11/8/25
Recently my sweet friend Ásta shared a BYU devotional with me that was given by Elder Steven Lund in 2022 called “Flashes of Light”. In the devotional, Elder Lund talks about how we can see God more clearly in our lives when we look back and consider His hand in guiding and blessing us. The talk is wonderful, you can watch it here. Elder Lund says, “Life often presents itself as an incessant gray wall stretching off into nowhere, but here and there, if you watch for them, flickering assurances of God’s love for us will become evident.” This week I’ve been watching for those flashes of light, those “flickering assurances of God’s love” for me. I have seen them as we look back and consider the great blessings we have received on our mission. Every opportunity to minister and serve is a demonstration of God’s love for us and for all of His children. I am grateful for the reminders He gives us of His love and trust in us and that He is fully aware of His children and their needs. Do you see God around you in “flashes of light” that reveal His goodness? I hope so.
On Sunday we experienced one of those flashes of light as we attended church. Here is a picture of some of the people who were in our Sunday school class. We had 5 friends attending, along with several branch members and missionaries. One of these friends, Prince, is getting baptized on the 9th! It is pretty wonderful to work with these good people and see how they are finding the love and light of God as they embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Monday we got down to more practical matters. Todd spent the morning with Wes Mogenhan taking all of the mission cars to the shop to have their studded tires put on and summer tires taken off. We’re about a week too late for these tires to help with the first blizzard of the season! But there will be more winter ahead and it was a necessary project to get done.
I did the usual Monday cooking, cleaning, & prep for our Monday night institute class. What was for dinner, you ask? Baked potatoes with chili, homemade rolls, and (of course) chocolate crinkles. After class and dinner the YSA’s spent some time in a riveting game of Code Names.
Earlier Monday Todd had the impression to bring his camera with us to the church for the evening. He followed that impression and we ended up spending almost an hour after class doing some amazing aurora viewing. It was the best we’ve seen since we’ve come to Iceland and we were in awe! Talk about “Flashes of Light”! God’s beautiful creations were on display bearing testimony of Him! (Alma 30:44)
We had driven about 15 minutes away from the church, found a safe place to park that was away from street lights, and enjoyed the view. We sent our location to the elders in case they wanted to come do some aurora viewing with us. Elder Nielsen & Elder Bredthauer joined us for a little bit. I think they were glad they came. It was adorable because as soon as they jumped out of their car they both video called their moms to show them what we were seeing. (On Monday, P-day, calls home are allowed.) I don’t think the video shows the color as vividly, but these pictures are pretty much what we could see with our eyes. The flashes of light were spectacular!
After several very busy days, Todd and I took a welcomed P-day. Last week on Tuesday was my birthday and we had plans to do some fun things that had to be cancelled because of the blizzard. So we had another day of celebrating now that the weather is better and the roads were clear.
There is an attraction downtown called Fly Over Iceland. Their website describes this experience this way: “You will hang suspended, feet dangling, before a 20-metre spherical screen while our film whisks you away on an exhilarating journey across Iceland. Special effects, including wind, mist and scents, combine with the ride’s motion to create an unforgettable experience.” I have wanted to do this for some time, but Todd has been worried it would make him motion sick. Yes, he is delicate! 😉 On my birthday we were going to go to Fly Over Iceland and I was going to do the ride on my own.
On Tuesday, we went downtown and I did go to Fly Over Iceland. I have to say, it was incredible!! It was such an amazing experience and I was sad when it ended. And it definitely would have made Todd sick so it’s good he didn’t join me. I loved it. Below is a promotional video for the experience that will give you just a little taste of what it was like. Iceland is spectacular and this experience was a very unique and special way to see parts of it you would never see in any other way.
While I was flying over Iceland Todd went to the Whales of Iceland museum next door. It has 23 life sized models of whale species that swim in Icelandic water. He kept his feet firmly on the ground while he explored amongst the whales and we both learned and enjoyed new things during these exhibits.
We had such a fun outing downtown doing a few new things and enjoying the brisk air.
One of the many “flashes of light” on this day was a woman we met named Unda, who works in a shop we were browsing. She was very kind and chatty while she worked at the register and we talked about wool sweaters and hats. We left the shop and I felt bad that I hadn’t told her we are missionaries and asking her is she would like to learn about what we believe. Todd had a pass-along card and I went back to the shop and had a lovely conversation with her. I explained why we live in Iceland and asked if she would like to learn about what we believe. She said that she and her boyfriend are Christian and that her boyfriend reads the Bible every night and sometimes goes to mass. She thought they might both enjoy learning more about what we believe, even though she has never heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She gave me her name and number to give to the missionaries. I don’t know if she will let them come teach her, but this was a great experience for me. I felt God’s love for Unda and I hope she will feel His love for her.
Of course we had plenty of meetings this week. Let me tell you about a few of them. Wednesday mornings we have our emotional resilience class with two districts in Denmark. We are loving working with these young missionaries. They are sharp! And they are inspired.
During our class this week two different sisters shared experiences where they saw flashes of God’s light in their lives as they are doing their work as missionaries. For one of her commitments in the emotional resilience class, Sister Fergus memorized John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” She not only memorized it in English, she also memorized it in Danish and Italian. During the week she found that not only did she gain peace as she remembered this counsel, but she was also able to share this scripture with others, including in Italian with a woman she spoke to on a train! Sister Fergus felt God’s love for herself and for others through this scripture verse and goal.
Sister Larsen shared how throughout the week she and her companion often discussed faith in Jesus Christ and how they could focus their faith more on Him as they encountered challenges. She said that as they openly discussed these things their friendship grew stronger and they both were happier throughout the week. Sister Larsen said that “Happy missionaries are successful missionaries.” This is a true statement.
We had a fun follow up zoom meeting with some of our senior couples who are also coordinating emotional resilience classes. We all agreed that week two was better than week one! It is fun to work on a project together and we are all safeguarding our emotional health along with that of the junior missionaries. Below you will see, L-R, top: Elder & Sister Mogenhan, us, Elder & Sister Hutchings (all in Iceland), bottom: Elder & Sister Davis, & Sister & Elder McBride (both in Denmark)
We gathered for a district conference meeting at the church and were taught by our district leaders, Elder Geertsen & Elder Monzon. Each week there is an extensive review of all the work the elders are doing, and they are working hard! Even with record breaking snowfall these missionaries are not giving up or slowing down.
I’m working on several fun holiday projects right now because it is, basically, the holiday season! We have a missionary Christmas concert coming up in a month and I spent hours this week making flyers to hang in our meeting places. It’s always interesting to work in three different languages, especially when I don’t speak all of the languages! But, I have friends who are helping and, hopefully, the translations will make sense. Full disclosure, I did have a melt down trying to get these formatted uniformly with correct translation. Poor Todd! Thank goodness he loves me and is patient with me. If you’re in Reykjavik on December 7th, come to our missionary concert and bring a friend and some cookies to share!
We did some cookie drops this week and felt of God’s love for His children in Iceland. We are continuing our project of trying to find everyone on the Reykjavik 1st branch roster. This week we found a sister who had lived in Iceland for 31 years and never been actively coming to church. She was very surprised to see us on her doorstep and she was pleased that we would find her and bring her cookies. I don’t know if she will reach out to us for another visit or if she will come to church. But she does know that someone thought of her and made an effort to reach out. Is there someone you can reach out to and remind them that they are not forgotten? Maybe you can be a flash of light and a reminder of God’s love in someone else’s life!
On that same night we had a visit with Victoria and her daughter’s Regina and Rejoice. In January Victoria is having her third baby, another girl, and their family will be even cuter! Victoria joined the church in August and she is happily learning all she can about the gospel. At this visit we had family scripture study with Victoria and her girls, showing them how to each read a verse and having the girls repeat the scripture words after their mom. There are great blessings that come from reading the Book of Mormon each day. We hope these new member families will see those blessings in their lives.
I can’t leave out knitting circle this week. We had four Icelandic sisters who are all so patient with me and are careful to speak English and translate so I can join in the conversation. Helga decided I am ready to learn to knit with multiple needles. It was hilarious to try, but she is also patient with me and kept getting my needles untangled. She set a deadline for me to have my scarf finished by Christmas, so I will keep working on that. And, I will keep practicing with all these needles to see what I can do with them!
Below you will see me, Helga, & Sólveig in the back with Guðrún & Kolbrún in the front.
To finish up this week’s post I’ll share a couple more flickering assurances of God’s love I have seen this week. First off, sunrises & sunsets. They happen every day, they are different every day, and I love that we get to see them. Our great God loves beauty and I love it too.
Another assurance of God’s love is this starfish I found washed up on the beach. We love coastlines and sea creatures and we are used to millions of starfish at the Oregon Coast. Iceland has starfish, but despite watching for them for over a year we have never seen one until this week. It was too late to save this beauty, but just knowing there are starfish in Icelandic waters made me smile.
And, finally, this man. He will probably be annoyed that I am sharing how wonderful he is, but I am the one writing this blog, so he will have to deal with it! There could not be a better husband and companion for me. We often joke that most of our married life I have been low maintenance. Well, I’m now giving him a run for his money and letting him experience many high maintenance days. He loves me. He is patient with me. He tries so hard to help when I am falling apart. And he is never angry with me. I couldn’t ask for anyone better. Todd is the best part of my life and I want you all to know how wonderful he is! There could be no better match for me. Having Todd for now and for eternity is an absolute assurance of God’s love for me.
I hope you are seeing flickering assurances of God’s love for you. I know if you watch for them you will find them. They are everywhere. If you’ve read clear to the end of this post I am amazed and thank you for your love and support. We’ll be back here again in a week with more to share. I’m sure God’s love will be evident as we move forward in His work.
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more photos and videos. You can find him here:
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