Meet Our New Kemi Branch President

Two Sundays ago at a special meeting called for the District, we all travelled to Oulu and there there was a new District Pres called and 3 new Branch Pres sustained.
Vanhin Soininen was called to Kemi and so it has been a busy time for us visiting all of the families at their homes to get to know them and them us. On Sunday all of the auxillaries were rearranged and I have been called as a counselor in Relief Society. A number of the members speak English or understand it but a lot of translating goes on too. I am becoming more familiar with the Finnish language and am picking out more words that I understand as I listen to people. Even the children help - anka is duck! I read out loud to whoever will listen from the Book of Mormon or childrens books just to get my tongue used to saying the long and torturous words.
We are now settled in Kemi for the rest of our mission and it is only a small branch with about 40 members attending at most Sacrament meetings but we have a lot of young men and children. They are warm and friendly people and have made us feel very welcome
We have found the perfect little apartment just 5 minutes walk from the chapel and have settled in with most of our furniture being donated by our members. It is only one bedroom but it has a sauna !
We did buy a new bed and washing machine and we found our lights at Ikea which is about 20 minutes north of Kemi in Sweden. Yes we have Ikea and it is much cheaper than at home!

Jouni trying out our new bed.

Testing!testing!

This is our carport and the car which we are driving at the moment was lent to us by a generous Kemi family. Don't know how we would have managed without it. We are the red one at the end

Our loungeroom looking out to the balcony through the door on the right.

We are looking forward to the summer and using the glass enclosed balcony with windows that can be opened wide. We have a beautiful kitchen with a dish washer which we haven,t used yet but I have made pulla and baked many other dishes already as we have had people over to eat and I have taken goodies as we have visited




We are finding our feet and handing out passalong cards as we go . Jouni has been to see the local press and is hopeful of them doing a profile on him as "Finn returns after 52 yeaes in Australia" but we will see.
Love you all and pray for you daily