Akureyri

Friday we left Reykjavík early for a 6 hour drive to Akureyri to visit the members who have been very isolated from the Church for many years. We visited with several members and had meals with a couple having traditional soups and breads. Sunday as we were getting ready to go to Church, Elder Wohlgemuth suddenly got ill. We gave him a blessing and he and Sister Wohlgemuth decided to stay at the hotel. (That is another story. We arrived Friday and the owner gave us keys, his bank account number and told us how much the bill would be and said he and all staff were leaving town until after we left so just make ourselves at home, get breakfast in the kitchen and pay our bill by bank transfer to his bank account.) We had Church with the four missionaries, 3 non members and 5 members. After Church I called the Wohlgemuth´s as we were going an hours north to visit another family. They said they would just stay in the hotel. It was dark as we headed north along the fjord on snow and ice covered roads and then a single lane tunnel that went at least a mile with pull outs so if you saw someone coming you could get out of their way. We had a great visit with Thiago and his wife who is taking the missionary lessons and their daughter Maindrah. We got back to the hotel about 9 PM to find that the Wohlgemuth´s were leaving to go home to Utah. He had called the Church doctors and his home doctor and it was decided based on his symptoms to go home to his doctor. Since they only had two months left on their mission and the condition was serious enough to warrant specialized medical care the Church felt it was best to fly them home immediately. Monday we took them to the airport and then started our drive back to Reykjavík on snow packed and icy roads that had developed even worse over the night. When we got to the Wohlgemuth´s we helped Sister Wohlgemuth pack (Elder Wohlgemuth was to do nothing) and then this morning we drove them to the airport and sent them on their way home to Utah. We will miss them very much and even more when I have to register the new missionaries arriving early in January. This was Elder Wohlgemuth´s job and he was going to train the new couple arriving mid January to take their place. So I will be busy learning the bureaucracy of Iceland as we were half asleep when we spent the day going from one location to another establishing our residency permit.

The photos are: the main highway #1 in Iceland Monday afternoon in northern Iceland, the fjord at Akureyri, the Thiago family, and those at Church in Akureyri.