4/4/26
Here we are again! It’s a new month and we’ve had a good week. Throughout this week we’ve enjoyed pondering the life of our Savior as He ministered to and suffered for all mankind. We are so thankful for Jesus Christ and the love He shows for us. We are thankful that we have the opportunity to serve Him as we serve others. And as we are served by others we feel of His love for us. We hope you have enjoyed an outpouring of the Spirit of Christ in your life throughout this week and in preparation for Easter Sunday tomorrow. It is a great gift to have a testimony of Jesus Christ. As President Nelson said, no matter what problems you are facing, “the answer is always found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.”
We started the week in church, as usual. We had a one hour meeting on Palm Sunday but ours probably didn’t look quite like your meeting did. With all of the changes in our branches the previous Sunday there was a lot of business to attend to this week. Many people were released from callings and scheduling issues were addressed. The new Reykjavik 1st branch presidency 1st counselor, Matthías Ólafsson, was called an sustained. Todd conducted the business and Matthí joined President Jakob (the 1st branch president) and President Gummi (the Iceland District President) on the stand. We’re excited to watch what this new young branch presidency accomplishes! It is good to see the Icelandic saints serving in and strengthening their branch. We enjoyed hearing testimonies of our Savior born in Icelandic, English, & Spanish.
Three of us missionaries helped on the piano throughout the meeting. I got to play prelude, postlude, & the opening hymn. Elder Monzon played the sacrament hymn and Elder Jensen played the closing hymn. It was a bit of musical chairs but we made sure there was accompaniment for each hymn! The elders do a great job. Below is Elder Jensen with Doris conducting the closing song.
Sunday evening we zoomed into our home ward’s Easter sacrament meeting. It was so fun to spy on our family and friends! Two of our girls live in our home ward and we loved watching some of our grandchildren sing with the primary children.
They sang the beautiful song “Gethsemane”. Our granddaughter, Iris, had a solo. Well, she sang so loud that we could hear her above everyone else and we loved it! If you’d like to hear this lovely song check out the link below. Iris is not singing in this video, but if she was you would be able to hear her!
The rest of this post looks like it will be filled with all sorts of random projects Todd and I have been working on this week. I thought it would have some consistency throughout the days, but the projects have stretched across several days! I think we’ll just take them in batches from Monday on, interspersed with other odds and ends from our week. Let’s see how it comes together.
- Todd and I were given a new assignment by President Davidson that will take us through the end of our mission. Starting this week we will be teaching a mission wide zoom meeting each Thursday morning (at 8 am Iceland time) to either go over a chapter from the Emotional Resilience manual or to teach a lesson about personal and companion scripture study. It is a fun project to work on together. In preparation for our first class we spent a lot of time doing this:
Below is our schedule. The last class, on August 6th, is a week before we return to Oregon.
Our first class went great. There are about 100 young missionaries in the Denmark Copenhagen mission right now and we hope they will gain something from these class reviews.
Below is one of the video clips we showed in class this week. I love this video! It focuses on the blessings of change and how change can be painful. It makes me tear up when I see it. I appreciate the reminder it gives us that God is in charge, He knows things are hard, and He knows that with His help we can grow from our challenges. What do you think of this video?
- One afternoon I made it outside between rain/snow/& hail storms for a walk around the top of the inlet. We live in a beautiful place.
- One of the ongoing projects I’ve had throughout our whole mission has been to help the missionaries in Iceland get their Icelandic driver’s licenses. Both the old and the young missionaries are required to go through the process, which is not simple. Curt and Cheryl Hutchings were our latest driving students and they both passed their exams and are now driving with Icelandic licenses! It takes a lot of time and study to pass these exams and they both wondered if they would be able to do it. They did! I never doubted them.
- One of the more glamorous projects we often work on is restocking the cleaning supply closet at the church. There is a great supply store we go to for the specific bulk items needed at the church. Todd has made friends with the employees there and they are always happy to see him. One of these good men has a huge tattoo of Elvis on his arm. We’ve talked about it with him before and Todd has mentioned this specific tattoo to a new member in our branch whose name is Elvis! This week when we saw our tattooed friend at the supply store Todd got a picture of him to share with Elvis. We all got a laugh out of it. Often these types of interactions allow us to share pass along cards and help people get to know a little bit about the church. Oh, and we got the closet restocked and looking good! It’s the little victories that are so satisfying! 🙂
- We’ve enjoyed learning more about some of the ways Icelanders celebrate Easter. Their chocolate eggs are no joke! For the past month we’ve seen massive displays of gigantic chocolate Easter eggs in many of the shops in town.
They are hollow and are filled with more candy and a fortune, or an Icelandic proverb, to guide your day. One incredible fact is that there are more than one million of these chocolate eggs sold during the Easter holidays each year. There are less than 400,000 people in Iceland. This means that on average each person in the country buys (or maybe eats?!) three of these a year! Todd and I are both trying to be careful about what we are eating these days so we did not buy, or eat, any of these eggs — let alone six of them! — but it is a fun and crazy Icelandic tradition. Here is a short video clip that shows you what is inside one of these eggs:
- As you well know, an ongoing project on our mission is my knitting quest. I am making progress on my sweater and I’m having fun! I’ve gotten the sleeves attached to the body and now I’m working my way up the top third of the sweater and adding in the decorative design. Here’s an action shot!
And here is what I’m seeing most of the time while I’m knitting. You can just start to see the beginning of the lower edge of the pattern emerging:
On Thursday afternoon — in a lovely, fluffy spring snowstorm — we went to visit Helga so she could have a look at my progress. She expected to help me start to attach the sleeves to the body, but I had already done that and more. She was stunned! She even asked me who helped me do so much, as if I would find another knitting teacher! (Aside from one phone call to my daughter Rachel with a clarifying question, I didn’t have any other help.)
Helga was so complimentary of the work I’ve done. It was so much fun to hear her praise! She said, “It’s perfect!” (Although she went on to comment on how tight my stiches are and that I’ve left my extra strings too short, etc.) She said, “You don’t need any help from me.” And, referring to herself, “I must be a really good teacher!” She is!
We had such a fun visit. The next time I take the sweater to show her I hope it will be finished. And then it will be time to knit one for Todd! But there is still plenty of work to be done. This is where it is at today, please don’t point out any mistakes!
- Each year at Easter we have a special family tradition that we do. Decades ago, when our children were small, we began visiting the cemetery the day before Easter. We have done this tradition every year and it is one we treasure. We pray and sing Easter hymns together, read a book about the suffering of Jesus Christ in Gethsemane, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. We talk about all of the people buried in this cemetery and how they will all, one day, be resurrected with their bodies and spirits united for all eternity. We talk about what a gift our Savior Jesus Christ is and how the knowledge and testimony of the resurrection is so important.
Even without children at home, Todd and I continue to do this tradition wherever we are and we love it. Our children are sharing this tradition with their young families as well. (Fun fact — long ago I had a short article printed in the Ensign about this tradition. If you’d like to you can read it here.)
This year we made our Easter cemetery visit on Good Friday. We went to Sólland cemetery in Reykjavik. It is massive and beautiful. There were other people in some parts of the cemetery enjoying the day. Because of Thursday’s big snow storm we were wading through several inches of snow in some places in order to read and ponder on the lives of those who are buried there.
I’m so grateful for the knowledge we have of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation. My heart breaks for all those who have buried loved ones who do not know that one day they will be reunited with their loved ones and that families can be eternal. (If you would like to read more about this wonderful plan, click here.) We loved our quiet hour in the cemetery. Here are some of my favorite pictures — Look at those painted flowers on the middle headstone! There is always beauty to be found.
I think the headstone below is amazing. It is two pieces with the cross dividing them and yet bringing them together. I am wondering if it’s a husband and wife, one on each side, with Christ between them. It is a beautiful stone and also a beautiful concept.
- Todd still keeps an eye out each night for the aurora. It’s staying light later into the evenings and we’ve had terrible weather for weeks, both of which make it more difficult to see the northern lights. But he did get a show late one night and got pictures from our apartment. It was bright enough that he didn’t even have to drive away from the city lights! We won’t have many more chances to aurora watch. It’s a wonderful sight to see.
We finished the week in the same way many of you did, watching general conference. It was a pleasure and a privilege to participate in the solemn assembly to sustain our prophet, President Oaks, as well as our other leaders. We met with the missionaries and a few of the members in our church building for the Saturday morning session (which was from 4-6 pm in Iceland).
We will watch the Saturday afternoon session from home tonight from 8-10 pm. Tomorrow, Easter Sunday and Sunday general conference, we will repeat this schedule. We are very thankful for the technology that allows us to participate in conference from such a distance. It was thrilling to stand with saints across the world to sustain our leaders and to be taught at their feet.
At the close of this week we both share our testimonies with you. We know we are led by prophets and apostles. We know that our Savior Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and was resurrected. We know He lives today and leads this church with and through His apostles and prophets. We love them and we love Him! We send you a Gleðilega páska, or happy Easter, from Iceland! Christ the Lord is risen! Let’s rejoice in this together.
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more pictures and videos. You can find him here:
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