Trips

Since our April 17 blog we have been very busy. Part of that has been the travel -- two visa trips to Helsinki (one the end of April and one the end of July), a trip to Moscow, and a trip to Lithuania. We would like to share with you some of the highlights of these trips.

April and July: We took visa trips to Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki is a lovely city. It is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea. It is built on Granite and therefore, when they build they must blast out the foundation before they begin.

We have had the opportunity to see and do many things since we came to serve our mission. Traveling is a mixed blessing -- we see places and meet people we would not have otherwise been able to, and being gone from our assignment is a strain -- also travel can be exhausting due to the unpredictable schedules set for us. But, all in all, we are grateful for the many opportunities that have been ours and feel blessed to have been able to see many beautiful and exciting places in the world.

The Helsinki Finland temple is made of Granite, it is superb in it's workmanship, it sits a top a small hill in a beautiful location, and the sessions are presented in many languages. We enjoyed the peace of the surroundings and felt a strong Spirit of love while we were there. This was the last trip we would take with most of these guys. Four left in July for home(Elder Magleby, on my left, and the last three far right of picture, Elders Pulsipher, Sorensen and Jensen). We enjoyed the trips we took with them -- they always looked after us and were a lot of fun. The second visa trip to Helsinki was the last visa trip we will take with Elder Bassett, left of me, and Elder Able, center blonde. They will be leaving the missionfield before our next trip in October.The church hostel sits on the same property, right next to the temple. While we were "stuck" in Helsinki we stayed in the hostle on the weekends. During the week the rooms had been reserved by various braches/districts throughout Russia for members who came to do temple work. At that time we moved to a hotel within walking distance so we could attend the temple daily. It is clean and quite nice -- although the beds were a little short for Elder Nuzman. An added bonus was water you can drink right out of the tap!!!

Helsinki is a beautiful, clean, modern city with much to see. The people are friendly and helpful and many speak English. We stayed close to the temple the first visa trip, but had the opportunity to take a bus or train downtown on occassionally.

We really enjoyed Helsinki!!! The Helsinki Cathedral is probably the most prominent building and symbol of the city.

Down by the wharf is an open market with a variety of items to buy, it is quite beautiful and they sell everything from flowers to fish -- a wide variety of aromas wafting through the air.

While we were waiting for Ron's visa to be processed we decided to take a trip across the bay to Eastonia. The ride there was about 2 hours long. The luxury liner is not the boat we took -- ours was the little red doozer below. After a week of waiting for Ron's visa to arrive one of the temple missionaries told us we should take the Viking Line cruse to Stalkholm Sweden, stay overnight on the ship, and spend the day in Stalkholm. We were tempted (and still kick ourselves because we didn't go), but we were afraid the visa would arrive and it wouldn't be in good form to be vacationing on some cruse ship when we should be heading for home. We didn't think our Mission President would be pleased.

Tallin is the capital and largest city in Estonia. It is quite small -- it covers only about 61.5 square miles, and has a population of 404,000. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, and is only about 50 miles South of Helsinki. We enjoyed a restful ride on the boat and then took off to see the city.





Historically the city has been attacked, sacked, razed and pillaged on numerous occiasions. Although extensively bombed by Soviet air forces during World War II much of the medieval town still retains it's charm.

Ron stands next to St. Catherine's passage.

Medieval Town Hall sits in city center. A weather vane, the figure of an old warrior called Old Thomas was put on top of the spire in 1530 and that became the symbol for the city. (Sorry my picture cut off Old Thomas).

Tallin is a quaint, old town that it pretty touristy -- we couldn't find a place to sit down, unless we sat at one of the outside restaurants. And no restrooms, unless of course, you go to one of the restaurants. Needless to say, we only stayed in town a couple of hours.

We sailed back to Helsinki past the old fort with it's canon standing guard, and into the port.
Suomenlinna has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1991.

In the far distance the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral' dome reaches towards the clouds.

After 2 weeks, Ron received his visa and a van took us back to Saint Petersburg (about a 5 hour drive) where we caught a plane for home (the second visa trip we flew from Yekat directly to Helsinki and back). It was a nice visit (both times), the people were kind and hospitable, the country is beautiful and progressive, and we loved the opportunity to attend the temple. MAY: In May we flew to Moscow, one week after our trip to Helsinki, and neither of us were looking forward to travel again so soon. However we were greatly blessed to be welcomed by our CES (now called S & I, Seminary and Institute) director, Henry Kosak and his family, and a fun and entertaining office staff.

Moscow is a huge city -- with a population of about 8.5 million people. It is beautiful and historic and it was a wonderful opportunity that we normally wouldn't have had. We were summoned to Moscow to receive a new, important assignment and we needed training. Henry, our director and his staff taught us - Sergey, Henry, and Oxana took turns with our old heads and tried to stuff as much into them as two days would allow.

Henry Kosak is the Area Director for CES, covering the East Europe Area (Russia, Ukraine, Baltics, Armenia and possible other places). He is kind, chirsmatic, and loved by the youth and fellow employees. He and his family are from East Germany and will living in Russia for another 3 years to fulfill this assignment. On the way to the office for our training, he decided we needed to see Red Square, so he made a detour and we were fortunate to arrive early in the morning when tourists were not out and about. So much to see, so little time, but we were grateful for the opportunity to be here and for Henry's kindness in taking time to show us this historic place before our day began.

This was a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity -- the skies were clear, the air was crisp, and there were few people on the square, so I kept my camera snapping.

The Kremlin stretches from one end of the square to almost the opposite side.

It was an amazing feeling to stand in the middle of Red Square -- so much history and important events had taken place in this very spot. We were grateful for the Kosak's warm hospitality. We loved staying in their home and feeling of the love they have for one another and the gospel. JUNE:

In June we flew to Lithuania to attend a CES conference. If these pictures look familiar, it is because this is the same town I posted in one of my first blogs last year.

Vilinus is still quiet and beautiful.

Our main purpose for going to Vilinus was to learn how to be more effective as CES missionaries. We attended classes every day for 6 hours. We learned a lot and we gained weight -- devotional, breakfast, class, lunch, class, dinner, study groups. Henry Kosak (grey suit) and Sergey (dark suit by flip chart) are wonderful and entertaining leaders.

Last year we attended this same conference and could hardly stay awake because we were still suffering from 'jet lag'. We had only been in the country 4 days when we flew to another time zone -- Lithuania. This year we learned much more and came back "re-energized" to continue with our work.

On the last day of our conference Henry invited us to take a walk around the town. This beauty was parked outside our hotel as we left for our walk -- All the men had to stop, take a look, and drool.

A beautiful day for a walk. It is good to get away from our studies and enjoy some fresh air. These are some of the beautiful sites we saw as we walked around the town.

We stopped for a few minutes to get a photo of the entire group -- behind us is an old fort.

Three days and we were ready to head for our home countries and missionary duties. This is the kind of transporation we often take -- kinda scarey, huh? Most Russian planes are very old and do not have modern capibilties -- which means Ron sits with his knees up to his ears, extrememly cramped. Unlike airlines in the US, all airlines here serve meals with each flight. We would do without the food if we could trade it for leg space.

Seniors are a lot of fun -- and they are tough too. You have to be able to endure a strenuous schedule and keep up. These are the Millers and the Sartoris. (Sister Sartori went to Granger High School with me - two years younger - for those of you who are old friends her maiden name was Julie Lelis.

Traveling can be exhausting -- they book us on the 'red eye' so the church can save money. Which means we sit in the airports for looooooong periods of time, and we fly when 'normal' people don't want to. We are home to stay -- at least until October, when we will receive our 'marching orders'. We do not know at this point where we will be headed. We only have two more visa trips and then our last trip will be back to the states. We are looking forward to that one, but until that time we stay focused on all the work that still needs to be completed.