We woke up Monday morning on the train and got ready in our little bathroom. It has a swinging wall so it can be a bathroom with a toilet and sink, or the wall can swing and cover the toilet and it is a little shower stall. It is quite small, but functional and we were able to get ready to go to zone conference. 
We had to walk a short distance and wait for a while for them to unhook the car carrier from the train and bring it over to the point where it could be unloaded. Steve retrieved the car and picked me up and we were off to zone conference. We stopped at a Prisma store to buy a pillowcase for elders in Kemi.
The zone picture for the Oulu Zone.
After the conference, we drove from Oulu to Kuopio.
It is always interesting to see what there is to see along the way.
I like the old barns!
We saw many piles of logs as we drove.
At one point, a vehicle came past that was wanting us to pull over.
We could see an extra wide vehicle coming. It turned out to be huge!
When we reached Kuopio, we got checked into our hotel and then met the Lehtinen's for dinner. We forgot to take a picture at dinner, so we took one outside the elevator before heading to our rooms.
Tuesday morning, we got up and went for a walk. We found this windmill interesting.
There were lots of birds out by it.
It was a little cold, but not too bad. We were surprised how much ice was still on the lake.
It was another nice day of zone conference.
One of the interesting activities that the Assistants did as part of their training was to have a group of missionaries do wall sits and repeating "My Purpose" taking turns, one word at a time.
Sister Andrus prepared the food for the zone conference.
I was able to do a little bit to help with the food once our training was done.
The Andrus couple leaves on the 8th. We are going to miss them!
Here is the zone picture for the Kuopio zone.
Before leaving, the Lehtinens modeled their hats for us. These hats are worn for graduation and then each year at vappu, people proudly wear their hats on vappu and on vappu eve.
The Lehtinens asked if we had ever been to the puijo tower. We had not, so they suggested we go there.
When we got back to the hotel, they picked us up in their car and took us to the tower. 
It was a nice view.
We could see some paths on the lake and learned that they were what was left of
the skating paths that the city makes on the lake in the winter.
We could also see what looked like a Pesäpallo field.
There were some other interesting things as well.
The lamp shades in the little cafe area were made of birch bark.
These bunny ear bar stools were interesting. They were made especially for the puijo tower.
The Lehinens said that we should try the meat pies and munkki at the cafe.
An interesting thing that I noticed near the hotel was what looked like a huge bird,
but was actually just a kite or windsock type thing that was put on the top of the building
to help keep the birds away from the building.
Wednesday morning was vappu. It is a national holiday, so the hotel breakfast a a bit later than usual.
How on earth did it get to be May already?
We got up and went for a walk.
We went on a similar route that we had gone last Oct. when we stayed in this same hotel.
It was nice because it was light.
Things looked very different that last October when we could barely see where to walk.
We walked on a bridge and could get a good view of where the ice skating tracks had been.
We thought this information sign was interesting, made out of a boat.
They had munkki at breakfast because that is one of the things that the eat for vappu.
Of course we had to try them.
We left around 11:00 I think to head to Tampere.
Again we saw interesting things along the way. Another windmill.
The farther south and west we drove, the warmer it got and the less ice there was on the lakes.
It was such a beautiful day!
We checked into our hotel and then walked around the grounds. 
The Rosendahl hotel was in such a beautiful setting!
Steve ended up on the phone talking to some missionaries.
This was the view from our room. Forest on one side and lake on the other.
The Lehtinens picked us up from our hotel (they were staying at a different hotel) and we drove to the Näsinneula tower. This is a higher tower than the one in Kuopio.
It gives a good view of the two lakes that are on either side of Tampere.
It is also right by the amusement park, which had just opened for the first time of the season that day.
A picture from the observation deck.
We drove to the church because the missionaries were helping with a ward vappu party. 
As we drove, the Lehtinens pointed out places where they used to live and told us more about the city. This is where they started their married life.
We saw soooo many people out for vappu.
I had read that it was the warmest vappu they have had in over a decade.
I think that it got up to 62 degrees that day.
The colorful overalls are worn by the students. I think that they are different colors for universities and different fields of study. Most of them are covered in patches.
I understand that the patches come from participating in different student events.
They also represent different hobbies or support for different organization.
And of course, people are wearing their hats. They wear their hats and overalls very proudly!
After the church we went to a little cafe for dinner. They were getting ready to close in half an hour, but said that we could stay a little longer than that. Anyone who came in after us was turned away.
When we got back to our hotel, it was such a beautiful evening that we went hiking up the hill
through the forest near the hotel. We ended up at the pyynikki tower.
We have gone up this tower before, so just walked around, but did not go inside.
We ended the evening by painting over the mormonit.fi on the two roll-ups
that we had exchanged marked ones with in Oulu and Kuopio.
It was really nice to have a day to travel and recover before doing another zone conference.
We went for a walk on Thursday morning. It was a beautiful morning. The temperature was only in the 30s, but the sun was shining and it was such a lovely area.
We walked down by the lake.
One of the first things that we saw was lots of pipes going down into the water.
We could see a ramp there as well. 
During the tanssin hetki, there is one part that is freestyle. During that part, these four elders jumped in the middle and made a person riding a bicycle. It was quite fun to watch.
This cute sister wanted to get her picture with us as she goes home next transfer.
As we looked around and saw this at the top of the ramp.
We realized that this is a handicap dressing room and a way for wheelchairs
to be wheeled down into the water so the person could go swimming in the lake.
The lake was incredibly beautiful, calm and reflecting.
Then we were off to the next zone conference. Sister Lehtinen taught some Finnish sayings that missionaries could use, and explained how to use them.
Sisters from Tampere zone. A little silliness going on in the front row.
Zone picture from the Tampere zone.
I think that it may have gotten up to 67 degrees in Tampere on Thursday!
Our drive back to Espoo was lovely. The clouds in the sky were gorgeous.
We noticed on our walk on Friday morning that not only was the pile of snow and ice by the soccer field completely gone, but the gravel had been scooped up as well.
The Helsinki zone conference was held in the Haaga building. 
We also showed them how to use a fire blanket and their fire extinguisher in case they ever need that.
At the end of zone conference, we learned that the Mitchells were heading to the temple because a sister from the International ward was receiving her endowment. We decided that even though we were exhausted, we wanted to go and be with this sister. 
Our training in the zone conferences included a game of "What can go wrong" in regards to filling out a muuttoilmoitus. I guess that the training was effective, because later in the day we got a picture of some mail from some sisters saying that this had come from another sister. It was a bill from ropo (bill collection agency). They sent it because of our training. They should have sent it a couple of weeks ago when it first arrived, but I guess that it is better sent late than never at all. The amount was already 30 euros higher that the original bill and it is now past its due date, so will probably go even higher.
I made some "fire" and put it in a couple of pans to practice using the fire blanket.
We took a picture of the group that were from our MTC time that are in the Helsinki zone.
Helsinki zone picture.
It was interesting, the session was in English and the subtitles were in Chinese.
It was such a special evening.
We were invited to the temple patron housing for icecream bars afterwards.
Sirius wanted to get a picture with us.
As we were leaving the temple, I saw the beautiful flowers in bloom so stopped for a picture.
Saturday was a busy day. We had laundry and shopping to do. Elder Shurtz was running the safety scavenger hunt that he had told the missionaries about as part of our training. 
We also had a baptism to go to for two men in the International ward.
After the baptism we drove by the rhododendron park near the Haaga chapel.
I want to go there once the flowers are in bloom!
Then we went to Motonet to buy some adblue for the van.
Saturday evening, we had another baptism.
David was baptized and confirmed. So happy that we could watch via technology!
We are finally enjoying seeing some flowers blossoming. Sister Lehtinen said "Sinivuokko and valkovuokko are the blue and white spring flowers that you can find all over in forests. Soon after those you will see the yellow flowers like Leskenlehti (coltsfoot) and finally Voikukka (dandelion)".
Elder Mitchell sent a video to the ward from the potluck last week as a good bye.
Sunrise/sunset times for Sunday 5 May 2024
Espoo Finland 5:06am to 9:31pm for 16 hrs 25 min of daylight.
Provo Utah 6:20am to 8:26pm for 14 hrs 6 min of daylight.
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