8/16/25
Hi, everyone! Another week has flown by (and blown by)! Here’s what we’ve been up to:
We started the week with another great day with Patriarch and Sister McQuivey. We drove them and their son to Selfoss with us Sunday morning where we attended the branch meetings and Patriarch McQuivey gave two patriarchal blessings to members there. Not only were they there to serve and give patriarchal blessings, but Sister McQuivey stepped in as the pianist for the meeting and Patriarch McQuivey gave an impromptu sacrament meeting talk. I got to speak in sacrament meeting also and we all enjoyed the Spirit that joined us as we renewed our covenants with our Heavenly Father.
I love the women in the Selfoss branch. They have scooped me up and added me to their sisterhood with love and friendship. It is a joy to see them whenever we can attend church in Selfoss.
Here I am with Thelma. When the meeting was just about to start she and I were a bit lonely at the front of the room! We wanted to show everyone else what a good time we were having. Fortunately, many other sisters soon arrived to join us. There was a large group of members visiting from Utah filling up the back half of the room.
And here we are in relief society. Below you will see the lovely ladies Rósa, Bettina, Perlynda, & Áslaug.
And their fearless leaders, Valla & Greta.
I joined these women for part of relief society and we discussed the sacrament meeting talks and the gift of patriarchal blessings. I left with Todd & the McQuivey’s to get them to their next stop which was . . . Urriðafoss! We love this waterfall that is just a few minutes drive outside of Selfoss. We had time to show it off to the McQuivey’s before heading back to Reykjavik.
We got back to the church in Reykjavik just as the 1st branch meetings were ending. We got to see our new friend Sarah and her parents one more time. Her mom and dad head home this week and it was fun to say hello and goodbye to them! Let’s profile them here with this gorgeous Christus statue that we all love.
Patriarch McQuivey gave two patriarchal blessings to members in the Rekjavik 1st branch. Following those blessings we drove with him and his wife to Keflavik so he could give one more blessing to a sister who couldn’t get to church that day. By the end of the day Sunday, Patriarch McQuivey had given 20 patriarchal blessings over three days. He gave blessings to thirteen Spanish members, three Icelandic members, three African members, and one Lithuanian member. This was an incredible act of service on the McQuivey’s part. Giving these blessings is a physically and spiritually exhausting task and to do so many blessings in such a short amount of time is incredible.
Todd and I are very grateful for the opportunity we had to be part of this amazing experience. We loved our driving time with the McQuivey’s on Sunday. We talked a lot about different trials our families have gone through and how we found peace in those trials through our Savior Jesus Christ. We shared stories about how we met and we laughed and laughed about how silly young love can be! We discovered we share our wedding anniversaries; The McQuivey’s married on November 21, 1990 and we married on November 21, 1992. Our lives are forever changed by the goodness and love we felt from Patriarch and Sister McQuivey.
As usual, mission life is full of ups and downs and after such a Spirit filled few days we got back to work with the usual and the mundane. One interesting project was shopping for a new suit for Todd. You may remember the story of the dry cleaner’s that had a fire? For two months we were told that Todd’s suit was lost in the fire and the owner of the shop agreed to pay us for the items we had lost. Todd’s suit was eventually found but despite all of their efforts to clean it, it still reeked of smoke so we were given the money to replace it. We had a fun time trying on suits and this week he picked out two new suits to finish out the second half of our mission. He’s looking sharp and does not smell like a fire hazard! 🙂
Throughout our suit shopping day we were having an ongoing discussion about the challenges of being missionaries. I love sharing the things we are doing with you in this blog, but there are many things I do not share, and most of those things are the hard things. It seems like in life generally people share the good and shiny things and hide the bad and ugly things. I am, obviously, good at that too! I had no idea what types of challenges we would face coming on a mission. It’s not all good and shiny things.
We are trying to focus on the counsel given us by President Nelson when he said, “We can feel joy even while having a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year! My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” Trust me, I’m having an interesting time working on the focus of my life as a missionary, keeping that focus on our Savior, and finding joy even when things don’t feel joyful. So, when you’re planning to come on your mission, know that there will be challenges and hard days, but if I can get through those with my focus on the Savior, so can you! 🙂
We had more interesting things to do mid-week. Our apartment is just steps away from the inlet and I love to go walking around the shore. Todd joined me for an evening walk one beautiful night this week and we went to our favorite beach that was completely unavailable!
We made a trip to Ikea to get some furniture for the young missionary’s apartment in Akureyri. They’ve needed an upgrade for some time and the Mogenhan’s are headed north to visit them this weekend with a car full of Ikea furniture and an Allen wrench!
One afternoon between meetings we went to the National Museum of Iceland. Our sweet friends, Bragi & Áslaug gave us passes to visit and we were excited to see the displays. The museum has artifacts and history dating back through centuries of Iceland’s history. It had so many things that we couldn’t see them all but we enjoyed our time there and all we did get to see.
This is a cross section soil sample that shows the results of different volcanic eruptions from as long ago as 870!
I really loved the fiber arts on display. These pieces were made by hand hundreds of years ago; all for different purposes, but made by people with beauty and skill. I love looking at this type of work.
Look at these gorgeous carvings!
And, of course, the literature. This is a hymnbook.
The National Museum was a beautiful place to spend a couple of hours learning more about the history of Iceland.
One evening this week we had Elder Young and Elder Monzon over for a waffle dinner. We don’t get to see these two very much and it was fun to host them for a visit. They are currently assigned to the Spanish branch as well as a large section of Reykjavik and all of Keflavik. They are working hard and looking forward to three baptisms coming up this weekend! We love supporting them in their work, even if it is just with waffles and Nutella! 🙂
On Thursday morning my mom, Noreen Peterson, came to visit us! We are so happy to have her here to add so much fun to our week! She flew all night from Utah and we were glad to scoop her up among the thousands of people in the airport early that day. We really appreciate the efforts she’s made to come here for a visit.
We did so many exciting things on mom’s first day in Iceland . . . like a trip to Costco and eating kleinur! (Fun fact – mom ate kleinur when she was a little girl and her mom, my grandma, would make them. My grandpa’s grandma — my great, great grandma — was Danish and these were/are a Danish/Scandinavian treat. Grandpa grew up loving them from his grandma. My mom ate them as a child. And now we are enjoying them together in Iceland!) Todd is not a fan of these treats, but mom and I enjoyed them!
To finish mom’s first day we took a windy walk by the inlet and enjoyed treats and games. It’s so fun to have visitors to enjoy while we are doing our missionary work!
Of course we spent some time on the Golden Circle this week. It was wet and cool but mom geared up and joined us for a tour of some of Iceland’s most beautiful waterfalls. We had a great day together viewing some of God’s incredible creations. It’s easy to see His hand in our lives and in the world, and to place our focus upon our Savior, when we are surrounded by such beauty.
Faxafoss —
Gullfoss —
Geysir —
Brúarfoss —
Mom had a quiet evening in our apartment Friday while Todd and I had a dinner meeting with President Davidson who was in town for weekend meetings. We love President Davidson so much. He is a good and inspiring man and it is a pleasure to work with him.
We spent time at the end of the week exploring downtown Reykjavik with mom. It was very fun to show her the sights, shop, and eat all the fun food!
We started the day with vanilla snúðurs from Brauð & Co. These are incredible cinnamon rolls, but not cinnamon — vanilla. Heavenly!
We went to Hallgrimskirkja, exploring the cathedral and the views from the bell tower.
Of course we made our way through the streets and shops to rainbow street.
After delicious fish & chips we walked to Harpa.
We finished up our day with another meeting with President Davidson followed by Todd’s leadership class he teaches each Saturday night. This week was a great mix of Spirit filled activities, wonderful time with family, missionary work, meetings, and personal growth and introspection. We have seen beautiful places and been reminded of the hand of the Lord in the beauty of the earth and the strength of His children. While we are looking at waterfalls, working with church members, helping missionaries, enjoying my mom’s sweet company, ministering in many ways, dealing with hard things and happy things . . . our focus has been on our Savior. He is the reason we are serving a mission. He is the reason we are trying to be better each day. He is the reason we are persevering through the hard days as well as the good days. As President Nelson says, “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” We know this is true and we are trying to keep our focus on Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.
Thanks for joining us this week! We love and appreciate you for your support. We’ll see you right back here next Saturday.
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more photos and videos. You can find him here:
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