8/23/25
Hello, again! Greetings from Reykjavik — we’ve had a great week! For the first half of this week my mom was here continuing her visit with us. We really appreciate that she would travel so far to join us for a week. She was a real trooper to hang out with us while we did our work as well as join us as we drove her all over to see the beautiful places in Iceland that we love. On Sunday we had to get a picture of her with our lovely Christus statue. It is a tradition to have a photo with this beautiful statue and mom and I both felt like we were wrapped in the arms of Jesus.
At church we met some new friends, Simon & Tanner Cropper, a father & son who were traveling in Iceland. Simon is attending BYU and mom quickly went into matchmaker mode for her granddaughters who are also at BYU. I’m adding their picture here so if, in the future, Simon becomes a family member I can say I was a witness to the beginning of the adventure! They were very kind to visit with us. They are fellow Oregonians as well so it sounds to me like Simon is a keeper! 🙂
After church on Sunday, Santiago and Moises were both baptized as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are members of the Spanish branch. In the picture below you will see L-R: Moises, Elder Monzon, Elder Young, & Santiago. If you would like to learn more about what it means to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, click here. We are so happy to welcome them into the church! These boys are going to add so much vitality, spirituality, & fun to their branch.
To finish off our day Sunday we met some friends of moms who were on a Scandinavian cruise and just happened to be in Reykjavik on the same Sunday that mom was here! Here is the really ironic part of this story: Kathy & Steve share a fence with mom; they could not be closer neighbors. And, their son-in-law, Thad Curtis, is a former student of Todd’s from decades ago when we lived in Alaska! It was so fun to meet them for a walk and a visit on a lovely evening.
As the week went on we took mom to see some of the sights right around our apartment in the city. This reflection of the apartments along the inlet made for a lovely picture, don’t you think?
The inlet and the waterfalls Sjávarfoss & Kermóafoss are all within a short distance from our home. We love visiting these special places that are often overlooked . . . or just driven past.
Of course mom joined us for Institute Monday night at the church. The wagon was full of good food and mom joined our class for the lesson, dinner, and games. We have a few new class members with the start of the school year and it was a fun night.
We took an evening drive downtown to catch the sunset. It was beautiful to be out near the water in the calm weather! These days the sun is setting a little before 10 pm and we actually have several hours of darkness at night. Below is the Sun Voyager, heading off into the sunset.
Grótta lighthouse:
We had our P-day on Tuesday so we drove the south coast of the island to show mom some more beautiful places in Iceland. Here is a picture summary of our day:
Urriðafoss —
Views from Dyrhólaey Lighthouse — We did see some puffins flying on and off the cliffs here, but most of them have flown away for the season. As for the lighthouse, I didn’t even get a picture of it! We were too busy taking in the gorgeous views out to sea.
Reynisdrangar Beach & Hálsanefshellir Cave —
While we were walking at Reynisdrangar beach a girl walked past me and said, “Hello, Sister!” and just kept walking. I was so startled I stopped and asked her what she had said. She laughed and said when she saw my missionary badge she knew I am a missionary for the Church. Only members of the Church tend to address us in this way and it turns out that this girl and her friend are both members and they were happy to say hi to the missionaries.
Paige Corey & Autumn Cook are best friends who are traveling together in Iceland this week. They are BYU students and off on an adventure in Iceland before school begins. They are super cute and we had a fun chat! When we parted ways we gave them our phone numbers in case they have any trouble while they are on their trip and need someone they can reach out to for help. They both told us that we are an answer to their parent’s prayers as they worried about their girls traveling alone in Iceland! It was fun to meet them and know that we are representing Christ as missionaries wherever we go. We’re sure they are having an amazing trip!
Of course we made it to Skógafoss —
And Seljalandsfoss —
There was a lot of driving on this day, but every mile was worth it to see the beauty that God created in Iceland. Each view is amazing in its own way and we loved sharing these places with mom on her final day visiting us.
Throughout her whole trip I’d been teasing mom about eating and Icelandic hotdog and she had been resisting. On our way home Tuesday evening we were very late for dinner and stopped for ice cream and I also got us hotdogs! Because you need to try an Icelandic hotdog, of course! Once she tried her hotdog we told her she could go home. 🙂
It’s sad to say goodbye knowing we won’t see each other for a whole year. But it was a joy to show mom the work we are doing and the beautiful place we are doing it in. We love her and appreciate her love, prayers, and support. Since my dad passed away mom has been learning to do all sorts of brave things, including traveling all over the world to be with her children. If she didn’t love us she wouldn’t do that! The love of a mother is like nothing else. Thank you, mom. We love you.
We were happy to be invited to the Selfoss branch’s summer barbeque on Wednesday evening. It was a sunny day and we enjoyed good food with great people at President Bragi’s house for a summer celebration!
After a beautiful sunrise walk one day I spent time baking, of course, and working on a super fun photo project for our upcoming zone conference. There’s something about cardstock, glue sticks, and scissors that is just fun every now and then!
Saturday morning the Reykjavik marathon began downtown and worked it’s way through the city streets to our apartment. The runners went right by the front of our building and we enjoyed watching them run by from the comfort of our home! We admire all those who will run a marathon and we applaud them all the way past our windows! 🙂
We ended the week enjoying a picnic with the Reykjavik 1st branch. The branches in Iceland are celebrating summer with barbeques and we’re happy to celebrate with them. Even in the rain! We met with several members of the branch, friends, and missionaries to enjoy food and company. It was cold and wet, but there were smiling faces and full stomachs. It was a great way to build friendships and feel the Spirit.
Below you will see me with Fortune, Dee, Sarah, & Emily. These are good women!
I had a great visit with Fortune while we were at the picnic. She is from Cameroon and has been in Iceland for about two months. She moved here to do a master’s degree at the university and she is not a member of the church. The first time I met Fortune she told me that her mother was living in Spain and had just been baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fortune was curious about the things her mother had learned that had brought her to this church so she had started taking lessons from the missionaries as soon as she moved to Iceland. Fortune has come to our institute night several times and we are getting to be friends.
At the picnic we got talking and she told me how much she loves watching Todd and me together. She can tell we love each other and she likes our vibe! (As an old lady I took this as a major compliment!) Fortune is single and hopes she will one day have a good vibe with her future husband. We got talking about the plan of salvation (learn more about that here) and eternal marriage (learn more about that here). Isn’t it wonderful that we can be sealed together as husband and wife even after we die?! I love this! And I love Todd so I am very happy we will still be together in the next life. It was fun to talk to Fortune about these things.
We also discussed the Book of Mormon and how she is feeling about the things she is learning from the missionaries. She hasn’t read much of the Book of Mormon yet so I invited her to go home and read the first two pages of it to see what she thinks. On Sunday at church we are going to talk about how she feels about what she read. She agreed and we have a mini Book of Mormon discussion date scheduled during church tomorrow. We’re both looking forward to it!
There is power in the Book of Mormon. President Oaks said, “The Book of Mormon is Christ-centered. That is its essential feature, and that is the reason we are commanded to study it continually. We must use the Book of Mormon to bring us to Christ.” (You can read his whole talk here.) If you want to be closer to Jesus Christ I invite you, just as I invited Fortune, to read the Book of Mormon. If you do so with a humble heart and attitude, you will draw closer to our Savior. You can find an electronic copy of the Book of Mormon here. Or you can request a free paperback copy of the Book of Mormon here.
By the end of the picnic before saying goodbye, Fortune let me know that she has decided to be baptized next month! She set a date with the missionaries for her baptism on September 21st and we are all so happy for her. I hope that her testimony of the Book of Mormon will grow over the next month as she learns and prepares to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In the work Todd and I do as senior missionaries we are not often teaching and testifying to friends about the gospel. We do a lot of administrative work, cooking & baking, Todd teaches classes for institute and to the elders, etc. But this experience with Fortune, to just have a conversation about these important principles, share my testimony with her, and feel the Holy Ghost witness of truth, are so special. It made a cold, rainy picnic pretty memorable. Todd happened to get a photo of me and Fortune during our conversation. 🙂
It’s been a great week of family, missionary work, and picnics! Thank you for being here with us and we’ll see you next week. I wonder what I will have to share with you? Senior mission life keeps us guessing! And there are always beautiful things that bless our lives while we serve.
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more photos and videos. You can find him here:
Leave a Reply