Goodbye Joensuu--Hello Espoo

We are now registered residents of Espoo, Finland. That is pronounced Es-poh. Espoo is located just outside of Helsinki. The relationship between the two cities is much like that of Washington, DC and Silver Spring. And except for the language on the street signs and the widths of the highways the two environments are very similar. In many ways, we have traded our somewhat idyllic life in Joensuu for the life we left behind in the U.S. December 5th our new zone leader and a companion came to Joensuu with the mission van and trailer to move us down to Helsinki. We came with 6 suitcases and left with 6 suitcases and 14 boxes of stuff. Not sure exactly how that happened. The trip took 6 hours. In coming to live here we gained one additional hour of sunlight, 10 degrees in temperature and city traffic. We are located in an area of many medium rise apartment buildings and have to come through 5 parking lots to get to our own. We are fairly close to the church meetinghouse where two wards meet and, at least for now, we are assigned to both of them. In Joensuu we had 63 members including 4 young women, 2 young single adults, and 2 primary children. In Espoo II, they have 80 children attend and 50 adults. On Sunday, we attended Espoo I. We arrived late because of a meeting we attended in Helsinki in the morning and there was no room for us to sit in the chapel. Most people here seem to be fluent in English. Many have served missions in the U.S. or England. Big change. Espoo has 4 or 5 city centers and shopping areas. The one pictured here is located 10 kilometers from us and is about the size of the Laurel Mall. One interesting side note. There are two stores called Prisma and Citymarket located side by side with a common entrance. They sell essentially the same items. This would be analogous to Target and an upscale Walmart sharing a building and entrance. Hard to imagine.