Get around

It's life as usual here in this country with a long Russian border. Finns have lived with the border for a long time, since they fought for their independence in 1917, and fought again while WWII was starting, and the relationship has not changed. Things continue uninterrupted. One article I saw from the U.S. said that this war has caused Finns to buy up all the iodine for fear of a nuclear attack from Russia. I read the article and it became clear that they were talking about one pharmacy in one city. There is no panic, but articles like that could start one, I suppose. Finns are always wary of their eastern neighbor, but this is nothing new. Also, Ukraine is geographically and perceptively very far removed from Finland. That's much different than in Poland. Poland and Ukraine are closely related, they were even one country at one time, and a lot of Ukrainians work in Poland. It might be like the U.S. and Canada (Ukraine and Poland) vs the U.S. and Costa Rica. (Ukraine and Finland). They're on the same continent.

Some of the most faithful members of the Church in Poland are from Ukraine. We pray for the good people of Ukraine, our hearts are saddened by what they are experiencing.

For our part, we have had a fun and eventful time this past week travelling to zone conferences in four cities. We started up north in Oulu where the temp was about 0 F. It's been near freezing in Helsinki since we arrived, so that was really cold. It does make the snow lighter and so, so beautiful. The sky was mostly clear so we hoped to see some northern lights, but if they were active, we missed them. Next we went to Kuopio in central east Finland, Tampere in the southwest and back to Helsinki. It's so interesting that the same size group of missionaries can differ so much from one area to the next. One area they might be hard-working and faithful, another layed back and loving, another super serious and reverent. They are all dedicated and really good young people and it's uplifting to us to hear their thoughts and experiences. 

Visiting with our president, he noted that they were just a few months ago "in their mother's kitchen" and now they are out there in a city on their own, trying to get by in a foreign language, testifying of things that have eternal impact on lives of people older than them. It's remarkable and beautiful.

Since President K served his mission the same time as we did, we naturally compare the mission culture from then and now. We realize that we were more isolated back then, no phones or email, and trusted when we probably shouldn't have been. Amazing that we and the Church survived.

We presented ourselves and our responsibilities in the conferences, this being our first chance to meet most of them. Jean focused on keeping themselves legal in the country and her correspondence with them and family on behalf of the mission. Then she got them to wake up by doing yoga. Annoyances that I could have addressed with 40 apartments and 17 cars are so numerous, I had to limit my pestering to just parking. We haven't hit 2 months yet and I've paid 8 parking tickets in that time. After my presentation a pair of sisters sheepishly brought me another one to pay. When I looked at the due date, it was that day! 

You'll note in pictures I have less hair.

 

Some recent scenes

We posted a picture from this same spot at high noon a month earlier. 

The great thing about the short days is that week after week you see a noticable difference in how high the sun gets.

As a month ago, you see our shadows at noon are much shorter.

By the equinox, the day length will feel like Utah's.

When you can't use the golf range, ski around it.

This is our office parking lot. 

I might've mentioned that they don't plow down to the pavement like we do, they put gravel on the ice to give traction. 

You can see that this is literally like an ice rink, 6 inches deep.

Snow-covered tree cycle of life.

An interesting bridge.

Last p-day Saturday the sun was out and the sea was opening up. 

So were the locals, everybody was out wishing for Spring.

I said that let's take a selfie means fix your hair, here's proof from when we tried to get this "bridge" shot.

Oh forget it. This one works.