The Famous Icelandic Hotdog

11/16/24

I feel like starting this post out with an explanation of more of the work Todd and I have been doing recently. We love, love, love the physical environment in Iceland. It is a beautiful place, the weather is interesting and fantastic, and there are spectacular things to see everywhere. But something else we are coming to love more are the people here and the work we are getting to do with them.

As I mentioned in last week’s post, Todd has been called as the first counselor in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission Presidency. As we come to understand his responsibilities in this calling we are feeling the weight of the work that is ahead. In explaining his calling to the missionaries in Iceland, President Davidson (our mission president) said, “As you might expect, Elder Richardson’s responsibilities will focus, in part, on happenings in Iceland but I also look forward to his guidance and participation in other aspects of the mission. With his call, I hope all will recognize his authority not only as related to the mission but also in relation to the Reykjavík Iceland District as he works in hand with President Gummi and the district presidency.” 

With this knowledge, and with the help of the Holy Ghost, Todd will serve as the presiding authority of the church in Iceland. He will work with the district leaders (President Gummi) to train the branch leaders. And he will oversee the missionaries and the missionary work in Iceland. He is also teaching institute and an adult religion class for the district. He is eager to serve in this capacity and is already finding his missionary work load increasing. I’m excited to support him as he fulfills this calling.

As for me, I am keeping busy. I’ve been given an assignment from President Davidson to work with my friend, Bettina, to help in the training and support of the women’s leaders in the Iceland district. We will be doing organizational training for each unit’s Relief Society, Young Women’s, and Primary organizations throughout the upcoming year. I’m excited to work with these women and support them as they lead the saints in Iceland. I am also helping Todd with his work and we are serving and supporting the young missionaries in their work.

Here is a look at some of the things that were/are on this week’s to-do list:

• Finish emails
• Prep cookies for YSA visits
• Prep food for Sunday’s potluck
• Finalize training meeting schedule for this month (11/17, 11/20)
• Look over RS reports
• Review RS & primary handbook information, ministering
• Work on blog
• District council – Wednesday 11:00
• YSA visits – Wednesday
• Finish organizing YSA paperwork
• Plan upcoming district gospel library zoom training
• Follow up with ministering assignment
• Elder’s companion study – Thursday 4:30
• Missionary coordination meeting – Friday 10:30
• Work on sacrament talks 
• Feed elders: Tuesday & Thursday

The list keeps going! Isn’t it great?! We are two months into our mission and we can feel the joy that comes from being able to serve in this capacity! Yes, Todd’s stress level has gone up a bit. And, yes, we are happy to carry that load and it is a privilege to work alongside the wonderful saints in Iceland. If you’re bored and feel like you need something more to do with your time, consider a full time mission. 😉

We’ve also been given ministering assignments in the branch. The other day we drove to Keflavik to meet one of the sisters on our list, Elizabeth, for a lunch date. Elizabeth is Canadian, married to an Icelader, Oskar, and they have a three year old little boy and another baby boy due in February. Elizabeth hasn’t been to church in a long time. We invited her to come to church this Sunday and to read the Book of Mormon. We enjoyed lunch together and look forward to another visit sometime soon.

While we were in Keflavik we did a little bit of exploring in the wind and the rain and, occasionally, peeks of sunshine!

The photos below are the Fisherman’s Monument, constructed to commemorate drowned or missing fisherman and the Stone Sentinels looking out to sea. They are beautiful, and part of a series of sculptures and artwork we found all around Keflavik. 

On another day we took a few hours in the afternoon to do some exploring. We hadn’t had a chance yet to drive too far north of Reykjavik so we drove about 45 minutes north to the town of Arkanes. On our way there we came across this gorgeous church, Saurbæjarkirkja. This church sits right on a cliff above the ocean. The setting is incredible! It was peaceful, gorgeous, and windy!

Just after leaving the church is the Hvalfjörður Tunnel that goes under the fjord. It is quite the engineering feat! It is 3.5 miles long and goes 541 feet below sea level. Don’t worry, we made it out alive and it only took a few minutes to get to the other side of the fjord instead of an hour!

We stopped at another beautiful church, Inri-Hólmskirkja. These small churches are all over Iceland and they are often in the most lovely spots. This one is no exception.

When we made it to Arkanes we found an abandoned shipyard that was interesting to explore. 

We finished our afternoon by visiting the Akranes lighthouse and it was well worth a stop. The ocean waves were crashing and fantastic. The lighthouse is open to the public and you can climb to the top and enjoy the views . . . and the breeze! It was wonderful.

And I have to share a picture of this wreath made out of mussel shells. I love it! It combines my love of the ocean & Oregon & Iceland into something beautiful. It is hanging on the wall of the bathroom at the Arkanes visitors center. 🙂 Love it! We’ll need another visit to Arkanes soon – we didn’t have enough daylight to explore all we wanted to.

I have talked a lot about the wind lately and it is no joke. We have had warm and windy weather for the last couple of weeks. The high temperatures have been in the 40’s fahrenheit with rain and wind most days. I really love the sound of the wind whipping around while we are sitting snug in our apartment, or the church as it howls outside. The young elders have to bundle up and walk to bus stops in this wind, so maybe it’s not so fun for them? The last couple days of this week have brought a change in the weather, however. It looks like winter is really here. Snow is falling (sometimes sideways in the wind) and the temperatures have dropped into the 20’s for the highs. There is a travel warning for blizzards on the roads and it feels a little bleak outside. 

It is also very dark. We spent 9 years in Alaska and the winter daylight hours were the same as what we are experiencing here. While it is not new to us, it is a little strange to have it dark outside so late in the mornings. Right now the sunrise is at about 10 am and sunset by 4:30 pm. Over the next month we will lose about 2 more hours of that. Add in gray skies, snow storms, and wind and you can see how Iceland is an interesting, and challenging, place in the winter months. One nice thing is that Christmas lights are appearing everywhere. You can see them shining day and night around town and it brings a lovely charm to a dark world. I am finding out more about some of the Icelandic Christmas traditions. They are very different from American Christmas traditions and I’m having fun learning about them! 

We had two different dinner nights with young elders this week. Elder Pollock & Elder Nielsen came on Tuesday and Elder Hill & Elder Benzley came on Thursday. (We had waffle night both nights so I got to enjoy waffles twice this week!) Elder Pollock and Elder Hill are both going home next week. While we are sad to say goodbye to them, we are so happy for them to have honorably completed their two year missions and head home. They have exciting things in store for them and we know their families are eager to have them home. They are both terrific missionaries and young men and we feel privileged to have spent the beginning of our mission with them. In the picture below Elder Pollock is on the far right, next to Christ and Elder Hill!

We finished up the week with a fun Saturday exploring in Reykjavik. The weather had settled into a crisp cold day and we spent the day downtown. We started out by visiting the Kolaportið market. This is a large indoor flea market with all kinds of interesting tourist things, handmade Icelandic crafts and sweaters, Icelandic food, and other odds & ends. It was fun to walk explore! Todd was looking for his next lopapeysa, but didn’t find anything that was speaking to him!

I have been on the hunt for a Christmas ornament I love for our first Christmas here and I found two of them at the market. They are both made of Icelandic wool, handmade here in Reykjavik, and they will be so adorable on our Christmas tree for years. The little troll represents a Yule Lad – one of the many interesting (and a bit terrifying) Christmas traditions here. But this little guy was so cute I had to bring him home. If you’d like to learn more about the Yule Lads, check out this site: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-the-thirteen-yule-lads-icelands-own-mischievous-santa-clauses-180948162/

While we were downtown we made a stop to try the best hotdog in Iceland. Honestly, I’m having trouble loving the hotdogs! I’m just not much of a hotdog eater — however, we tried the best one and it tasted like . . . a hot dog. 🙂

We visited the Christmas Cat. This cat comes with his own scary traditions. If you don’t receive a new piece of clothing for Christmas, he will eat you. Seriously! You better love and wear the new socks and underwear you get for Christmas. (Fun fact – according to the article I linked above, in 1746 Iceland passed a law that parents needed to stop terrifying their children with the scary Christmas traditions they have! If you were naughty, you would be eaten by a cat or boiled into stew and eaten by Grýla the troll.)

We need to go back downtown at night sometime in December to see all the lights – and the cat – shining in the darkness. But we enjoyed a cold, blue sky day today without so much twinkle. But we did have rainbows! We made our first walk up the rainbow road on our way to Hallgrimskirkja.

Downtown is super fun. There are several streets that are pedestrian only streets, lined with food and shops and Christmas decorations. There were a lot of people around and it felt very festive to be out enjoying the city. At the church we attended a concert given by the university choir. They sang beautifully, the organ playing was magnificent, and the acoustics in the cathedral are as wonderful as you would expect. We’ve been to many choir concerts in our lives, especially with our daughter Rebekah who has sung in college and professional level community choirs. It felt a little like home to be in a beautiful church hearing a choir sing . . . even though we couldn’t understand a word of it! Icelandic is a beautiful language!

Thank you for joining us for a wonderful week in Iceland. We’ll see you again next week for more fun!

Todd’s posted more pictures & videos here if you’re interested: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561154456959

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