6/21/25
Another week has gone by and we’ve had all sorts of fun and work. Would you like to see what we’ve been up to? Read on!
Sunday:
Our daughter Erika & her husband Bridger were with us for the first half of the day Sunday. They came with us to the 2nd branch and the 1st branch and they got to hear the sacrament prayers in Spanish, English, & Icelandic! How often does that happen? I should have counted how many times people commented on how much Erika looks like me. I took it as a compliment, hopefully she did too! It was fun to introduce them to so many of our friends at church. They had a late afternoon flight home so after the 1st branch sacrament meeting we drove them to the airport. In last week’s post I let you know I hadn’t cried all week. Well, this goodbye changed that. It was so wonderful to be with our kids and we won’t see them for more than a year. It tugs at the heart.
We went back to the church after the airport to be a part of Yaw Okoree’s baptism. Yaw is a young man from Africa who has whole heartedly embraced the gospel. It is fun to watch him learn and grow in his faith. He bore a strong testimony of his knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. He is attending our Institute night and he will be a great asset to the 1st branch. He was taught and baptized by Elder Nehren & Elder Nielsen.
On Sunday Todd spoke in the 1st branch sacrament meeting, he conducted district business in the 2nd branch sacrament meeting. He gave two blessings, and presided at Yaw’s baptism. We had an evening meeting planned that ended up needing to be rescheduled giving us some time at home in the evening. Oh, and it was Father’s Day! He is an amazing father, grandad, missionary, and leader. I could not love him more.
One final note for Sunday. Our daughter Rachel & her family are living in our home while we are serving in Iceland. They are attending the ward we left from for our mission and she sent me this picture of our granddaughter, Noelle, at church. This picture, among other things on Sunday, made me cry!
Monday:
Can you guess what we did Monday? We didn’t have company in town to give us an excuse to go out and do fun things! So I cleaned the apartment and cooked for YSA. One thing out of the ordinary for Monday was that our washing machine decided to stop spinning. Well, not entirely. It would wash a full load then when it got to the spin portion of the cycle it would just sort of hang out. The clothes were soaked and heavy and it was a problem. After lots of experimenting I found that if I stopped the wash cycle about 15 minutes before it was complete, changed the cycle to the drain and spin only setting and started it again, it still wouldn’t work. But then, if I repeated the drain and spin two or three times, it might spin. Doing the laundry this way took twice as long and wasn’t too reliable. We got looking into appliance repair and I found this website that google translated from Icelandic to English for me. It made me laugh out loud! I really don’t need to bring another man home. 🙂
The laundry did eventually get finished and we had a great YSA evening with chipotle bowls and oatmeal cookies for dinner.
Tuesday:
June 17th is Iceland’s Independence Day. “Its formal name is “Thjodhatidardagurinn” in Icelandic, which translates directly to “the day of the nation’s celebration,” but it’s most commonly referred to by the date June 17th.” It is a day to celebrate Iceland becoming fully independent from Denmark on June 17, 1944. You can read more about it here.
It was cold and wet so we put on our rain coats and went downtown to join the crowds who were celebrating.
We did some people watching and window shopping before the parade started. There was a marching band, giant puppets, and scouts. There were also people dressed in the national dress, but most everyone had coats on so they were hard to glimpse.
We celebrated in the evening with our lovely friend Greta Sverrisdóttir. She invited us for a dinner and a visit. We were so happy to eat that I only remembered to take a picture of dessert — Icelandic pönnukökur — thin pancakes filled with cream and fruit. Delicious! Greta is wonderful and we treasure our friendship with her.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday I had the privilege of joining of few of my sisters in the gospel to dress our friend Þóra Reimarsdóttir for her funeral. Þóra was a lovely woman and a pioneer in the church in Iceland. She came to church most Sundays in her wheelchair with a smile on her face. She was kind and patient with me and set a good example of a faithful latter-day saint woman. One Sunday the gentlemen who drives the bus that brought her to church each week stayed for our meeting. He was so impressed with Þóra that he wanted to understand more about what she believed. She will be missed.
Below: me, Valla, Þórstína, Margrét (Þóra’s daughter), & Bettina. These are good women.
Dressing Þóra was a sacred experience. I have had this privilege before, but this time was very different. There were hymns playing in the background and these wonderful women I worked with carried on a quiet conversation in Icelandic. Both of the funeral directors who occasionally helped spoke Icelandic. I do not speak Icelandic. It was inspiring to feel of the Spirit that was in the room with us, the goodness of both Þóra, her daughter and our friends, and sense the love in the room even though I didn’t understand what they were saying. While I wish I spoke Icelandic and could communicate through language, the messages and feelings they were expressing were clear to me. It was special. Life does not end at death, it is eternal. We will see Þóra again, as we will see all of our loved ones who have passed on, at the resurrection. This knowledge is a gift. If you would like to learn more about what we believe about the resurrection, click here.
Wednesday evening our friends and fellow senior missionaries, the Mogenhan’s, invited us over for dinner. Things have been so busy and we’ve needed some time to catch up. They fed us and ministered to us and it was great. They are settled into their responsibilities and are a tremendous help to us and the members and missionaries in Iceland. We are grateful for them!
Wednesday finished with a district council training meeting at the church. Todd and I met with Bettina, Jakob, & Gummi to work on upcoming branch council training meetings. Here are more good people working hard! Because of Gummi’s schedule this meeting was held from 8-10 pm. He’s older than all of us and works longer hours than everyone!
Thursday:
This happened on Thursday!
Our daughter Rachel & her husband Joel came to visit!! Since Erika & Bridger had gone home, our air mattress was lonely! Rachel & Joel live in our home in Oregon and have three of our adorable little grandchildren. (Their daughter Noelle is in the picture earlier in this post.) They left the kids at home with their grandma & grandpa (thank you, DeAnn & Steve!) to come see us and explore Iceland for a week. (Yes, there will be waterfalls and volcanoes!) It is so wonderful to hug my girls! I’ve missed them all so much. And their husbands are pretty great too. What a gift to have family to love.
After a shower and a nap Rachel & Joel joined us at Þóra’s funeral. I’ve never been to an Icelandic funeral. There was beautiful music by a choir and organist and short narration and scriptures shared as well as a eulogy. It was all in Icelandic. Even though we didn’t understand all they were saying, it was a special experience to be there.
After the funeral and greeting some friends we did some exploring on the edge of the peninsula. We took Rachel & Joel to some of the places we love and while we were driving Rachel spotted the Reykjanes Lighthouse. We haven’t been there before and they wanted to go find it. We’re so glad we did! It was a fantastic place to stop with lots of areas for hiking and beautiful new things to see. We all loved it and we’ll be back again sometime soon.
We drove through Grindavik to show the kids the lave flows from the recent eruptions. They were fascinated. We were fascinated. It is really incredible to see up close. In the picture on the right there is lava beyond the fence.
We had such a great first day together. Family is a blessing.
Friday:
A week ago we spent our Friday on the golden circle with our kids in the sunshine. This week we spent our Friday on the golden circle in cooler weather. Can you get tired of volcanos and waterfalls? I don’t think so! Just in case you haven’t seen enough of these sights, here is a look at what we saw:
Kerið Crater –
Faxafoss –
Geysir –
Gullfoss –
Todd doing a volunteer photo shoot for a tour group from Italy.
And, of course, Brúarfoss. Can it be any lovelier??
We finished the day with an evening walk to the little beach not far from our home. Rachel is a pro level beach comber and we spent a happy half hour there.
This week is summer solstice and we have the peak of endless daylight to enjoy. Even though it’s been cloudy and cool, it still doesn’t get dark! We’ve been taking advantage of all the light to enjoy this beautiful country. Rachel wanted to swim in the ocean on summer solstice! She made it as far as her ankles and did some wading. I’ll be sad to see this sunlight start to lessen.
Saturday:
Let’s end this week and this post with the most incredible experience. Saturday morning we went on a puffin watching tour. It was unbelievable. First off, don’t we look great?!
We were on this type of boat, bundled up and flying across the water in search of puffins.
There were thousands of puffins all around the small islands in Faxaflói Bay. It was so great! And they are so cute.
It was really an unbelievable experience. We loved doing it with our kids. 100% recommend! The puffins are so fun to watch. And, who wouldn’t want this wardrobe option??
We’ve had such a great week with Rachel & Joel visiting! Yes, we’ve been sight-seeing, playing games, and being tourists. We’ve also been dealing with mission business and work. Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten why we’re here! Later Saturday we ran into a group of BYU students in downtown Reykjavik. They are just starting a Scandinavian study abroad and Iceland is their first stop. They were excited to see the missionaries! We hope they have a great summer with their studies.
We’re glad to still have company for a few more days. There will be adventures ahead! Family is a gift. Iceland is amazing. Missionary work is fulfilling. And puffins are cute. 🙂 See you next week!
Check out Todd’s social media pages for loads of pictures and videos. Seriously, there are so many puffin pictures, you’ll want to go see them! You can find him here:
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