Great Zone Conference

Saturday, President Olauson - our mission president came to Selfoss for Zone Conference. We had a change in the Assistant to the President and so the old and assistant, the new assistant and the President provided the instruction. All three gave great instruction. We learned more about missionary tools - our mission website and the baptismal calendar from Elder Soelberg. Elder Teodoro taught about Urgency and the need to use Faith, Expectation and Passion in the work and how those relate to two other missionary tools. President Olauson began his teaching by giving each of us the coin shown above. Coins are a military tradition and he was a Navy Chaplin, He explained when he was a Chaplain, he and the other LDS Chaplains decided they wanted a coin to use and this is the coin they developed. He received permission from the Area Presidency to give them to each of the Denmark Copenhagen Mission missionaries. He presented them to each one of us in the traditional handshake with coin in the palm of his hand. If you open the picture, you can read about the history of coins and what inspired this particular coin. He then taught us about charity and our love for the Savior. He teaches with many experiences from his time in the Navy and it adds so much to the Spirit of his teaching, He challenged each of us to teach with more power by referring to "our Savior" and even more "my Savior" rather than "the Savior" for He came to earth for each one of us individually and He gave His life for each one of us. He knows each one of us and He loves each one of us and He wants each of us to return to Him.

Our Newest Granddaughter

I have been very negligent posting pictures of our newest Granddaughter. I guess I have been thinking of this blog as more our mission blog when in reality it is our family blog so I will try to be better at keeping current with the wonderful events that happen in our family. Roxie Jane was born to Heidi and Doug on December 29, 2008. She is a beautiful little girl full of smiles as you can see in the one photo. According to Heidi today she is also full of giggles. Roxie Jane was named after one of Doug's great grandmothers. The dress and bonnet Roxie Jane is wearing was made by Eileen. We now have 17 grandchildren - 6 of them are girls and we are expecting two more girls - one very soon and the other in May. As you can see our family is growing and thus the title of our blog.

Lunch Icelandic Style

We were downtown Reykjacvík yesterday and the Elders wanted to have pylsur for lunch and of course why not at the famous pylsur stand (made famous by Bill Clinton). This is an outdoor stand with stand up tables which you will note are covered with ice. A pylsur is a lamb hot dog sitting on a bed of first minced fresh onions then minced fried onions. Then they squeeze two sauces on top of the dog - one is like a flavored mayo and the other a type of mustard - we refer to both as pylsur sauce. They are good and so far every time we have stopped to have one it has been very cold and still there is always a waiting line. Might be the lines are due to the price - approximately $2.50 which is very reasonable for a good hot dog. They were 50 krónur higher in October so we think this is the winter price. The wind was blowing so hard and it was below freezing as testified by the ice on the table - it is just all in the experience.

Much Like Minnesota

The winter here in Selfoss is much like Minnesota except not as cold and the snow melts. But they have the same phrase here as we have at home "If you don't like the weather just wait 15 minutes."It has been snowing just about every day but then it warms up and occasionally the sun comes out or it rains. Yesterday was an extremely beautiful day in the mid 30's and bright sun most of the day but today we have had mostly snow with a brief period of sun while we were in Church.

I have to remember to give myself time to clear the snow off the car before we head out to appointments so we aren't late. Most of the time it is not a problem but on the days is is covered in ice it is a bigger challenge. The car picture was a few weeks ago but the Church was yesterday. As you all know, Eileen's love of Family History includes stopping at churches and cemeteries even in Iceland.

The other picture goes along with one of Iceland's favorite myths. The myth has to do with little people. Whenever something is missing it is blamed on the little people. The owners of the rock on the right and left sides of the pictures provided little doorways for the little people to enter their homes.

YEA! I got my drivers license today

In Iceland you are required to get an Icelandic drivers license within your first 6 months in the country. We have been here 5 so I made it time. The challenges were their written test and the cost. You have to have a driving school instructor set up your lessons and then schedule your tests. The instruction which amounted to less than 3 hours cost $150. There are no instructional manuals in English so the couple before gave us one for Denmark which is not the same as Iceland and then 4 sample tests which are not much help either. The written tests cost $22 and I had to pay that twice as I failed the first time (my instructor says he doubts any Icelander who got his license before the new tests could pass the test the first time. The couple that was here when we arrived had to take the test twice too.) I met my instructor the day before the written test and asked him questions I had based on the materials and he answered but could not explain the discrepancies in some of the questions. I took the test the next morning and failed because I didn't know what a locked lateral position was for an unconscious breathing person. I was immediately rescheduled for a week later and I passed with no errors. Then the driving test was scheduled for today and I met my instructor for the 2nd time yesterday and we drove for about and hour. Then we met again this morning for 20 minutes of driving before the test. The examiner was the same person who administered my first written test which was a little stressing since he got after me for making notes after I failed the written test. They charge $62 for a 45 minute exam but before 30 minutes were up he said congratulations you only made two mistakes - going 40 km/h in a 30 km/p zone but quickly slowing down and the second was going over a speed bump too fast. There were children on both sides of the street (it is like Halloween here today) and I was going slower than the posted speed and paying more attention to them and did not see the sign or the new type speed bump I had never seen before. So with the eye exam and all other charges it only cost $266 to get my drivers license! The previous couple said it would cost $500 per person but that was before the economic crash in Iceland and our money is worth more now.

No Universal Health Care for the USA!

Iceland is considered to have one of the best universal health care systems. For our first 6 months here we had to buy Icelandic Health Insurance but then universal health care kicks in for us too. Sounds good - no health insurance premiums and very low charges for services so everyone can have access to health care. Sure sounds great and it would be if it worked. But just an example of how it doesn't works in Iceland. Gummi, a friend of ours, called the hospital emergency number Sunday night because he thought he had pneumonia. The doctor never returned his call so he went to the hospital when it opened at 8 AM Monday morning. The doctor prescribed medication. Gummi said he wanted a chest x-ray because he was sure he had pneumonia. The doctor call to get approval for the x-ray. Sure enough one lung was full of fluid. They gave him more pills and sent him home. We saw him about 7 PM and he looked and sounded terrible and was having a very hard time breathing and it was mentioned he looked blue around his mouth. At midnight they were at the hospital because he could not breath. The Doctor was very upset Gummi had not been put him in the hospital in the morning because his oxygen level was too low. He called to get him admitted but they would not admit him. The Doctor then gave him steroids, muscle relaxer, and anti-biotic all via injection and sent him home with more pills to take. Valla, his wife, said she was up most of the night because his breathing was so noisy and if it wasn't she was afraid he wasn't breathing. He had to go back to the hospital again this morning to have his oxygen levels checked and they put him on additional medication. The doctor last night said he belonged in the hospital and yet he did not have the authority to admit him.

You have heard my opinion on universal health care before when we were serving in Romania. But Iceland is supposed to have the best health care of all Europe. Just a note about Romania again. This past month a missionary was hit by a speeding car and his face hit the windshield. He was rushed to the hospital and was told he only had a broken nose. They fixed the nose and sent him home. He stayed at the mission home so they could watch how he was doing. After a couple of days he started feeling worse so the mission president made several calls to Church health officials and determined it would be best to fly the missionary to Germany to have him examined. There they discovered multiple facial fractures and they had to insert plates and screws to fix everything. Thanks to good Doctors and care he is doing fine and back serving in Romania.

Emergency Preparedness

The Selfoss Branch was hit hard last May when an earthquake hit near the city of Hveregarði about 10 km from Selfoss. Most of our members live in Hveregarði. Then in October Iceland was hit hard with their economic crisis which has caused shortages and high inflation. Our mission president asked the branches to have preparedness meetings to help the members. The first was held as a joint meeting last November and it was an excellent meeting on purchasing food and how to use bulk foods. The Selfoss Branch conducted the second meeting around what do you do in an emergency and having both a 72 hour kit and food storage. We started with a sister describing the challenge they had during the earthquake and not being able to get into their house or garage to get anything they needed. We were asked to present a 72 hour kit which was fun trying to put together when you don´t know where to find those things. But we put together a good kit as a starting point. Then our Relief Society President put together a demonstration on the minimum foods required per person. There was a good discussion by all and a good start for the branch to keep focused on preparedness.

If you click on the title you will be linked to a site that shows the earthquakes that have taken place in our area over the last 48 hours. Luckily they are all very small so no damage but it is interesting to see how many take place in this area. The city of Hveregarði is just above the "e" in the city name and the city of Selfoss is just above the last "s" in the city name. We are hoping the constant quakes are what will keep us from experiencing a big one while we are here. One of the blue dotes is just about on top of where we live. We have also been told the magnum is building in the the volcanoes so again the need to be prepared.