A hot sweat and chilly dip

HELSINKI, FINLAND! After a 2 hour, awesome ferry ride we arrived to Helsinki!

This weekend happened to be Conference weekend - and as much as I wanted to be with my family watching conference, I was able to visit the Helsinki temple. For some reason Ive always wanted to visit this temple, it's so beautiful. We traveled out to the beautiful building and spent a couple hours just sitting in front of it, walking the grounds and talking a lot - about life, the gospel and our experiences. Such a good way to start off sunday morning. 

It was cool to know that my Grandpa Wells had served his mission there years ago. It has been so amazing to visit first my dad's mission and now also my grandpa's. Throughout the day I would picture him walking the streets as a young man and it was super special. I texted my dad and grandma a little bit about the things we were doing throughout the day... I mentioned the famous Finnish saunas and they both said he would talk about saunas and wanting one in the backyard all the time. I don't remember grandpa at all - just pictures - but I feel blessed to visit a place that was so special to him. On our way back into town we found a Taco Bell at the local mall food court and immediately headed that way. None of us were planning on eating out that day, but some good spicy food sounded real nice after almost four months without it. And it was delicious. We then checked into our hostel and made our way to one of the famous saunas. This particular sauna happened to be right on the Baltic Sea - perfect for a polar plunge after a nice sweaty time in the sauna. It was so rad. Definitely something to add to the bucket list! The first time in the sauna was so dang hot... my hair was still dry and I really thought it was going to catch flames. Once we got hot enough, we opened the door and ran over to the dock where we were able to take a dunk in the Sea. The sauna was hot, but the Baltic was FREEZING! Our pool in the winter gets pretty cold, but usually you can swim around for a little - no, not the Baltic. My breath was taken away and it didn't come back till I was out of the water. I felt good once being out of the water, but man oh man that water was cold. I ended up jumping in the sea six times and it got better every time. I swear it was almost addicting. You would get in the sauna and want to hop in the sea again and then you would want to get in the sauna again and it was a never ending cycle. It was awesome. 

A hot sweat...

... and epic chilly dip

Loved my time in Finland. Short and sweet as usual. This is my lucky number 20 here in Europe. So many countries - some may think its dumb or a waste of time to only visit a country for a day or two, but I have gotten to see so much and experience so many things at such a young age. Im learning how to travel and what I want to see more of so that in the future I can come back to the best spots. Goood times were had in Helsinki - Much love from Finland<3