Fall is in the air

Well, I hate to admit it but I think for all practical purposes summer is over in Finland, that is if we ever had one.  However, I am not complaining after hearing how hot it has been in Utah this year.  We may have hit 80 degrees once or twice but most of the summer has been in the 60s and 70s with much rain and not a whole lot of sunshine.  There is a joke in Finland that goes like:

"What are the two shortest words in the Finnish language?"  The answer in Finnish is "Suomen Kesä" translated is "Finnish Summer."  Another joke is, "What is the most quiet place in Finland?"  The answer is "The elevator."  The Finnish people are really private and you can get on a elevator with any number of people and nothing will be said the whole time.  Don't let this fool you however because once they get to know someone and become friends and acquaintances, they talk and talk and talk.

Finnish field of canola plants ready to harvest for the oil.

It has been over a month ago when I added to our blog and much has transpired in the mission field.  I will try to bring you up to date on a few things and add a few pictures.

We still manage to help Elder and Sister Perkins with the housing situation once in a while.  It seems like we are always closing or opening an apartment, or doing something to support the housing needs of the missionary.  Perkins do a fantastic job of managing that.  We did go to Tampere for a day and helped clean out an apartment we had to close because of fewer missionaries.  It took 5 seniors pretty much of the whole day to get it ready to turn back but I guess it passed the closing inspection because I got the full housing deposit back.  That is part of my job to take care of the financial end of housing like paying the rent, utilities, repairs, and rental deposit managing.  Taking care of housing is big responsibility for the Perkins as they have to insure that every apartment is inspected once a quarter also.  There are two other senior couples that help them with the inspections.  Once neat things about doing inspections is that it allows you to meet many of the missionaries as you make the rounds.

Veli Nissen with Londons and Perkins

One of the cool things about going on a mission is that you get to visit with many of the missionaries that have gone home and then returned to Finland for a visit.  A couple of weeks ago Elder (ex) Nissen visited the mission office with his family.  It was really good to see him again.  He was an outstanding missonary and I am sure that he is doing well now.  We went to lunch with him and his family.  It was a good day again.



Zone conferences were held the fourth week of July and the last week of August.  All missions are to have Zone Conferences every 6 weeks now.  We have four zones in Finland and it takes a whole week for the mission president to attend four conferences throughout the mission.  He and his wife usually fly to the one up north.  I went this past Wednesday to our zone conference and it is really a nice boost for all of us.  President and Sister Aura do a wonderful job and the missionaries participate so openly.  Perkins fix lunch in Helsinki for the zone conferences.  Senior couple do lunch for the East Zone and members help with the Tampere and Oulu zone conferences.   The President, in addition to zone conferences every 6 weeks has to interview every missionary every 6 weeks.  He also has Mission Leadership Council once a month, Interim Training for new missionaries (3 days long) every 9 weeks for new missionaries, is responsible as a stake president for three districts in the north part of Finland, and various other responsibilities.  I know know why they call fairly young men as mission presidents, it has got to be one of the most taxing callings in the church and a certain amount of physical stamina is necessary.

Mushroom picking

Strawberry Birthday Cake

We had a wonderful experience visiting with our friends in Kouvola.  Brother and Sister Jäkkö invited us over on Saturday to visit with them and go to church there on Sunday.  Elder and Sister Perkins went with us and we had a good time visiting, reading some of their history, and picking mushrooms in the forest.
 Later that day we ate mushrooms for dinner.  Nellie and Aimo are such wonderful people.  They had much to do with the first days of the church in Russia.  It is a heartwarming story of Finnish pioneers during the early days of the church in Western Russia. We all went to church the next day in Kouvola and had a great time.  They actually had this beautiful strawberry pie for the branch after church.  It was outstanding.

Nellie and Aimo Jäkkö

  A couple of weeks later we decided that we would like to go to church in Lappeenranta and drop off some papers that we had borrowed from the Jäkkö's and they ended up inviting us to stay over Saturday evening a their house again and back to Lappeenranta church the next morning.  Their branch was having a Saturday social so they invited us to that and we had a great time at the museum in Kotka and a picnic with the branch later.  We then drove to Lappeenranta to see the sandcastle displays.  You can see some of them in this picture.
Back to our friends for the evening and back to Lappeenranta for church the next morning.  After church we were invited to the Smith's for dinner.  It was a very fun weekend for Lynne and me.

One of the people we have been working with was baptized in July by a recent convert who had just received the priesthood.  Both of them were from Vietnam, so it was a very interesting situation.

On the 1st of August we received a batch of new missionaries.  Much of their luggage was late but we eventually found it.  They seem like a really nice group.  On the 2nd we had the departing sisters in our office that morning and we had a very special morning devotional listening to them give us their departing remarks. The next day our missionaries went home and things have settled down a bit. Sunday at the end of this week we went to church in Hyvinkää.  A really nice group of people and very warm to meet with.

Lynne and Kelsea

We had a missionary return to Finland that had gone home for a while and we delivered him to his new city of assignment.  It just so happened that it is the city, Jyväskylä, where Kaisa's sister lives and so we decided to go visit her for a couple of days.  We left Friday around noon and drove to Jväskylä stopping along the way to deliver missionary supplies and packages.  We actually took a couple of bikes to missionaries along the way also. We had a great time visiting with Helena and walking around the city.  It was pretty cool there but everything worked out fine.  One of the highlights of the trip was that we were able to have lunch with Kelsea Jackson from Morgan who used to be in our ward.  She is a student in Finland just completing her Masters degree and is planning on going to New Zealand to work on her Doctorate.  She is looking good and doing well.  She speaks a bit of Finnish which is a major accomplishment for any foreigner over here.  Sunday we went to church there and returned home that afternoon after eating dinner with Helena.

Sister Airto

Saturday are our usual P-day but many times it isn't because of missionary needs.  We usually try to clean our apartment on that day and go shopping.  It is also a day we try to hit a few of the thrift stores and look for something that we don't really need.  Anyway it is enjoyable and different.  Sometimes we going teaching with the missionaries on Saturday, but of the time it is during the week.

It was Sister Airto's birthday this past Thursday, so we had a good time in the office.  Friday we took her out to dinner at Tommie's.  There were 10 us and the food was good and Lynne's chocolate cake was also great.

So you can see that there is always something going on in the mission.  We do spend a lot of time taking care of the missionaries and that is our job.

Today we are exciting because Danielle and Tyson will be landing in Finland around 5:30 PM.  Their plane was late out of Salt Lake so they were late into Amsterdam and missed their scheduled flight to Helsinki.  It will be fun to spend some time with them and show them around the place.

Well Tyson and Danielle made it to Finland and it has been fun having them around.  It is a bit crowded in the apartment but we are making it fine.  We have managed to get around a bit and see the sites.  Yesterday we went to church in Neistypolku and visited the Rock Church and Sibelius's monment in Helsinki.  Today, Monday September 4 they left for a couple of days in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia on the ferry.  We dropped them off today at the ferry and they will be back to Helsinki tomorrow evening.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Rock Chapel and the monument.

Rock Church

Sibelius's Monument

I think that is enough for now.  Getting a bit late here so it is time to hit the sack.  Hope all of you are doing well.  Our love to you.

Elder and Sister London