6/27/26
We have had a fun week! I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as we enjoyed living it! Read on to see just what made it so super fun and how “the ultimate treasures on earth and in heaven are our children and our posterity” (Dallin H. Oaks, October 2018).
Throughout our weeks Todd and I get to work with so many different, wonderful people. For example, on Sunday the 1st branch Relief Society leaders spoke in sacrament meeting. These are wonderful women and I love hearing their testimonies and seeing their faith in action as they serve the sisters in the branch. Below you will see me with Johanna Carlsen, the relief society teacher, and Björg Marteinsdóttir, the relief society president.
Todd had the privilege of working with Elvis Akyeaw this Sunday. Through Todd Elvis received the Melchizedek priesthood, was ordained an elder, & set apart as the first counselor in the Elder’s quorum presidency. Elvis joined the church in December in his home country of Ghana right before moving to Iceland in January and he is overflowing with faith in Jesus Christ. He is going to be a wonderful addition to the branch leadership.
We were also happy to have Francis Aladinma in church with us this past week. Francis joined the church just over a year ago. He lives about 40 minutes away from the church and he has not had reliable transportation that would allow him to attend regularly. Recently Francis was given a car for his job and because of that he has been able to return and start attending Sunday meetings again. We are so happy for this blessing! Francis has a large family back in Nigeria and he is working hard with the hope that they will one day be able to join him in Iceland.
Fortunately for all of us Elder Denney is here and he is doing a great job accompanying our church meetings. It looks like my time on the piano has come to an end for now. (Don’t worry, I will not give it up! I am determined to be a better accompanist by mission #2.) Elder Denney plays confidently on the piano and the organ and he is learning to pedal with his organ playing. It’s a great addition to our meetings!
While our summer institute class remains small we had a good lesson and dinner on Monday night. And, I got a few more rows knit into Todd’s second sleeve. I always enjoy the quiet class time at the back of the room to knit and listen to the lesson. The meal is prepared, the Spirit is there, and Todd is happy teaching. We really enjoy this assignment. (What’s for dinner, you ask? White chicken chili, homemade bread, & chocolate chip cookies!)
We stopped to walk around the lupine for a bit after class. They are at their loveliest and we can’t get enough of them.
The week only got better early Wednesday morning when our special guests arrived. Our daughter and her husband, Rebekah & Isaac Short, came to see us and they brought along their most adorable little boy! (In respect of their wishes I won’t be sharing any pictures of this cutie’s face, or sharing his name. We will just say he is our darling little one year old grandson!) The Shorts live in Pennsylvania. They survived the overnight flight with this cute guy and still met us with smiles! Although we were quick to get everyone home for a long nap.
We were happy to pull them out of bed Wednesday afternoon and take them on a drive around the Golden Circle. With just a few days to visit us we wanted to take advantage of all the daylight and see as much as we can. The darling boy was a champ after such a crazy travel schedule and we made it to all of our favorite stops. Going later in the day meant less tourists but in their place we were greeted by plenty of midges — little flies that love to hoover right in your face.
Brúarfoss —
Geysir —
Gullfoss —
I was surprised to see that it was 10:30 pm when we got back home! It was a long day for these cute kids. We’re so happy we could show them some beautiful places, enjoy their company, swat away midges, eat peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, sing 50 rounds of baby shark for the little man, and then put them promptly to bed on an air mattress that lost all of its air through the night! Trust me, we are the best hosts! 😉 We had a borrowed pack and play for the darling boy and he slept a solid 12 hours. Rebekah and Isaac were tired enough that moving to our couch was all they needed to knock out for the night.
Todd and I had our emotional resilience class early Thursday morning. While our company snoozed away we set up a make-shift office in our bedroom to teach a review of chapter 7 — Managing Addictive Behavior.
The lesson shared information about how addiction is a spiritual and a physical problem and that healing and overcoming addiction must address both of these aspects. My favorite part of the lesson was a section called “Preventing Addiction”. It is easier to prevent an addiction than it is to heal one. Let’s stop them before they start. Tools that we’re given are: Education, Moderation, Connection, Transparency, & Monitoring. If you’d like to learn more about this follow the link above to read the lesson. It is valuable information for everyone.
During our class Todd always takes a picture of the missionaries who are attending and he shares those pictures with the mission chat. This week he told them he was going to take a picture and had everyone look straight at the camera and smile. We were cracking up at the facial expressions some of them chose to do! These missionaries are hilarious! Check out the pictures and see what you think. 🙂
We spent a few hours in the middle of the day Thursday at a fabulous museum called Perlan. This is a fantastic nature museum where you can learn all about Iceland, the natural forces that made it including volcanos & glaciers. One of my favorite parts is the volcano exhibit. It is so amazing! We were having a great time with the darling boy and enjoying the exhibits and, believe it or not, I didn’t take tons of pictures! But here is what did get documented:
Inside the ice cave feels a lot like some of our time living in North Pole, Alaska!
Throughout the week the darling boy has been so helpful around the house. He’s taken time to clean out the drawers and he discovered a vent under the refrigerator that I didn’t even know was there! The vent was in need of a good cleaning which has now been addressed. 🙂
After all that work we had an early start on Thursday for on a long drive along the south coast. The little cutie slept most of the drive and we enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. The picture below is the view coming into Vik.
We saw hundreds of puffins at Dyrhólaey Lighthouse. They are beautiful birds and it is so fun to watch them coming and going from their dens. Todd took amazing pictures and videos. You’ll definitely want to look at his Facebook page (here) to see many more puffin pictures and others from our adventures.
Sólheimajökull —
Skógafoss —
While the kids hiked the more than 500 steps to the top of the Skógafoss I had the best job of nana duty for the darling boy. He took a solid nap in the front pack and I enjoyed holding and snuggling him while he slept! I’ve sorely missed having grandbabies in my arms the past two years and it has been so wonderful this week to hold and love this darling little person!
Seljalandsfoss —
Urriðafoss —
We made sure the kids had their Icelandic hotdogs! The darling boy enjoyed the bun while we made a dinner out of the lamb dogs after a long day of driving and sight seeing in this beautiful place.
We’ve enjoyed late game nights with Rebekah & Isaac as well. There’s always time for Five Crowns and Uno & dice, right?! I have to say, the Shorts kept the victories coming and the Richardsons tried to be gracious losers throughout the week!
We spent some time on Saturday downtown enjoying the sights in the city. We started out at Kolaportid Flea Market where Rebekah bought a beautiful work of wool art from my friend Mariana. (Check out Mariana’s work here.) There are all kinds of crazy booths to shop at the market. Who knows what treasures are waiting!
Of course we got the classic rainbow street picture complete with rain & Hallgrimskirkja.
Hallgrimskirkja —
We finished up our Saturday with a fun dinner out. We’ve loved having Rebekah, Isaac, and the darling boy visit us this week and are already sad to say goodbye to them on Sunday afternoon.
Our mission has been one of the highlights of our lives. I’ve shared before about how difficult it has been for me to be away from our children and grandchildren for so long. Last summer three of our girls and their husbands came to visit us in Iceland. This summer our girl who couldn’t come last summer (because the darling boy was born) came to see us and brought along the cutie. We’re so grateful for the time and effort our girls and their husbands have put into coming all the way to us when we haven’t been able to come to them. It’s been hard to be separated but these visits mean so much. And, honestly, I’m also very grateful for video calls. Our grandchildren know our voices and our faces because of this technology and we still feel very connected to them. But, getting the darling boy in my arms has made me even more eager to get home to the other little people in our lives! We love our girls and their husbands so much and watching our daughters be mothers is a great joy, but I think just maybe the grandchildren are “the ultimate treasures!”
Thanks for coming along with us this week as we explored Iceland with the Shorts. There was some missionary work done. . . emails were sent, texts were replied to, and business moved forward. But one of the many wonderful parts of being a senior missionary is the ability to clear our schedules (mostly) and spend time with our family. It’s been a fabulous week and we hope we’ll see you again next week which will, unfortunately, not include the darling boy.
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more pictures and videos. You can find him here:
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