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As our plane arrived in the Helsinki,
Finland airport, we mentioned to the woman sitting next to us that
we were here for a temple dedication. “Yes,” she answered,
knowingly. “I read that 55,000 people came to the temple open
house.”
We were thunderstruck that she knew that detail
about the temple of a religion that had been so obscure in Finland.
“You must have a
photographic memory to recall something so specific from a newspaper
article,” I said. She answered with a look that said —
“Of course not. Everybody in Finland knows that the Helsinki
Temple open house has been a smashing success.”
Click on
Photos to Enlarge
Helsinki Harbor.
We thought we’d do our own personal survey
to see if everybody suddenly had this burst of awareness about the
Latter-day Saints. We asked the man at the airport who rented cell
phones. “Did you get to go to the temple open house of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?”
“Oh,” he said, “I wanted to,
because my best friend is a Mormon, but I couldn’t make it.”
So he knew, too. OK. We tried one more. We asked
the woman behind the hotel desk who was checking us in. “Did
you get to the temple open house?” She looked blank for just
a moment and then said, “Oh, the temple is not far from my
home in Espoo.”
A miracle has just happened in Finland. That
nearly everybody on the street is suddenly aware of the Church in
such a positive light was beyond the wildest dreams of most Finnish
members even only a few months ago.
University of Helsinki Library completed in 1840.
As the temple open house approached,
scheduled for Sept. 21 to Oct. 7, the planning committee thought
they were stretching the boundaries of possibility when they set
a goal of 25,000 people coming. In Finland there are 4,500 members,
meeting in 30 congregations — and Church growth in the most
recent years has relied largely on births, rather than converts
who come in at about the speed of a glacier.
President Matti Jouttenus of the Tampere, Finland
stake said that last year they had 17 converts in the entire stake
that takes in a major swath of southwest Finland.
Matti Jouttenus, Tampere Finland Stake President.
Reasons abound for this reticence. The Finns
will explain that has everything to do with their national character.
They are a people of integrity. Their country has been rated as
the least corrupt and the most democratic in the world. They were
the only country to pay off their war debts after World War II,
a reflection of their sturdy honesty. They are well educated and
technically savvy. Their economy is soaring and person after person
we interviewed acknowledged, “We have everything we could
want materially.”
Beautiful farms dot the Finland countryside.
Their country is a stunning northern gem with
lakes that make the map look like lace covering 10% of the country.
It has coniferous emerald forests splashed with yellow birch this
time of year, stretching as far as the eye can see. The rural landscape
is a picture of idyllic beauty — red barns and white houses
etched against green fields stretching between sparkling, clean
cities. Their design of everything from dishes to fabric to furniture
is bright, sleek, spare and classic.
Yet, for all this — and this is their
own report — they are a shy people, somewhat reserved. One
little boy gave us a sober half-smile, when we went to take his
picture and his mother laughed, “That is a Finnish smile.”
“A Finnish smile,”
according to one parent.
This isn’t the case when you know a Finn,
and not amidst Church members who have the warmth and light you’d
find anywhere in the Church. In fact, what we hear from returned
Finnish missionaries is that though Finns are hard to get to know,
once they have become your friend, they are a friend for life.
Still, for those knocking on doors seeking converts,
the Finnish reserve comes into full play. Tracting is not just an
intrusion; it is considered rude. Religion is too personal to talk
about. A Finn feels uncomfortable in a discussion about God.
For the new member, visiting and home teaching
are something really hard to get used to with great pain. Having
someone come to your home that you didn’t invite? Horrors.
The Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral, completed in 1852,
dominates the Senate Square in the heart of Helsinki.
Then add to this some other natural obstacles.
Finland has been Lutheran for generations. Though most Finns are
no longer church-attending, their heritage and sense of identity
is Lutheran. Unless they have a special exemption, everyone pays
a tax for the Lutheran church. To turn your back on being a Lutheran
is to somehow mar your Finnish heritage and allegiance.
Ironically, while bound in a religious heritage,
at the same time Finland has become secular with many of the ills
that accompany the abandonment of faith. Marriage is retreating
as many co-habitate. Alcoholism is a problem for some.
Member mingles with missionaries in Espoo. American
missionaries were once thought to be Communist spies in Finland.
Then, in a trend that could be laughable if
it didn’t have such serious consequences for driving people
from finding the truth, in the early days from 1947 on, the Church
was held in some suspicion. Rumors flew about the Church. When Tauno
Savolainen first joined the Church in 1949, Mormons were considered
Communist spies, the worst possible label in a country that had
so freshly been in a war with Russia. By the time his wife, Pirkko
Lahti, was a missionary in the 60’s, the rumors flew that
missionaries were CIA, American spies.
She remembers saying at the doors she was tracting,
“How can I be an American spy? I’m Finnish.”
So in the 59 years that missionaries have been in Finland since
its 1947 rededication for preaching, there are only 4,500 members.
Click
here to continue to Part 2 of A Temple Open House.
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Keep watching this entire week as we
bring you coverage from the Helsinki Temple Youth Cultural Celebration
and Dedication, as well as fascinating inside views into the members
from Finland and other Baltic States and Russia. If you haven’t
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