Shurtz Start Two Finnish: On our own

We had a very busy day on Monday. We had a meeting with Pres. and Sister Lehtinen in the morning and then spent the rest of the day training with the Bridges trying to soak in as much as we could before they left.

We worked right up until the last minute. It was after 7:00 by the time we left the office. We drove the mission van loaded with the Bridges luggage. We stopped at KotKot for dinner. KotKot is what a chicken says in Finnish. They serve chicken of course.

We drove to the Scandic hotel at the airport so the Bridges could spend the night there so they would be at the airport early in the morning. We really hated saying goodbye!

Tuesday morning, we were on our own. We took the long way to the office. That took us through the 'daisy field' that Sister Laitinen showed us on our first mission. It was disappointing to see that it in now filled with nettle and thistles. It is pretty with the purple, but you sure wouldn't want to walk out in it!

We got to the office early and before it was even 9:00, my phone rang. It was PostNord. They deliver boxes of The Book of Mormon that I order. Sister Bridge told me that they would ask "Paikala" meaning are you on site or at the place. I could answer "on" or olemme". I said hello and they started rattling off something in Finnish that I didn't understand. I said, are you here...now?. I will be right out. The man kept saying something in Finnish that I didn't understand. I grabbed my key and ran out the door. I expected to see the truck just outside our door, but it wasn't there. I walked over to the aula (main lobby area of the office complex) and as I did, I saw the truck parked in front of there. I said, oh now I see you. I heard the truck start up, so I opened up the doors and the man brought in a couple boxes and put them on our shelf. I felt like it was a little miracle that it all worked out, in spite of the language barrier.

On Wednesday, we had appointments at the DVV to register in the country. Just as we were ready to walk out the door, we could hear someone right outside our door. As we went out, we saw that they had come and changed the name on our mail slot.

We left plenty early and drove to Helsinki. We felt very blessed to find a parking place as all but one spot was filled. We had all of our documentation and our registration forms prefilled out. We didn't have to wait long, but after checking things and looking on her computer, the woman told us that because we had lived here before and were already in the system that we didn't need those forms, and she gave us a muuttoilmoitus to fill out instead. It is a change of address form that you need to fill out anytime that you move in Finland and even when you leave Finland. She told us that if we ever come again that we don't need to go to the DVV, but just fill out a new muuttoilmoitus form. I guess that now we are officially here!

On Wednesday evening we took our suitcases up to the varasto (storage). We are still trying to get things organized, but at least we got the suitcases out of the way.

Thursday Steve had a Dr. appointment in Helsinki. This time we took the train. It had rained that morning in Helsinki, but the weather was quite nice as we walked from the train station to the building. We sat in a park and did our duo lingo since we were still a bit early.

We found the building with no problem, but finding where to go in the building was quite a challenge. We did eventually find it though. We took the next picture as we got back to the train station. It was still lovely weather, but it was pouring rain by the time we got back to Leppavaara.

Friday morning we got up and went for a walk before getting ready for the day. We were glad to walk through the forested area where we most often walked on our last mission. It was sad though to see all of the graffiti that is there now. We saw a little bit of graffiti when we were here before, but there is much more here now!

Friday night we went to the temple. The session was in Russian, the text was in English and there also people there using headsets for Estonian and Finnish. At least those are the ones that I know about. We went to Lidl afterwards and got a few groceries and some mini ice-cream bars.

On Saturday we did our laundry and went for a walk. We saw this cute animal figures along our walk.

We stopped in at a secondhand store, and also went into three little markets. I think that one was Asian food, one was Indian and one was Turkish. Steve wanted to try some things from the bakery area in the Turkish store. We ended up getting one of each of everything they had in the display case. The man told us they were all different types of baklava except one which translated to sugar piece.

Sunday, we went to the International ward in Helsinki. We went with Elder and Sister Mitchell. They also picked up Sister Airto. We were so excited to see her and she was excited to see us. We totally forgot to get a picture.

There were several people who we recognized from before. A missionary who had served while we were here before was visiting. We saw him last week as well in Espoo 1 ward. There were several visitors, including Scott Christopher (LDS actor from The Best Two Years, Mobsters and Mormons, Granite Flats, etc.). I guess he and his wife were on a cruise and just stopped in for church.

We were invited by Linda and Adrian to go to their house for lunch, along with the Mitchells. Linda is the Lehtinen's daughter, and she was the RS pres. in our ward when we were here before. Mitchells drove which made it very nice for us. It was nice to see their new home and the food was delicious.

Just as we were driving away, we spotted a moose in a field. I was able to get a quick picture through the window, although it was just as it turned its head.