It has been another great year for us and we are especially grateful for our family and friends throughout the world. We will never forget the many wonderful people we have met and served in Romania and Iceland. What a blessing it has been to serve in these two countries with these wonderful people. As Lisa mentioned in her post there is both joy and pain (or maybe a better word is sadness) to be remembered this past year. Serving the Lord in Iceland has been a blessing and being able to share it with Lisa, David, Gunnar and Qatar in June, Amanda in July and Gabbi in October was also great fun and happy times. There is always great joy as we see people accept Jesus Christ and be baptized and change their lives. The sadness of course comes from seeing and hearing the rejection Jesus Christ and His Gospel receives every day. Another sadness we are experiencing right now is having Steven and Micah and their 6 children (one of which we have not even been able to hold) move from our hometown to places unknown as he begins his training for the US Foreign Service.
Now for those who read our blog just to see the pictures I will add some of the Icelandic New Years celebration. The missionaries had to be off the streets by 5 PM so we gathered at the Church in Reykjavík to enjoy the evening before taking them out to see the bonfire and fireworks (all approved by the Mission President). We made many of our traditional Christmas and New Years treats and others brought goodies so we ate lots of good food. One Elder wanted to watch Mr Kruger's Christmas and another It is a Wonderful Life so we enjoyed those two movies and then played a white elephant gift game. In between we went to one of the many bonfires and saw several others as we went to watch fireworks at a members home. I wasn´t taking any pictures as we had so many from last year but now wish I had as the smoke had not started to block the show as you will see in the ones I did take at midnight. Then after finishing the game and cleaning up the building we went out for the main event of the evening. Eileen and I were the only missionaries that were here last New Years Eve and even though we kept telling them what to expect we kept hearing from many of them no one would believe this without seeing it. Since all the fireworks are purchased and shot off by individuals we did not expect to see much much this year because the price doubled from last year due to the crises. I don´t think the financial crises slowed them down much even though we were not able to see as much this year. The problem this year was no wind to blow away the smoke and by 11:30 you would not see downtown Reykjavík from the hill we were on due to all the smoke. You could sure hear them though and in the distance see the faint reminder they were going off all over the area just like last year. It was probably more fun for us to watch all the missionaries than actually watching the fireworks. Elder and Sister Koyle were as amazed as the young elders.
We wish all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
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