Return and Report, Recyle and Robot

November just started, how did it get to the the 19th already!

 One day, when we walked out of the door of our apartment, we could see this outside of our building. They are working on repairing some water damage that happened a month or two ago.
It extended from the ground to the storage floor above the 6th floor.

Speaking of the storage floor. The storage is called the varasto. 

We have a little cage there that is for our apartment. 

We keep the tires there, and Elder Shurtz just put 

the carpet car mats there since we bought the rubber one.

On Wednesday, Elder Shurtz took the car to a car wash place. 

He wasn't quite sure just how to operate it, but he was successful in getting the car clean.

Elder Shurtz decided to try something new.  He also got car fobs for the Driver Accountability Program (DAP) labeled to give to the missionaries he would be seeing the next day. Usually they do not physically get their fob until after they are certified.  These fobs will not be activated until the missionary does all they need to in order to be certified to drive, but by handing them out now he will not have to worry about how to get the fobs to the missionaries later. We are not sure if this was a good idea or not. One missionary texted later and said he left his at the mission home.🤣

We went to the temple on Wednesday night. 

It was Return and Report, so there were lots of missionaries there!

I realized that one of the trainers who was there at the temple was expecting a package. We have had a hard time getting this package. It had VAT due on it and for some reason, the system wouldn't let Sisar Saarinen get to the point where we could pay what was owed. She had finally gotten it to work at the beginning of the week. I was feeling bad that we didn't have the package. 

I had checked earlier in the day, but it said it was still being delivered and it would tell the pick up point once it was delivered. As we came out of the temple, I had the thought that we should check on the package. It was at posti in K-citymarket in Sello. We went by to pick it up. That turned out to be a blessing because we were able to pick it up and take it the next day to our training for Return and Report so it could finally get to the missionary.

While we were at sello, we saw a couple of interesting things. We noticed this red box that seemed to 

be something to open in case of fire. There was a hose leading up to it. In following the hose up to the ceiling, we saw that there was a large coil of hose. We think that it is a fire hose and the end of the hose is in the box. Very different than anything we have seen before.

In the mall there are several of these ramp type escalators that the shopping carts can go on. They seem to attach magnetically to the ramps (and perhaps have some sort of magnet activated locking mechanism inside the wheel) so that they don't roll or slide while they are on them. As we were coming down one, there were carts going up the other one without anyone going up with them. 

There was a worker at the top and one at the bottom. The one at the bottom would put a stack of carts on the escalator and they would go up while he get another stack. The people got on the escalator without paying any attention to the carts heading up on their own. When they reached the top, the worker there would put them in place where the carts belong. It was interesting to watch.

Thursday morning, we had the opportunity to do some training at Return and Report. Elder Shurtz worked on some of the things that need to be done to get the missionaries certified to drive. 

I showed a little clip of "If you want to change the world...start out by making your bed." I also had them play a game that was left by Sister Romberg about Finnish traffic and parking signs.

We had a delicious brunch and then we had Elder Shurtz's car clinic in the garage, where he showed them things that are different about cars in Finland and specifically mission cars. 

The road between the office and the mission home is undergoing some construction and it is a mess. Lately, we have been taking a little bit longer, more scenic route instead of going through the construction area. I love some of the buildings and barns along that route. 

I had to take a picture of one of the little trees along this route. We had seen them before and I wondered why they would have little trees just inches away from the side of the road. We finally decided that they are like the thin red poles that go up this time of year near the road that we think are to mark the road for snowplows. In this very scenic more rural looking area, they have marked the road with small trees, or branches from trees.

We were so grateful to finally see some sunshine, as we have not seen the sun for a while. It did mean that we had a hard time seeing the road because it was shining directly at us through the windshield. I had to take a picture of how low the sun was because it was 12:30 in the afternoon. The sun was at the high point of the day!

Thursday night there was a recycle night for Relief Society. Everyone brought clothing or other things in good condition and set them out of tables. Then we could all go through and find things that we could use and take them. There were lots of children's clothing and other things that I wished I could have gotten to give to our grandkids.

I did find several things that I brought home.

On Friday, we got to the office and I hung up a coat that we brought from the recycle night 

that we thought a young missionary might be able to use. Elder Shurtz hung his coat up 

and started to walk away and the coat tree went crashing to the ground. 

He had apparently got a string from his coat attached to his keys which he had put in his pocket, so when he walked away he was attached to his coat. 

Unfortunately, the coat rack broke in the fall.

I was able to find some all purpose glue that said it was good for wood, and Elder Shurtz glued it back together. I found a zip tie that we used along with some rubber bands to keep it together until the glue dried. It seems to be useable once again now.

On Sunday mornings, we drive to downtown Helsinki and park the car 

and then walk to the church. We have to walk several blocks, 

much farther that our little walk across the street back home. 

On our drive back after church, we saw someone with huge pink puffy earmuffs and red hair.

We had a baptism to go to this afternoon at the church. The man who performed the baptism was a man who we watched be baptized just a couple of months ago. 

When we left the church, there was one of the little delivery robots on the sidewalk waiting patiently to cross the street. When the traffic was clear, it proceeded across the street. 

I thought I got it on Marco Polo, but I was having trouble with it and it didn't actually 

record it which was too bad, but I did get a picture.

I thought that I would show the progress that I have made on my very difficult puzzle. 

While the progress is slow, I am making progress!

It has been cold this week! One morning it was 23 degrees F, feels like 15! 

The next morning it was 22F, feels like 14! At least the wind was not blowing either day 

and we did get out and go for our morning walk. 

Sunrise/sunset Sunday 19 Nov 2023

Espoo Finland 8:29am to 3:43pm for 7 hrs 13 min of daylight

Provo Utah 7:16am to 5:06pm for 9 hrs 50 min of daylight