As soon as Brother Jensen returned to Germany we were back into the planning mode preparing for President and Sister Olauson to arrive Friday for a busy weekend. We started with a dinner for them with all the missionaries and his counselor and his wife. We bought the biggest leg of lamb we could find - 3.3 kg, 3 kg of small baking potatoes and 3 kg of regular potatoes for mashed potatoes. We also peeled and grated 2 kg of carrots for carrot salad. Sister Koyle did a jello/whipped cream/fruit salad, scones and cake. As I carved the leg of lamb I thought wow this is a lot of meat - there will certainly be left overs. When everyone (15) had been served, I look at the meat tray and it was empty as well as the bowls of potatoes. Sister Koyle later commented something like - the missionaries inhaled that dinner in minutes after it took us hours to put it all together. The one young man not in a suit was doing homework at the Young Single Adult Center so we invited him to enjoy dinner with us. He is a recent convert and accompanied Sister Bremner Saturday evening on the piano. The first picture is Bettina - the mission president couselors wife and also the Selfoss Branch Relief Society President.
We got home late Friday night and then it was back to Reykjavik for Zone Conference Saturday morning with our Area Seventy Elder Sterri from Norway. We had a fantastic Zone Conference. Comments on the pictures - The whole zone with President and Sister Olauson, Elder Sterri and two member missionaries. We have two sets of members (two men and two women) who go out street contacting. They are great missionaries. The little girls sang I am a Child of God during our zone conference (their parents greeting President Olauson). The young lady sitting with the Elders at the table is one of a pair of member missionaries. The individual Elder pictures were as they gave their 5, 2 and 1 minute and 30 second talks. Between us and the Koyle's, we prepared lunch and dinner for 16 because as soon as Zone Conference (which included lunch) was over we went into a leadership training meeting for the Icelandic Conference with a one hour break for dinner before the Icelandic Conference Adult evening session. Amazingly I think everyone was well fed. The closing song for the Adult session was "I walked today where Jesus walked" sung by Sister Bremner. Without any prejudiced on my part it was absolutely beautiful. Her accompanist is the 18 year old in the dinner picture. He is fantastic at both the piano and organ so it was a treat for all.
It was another late night getting home and then up and back to Reykjavik for the Icelandic Conference Sunday Session. Elder Sterri is a fantastic speaker and we had 8 non-members who were well taught by him. It was so fun seeing everyone together from both branches. The closing song was basically the Selfoss Branch choir. We were a little worried with only 2 practices before our one practice with the pianist and then only about half of us showed up for the practice with the pianist. We had lots of compliments so it must have sounded good. Elder Sterri had to return to Norway right after the meeting so the Koyles, Bremners and Olausons gathered later at the Koyles for soup, salad, rolls and apple pie. We had a nice visit with President and Sister Olauson and now we are home again to rest up.
Thankfully this post was saved before the computer again quit working. Today we went to Reykjavik and turned it in for a repair estimate. They said they might be able to look at it tomorrow or Thursday. Luckily we have a computer to use it just doesn´t have our pictures or a video camera for Skype and it crashes way too often. It is a very old computer that was going to be thrown away but it was saved and we are happy to have it.
