'Old' Friends Meet at Finnish Temple

With a good driver, arranged by the mission people, the 51/2 drive toHelsiniki, Finland and back was great. He didn't speak any English and riding for 11 or 12 hours with someone you can't talk to is a little uncomfortable, but he directed us easily through the rigamoral at the borders. Helsiniki is directly across the Gulf of Finland from St. Petersburg, however, the road to drive it takes you quite a bit north but over good roads. The Russian side of the trip was through forest land, looked much like driving through Island Park, but we were surprised at how the scenery changed at the border. Once we were in Finland we were in picturesque farm country with cut grain and red barns. There were 'Moose Crossing' signs every few miles. (Reminded us of Maine.) The dominant feature of the Finnish landscape in this area is definitely the rocks. Everywhere you look are big boulders which have been left behind willy-nilly by some glacier in ages past. The farmers just have to farm around them. And there are large outcropping of rocks where nothing can grow but forest.

It is very fitting that the temple is built atop one such rocky ledge and, in fact, has a beauitful stone wall leading up to and around it. It gives it the appearance of a European castle or fortress. It's beautiful.

What a special time it was for us to be able to go to the temple and to visit with my dear friend Ronda and Dick Groberg. It was, indeed, a 'tender mercy' to see her so far from home. Who ever would have thought back in our high school days that we would one day meet halfway around the world as missionaries? We were only there overnight but we had two meals with them and did three sessions in the temple and went shopping (for groceries I can't find in Russia). It was interesting to be the ones listening to the sessions with headphones in English, as they were conducted in Finnish and one in Russian. We stayed at the temple guest house where we were surprised to find that the rooms (except for the apartments of the senior missionaries) are not set up for couples. In order to accommodate the most people there are 3 sets of bunks in a room. So women and men were in different rooms. It was a little uncomfortable to be sharing a room with young sisters I didn't know and couldn't communicate with, but the price (about $10 per night) and the convenience were well worth it. There are 6 languages predominant at this temple: Finnish, Russian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and English. You never knew who spoke what language.

Our driver wanted to leave at noon, right after the morning session. (He is a branch president and he also stayed at the guest house and attended the temple.) It would have been nice to have stayed longer but it was a beautiful fall day for a drive. Crossing the border back into Russia took us only about 20 minutes. That alone made it worth the trip when we compared it to the 8 hours we sat at the border in Estonia last time. The whole trip is just to get that visa stamp on our passport. We hit Petersburg at 5:00 p.m. rush hour. We could have stayed at the temple another hour or so and still been further ahead. We don't know where our next visa renewal trips will be but I'll always be thankful for this opportunity.