1/3/26
Yes, this picture is on New Year’s Eve! And, yes, I have so much to say about New Year’s Eve! But first you’ll have to read about what happened before New Year’s Eve. So get comfortable and settle in for a long read about the last week of the year, or the first week of the year?! Here we go!
While we have been serving our mission we have learned a lot of new terms that the elders use. For example, when a missionary is training a new missionary, the trainer refers to his companion as his son. Another things they talk about are dots. So many dots. Yellow dots, green dots, gray dots, red dots, that all referring to different stages of progression among friends. And then there is the blackout year. The blackout year is when you are a missionary for a full calendar year. In 2024 we became missionaries and in 2026 we go home from our mission. 2025 was our blackout year! How is it possible that we have been missionaries for almost 16 months and we have completed our blackout year? I have a sneaky feeling that before we know it we will be wondering where all of our time in Iceland has gone. For now, 2025 has gone to all kinds of wonderful activities that, we hope, have blessed the lives of those we are working with as much as they have blessed our lives.
On Monday we had a big service project at Hertex (the Salvation Army) thrift store. They have a very small staff and I am good friends with the manager, Alexandra. She is wonderful. We did this same project last year between Christmas and New Year’s, going over the whole store, sorting out the garbage and unsellable items, recycling metal, wood, and glass, and generally cleaning up and organizing. Everyone worked hard, we found some treasures, and had a catered lasagna lunch. It was a good way to spend some time serving in the community.
The elders were happy to rescue a Spanish Book of Mormon from the recycle bin and saved it for another day. Below L-R: Elder Geertsen, Elder Monzon, Elder Chynoweth, Elder Nehren, Elder Chynoweth
Below, left, is Alexandra and her mom Valeria. On the right the elders are working with Moses, who is strong and hilarious! Elder Chynoweth, Elder Monzon, Moses, Elder Nehren, & Elder Jensen
Below is the whole gang along with Alexandra’s staff. They were super nice to provide a really yummy lunch for us as well.
While I was working I found this print. It held my attention and Alexandra was kind enough to sell it to me. I did some research and found out that it is a print of a painting done in 2015 by Icelandic artist Maria Loftsdottir. I love that it is from an Icelandic artist. And, it reminds me of all the African sisters I work with at church. They often wear colorful dresses and headwraps, and they often change their hair, depending on what wigs they choose to wear. This print will be a keepsake I will love.
Of course Monday’s are never over until we’ve had institute. I want to tell you about this class specifically. Todd and I had debated having class this week. Class and dinner are every Monday night at 6:30 all year long. As the final class of the year approached we wondered if anyone would come, it’s a holiday week and a lot of people are out of town. We also felt justified to take a night off! The Holy Ghost kept telling us to just have class. (You can learn more about the Holy Ghost here.) We decided to follow that prompting and have class, even if there’s only one student and two missionaries there.
I made everything for us to have a nacho bar for dinner and I thought I had made way too much food. But, guess what? We had a huge class. There were only two of our regular students there. But we had four friends attend and the missionaries they are working with joined them – so that’s seven missionaries. We also had the brother of one of our students who was with him. It was a full house. They enjoyed class with Todd, learning about our upcoming study of the Old Testament. And they had no problem taking care of the nacho bar. We are so glad we didn’t cancel class! It was worth it to have one final Monday night class in our blackout year! 🙂
Because of the holiday this week and all the different activities that keep the young elders from being able to do their regular missionary work, President Davidson gave the entire mission two P-days! That is a great treat for everyone and we took advantage of it. On Tuesday morning all of the city missionaries met for a trip around the Golden Circle. The weather this winter has been so unexpected. We had a lot of snow in October and not much since then. Our Golden Circle day was cool, but mostly dry and we didn’t have much wind. There was just a bit of ice here and there and we had a great time exploring.
Elder Jensen & Elder Nehren spent the day in our car with us. We loved having time with them, getting to know them better, talking about dating, marriage, and families, and their families, goals, and plans. They are excellent missionaries and excellent young men.
Our first stop was the ever favorite Brúarfoss. I know you’ve seen many pictures of this waterfall before and you will see many again! We love this place! It is amazing and it never fails to impress.
Below you see Todd, Elder Chynoweth, Elder Jensen, Elder Benzley, Elder Geertsen, Elder Moyer, & Elder Monzon. Elder Nehren was also there along with me & the Mogenhan’s.
Next we stopped at Geysir. There were a million tourists there along with us and we saw the Geysir erupt a couple of times. I love this particular hot spring called Blesi.
We were missing snow, but there was frost all over the branches and bushes and it was really lovely.
Just a short way along the road from Geysir is Gullfoss, another stunning and impressive waterfall. Many of the paths along the waterfall are closed in the winter for safety because of ice build up. But we enjoyed the views along the trails that were open. Could you ever get tired of looking at this?!
Elder Nehren, Elder Geertsen, Elder Chynoweth, & Elder Jensen
Karen and I had a good time together!
We worked our way along the circle to Faxafoss. This waterfall is one of my favorites as well. (Who are we kidding? They are all my favorites!) We were almost the only ones here. There is a board walk that goes all the way down to the edge of the water and it is all simply spectacular. When we were here six months ago it was lush with lupines and greenery. Now it is frozen and bare, and still beautiful.
Our final stop for the day was at Kerið Crater. I love this place too! The colors here are gorgeous. The walk around the rim is fantastic. There was a thin layer of ice across the top of the lake. We walked the rim with the elders and then they went down to the edge of the water. Todd and I stayed at the top and watched them throwing rocks on to the ice trying to break it. Boys! 🙂
We finished our hike around the crater just as it was getting dark and made it home for the evening after a wonderful day exploring this beautiful place.
Now let’s get into New Year’s Eve. Get comfortable because we had quite the night and I want to tell you all about it!
At 6:00 that evening the elders came over to our apartment for food and games. Everyone brought snacks to share and we had a light dinner that was mostly the rest of everyone’s Christmas treats, except for Elder Benzley’s homemade Pönnukökur – a delicious Icelandic pancake that he took a lot of time to make for us. Then we played a fun version of “The Newlywed Game” but I modified it to be “The New Companion Game”. Each companionship has to answer questions about their companion to see how well they know each other. We also had a rousing game of reverse Catchphrase! The boys really got into it and we had fun!
Every New Year’s Eve the Icelanders hold large bonfires at different places around the city. One of the biggest ones is about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. At 8:00 we began our walk down to the bonfire. They lit the fire at 8:30 and we spent an hour enjoying it, people watching, the heat, and the elder’s antics! There were families and children everywhere and the fire was massive. I was told that the tradition is to write a wish on a piece of paper and throw it in the fire, then your wish will come true in the new year.
We got back to our apartment at about 10 and spent another half hour eating and visiting. The elders had to be home by 11:00 and we sent them out the door at 10:30 so they could be home on time.
But the night was not over for us! Oh no, there was more to our New Year’s Eve than a very fun party and bonfire with the missionaries. And we did not have an 11:00 curfew. 🙂 As soon as everyone left we bundled up, drove downtown, parked the car in a parking garage, and joined thousands of other people heading up the hill to Hallgrímskirkja. We’ve heard about, and seen pictures of, the fireworks displays downtown. We didn’t go last year and we weren’t about to miss it this year.
We got to the main square at about 11:15 and there were already thousands of people on the square and the roads leading up to the church. We found a spot to stand and wait, thinking the fireworks would begin at midnight like they do in the US. We were very wrong!
There are no official fireworks displays in Iceland. All of the fireworks are purchased and set off by individual citizens. Throughout the evening there were fireworks going off here and there but at about 11:30 they started going off everywhere. There are designated spots for people to set up and fire off the fireworks, but it was not far away from where all the crowds were standing. I don’t even know how to describe the scene! We were surrounded by fireworks, they were so close we could feel the vibration of the explosion both at the time of lighting the fuse to the explosion in the sky. The church was lit and shining next to us and the crowd was electric.
At midnight the bells on the church were chiming, the fireworks were continuing to explode around us, people were screaming and kissing and celebrating! The church was lit up with the colors of the Icelandic flag. It was an intense and exciting place to be to end the year and start a new one!
The link below will take you to a video that was in the newspaper the next day. It gives an overview of the bonfires and fireworks around the city on New Year’s Eve. We were at the first bonfire in the video with the elders earlier in the night. And we were at the church for fireworks later. If you pause the video at 53 seconds you can see our hats!! 🙂 Pause it and look at the far left of the screen. Todd is holding his selfie stick up high! If you find the selfie stick, follow it down and you will see the very top of my red hood and next to me is Todd’s white and blue patterned hat. The video is pretty great! Click below to watch it and see if you can find us!
A little bit after midnight we began working our way through the crowd to head back to the car. We had a very intense few minutes where we were pressed so tightly in the crowd that it was difficult to move. Todd had me by the arm so we wouldn’t get separated. He found a much taller, larger man who was moving our same direction and we stayed right behind him which allowed us to maneuver through the press of people. Watch his video below that shows us trying to get through the crowd.
We finally got through the most congested area and were able to move a bit easier. Fireworks continued to explode all around as we walked down the streets to the other side of town.
As we turned the corner to the parking garage where we had left the car we were confronted by a large steel door that was shut over the garage entrance and a sign that said the garage hours are 7 am-midnight. Yep, we parked in one of the garages downtown that is not a 24 hour garage! We thought the night was through once we got back to the car but we were wrong! There was another family there who had also parked their car in the, now locked, garage. They were tourists and said that their room keys were locked inside their car and they had no idea what to do. We were in no position to help them and I hope they found a way to get to their hotel for the night. We called the number for the garage and the phone call went unanswered because it was about 12:30 am and the garage was closed!
Todd walked around a bit and came to me with a hilarious solution for us. He rented a scooter, we hoped on riding double, and took a half hour, five mile scooter ride from downtown Reykjavik to our apartment at about 1:00 in the morning, New Year’s Day!! Honestly, I don’t love riding the scooters, they scare me. I’m just afraid I’m going to fall off and lay there on the side of the road! Todd, however, was in heaven! You could not have asked for a better ending to his New Year’s Eve than us on a scooter in the middle of the night! Despite my panicked breathing in his ear, we made it home safely and laughed most of the way about how ridiculous the entire experience was!
The pictures below are an action shot, on the left, and a relief shot, on the right, once we were home. Yes, Todd drove the scooter one handed while taking a picture while I held on for dear life! We wonder what this means for 2026? Prepare for the unexpected? I will need to be brave? We will eventually make it home?! Yes, we are crazy. I know.
That was the end of an unforgettable New Year’s Eve. I don’t think we will ever have another one that can compare to this! Because of our late night adventure, in the morning Todd happily started the new year by hoping back on the scooter – alone – to retrieve our car from its night on the town.
This post has gotten so long! Is anyone still reading?! I’ll finish up with just a couple more thoughts from the end of the week as we begin our 2026 mission service.
As we recovered from all the wild New Year’s celebrating we needed a couple of days to recuperate and get back into the swing of real mission life. One of those settle down days found us at a yarn shop buying my supplies to make my own lopapeysa. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed about making decisions for what pattern to make, what colors to choose, and I was just doubting my ability to do this project at all. But, I have to thank all of my cheerleaders for helping me believe in myself. My mom is funding the project thanks to a generous Christmas gift. Todd approached the store employees to ask for help for me because I was too overwhelmed to ask for help myself. The very kind woman at the store made sure I had everything I need and told me I had chosen a great pattern for a beginner. And, Helga approves of my choice and I know she will help me succeed. Wish me luck! I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Do you think I can complete this in seven months?!
We’ve had such a wonderful week and year. I cannot believe our blackout year is completed! As 2026 and January begin we look forward to adventures ahead as we treasure the memories we’ve made & the lessons we’ve learned. Thank you for being our supportive friends and family members as we continue along this great Icelandic adventure! Happy New Year’s to you! We hope 2026 will bring you closer to our Savior Jesus Christ and give you many opportunities to love and serve those around you.
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more photos and videos. You can find him here:
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