This is where we live

This is quick picture taken during our walk this morning. It is getting a bit cold, but it has not been too bad yet. Weather is much like our cold at home.

I guess we should show you all where we live while at the temple. As you can see, we are not far from the temple. This picture was taken from our living room window. What a view! The apartment complex is built so that 7 missionary couples can live here at the same time and also a number of rooms with multiple bunks are available for members throughout Russia, Latvia, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania can stay while attending the temple. Also many of the Finnish temple workers stay here while on their short term assignments. Many come for a week at a time to work in the temple and then go home for a while. They come from all over Finland and stay for as long as they can. There are not enough missionaries to do all the work. Usually we try to keep things in order and provide some continuity to the process.

This shows the entire building pretty much. Our room is the one right in the middle corner above the awning. The entrance is just below the same awning. The window on the left, straight above the awning is our bedroom window and the one above the awning just to the left is our living room window from which the first picture was taken.

There is a big dinning room on the main floor for all the folks staying over. A meeting room and the front desk, where we have to assist in the evening to check people in. It is one of those "other duties as assgned."

We are doing very well. Our love to you at home.

October 13, 2011

Well, good friends and neighbors. The Londons are still alive and well in Finland. We have been working hard at the temple, learning all kinds of good things, trying to understand and be understood is a real challenge but the temple workers all seems to be very kind and understanding.

Just a bit of background. In the Helsinki Temple, the missionaries are used to keep the the daily temple routine moving. There are a number of local people that are scheduled to come in at certain times and perform certain duties. In fact, the daily shift coordinator is a local Finn but he might only come in once a week. Our duties are to insure that he has all the help that he needs in scheduling the sessions and use us where we are needed. In any one day, we can be involved with any or all the ordinances in the temple. Like today, I went through a session in Finnish, then hurried to baptise for a while. Immediately left there and worked at the veil at the end of a session. Tomorrow I could do initiatory, or whatever. They basically have everyone available at the beginning of a session to help. Then after the session starts, anyone that is not helping with the session could be involved with something else. The missionaries try to help with that something else during the day. Lynne and I are up to our eyeballs trying to figure out what is going on. They are having Lynne do the veil ceremony in Finnish already. She has to read it of course but she is doing okay.

The picture above is the little Lidl store that we shop at all the time. It is about a 15 minutes walk away and we like it. It has most of what we need and it is fine. About a 30 minute walk away is a large mall with two large groceery stores in it along with everything else. The only problem with any of them is the prices over here are easily 50 to 100 percent more than we pay for some things. I keep looking for a Walmart type store and I have yet to find one. It is hard to spend money on something when you used to paying a certain price for it. Don't worry, we haven't stopped spending money yet and I doubt that we will. One of the good things going for us is that whatever we buy, except for food, we have to take home or give it away. So really n0t much sense in buying a lot of nicities.

Hope that you are all well. Love, Rick and Lynne

Sunday of the first week

Well, we just returned from church. It was the Espoo 2nd Ward and it was a full house. It was great to just be there with them. It has been very busy week in the temple. Yesterday, was one of the busiest days they have ever had. They was a special temple worker devotional after yesterday's shift at the temple. An area Seventy from Germany spoke to the temple workers about the importance of marriage and did a very good job.

This afternoon we went on a little trip to with the Fullers to see where they used to live when he was the mission president in Finland. It was fun trip and a very beautiful day. The one picture with the rainbow was taken just outside the temple after we ended the day yesterday. The second picture is on the shore of the sea near Helsinki. It was a beautiful day and a bit cold.

We are well and happy. Miss you all, but this is where we are suppose to be.

We are here and ready to go.

Well everybody, we made it to Finland today and what an airplane trip. But now that it is over, it is great to be here. We have been made to feel super welcome. In fact, President Haikkola set us apart as temple workers this evening and we start tomorrow. Our apartment is very adequate and close to the temple. We are doing just great.

The trip from SLC to Chicago went relatively well for having to rebook us at the last minute. But the trip from Chicago took forever. The airline would have had a lot of trouble trying to get another person on the 747 as cramped as we were. Frankfurt finally woke-up as we arrived and then we left it 3 hours later. The weather in Helsinki was overcast and raining but President and Sister Haikkola met us and made us feel very much at home.

Hard to say goodbye to everyone that we love so much at home but they will be blessed. More later.

Provo Temple Week

Well everyone, again a great week. We arrived back in at the MTC Monday morning just in time for breakfast and then to the temple for a three and one-half days there. It was been really fun. Our time is short, we leave tomorrow for Morgan and our final packing experience before we leave.

This picture is of our temple training group this week. They are a wonderful "bunch" of people and we are going to miss them. Elder and Sister Hammond have been our hosts this week and they have been fantastic.

Plenty of food still. Lunch at the temple has been exceptionaly great, probably because it is different than the MTC food.

Week One is Over

Well, as you can see from the picture we have been to the MTC this week. It was a fantastic week and so well-planned and carried out by the MTC leadership. From the get-go it was a great experience meeting with all the senior couples, seeing all the young missionaries, and many other things that impressed us. The young returned missionary teachers were very outstanding and the respect that is shown the senior missionaries is heart-warming.

We learned to teach from Teach My Gospel and use many of the concepts taught from there. Certainly we were out of our comfort zone, but it was good for us old dudes and we did learn a bunch. Tuesday evening at the weekly devotional, Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke to us about the Book of Mormon and it was great to hear him about two rows back from the pulpit.

Lynne and I are still trying to figure out how they feed so many people in the MTC everyday. We certainly didn't go hungry the whole time we were there. Our sleeping accommodations were great also-they put us up in the Marriot Hotel downtown Provo.

One of the highlights for me this week was that Lynne bore her testimony in Finnish last night at a multi-language testimony meeting. Our Finnish teacher met with us three times this past week and spent all his time working with Lynne. He is a great young man with a super spirit and speaks great Finnish.

All in all, the week at the MTC was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it has to be experienced to know what it is like. Next week we spend in the Provo Temple.

Two Days Before the MTC

Well, it is only two days before the MTC and we are almost ready. We have just about everything ready for us to leave the house and turn everything over to Becca and Phill. We have had a really busy schedule lately but it has been a wonderful past week with a great Wiscombe Family reunion last Saturday in Porterville. We spoke in church Sunday and later had a number of folks over to the home after. It was a great day. This past Tuesday friends in the neighborhood gave us a fun going away party at Mynon Deru's home. All the children and grandchildren have been during the past several weeks and it has been fun to have them all around.