FinnMiss: August 2005

This week's posti

Today when we received the blue leaflet you see below I knew that we had truly "arrived" in Finland. The text at the far left says "First and only notice" The return address is OY VALITUT PALAT - READER'S DIGEST AB. I am a "finalisti" and yes I have a chance to win 120,000 euros if I soita numeroon 0800-02011 before 7.9 klo 21,00. Seems like the chance of winning would be higher here in Finland with only 5M people. And there are 1,506 prizes altogether. Receiving this notice prompted me to report on all the mail we got this week. The large white envelope comes from tv-maksuhallinto. That's the TV payment administration. It was addressed to David and they want to know if our TV tax payments are in order. After giving us the rates: 49,35 for 3 months, 97,60 for 6 months or 193,95 for a full year they closed "With friendly greetings." They have no way of knowing whether we have a TV. The note says if we don't, then throw the notice away. The temptation is there, but so are the Articles of Faith numbers 12 and 13. The money supports the two state owned and operated TV channels. And the last piece of mail came from a good member of the church. He gave us a lovely picture book about the region of Finland that we live in. I wrote him a thank you note. Then we received a two page letter thanking us for the thank you note we sent. So that was a lovely thing to receive.

This week's mail

Visit to Ilomantsi

On Saturday, August 20 we went to see Ilomantsi, a city about 50 miles east of Joensuu. It is the easternmost point of Finland and therefore of the European Union. That also places it very near to the Russian border sign, which warned us not to go any further. We drove about six miles along a dirt road to take the picture of the bright yellow sign and the watch tower. We weren't that close to the tower, but thanks to the miracle of digital zoom we were able to get a pretty good picture.

The large log building is the "Rune Singer's House" (rune is a poem). It is a traditional Karelian house, which now houses a small hotel and a restaurant. Karelia is the part of Finland next to the Russian border, it has its own dialect and unique history.

The landscape behind us is typical Finnish, a bright blue sky, puffy white clouds and lakes.

No man's land along the border between Finland and Russia

Border tower on Finnish side

Here we are once again with snow fence

Ilomantsi ravintola and hotel

Ilomansi hotelli ja ravintola

Hair dye by the liter

I have included this picture to illustrate Finnish romance with hair color. Perhaps you have noticed this phenomenon in some of the other pictures that I have posted. It is so ironic that in America people bleach, streak, frost, or highlight their hair to become blonde or sort of blonde while in Finland where they have the highest proportion of natural blondes in the world (I'm pretty sure I read that someplace.) they dye their hair black, blue, or crayola red. A very high percentage of the people here have "blonde roots" of all things. I guess this goes along with the fact that people with straight hair get perms. People with curly hair have it straightened, etc. So here are two beautiful, natural blondes walking along the main street in Joensuu.

Two young Finnish girls on the street along Kauppakatu

Kuopio District Conference 13 Aug 2005

Today we traveled 135 kilometers to Kuopio for district conference. One set of young missionaries came a 6 hour train trip. Another set of elders traveled over two hours by car. Two of the elders recently opened a new city and the mission president's instructions to them were to do absolutely no tracting. They were pretty happy. They are trying every way they know how to come into contact with non-members and members in service settings. And president called some of the leaders in the branch to ask them to be examples to the other members of the branch in working with the missionaries. Hopefully, this approach will bear fruit. The level of maturity of these young men is amazing. Today one of the elders said we weren't called to be missionary robots in Finland. Each of us has gifts that can be used here. Use them however you can. Pretty insightful. They all had tried new ways of doing missionary work over the past two weeks and reported on their outcomes. Two are coaching American football. They're doing some basketball and volleyball playing. One was asked to join a touring frisbee golf team. Others are walking door to door with shovels and rakes offering to help people. They are wearing work clothes more often than they wear proselyting clothes but always have tags.Interesting approaches.

The Kuopio District of the Helsinki, Finland Mission

The field is almost white and ready to harvest on way home from Kuopio to Joensuu.

On the way home.

Raspberries galore

In the entry way to the largest grocery store in Joensuu, Citymarket, berry farmers are selling strawberries, raspberries, cloudberries and some vegetables. Pretty amazing that the store allows them to set up their stand inside the store. On Tuesday we bought some raspberries for 5 euros a liter. On Wednesday they were 4 euros a liter. On Thursday they were 3 euros a liter. They are so overwhelmed by berries that they keep lowering the price to sell all their stock. The stand is manned by two brothers who were raised in Canada but married Finns and now work on the farm. They are good natured and like speaking English to us. The strawberry season started early in July and lasts until about the first week of October. I have never seen yellow raspberries before. They are a milder tasting berry. It's so unusual for me to see so many fresh raspberries on display. Or maybe I just never paid attention to them in the grocery stores at home because they are so expensive.

Raspberries for sale

Kitee

We've been to Kitee many times to home teach but never stopped in the town. This time we stopped at a Marimekko factory outlet and the Kitee parish church. The outlet was just as high priced as Marimekko is in the retail outlets. According to the brochure we picked up the Kitee parish is over 350 years old and has about 8600 members. The church has room for 1500 people. On average 180 people attend a the service. A few times a year the church is full. In general, Finns pay just under 2% tax to support the state church. This is the 4th or 5th church to be built on the site. The others were desroyed by fire. The stone church was completed in 1886.

Kitee Stone Church

Interior of the Kitee Stone Church

Our second attempt at using the timer on the camera

Kantele concert in the countryside

This Tuesday we were invited to an annual kantele performance at the mokki of one of our home teaching sisters. She had five friends and three of her granddaughters play about 20 songs. They played romantic and folk music. The folk songs have a quiet yearning in them. A lot are in minor keys. Often the subject is nature. The instruments were beautiful. And the concert was very enjoyable, especially when her two granddaughters ages seven and eight performed. It is the custom for mokki owners to keep a guest book of all the people who visit them there.

All of the performers

Granddaughters sing a duet

Kantele choir

All of the musicians

Vacation month and music festivals come to a close

The unofficial vacation time in Finland has come and gone. Interestingly, hotel rates drop by about 25% in the summer and restaurants are empty. The sidewalk cafes flourish. Even construction sites shut down for July vacations. With our American way of thinking it's hard to understand stopping construction when the good weather season is so short. This week we attended one of the musical events sponsored by Lieksa Brass Week. We went to an all Sibelius concert featuring the Joensuu city orchestra. The Lieksa Evangelical Lutheran church was the performance venue. Based on our limited experience (a total of three concerts), it appears that Finnish performers do not give encores. The other concert was part of the Joensuu gospel music week. We selected it because it was 5 blocks from home, started late in the evening, and featured kanteles. The Joensuu Lutheran church was the site for that performance. Finland has an impressive music tradition with music conservatories located in many of the cities, even the smaller ones. Every event we've attended has exceeded our expectations.