Church and Chocolate Chip Cookies

We have had a very busy weekend here in Savonlinna.

As I mentioned in my last post, as a way to welcome me here, Saarika invited me to her house for dinner on Friday night. Well, something that I learned very quickly was that she loves chocolate. Brownies are her absolute favorite, but when she asked me, I told her chocolate chip cookies. And I'm not even going to be humble, my recipe is the best. It just is. So we decided to give those a try because she loves cookies but had never made homemade ones before, and I love to bake. It was an adventure.

When we were getting the ingredients at the store, we had a hard time finding vanilla. That's just an easy thing to find back home, but the store didn't have the liquid kind. It had the plant. Which we had to open and scrape out to get our vanilla. That's the first difference.

Secondly, I was worried because my recipe uses cups. Thank goodness previous BYU groups that have visited brought cups for Saarika to use with brownie mixes from the U.S. They use deciliters here for measuring-that would be tricky to convert.

Third. No hand mixer. Usually you beat the sugar and butter together until they're mixed. I used my hands. It was left as sort of a grainy texture...

Fourth. No teaspoons. It was a guestimate. I only hoped we didn't add too much salt.

Finally, the oven was in Celsius. So we had to eyeball the cooking time. Overall I was very impressed. They turned out exactly like my favorite ones we make at home. And the kids loved them, too. They were gone by the next day. :)

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Some of my extended family lives in a small town in South Dakota. We are all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also known as "Mormons," but since there are few people in that small town, there are few members as well. We call our large congregations "wards", but when they are small they are called a "branch." The branch in South Dakota has about 20 people. I knew Savonlinna had a branch, and I was prepared that it would be smaller than my 150 member student ward at BYU. I was very interested to see how differently church might function. 

In our church we have three hours of meetings. First we have our worship service, our "Sacrament Meeting." Then we have Sunday School and finally Relief Society for women and Priesthood for men. This branch only meets for two hours and rotates Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood every other week because they are small. There were probably 15-18 people there for Sacrament Meeting and 8 for Sunday School. One of the missionaries blessed the Sacrament and the other passed it. Leena was playing the piano for the meeting so she told me to sit by the elders (missionaries) so they could translate for me. I was very impressed. One had only been in Finland for 8 months but was able to translate most of the talk for me, except for quotes. For scriptures he just told me the reference and we looked them up in my English scriptures. 

Leena taught Sunday School and she asked me questions in English and interpreted my answers for the class. Even though I was separated by the language barrier, I felt the Spirit very strongly in their branch. These members know the Gospel well. They love and serve each other and try very hard to live good lives. Between the missionaries and the Spirit, I learned a lot today. 

In between the two meetings, I took a few moments to read my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. It's Alma 26. At the very end, I stumbled upon a treasure in verses 36-37.

"Blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel...Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth."

When I read this, I knew and felt very strongly that this was true. This small and faithful branch of members in Savonlinna are loved and watched over by a loving God. He knows them, and they are never forgotten. They are a small group in our eyes, but God knows every one of them. I began to feel a different sort of love: for a moment, I believe I felt a little of God's love for this branch. 

The Church might function differently in different areas of the world, but it is the same Church and the same Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for my membership and the strength that I feel from it. I am blessed that I can travel thousands of miles away and still feel the love and hand of the Lord guiding my life.