2/7/26
Hi, Friends! The first week of February has come and gone and we have been busy with all sorts of things. Let’s get you caught up on what’s been happening in Iceland.
First off, good people. They are everywhere. When I walked into our branch on Sunday I saw my lovely friend Björg sitting with a gentleman I didn’t know. I went to say hi and meet someone new. Björg introduced me to her son-in-law, Kristjan, who is in Iceland visiting family. Kristjan and his family live in Utah. As we visited I realized that he knows my sister, Jenny Hansen and her family very well. Long ago Jenny’s husband, Scott Hansen, was a young missionary here in Iceland. At that time he met Björg’s family and Kristjan’s family and they have kept in touch for decades. It was such a treat to meet people who know and love people I know and love! I can see why they are all friends and it’s a treat to be part of this group of good people.
More good people — We had a meeting early in the week with Karen & Ward Anderson. They are serving as humanitarian missionaries in the Europe North Area. They are living in England and they facilitate humanitarian projects across the Europe North Area. We had such a great meeting with them. They are on their third mission, serving nearly five years consecutively after having been called in as replacement missionaries. We admire them! In another small world experience, Sister Anderson’s sister used to be in our stake when we lived in Corvallis, Oregon! The connections in the church are small! We hope we’ll get to meet the Anderson’s in person when they come to oversee some humanitarian work in Iceland in the spring.
And missionaries are good people too. 🙂 Elder Nielsen & Elder Bredthauer are currently serving in Akureyri. They flew down to Reykjavik this week to spend time with the other elders working and attending zone conference. When we picked them up from the airport they were both carrying big grocery bags full of food! They explained that it’s easier to bring their own groceries on the flight to have while they are in the city than it is to take time to grocery shop once they are here. They were telling how there is no security check to board the plane in Akureyri, they just bring their groceries as their personal item. We were cracking up that they flew with frozen horse meat and skyr!
The good people theme continued all week so we will just go with it. We are really growing to love the missionaries in our second emotional resilience group. They are great missionaries and it’s so fun to get to know them. They put up with us each Wednesday morning and they text us pictures of delicious Danish pastries to try and make us jealous. Working with the young missionaries is a great perk of senior missionary work!
As it is a common thing to do here, I baked 12 dozen cookies on Tuesday night. Because, why not?! We had a day of cookie drops and ministering planned and some missionaries to feed so the cookie baking station was open for the evening. I did eight dozen chocolate crinkles and, just to mix things up, I made four dozen molasses sugar cookies.
In an effort to share good cookies with good people we spent the day Wednesday in Selfoss. We dropped cookies off at ten different family’s homes, most of whom were actually home! We had several very nice visits with good people. Todd & Bragi got into a trip planning conversation. Bragi and his wife Áslaug let us know all the places we need to visit that are not your typical tourist locations.
And we had a lovely visit with our sweet friend Rósa. She’s had some health challenges but she is doing much better. Todd was able to give her a blessing at her request and we are glad he was able to do so. The Selfoss branch gives her great support and it was nice to spend some time with her.
We were driving by the church in Selfoss and the missionary’s car was there so we stopped in to say hello and give them some cookies. Elder Pedroza & Elder Benzley were in the middle of a lesson over zoom and we got to say a quick hello to their friend and leave the missionaries with some chocolate crinkles. It’s good to see them hard at work!
Of course we did a bit of exploring while we were out visiting members. Todd has always loved Seydishólar Quarry. We drove as close as we could to take a look at the rich red colors and the interesting variations in the walls of the crater. This is an actual extinct volcano that has been used as a quarry until just last year.
We also enjoyed a quick stop at the beach. It might look warm outside but that wind is cold and I stayed in the car. Todd was braver than me and brought back a mini iceberg to share!
Wednesday was a glorious day of ministering and nature. Good people, beautiful scenery, and more baking — chocolate chip banana muffins for zone conference. The elders will be fed!
Thursday and Friday this week were a bit of a whirlwind filled with good people. We had a zone p-day and zone conference and each day was exhausting from start to finish.
For our zone p-day we all went bowling. It’s super fun to have the whole group of boys together and to watch them interact and have fun. I chose to be a cheerleader and Todd bowled a little bit. Overall we watched the elders start the session with high energy and lots of enthusiasm. By the end of the two hour game they had settled down and were just happy to get the ball down the lane! It was fun.
We were at the church on Friday for zone conference from about 9:30-4:30. We started the day with a surprise visit with our friends Tammy & Steve Tolley. They were senior missionaries in Iceland until last summer when their mission finished. They were in Iceland this week on a long layover and stopped by to say hello. It was sweet to see them and we’re glad they’re doing well.
Here is a picture overview of the missionaries we are working with currently. This is a good group to be part of!
L-R: Elder Bredthauer, Elder Nielsen, Elder Moyer, Elder Guttierez, Elder Monzon
L-R: Elder Jensen, Elder Nehren, Elder Geertsen, Elder Chynoweth
L-R: Elder Pedroza, Elder Benzley, Elder Smith & Elder Webeck (our AP’s visiting from Denmark)
And here are the women of the Iceland Zone! Me with Sister Mogenhan & Sister Hutchings. I really appreciate working with these good women.
Elder & Sister Mogenhan and Elder & Sister Hutchings
We love and appreciate President and Sister Davidson. With all of the pictures I took during the day I didn’t take one of the two of them together! But they faithfully come to Iceland every six weeks to spend time with us and the missionaries, teaching and training and showing support.
The elders all made church tour videos that they share with friends who are curious to see what our church is all about. I thought you might like to see one! Here is a video of the building in Reykjavik in English and Icelandic. Enjoy!
On Saturday we enjoyed more good things with good people. I had an afternoon training meeting with our relief society president, Björg, and her ministering secretary, Eunice. We had a nice time working together on assignments and reports and made a lot of progress getting the sisters routes organized. It’s a pleasure to work with these good women!
That evening we had a nice dinner out with the Davidson’s and the Mogenhan’s. It was good to visit together and discuss the needs of the missionaries and members in Iceland. We love and appreciate both of these couples! President Davidson is actively looking for a senior couple who will come to Iceland as missionaries to replace us in August when we go home. Are you interested?! 😉
After dinner Todd and I went for a walk through downtown. This week has been the Winter Lights Festival. Every year in February the city puts on this festival to bring light into the dark winter nights. You can read all about the festival here. We have been so busy this week so we were glad to have the evening hours to walk the light trail tonight. There are lots of concerts, museums, and other activities available during the festival but for us, making it along the light trail was all we had the energy for! There were light displays, a 5K race, and pictures made of lights shining on the sides of different buildings.
Hallgrimskirkja was used as a canvas for a light display. About every ten seconds the lights would change. It was really beautiful! Can you pick a favorite?
While our week has been packed full of wonderful missionary work and ministering opportunities, we’ve also been celebrating with our family as they’ve shared good news with us. Two of our daughters are expecting babies this summer! Kathryn is having their 5th baby, a girl who is expected in June. And Erika is having their 1st baby, a boy who is expected in July. We will get home in August to meet our two newest grandchildren and we could not be happier for them! It is challenging to be away from our family for so long and to miss experiencing these exciting things with them. We are so grateful for technology that allows us to stay connected and to see them as much as we can.
With a sigh of relief this busy week comes to an end. The work here seems to maintain a pace of slow and steady most of the time. But then we occasionally have weeks like this when we work hard from morning until night. There are meetings to attend, talks to prepare, baking to do, rides to give, visits to make. . . And then we want to talk to our family and it’s often 11:00 at night for us when they are available and I honestly don’t care if I don’t sleep at all if it means I can talk to my kids and grandkids!
Maybe tomorrow I will take a nap. But for now, please know that we love and appreciate you and we feel your love and prayers for us. Thank you for thinking of us and reading my ramblings each week. We include you when we consider all of the good people we have in our lives. Thank you.The clock is ticking on our mission experience and, while I hope next week isn’t quite so busy, we are happy to be working hard in this part of the vineyard. Until next week, love, from Iceland.
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more pictures and videos. You can find him here:
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