Helsinki Finland Temple

Helsinki Finland 

Temple #67

February 24, 2017

     Finland; What a wonderful country! What brought us here was quite the adventure. As mentioned before, we went to Voronezh, Russia, to teach English for four months. While there we got a few vacations, and our first one was in February. 

     The first vacation was during a national holiday and so while planning the trip it made it hard to decide where to go because everywhere was more expensive. We hoped to go somewhere south and more warm, but it was outside all of our budgets. We were there in Russia with six other girls as well and so we had to find flights for eight people that were cheap. 

     So while deciding where to go I remembered back to a point when Ivy mentioned that some town named Tallinn looked pretty. This made me look up Tallinn, Estonia, and see what was there. I then began to look at flights and found that there were fairly cheap flights there and also cheap trains to and from Moscow. The really cheap trains are what caught my attention. The cheapest was from Riga to Moscow, and so I decided that was our way home. 

     Now, getting to Tallinn was different. The train took nearly eighteen hours, and that was too much time for us on our short four-day vacation. I then looked up flights, and Tallinn was a little pricey. I noticed Helsinki was just across the sea from Tallinn, and so I looked up flights to there. They were affordable, and we wanted to go to Helsinki.

     A trip to Helsinki, Tallinn, and Riga was now brewing in my mind. We were going to do Helsinki later when it was warmer, but I felt like it needed to be done earlier, so we could maybe do a different temple instead, such as Madrid Spain. I told Ivy the idea and she loved it. Why? Because the first day we planned on going to the Helsinki Temple! This excited us both, and we told the group our plans and we all bought our tickets. 

     Now for the trip; It finally came after a few weeks of teaching and we were all ecstatic. The first day of traveling was fun but intense. We started at 9:00 at night Wednesday. We took a ten hour train to Moscow to start off. This is when we first realized I had messed up on Ivy's passport number on the tickets.  If one number is off it can be a big problem, but the entire passport number was incorrect!This was frightening, and at first we weren't allowed on the train. I said a prayer in my heart, and a lot of Russian was yelled at us by two Russian ladies, but they rolled their eyes and let us on. That was a miracle. We quickly cancelled our other train tickets and rebought them with the correct information. Later we found out that I had used Ivy's old passport from when she was a Kunz, because I somehow had the copy of it when I bought the tickets. Always triple check everything! 

     So we got to Moscow safely, took the metro and then a bus to the airport, and then took the plane to Riga where we had fifteen minutes to run to our connecting flight to Helsinki. When in Helsinki we got onto a train for thirty minutes and then walked thirty more to get to our hotel. We got to our hotel around 8:00 at night, and so we had been traveling nearly twenty-three hours.

     The hotel was a Best Western Plus, which we always highly recommend. They're always clean and have wonderful breakfasts. We had more people than beds, which was a funny situation, causing Ivy and I to share a queen bed with two other girls, Ryan and Heather. But it was nice to finally lay down after all that traveling. 

     We woke up early, had an amazing breakfast buffet with berries, yogurt, pancakes bacon and so much more.  Nicest breakfast buffet we have ever had!It was exactly what we needed for that day. We stuffed ourselves and then headed to the temple. 

     We walked to the bus stop and were overly excited the entire time. While checking the weather for Helsinki we were worried it was going to be cloudy, as the weather apps predicted. While going to the temple though there were no clouds in sight, and it was bright and sunny. Ivy couldn't have been happier as her prayers were answered. 

     While on the bus we were looking for the right stop, not sure when to get off. Ivy spotted the gleaming Angel Moroni, and we knew that was our stop. 

     We walked to the temple and took our pictures. It's a beautiful temple, and it felt unreal being there. It's a dream to go to all the temples of the world, yet there are some that we always said “when will we ever go there?” This was one of them, but now we were there, staring up at the beautiful, copper steeple. 

     It was blue skies and sunny, and although freezing cold, our hearts were warmed. We went in and began our worship. It was interesting yet neat because everyone spoke Finnish, but because Helsinki is so close to St. Petersburg there was a lot of signs in Russian too. The session just happened to be in a Russian as well, and that was special. I had been studying a little Russian while living in Russia, and so it was neat to be able to understand some of what was said. 

     As most temples do, the Helsinki Temple had some consistent decorations and designs throughout the building. There was a pine tree design inlaid in all the wood and painted in other places. There were also unique snowflakes in the stain glass windows, which, while the sun was brilliantly shining, seemed to glowed white and bright, while the rest of the glass simply let the light through. 

     We had a wonderful time at the temple and loved the entire experience, and we're so glad that everything had worked out. When we left the temple it was cloudy and snowing, and we were extremely happy we had taken pictures before the session. 

     We hopped onto a bus next and went to downtown Helsinki. We only had about two hours until our ferry ride and so we rushed and ran to all the sights. We saw everything we wanted to, and eventually made it to the ferry. 

     The ferry was awesome, being like a cruise ship with food and entertainment aboard. The ferry ride was two hours, and we made it to Tallinn Estonia at sunset. 

     We rushed to old town Tallinn, which is a fascinating place full of old buildings, churches, walls and cobblestone streets. It felt magical as we walked through the streets, and eventually came to a large square with a giant cathedral in the center. Bagpipes and a drum were being played for money by some locals dressed up. Ivy and the rest of the girls went and danced with some other tourists while I took pictures and videos. 

     The moment felt like a movie or dream. No better way to explain it. We then made our way through the old town and to another large square where hundreds of people were gathered holding torches. None of us had any idea, but it was Estonia's Independence Day! They had some speakers and did a freedom march. We watched and took some pictures and then went on our way. 

     A crazy blizzard suddenly came upon us and we quickly went to our hostel. It had been quite the day and one of my favorites. Beginning with the Temple always makes for a good day, and gives the rest of the day a more joyful mood. There is no better way to start or end your day then with the temple. 

     The next day we woke up at about 5:00, took a tram to a bus station, and then took a luxurious bus with tv, wifi and free hot chocolate to Riga. 

     Riga was another fun old town, and we got some good pictures with the old buildings and cathedrals. 

     We then got on our train, which took sixteen hours to get back to Moscow. For us that was fine, and it was a nice train compared to those we had to China, especially the twenty-four hour train, but to the rest of the girls it was crazy and insane. Long foreign trains are always quite the experience, and are necessary for a true experience. 

     We got to Moscow, walked around Red Square and the Kremlin, and eventually got onto another train back to home. That train took another ten hours and got us home at 8:00 in the morning, and Ivy had to teach at 9:00. 

     Our trip was now over and we had spent thirty-six hours on trains, and another twelve or more hours on other modes of transportation, and hundreds of dollars, and yet it was all completely worth it and we had no regrets. For Ivy and I no matter how much a trip may cost, if we got to a temple it makes it all worth it. Going to temples while you travel also gives us an easy idea of where you may want to travel. Because of the temples we have our destinations planned out much easier.

     This is why we encourage all to go the the temple no matter where they may be traveling to. Do this and everything will work out. It was a miracle that our trains, buses, metros, trams, ferry and flights all worked out and nothing was missed or delayed. 

     We give credit to God, who helped us plan it and make it work in order for us to go to the temple. Oh what a great trip!