Monday morning it was quite foggy when we got to the field through which our morning walk takes us. I tried taking a picture of this interesting flower that we saw that morning. It was taken at an awkward angle and the flower ended up not even being in focus. I thought is was interesting picture though because you can see the fog that is condensing on the leaves and the dew drops that are forming.
If we take our most usual route for walking in the morning, we walk past these tennis or pickleball courts. At first, I thought that there was frosted glass surrounding them so you couldn't really see inside.
One day we walked past and I thought that they had removed the glass.
I realized that the glass was still there, it just didn't have condensation on it like it does in this picture.
(I wish I had gotten a picture on the day the glass was clear.)
When we got into the forest, the fog was not noticeable,
but there was an interesting beam of sunlight coming in on the path.
We noticed that the ferns were even more brown and shriveled. We took a picture on Monday and then again at the end of the week. The bottom picture is the earlier picture.
It was still foggy as we came back out of the forest.
We reported in our last blog about the problems we were having trying to get the visa/passport from the South African Embassy in Sweden to the mission office in Finland for one of our missionaries who was assigned to serve in South Africa, but is on reassignment serving here until his visa to to South Africa gets granted. The saga continued this week and took up much of our time.
Kind of a mystical, magical look.
I sent a little message to the Elder telling him not to worry, that we were working on it, but it was being much more difficult than we expected. This Elder is a native Finn from up north. He is still learning English. He is a delightful young man and we enjoy talking to him. He sent me this sweet message.
I especially love the "good lucky for you"!
We thought that if we had a DHL account we could do this. I had a great bit of inspiration that possibly the Temple or the FM(facility management) group might have a DHL account. Elder Shurtz reached out to them and the Temple group said they did have an account and that we could us it.
We tried again to order the package pickup online, but couldn't find a place to put the account number in. Elder Shurtz called DHL Finland and told them what we were trying to do. They asked for the account number and he gave it to them. They came back and said that unfortunately that account was only for exporting and not for importing. They told us to call Sweden and they could help us. That would be an international call, so we wondered if there was another way to reach them.
They gave us a WhatsApp number for them and said we could also do a chat on the online site.
We tried calling the WhatsApp number but the message said that this WhatsApp number was not set up to accept phone calls. Did we want to do a chat. We tried that, but that sent us to a DHL Russia chat!
I tried a chat on the online site. That did not go well either. 
I told them that we had contacted Finland and they said we needed to contact Sweden for help.
They gave me the phone number and said that customer service could help walk us through the booking process. So . . . we called the Sweden DHL. After checking on several things they said that unfortunately, it was not possible to request a pickup and pay if we were not actually in Sweden.
On Monday night, we tried calling Church travel in Salt Lake to see if they might have any ideas that could help us. They tried checking on several things, but the bottom line was that they couldn't really do anything to help us. They said the area travel people would be better to help, but we explained that we had already reached out to them. They also suggested maybe the Sweden mission might be able to do something to help us. I had actually already sent an email to the Sweden Stockholm mission office earlier in the day, but had not heard back from them.
Last week, I forgot to put this in, so I am going to add it here. While I was online trying to figure out how to use the DHL website. I hit something and suddenly there was cute Anna's face practically filling the screen of my computer. No idea where that came from or how exactly, but it was sure fun!
One evening Steve tried using his vpn on his computer and ordering a DHL pickup like he was in the U.S. (The billing address for the mission office credit card that we use is actually in SLC.) That wasn't working either, so he tried calling DHL in the U.S. They said that you can't do it as an individual, but need to have an account. He asked what was involved in that and realized that an account was only for businesses who would be using DHL more often, not just a one time thing.
On Tuesday Elder and Sister Kite came by to pick up some things from the office to take on their missionary apartment inspection trip. She had also tried to help us by talking to people she knew that go to Sweden periodically, but no one was going anytime soon. We did get a picture of them loading their car.
Tuesday evening I went to the knitting class at the Haaga chapel. I am enjoying my time there.
Elder Shurtz tried late in the day to reach out to Sweden mission financial secretary using that email address. He got an automatic reply saying they were out of the office.
There was a phone number with the financial secretary's signature. He tried texting and found out he was in a meeting. He asked him to call as soon as he could because we really needed to talk to them.
Side note: When I looked up who was in the Sweden mission office, I found that it was
Elder and Sister Warnick from Kaysville Utah. I was interested in just where they lived
and looked it up to find that they lived about a block away from Tami and Rob's old house,
and Elder Warnick told Steve that they know them. Small world.
It is only every other week, so that seems like a long time between meetings.
My progress on my sock.
The Kites were short on time when they had come by the office and we volunteered to
While I was knitting with the group. Elder Shurtz heard back from Elder Warnick. He said that he would have a little bit of time on Wednesday morning try to help us.
help them by making some deliveries of household things to the 2 sets of Espoo area sisters.
We made those deliveries after the knitting class was over.
On Wednesday, Elder Warnick was able to do in 10- 15 minutes what we had been trying to do for a week! He ordered the pickup for Thursday morning with a delivery to us by Friday end of day! We were soooo grateful, but we still couldn't feel relief until we actually had the passport in hand.
We found that we have a nice electric grill in our apartment.
We used it on Wed. night to grill up some chicken.
We froze most of it, but we used some of it to make a couple of pizzas
using some of our leftover naan as the crust. It was delicious!
I am always fascinated by the moss. We pass this tree trunk almost everyday.
Look at that thick moss and the mushroom or other fungus growth on this trunk.
We are enjoying seeing some of the trees turn color now.
On Thursday afternoon, I got an email from the Aula saying "Kirjapaketti aulassa".
I know that kirja means book and paketti means package, so I thought there was a book package in the aula. I thought it might be heavy, so I took Elder Shurtz with me.
Just as we walked outside, Elder Shurtz got a text from DHL. It was in Finnish. We went to the desk in the aula and were handed a DHL envelope! As we walked back outside, I had such a huge feeling of relief sweep over me! I couldn't believe that we finally had succeeded in getting the passport/visa.
Elder Shurtz said we needed a picture.
We got another picture once we got the package open and actually saw the visa in the passport!
When we got back to the office, Elder Shurtz used google translate to translate the DHL message. It said, "We tried to deliver DHL Express shipment ... from South African E today, but the facilities were closed. Agree a new delivery time" and gave a link. We figured that they had come to the building that our office is in and found that the door is locked, so sent the message. We thought that there was some divine help in actually getting the delivery guy to take it to the other building where the aula (reception area) is located and make the delivery there. We were so relieved that we actually got the package!
It arrived a day earlier than we had expected it.
We are so grateful for Elder Warnick and his help. He was truly an answer to our many prayers!
Some pictures from our walk on Saturday morning. 
It was a purple/pink flower day.
Elder Shurtz took this picture of some of the many flavors of mayonnaise that you can find here.
We knew that there was a baptism that we wanted to attend on Saturday, but for some reason in our minds it was at 5:00. A few minutes before 11:00, Steve looked at his phone and asked why his phone showed it was at 11:00. At first, I thought it was because his calendar was set for mountain time, but when I looked, I realized that it was at 11:00. We hurried and changed clothes and ran out the door. Although we were late, we got there just as everyone was leaving the chapel to go to the baptismal font. We were so glad that we actually made it there in time to witness this special girl's baptism. 
We met her for the first time several weeks ago in the international ward. She played the piano that day for Sacrament meeting. I was amazed when I learned that she was not a member of the church.
It was her second week attending church. She has been investigating the church since 2017 on her own. She has read both the good and the bad. At the end of the baptismal service, she got up and told her story. I found out that she has posted an abbreviated version of her story on Facebook.
I tried to just send a link, but I couldn't get that to work.
I am just copying and pasting her story as she wrote it in Facebook.
My journey with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been anything but quick and easy.
2017: "Beautiful Savior" by Claire Crosby pops up on my YouTube in April. I'm captivated. I watch it over and over again. Mom watches it, notices the link in the description and explains: "They're Mormons, Anna"
2018: I watch more videos, I study the doctrine. I learn to play all of the primary songs on piano, I play them for my teacher and I sing them as I go about my day.
2019: I photograph the temple as we drive past it in Espoo. I find out all the "weird" stuff online. It becomes kind of a joke between me & my friend.
2020: Holed up at home, I chat with a member on Instagram and watch LDS vloggers. I read the Book of Mormon in two months and even watch General Conference.
2021: My friend and I joke about booking an online visit with the missionaries. I dig out all I can find, I even read a book.
2022: I jokingly ask my friend if she'd come to my baptism, and we laugh at the absurdity of the doctrine. However, I defend the church whenever I hear someone else mock it.
August 2023: I decide to visit the church, just to fulfill the curiosity, but it goes the opposite way. I meet Rachael Shah and Myriam Anderson over and over again, I play the piano for the sacrament meeting. I feel a sense of belonging. My bedtime prayers become 30 minutes long, and I start reading the Book of Mormon again.
September 2023: I break my parents' hearts by telling them about the church. I start attending Institute while crying my eyes out.
But I stay.
I'm hurt but so, so, so excited.
I set a baptismal date.
September 23rd is in a week.
I can't wait to sing "Beautiful Savior" again.
"For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do."
2 Nephi 32:5
We attended the Haaga ward today because we wanted to be there for a baptism
that was being held in that ward after church.
We have been amazed at the number of baptisms that we have seen
in the couple of months that we have been here.
This baptism service was in French, with most of the meeting also being translated into Finnish.
The baptism and confirmation and prayers were all done in French. 
After the baptism, there was food provided by the ward members.
Someone mentioned that the man being baptized avoids sugar, and suggested a cheese, bread and fruit theme. It was nice to visit with others after the baptism.
Sunday 24 September 2023
Sunrise/Sunset Espoo Finland 7:09am - 7:16pm for 12 hrs 7 min of daylight.
Sunrise/Sunset Provo Utah 7:16am - 7:20 pm for 12 hrs 4.5 min of daylight.
This is the last time that we will have more daylight than back home until after the spring equinox.
Tomorrow Provo will have 22 seconds more daylight than Espoo.
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