Culture shock

Still adjusting to city life from our rather idyllic life in Joensuu. There are so many differences. Here we see other missionaries virtually every day. There we were on our own. We had no one to coordinate our activities with except for the branch president. Here there are all the church meetings anyone could ever wish for. There we worked with one congregation of 63 members and had two hours of meetings on Sundays. Here we work with two wards, each meets for three hours, and there is a branch correlation meeting also. In one ward the correlation meetings are held on Friday nights along with seminary and YW/YM. In Joensuu we could walk everywhere. In Espoo, we walk to our parking lot. In Joensuu we were 3-4 blocks from the lake or the river shore. Lots of small boats some quite picturesque. Here we are perhaps 12 miles from the Helsinki harbors which really are quite beautiful with huge cruiseships anchored there. The mission office is located very near the water and we have been working in the office weekly where there is a constant flow of missionary activity. In Joensuu we taught two English classes each week at the church building. Here we will be teaching two different American Studies courses at a local college called the Tyovaen Akatemia. So it goes. I have been lamenting the loss of our beautiful Karelian landscapes, but have found that by cropping the view as in the two pictures posted below we still are in a beautiful place. By the way, even Finns in America had warned me that Finnish people are standoffish and can appear to be rude. I haven't met an unfriendly person yet.