12/6/25
Another week has come and gone and here we are again! We had an interesting and varied week. There were waterfalls, there was baking, there were meetings, there was aurora, there were drone flights! (We just want to remind you of all the variety in serving as senior missionaries!) So, here we go! First week of December, week in review in this incredibly beautiful place.
This week was transfer week and it means a lot of change for the missionaries. Sometimes transfer week is calm, but this transfer the Iceland Zone had a lot going on! Elder Young finished his mission and he left for home. We have loved serving with Elder Young and we are sad to see him go. But how wonderful for him to be home for Christmas with his family! There is a missionary farewell testimony meeting before the elders and sisters leave and we got to hear a pure testimony from Elder Young. He finished his mission up in Akureyri and in the picture below you will see him with Sister Hutchings and Elder Nehren.
Three sister missionaries from our emotional resilience class also finished their missions and participated in the testimony meeting. We are sad to see them go but so happy for the wonderful work they have done! Below you L-R: Sister Fergus, Sister Beeler, & Sister Nelsen.
As we send home missionaries we know and love, we feel just a bit of what President and Sister Davidson feel when they say goodbye to their missionaries. We love the Davidson’s and we know they love their missionaries.
Todd and I had a fantastic P-day outing one a cool, clear day at the start of the week. We went for a drive along Hvalfjörður and made our first stop at Laxa i Kjos, a beautiful river emptying into the fjord. At this time of the year there is a lot of ice on the rivers and waterfalls and they look beautiful in a completely different way. This river is well known for salmon fishing and there is a fish ladder on the upper falls. Todd took the drone out for a spin and got some beautiful pictures and videos.
As we worked our way along the fjord we made our next stop at Fossárrétt hin yngri. This is another beautifully iced over waterfall next to some ruins. I’ve tried to find out the history of the ruins but I can’t verify the details. Maybe it was once a mill? Maybe it was once a sheep barn? Maybe it was once a homestead? Whatever it was, it leaves a lot to the imagination and I think it is a beautiful area.
While Todd flew the drone I took a walk down to the inlet and took this photo of frozen seaweed! I think it’s lovely! So here’s my contributions to the photos.
And here are more pictures and videos Todd took from the drone. What do you think?!
Our next stop was at a famous rock called Staupasteinn. “According to local lore, Staupasteinn is often described as an elven palace or the home to an elf named Staupa-Steinn. Described as a Gandalf-like hermit, he is said to enjoy the laughter of families picnicking nearby.” You can read more about this legend here. We did not see or hear the elf when we visited. But we did not have a picnic there so maybe we’ll have to try again another time!
We made one more stop as we worked our way home. Todd had fun flying the drone over Þórufoss and the neighboring canyon. What else is there to say aside from, spectacular!
Of course there was missionary work to do this week, aside from enjoying the beauty of this country. We saw a gorgeous sunrise at the church around 10:50 one morning. At least you don’t have to get up early to see the sunrise!
And, in the midst of all this beauty we said our goodbye’s to Elder Young. He was ready to go home and we were sad to say goodbye. He’s worked hard as a missionary here for the past two years. He will be missed and we hope for the very best for him. Below L-R: Elder Nielsen, Elder Moyer, Elder Young, Elder Geertsen, Elder Nehren, Elder Monzon, Elder Benzley, & Elder Bredthauer
I have to share one more picture of Elder Young because I think this is so funny. When missionaries leave Iceland they go to the mission home in Denmark for about two days to have time and interviews with our mission leaders. Then all of the departing missionaries leave for home at about the same time. We got this picture from a group of departing missionaries who were in the Copenhagen airport waiting for their flights. If you count with me, there are eight sister missionaries with Elder Young! After two years serving in Iceland with no young sister missionaries he gets a send off with these eight young ladies who have also completed their missions! Happy travels, Elder Young! 🙂
All week we were hoping that as Elder Young went home our new elders would arrive. We were expecting Elder Jensen & Elder Chynoweth to be here ASAP but it has taken longer than we thought it would. With Elder Young gone we were down to seven elders in Iceland. (The usual number of young missionaries in Iceland is twelve.) The zone leaders divided up the Iceland areas across the seven elders and five of the seven have their own areas to cover, meaning each companionship (except for Akureyri) has to cover at least two areas. And one trio will cover three areas! The fervent prayers for the arrival of our new elders continues.
Quick side note to remind Elder Benzley and Elder Moyer to wash their car! Do you think they did it?!
It wouldn’t be a spectacular week in Iceland without more glorious aurora pictures. Todd’s pictures don’t need any descriptions, we hope you enjoy the beauty of this incredible aurora.
On Sunday evening, the 7th, we are having a missionary Christmas concert. At the end of the concert there is time to have cookies and visit. In the announcements for the concert people are asked to bring Christmas cookies to share, but I have no idea how many plates of cookies are actually going to be there! This week I’ve made 12 dozen chocolate crinkles for the concert refreshments. Maybe it’s too many? Maybe it’s not enough? Maybe everyone is sick of chocolate crinkles?! You will have to read the blog next week to find out!
In addition to baking cookies a few times this week, every single day of the week Todd has been at our church building for one reason or another. This is not usually the case. We are often there two or three times in a week, but every day?
- Sunday we were there for church.
- Monday we were there for Institute/YSA family home evening.
- Tuesday we were there to meet some workers who were doing some repairs.
- Wednesday we were there for a morning meeting and then to meet the elders for an airport run.
- Thursday Todd was there to meet with the missionaries and have a companion study class.
- Friday Todd was back to let the workers back into the building.
- Saturday we met with the elders to do a practice for our Sunday concert.
On one of those mornings Todd spent some time alone in the church while waiting for the workers to arrive. He did a photo shoot with our building’s replica of Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Christus statue. The building in Iceland is small and this statue takes up a lot of space in the foyer. But it is a beautiful and peaceful reminder of our Savior Jesus Christ.
In addition to all of the beautiful things we saw this week we had one disappointment. A couple of months ago I submitted an application for a booth at one of the Christmas markets downtown in Reykjavik. Our plan was to have the missionaries there sharing pass-along cards, copies of the Book of Mormon, nativity coloring pages, service ideas, etc. In the application I specified that we are not selling anything but that we want a booth to share our love of Jesus Christ and the efforts we make to serve others. The theme of the booth would be “Light the World”. I had no expectation that we would get a booth.
Imagine my surprise when a few weeks later, I was notified that there was a booth available for us on December 22nd-23rd. We were all so excited for this unique opportunity to share the gospel and our efforts to light the world in this unique way. We paid our fees, signed the contract, and made plans for all the things we would do during the open hours of the market. President Davidson and the mission office were very supportive of this effort and excited for us to participate.
This week I received an email from the market saying they were sorry but they do not have a spot for us to participate this year. I was, understandably, confused. For the past several weeks I have been in contact with them in regards to our preparations and they have been responsive and supportive. I replied to their email and let them know I was mistakenly sent an email telling me there is not a place for us in the market. Over the course of several emails I was informed that our booth had been double booked. The other group had booked before us, they were very sorry. This has never happened before, they apologize and will refund our fees. No other booths were double booked, we are the only group affected and the only group who is now told we cannot participate.
I was very upset about this news. Over the afternoon of emails it finally made sense when I was told that the other group is “a more suitable fit for the Christmas market”. In other words, even though our application clearly stated that we are a church group who is not selling anything and they were originally okay with that, at this point they changed their mind. Maybe we were double booked, maybe we weren’t, but it is hard not to feel the sting of being asked to leave and told we are not a good fit when we didn’t expect to be invited to join in the first place.
In some ways it’s nice to have less things on my to-do list. In other ways it makes me sad that we were all so excited for this opportunity and now we don’t get to participate. However, we know our motives were pure and maybe a different opportunity to share our efforts to Light the World will take the place of the Jólamarkaðurinn við Austurvöll.
Todd did treat me to an amazing local Christmas event this week and it was unlike anything we’ve ever been to before. We went to a Christmas concert at Harpa. It was our first time attending an event in the concert hall; we’ve never been past the foyer and the gift shop! There is an Icelandic singer and actress named Salka Sól Eyfeld who has an amazing voice. We’ve heard her sing from videos online and we were excited to see that she was giving a Christmas concert for children and families. We got our tickets and today was the day!
When we got to Harpa there was a choir singing and the hall was filled with beautiful music. The windows of this wonderful building are always beautiful and the sunlight with the Christmas tree and music set the scene for our afternoon.
The theater was small and was filled with parents, grandparents, and children who were very excited to be there. We knew attending a concert for children would mean the music would be clean and we could enjoy attending without worrying about inappropriate songs. However, we would never have known if it was not appropriate because the entire concert was in Icelandic and Todd and I had pretty much no idea what was being said!
Salka Sól has an amazing voice and great stage presence. She was fun to watch and to listen to. The jazz band accompanying her was incredible! They were really getting into the music and one thing I loved about them was that when they weren’t playing their music they were singing along.
The concert was a sing-along and the lyrics for each song were put up on the big screen. I used google translate to tell me what the songs were about. For some reason I was expecting to hear a lot of Christmas tunes I was familiar with but with Icelandic translation. This was not the case! There was a song about a rabbit hiding from a hunter, another song about Santa coming to your house, and another song about the wind blowing outside. There were a few songs set to familiar tunes, but completely different lyrics. The only two songs that we knew were “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes” and “Jingle Bells”! It was fun to watch the children sing along and dance. And even more fun to watch the adults sing along and sway to the music. We had a great time attending and gained a greater appreciation for this country, its language, and its traditions. Maybe you know the songs in the pictures below?!
As we finish the post for this week we are looking forward to a very busy second week of December. Over the course of the past week the travel arrangements for our two new elders have been finalized and they arrive in Iceland Sunday morning at 6:15. That’s an early start to a very busy Sunday. We’re looking forward to meeting them at the airport and putting them to work! Maybe we’ll get to bed early tonight?!
Thank you for joining us as we’ve begun this festive month. We hope the Christmas season is off to a wonderful start for you and your family. And we hope the Savior will be at the center of your celebrations. He is the reason we are living in Iceland as missionaries. He is the reason we are away from our family at the holidays. He is the reason that we are working to share the good news of the gospel with those around us. Jesus Christ is the reason for everything. “Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah”. (2 Nephi 2:8)
Happy December and we’ll have more Christmas cheer and missionary work for you here next week!
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more pictures and videos. You don’t want to miss his aurora pictures, look for his Facebook post that has more than 50 pictures of the aurora from this week. It is incredible! You can find him here:
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