Mummi update:
It is one week and a day that I arrived here, Finland, and what a time
to arrive here! If you are planning a trip (!!!) to Finland, do not
come in October - November -December, although December maybe different
because of the brightness of the Christmas lights! It is so dark and
gloomy, rainy and cold, I had forgotten all that. Sun, if you can see
it once and while, rises barely above the Horizon about 10 am, moves
slowly, but does not rise much more, and then about 2 pm (here 14:00)
goes down and starts getting even darker, and by 5 pm ( 17:00) it is
night dark ! But people are so used to this and I will also soon again.
The MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo was another
experience! Seeing about 2100 missionaries (this how many there can be
at one time) and of course most of them are these
fantastic young, anxious to go, missionaries. Makes your heart swell
and you see Helaman's 2000 young warriors !
I had a very nice and
friendly room mate, Sis. Horne, who went to Nebraska to be in the
office. Most of the Seniors in our group (35 couples and 5 single
sisters) went all of the globe, Phillipnes, Australia, Chile, Samoa etc,
etc. and now they are sending e-mails to each other, it is fun !
I
dont know if you have seen a picture of the Finnish Temple, it is very
simple, classic Finish design, on a small hill, and you can see it from
the main roads down below, and it has 62 steps to the main door. You can
also use car to come closer, but small road is nicely hidden so it does
not take the beauty of the Temple away. AND ---- this is a
multi-lanquage Temple: Finnish, Russian, Eastonian, Latvian and Swedish
!!!. So we are learning all those, Russian we are reading with regular
Finnish, same as English, letters, because you
would have to learn the Russian alphabets, and it would be too much !
Housing
for the missionaries and patrons are just below the Temple, close and
they are beautiful and roomy and very modern (as Finland is), but they
are done for couples and the patrons quarters are made for 6 people, who
come here from different countries to work for a week or so. So, they
dont have a place for me, I am the only single. They rented a small
apartment for me, and unfortunately I have to use a bus to get there and
back. I do get rides from the others, specially if I am working in the
evening shift and Sundays to Church meetings. The Temple president told
me that they are going to add at least one new apartment, for me, and I
am praying for that!! But it does not happen until May-June. Right now I
dont have a companion so it is kind of lonely.
I do miss Sandy and
the Silver Pines [the Senior Community Mummi has been living at for the past 2 years] and you all, and try not to think about that it will be
1 and 1/2 years before
I see you again! But this is a once in the life time experience and
opportunity to be a Temple missionary, and I am thankful for this.
