Easter and mämmi

Well it is Easter afternoon in Finland and all is well.  We had the sister missionaries over for dinner this evening.  We attended church in Haaga Ward today and came home and got ready for dinner .  Pretty much sounds the same as when we were home. Easter is a very big holiday around here.  Friday on Good Friday nobody moves.  Everything is closed and it was a good day to go to work as it was quiet in the office. Saturday was a regular day, Sunday is a holiday and so is Monday.  Tuesday before we can get anything done at all.  The traffic was non-existent and so the trip there and back went very good.  It was Fast Sunday in Finland today so we had testimony meeting that was really nice and spiritual.

Below is a picture of the sister today as I was very outnumbered at the dinner table.  From left to right is Sister London from Morgan, Sister Kunz from Lake Town Bear Lake area, Sister Glasser from Bountiful, and Sister Locke from California.  Lynne fixed a very nice dinner and the dessert was outstanding.

In fact, here is a picture of the dessert.  One is a blueberry cheesecake, which was out of this world, and the other is a traditional Finnish Easter dessert called "mämmi".  It is pronounced with a short "a" up front like "mam" short for "madam" and the mi is pronounced like "me."  It is basically a rye type cereal with a a whole lot of molasses and other stuff.  It is eaten with cream and people like it or hate it.  At first I didn't like it but it   isn't as bad now.  Certainly the blueberry cheesecake was more popular but we all tasted the mämmi and I hope no one has to go to the hospital this evening.  The freezers  in the supper markets are loaded with this stuff just before Easter, so I guess many folks eat it.

Anyway, we had a great meal and all were happy.  

Work is as busy as ever.  Biggest task right now is to find enough apartments for the new missionaries coming in a couple of weeks.  Finding them is just the beginning as we need furnishings for every apartment.  I can't imagine how much money the church has to be spending on the influx of new missionaries.  But there

 is plenty of room here for more missionaries as I sure there is room all over the world.  I keep forgetting that my job is not to find more apartments, it is to spread the gospel and finding apartments is secondary to that.  We appreciate Sister Locke here with us now.  She is a big help. She found an apartment in Helsinki near the office, so she will be moving this week.  We will be moving in a couple of weeks, after we get the new set of missionaries in place.

I hope all of you are doing well and spring is in the air there.  Still pretty cold here but the days are longer, so spring can't be too far behind.  Our kids seem to all be doing pretty good, so not too much to report there.

President Porter made it possible for us to watch stake conference a couple of weeks ago.  It was so fun to hear the folks from home and especially to see our wonderful Bishop sustained as stake president.  It was not a big surprise for Lynne and me as we almost know for sure who it would be.  I think many times the spirit gives us the inside track on certain things in that occur in our lives.    

It is wonderful to be here, especially as spring is starting to burst forth.  We are doing okay.  Love to all of you.

Lynne and Rick

Spring may be coming????

Hello friends and neighbors from the northland.  It is March 24, 2013 in Finland and the sun has been shinning all day even though the temperature hasn't been above 0 degrees centigrade.  Church went very well today and we had a good time visiting with the members in Marjaniemi Ward in eastern Helsinki. Everything in the office is as busy as ever but I think we are learning a few things and getting a little faster at it.  We do have some more help, Sister Jill Locke from California has been here a couple of weeks already and she is a big help.  We keep thinking that maybe we will have some free time one of these days but not true so far.

But before we get too involved with the details, look at the owl below.  We saw it today coming back from church just outside our apartment.  Pretty cool isn't it.  A Finnish gentleman pointed it out to us as we were walking by it.  I just about missed it because I wasn't familiar with the finnish word for owl (pöllö).  Now I know it and will probably not forget it.

Anyway we have been really busy but again it is fun to work with the young elders and sisters and enjoy their spirit and youth.  I had forgotten what it was like to have teenagers around to work with , but with the new age reductions, we will be getting them young.  This last week we had 7 missionaries go home and 7 new ones arrive.  It is a continual process and just keeps going.  The world of missionary work is one continual round.

I thought you might want to see a picture of one of the hardest working missionaries in Finland.  Well, here she is.  No one works any harder than Sister London each day at the office.

Our good Russian friends gave us a cookie the other day.  It was really cute of them to think of us.

We managed to get back to the temple yesterday and was it ever busy.  Both sessions were completely full and then some.  There were baptisms and sealings and everything else going on at the same time.  It was a wonderful day to be there and still be a temple worker.

We finally found a new apartment downtown Helsinki.  It is right near the office and we allow us to get there fairly fast and won't have to worry about the winter driving and the 45 minutes to an hour it takes us to get to work each morning.  The new apartment isn't nearly as nice and new as this one but it is okay and we are happy with it.  We just have to move and that is always a royal pain.

Hope you are doing well at home.  We are fine and getting along great.  There are many blessings that come from serving on a mission.  It really is a wonderful time of our lives.

Love to all,  Rick and Lynne

Finland again

Well, we have just left the town of Oulu in Northern Finland and I am writing this blog session while on the train heading south to Helsinki.  We arrived in Oulu yesterday coming north with a new couple that has been assigned here.  Lynne and Sister Johnson rode the train north yesterday and Brother Johnson and I drove their car.  It was about a 7-8 hours drive and it went very well.  The roads were clear but we saw little of the sunshine.  However today in church the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.  We enjoyed our visit to the Oulu branch today, especially meeting many of the members that had been to the temple.  We will get home this evening about midnight and start another day tomorrow.  The train is really a nice way to travel and allows me some time to write this blog and Lynne to do some crocheting.

Anyway, back to catch up on our lives since we came back to Finland.  The MTC was a great experience again and we enjoyed being their again.  We met another new set of missionary friends and we hear from them all over the world.  The MTC was really crowded with all the new missionaries and the lunch room was a zoo.  We managed to meet a number of people that we knew previously.  We met some of our friends from Finland that were in the MTC and some of our other friends.  The young missionaries were again outstanding in teaching us and working with us.  The week of office training went well.  We stayed at the Provo Marriott while there, which is really hard to deal with. All in all, the MTC went much more relaxed than the first time.

We left for Finland on the 21st of January and arrived the 22nd of January.  The plane trip was as long this time as the first time, but we made it just fine.  I don't know why it happens to me but I am always sitting behind someone that likes to recline their seat.  And if you know how little room British Airways has between seats, you will understand what I am talking about.   We arrived a couple of hours late in Helsinki, but the mission president and his wife were there to greet us and all went well.  We had a nice dinner with them that evening and then we went to our apartment, tried to sleep off the jet lag and then Elder Larsen and Elder Edwards picked us up the next morning at noon and we went to work learning our duties.  Since then it has been a madhouse of activity.

The week after we arrived Lynne and I and the office missionaries cooked lunch for 23 people the next 4 days.  I guess this is one of the "other duties as assigned" part of our calling.  It went well and we were able to meet and greet many missionaries.  The week after that were transfers, new missionaries arriving and old missionaries going home.  Lynne must have printed a thousand pages of written material for the president to give to the missionaries.  I have been busy learning all the financial in and outs, plus fleet management and apartments for the missionaries.  Never a dull moment at our house.  We have had the missionaries to dinners and  is a full time job just keeping them filled up.  Also we have been to dinner several times and had senior couples over a few times.  Our apartment is really nice but a bit far from the office.  Some days it takes us almost an hour to drive to work and other days maybe 20 minutes.  But we are doing fine in the office and looking forward to having a new sister arrive in a couple of weeks to help us.  Elder Larsen and Elder Edwards have been outstanding in helping us at the office.  They are wonderful young men and Lynne has adopted them as two new sons.  I think that we will have many new sons and daughters before we get home.  I just hope the food budget can hold up.  Below is a picture of the elders after Lynne fed them on Elder Larsen's birthday.  There was actually a bit of food left on the table when they got through but she sent it home with them.

We love being back "in-country" with the missionaries and the Finns.  The transition from a temple mission to an office mission has been pretty routine except that we have been so busy learning our new tasks we haven't had much time to "smell the roses."  However we did get to the temple on one Saturday do our temple worker duties.  We hope to do that more often after we get our office duties down.

Sorry this blog was interrupted with a discussion on the train with a passenger and his son.  He is a talk show writer and host and we had a wonderful talk about the church and other interesting subject.  Finns are very quiet but once you break the ice, they usually will talk to you.  But the "ice" can be very thick at times.

Here we are in front of the church in Oulu last Sunday with Brother and Sister Johnson.  They are the senior couple now in Oulu and will be working with the young adults.  Great people.

It is now a week later, Sunday morning.  Weeks just fly by with all the activity in the office.  This week was the end of the month so I had many apartments to pay for and many other duties.  All the missions in the church are replacing the debit cards that the missionaries use, and we starting replacing ours about a week ago.  They have not been loaded yet with funds from the church, that will happen the 1st of April.  But their old cards will be closed the middle of March and they will have to cash them to pay for their expenses the rest of the month.  It is going to prove to be a very interesting month in the debit card business.

Yesterday we went with our friends the Williamsons to Lappeenranta, Savonlinna, and Mikkeli.  It was quick trip as the Williamsons are tying to catch a few trips to places they haven't been.  Their mission is ending the 29th of this month and they will be heading home.

 This is a picture of our good friends the Ojalas from Mikkeli.  We stopped by in the afternoon and they served us a wonderful dinner.  Sister Ojala is such a wonderful cook and they always make us feel so at-home.  They worked in the temple with us before and we became really good friends.

Can't go to Savonlinna without taking a picture of the castle there.  This is what it looks like in the winter and believe me, it was winter there yesterday.  It was cold the entire time on the road yesterday but it was a really nice day and Finland is beautiful, even in the winter, if the sun comes out.

 Thought you might like to see what they do around here when there is too much snow. They are shovelling off the roof of the building across from our office.  The second picture gives you a bit more perspective of the operation.  The have a spotter on the ground that watches for people walking by so they don't get injured with the falling snow.  Big business here in Helsinki removing excess snow.

The blue truck is hauling snow out of the city to the sea.  Can you imagine the cost.





Well, I had better quit now and go to church. It looks like we had another 4-6 inches of snow last night outside the apartment.  Believe me they do have spring and summer here, it is just hard to think about it now.

We love being here with our new assigment and duties.

We hope that all of you are doing well and healthy.  Mark and Jessica had their baby boy this past week and they are doing really well. The pictures are on their blog.  We were very saddened when told of the death of Jeanine London, our cousin Terry's wife.

One thing in life is for sure.  Life goes on when you are on a mission, just as it does when you are home.  Message is still the same, if there is something that you have been wanting to do in life, best get started right now because the beginning of any journey in life has to be a step in that direction.

Love you all.  God bless you all.   Rick and Lynne

Home for the Holidays

We are still behind the eight ball but at least I am trying to catch up.  We left Finland on the 15th of December and arrived in Atlanta on the evening of that day.  We drove to Athens and visited with Heather, Mike and Anders for a couple of days.  The flight across the ocean was a "butt buster" but what else is new. I will never appreciate that flight.  Anyway after a long layover in London we arrived in Atlanta, picked up a rental car and drove to Athens.  We arrived at Heather's about 11 pm that evening.  It was fun to be with them for a couple of days.  Anders and I got to ride on the train at the mall for free.  I think that they man thought we were destitute so he just let us ride.

Poor little kid, he just couldn't last any longer.

We left Athens the evening of the 17th arrived in Utah about 9 pm that evening.  Phill and Becca were there to pick us up.  It was wonderful experience to visit with the kids again.  Thanks to Skype they recognized us and we attached very quickly.  It was a hectic 5 weeks at home with all the appointments and visits and shopping and whatever it took to get ready to come back.  However, we did manage to get together with family and friends and had a great time.

We had a fun dinner with Lynne's family.  Much laughter and merriment that evening.  Just good to be together.  We also had dinner with the Hopkins and the Bohmans and our Air Force friends, Evans and Shepards.  We visited many people and just had a great time.

 Ryan go some tickets to the Jazz game so I went with him, Mark, Jessica, and Parker and we watched from the AT&T suite-really it is the only way to watch a professional basketball game.  We had a fun time watching the Jazz loose again and eating a bunch of food prepared for the the suite.   Parker and Ryan had to go down on the front row and watch a little closer.

 One of the days there we went to the shooting range and fired a round or two.  Most of the pop cans on the hill were "murdered" many times.  As you can see from the photo there is a sun in the heavens above, which we see very little of in Finland.  It has been a very long winter here.

Of course Christmas Eve was at our house.  Lynne said that there were 21 people staying overnight at the house in Morgan.  I believe it, hardly standing room, let alone a place to sit down.  It was a super time to be home and watch the kids come down the stairs into the famly room and receive their Christmas presents.  As usual the living room was a mess but that is what it is for anyway.   Lynne and I received a very nice camera from the kids which were are now using in the office.  All in all, Christmas was a very satisfying time to be with the family again.

Of course we couldn't have Christmas without our annual dinner at the ABC Mandarin and listening to Jonathan play his "instruments."  He is always so nice and friendly.  I think that I ate my favorite Hawaiian chicken dinner and had an opportunity to visit quite a while with Jonathan.  He is doing well and was surprised with the candy bar we took him from Finland.

We did find time to see a couple of movies while we were home, Lincoln and Les Miserables were both enjoyable movies and it was good to get out for a while.

We had the opportunity to speak in church while were home and thank goodness that is over.  We didn't have to speak again when we left so that was great.  President Mark Walker released us from our first mission and did a wonderful job.  It was a memorable occasion.  A couple of weeks later President Porter and the Bishop stopped by and we were set apart for our second mission to Finland.  As usual, President Porter always does such a great job of setting missionaries apart.

One of the exciting events that took place during our visit was the blessing of Ryan's and Micaela's new son, Ammon.  We did it in Ryan's ward and had a wonderful dinner afterwards at Ryan's.  Later on we celebrated Parker's birthday a few days early so we could be there.  He turned 14 on the 24th of January and is now a teacher.  With the new missionary age, he will be able to go a mission in 4 years if all goes well.

All in all, it was a good time to go home and visit with the family.  We had to fix a few things around the house but it was in good condition and Bec and Phill have done a great job of keeping it up.  Since it was winter I didn't have a lot of opportunities to get out and do much but I did manage to start up the Model A and drive around town a bit.  We did go look at a potential new home for Bec and Phill, really nice if that is what they want.

Morgan was about the same.  Not much has happened except we have quite a few new members in our ward, which is a blessing.  The ward seemed to be doing very well.  Bishop Skinner is a great leader and all the members seemed to be doing well.  

We are needed much more here than at home.  

End of Temple Mission

Sorry friends for the big delay in posting to our blog.  As you know we completed our Temple Mission around the middle of December and returned to Utah for about five weeks for a vacation before we returned to start our second mission in Finland serving in the Finland Helsinki Mission Office as a mission couple. I will try to go back and bring you up-to-date on our lives.

We had a very active December just before we left.  We were very busy with the holidays and getting ready to go home.  We worked in the temple up until the day before we left.  We loved working in the temple and meeting with all the members each day and enjoying their spirits and friendships.

One of the highlights of leaving was that we had several dinners and parties that we went to.  All of us were invited to visit with Brother and Sister Haikkola in their new home in Turku.  It was a lovely day and we had a great time touring the city and being guests in their home.

The picture on the left is just sample of the food that day and the portraits on the wall are of Brother and Sister Haikkola.  They have a very nice home on the banks of an inlet to the sea.

As you remember, the Haikkolas were just released from temple presidency in November of 2012.  They are now comfortably settled in Turku.  We really enjoyed working with them and the rest of the presidency.

This is a picture of Sister Vorimo, Sister Haikkola, and Sister Stenfors in the dining area of the Haikkola home.  Again a very nice home and a very enjoyable day.  Turku is about a 2-3 hour drive west of Helsinki on the coast.

Well, it wasn't much after our trip to Turku that is was the annual Finnish National Independence Day (December 6th), so we had to celebrate again.  This time it was in the guest house and we all kicked in and helped with dinner.  We invited all the senior missionaries, including the office staff on Neitsytpolku.   We had a fun time and it was good for all of us to get together.

Shortly after the Independence Day Celebration, President and Sister Roto had us all out to their farm near Tampere for a going-away party for us and another couple that was leaving to go home.  The Rotos have a really nice farm in the country and they are great to share it with all of us.  We always enjoy their hospitality and willingness to share with the missionaries.  Again the food was outstanding and we had a fun program after we ate.  

 We had a good time at the Rotos.  He really likes to cook and she is a great cook.  The salmon was outstanding and so was the huge ham that President Roto is slicing above. All the senior couples were there including all the new temple presidency.  It was an awesome day.  At the end Lynne and I were given the traditional going-away present of the Helsinki Temple in a solid cube.  It is a special gift.

These are pictures of the austere group that attended the celebration.  It was nice.

This is the new temple presidency performing and they did a great job.  It really was a fun day.

This is a picture of our good friend, Sister Noreen Horning, who worked in the mission office.  She is now home and we were able to attend her homecoming in the north Ogden area.  A great sister and we miss her much now that we are in the office.

Brother Gary and Sister Pamela France, from Knab, were the office couple and are now back home.  We had some fun times together and we all appreciate all their hard work in the office.  Lynne and I know how hard they worked while in Finland.  We wish them all good luck and happy sailings.

Well, after cleaning our apartment spotless, packing our suitcases which is always a challenge and saying good bye to all, we left Finland after a very enjoyable 15 months serving in the temple.

We left Helsinki the morning of 15 December, 2012 and arrived in Atlanta that evening at about 9 PM local time.  The flight was long but we made it.  This is a picture of London just before we landed at Heathrow.

Below we are sitting in the terminal in London waiting for our flight out.  A very busy place indeed.

Well, the trip home went very well and we survived.  It was difficult to leave our work and our friends but we knew that we would be back shortly.  That made departing much easier.  The mission was really good for us.  We were able to spend much of our time together and grow together.  I had never thought about this fact before, but when we are at home there are so many events and distractions that separate the two of you without even wondering about it.  This has been good for our marriage.

Working in the temple for the first time was also a very growing experience.  We had never worked in the temple before as temple workers and we learned a great deal.  Our experience with that and working with the other missionaries and Finnish members was unforgettable.

Upon arriving home, President Mark Walker released us from our mission and for a couple of weeks we were not missionaries.  A very empty feeling.

Our testimonies have grown.  We love the Lord and all that He has done for us.  No way in this world can we repay Him for all that He has done.  Our prayers and thoughts are with you all and wish the best of life for you.  Our family was fantastic while we were gone and we owe them big-time for taking care of things at home.  We are so blessed. 

Love,  Rick and Lynne

Signs of Christmas 2012

Dear friends,

Time for a bit of an update to our mission.  November is about over and December is almost upon us. We went out to eat on Thanksgiving and the food was great and we didn't have to do the dishes this year as we have in the past.  We enjoyed Skyping with all the kids later that day or during  the week.  We worked in the temple during the day and so it was business as usual.  We did have a good time with our friends.  As we leave for Utah on the 15th of December, our time on our temple mission is very short.  However, we will be back in the mission office on about January 22nd to start our new mission for the next 18 months.  We are doing well and everything seems to be moving right along.  We would love to have more sunshine in Finland but I guess it is just a typical late fall, early winter day.  This fall has certainly been different than last fall.  Much more dreary and dark.  One good thing about the temple is that everyday is great there and the environment is always friendly.  We have been busy in the temple and also at the mission office in Helsinki while learning the ropes on the new job.  We still have to attend the MTC in Provo to start our next mission but that will be fun and we can use the office training.


We have had some fun times.  On our last P-day we went to the Fazer Chocolate Factory and had a tour of the place.  They treated us really well and allowed us to eat all the chocolate we wanted at the end of the tour.  The picture below is our tour guide.

Yesterday we went to Turku and visited a Christmas market.  It was a blast.  This picture is the fog on the countryside as were driving to Turku.

The market place is really festive as you can see.  All kinds of booths, most selling hand work that people have been doing in their homes all year long.  Christmas is the big time for selling all the handicraft "stuff.  This Christmas market was right down town, across from the main Lutheran Church in Turku.

Finns do a lot of knitting and yarn work in general.  The guy below is carding wool below on a simple carding machine.  It takes the raw wool and makes it fluffy so the lady below can make yarn from the fluffy stuff.

I had never seen anyone make yarn before and it was really interesting to see it done.



This sweet Finnish person is dying some of the hand-made yarn in a big pot.  The dye came from some type of plant that grows over here.  All the yarn colours below are naturally hand dyed.

Of course they have to make leather goods from animal skins.  This folks below are softening and stretching leather before making the final products.  Much work but very interesting.

 In another place at the market someone was using an old spinning wheel and getting the yarn ready to weave or knit.  It was most interesting to see how these things were done years ago and how they are still doing it today.

 Of course what is Christmas without Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus.  They were fun to watch.

I wasn't all the interested in many of the exhibits and booths but I really like to see what they offer to eat.  Below is a large wok filled with a great Finnish delicacy.  They are small fish called "muikku".  They cook them whole, floured and in this wok.  They really love them and eat them like crazy.  Lynne doesn't care to eat the eyes and insides so she usually doesn't eat them.  I don't mind them, especially when you can find them in the market place.

Another of course is all the sausage they like to eat.  This may have been made locally, I didn't ask.

This was a boy scout booth and the man is stirring rice cereal (mush) that was wonderful to eat.  I eat mine with cinnamon and sugar.  This cooker was cooking 150 litres of rice mush and the way it was selling, I am sure that they ran out during the day.

This picture below is a sausage cooker with an open grill.  It was great sausage and it cost 3 eruos.  Not worth the price but it tasted great.  The only problem was that the booth didn't have any Finnish mustard and that is always great with their sausage. 

We bought a few kitchen wares made from wood.  This gentleman was from Estonia and comes to Finland in the winter to sell his handmade goods.  Almost everyone at the market place speaks some English.

 




Well, here we are and that is about it.  We had a great time and enjoyed our mini-vacation with the
Williamsons to Turku.






Time to say goodbye for now.  We are well and healthy.  We are fairly busy right now with both assignments, The new temple presidency is doing really good and it is enjoyable to work with them.  It is amazing how simple and transparent the "change of command" took place.  As far as the missionaries are concerned, business as usual and we continue to do our job.

Love all of you and hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas is looking great.

Please have a wonderful holiday season and maybe we will see many of you at Christmas time in the states.

Rick and Lynne

Changing of the guard.

Today, October 30, 2012 the new temple presidency started their duties.  Last evening the unofficial passing of the "keys" took place and we had a wonderful going away celebration for the previous presidency. This is a picture of the "old" presidency.  Rotos on left in front of the door, Haikkolas in the middle, and Vorimos on the right.  The Haikkolas and the Vorimos will be missed greatly and I am sure they will have a busy time after this calling also.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

This is a picture of the whole gang at the party last night.  The presidency on the front sitting and all the missionaries standing in the back.  It was a fun time and we all enjoyed eating and visiting.  It is truly the relationships in the life that mean so much and never the things that we own or possess.  Our worldly possessions should be expended in helping others enjoy life and doing what we can for them.

This is a picture of the new temple presidency.  Lehtimäkis on the left, Rotos in the middle, and Marjanens on the right.

And to finish things up I have put in a fall picture of the temple.  Folks, it really is a beautiful temple.  The Finnish members are, and should be very proud to have this building in their country.

Oh, and by the way.  We have a new grandson, Ammon, born to Ryan and Micaela yesterday.  Both are doing fine.  Hope that all of you are doing well.  We love our mission, the temple, and the people.

Rick and Lynne