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.