8/2/25
Hello, everybody! We’ve had a good week. I am feeling good – thank you for your concern – and, as usual, we’ve had interesting work to do. I read a talk by President Thomas S. Monson this week called “Finding Joy in the Journey”. You can read the whole talk here. In it he says, “Day by day, minute by minute, second by second we went from where we were to where we are now . . . I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not . . . find joy in the journey—now.” And here we are. It’s August! Day by day we’ve come to be in the eleventh month of our mission. And we are being given continual opportunities to “find joy in the journey” that has brought us to Iceland.
I tried really hard to find joy in the journey I took last Sunday. We went to church in Selfoss and I had my first ever chance to play the piano for sacrament meeting. If anyone knows me well, you know I do not play piano well. I barely play the piano at all. But, I would love to tell you about this experience.
About 10 years ago I had an impression from the Holy Ghost. He told me that one day I will be on a mission with Todd and I will sorely regret that I cannot play hymns on the piano for church. I began to take piano lessons from my daughters over the next several years and I worked on learning hymns. I went through periods of daily practicing and not so daily practicing. And I did learn to play a few hymns. I could have done better, but at least I did something! About a month ago I was asked to play piano for this sacrament meeting. I said yes, only because the Holy Ghost had told me long ago that this day would come! I practiced and prepared the best I could. So on Sunday, as I sat at that piano in a panic, I realized the inspiration I’d had so long ago had come to pass!
Many mistakes were made. But I did not die so I consider the experience was successful. My sweet friend Greta was conducting the music and she gave me plenty of smiles for encouragement. Could I have done better? For sure. Could I have done worse. Yes. I’m so glad I listened to that prompting and prepared to the degree that I did.
As I sat on that piano bench, the Holy Ghost gave me another impression. He told me that now I can keep practicing and do even better the next time. Or I can step away from ever playing the piano again because it was so scary! I’ve decided to keep practicing. I don’t want to let Heavenly Father down, after all He is so patient with me. I will never be a great pianist, but hopefully fewer mistakes will be made in the future.
Todd and I were at a thrift store later in the week and he found me a desk top electronic keyboard that we can use in the apartment. It will be much easier to practice at home regularly than only practice when we can get to the church. Heavenly Father provided a keyboard and He expects me to work at this! I will. . . and I will try and find joy as I do so. 🙂
While I was trembling behind the piano, Todd spoke in sacrament meeting and made friends with the visiting families from the states. We aren’t doing great at getting everyone’s names these days, but it’s fun to find brothers and sisters from all over the world as they join us to worship at church in Iceland.
One day this week we went to the zone leaders, Elder Nielsen & Elder Nehren’s apartment and I gave them a lesson in making homemade bread. It is so easy to make and they were excited to learn. After tasting my bread some time ago, they requested a lesson. Yes, they want to bake their own bread for convenience and to save money. But they both admitted that they want to be able to bring hot, fresh, homemade bread to the girls they date after their missions. That should impress a date, don’t you think?!
We got them to the final rise and bake before leaving. Later they told us how delicious it was to pull that hot bread out of the oven, slice into it and smother it with toppings! Yum! Yes, it is so good. And, good for them! (If you can’t tell, Elder Nielsen, on the left, carved his name into the top of his loaf!)
There was more baking this week for Institute, as usual. I also made bread for this meal, but no names were carved into these loaves.
We spent several days working on a connectivity issue at the Selfoss church building. They have been having trouble with their wifi and the billing accounts are a bit of a mess. We had trips to two different Nova’s (phone/connectivity store) and some quality time with Elder Mijares & Elder Geertsen who are currently serving in Selfoss.
We had an early start on Wednesday to take two missionaries to the airport. Elder Fischbeck (on the left) and Elder O’Barr finished their missions and are headed home. We picked them up at 3:15 am and needed two cars to fit the elders and all their luggage, so Elder Nielsen & Elder Nehren joined us for the early morning drive. We hope for the best as these elders begin their next steps after their mission. There is joy in full time service of the Lord and there is joy in going home to what comes next! We hope they find joy with their families and at college, where they are headed next.
The early drive was gorgeous. The volcano continues to erupt and it is right along the road to the airport. On our way home we took a quick stop to say hello to her. The skies are full of volcanic gases, but they are also pretty in the sunrise, don’t you think?!
Also, this sign is funny and sad. The government keeps putting out alerts telling people to stay off the fresh lava. Even after the top of the lava solidifies, the magma underneath can stay hot and liquid for years. It takes a very long time for it to cool completely. Unfortunately, people are walking on the fresh lava and it is a very dangerous thing to do. We will stay off the fresh lava.
Even though we’d had a very early start to our day Wednesday we decided to stay up late and go on an adventure. We left the apartment around nine in the evening and drove about an hour to a parking lot that is a few miles south of the current eruption. For days we’d been seeing photos and videos from the other side of the volcano — away from the main road. We decided to go and see for ourselves. We wanted to go when it was darker which meant late in the day; we still have over 18 hours of daylight each day.
At 10:15 pm started the 3.5 mile walk along a “dirt road” to get to a safe viewing area. It wasn’t too bad at first, but eventually the road looked like this:
It was a muddy, wet, and windy walk. It was not supposed to rain, but it did rain. We sloshed around and tried to find joy in the journey as we worked our way closer to the volcano. For most of the walk we couldn’t see the eruption, but we knew we would get there eventually. This is a lot like life sometimes, don’t you think? We slog through mud and muck, we get wet and cold, we persevere through the challenges in our lives, and we keep going knowing that the reward at the end of the journey will be worth it! After about 2.5 miles there was a hill we climbed that had a terrific vantage point to look out on the volcano and the lava flow. We decided this was a good place to stop our hike.
With his camera and drone Todd got extraordinary footage of the eruption. I’ll put some of our favorite pictures here and then be sure to click on the You Tube link after the pictures to see the video footage.
It was raining, cold, and pretty dark when we started back to the car. We were glad we had flashlights to guide the way through the mud, over the rocks, and around the puddles. It was worth all the mess and the trouble to spend a few minutes watching the majesty of the creation of new earth. In Alma 30:44 it says, “All things denote there is a God”. I can honestly say I agree. Watching this phenomenon is evidence of God in my eyes. The earth and the beauty of it testify of Him. It was amazing.
Just in case you think that all we do is hike to waterfalls and volcanoes, you should know that after getting to bed at 2:00 am we were up and back to work at the church building in Selfoss the next morning with President Bragi (president of the Selfoss branch) and then again to Nova, still trouble shooting the internet issues. Not all of mission life can be so glamorous as molten lava!
We spent plenty of time finding joy in a project Todd has been working on for the last several weeks. Because there is not a stake in Iceland there is not a patriarch who lives here. In our church we believe that “every worthy, baptized member is entitled to and should receive a patriarchal blessing, which provides inspired direction from the Lord.” In order to receive a patriarchal blessing you need a patriarch. You can learn more about what patriarchal blessings are by reading here.
There are many members of the church in Iceland who have not had the opportunity to receive their patriarchal blessing. Todd has been working with the area leadership to have a patriarch visit Iceland to give blessings. Because of the number of blessings needed and the different languages spoken by members here, there is a need for more than one visit from a patriarch. Next week we have Brother McQuivey, a patriarch from the United States, coming to Iceland. He will be giving patriarchal blessings to members in Reykjavik in both Spanish and English. Brother McQuivey was given this assignment by President Holland and we are looking forward to working with him and his family while they come to serve for a few days. Sometime in the future we will, hopefully, have another visit from a patriarch in Denmark who will come to do more blessings for other saints. It is wonderful to have a demand for this kind of service.
The work we have been doing to prepare for Brother McQuivey’s visit looks like this:
On Saturday afternoon we did some visits and cookie drop offs to some of those who are planning on receiving their blessings next week. We are working to get everyone scheduled into a correct time slot to make the most of Brother McQuivey’s time while he is here. During the last couple of days we have been in a yellow alert in the city with a wind storm. I love it! The wind is howling and there is occasional pouring rain. Todd and I both enjoy hearing the wind outside while we are working inside, and it is hilarious to try and protect plates of cookies while we’re outside in the weather! Hopefully those chocolate crinkles are still delicious even if their a little windblown. 🙂
As we’ve gone through our week we’ve tried to follow President Monson’s counsel to “relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family.” We hope you feel this joy in your life as well. Thank you for bringing joy to us as we experience our mission and share it with you! Come back next weekend and we’ll share more of the joy and of the journey. See you then!
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more photos and videos. You can find him here:
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