7/25/26
Hello, everyone! We’ve had an interesting week full of a little bit of sunshine, a whole lot of rain, plenty of meetings, and all kinds of other missionary, ministering, and interesting opportunities.
To begin, let’s talk about how terrific these elders are. On Sunday we attended two different branches with three different languages. The Reykjavik 1st branch is an Icelandic branch and the meetings are done in Icelandic. The Reykjavik 2nd branch is an English branch with Spanish translation available. However, there are several Spanish speaking families who are members of the 1st branch. They choose to attend the 1st branch because their Icelandic is better than their English.
This Sunday some of the 1st branch youth spoke about the experience they had attending an FSY conference in Stockholm. (Learn about FSY here.) They were more confident giving their talks in Spanish than in Icelandic. As we participated in the meeting these young people spoke in Spanish, Elder Monzon stood by them and translated their words to Icelandic and Elder Bredthauer translated the Icelandic words into English! So I had a headset on listening to their talks after they were translated twice. These young missionaries learn and use so many languages on their missions and they do a wonderful job teaching the gospel in all of them.
We also had a former missionary, Brother Fischbeck, visiting Iceland with his family. He finished his mission in Iceland in August 2025 so he was serving here for the first year of our mission and we got to work with him. Brother Fischbeck was a wonderful missionary and he now teaches Icelandic in the MTC to the elders preparing to come here and serve. It was fun to see him again, to meet his family, and to hear his testimony. All of the elders here now either served with him as missionaries or have learned from him in the MTC!
In the picture below you will see Brother Fischbeck speaking and behind him is Prosper Akoensi. Prosper was baptized a member of the church last April. Just this Sunday he received the Melchizedek priesthood and was set apart as the second counselor in the branch presidency. This is so exciting! Prosper is going to do great things in the kingdom of God.
Of course this week there were more chocolate crinkles to bake. This is not the same picture from last week! This is a new batch. 🙂 In between cookie batches we met the Mogenhans and Elder Pedroza at the district commissioner’s office so he could submit his driver’s license application. The Moganhans did the work and I was just there in case of questions!
We did some cookie drops on Tuesday evening in Selfoss. It is so fun to drop in and surprise people with a little bit of chocolate heaven. This is Agnes & her son Cedrique, members of the Selfoss branch, and one of our stops was to them. They are both so sweet.
Our lovely friend Greta had us over for dinner that evening. She fed us a delicious meal, I mean, look at that salmon!
We had such a nice evening visiting with Greta. She shared her conversion story with us and we learned about how she joined the church here in Iceland when she was 14. Greta is a remarkable woman of God and we are so grateful for her love and friendship.
We had a zone p-day activity on Wednesday and it was amazing! The original plan was to go hiking but with 100% chance of rain and 20 mph winds that plan had to be adjusted. Instead we met as a group and went to the Lava Show.
This is a tourist attraction that uses lava rock from a 1918 Icelandic eruption, reheats it to melt it, and does a demonstration with the lava. It was really incredible! Todd and I have seen a volcanic eruption here, but from quite a ways away, so to be that close to lava was something. And, it was very hot!! The demonstration included a terrific short movie about the volcanic history of Iceland. Our session guide is a geologist and she shared a lot of information about the science behind the lava, the way it changes as it cools, and its chemical makeup. We hadn’t planned to go to the lava show, figuring it would be a bit gimmicky. But we are so glad we did! The elders enjoyed it too.
So far most of the summer has been gray and rainy. One gray afternoon Todd got this terrific picture in Faxaflói, the bay Reykjavik sits against. The Sun Voyager statue sits at the waterfront and out in the mist the Spanish Navy Juan Carlos I-class amphibious assault ship was anchored. There are several military ships in and around town this week. I did a little research to see why and found out that there are NATO operations happening in the North Atlantic. The world has come a long way with their ship building and technology!
This week’s mission wide emotional resilience class was a review of chapter 9 — Providing Strength to Others. Basically, the lesson was on ministering. All of us minister to others all the time and we need to be aware of how our words and actions help, or hurt, those we are with. This lesson addresses those issues and we enjoyed sharing it with the missionaries.
At the end of class Todd usually has the kids smile for a picture. Each week these pictures are getting funnier! We love to look over them after to see how the missionaries are posing for their mission screen shot.
The best companionship this week was Elder Auger & Elder Vance in Denmark. They literally had costumes ready for the picture! They did not have hats and glasses on for class, they pulled them on just for the picture! When we saw this later we had a good laugh! The thing I love the most about it is that they planned ahead for costumes, had them ready to put on, and then they were gone just as quickly! In the big picture above it’s like looking through a “Where’s Waldo” book to find these two. Can you see them?! 🙂
Immediately following our class the missionaries participate in a weekly TTT meeting with training from the young missionaries. This week our Iceland elders, Elder Geertsen & Elder Parry, taught an excellent lesson goal setting from Preach My Gospel chapter 8.
They shared this guidance for effective goal setting. Could this help you as you set goals and work to achieve them? It will help me.
On Friday we spent the day with the Iceland zone in our final zone conference for this mission. Just about every six weeks for the past two years we have met with the missionaries and the Davidsons to be trained, taught, uplifted, and unified. It is incredible to think this will be the last time we meet for zone conference in Iceland.
Back, L-R: Elder Chynoweth, Elder Geertsen, Elder Nielsen, Elder Moyer, Elder Monzon, Elder Guiterrez, Elder Ramos Silva, Elder Denney, Elder Jensen, Elder DeMordaunt (AP visiting from Denmark), Elder Manner (AP visiting from Denmark), Elder Parry, Elder Pedroza, Elder Bredthauer, Elder Benzley
Front, L-R: Sister & Elder Mogenhan, Elder & Sister Jensen (visiting from Denmark), President Davidson, & us
Current companionships–
L-R: Elder Monzon & Elder Bredthauer, Elder Moyer & Elder Nielsen, Elder Parry & Elder Geertsen
Elder Benzley & Elder Gutierrez, Elder Chynoweth & Elder Pedroza, Elder Jensen & Elder Denney
Elder Manner & Elder DeMordaunt (APs visiting from Denmark), Sister Jensen, Elder Ramos Silva, & Elder Jensen (the Jensens take care of the service missionaries and were here visiting with Elder Ramos Silva), Sister & Elder Mogenhan
Elder & Sister Hutchings (attending over zoom from Akureyri), & us!
At the beginning of the conference we had a few minutes for testimonies from the departing missionaries. In three weeks four young elders are finishing their missions and going home at the same time Todd & I finish. Each of us had the chance to bear testimony of what we know is true and it was a powerful experience. Elder Nielsen, Elder Moyer, Elder Geertsen, & Elder Benzley have served right along with us and we have grown to love them. They have sat with us in classes & councils, we have been amazed at their growth as men and missionaries, and we feel privileged to have served with them. It was hard to keep the tears away as we listened to their testimonies of Jesus Christ.
Each time a missionary is finishing his mission in Iceland we have a flag walk for them at the close of their final zone conference. This week there were six of us who had the flag walk! It was so fun to honor the elders going home and so strange that we also had a chance to do our goodbye flag walk. How have two years gone by??
On Saturday the sun came out! And, so did the sweater that I knit for Todd. It is finished and I am very happy with it. This is the second sweater I have knit and it turned out great. I used the same pattern that I knit my sweater from in different colors. It’s fun to know I can make something this beautiful!
We had dinner Saturday evening with President Davidson who was in town for our zone conference. His wife wasn’t able to join him for this trip to Iceland so it was just the three of us. This was our last chance to visit with him and it was so nice to spend time reflecting on our mission service, the opportunities that have come to us to serve and minister here, and the blessings we have received. President Davidson was very kind in his assessment of our service and we are thankful for his love and support. It has been a blessing to serve under him and for Todd to work so closely with him as his counselor. We are grateful for valiant priesthood leaders.
We’ll close this post here with the usual thanks for your love, support, and prayers. As the time to go home draws closer we are filled with love for you and know that Heavenly Father is mindful of all of us as we go through our lives, challenges, and changes. He is with us and He is with you! D&C 6:32 says “Verily, verily, I say unto you . . . where two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing, behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you.” We’ll see you again next week as the countdown continues!
Check out Todd’s social media posts for more pictures and videos. You can find him here:
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