Castles and Cathedrals, Confirmation and Conference

On Monday, we celebrated Sister Airto's nimipäivää (name day). 

We sure love this wonderful lady and feel priviledged to work with her in the mission office!

 Amy and Mark went to Tallin Estonia on Monday. 

They were able to get  a really good deal on tickets for 10€ each roundtrip.

We dropped them off about 7:30 in the morning and then picked them up about 9:30 that night.

We had Family Home Evening with the temple couples, but realized that we didn't take any pictures. 

It was at the Lewis' apartment. They showed a video titled "Winter Thaw", which we enjoyed.

On Tuesday, we took a day off at the office and drove to Turku.

We visited the castle. 

 As we were coming out of the castle, we ran into this fine looking group of missionaries 

coming to visit the castle on their preparation day.

We drove over to the Turku Cathedral, which is quite impressive, both inside . . . 

 . . . . and out!

We also went to the Alboa Vetus museum. 

It is an underground archaeological site that was found when they were excavating to build an art museum.

This is a picture of a steep staircase that would have led from a cellar to the alleyway behind the house. 

Flat Stanley made an appearance in the model area.

Amy and Mark took the train to Tampere on Wednesday morning. 

They spent the night there and came back on Thursday evening. 

While they were gone, their luggage was finally delivered on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday evening, the Lehtinens came to our apartment to have dinner and 

so Mark and Amy could meet them and they could meet Mark and Amy. 

We forgot to take any pictures though.

They are preparing for elections in Finland. 

There are lots of signs similar to these. Each poster is a different party. Each candidate has a number. 

When they vote, they receive a blank ballot and they just write the number of the candidate that they want to vote for.

Because there are so many candidates, there are some  online "tests" they can take 

to help them to see which candidate most matches their viewpoint. 

The voting takes place on Sunday, but you can also go to certain places and vote early.

On Friday, Mark and Amy joined us at the office for our devotional. 

They went back to our apartment, but came back to have lunch with us. 

We were hoping to get away shortly after lunch.

Just as we were finishing lunch the pass along cards for Easter were delivered, 

so I stayed for a while to help Sister Airto and Sister Laitinen get them divided up 

so they would be ready to send to the zone conferences.

 We did manage to get away from the office a bit early. We did some shopping with Amy and Mark. After dinner, we went to the temple. It was the last session before the temple closes for two weeks.

On Saturday, we took the train to Helsinki and then took the ferry to Suomenlinna.

 The weather was much nicer than when we were just there with Hyrum and Melissa. 

It was still quite cold, but there was no longer any ice in the water.

We were interested in finding the places where Sister Airto had lived on Suomenlinna. 

She lived there for 38 years, in three different homes, which we had her mark on a map.

We think that this was the last building that she lived in.

 In looking for another residence, we came across this interesting thing that I thought was a big fat funny looking ship, 

but Elder Shurtz thinks it was a gate for the dry dock.

When we got back, we walked over to the Orthodox Church.

We saw some flowers that were coming up in the yard by the church. 

These are the first flowers we have seen growing so far this year.

We stopped at the Kauppatori to do a little shopping and for some lunch. 

Elder Shurtz and I split a salmon plate, Amy got a reindeer burger, 

 and Mark got meatballs and fries.

We made a quick stop at the Helsinki city museum.

Then we stopped at Senate square and the cathedral. 

There were a lot of people there and there seemed to be some sort of protest starting up.

 Our last stop was at the rock church. 

We were excited to be able to participate via google hangouts in Lily's baptism.

 It was fun to get to see some of the other kids as well.

 

We had "flying jacob" and rye bread with cheese and cucumbers for dinner. 

Then, we all went to the Haaga chapel on Saturday night 

to watch the Saturday morning session of General Conference (live).

On Sunday morning, it was time to take Mark and Amy to he airport. 

We were sad to see them go, but we were so grateful that they were able to come. 

We love sharing this country and the people that we love so much with our family.

Elder Shurtz attended the Priesthood session of General Conference at noon (recorded). 

He came home and we went back to the church for the 3:00 broadcast (recorded) of the Saturday afternoon session, and the (live) broadcast of the Sunday morning session at 7:00 pm.

The young missionaries who meet in the Haaga building invited us to join them for a potluck between the sessions. 

We took a picture of some of the preparations, but we forgot to take any pictures of the meal.

 So, we had to gather in the hall afterwards to take a selfie with this great group of missionaries.

We loved listening to General Conference, and are grateful for the spirit that we felt and the counsel that we received. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve in the Finland Helsinki mission. We love the country and we love the people here. We especially love all of those that we are privileged to serve with and associate with.

It is getting more and more light each day. 

We could notice a difference just in the short time that Mark and Amy were here.

The Sunrise on Sunday April 7 in Espoo was at 6:29 and the sunset was at 20:19 for 13:50 hours of daylight.

In Provo, the sunrise was at 7:01 and the sunset was at 19:57 for 12:56 minutes of daylight.