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We're home!!!

You can tell by our smiles that we are happy to be home.  Our lives have been pretty hectic the last few weeks, and will be for the next month or so as we get re-settled into our home, and visit family who live out of town.  But it is all good - except for one thing!  We miss our friends and young adults in Finland!!!

Our first morning home we woke up to this beautiful sunrise!  We love the view from our home at any time of the day!  Actually I had been awake for some time when it finally began to get light on the horizon.  But after two weeks we are back on California time. The family came over for our traditional celebratory waffle breakfast!  It was wonderful to sit around the kitchen table and just visit. Twenty of our thirty grandchildren and both of our great grandchildren!

On the following Saturday we were able to attend the baptism of our granddaughter, Clara.  We are so grateful that she waited a few weeks so that we could be there with her on this special occasion!  Afterward the family came over to our place for another round of family fun and feasting!

Below is the view from my home office.  How I have missed this view! After two and a half weeks at home we are pretty well adjusted to our former routine of life on the farm and with our family.  But a day doesn't go by that we don't miss our wonderful young adults and missionary/temple family in Finland and Turkey, Vietnam, Colombia, etc.  We continue to be grateful for the internet and modern communications media that allow us to stay in contact with them, as we did with our family, while in Finland!

We will be giving our mission report at church on Sunday, March 20 at 12:30 pm at 252 North O Street, in Lincoln.  We would love to have any friends or family who can make it join us.  We had thought about a reception at the house afterwards, but decided to wait until our annual Easter egg hunt the following Saturday.
Posted by Larry Brasher at 8:51 AM No comments: 

Farewell to Finland!

Our farewells began in December, as we said goodbye to our Turkish boys.  We have truly come to love Eren, Gökmen, and Emre in just the few short months that we have gotten to know them.  They are wonderful young men.  As members of the church Eren and Gökmen will help establish a strong foundation for the church in Turkey!  They are truly pioneers and we look forward to staying in touch with them - and even visit them in then next year or two!

Jean-Louis was the next to depart.  He returned to France in January and has since gone on to Bogota, Colombia where he will be working for at least a year.  Who knows we may get a chance to travel south and see him!

Not a farewell, but a preview of one to come!  We were able to FaceTime with our grandson, Sam, and his family as he opened his mission call.  He will be going to the Spain Madrid Mission at the end of May!!!  Sam will be a great missionary!  We are so grateful for the technology that has enabled us to stay in touch with our family while being apart from them for the last year and a half. Two of the most spiritual experiences we had while serving in Finland were the senior missionary conferences we participated in at the Mission home.  We are so grateful for Pres. and Sister Watson and their inspired leadership, as well as all of the other senior missionaries with whom we were able to serve.  We have renewed and made many friendships which will be cherished forever!

Forty-eight years ago, I confirmed Tuula Leisti in Lahti.  We were able to get reacquainted when she visited the Helsinki Temple.  On her last she came with her son and daughter-in-law! Claire Yu and Ellen Liu treated us to a wonderful home-cooked Chinese dinner.  Everything was super delicious!  We are hoping that they may come visit us this summer!!!  Wonderfully sweet young ladies! When I served in Tampere 47 years ago I was able to help teach Risto Lehti.  Later Risto and Piirjo-Riita's daughter, Anni, came to live with us in Claifornia as an exchange student at Del Campo High School.  We were able to visit them with Elder and Sister Erickson shortly before returning home.  The tapestry is a traditional Finnish ryijy.  We had a very pleasant visit. Early in our mission we met Zhibai Zhang, from Harbin, China.  He plays the oboe in the Kymeenlaakso Symphony Orchestra.  But since he lives about an hour and a half from Helsinki, we were only able to visit with about a half dozen times over the 18 months.  Just before we came home he happened to be in Helsinki and we had him, along with Claire, Ellen, Sister Carter and Sister Bruce to our home for Sunday dinner.

At our last Family Home Evening at the institute center we were treated to a farewell party.  Here we are with many of the young adults whom we have come to love so much, and whom we already greatly miss.  They are wonderful!!!! Heikki was met by the Elders on the street.  He wasn't interested in the church, but expressed an interest in helping us with the Finnish class for foreigners.  We grew to become good friends!  Unfortunately his work in Helsinki concluded in December and he moved back to his hometown about 4 hours from Helsinki.

We stayed in touch via email and he surprised me by showing up to one of thelast Finnish classes we had.  He spent the night in Helsinki and we had a very pleasant lunch the next day.  Heikki is deeply religious and hopefully will consider studying with the missionaries.  The good news is that he is coming back to  Helsinki in April and will continue helping with the Finnish class.
One of many highlights of my mission was teaching an English language institute class for non-Finnish speakers.  In the 2014-15 term it was hit or miss, with only a few students participating.  But this year, thanks to a nucleus of Eren, Gokmen, Elin and Claire it grew to where we have 9 to 12 students attending regularly, even after my Turkish boys left in December.
We also had a farewell party with our Finnish class and English language institute class.  We enjoyed a potluck dinner with TONS of food from all over the world!  It was super delicious and a delightful evening.
Following the dinner we had an impromptu talent show.  I had previously asked Claire to bring her pipa, as we had never had the opportunity to hear her play.  All of the other participants were volunteers on the spot!

We were able to serve two mornings a week in the Helsinki Temple.  At our final Family Home Evening in Finland, the Temple presidency and missionaries hosted a farewell dinner for us.  They presented us with this thoughtful memento - a Finnish flag on a base made of the same granite used in construction of the Temple.  We will cherish this memento of both Finland and our Temple service fondly. We had one final and very special surprise farewell.  Mac Ninisiri, came by to say farewell, and introduced us to Jenni, his fiance.  They were married the day we left Finland.  We are so happy for Mac and Jenni, and wish them well.  Mac was baptized shortly after we arrived in Finland and we grew very fond of him.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a great deal of contact with him for the last year or so, until this final visit, making it a very special occasion for both of us! Finnish missionaries just fade away into Finnair!

Posted by Larry Brasher at 10:18 PM No comments: 

Surprise Visit!!

What a wonderful surprise we had when Sister Heika Haag, with whom we worked in the Sacramento Temple came to visit for a day.  We spent a wonderful day with Heika and two of her cousins, Shaye and Alana Bastion.  We started the day off with a visit to the Sacramento Temple! Coming out of the Temple after doing a morning session.  We first became acquainted with Sister Haag while serving in the Sacramento Temple, so it was appropriate to visit the Helsinki Temple together.  Like Anne and I, Heika, tries to visit local temples whenever she is traveling! Anne, Heika, Alana and Shaye in front of the Temple.  These ladies all have such beautiful smiles it was a delight to be with them.

Although it looks very different on the outside, inside the Helsinki Temple is very similar to Sacramento's.  It has been very easy to feel right at home in this Temple.  Although we have found wherever we have been around the world, we always find a warm and loving reception when we our local churches or Temples. Not wanting to feel left out, I traded places with Shaye behind the camera.  I miss Elder Manfred Schutze, who served in the Temple with us last summer.  He would always make sure that my tie was straight!! In addition to doing a little sightseeing we also stopped at the Hakaniemi kauppatori to shop for souvenirs and enjoy a hot lunch at the soup bar! One of Anne's favorites is shopping at some of the many thrift stores.  Here Shaye, Alana and I try on some hats.  We had a really fun time with these young ladies.

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+358 9-696-2750 Mustelma - Our Trip to Oulu 20-22 Feb Helsinki (red flag) - Lahti (B) picked up Ella - Oulu (C) where Mustelma was held - Kajaani (D) for church on Sunday and back home to Helsinki (E) Our Trip to Kuopio 13-15 Feb 2015 We started in Helsinki (A) and drove to Lappeenranta (B), Savonlinna (C), Kuopio (D), Mikkeli (E), Mäntyharju (F), and then back home.