6/20/26
Genesis 8:22 says, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” I’m not sure if that applies in Iceland! The night has just about ceased! This weekend is summer solstice and we are having buckets of daylight. As you can see from the picture below, for the next couple of days the sun sets at midnight and rises at 2:57 am giving us just under three hours of darkness — but not darkness because it will be twilight that whole time! It is really fun to have it so light all of the time but it makes bedtime a bit of a chore when the sun is still high in the sky at 10 pm!
Despite super late bedtimes, we had a much slower week this week in terms of general busy-ness, but it was a lovely week full of sun light, Iceland celebrations, administrative work, ministering, & missionary work.
On Sunday we met Jim Benson who was visiting Iceland this week. Jim served as a young missionary here in the 1970’s at the beginning of formal missionary work in Iceland. Jim was so excited to see members, such as our friend Gerhard, who joined the church while he was a missionary here. It was interesting to hear some of his experiences as a young missionary so long ago. Times, and the missionary work in Iceland, have changed! We really appreciate the good people who have served before us, paving the way for the work we are doing today.
With all the sunshine the lupine have really been glorious. Everywhere we go we are met with fields of these gorgeous purple flowers. I love the lupine, I think it is incredible. There is a lot of controversy around the lupine, however. Many Icelanders do not like it because it is an invasive species. If you’d like to read a terrific article about the history of Alaskan lupine in Iceland click here.
In the summer in Iceland everyone takes their vacation seriously and that is reflected in our summer institute attendance. This week our class was a small group of priesthood leaders who enjoyed an all you can eat dinner! I always cook for around 15 people because occasionally we have that many, so when there are just six they get to eat and eat and eat. These guys can put away a meal when they want to!
Below L-R: Yaw, Kiefer, Elder Parry, Elder Moyer, Elvis, & Jakob
I had time for some knitting this week so here is an update on Todd’s sweater. I’ve got the body and one sleeve done (correctly this time) up to the point where they connect and the pattern begins. I’ve started sleeve number two and soon it will be ready to join as well. I’m excited to work on the pattern around the yoke, that is the really fun part! I am enjoying knitting this second sweater more than the first one. I’m definitely more confident, my stitches are looser and more consistent, and I am confident in my ability to complete the project. It’s fun! And I’m sure it will be done before we go home.
We had a lot of time sitting at our computers this week as well. I love our two sided desk — also known as the dining room table! It’s fun to work together, and whether it’s on the same project or different ones we enjoy it. In the picture below left, Todd was on a video call with our friend David who is in Ireland. They are sorting out the details for the upcoming work to be done on the new church meeting rooms in Selfoss. And on the right we were sitting side by side working on our class prep for Thursday morning’s mission scripture study class.
June 17th is Iceland’s National Day, or independence day. On June 17, 1944 Iceland became independent from Denmark after more than 560 years of Danish rule. We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon downtown enjoying the celebrations.
Icelandic flags were everywhere around town and many people were dressed in traditional costumes.
We enjoyed admiring the cars on display at the classic car show and Todd made an effort to talk to many of the owners about their cars. It was an impressive group of vehicles.
The city elders were all downtown as well enjoying some of the festivities and being visible in an effort to make contacts. We came across them in the park and of course I made them get together for a picture.
We enjoyed the parade that worked its way from Hallgrimskirkja to the party happening at the park.
We visited the statue of Jón Sigurðsson, the leader of the independence struggle in Iceland. (Click here to learn more about him.) His birthday is June 17, 1811 and this date was chosen as the national day to honor his work and efforts that led to independence.
As we finalized our outing Todd made sure to do some missionary work and share pass along cards without being too pushy on a national holiday.
On Thursday morning we taught our mission wide scripture study class. This week Todd shared a lesson on the principle “Good is to Keep the Commandments” and through teaching that principle we made sure everyone in the mission knows how to use tags in the Gospel Library. Do you know how to use tags in the Gospel Library? They are very helpful for studying and learning about common themes, like how good is to keep the commandments!
After our class we have another meeting with all the missionaries for training and reports on recent baptisms. Some of our sister missionary friends in Denmark, Sister Larson, Sister Frandsen, & Sister Silva, shared about their recent friend who was baptized and we were excited to cheer them on. Way to go, Sisters!
And, of course, there was more of this as we began our preparation for next week’s class.
About mid day we were done with our meetings and lesson plans and we took a field trip. In the bay just a few miles from our apartment is a beautiful little island called Viðey Island. We see it every single day but we have never been there. Well, Thursday was the day. Not far from our home is the port where the container ships and cruise ships dock and there is a small ferry that takes passengers to Viðey Island throughout the summer months. We were looking forward to the (very) short ride across the bay and it was pretty cool to get a good look at this giant cruise ship that was right next door.
On the map below you can see the island in the bay. The short dashed line is the ferry route we took. Our apartment would be at the bottom of this map just beyond where the water hits the edge of the picture.
The first thing you see when coming to the island is the Viðey Church and Viðey House. These are two of the oldest buildings in Iceland and there is evidence of habitation on the island since the tenth century. Viðey House was originally a monastery that was established in the 1200’s. You can read more about the history, wildlife, and nature on the island here.
We spent three hours wandering around the west island of Vesturey. On the map above that is the smaller part of the island at the top. In those three hours we walked almost four miles around the edge of Vesturey enjoying the many species of birds and flowers that were there. (More than 30 species of birds live on the island.) We were almost the only people there and it was pretty magical! Here were some of our favorite pictures of the afternoon:
Gorgeous basalt columns. One of my favorite geological features –
Our picnic spot — looking north across the bay.
A Northern Fulmar —
Black-tailed Godwit — Both pictures below are the same bird. When they are flying they have a beautiful black and white striped pattern on their wings.
Beautiful wildflowers — Left – Marsh Marigold, Right – Columbine
The Imagine Peace Tower is located on Viðey Island. This is an art installation that was “conceived by Yoko Ono in memory of John Lennon” to share their desire for worldwide peace. The peace tower shines a massive spotlight up into the sky every year from October 9th through the end of the year. Both winters we have been here we’ve seen the spotlight but we’ve never seen its place of origin. You can read more about the peace tower and see pictures of it lit up during the winter months here.
We were worn out after our long walk and exploring so we decided to save the east half of the island for another visit later this summer. While we waited for the ferry that would take us back to the mainland I did a little beach combing. The tide was out and this beach had a cave carved into the basalt columns. I also found a few of these massive sea urchins washed up on the beach. They had been eaten by birds and were long dead, but huge and beautiful!
Also, these cruise ships are massive. The one on the left in the picture below came into port while we were hiking around the island.
This was such a fun outing. The island is very peaceful. The birds and flowers are beautiful. And it’s amazing that we can be so close to the city and yet so completely isolated. It’s easy to see the hand of God in the beautiful nature all around us in Iceland. We look forward to going here again soon.
To finish the week up Todd taught a zoom companion study with two elders in Denmark and then a group leadership training with our young mission leaders in Iceland. We had a fun lunch date/mission meeting with Wes & Karen Mogenhan. And we cleaned the church with the elders. What could be more fun than that?!
Well, a walk along this gorgeous coastline is possibly a bit more fun than cleaning the church! But it was a great day overall and a nice way to finish the week.
We hope that you have had a good week as well, that you are enjoying the sunshine that comes your way, and that you are seeing the hand of God blessing you in your work and effort. While the amount of daylight changes our loving God will always be with us, watching for chances to bless and carry us through the challenges we face. We have seen this in our lives in this beautiful country of Iceland. Thanks for coming along with us this week. See you next week when there are just a few seconds of less daylight up here on the top of the world!
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more photos and videos. You can find him here:
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