Flowers and Flags for Juhannus

Monday, Kimberly stayed at the apartment when we left for the office so that she could try out our sauna.
This is the first time that it has been used since we have been here we all went to the mission office.
Mom was able to meet President Aura. She was excited to meet him and tell him Hello from my cousin Brent.
In the afternoon, I went with Mom and Kimberly to Helsinki.
We stopped at Oodi library.
Grandma found a fun swivel chair to sit on while Kimberly went to the top of the ramp.

We were interested to see where they have sewing machines, 

3D printers, posters size printers, and many more things for the patrons to use. 

We took the elevator down to the basement to the WC. 

We were surprised when the elevator opened right into the restroom. 

It is a restroom for everyone. 

The sinks are all in the middle and there are private stalls all around the outside.

We also went to a couple of fabric stores that Kimberly wanted to check out.
We were so busy looking at the fabric that we forgot to take any pictures.

Brother and Sister Alakoski had invited us to come to their house to visit for the evening.
We were intrigued by this pole that is covered with crocheted and knitted items at the end of their driveway.

I am always fascinated by all of Sister Alakoski's beautiful knitted dolls.

 And, Mom was as well.

 She showed us the nativity set that she used the hand knitted and darned socks from her father in law.

 And the aprons from unfinished pieces of lace from her mother.

 The little lapland nativity is very cute.

They fed us a delicious yet simple dinner, and we visited while we ate.
They showed us the book that she had made from their trip to Rome for the Temple dedication.

She gave me a birthday present of some beautiful knitted socks.
 

On Tuesday, Sister Laitinen covered for us at the mission office and we went to iittala Glass Factory. We loved watching the glass blowers at work. It was very warm in the viewing area.
The sign said it was an average of 45 degrees Celsius in the room (that is 113 degrees Fahrenheit)! We could have stayed much longer, but I felt like my contacts were melting to my eyeballs.
The workers didn't even seem to be sweating.

 

 
When Mom and I went back down to the lobby area, we ran into the missionaries.
That worked out really well because we had some supplies for them in our car.

We went to the outlet store for the glass, and also to a craft shop, a ceramic shop
and the chocolate shop that are on the property.

 We found the cows riding a bike to be interesting.

 This ceramic nativity set was cute, but expensive!

We ate our lunch in the car as we drove to Hämeenlinna and to the Aulanko Nature Reserve.

We walked up the steep paved path to this beautiful outlook.

 Grandma waited on a bench while Elder Shrurtz, Kimberly and I
walked up the hundreds of stairs to the top of this tower.

 

 

We could barely see grandma waiting on the bench below.

 We could see how this portion of the lake looks like a fish hook.

It was just as many stairs to go back down!


As we drove near to the Hämenlinna castle, we ran into these three fine Elders.

 We decided to just walk around the outside of the castle and not to take the time to go inside.

 

When we got back around to where we entered the area, there were sheep grazing on the grass.

On the way back to our apartment, we stopped at the Haagan Alpiruusupuisto (Rhododendron Park).
It was beautiful and peaceful, even though it was past its peak.
We were glad that Sister Laitinen had told us about this place.

When we got back home, it was time for Mom and Kimberly to get packed up.
They had each come with a checked bag, but they both had packed very light.
Even after Kimberly packed all her souvenirs, I was able to finish loading her bag
and Mom's bag with things that I wanted to send back home.

Wednesday morning, we all went over to the office, but left after working for an hour or so.
After finishing up the packing and making a lunch, it was time to take them to the airport.

It was sad to see them go, but it was such a wonderful surprise to have them here, even for just a few days!

I went into the airport with them and helped them get checked in and pay for their checked bags. Once they had made it through security, Elder Shurtz met me at the curb 

and we drove to the gas station area on the airport property. 

We ate our lunch there, while we waited for a flight to arrive.

We were meeting the mother of one of our missionaries who was going home the next day. 

She was coming to accompany him home.

After picking her up, we drove her around Helsinki a little bit and then took her to
see the temple before we dropped her off at the mission home.

On Thursday, Sister Laitinen went outside to make some phone calls so she could be in the sunshine. She soon came running back in and and said "Sister Shurtz, you have to come out and see what is at the park."
I went out with her. She was so excited. She said it was so beautiful! She had never seen anything like it!
The park area was full of daisies!

 It was so beautiful, especially because it was such an amazingly beautiful day.

 I tried to show the entire area, but it was impossible to get the full extent in a picture.

 We had fun taking pictures.

We were even more fascinated when we realized that there were also little purple flowers hiding among the daisies.

I took Elder Shurtz over on Friday and we took even more pictures.

 These cute sisters had to come by the office and I took them over to see it and they took lots of pictures

On June 20, I took the picture on the left at 11:22 pm. 

Then I woke up in the night and took the picture on the right at 3:22 am June 21.

 

On Friday, we went to the office, but it was kind of a ghost town. 

Sister Laitinen had gone to Oulu to be with her brother's family for juhannus (midsummer).

The office building was actually locked and we were pretty much the only ones around.

Around noon, someone came just outside our window and raised the flag.

 

Friday evening, we picked up the Haaga sisters and took them to the Lehtinen's house for a juhannus celebration.

We were there for the flag ceremony.

 We had to leave to go to the airport to pick up a missionary
who was returning from his mission in Uraguay to his home in Kemi.
He was to have a 24 hour layover in Helsinki.
Pres. Aura was off doing missionary interviews, so we were to meet him at the airport.
I felt so bad for him, he left his area at 5:00am on Wed.
with a member who drove him to where he could take a bus the rest of the way to the mission home.
He traveled all day and spent the night in the mission home (although he said he didn't really sleep).
Thursday morning he went to the airport and got on a 12 hour flight to Spain.
After several hours in Spain, he flew to Stockholm, and then from there to Helsinki.
After we picked him up, we went back to the Lehtinen's to eat and visit and enjoy the beautiful evening.
 You can see Elder Helske in this picture at the table.

 Elder Shurtz speaking with the Lehtinen's son.

 It was such a lovely evening.

 This is such a wonderful family!
We love them dearly!

 We took Elder Helske to the mission home once Pres. and Sister Aura had returned.
We noticed from our balcony that the sun was still shining at 10:26.
You can see it shining on the tallest buildings in the picture.

What a glorious midsummer eve!

On June 21, the sunrise in Espoo was at 3:54 and the sunset was at 22:51 for 18:56:39 hours of daylight!

On Saturday, we worked on our talks for Sacrament meeting the next day. 

We also got the beds and bedding put away and the furniture moved back into our little office room.

We also got the car vacuumed and washed, which we did at the mission office.

We spoke in the Haaga ward on Sunday. The temple missionaries came to listen to us speak. 

They also gave us a ride to church in the mission van.

We really appreciate their love and support!

On Sunday the sun rose at 3:55 and it set at 22:51 for 18:56:22 hours of daylight. 

(That is 17 seconds less than on the 21st, so we are starting to loose daylight.)

In Provo, the sun rose at 5:57 and set at 21:00 for 15:02:18 hours of daylight.