Assignment: Helsinki

Our National Director of Public Affairs in Finland recently added two new members to his team.  Consequently, he asked if Elder G and I could come there and do some training.  We were thrilled to be able to visit a Nordic country.  We flew to Helsinki on a Friday afternoon and arrived early enough so we could do a session in the beautiful Helsinki Temple.

The interior was equally beautiful with etched glass, lots of beautiful wood, and even wood trim in Finnish design around the baptismal font.  

We just thoroughly enjoyed our short visit there.

Since our training session was not until Saturday afternoon, we took in a few sights in the morning.  The first stop was the famous Rock Church.  It is a solid rock hill that was hollowed out about 50 years ago.  The dome, visible below, acts as a skylight.

By noon we were assisting Risto Leppänen with the training.  Elder G got to give his PowerPoint presentation, Risto presented, two others did as well, and then there was no time left for my presentation.  Ha!  Luckily, I came prepared with handouts, so it wasn't a total loss.

Risto had introduced us earlier to Elder and Sister London, Helsinki Mission office couple from Morgan, Utah.  Sunday morning they picked us up and took us to church.  They invited us to dinner, and then they made us an offer we couldn't refuse:  After church Elder London would drop his wife off to work on dinner while he gave us a three-hour tour of Helsinki!  

We started out with the Jean Sebelius Monument. 

The strange things hanging down are representative of organ pipes.

  And I guess this must be Jean Sebelius.  
Elder G remembers practicing the piano with one of Sebelius's pieces, "Romance." 

Our next stop was a walk along the harbor.  We were so lucky to have beautiful weather since the days before and the day after were totally overcast and dreary! Sunday was beautiful!

 

 Interesting building on the island across the way. 

Cruise ships from Norway and Sweden dock there daily.

Next stop was the beautiful white Helsinki Cathedral.

Considering the heavily decorated chapels we've seen across Europe, 

I was surprised at how simple this was inside.

This photo shows the prominence of this big beautiful cathedral on the hill!

 This shot is taken while standing on the stairs of the cathedral, 

looking across the plaza at Senate Square below.

And here was the town hall.  We were impressed with the beautiful architecture everywhere!

 This interesting building was in the business section of Helsinki.

More colorful buildings by the wharf

We loved the Russian Orthodox Uspenskin Cathedral. Unfortunately, it was closed!

Still, it was very impressive!

We had a great dinner at the London's apartment.  The other couple on the couch, the Perkins from Davis County, had just arrived five days prior to begin their mission.

Well, we bid Helsinki farewell, wishing we could have seen more of Finland; but we were grateful to have experienced all that we did.  We met wonderful people and saw some awesome sights!

We arrived home Monday, and by Wednesday morning we were treated to an Area Devotional.  

Just look at the plethora of General Authorities on the stand!

What a blessing to have President Nelson address us!

And every one of us was treated to a personal handshake as we left the meeting!

What a great way to top off the past few days!

Refugee Aid II

This is the article that appeared in various mormonnewsrooms across Europe.  The service project took place in the church right next to our Area Office. 

“Volunteers put together newborn kits for refugee mothers in Germany”

Seventy volunteers bustled from table to table where piles of donated baby items laid out waiting to be put into newborn kits October 28th at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Frankfurt. The newborn kits will be donated to refugee mothers who have recently arrived in Germany and do not have access to basic necessities for themselves and their new babies.

As items were donated and collected in preparation for the event, those in charge discovered that they had received more donations than they needed for the newborn kits. The donations included new and gently used baby items as well as hand knit hats, socks and sweaters.

“My experiences have shown me again and again that through small and simple things great things can be brought to pass, even if they might seem impossible at first,” said Lisa Koy, one of the event organizers. “One step at a time we tried to move forward, and along the way we received great help from numerous church members and witnessed complete strangers 

offering generous donations.”

The event was organized by women from local units of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Creating newborn kits was a continuation of an earlier event to make “welcome kits” for refugee children. After delivering over 1,000 welcome kits for children in refugee shelters last spring, volunteers discovered that there were more than 50 pregnant women in one shelter alone who needed help preparing for the arrival of their babies.

“Just think about being a woman in a strange country, not knowing the language, and expecting a baby. If I were her, I'd be so grateful that someone knew and cared about me in my predicament. We can tell that they are very grateful to receive the items,” said Yvonne Bausman, 

one of the volunteers.

 After 80 boxes were filled and packed with newborn items for refugee mothers and babies, the remainder of the donated items were packed into 50 boxes to be sent to refugees in the Ukraine.

“Doing refugee aid is like inhaling the pure love of Christ,” said Melina Grahovac, one of the women organizing the event. “Charity is Christ. This knowledge helped me to draw closer to Him.  I approached Him in a very different way than before in my life by helping these refugees.”

As disciples of Jesus Christ, members of the Church strive to follow the Savior’s admonition to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in the stranger, clothe the naked and visit the sick and those in prison (see Matthew 25:35–36). Through the efforts of individuals and families and with the help of various Church welfare and relief programs, temporal and spiritual assistance

has been given to millions in need.

La Route des Vins aka Fairytale Road

Because we had a 3-day weekend, thanks to Germany's Einheit Day (Unification of East and West Germany 26 years ago), we celebrated by going first to the Bern Temple.  Although it is called the Bern Temple, it is actually located in the small town of Zollikofen.  

We suffered through Friday afternoon's traffic "staus" for 7 hours before arriving at our 4.5-hour destination in Bern.  Saturday morning we enjoyed a wonderful session with, of course, translations.  Actually, the original was in French, and I listened to a lot of it, understanding more than I thought I would.  It was a lovely way to spend the morning.  Unfortunately, the only shot with the two of us takes Moroni out of the picture.

But here Moroni is in one parting shot.

From there we headed to the Alsace region of France, ready for the much-touted adventure of driving the Fairytale Road, so named by us Senior Missionaries.  We have decided that this day and a half's drive through the vineyards of France, right through the center of many medieval towns, was one of the true highlights of our mission excursions.

Our favorites, the half-timber buildings, were everywhere we looked.

And the architecture of the many Renaissance buildings was equally awesome.

We would no sooner leave a village behind, traversing the vineyards, 

before we'd come upon another village around the corner.

We loved this old stone bridge.

The ripe grapes hanging from the vines were very tempting...

So we were grateful for a family selling their produce on the side of the road.

On the road again, and through another quaint little town.

Note the cobblestone streets.  This one is narrow, but not as narrow as many others.

Notice that cars are parked on what might have been a sidewalk!

This was one of our all-time favorites!

We loved how, as you approached the next little town, the prominent church spire welcomed us.

But once in town, we often found it difficult to navigate the narrow streets.  Yes, cars do go down these streets--just one direction at a time, however.

Out of town and back on the road,

With miles and vineyards to go and more villages to visit.

Nothing like one crooked house after another!

Again, do keep in mind that cars drive down these narrow cobblestone streets.

I thought it a good idea to show the original construction that lies behind so many of the updated, 

but 500-year-old buildings!

You know how things can be rated one star, two stars, etc?  Well, the villages along this route are rated for the amount of flowers displayed from the buildings.  This sign, for example, tells us that Westhoffen, unfortunately, is just a one-flower village.  Most towns we drove through were two, three, and four flowers.  I just forgot to take the picture until the very end.

Obviously, some of these photos must have come from the "four-fleuri" villages!

One town, Colmar, was noted for it's Little Venice.  It was very picturesque, and we'd wanted

to take one of the boat rides, but the next one was a two hour wait.

No steeple here, but an interesting tower!

Riqueville was a pleasant surprise.  

It is France's bigger version of Germany's Rothenberg ob der Tauber!

You can see by the number of tourists that this is a very popular spot!

The old-time public water source.

On the road again...

...this time even seeing a castle in the distance.  Actually, we did see three or four 

castles along the way but didn't venture off the road to check them out.

One interesting thing we noticed along the way were the numerous statues of Christ.  

Since France is rather secular, I am suspecting that these statues are of another era.  

But we must have seen almost a dozen statues along the way.

By this time we'd eaten all our grapes and regretted the fact that we hadn't bought more.

Do these look yummy or what!

Well, Bacchus must have been smiling down on us because we found yet another roadside stand!

Another steeple, another village!

And more flowers!

Another steeple...oh, I already said that.

We got a kick out of these two wine barrels with the stork nest above it.  I have got to research France and storks!  It must be their national bird or something because you see the nests everywhere, and stuffed toy storks are sold at all the tourist shops.

Did I mention there are 103 villages along this 170-kilometer route?

Can't leave out that steeple!

Anyone for a small keg of wine?

Yet another walled city and gate to traverse!

Almost looks deserted, huh!  That's because it's Sunday.

And here's our favorite French restaurant of the trip, La Bergerie

Jim was real adventurous and ordered a steak!  I, however, gave the regional favorite,

Tarte Flambé, a try and totally loved it!

Kind of like a paper-thin pizza crust with melted cream cheese and bits of bacon!

Totally "to die for" as Liz Edmunds would say.

I commented (in French, no less) to the waitress about the many needlepoint pictures throughout the restaurant and guessed that there were at least 30.  I asked if they were machine made and was told that the owner had done them all, and that there were many more in the rooms upstairs!!!

Goodbye, Fairytale Road.  If we can, we'll squeeze in one more visit before we return home!