Working in the mission office--temporarily

Unfortunately the current mission office couple go home at the beginning of February and their replacements don't come until the first week of March. We are learning what an office couple does--all the responsiblities and procedures. Then we will teach the new couple when they arrive. So we started part time in December, and will be full time until the end of March. Sister Oliver, the president's secretary is unfailingly kind, patient, and friendly to everyone. I'm not sure she is replaceable. Brother Oliver is very organized and gracious. He is the financial secretary. It is a big job to manage all the rents, cars, missionary funds, and deal with Finland's bureaucracies. The mission president is the legal representative of the church in Finland. And some church finance issues not related to the mission are handled through the mission accounts. We have certainly seen a different facet of mission life after being all by ourselves for 8 months in Joensuu. David loves working in the mission office. I am happy to help with the transition between mission couples but am eager to return to "real" mission work.

The mission office is in the same space as it was when David was a missionary 40 years ago. But the space we all work in now once held the office, the mission translation services, and the mission president's apartment. When David was here the mission president had 5 or 6 little kids living there too. Hard to imagine.

Welcome to the mission office 

High noon in Helsinki at the end of the street where the mission office is located 

View from our parking place 

Mission office 

Learning from Sister Oliver 

Entrance to Neitsytpolku 

Church mission office, ward building, and institute 

Neitsytpolku  

Tapanin day

Sometimes known as Boxing day, Tapanin paiva is the day after Christmas and is a day for visiting and sharing Christmas leave leftovers. The Jakko's have moved to a beautiful new home in the country woods--when the road stops you're there. The children were excited to show us their Christmas presents. Laura had received a keyboard and played the first song she had learned for us. The kids thought I knew how to speak Finnish but they seemed to be speaking a foreign language to me. We enjoyed singing some Christmas songs and dinner. The girls sang a song we learned last year at Jaana Moller's Christmas celebration in Annapolis. Just as dinner was ending Maija turned into a beautiful princess and was persuaded to perform for us to the strains of a Finnish princess song. We gave a short spiritual message about God giving Jesus good earthly parents. And the kids colored the pictures that went along with the message.

Maija doing a princess dance 

The Jakko girls singing Tip Tip Tap

The Jakko family coloring pictures about Jesus having good parents

The Bishop Jakko and family

Sofia, Salla, and Sara with sparkle gel pens 

Sofia's favorite Christmas gift 

Christmas eve at the Reiman's 

Graveyard Christmas Eve 

Helsinki Finland Temple

We've taken a guided tour of the temple interior twice in December. There was a small party for the construction workers which we were invited to attend. And the church temple supervisor who is serving a mission of indeterminate length took all the missionaries through on the last day of the Christmas zone conference. Temple construction is progressing. The exterior is wrapped in polished granite. You can see your face in it. The tower is copper and changed color rapidly but we are told it might take 20 years for it to turn green. The air's too clean. The granite came from Italy. The windows are being installed now. An English crew came to install them. Some wall board was in place when we toured. There is still no sure completion date which adds an element of ambiguity to the preparations for open house tours and dedication. The temple will likely serve parts of Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and, of course, Finland which has two official languages: Finnish and Swedish. The translation issues involved in public communications, church communications, and the dedication itself must be quite complicated. There are actually two area presidents in charge of the planning committee.

Front entrance to the Helsinki Finland Temple end of December, 2005 

Herralle Pyhitetty - Herran Huone. Literal translation is Sanctified to the Lord and Lord's Room