The Lavaja Diaries: Kirsten Comes to Visit: Helsinki

I was excited about going to Helsinki- It was the only place in Finland I had even heard of before coming here.

"Ponsonby, in Helsinki!"- Bill Murray, anyone?... The Man Who Knew Too Little!?

Rusty and I kept saying that line before my trip and now whenever I hear the word Helsinki, I can't help but think of Ponsonby...At any rate, once we arrived, we followed our host's directions to her apartment. She was so helpful and about our age, so we had a great time hanging out with her. Also, it turns out, her parents are in my church branch in Oulu and I had no idea until we met. And! her sister is serving a mission in Sacramento, California- my hometown! Such a small world.

Right after arriving to her place, the three of us went downtown and had dinner at Amarillo, a mexican restaurant. Once we had filled up on chicken burritos and chocolate cake, she gave us a walking tour around the city. Thanks to her, we had our own personal tour guide :)

The following day was the only full day we had in Helsinki because we left to Oulu the next morning. We planned out our whole day the night before just to be sure we could make it to everything we wanted to see. Our list consisted of four different churches, an island- Suomenlinna, which is a fortress that was used during a war, and the LDS Temple.

The churches (the red church, the white church, the rock church, and the meditation church) were neat, but the last churches we toured were ancient, opulent cathedrals in Italy and these churches didn't hold a candle next to them. Nonetheless, they were totally different from what we had seen before. Their names are pretty self-explanatory...but I was surprised to see even the walls inside of the rock church were made out of boulders and that the mediation church looked like a gigantic orange bowl.

The fortress was cool. It was probably my favorite thing we toured. There were six different islands, which are all connected by bridges. Despite the chilly weather, I loved exploring them. The scenery was beautiful. It reminded me of Ireland for some reason- well, I guess I should say it reminded me of pictures I have seen of Ireland since I've never actually been there haha. The lush green hills were surrounded by rocky coastlines and dark blue water of the Baltic Sea.

Our last stop was the Helsinki Temple. We wanted to be able to do baptisms in the temple and the last session was at 4 o'clock. We actually didn't make it there til almost five, but they told us if we waited until six there may be enough men there to do the baptisms for us. We figured it was worth a shot and where better to sit and relax than in the temple? Six o'clock came and we got the good news that there would be enough men! There were two sets of elderly missionaries working that night. (In the LDS church you have two opportunities to serve missions- once when you are about 20 years-old, and once with your spouse when you are older). One couple was from South Jordan, Utah and the other couple was from Orem, Utah and the two men had served their missions together in Finland when they were younger! How crazy is that?! Needless to say, it was a great experience and I am so grateful for the opportunity we had not only to visit it, but to do work inside of it.

Kirsten and I had accomplished everything we wanted to do in Helsinki! The next morning we were finally headed back to Oulu to see Rusty and to show Kirsten around our stompin' ground!