11/9/24
This week has flown by! Get ready for Iceland picture overload and let’s start with Sunday.
We finished our district conference weekend on Sunday with a final meeting with our district members and our mission president and his wife. During Sunday’s meeting there was ongoing translation of three different languages – always two at any given time. Everyone who attended had a headset and they could hear the speakers in the language they were most comfortable with. We had members translating Icelandic into English and English into Icelandic. And we had a missionary translating for Spanish speakers. For the Spanish translation, the elders would translate English or Icelandic into Spanish, depending on what was being spoken! It was really inspiring to hear the doctrine of Christ being taught in so many languages in this small faithful group. Our district leaders and our mission president and his wife all spoke about unity, tolerance, and love. The Spirit was there and it was a very inspiring meeting.
The elders sang a musical number, “I Need Thee Every Hour” in both Icelandic and English. They sounded beautiful. I took a short video of one of their practices and you can hear the first verse in Icelandic here:
We loved spending time with President and Sister Davidson. They love their missionaries. They love the members in Iceland. And they love the Lord. They are good, inspiring people and we look forward to many years of service with them.
We had a great field trip earlier this week to a fantastic museum/attraction in Reykjavik. This was a windy day! We had planned a waterfall day – we felt the need for waterfalls. But when we got up that morning the forecast called for a 100% chance of rain and wind from 30-40 mph with occasional gusts of 50 mph. That didn’t sound like waterfall weather to me! Todd was still getting over his cold and we decided to check out Perlan. It is amazing! You can check out their website here: https://perlan.is/
This museum is all about Iceland, its geography, geology, wildlife, water, etc. We started in the planetarium for an aurora movie. If you come to Iceland to see the aurora you won’t miss it in this movie! The museum is hands-on and interactive with a lot of interesting displays about Iceland. There is a fountain in the middle of the museum that erupts about every 15 minutes -as a geyser – reaching all the way to the fourth floor. There was also an amazing volcano movie we both loved. If you can’t tell, we really enjoyed this museum! Iceland is such an incredible place. It was great to learn more about what makes it so unique and beautiful.
One of our favorite parts of the museum is the ice cave. It is made of real ice and snow, they keep it at -10 degrees C. It reminded us both of our Alaska days. We went through it a couple of times and felt the cold! It’s a safe way to explore an ice cave, but we both hope to go to one in nature sometime while we live here.
Check out Todd’s 360 video of the ice cave. Use your mouse or finger to move the video around to see it from all angles.
We enjoyed lunch in the rotating restaurant at the top of Perlan. It’s like the Space Needle in Seattle and rotates a full 360 degrees, very slowly, so you can see all the views. The area is open and full of plants and good food. I think I could stay there for an entire day (or more) if I had a comfy couch! We enjoyed pizza and the views. Before we left we did a dash around the outside of the museum. There is a 360 degree viewing platform that is pretty great! If it had been a clear day the views would have been amazing! But this day it was just hilarious with major wind.
Later in the week we got our waterfall day in a big way. I’ll spare you from hearing me say “Amazing!” “Awesome!” “Incredible!” too many times and just post pictures. It was an amazing, awesome, incredible day. We both felt the hand of God in this place – His creations are beautiful.
Skógafoss:
You climb over 500 steps to the top of Skógafoss to begin the Waterfall Way hike. There are waterfalls after waterfalls, each turn brings another spectacular view. (Spectacular! Another word to repeat many times!)
Hestavaðsfoss:
Fosstorfufoss:
Steinbogafoss:
We loved this hike. We only did about 1 mile of the trail and it keeps going for many more with more waterfalls to find. We’ll definitely be back there one day!
Our next stop was in a little town called Ásólfskála where we visited Ásólfsskálkirkja, the church there and its lovely little cemetery. Right next to this church is a waterfall in someone’s backyard! How would you like that view out your kitchen window?!
We had taken a detour to see the church in Ásólfskála. As we were driving back to the main highway we came across Íráfoss. Another spectacular waterfall! Because it’s tucked away a bit there weren’t any other people there and we had a great time exploring.
Our final waterfalls for the day were Seljalandsfoss:
And Gljúfrabúifoss :
This was a truly wonderful day. We loved being out in nature, enjoying Iceland, and being surrounded by water and beauty. In 1 Nephi 11:25 it says, “And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God. . . ”
Throughout this day as we hiked trails, climbed stairs, followed paths, got wet, dried off, got wet again, followed more paths, I couldn’t help but think of the paths that lead us to our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the living water who will fill us with life. If we follow His paths He will lead us to eternal life. And that life will be more beautiful than the most gorgeous waterfall! It will be awesome, amazing, incredible, and spectacular!
Some of the other things we did this week:
We joined the elders for a teaching lesson with Doris and her son Perfect. They are both getting baptized on November 17th and we are happy for them. We enjoyed a discussion about Joseph Smith and about the Holy Ghost. A sister in the primary presidency joined us to help teach them about how to learn to hear the Holy Ghost. She gave a great lesson. As Doris and Perfect come to know more about the gospel and our Savior we can see their happiness and peace growing.
We’ve had several meetings with the young missionaries throughout the week. Just look how much fun we’re having in this meeting! 🙂
One amazing thing happening in the church in Iceland is the amount of international people who are here, finding the missionaries and learning the gospel. In one of our meetings I asked them to list all the countries the people are from whom they are currently teaching. Here is their list for this week: Iceland, Albania, Philippines, South Africa, Nigeria, Venezuela, Ghana, & Ukraine. I think this is incredible! It is an international city and the blessings of the gospel are available to everyone who wants them. Language, nationality, race . . . those are not issues when it comes to living the gospel of Jesus Christ. As President Holland said, “The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is, first, foremost, and forever, the source of lasting happiness, true peace, and joy for everyone in these latter days.”
Todd and I are also trying to reach out to the members here who are part of the young single adult community. We’ve done a lot of electronic reaching out and now we’ve decided we’re going to try and find them, physically. This is going to be a fun challenge! Most people here live in big apartment buildings. We have many building numbers but few apartment numbers. One evening we took some cookies, found some buildings, and rang some doorbells. We didn’t have success delivering cookies on this night, but we sent them selfies of us in their lobbies attempting to bring them cookies! The next night we did find the right apartment, with the right people, who were actually home and invited us in! There are two sisters who live there, Bridget & Jacyntha. They were happy for cookies and surprised we would come find them and we hope to see more of them at our church meetings.
We finished out the week by witnessing the baptism of Agnes and her son Cedric. They were taught by Elder Morales & Elder Morel and Elder Morales was able to baptize them. It was lovely to be with them and the members of the Selfoss branch and the missionaries as we all welcome them as members of the church.
In addition to these things and so much more, Todd received a new calling this week. He will be serving as the first counselor in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission Presidency. He will be working with President Davidson and overseeing the mission and district issues in Iceland. We are excited for this new responsibility and adventure! It will definitely keep things interesting.
It is a privilege and a blessing to be missionaries for our Savior Jesus Christ. It is a joy to be in Iceland, hearing the wind blow, seeing the rain fall sideways, enjoying the beauty of this world and the beauty of the gospel! We are so grateful for this opportunity and thank you for joining us as we experience it!
Do you want many, many more pictures?? Check out Todd’s Facebook page here:
Do you want more videos?? Check out Todd’s Youtube channel here:
Comments
6 responses to “Chasing Waterfalls”
You are a wonderful example to us and we love reading of your service and adventures. We are staying really busy caring for sick missionaries and had our first emergency appendectomy this week. Thanks for posting!
An appendectomy sounds terrifying! I’m glad you were there to help and advise them. We’re so glad to keep in touch and happy to be following your adventures as well! Keep up the wonderful work, Elder & Sister Meldau. We also are inspired by your true examples of faith in Jesus Christ.
om my goodness! I now see why so many people are traveling to Iceland! a beautiful place!
Kathy, it is unbelievable how gorgeous Iceland is. It’s crazy that so much spectacular beauty can be put onto one small island! Maybe you should come visit us! 🙂
Oh my goodness! I loved reading this!!! We have an Elder here, with a broken arm… as so as he leaves tonight, we will read this together!!!
Have I mentioned we want to come visit you guys! I saved the contact for the Iceland Tour Guide!!!
Love you, and all your stories and pics!!!
Love, Elder & Sister Tarwater!
Can’t wait to see you! Sorry about your elder with a broken arm. We hope he has a quick recovery and can return to the field soon. We love you guys and we are rooting for you!