Tuesday, August 7, 2012 Kent and I celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary by going on our second visa renewal trip to Helsinki, Finland.  We left the Perm airport early that morning.

This is a view from our plane of the Kama River.  Perm, the city that we serve in, is located along the banks of this large river.  Barrages can be seen daily travelling this great expanse.

We safely landed at the Moscow airport and faced a long layover.  We decided to be a bit adventuresome and take the aeroexpress train from the airport into the city of Moscow.  Unsure of everything, we bought roundtrip tickets that took us only a half hour into the city and back.

It was wonderful to get out of the airport and into the sights and sounds of Moscow.  Moscow is a huge city, eleven and a half million people.  This is the Moskova River that winds itself all around this massive city.

These are some of the sights of the outskirts of Moscow.

All along the train route, there were miles and miles of artistic graffiti.

 This is just one of many, many train terminals...the Moskva.  Here is a close up of one of the buildings that makes up the station.
                                     

Here is a distant view of the same terminal, showing how massive it is.

Across from the train station was this beautiful Russian Orthodox Church nestled in amongst the modern skyscrapers.  Notice the flatiron building reminiscent of the one on Time Square in New York.

This is a view of a busy city street...note all the traffic going one way and no traffic going the other. Seemed strange!  The building on the left is going through extensive renovation.  Many of the areas were under construction.  There definitely was a more metropolitan feel in this much bigger city.

While waiting for our return trip, we watched this man wrap suitcases in a plastic wrap.  For 300 rubles, approximately $10, you can have your travel bags wrapped to protect them.  You see this a lot more at airports, because of the obvious abuse in plane cargo bins.  This also offers protection from the weather.

I got this amazing picture out of the window of our plane as we were coming into Finland.  Below the clouds, you can see the multitude of tiny islands in the Gulf of Finland which is part of the Baltic Sea.

Finland...such a refreshing, beautiful country!

We were here just three months ago but we could see considerable changes in the landscape. The temple missionaries told us that it had been a very cool summer.  It has to be 70 degrees in order for missionaries to be able to proselyte without their suit coats and they have only had their coats off once all summer!!!

We were fortunate to get in two sessions.  The last session in this temple is at 6:00 p.m.  After the sessions, we walked around this beautiful temple and took some pictures.  Enjoy...

This is at the top of the front door to the temple.  Our Google Translate tells us that it reads in Finnish, "Holiness to the Lord's Room".

We got our new passports, spent the night at the hostel next to the temple and then caught an early flight back to Moscow the next morning.  This is another Russian Orthodox Church that is part of the
airport in Moscow.  If I remember right, Moscow has three huge international airports.

Elder Pocock found an outlet at the airport to charge his IPhone.  Later we saw several others parked alongside the walkway, charging a variety of electronics.

After a long five hour layover, we anxiously boarded the bus that took us to our plane.  Then we sat in a very hot plane for an hour.  They said that they were experiencing mechanical problems and it would take a while...yikes.  They passed out water and then finally had all of us exit the plane and board the bus.  Back to the airport for another two hours until they could find another available plane.  Again, we boarded the bus and after waiting on the bus for about 20 minutes, we exited the bus.  The word was that the second plane was not safe!  Below is a picture of our fellow Russians who by this time were very upset!  The poor young woman at the counter was having to field all of their questions and complaints.  After another two hours...we finally boarded another bus then plane.  We arrived in Perm at 1:30 a.m. in the morning.  It was wonderful to be back home in our little apartment, safe and sound!  Always an adventure...

We are experiencing Fall-like weather...lots of rain.  Winter is just around the corner...we feel it!

Elder and Sister Huefner, from Bountiful, Utah are here serving a mission as the Area Assistant Auditors.  They serve five missions in this area.  August is auditing month and they come to assist the branches in their audit.  We went on a walk down by the Kama River.

While walking by the river, we got to see this wedding party.  They had beautiful, white doves and these darling children were taking turns holding them.  The doves were so tame and they would fan their tails for the on-lookers.

This is an enormous ball that they had set up at the reception.  The guests would inserts ribbons with attached well wishes for the couples future.

OUCH...tape is a very useful tool here in Russia.  We have witnessed many a fender-bender.  We're so glad that we ride buses, tramvies, and avtobuses!

Elder Bybee went home last week.  His departure enabled this young man, Elder Kerdyapkin, (18 years old from Moscow) to serve a mini-mission until transfers take place.  Elder Flitton is his companion.  He is so enthusiastic!  He is a twin, with two other brothers.  He is the only member in his family.  He loves his mini-mission and we love him.  He wants to eventually serve a full time mission.

Three missions in Russia are sponsoring a young single adult conference.  We were originally invited to chaperone, then we were told that there were not enough accommodations...so they cut the number of senior couples.  Then this week, we were called to see if we could go...so we take off this afternoon on a 41 hour train ride across Russia to Novosibirsk.  See you next week with pictures of what the real Siberia of Russia looks like in August!