8/8/26
Can anything about living in Iceland as full time senior missionaries be considered normal?! I’m not sure about that! But for our experience over the past two years this post is the last one about a “normal” week in our service. In ten days we go home to Oregon and those days will be anything but normal! While I don’t suppose the past two years have been normal by any stretch, this week was wonderfully, sort of, normal. 🙂
I loved watching our friend Prosper Akoensi conduct sacrament meeting in the Reykjavik 2nd branch on Sunday. Prosper was baptized into the church last April and he was recently ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood and made a counselor in the branch presidency. On Sunday he conducted the meeting and bore a powerful testimony of his witness of the truthfulness of the gospel. Prosper said that at home in Ghana, he who cooks the food tastes first. Since he conducted the meeting, he would testify first! It was wonderful to witness! Prosper is in Iceland for school and his family is in Ghana. One day we hope his family will also embrace the gospel and that they can be reunited and strengthen the church, and their family, together.
This is my friend Aya. She is a Christian from South Syria and she is living in Iceland, fleeing a very difficult home and political situation. Because of some legal issues Aya cannot be baptized just yet, but she is loving learning all about the gospel of Jesus Christ and she cannot wait until she can be baptized a member of the church. She comes to church every week with a smile on her face and, despite the difficult challenges she faces, she is placing her faith in Jesus Christ. When I ask Aya how she is doing she says, “God is good.” He is good and I appreciate that she reminds me of that. I’m sorry we won’t be here when she can finally be baptized but we know that God is with her. (Funny story about this picture — I took this with my phone and no filters. This is just what we look like. Then Aya took a picture of us on her camera and used her favorite beauty filter. Let’s just say, I look different with makeup on!)
On Sunday afternoon we attended the baptism of Valdimar Þorvaldsson. We are so happy for him and thrilled that he has entered the waters of baptism and received the Holy Ghost. Valdimar had really struggled to give up vaping in order to qualify to be baptized. He knew the blessings that would come to him with this sacrifice and he really wanted to make his life better with this change. Several weeks ago he and Todd talked about his addiction. Todd taught him how to give his addiction to Christ, how to gain strength through prayer and fasting, and how to daily offer the sacrifice of his sins to God. Since that time Valdimar made great progress in using the atonement of Jesus Christ to overcome the sins that were keeping him from progressing towards baptism. He knows our Savior has helped him. We are very happy for him! Below are some of the elders who taught Valdimar: Elder Parry, Elder Monzon, Valdimar, Elder Moyer, & Elder Geertsen.
Keeping with the theme of a “normal” week, on Sunday night we dashed downtown for a quick visit with my nephew, Warren Hansen. (Having a nephew magically show up in Iceland is not normal!) Warren is a junior at WestPoint in the US and was traveling through Iceland with a student group this week. His schedule was packed but he called us when they had a few minutes of free time. It was so fun to see him! I haven’t seen Warren in person for several years, not since before his mission to Argentina. What are the odds that we would find each other in Iceland? Another fun fact: thirty years ago Warren’s dad – my brother-in-law, Scott Hansen – was a young missionary in Iceland! We’re keeping it in the family. 🙂
You know baking is normal. I have a feeling I will still do some baking next week, so this won’t be the last! But it is the last batch of chocolate crinkles to share with our friends before we leave. My grandkids are begging for these cookies and soon I will bake a batch (or two) with them. 🙂
Have I told you about Carmelitas? I’ve made these a few times for YSA and they are always a hit. When missionaries ask for the recipe you know you’re on to something. You know you want to make these! Find the recipe here. Below left is the gooey middle before baking and then the final product on the right.
We enjoyed visiting some of our friends who live in Hveragerði to share cookies and a hug. We are grateful for our friend Bettina Gudnason. She is a hard working member of the Selfoss branch who brings so much to the kingdom of God in Iceland. Bettina was even featured in the September 2024 Liahona! You can see her profile here.
Bárður & Perlynda Gunnarsson and their sons Kiefer & Aaron had us over for a visit and a delicious dinner. These are more good saints whom we have grown to love over the past two years. Kiefer has been attending our institute class regularly and we have grown to really care about this young man! His family is wonderful and we will miss their loving fellowship.
On another day we saw our sweet friend Ásta Geirsdóttir. I’ve often talked about Ásta in the blog over the past two years. She does a lot of work for the church as an accounts manager. She also takes great care of the missionaries, both young and old. Almost since we started our mission Ásta has sent me daily talks and devotionals to listen to. I’ve loved hearing the inspiring messages and sharing thoughts about them with her. She is a special friend and we honor and appreciate her.
In between visiting, teaching classes, cleaning, & organizing we went to visit the Reykjavik Maritime Museum. This museum details the 150 years of fishery in Iceland. It is full of interesting information and exhibits about how the fishing industry has changed throughout those years and how important fishing is to Iceland’s livelihood and economy.
One of my favorite parts of the museum was the interesting wallpaper! What do you think?
I was also really drawn to the nets and ropes. Maybe it’s the new knitter in me? But look at this detail! It also makes me think of how we cast the net of the gospel in an effort to share the good news of our Savior Jesus Christ across the world. Even in Iceland!
While we were there I started training for some work options after we get home from our mission. 😉
As part of our admission we got to tour the Iceland coast guard ship, Óðinn. It was decommissioned in 2006 but is still seaworthy and taken out on the open sea once a year. It was very interesting to see how coast guard sailors lived and I now know that is not a career choice I am interested in!
Instead of pictures inside the ship, watch the video Todd made and you’ll see just what it looks like as we walked through.
On Thursday we had another last of what has been normal. For the past five months we have been teaching Emotional Resilience and Scripture Study classes to the entire mission. Each morning at 8:00 we join all of the missionaries in both Iceland and Denmark over zoom to have our lessons. We have loved this assignment and this week we had our last class. The class was a review about what we have learned and the importance of working on our own emotional resilience. It was bitter sweet to say goodbye to this assignment and so fun to have built relationships with so many of these excellent missionaries.
It has been amazing to see the teaching opportunities we have had as senior missionaries. Todd thought he had retired from his teaching job! But our mission has been full of these wonderful classes.
Todd also had his final companion study with our young Iceland elders. This is another class he has taught for the past two years. He has loved spending this time with the missionaries, teaching and encouraging them, and helping them grow into the leaders they all going to be one day as church members, husbands, and fathers.
We had our last Iceland North District meeting as well! Our entire mission we have been part of the north district. The Akureyri senior couple is also part of the district, along with different young companionships who change depending on the transfer. District meetings are run by our district leader, one of the young missionaries. Training and roleplays are done, key indicator goals are discussed and made, and discussions about friends and teaching are had. These elders are doing good work here in Iceland.
In the picture below, five of the ten missionaries go home this transfer!
L-R: Elder Gutierrez (district leader), Elder Benzley (going home), Todd & me (going home), Elder & Sister Hutchings, Elder Nielsen (going home), Elder Moyer (going home), Elder Monzon (zone leader), & Elder Bredthauer (zone leader)
We had a nice visit with Helga to share our love and appreciation with her. She has been a good friend to us while we have lived here and we hope she will, one day, gain her own testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Another goodbye visit was with our friend Alexandra. This good woman manages the Salvation Army thrift store in town. We have worked with her through service projects occasionally throughout our mission and in the course of that we have become friends. Alexandra is lovely. We admire the good work she does and appreciate her friendship. When we saw her this week she and her husband had just returned from a trip to the west coast of the US and had been in Oregon!
In all of the lasts this week we had one first. A family who lives in our stake in Oregon was traveling in Iceland this week and they stopped by the church to say hello. Lisa & Lee Hanson moved to Eugene about a year before we left on our mission. We didn’t really know them before we moved to Iceland and I was surprised to get an email from Lisa letting me know they would be here for a short visit. I gave them a few places they should see and we arranged to meet and say hello. So now we have new friends to go home to! What a fun surprise!
On Saturday afternoon we took a beautiful drive along highway 435 outside of Reykjavik. We explored a little bit around Mt. Dyrafjöll, enjoying the beautiful views. It was windy and chilly, but lovely to see.
We didn’t do a full hike, just up and down to viewpoints. I love these hiking markers at the junctions. I think if I had my heavy parka and hood on and Todd had a backpack and walking stick this could be our portrait!
Do you see the sea serpent?
Hiking in the beautiful, chilly Icelandic wilderness was a very normal, very peaceful way to spend the afternoon. Maybe next week we will do another hike somewhere while we are still here? So I won’t label this the last hike of our mission. Stay tuned for that!
And this brings our last normal week to a close. Next week there is a lot on our calendar. We have elders completing their missions and going home. There is a total eclipse we get to watch (as long as the weather cooperates). We will be packing suitcases!! I’ll let you know how it all goes in next week’s post. Thank you for being a normal part of our week. We all need a few normal friends, don’t we?! 😉
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more photos and videos. You can find him here:
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