Update from Espoo

Well friends, I am sitting behind the counter at the complex where we live.  The missionaries each have a turn about once every other week to receive travelers coming to the temple in the evening when the full-time day person has left for the evening.  They are beds here for 48 people, 8 rooms each with 6 beds.  Usually there are a few extra beds left over and it is mostly empty on the weekends, but the first and second week after the first of the year, it is completely full of Russian saints to the east.  It is my understanding that Christmas is not a big deal in Russia but the New Year celebration is big time.  A lot vacation time then so the saints in the St. Petersberg area come to the Helsinki Temple.  They are a pretty happy bunch together and we are looking forward to working with them every day.

This past week we had a temple workers' party here at the asunto (guest house)  on Monday and it was loaded with goodies.  There was a short program and the funnest thing of the evening was a traditional skit put on by some Finnish members.  I guess that it has been around for over 200 years and it is a common skit to be performed in the schools and communities all over Finland.  The picture below is the four characters in the skit.

Tuesday, 13 Dec-Liisa's birthday,  we went to Helsinki to the annual Saint Lucia Day celebration and parade.  This is a tradition that has come down through 100s of years and I think each country in Europe has it own way of celebrating.  First of all there was a performance in the large church in Helsinki.  Lucia was crowned and then some singing and speaking.  After that she walks down the stairs of the church in front of thousands of people, gets into a big chair in the back of an ancient truck, and joins the parade through the streets of Helsinki.  It was really fun.  In the church her crown was actually made of burning candles, but in the parade the candles had to be changed to small lights because of the wind.

On the same street where the parade went was the big outside Christmas market with all the little shops that we have talked about earlier.  Well, this is a picture of one of the hand-made items.  Rachelle should like this one-it looks like a moose.  

Well, that is about it for now.  We are well and tired.  Hope all of you are having a great holiday season.  Bye for now.