On the Third Week of December . . .

12/20/25

Greetings from Iceland on the shortest week of the year! Well, it is still seven days long, isn’t it? But today, Saturday the 20th, we have four hours and four minutes of sunlight. In fact, on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, & Tuesday we have the same amount of sunlight — that four hours and four minutes barely moves for four days. With winter solstice on Sunday the 21st, we have made it to the darkest time of the year and we are here for it! Thank you for coming along to see what we’ve been up to throughout the third week of December. There’s not much rhyme or reason to the list of this week’s work, but it is full of Christmas cheer, missionary work, and love for those around us . . . and you!

We spent most of the day Sunday in Selfoss. On our drive over the mountain, in the darkness and the snow, we saw the sign for Ölfus all lit up and shining with Christmas cheer. The Santa hat made us chuckle. (Ölfus is a municipality, similar to a county in the US.)

Todd and I both spoke in the Selfoss branch sacrament meeting. I shared thoughts about favorite Christmas memories and traditions. Do you have a Christmas gift from your childhood that you really remember? That one gift that you longed for and were thrilled to receive? Mine was a telescope. I have a very detailed memory of setting up that telescope on Christmas afternoon in our living room and looking through it out the window through the snow. I will never forget that.

I also shared a tradition Todd and I have where we give a gift to Jesus Christ at Christmas. We give Him a birthday gift to celebrate His birthday! It is a gift of something we can do better for Him in the coming year; something that will help us be better people and better disciples.

Elder Uchtdorf said, “Christmas and some of the cherished traditions of the season remind us that we, like the Wise Men of old, should seek the Christ and lay before Him the most precious of gifts: a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We should offer Him our love. We should give Him our willingness to take upon ourselves His name and walk in the path of discipleship. We should promise to remember Him always, to emulate His example, and to go about doing good.”

After church we joined the Selfoss branch for a Christmas potluck meal. There were the traditional Icelandic Christmas dishes: Hangikjöt (Smoked Lamb), potatoes, uppstúfur (White Sauce), pickled red cabbage, Jólaöl (A non-alcoholic Christmas “ale” made from malt extract and orange soda), and more. It was great to feast and visit with the good members in the branch and we are so grateful to always be warmly welcomed by them.

Sunday ended with a mission wide zoom call to end a fast for missionary work and baptisms this transfer. We hope for miracles in the mission. The holidays are a more difficult time to do missionary work. You’d think it would be easier to share the good news of the gospel at Christmas time, wouldn’t you? But people get very busy with their families and traveling, they don’t often have an interest in meeting with the missionaries. We hope for blessings from the fast.

We are very excited that at the start of the week Elder Monzon passed his driving test! If you’ve been reading along with us for the past 15 months you’ll know that getting these missionaries their driver’s licenses has been quite the project. Now that we know what to do and all the hoops we have to jump through, we have it down to a pretty seamless process. As long as the missionaries do their part to study and prepare they do a great job with the testing. And, we have a terrific driving instructor we are working with, Valur Arnarson. I’m trying to share the gospel with Valur and his family! So far he’s not interested, but he is happily helping us get these boys driving legally, one missionary at a time. Way to go, Elder Monzon!

Okay, here is some exciting news too! In July I started knitting a scarf. When we came to Iceland I did not know how to knit. I have been learning to knit from Helga. (In my contacts I’ve named her “Helga, The Knitting Master”!) She is very patient with me and helped me learn so much. Well, this past week I finished my scarf! It probably shouldn’t have taken me five months to knit it, but it did and it is done! I’m ridiculously happy with it and I cannot believe I made something so beautiful.

We went to visit Helga and I gave her a fashion show. She is also amazed that I was able to make this! And now . . . Helga thinks I can knit my own sweater,(called a lopapeysa in Icelandic). We have eight months left on our mission. Can I knit a lopapeysa in eight months? Who knows?! But Helga thinks I can and I don’t want to let her down so I am going to try. She took my measurements and gave me a shopping list for the supplies I need. After the start of the year we will begin and see what happens. In my scarf there are dozens of mistakes that are well hidden by the pattern. We’ll see what happens with the sweater. You better believe I will keep you posted! The biggest question I have right now is what colors to use?!

Karen Mogenhan joined us at Helga’s for a joint knitting lesson. Helga was teaching me how to increase stitches so when I’m making sleeves they can get bigger at the top than at the wrist. I think I understand? It was fun to sit and knit together.

Continuing on with the odds & ends of this week I thought you’d like to see what Icelandic cash looks like. I had a purchase I wanted to make that was cash only. As long as we have been here I have only used credit! It was exciting to get a good look at what krónur looks like. It’s beautiful! Below is 8,596 krónur, or $68.08, front and back of the bills. If you’re curious about who is on the banknotes, you can find more information here.

Mid-week the chocolate crinkle cookie factory was reopened. Throughout the week I made about 16 dozen chocolate crinkles. They were each packaged up into groups of eight cookies, to go on missionary Christmas caroling adventures. You will be hearing about the caroling as we go along, but just know, the cookies are amazing, they please everyone, and they are quick and easy to make. *Note to future self: at the start of mission #2, make a tally sheet to keep track of how many dozens of cookies are made during the mission. I’m curious to know that number! Only the angels in heaven have kept track of the Iceland cookie count. 🙂

We spent about 10 hours at the church on Thursday for our Christmas zone conference. It was a long day but it was terrific! Let me introduce you to the current missionaries in the Iceland Zone.

Back L-R: Elder Jensen, Elder Nehren, Elder Moyer, Elder Ramos, Elder Chynoweth, Elder Geertsen, Elder Nielsen, Elder Monzon, Elder Bredthauer, Elder Benzley

Front L-R: Elder & Sister Hutchings, Sister & Elder Mogenhan, President & Sister Davidson, us!

And all these boys with their companions! Elder Geertsen with Elder Chynoweth — Elder Jensen with Elder Nehren — Elder Benzley with Elder Moyer.

Elder Bredthauer with Elder Nielsen and Elder Moyer with Elder Monzon & Elder Ramos. (Currently, Elder Moyer, Elder Monzon, & Elder Benzley are in a trio. Elder Ramos is a service missionary.)

And our stellar senior couples! We appreciate all the work they do. Sister & Elder Mogenhan, Elder & Sister Hutchings, & us. 🙂

Two of the Davidson’s daughters, Abby & Ellen, are spending Christmas with their parents in Denmark and they joined us for our zone conference. We are so grateful they would take time to be with us. We love learning from our mission leaders and we love and admire their family.

And, of course, the women of the Iceland Zone. It is a small club to belong to!

We heard and enjoyed testimonies from our newest elders in Iceland, Elder Chynoweth & Elder Jensen. They are a wonderful addition to our zone.

We received wonderful training from our zone leaders about CPR, or the commitment pattern that we seek for in friends as well as members: Church attendance, Prayers, Reading the Book of Mormon. How are you doing with your personal CPR to keep your testimony alive and strong?!

Sister Davidson taught us about “The Living Christ” and she invited all of us to memorize it in the new year. It is a wonderful, inspired document and you can read it here.

President Davidson taught us about the history of Handel’s “Messiah” and the message and scriptures behind it. I love the music and scriptures in the “Messiah”. It is perfect for Christmas, Easter, and every day.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

We had a very fun afternoon with a gingerbread house building contest. The elders really got into it. Can you guess which one took home the prize?

The conference closed with a very fun 2025 recap video the zone leaders made. It was full of pictures and video clips spanning the year. It’s hard to believe the year is nearly over! We had a great day together, feeling the Spirit, learning new things, reviewing past goals and setting new goals. It’s good to be part of the Iceland Zone.

We spent one evening this week going caroling with the elders. Earlier in the month some of our branch members had shared names and addresses of friends they wanted us to go caroling to. We met up at the church and spent the evening singing in the rain! We are having wet and windy weather, there’s no snow in the city, and the rain made for damp singing. But the Spirit was there.

Some of the people we stopped to see weren’t at home. Other people we couldn’t find, so we left cookies and a note on their doorstep. And, we caroled for a few people who were not on the list at all. In the picture below on the right we were trying to find a Spanish speaking man who, we thought, lived in this apartment building. We didn’t find him, but the elders sang “Silent Night” in Spanish for this man. After the song they gave him cookies, a pass along card, wished him a Merry Christmas, and asked if he speaks Spanish. Nope, he’s from Eastern Europe! It was a good ministering opportunity.

The woman in the picture below, on the left, was taught by the missionaries decades ago. She was very happy to have carolers stop by and enjoyed visiting with them after they sang to her.

At one of our final stops we were on the top of a staircase, singing at a door in the picture above on the right. The apartment door directly below opened up and a boy and his mom peeked out to see who was singing. We caroled at this same apartment last year and the same thing happened then! So as we were leaving, we stopped and sang for this family too. Todd dashed to the car to get another plate of cookies to share with them. It was so fun to watch their faces as the elders sang! It was a nice way to end the evening.

Todd and I had Elder Bredthauer & Elder Nielsen in our car as we drove from stop to stop. It was fun to talk about Christmas and New Year’s traditions their families do. They are terrific young men and wonderful missionaries.

Okay, one more story from caroling. We made it to the very last stop for the night. No one was sure where this person lived. The name and address had been given to the missionaries by a member so we were wandering around in the rain looking for the right building. I got cold and went to wait in the car while Todd and the elders kept looking. Eventually they made it back and I got the story. They found the building and rang the apartment number for this gentlemen. He came on the intercom and the missionaries said they were there to carol for him and give him some Christmas cookies. He said he didn’t want caroling or cookies. He wanted cocaine! Did they have any of that?! Because they didn’t have cocaine he wasn’t interested in talking to them. So the missionaries left without singing and they enjoyed that plate of cookies for themselves! There’s a mission story they will remember. 🙂

On Saturday we went downtown and spent some time in the Kolaportið market. I did some Christmas shopping and we enjoyed all the Christmas decorations, different booths, and the hustle and bustle of the shoppers.

Aside from shopping for a Christmas gift (for myself!) a funny thing happened at the market. I was talking with my friend Mariana. She has a booth at the market where she sells the amazing wool art that she makes. I’ve purchased a few things from her in the past and we have become friends. (You can see examples of Mariana’s work here.) While we were talking another woman, who was shopping, came over and kept staring at my mission badge. I thought maybe she was a member of the church and was trying to read it — it is in Icelandic.

She said she noticed my badge and wondered if I knew someone named Gummi. Yes, we know Gummi well. He is the district president here and Todd works with him a lot in different church administration aspects. 16 years ago Gummi performed the marriage ceremony for this woman and her husband, Nicasia & Michael Claires. They wanted to get married in Iceland and through common friends found that Gummi had the legal authority to perform a marriage. They reached out to him and he officiated at their wedding. They are not members of the church and after their wedding they found out that Gummi is a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They told us they were so surprised it wasn’t a Catholic wedding! They went home to the states and had a second ceremony — this time a Catholic one — just to make sure they were really married!

Nicasia told me that she was born Catholic and then was married by a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And then she kept being Catholic. I told her that when they get home from their trip they need to find the missionaries in their home town, learn all about the gospel, and become members of our church! Then it will be full circle for them! They both laughed and appreciated that I am doing missionary work . . . after all I am here on a mission! It was so funny and such a strange conversation. But here I am with my new friends, at the market!

To close out the week we spent Saturday evening participating in a mission wide zoom class that Todd taught. For several days leading up to Christmas, President Davidson has put together evening classes taught by different people that all missionaries can participate in. Tonight Todd taught his class on “Perfection” to the entire mission over zoom. Do you know the difference between the world’s definition of perfection and the Lord’s definition of perfection?

Todd has taught this class to our Iceland missionaries and to a few other missionaries in our emotional resilience group. And now he was able to share this information with all of the elders and sisters in Iceland and Denmark. He did an inspiring job. Revelation was received and insights were gained. I’m so grateful he has the opportunity to teach and share his knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ with the missionaries. Those of you who know Todd know he is a gifted teacher and all who hear from him are blessed to learn, if they come with open hearts.

Gleðileg jól!

Check out Todd’s social media pages for more pictures and videos. You can find him here:

https://www.facebook.com/todd.e.richardson.2025

https://www.youtube.com/@todde.richardson