Lots more excitement in Finland!

 We got a surprise the other day, when a dear old friend showed up to say "Hi".  The above picture i Jussi Kemppainen and myself on the steps to the Turku chapel.  He was in town to pick up his daughter;  so he and his wife, his daughter, and his three grandchildren met us at the church for a quick reunion.  This man and his wife are amazing people... very educated, talented, and friendly.  They have been all over the world and they seem to know everyone who is important in any possible station!


One of the sad parts of a mission is saying goodbye when someone gets transferred or goes home.  Sweet little Sister Cribbs is the one in the red next to Martha.  She was a brand new sister, who is full of energy and enthusiasm.  She sings beautifully and makes friends quickly.  She got transferred to Jyväskylä, where my old friend, Mauri Isokangas lives.  Sister Pendleton is on the end.  She is a wonderful sister missionary who is one of the very first sisters to be called to leadership positions in the mission (like a zone leader, only over the sisters in the zone).  She is also, talented, way smart, and a born leader.  We are privileged to be working with her.  She tries to keep me in line.

Here is another "goodby".  Poor Elder Chase got transferred to Kokkola.... a surprise to all of us.  He really wanted to stay longer in Turku!  He had a tough time leaving.

Juhannus Päivä is the celebratory holiday in Finland marking the longest day of the year!  Traditionally the eat a meal of new potatoes with dill and pickled herring.  A huge bonfire is lit just before midnight and everyone watches is burn as the sun is still shining in the midnight sky!  Often, the bonfire is placed on an artificial floating island like this one.

Here is another shot of the bonfire from a greater distance.  Lots of large and small boats were cruising around enjoying the sight.  And to the left, on the large island is the summer home of the national president.  You can tell he is there, when the flag is flying at the top of the castle.  It was flying when we were there.  So he was there, but you cannot see it well from our pictures.

This was a zoom shot of the presidential summer castle, but you still cannot appreciate the flag flying.  You will have to take my word for it.

Sorry, but some of these pictures are out of order.  These lovely young ladies have all been called to the exact same mission!  Lyon, France.  Two of them even go to the MTC on the same day.  The third one follows them in one month.  But they will all be in Provo together, and maybe even be companions later in France!!  Two of them (on the right) are from here in Turku.  They are Oona Metsätähti and Emmi Hiltunen.  Their best friend is the girl on the left from Helsinki or Espoo.  (Iida?)

Now, out of order, this is a picture of the full moon over a blue sky lit by the midnight sun!  What a sight it was in person.  The picture does not do it justice.

This is cute Meri Laineenkare.  She has received her call to Southern England for her mission.  She has been a trustworthy helper to Martha whenever we have big projects to get done.  We love her and her family very much.

This is one of the decorations that were hanging from the ceiling at the formal dance held on the second night of the YSA conference.

This is more what the decorations looked like at the dance (in a darkened room with music playing).  They were really quite stunning and romantic!  Martha is amazing when it comes to decorations!

There are many more pictures that we want to include, but they will have to wait.  Suffice it to say that we are still loving every minute of our mission, and are working well together as a team.... each with our own talents to add to the mixture.  I love Martha more all the time, and am amazed at her energy... and my LACK of energy!

We are looking forward to "FestiNord" next week in Sweden (a huge YSA conference held every summer, and includes Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland), and also to Tyler's visit in August!  We'll post pictures!

Young Single Adult Nation-wide Conference

Well, Martha and I just wrapped up the YSA Conference here in Turku.  It seemed to be a big success.... Mostly because of Martha!  I'll just show a few pictures of her decorations here.

 This is one wall in the "dance hall".  It announces that it is "Summer, 2013".  You can only see the tail of a kite that is up and to the right.   Also, you can't see the sun that is just out of the picture to the upper left.  It was really cute!

And all of these were decorated with fluorescent paint;  so they lighted up magnificently in the "black light" dance that evening!

Below is a close-up of a travel bag decorated with name tags or tickets representing all the missionaries from our Turku group of YSA.  We already have three out in the mission field:  one in Finland, one in Japan, and one in England.  Another just gave her farewell address in church today (going to England).  Still another has her call to France.  And two others have their paper work sent in, and are just waiting for the calls to come in the mail!  And three more are working on their paper work right now!  That's ten just from our little group in Turku.  Something must be going right, because when we arrived, they were pleased to have more than 5 in attendance at FHE.  There are also three more young men who are planning on missions as soon as they get out of the army.

Below is a backdrop for taking photos of the attendees.  The hat rack on the left has "props" for the photos.

This picture is a table set up with fluorescent paints and pens for decorating their white shirts, their faces, and their arms/hands in preparation for the Friday night dance which was a casual dance with black lights (UV light).

This was the sign-in desk, all arranged with programs and also their room reservation numbers for the hotel where the out-of-towners stayed.

This is a copy (front and back) of the program.  The theme was "TIME".  And for some reason, the kids that helped us organize it loved the phrase in English:  "Time is precious, waste it wisely!"

They had a map showing where the chapel is, where the park for the outdoor activities was located, and also the hotel's location.  If you look closely, maybe you can read the events?!

We looked up on the internet to find out how the average European spends his time during a life time.  The results were posted in these signs on a string in the foyer.  They are pretty funny, and also scary!  

We were in charge of one of the class sessions (there were two occurring simultaneously, and then they switched rooms, so that they all attended both classes).  We gave them each a small "egg-timer" (three minutes), which we used in our lesson.  They also played a game of "Boggle" that I rigged up to contain many time-related words for them to find.  We had a lot of fun.  I also told about three amazing people that used their time well to accomplish great things:  Peter Snell (New Zealand runner from the 60's), Albert Schweitzer (German philosopher, religion reformist, musician, organ maker, and doctor); and my father (paid tithing on his most valuable possession:  his time!)

  This is how we have been spending our free time over the last couple of weeks.... in between finding and furnishing new apartments for the influx of new missionaries!

We have lots more fun pictures, but not enough time to post them currently.  Maybe soon??

We love anyone with the patience or the interest to follow this blog post!