melting piles of snow. The giant pile of snow by the office is melting. And they have added a pile of gravel to the front of the melting snow pile.  We went over to the second-hand store and saw this massive pile of melting snow and gravel! I wonder if the gravel kind of insulates the snow and slows down the melting. Elder Shurtz bought 3 new smart phones for assistants and technology missionaries to use. The Assistants got...

On Monday, Hyrum and Melissa came to the mission office and joined us for our devotional. They were able to meet Pres. Aura, Sister Airto and Sister Laitinen. Sister Herttuainen had taken the day off, so she wasn't there. We had made some cookies to share on Monday, because Sunday was our 1 year mark for being in the country. Sister Airto brought us some flowers to celebrate.  We try to just celebrate the wonderful past year that we have enjoyed being here.  We try not to think about the fact that we will have to leave in just over 5 months.  In the afternoon, we drove out to Nuuksio. First we walked down to the lake.  The ice on the lake was starting to look a bit iffy, bit Hyrum, Melissa and Elder Shurtz all walked out on it.   They all had to go check out the boat that is there. We saw some pussywillows near the boat. We were glad to see a few other signs of spring as well. We hiked on the snow covered paths. Luc...

I saw this posted on March 1. Since then, I think that we have moved through second winter and into spring of deception. This was a week of goodbyes and hellos.  On Monday night, we were honored to be invited to come to the mission home for the final dinner for the Harrises. We enjoyed being able to spend time with Elder and Sister Harris and Pres. and Sister Aura. Elder and Sister Harris have been great missionaries and have really blessed the people  out in Vaasa and Seinäjoki, as well as the young missionaries who have served there.  We got up early Tuesday morning to take the Harrises to the Airport. Pres. Aura met us there.  It was hard to say goodbye to them. Oh how we will miss them! Sisar Aura asked me if I could help with the meals at EMLC on Wednesday. I met her at Prisma on Tuesday to buy the groceries needed for the meals. In the office, we had been preparing supplies to be sent out with all of the district leaders.  ...