7/18/26
Hello from Iceland! We can’t believe it’s time to settle in for the last month of our mission. We fly home to Oregon one month from today on August 18th. Hindsight is incredible — where does the time go? I guess that’s what this blog is for! To show where the time has gone. 🙂 We’ll start with this picture of wildflowers near our apartment. Aren’t they lovely? And now here’s what we’ve been up to this week:
Knitting —
Todd’s sweater is making progress. I’m working on the patterned section and it’s looking good! It is going quickly and it will be completed before we go home. It is so fun to do and I’m happy with how much better his is looking than mine! The second time is the charm?! I’m excited for us to wear our sweaters together and have a visit with Helga in the next couple of weeks. Fortunately, it is cold and rainy! Still cool enough to need a sweater on occasionally.
Driver’s licenses —
Yes, this project will follow me to the end of our mission. Elder Jensen & Elder Chynoweth both completed their Icelandic driver’s licenses this week. They did a great job! Two more legal drivers are on the road. These two are the last ones I will see through the entire process. Being in charge of getting all of the missionaries through this process has been an ongoing responsibility for me for the past two years.
Senior Missionary Boot Camp —
We have begun regular training meetings with the Mogenhans to help prepare them to take over the work we have done while we’ve been here. We are pretty much doubling their work load until our replacement couple, the Moore’s, arrive. They are scheduled to be in Iceland on August 12th and we are still waiting and hoping that their Icelandic visas will be approved so that they can come at that time. They will not come to Iceland before the approval is given. No matter when they arrive, we leave on the 18th so the Mogenhans will be taking over and then training them in their jobs whenever they arrive. There is a lot of juggling to be done!
We met with Valur Arnarson, the Reykjavik driving instructor who helps complete the driving lessons and sees the missionaries through their driving exams. He’s wonderful to work with and one contact we’re passing on to the Mogenhans.
And we had a few meetings throughout the week to go over details, spreadsheets, websites, and calendaring items that they get to take on. We are all grateful for computers! And we are very grateful for the Mogenhans. They are a wonderful, hardworking couple who are terrific missionaries. They will do a terrific job with the additional work coming their way.
Baking —
There are many people we would like to connect with over the next few weeks to share a hug, a thank you, and an early goodbye. Sundays are so busy at church that it is hard to speak with everyone there. Our lives have been touched by so many over the past two years and we want them to know of our love and appreciation. I’ve put together the recipe for Chocolate Crinkles and this week I made eight dozen cookies to begin working on our deliveries. We will repeat this process over the next few weeks to try and get to everyone. I honestly think people will miss the chocolate crinkles more than they will miss us!! But we are liberally sharing the recipe so everyone can make their own little bit chocolate of heaven after we go home.
We’ve had a lot of fun doing cookie drops throughout our mission. We might have to extend this tradition to friends and neighbors when we get back to Oregon. 🙂
Blessings —
Early in the week Elder Monzon was very sick. When we got a call from him we were pretty sure he needed immediate medical care. The Mogenhans handle the medical appointments for the missionaries in Iceland and they were quick to get him to the hospital for the care he needed and he was quickly seen and cared for. Later that night Todd and I saw him and his companion. Elder Monzon was feeling much better and he told us how his companion, Elder Bredthauer, had given him a priesthood blessing of healing. That blessing, combined with prayers of faith, brought Elder Monzon great comfort. At a moment when the doctors felt they might need to rush him into surgery Elder Monzon prayed and, he testified to us later, that prayer was immediately answered with relief and healing. He was able to leave the hospital just a short time later and he is back to work and feeling good. We believe in the power of the priesthood and in the miracle of healing. Below Elder Monzon is on the left with his companion, Elder Bredthauer.
Birthday Baking —
In preparation for Todd’s big birthday celebration I obviously made him pumpkin pies! It may not be Thanksgiving, but I am thankful for this amazing husband, friend, and companion. And pumpkin pies in July are always a welcomed treat! I had pumpkin puree and frozen homemade evaporated milk from last Thanksgiving that were ready for this project. The apartment smelled like fall and the grey, rainy weather helped with that as well.
Happy Birthday! —
Who doesn’t want to turn 62 on your mission in Iceland?! On Thursday we celebrated Todd in every way. He is a wonderful man, a terrific missionary, a loving husband, a dedicated father, a devoted grandad, and a man of God. I love him so much and it is such a pleasure to spend every day together serving the Lord.
We started his birthday bright and early teaching a mission wide zoom class about how to use the footnotes for our scripture study. Have you ever used the footnotes to really enhance your learning as you study the scriptures? Look at the footnotes for 1 Nephi 19:10 and you will see what I mean. They are an incredible resource. Todd wore his party hat for class and some of our friends joined in to help celebrate! Don’t the Hutchings look cute?!
It was a fun birthday party with over one hundred missionaries celebrating! And, Todd got to teach on his birthday, it’s one of his favorite things to do. Of course after class there was pumpkin pie for breakfast and a few gifts for the guy who has everything! 😉
Throughout the day people were sending Todd sweet birthday notes. Thank you to all of you who reached out to him. We were both touched by the kind and loving thoughts he received.
The mission has a fun tradition of a personalized message to the group chat on your birthday. This was written by our zone leaders and it is so true and adorable!
Todd’s weekly companion study with the Iceland missionaries was mid-day on his birthday. He had class with the boys, which he loves, and then those elders here in Reykjavik all got a piece of pumpkin pie.
The local boys: L-R: Elder Parry, Elder Denney, Elder Bredthauer, Elder Monzon, President Richardson, Elder Jensen, Elder Chynoweth, Elder Geertsen, & Elder Pedroza
To supplement the pumpkin pie we enjoyed this giant pizza for lunch! The birthday meal for the birthday boy.
We enjoyed hearing from our family and friends throughout the day! I just love this man so much. 62 has never looked so good!
Celebratory Dinner —
We ended the week with a traditional Icelandic dinner with our sweet friends Ásta & the Mogenhans. Ásta manages all of the finances for the church in Iceland. She does a lot of work to keep things running smoothly. She is also a dear personal friend. Every morning I wake up to a text from Ásta with two or three conference talks or devotionals to listen to. We both listen to the talks and share thoughts about them throughout the day. Ásta is a devoted cheerleader and she is always giving me encouragement and prayers. She was one of the first members of the church in Iceland many years ago, and now, though she is limited in her participation because of health challenges, she works hard to support the work of the church in Iceland.
A couple of times a year we try to gather with Ásta for a meal and a sincere expression of gratitude for her work. We love her and appreciate her and will miss her when we have gone home. Thank you, Ásta, for your love and friendship!
Here are some of the delicious that came to our table for dinner: L-R: Salted butter on a lava rock, lobster tacos, salmon, steak, cheesecake, & brownies. Delicious!!
And that brings this week to an end. It’s been a good, busy week full of ministering and missionary work. The clock is ticking and the time is drawing short, but we will be back again next week with another update. We hope to see you then!
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more pictures and videos. You can find him here:
Leave a Reply