3/21/26
There’s something about tracking our sunlight that brings me joy. Maybe the nine years we lived in Alaska did something to my brain and now that we are, yet again living on the top of the planet, I just love knowing how much or how little sunlight we have each day. I have an app on my phone that tells me, to the minute, how much sun we have in Reykjavik on any given day of the year. This week, even if you’re not aware of it, was spring equinox. A day when we officially pass 12 hours of sunlight a day in the northern hemisphere. And this is sunrise to sunset — not counting the light we get before and after that. Even though we still have snow on the ground and winter weather, having that sunlight makes it feel a little bit like spring. We officially passed that 12 hour mark on the 19th and today, the 21st, we’re up to 12 hours and 17 minutes. I love the light nights! They are coming. Here we are enjoying all that sunlight this week. 🙂
All this sunlight is a literal reminder of the light of our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason we are serving a mission. He is the reason we are giving all we can to building the kingdom of God. He is the reason to persevere through the long, dark months of winter, entering into His light whenever we have the chance to feel it. He is the reason we want all to come to Him, to bask in His light and feel of His love. As we enter the weeks leading up to Easter we hope you are also filled with the light of Christ. As you gain more sunlight wherever you live just think of the light and glory of God that fills our souls as we worship Him. God is great!
Now let’s get into the work we did this week in all this sunlight. . . and rain, wind, & snow. 😉
Every week I am impressed with the elders serving here. I want to tell you about Elder Monzon. He has been on his mission for just over a year and in Iceland for about 10 months. When Elder Monzon started his mission he could not play the piano. I remember showing him the simplified hymnbook and the very basics about where middle C is on the piano. Over his months here Elder Monzon has taught himself how to play the piano. It is not an easy task. The last few Sunday’s Elder Monzon has been accompanying our hymns in sacrament meeting. He’s playing out of the regular hymnbook, with the pace and confidence to match the singing. It’s really a miracle. I feel like this is another way the gift of tongues is manifest in missionaries. Learning a musical instrument that can benefit our Sunday worship is kind of like learning a new language, don’t you think? It’s incredible to watch how these elder’s brains work to process new information and they learn so fast!
Another example of the gift of tongues, and the enhancement of learning by the Holy Ghost, comes with Elder Jensen & Elder Bredthauer. Elder Jensen (below left) has been in Iceland for three months. Elder Bredthauer (below right) has been in Iceland for six months. The other night they were teaching a lesson to their friend Ottó who doesn’t speak much English. I was listening to them teach a lesson in Icelandic, having conversation and answering questions in Icelandic. I am so impressed with how much they learned and how well they are communicating. Hearing them was a testimony to me of God’s hand in his work. These young men are learning and doing incredible things with the power of the Holy Ghost. It’s a privilege to witness it.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but Todd and I both thought he had retired from teaching institute! It’s fun to watch him teach and know that these students and missionaries are benefiting from such a gifted teacher. I love watching him while he is teaching and appreciate that he has an opportunity to do so during our mission. Todd is happiest when he is teaching. 🙂
Tuesday, March 17th, was the 184th birthday of the Relief Society. It is such a pleasure to be part of this worldwide group of women. I had so much fun putting the birthday party together. We invited all the women of both the 1st and 2nd branches in Reykjavik to join us for the evening. I had no idea how many women to expect and I was pretty sure I had over planned my supplies. However, I was thrilled that we had 22 women attend! We had Icelandic sisters, African sisters, American sisters, South American sisters, and more come to our meeting! Seven of the sisters who attended are friends who are not members of the church yet. And we had several others come who have not been attending Sunday meetings for some time.
We began the meeting watching the Relief Society birthday broadcast. (If you haven’t seen it yet you can watch it here.) We needed the broadcast to be available in English, Icelandic, and Spanish in order for everyone attending to be able to understand and enjoy the messages that were shared. Todd was the mastermind behind making sure this worked. The broadcast played in English on the TV with Icelandic subtitles. Then he hooked up a speaker to another laptop that we had streaming the broadcast in Spanish. He tucked that speaker away in another room and had it speaking into our translator device. The Spanish speaking sisters wore headsets to hear the Spanish broadcast. In this way, all the sisters were able to hear, or read, the broadcast in their preferred language all in the same room at the same time. It was just as I hoped and it helped bring us together as sisters, despite our different languages and nationalities.
After the broadcast we each planted some flower seeds in a small pot and added a “Charity Never Faileth” plant stick. I had prepared 40 pots for planting, never dreaming we would use all of them. The plan was for each sister to plant one pot to take home and then plant a second pot to share with another sister who they felt inspired to minister to. No way would we have 20 sisters come to take home 40 pots. But! We had 22! What a fun problem! Now I just hope some of the seeds will actually sprout and grow. 🙂
The sisters enjoyed refreshments and visiting and celebrating our sisterhood together. It was a terrific success and I am so happy with how the night went.
We spent the day on Wednesday with Curt and Cheryl Hutchings. They are senior missionaries living in Akureyri and they came to Reykjavik for meetings later in the week. We really enjoyed visiting with them and sharing lunch together. They are good people doing good work.
When we took them to their hotel I snapped this picture of a very typical Icelandic block downtown. Don’t you love the colors? The buildings here are often similar in style but varying in color.
On Thursday we received a notification that the church historian, Elder McKay, was in Iceland for one day and he wanted to meet with the missionaries. This was surprising news and we didn’t know what to expect. Because of zone conference and district conference all of the missionaries in Iceland happened to be in Reykjavik already. Initially the plan for the meeting was to be on Öskjuhlíð hill. This hill is where, in 1977 Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin dedicated the country of Iceland for missionary work. In his travels Elder McKay likes to find the location of the country he is in, visit there, and read the dedicatory prayer aloud. He wanted all of the missionaries to join him. Our weather on Thursday was awful. The entire country was under a yellow alert for wind, rain, snow, or all of the above.
Because of this, the meeting was moved indoors to the church. We managed to get all of the missionaries there, including the senior couples, in time to greet the McKay’s and their traveling companion, James Perry, who is the Europe North Church History Manager.
We spent an hour being taught by the McKay’s. They shared the importance of keeping and knowing our histories. Elder McKay read the dedicatory prayer for the country of Iceland and discussed the promises in the prayer. He reminded us that it is our responsibility to make sure those promises are fulfilled. He answered questions the elders asked him. Elder & Sister McKay were kind and generous with their time and effort towards getting to know us and sharing their knowledge with us. It was an uplifting, spiritual experience.
Below — Back Row L-R: President & Sister Davidson, Elder & Sister Hutchings, Sister & Elder Mogenhan, Todd & me
Front Row L-R: Elder Pedroza, Elder Jensen, Elder Bredthauer, Elder Chynoweth, Elder Nielsen, Elder Geertsen, Sister & Elder McKay, Elder Benzley, Elder Moyer, Elder Monzon, & Elder Gutierrez
After the meeting I was visiting with Sister McKay. She asked me how our children were doing and I, unfortunately, teared up and had a bit of trouble keeping my emotions in check. One of our daughters has been very sick this week. She’s been in the hospital, then back home, then back in again. Throughout the meeting with the McKay’s I’d been waiting to hear word from our son-in-law about the latest hospitalization. Sister McKay’s sweet concern, listening ear, and kind reassurances were helpful. Possibly the most difficult part of our mission, for me, is being away from our children when they are suffering. In a tender moment she gave me love and reassurance and I thank her for that. Her ministering meant a lot to me. Thank you, Sister McKay!
Friday was our spring Iceland zone conference. We met for the day to be trained by our leaders and taught and filled with the Spirit of God as we move forward with our work.
Here are the current missionaries serving in Iceland! It’s a wonderful group to be a part of. Each picture is a mission companionship.
L-R: Elder Moyer & Elder Geertsen, Elder Nielsen & Elder Chynoweth, Elder Bredthauer & Elder Jensen
L-R: Elder Monzon & Elder Gutierrez, Elder Benzley & Elder Pedroza, Sister & President Davidson
L-R: Sister & Elder Mogenhan, Elder & Sister Hutchings, & us!
One of the best parts of zone conference was the weather! It was crazy all day long. The wind was howling, the snow was falling and blowing every direction. At some point the sun would break through the clouds before another dark cloud would roll in and the pattern would repeat. I’m very grateful for secure buildings and good heating systems that allow us to live in work in such wild spring weather. You can hear the wind howling in the video below!
In the pictures below, on the left you’ll see our view from inside the church. And on the right is the information from the weather station we have in our apartment. The max wind speed for the day Friday was 46.75 mph. I think that’s the highest we’ve seen! (Although we could have missed higher winds at some point.) Friday was a very stormy day.
The weather did not stop us from going out again Friday evening. After our conference with the elders was finished the senior couples met downtown for dinner with the Davidson’s. It’s always nice to visit together and talk as friends and fellow missionaries. These are all good people who are working hard to serve the Lord and fulfill their callings as missionaries and mission leaders.
Saturday morning it was still stormy outside but I had a couple of signs of spring inside our apartment that made me smile. First, my coleus is flowering! This little house plant was in sad shape when we moved here. After repotting her and giving her time and care she has grown and is now giving these lovely purple flowers! I’ll have to pinch them off to keep her growing strong, but I love flowers and I’m happy to see them.
And, my relief society birthday seeds are starting to grow! I hope the other sister’s pots are beginning to grow too. Adding sunlight and water to the seeds makes them grow, just as our faith in Jesus Christ and His word will grow when we add the light of Christ and the Living Water. There was no rhyme or reason to the seeds I picked for our party. It will be fun to see what they do! Maybe it will be warm enough outside one day to put them on the patio. For now I’ll watch them out grow this little pot in the living room window. 🙂
This weekend is the Iceland District conference. It is equivalent to stake conference. On Saturday afternoon we had one session where we heard from a few members and leaders in our district as well as from President Davidson.
Below, L-R: President Bragi (District Presidency First Counselor), Todd (Mission Presidency First Counselor), President Gummi (District President), President Davidson (Mission President), & Sister Davidson (Mission Leader)
The young missionaries really contributed to the success of this meeting. Elder Pedroza played his guitar and sang “I Will Walk with Jesus” in Spanish. It was lovely.
And Elder Nielsen sang “This Is The Christ”, accompanied by Jakob. It was beautiful.
The elders also did loads of translation. During the meeting we had Icelandic, English, & Spanish spoken from the pulpit. For every speaker a missionaries were translating into the two languages that weren’t currently being spoken. Everyone attending the meeting could hear the talks in the language they are most comfortable with.
On Sunday we will have another session of district conference so you’ll have to wait until next week’s post to hear about that meeting! I do know we have some exciting changes happening in the district tomorrow but my lips are sealed. You’ll just have to keep following along with our adventures if you want to know what is up!
For now, we’ll bring this week’s post to a close. It has been a busy week. There have been some stressful things, but a lot of good things too. We continue to enjoy our work in Iceland and we feel the clock ticking as our homecoming time edges closer. We will keep doing all we can to fulfill our responsibilities and please Heavenly Father with the work He has given us to do. We feel His love, His light, and His Spirit guiding us. And we feel your prayers for us too. Thank you for your love and support. We’ll see you next week!
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more pictures and videos. You can find him here:
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