We're all in this Together

We returned to Finland on February 14, 2007 which is known here as Friendship Day. After taking a few days to adjust to the seven hour time difference we began our service in the Helsinki Finland Temple. We were joining six American couples and one Finnish couple who had been in place since the temple was dedicated last October. The Luthy's met us at the airport along with the Koivulas, some Finnish friends we had met during our previous service. Sister Koivula happens to be Sister Luthy's sister. Serving in the Helsinki Finland temple is a very different experience from serving in the Washington, DC temple. In Washington we were an English speaking temple with a large number of Spanish speaking patrons also. Here there are six official languages: Estonian, Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, and Swedish. Twenty seven weeks on the temple calendar are designated as Russian weeks. The Washington DC temple is the third largest in the church. And Helsinki is a two room small temple design. Washington was open 14 hours a day with ordinances being performed almost continuously. Here the temple is open 10 1/2 hours a day and ordinances are performed much less frequently. The primary responsibility for staffing the temple belongs to the stakes and missions. The role of the missionaries is to give leadership when needed, to provide training, and to fill in the gaps. Administrative processes and procedures are still being developed. It is anticipated that in three years' time all ordinance workers will come from the stakes and branches in the temple district. Following are pictures of the missionary couples we are serving with.