WE'RE IN HELSINKI!!!

We have been in Helsinki almost 2 weeks and it has been crazy with culture shock.  There have been many friendly and happy moments and many of confusion and frustration~everything is in FINNISH!!!  Sheri took us to the airport in Salt Lake with the HAPPY news that our 13th grandchild, Weston, was born in Puerto Rico to Mark and Miranda on 11/11/11!!!  We flew from SLC to Chicago, Munich, and then Helsinki!

We were sooooo happy that ALL our luggage arrived and we were not even charged for the second checked bag!  The mission couple, Elder and Sister France met us at the airport.  President and Sister Rawlings were there briefly but had to go to Stake Conference.  

The Frances are the ones who spent many, many hours searching for our apartment and equipping it with Ikea furniture and things from the church storage.  We can never repay them for all their kindness.  They are so wonderful and giving.  We rely on their knowledge of all things Finnish even though they have been here only 3 months.

This is our living room with a futon 

and a huge wonderful rug that feels

so great because we have all wood floors.

This picture to the right was also brought from home we just needed IKEA frames. 

Here is our kitchen eating area .  We had to get lights because in Finland the fixtures just plug into the ceiling and people take them with them so we were pretty dark for a while till we found some inexpensive, bright lights and had time to install them.  WE LOVE IKEA!  We have dishes, silverware, glasses, placemats, frames, and decor from there.  We got new chairs and will be getting a new table tomorrow.  The mission has been very generous with furniture for us!

 

Our kitchen is nice...it has a dishwasher which is very rare.  We have a VERY small oven and stove and of course, no disposal.  The door you can see goes into our main bathroom and sauna.

Something unusual and very nice is our HUGE refrigerator (on the left) and HUGE  freezer on the right.  We can buy ahead for our dinners for the Center For Young Adults (CYA)

This is our favorite wall...our family pictures so we can see all of our wonderful family all the time!!!!!

Here is our very cute half bath!

 We have TONS of storage.  This is in our bedroom and we have identical cupboards in our study and entry.  We do not lack for storage and many are empty!!!

Sister France had purchased bedding so we just had to get an overhead light and small lamps.

Here is our main bath with the washing machine.  I had to take a picture of all the settings and print it and have someone translate so I could wash clothes.  You can see our sauna...

...or as we call it "The drying room"  It really helps to dry things by putting our drying rack  in this nice, hot room.  We have taken a few saunas and hope to do more.  The Finns swear it is the only way to get really clean and one of the office ladies bought us sauna brushes.

Hot water flows through our towel bars so they are always warm and dry.  We have radiator heat but never turn it on as it is 72 degrees in our apartment.  We often have to open a window...we don't know if the heat is from downstairs or from the pipes flowing with hot water.  We are cozy!!!

We have a glassed in balcony that will be nice when it warms up in about 6 months.  

                                                          

Finally, this is our study.  We love having an extra room...it makes the apartment feel so much more spacious and we use the storage.!!!

Every week there will be a theme...next time we will show the Center and office staff and tell you about what we do.  These first 2 weeks we have spent our time arranging banking, parking (we do alot of hiking to our car) shopping, shopping, shopping  for apartment things, getting the Internet, and getting acquainted at the Center.  There are many subjects to be covered to explain life in Helsinki!!!!!

LOVE TO ALL!!!  WE LOVE E-MAILS!!!!!   SISAR AND VANHIN ROBERTS, GRAMMY & PAPA!!!

LAST DAY AT THE MTC!

Well, our 10 days at the MTC are finally coming to a close!  

 

We did our laundry at what's got to be the world's largest laundry  room!

Fortunately, it's even free at the MTC!

Got haircuts at the MTC salon!!!

 We packed and weighed and packed and weighed!  

50 lbs. is easy to exceed when you are going

for 18 months!!!

We had to say goodbye to our darling sister missionaries who will

be joining us in Helsinki in one month!  They are so fun...whenever we

would hear "Terve!" we knew they were nearby!  We are in awe of the major 

task of learning Finnish in 10 weeks!

We are grateful to have been senior missionaries here and the freedom we had to do things.  The young missionaries had to stay on the campus while we got to leave.  Friday night we went to a BYU basketball game, Sat. we toured the campus and saw all the beautiful new buildings, and Sat. night we went to the Provo Temple. 

Sunday was a special experience.  We had Sacrament Meeting (Our worship service) from 8-9 AM.  All the missionaries are divided into about  60 congregations or branches!  We attended an international branch filled with kids from all over the world  (Madagascar, Tahitii, Korea,  Mainland China, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Mongolia, and many more) who are here learning English.  They had a chance to bear their testimonies about Jesus Christ in 1 minute.  It was so sweet to hear their faltering English and feel their wonderful spirits!  Then it was Mission Conference from 10-12,  Departure Devotional for those leaving the next week from 5-6, and finally a fireside from 7-8PM.  A full day that was a spiritual feast!!!

We spent 21/2 days in CES (Church Educational System) training and then we were done!!!

Our daughter Sheri is flying in from Dallas to spend the evening with us and go to "White Christmas" at BYU (starring my niece) and then taking us to the airport tomorrow!!  We can't believe we are finally going but we are ready and excited!!!  Our 13th grandchild will be born tomorrow (11-11-11) to Mark and Miranda in Puerto Rico!!!  We'll always remember that day!  Our next blog will be from FINLAND!!!!!

OUR WEEK AT THE MTC!!!

!

We have now completed our first week at the MTC! It has been a rewarding experience, demanding, busy, but wonderful!!  We arrived on Monday, Oct. 31st and were met by sister missionaries with smiles and hugs and Elders ready to take all our luggage to our room!

We are delighted with the brand new senior accommodations... our room is very nice and we are very comfortable!

We were lucky to get this gorgeous view from our window of the temple and mountains!

The first day was spent in orientation.  We had stations for travel arrangements, vaccinations, pictures for our MTC card, schedules for the week, etc.  In our first group meeting we had all 66 senior missionaries introduce themselves.  It was so interesting to find out that these faithful missionaries were going ALL over the world and doing many kinds of things.  Some are going to Mongolia, Micronesia, Africa, France, Russia, England, Germany, Botswana, Chile and some in the states. We were also put in districts which would become our small classes. 

Meal times  are really fun with a  huge room filled with young missionaries.  The food is pretty good  and there is alot of variety with 3 entree choices!  We usually find senior missionaries to sit with and visit about our assignments.  Everyone is very friendly and interesting to  talk to.

THEN WE WENT TO WORK!  Tuesday we met in large groups and small groups with lots of role playing and lessons.  By Wed. we had to be ready to teach the first discussion to "investigators" ( actually volunteers who are members of the church) are were then evaluated by our teachers.  Thursday we taught the 2nd discussion to another "investigator".  It was a little stressful and took much preparation!  Our nights were filled with homework!  Friday we met with a "less active member" for 15 minutes to assess their situation.  We had 30 minutes to create a lesson that would help them and then proceeded to teach it to them for 30 minutes.  We learned so much about listening and forming good questions--and being BOLD!  In our final large group meeting it was great to hear comments from very experienced church members about how much they'd learned and grown this week.  Many are leaving for the mission field so their were many goodbyes.  We will be staying for another week!

This is a picture of our district pointing to where we will be going. (St. Petersburg, Russia; Bostwana, Africa; New Jersey, and of course, Helsinki, Finland.

This was my first blog so I hope to get much better at it.  Love to  all!!!

Vanhin & Sisar Roberts