Marking time

It's kinda exciting that the couple who recently joined the church in our branch had a new baby girl this week. This is a rare blessing since families are not the way most people come into the church. Most people actually have to face stern opposition from family members. Thinking about that little girl growing up knowing what our meetings are like, what FHE is, with a life of knowledge about the restored gospel, it gives us hope for the future. And that little girl will add a solid 10% to our sacrament meeting attendance.

Midnight from our balcony.
You can't see your way walking or driving without a light,
but you can see some light in the sky.

This week in Finland they would have had fun cultural/pagan celebrations around the longest day of the year. We didn't have any all-night parties and people were not out and about in the light, but one person in the neighborhood had firecrackers, or there was a shooting. (kidding!) It was the day to celebrate Mary's ascension to heaven without tasting death, so that was a thing.

The solstices are my favorite times of the year. From this point we know the days will get shorter. Six months from now we know the amount of light will steadily grow. I don't know why I like them except that the marking of the earth's movement around the sun and our place seems clearly defined for that moment. It brings me solace.

Perhaps it reflects our longing for a clear signal of our progression. Jean and I feel we have lost track of our position in the long span of time a little bit because we have lost our regular reminders of eternity that we get in temples. Missing those reminders makes the scriptures that much more precious. The words of humans who really, I mean really, knew where they fit give us hope and a sense of place from how they lived their lives.

Missionaries trying to get into a selfie with the president

We had our last zone conference with our mission president, his wife, and their family. Another marking of change. The missionaries truly love him. As always happens in missionary life, we must say goodbye to people and the known and face a little bit of unknown. What tempers any anxiety is the faith that the Lord knows how all this will work out and He chooses the right people from all the choices and all the times.






We were walking to the chapel one day, not late unusually, through the old part of town and there was, surprisingly, an old church we had not been inside. The variety and number of old churches in this country is quite astounding and I admit that often I am not bored when compelled to look inside. Sometimes while driving we see an old church in a village and take off from the main road to investigate. They're always fascinatingly well cared for. Jean spotted this one as we walked by and noted that it had a bell tower. What added to my excitement was to learn that to climb the narrow circular stairs up the tower we also got to pay! About halfway up they have a "museum" which is really a few 500 year-old clocks in an attic room. They were interesting, but I didn't get why this church had them in their attic. The main tower clock has the longest pendulum mechanism in the world at 31.2 meters (that's right, I know you were wondering where that was, well, it's right here in Gdańsk Poland).

Our self-guided tour (aka, nobody around except to take our fee) led us up to where the bells of the carillon are mounted. Imagine our surprise when one of the largest bells that we were standing under gonged half-past the hour. I'm sure the people on the other side of town that heard it were probably not surprised at all. That gong would've been good information to be warned of by our non-guide, but better that we didn't get there 30 minutes earlier or later, I guess. This brings to mind something from our personal history. I suspect it may be true for many couples, but Jean has for years suggested I don't hear well, or more precisely, I don't hear HER well. It may be true, some of you know our relevant "Christmas badger" story. You also may have heard that those tiny devices in your ears are incredibly expensive. I have also mentioned that medical non-essentials like Lasik, teeth whitening, braces, and whatever else you can think of (haven't checked on liposuction, hmm), are much cheaper here than at home. So, of course when we saw an office that sells them, Jean said "There's a store that sells hearing aids!" then, after the typical non-response from me when spending money might be required, she said "Let's just go see how much they are." To which I said "What?"

Just a picture from a small restaurant in a small town
where we got a big steak for a small price

Your dose of Bridges on a bridge.
This one is in Warsaw at a huge park in the center of the city.
We spent the day in Warsaw for zone conference,
then had some time to kill before catching our train home.