The most sacred place in Finland

The fireside in Helsinki on Sunday night was the biggest of the entire trip.  I’m told that there were 308 (or, according to another report, 310) people in a room that has a capacity of 300.  Wayne Crosby spoke first.  Scott Gordon spoke second.  I was the third speaker, and I was followed by Sharon Eubank.  I think that the evening went very well.

The Gordons and I had attended sacrament meeting first, in the Espoo Second Ward, and we went from there to the Helsinki Finland Temple, where one of the counselors in the temple presidency (and his wife, one of the assistant temple matrons) took us on a tour of the building.  It is very beautiful inside — surprisingly so (to me, anyway) — and I was pleased to see that many of the works of art hanging on its walls are new ones, just received, that I, at least, had not seen before.  Our guide told us that there are 45 separate paintings in the temple, and I don’t know whether that number counts the large mural in the first ordinance room.

The Helsinki Finland Temple serves not only Finnish Latter-day Saints but others from various countries, including Estonia and Russia.  Recent political difficulties between Russia and Ukraine have obliged Russian Saints to come to Finland rather than going to the temple in Kiev.  Fortunately, the signage in the temple is in both Finnish and Russian.

Just shortly before our temple tour, if I understood correctly, a large number of young people from Siberia had come to perform baptisms for the dead.  (Temple patron housing is available on the grounds below the temple itself for those who have arrived from long distances.)  I have to admit that the thought of groups of Russian youth doing vicarious baptisms on behalf of the dead would not have seemed even a remote possibility to me two or three decades back.  I have lived through some remarkable times.

I didn’t expect to receive a tour of the temple, either, but I accepted it gratefully.  This is, I think, the fourth dedicated temple where I’ve been privileged to have such an experience provided by a temple president or one of his counselors — in Melbourne, Australia; Vancouver, British Columbia; Nauvoo, Illinois; and Helsinki, Finland.  I love temples.

Posted from Helsinki, Finland