11/30/24
It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is over and December is here. The time is going by fast and we are so grateful for the chance to be here on our mission. To be completely honest, I’m missing my kids and grandkids this week. They’ve been grown and on their own for some time, but the holidays are about family and it is hard to be away from them. But, one of the many blessings of our mission is that we are surrounded by 12 young elders who are hard working and hilarious. And we have good people all around us, both senior missionaries and church members, who we already love and cherish. While we are away from our family right now, we are enjoying the rich and delightful company of these good people. It is a blessing to be here. (And we are very thankful for videocalls. We feel spoiled to get to see and talk to our family often.)
At the beginning of this week we attended the Selfoss branch for church. They asked us to speak in sacrament meeting and it was a new experience for me to have a translator by my side to share my thoughts in Icelandic. Greta is the relief society president in the Selfoss branch and she is a gifted linguist. She was able to make my words comprehensible in Icelandic and I am very grateful for her. There was a visitor in the branch that Sunday and she wanted a picture of the Selfoss Relief Society women. I’m happy I was there to be in this picture with all these amazing women! What a group! (Mya, the visitor, is on the couch with the hat on. And, I’m in the back row with a missionary tag on! The rest of these women are in the Selfoss branch.)
Back row: Greta, Agnes, Thelma, Pamela, Bettina. Front row: Rósa, Halldóra, Þórstína and Mya. Yes, that is a banjo on the wall behind Greta — RS meets in a music room! There’s a full drum set, a piano, etc. I guess it’s good the primary doesn’t meet in there. 🙂
Later that Sunday we had an early Thanksgiving feast with the missionaries in Iceland. All 12 young elders and all three senior couples were in Reykjavik for transfers and while we were all together we wanted to celebrate. It was super fun! There was more food than we could eat, good company, fun games, and such a sweet spirit. Both of the elders who left our mission last week gave their homecoming talks on this evening as well. We were able to zoom and watch both boys speak and testify and it was fun to do this as a zone. Yes, I’m a bit homesick, but I am so glad we are here! Our mission is a blessing we are so thankful for.
Early the next morning we took a zone field trip to the volcano. The eruption is slowing down and the boys got to see it from a distance before heading to their new assignments throughout Iceland. It was a cold, quick stop, but we still saw lava coming from the crater. In the pictures below, the volcano is just to the left of center in the distance.
We’ve been in a stretch of cold, clear weather and that has resulted in some pretty fabulous ice. We went to check out our little waterfall under the freeway near our home and it did not disappoint! Lava here, frozen waterfalls there! What’s not to love?! Interesting fact — these pictures were taken at about 11:30 am. It is not a sunset! This week our sunrise is after 10:30 am and sunset is before 4:00 pm. The days are very short.
While many of you were enjoying turkey for your Thanksgiving dinner this week, we had chicken and ham. There are turkeys here that we could have bought to enjoy. However. . . the expense!! Todd and I found these turkeys at Costco. Can you calculate the price? (I’ll put the answer below.)
For this math question (if I’m doing it right!) we have 2689 Icelandic króna per kilogram. Each of these turkeys is 6-8 kilograms. So we have 8×2689=21,512 króna. 1000 króna = $7.223 dollars. So next we take 21.512×7.223 = $155.38! How much did your Thanksgiving turkey cost this year?! Our chicken was delicious! 😉
Thanksgiving day was a regular missionary work day for us in Iceland. However, I’ll admit I was pretty sad to be away from our girls and their families. There were some tears. My inspired husband took me out for a beautiful, chilly drive around Hvalfjörður. The fjord is north of Reykjavik and is about 19 miles long and three miles wide. Recently we drove through a tunnel that cuts under this fjord. On Thanksgiving day we took a drive all the way around the fjord. It was cold, icy, and beautiful and the perfect outing to help alleviate some of my homesickness.
We stopped at Hallgrímskirkja, a beautiful church on the north side of the fjord. As usual, it is a church with a fantastic view! The church was unlocked, which is unusual. So we enjoyed a few warm minutes exploring inside and escaping the very cold Icelandic wind.
There’s something interesting we have noticed around town and that we saw all throughout our drive around the fjord. In places where water would typically seep to the surface of the ground, it is now seeping up and freezing. Across the road from our apartment and on hills all over we see these little frozen waterfalls in places where you wouldn’t know there is usually water. But we can see it now because it is frozen. It is beautiful! We definitely live in a land of ice.
The picture below is a frozen waterfall. We saw several of these as well.
In this video Todd took you can see a combination of frozen springs and waterfalls.
Our final stop before finishing our drive around the fjord was at Fossárrétt – a small waterfall by the side of the road. This waterfall is frozen on the outside, but still running underneath the ice. The ice buildup from the waterfall spray was impressive! It was very cold and windy and we only stayed out to enjoy the frozen falls for a few minutes.
Our Thanksgiving finished up with an afternoon of video chats with our kids and grandkids and my mom. As well as phone calls and texts with other loved ones. It was wonderful and helped me feel much better.
Other things we did this week:
- A great presidency meeting with President Davidson resulting in a decent to-do list for Todd
- Several meetings with the young elders
- Christmas planning for mission activities and service projects
- Institute/YSA
- We had our friend Þór over for a waffle night and visit
- Helping clean the apartment of a branch member who is moving
- Talk prep for sacrament meetings & zone conference
- We finally found the Christmas Cat in his winter lights. isn’t he pretty?
As another type of “fun” some of the young elders had some car issues this week that added some excitement to things! (All names are withheld to protect the embarrassed missionaries. 🙂 ) One elder was pulled over and ticketed for speeding. He had to pay the fine – over $400 – and he and his companion had to walk to church in the cold. Not too fun and a good reminder not to speed. Another elder accidentally put diesel fuel in the non-diesel car. He and his companion are now on the bus while their car is in the shop getting repaired. These are all lessons that have been learned and will, hopefully, never happen again!
Throughout the week we were on the lookout for a new parka for Todd. While I’m bundled up in my gorgeous coat, he’s layered in the coats he brought from Oregon and they are not keeping him warm enough. You may remember that back at the start of our move to Reykjavik we found an outdoor wear store that rents winter gear to tourists and the amazing employee sold me a gorgeous coat from their rental stock. Well, we decided to see if she happened to have any men’s coats for sale. Surprise! She did! We were happy to see Marieke again. She remembered us from our first visit to her store. And she had the perfect coat for Todd at a fantastic price. I’m almost sad we’re done buying coats so we don’t need to go back to her store. But, we may just stop in to say hi every now and then when we are downtown. Thanks, Marieke!
We finished up this week by attended a child of record baptism in the Spanish branch. Fortunately we had missionaries who could translate for us. And the Holy Ghost was there! This is Thomas, who got baptized. He is sure a cutie!
It really was a wonderful week. As I look back on the week of Thanksgiving I am filled with awe at the blessings our Heavenly Father has given us. We have a family we love and who love and support us. We have been trusted by our Heavenly Father to serve Him on a mission in Iceland. We have a lovely, warm place to live. We have a very happy marriage and we are having so much fun together. There are too many blessings to count, but most importantly, we have our Savior Jesus Christ who atoned for our sins so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again someday.
As Lehi said in 2 Nephi 2:8 “Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah”.
How grateful I am for this knowledge and this truth! God is great! We’ll see you in Iceland in December! (Next week. 😉 )
Check out Todd’s social media for more pictures and videos from our week:
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