1/11/25
This week began with a lot of cooking, baking, and eating. Food was the order of the day for both Sunday and Monday. Let’s begin with Sunday. Each fast Sunday the senior couples take turns having a meal for the ten elders who are in the south part of Iceland. January was my turn so after church I spent a couple of hours finishing the prep for our dinner. We had homemade macaroni & cheese, bacon meatballs (thank you, Costco), homemade biscuits (because I forgot to buy rolls), salad, cookies, & ice cream.
We could fit all the boys in our apartment for dinner but it is a tight squeeze so we’ve decided to have our fast Sunday dinners at the church. There’s more room to eat and visit, it’s easier for all the boys to get to, and it’s just more comfortable for a crowd. The boys were happy to be fed a big meal after fasting and we had a fun time visiting with them.
Monday we had our YSA institute night and dinner. This meal was taco soup, tortilla chips & toppings, and cookies and oranges for dessert. It was another successful meal and it was all eaten after class. I decided to take the rest of the week off from making dinner. Good thing Todd knows how to whip up some delicious food!
On Sunday we saw a phenomenon called Glitský, which are polar stratospheric clouds. “Nacreous clouds form in the stratosphere, not in the troposphere where we live. They occur at altitudes of around 15-30 kilometers. For them to form, it needs to be exceptionally cold, somewhere between -70 and -90 degrees Celsius. At these temperatures, ice crystals form, creating these clouds.” You can read about them here. My phone didn’t get very good pictures of them, but if you google more about them you’ll see some amazing pictures. They were very beautiful to look at!
Another beautiful sky came with this sunrise! For a few minutes the sky was brilliant with these colors.
The start of the week also brought us a virus. 🙁 Todd was sick over the weekend and then I got to be sick too. While Todd made a quick recovery, this cold/sore throat/cough knocked me out for the week. After all the partying we did over Christmas and New Year’s we were both just worn out! And sick. I started feeling pretty awful on Tuesday. That afternoon we went for a drive around the coast to get out of the house. I enjoyed my heated seat and then a nap after we got home. But we saw more of the beauty that is Iceland.
I’m continually amazed at the whopper swans who live here. They are comfortable in the cold climate and they are really beautiful. They were just sitting around on the snow and ice, not bothered by a thing!
I was pretty sick all week and it wasn’t too much fun for either of us. Todd had a few meetings on zoom and I napped and coughed and napped and took ibuprofen. He kept me well stocked with Icelandic cough drops, our first purchase from the pharmacy. You can’t find over the counter medicine here like you can in the states where you can pick it up in most stores. You must go to a pharmacy to find anything medicinal. The cough drops were on the pharmacy floor, so he could just buy me buckets full! But if you need ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or any other thing that is a drug, you talk to a pharmacist to request the medication.
I managed to completely lose my voice and my energy during this illness. I’m really glad I didn’t get sick in December when we were so busy. We’re grateful it was a calm week without too many appointments and the things that needed to happen could be electronic so we could stay home.
Todd gave me a priesthood blessing to help with comfort and healing. I’m so grateful he is a worthy priesthood holder and he can bless me. If you’d like to know more about priesthood blessings, click here. Todd is a great husband, mission companion, and doctor! We have a family joke about just what kind of doctor that Todd is. Trust me, he is not useless! He made me grilled cheese sandwiches, encouraged me to rest, and took good care of me. He’s the best companion! I think I’ll keep him.
So, instead of more fantastic pictures of Iceland scenery this week, you get pictures of what I did when I had the energy to do something besides sleep or read!
I’ve become pen pals with one of my primary girls in Oregon. I was the primary president in our ward for a couple of years before we left for our mission. Anna Vance is such a sweet girl in the oldest primary class this year. I’ve been friends with her mom and family for a while and Anna has written me a couple of letters since we came to Iceland. There is a thrill when we get a real piece of mail in our mailbox! Anna sent me a Christmas card with pictures she had drawn and I had time to write back to her. I haven’t had a pen pal (with actual written letters) since grade school. It’s fun! It takes a few weeks for mail to make it 4,000 miles. And, while I got Anna’s letter written, I haven’t taken it to mail yet so she might not get it until February!
I have a couple of small projects I like to work on occasionally. One is this picture wall.
Our bedroom in the apartment has big windows in the corner and closets along one wall. But the rest of the walls are white and mostly blank. After we got settled here I began to occasionally print some of my favorite photos we’ve taken in Iceland and build a collage wall. We haven’t even been here four months yet and I’m making good progress covering this wall! There is the entire wall above our bed that is blank as well. As our mission goes by I plan to print and tack up my favorites. I put in a print order that my trusty companion picked up for me. Then spent a few minutes hanging the latest pictures on the wall. It’s a fun project. I’m excited to see some of the same locations appear in different seasons. Iceland is incredible.
I’ve also done a bit of sewing. When we left on our mission I brought my entire la passacaglia – Millefiori Quilts – project with me to work on while we are here. This is an English paper piecing (hand sewn) project and one of my favorite past times. I don’t have much time – usually – to work on it. But I’ve been able to this week and it makes me happy. If you’re curious about what the finished quilt looks like you can see examples here. Do you think I’ll finish this quilt while we’re in Iceland?! Well, if not, I’m glad I have it here for times like this week. (It’s done in sections, this is just one small piece! I’m about 2/3 done making the individual rosettes. I’ll send another update on the quilt sometime.)
As far as missionary work goes, the Iceland missionaries are doing good things. They are on Facebook a lot making ads and sharing the gospel electronically. This week they posted this add about Settlers of Catan. I don’t know anything about this game, but the boys love to play it and they shared the gospel with it! I also don’t know exactly what they are saying in this ad, maybe you’ll understand?! Check it out and let me know what you think. You can find it here: https://fb.watch/w-bTsdP9od
On Friday morning Todd had a zoom meeting about the mission budget for 2025. He met with our mission president and a senior elder in Denmark who is over finances. Fortunately, I was only the note keeper for Todd during this meeting because I still couldn’t talk much and I also didn’t understand too much about how to read the budget! I’m grateful for those who are smarter than me in these areas. We’re going to do our best to keep the Iceland zone within the budget for spending in 2025. I think we can do it!
As the week has come to a close, I’ve been feeling a little bit better. We made it out to the grocery store and I’ve been able to get a little bit of work done. I’m confident I’ll continue to get better and next week’s blog will be more interesting to read. I’d rather show you beautiful Iceland instead of the inside of our (beautiful) apartment!
I’ve spent some time this week wondering about why we were spending a week of our mission at home, sick. It seems like our time should be used better. However, the Spirit reminded me that “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven . . . He hath made every thing beautiful in his time” Ecclesiastes 3:1,11. While we haven’t been in as many meetings, going as many places, or doing as many things, we have been aware of the Spirit blessing us through long nights and hard days. We’ve been reminded to be grateful for good health (which we have most of the time). And we’ve been reminded that it is okay to rest and recover when our bodies and Spirits need to rest and recover. Missions are wonderful and missions are hard. We will work for the Lord through all the good, bad, easy, hard, healthy, & sick times because “every thing [is] beautiful in his time” and we love Him. Stay healthy and we’ll see you next week!
I’m not sure that Todd has much to update on his social media pages this week! But, who knows? We can all find out by checking out his pages here:
Comments
5 responses to “Everything is beautiful in His time.”
Unrelated question – do the missionaries teach in the local language?
The young missionaries do learn, and speak, Icelandic. When they are teaching an Icelander they are expected to teach in Icelandic even though almost all Icelanders speak very good English. However, Iceland is a very international country. Many people the missionaries are teaching are not from Iceland; in fact, the majority being taught right now are from Africa. Those people don’t speak Icelandic and English isn’t their first language so they are taught in English. We also have a Spanish branch here and most of the people in that branch don’t speak Icelandic and some don’t even speak English. So they are taught in Spanish! Several of our missionaries speak English, Icelandic, and Spanish. They teach in the language that is most comfortable for those they are teaching.
Fortunately, the senior missionaries do not need to learn Icelandic. We are planning on taking an Icelandic class that the missionaries are starting up. And we will do our best to see what we can learn. It is a difficult language and our old brains our struggling to pick it up. But the young guys are amazing with it. And, as I mentioned, most people here speak English and they are happy to talk with us in English as soon as they realize we aren’t Icelanders.
As the mission health advisor, I often remind the missionaries that we need to nurture our bodies and be patient with them as it takes time to heal. I am glad you could rest and can start feeling better. I fell last week and skinned my knees and hands–I was actually really grateful that i wasn’t more badly injured. I am healing slowly, but surely. Missions are hard, but i think we are changing in good ways from this experience. Thanks for your posts.
Love this… hope you’re feeling better!
Richardsons! You two are amazing and I’m really enjoying reading your blog posts! I don’t comment, but just want you to know that I love reading them and seeing the photos. Iceland just seems like a place where you can just feel peace all the time. 🙂 You are both missed in our ward–that goes without saying–but I love that you are getting to do and experience all that you are right now. Thank you for serving in that incredible little corner of the world! Keep up the great work!
*Oh also, LOVE that Anna is your penpal! Adorable.