Seminary and Institute Graduation

Saturday June 6 was a special day in Iceland. When Sister Bremner and I were called as the Seminary and Institute Coordinators for Iceland in April the first assignment was to organize a graduation program. We were told this was to be the first formal graduation program in Iceland with an actual graduation exercise combined with activities and meal. Working with the other two Seminary and Institute teachers we planned a full day of activities and then we were told we had to also have the Icelandic Conference the same Saturday and Sunday. Since most of the people involved in the graduation were also going to be involved in the conference we had to do some quick juggling. We started the day at 10:30 with the actual graduation program followed by sports activities until 2 PM when we served a sit down lunch for 50. Then at 3 PM we moved into the leadership meetings of the conference while the seminary and institute conducted a scripture chase activity which was followed by an ice cream social for the graduation and then for the attendees of the leadership training. We finally got home after 9 PM. We had to then organize for Lisa, David, Gunnar, and Qatar arriving the next morning at 6:20 AM. For several days prior to the graduation we were heavily involved with getting the food bought and prepared and making sure all was ready. It all turned out very successfully as the CES coordinator from Germany who asked up to put it all together was very pleased with the results. It was a fun time and probably the best was when our Seminary Graduate was looking at his diploma and saw it was signed by Thomas S. Monson - he was so excited it made all the work and effort well worth it.