Iceland Zone Conference

Saturday morning was Iceland Zone Conference. It was approximately 5 hours long but we hated to see it end. Our Mission President, President Olauson is a great teacher and he still had more to say when we had to end due to the next scheduled activity. Sister Bremner and I had a 15 minute training session that did not go off as planned as the wireless connection failed and our connection to LDS.org lost just as we were introducing our training with a song. If you are wondering about those in non-missionary attire, we invite members to join our Zone Conferences. At each Zone Conference we are all asked to prepare a 5 minute talk on a specific subject. This conference Elder Christensen who just arrived Thursday was asked to give his in English and Elder Ellsworth who has only been here two months was asked to give his in Icelandic. Elder Fillmore who arrived in January was ask to give only 1 minute in Icelandic. All three Elders gave great talks. It is wonderful to be spiritually fed by our president and these great Elders.

Wow Have We Been Fed!

I am so far behind on posting the last several days. Friday night we didn't get home from Reykjavík until after 2200 and that posting kept me up too late. Then Saturday was another full day. We left for Reykjavík before 0800 and returned home after 2200 and I was too tired to do anything but go to bed. Then Sunday we made two trips to Reykjavík getting home after 2300. It was all worth it though as we were spiritually fed in so many ways. As the couple in Reykjavík said this afternoon we are beat. I again forgot to take pictures at the appropriate times but will comment on each activity in separate posts with what pictures we have.

Remember the Svið

Remember our post back in January about Svið - sheep´s head dinner. The Danish Elders who just left had the same treat as we did and insisted our mission president should enjoy the same. So this evening we served Svið to President Olauson and all the missionaries including two sisters who came to train us tomorrow on running a Young Adult Center. There were mixed comments including the sisters and the couples (except me) who did not eat it. We also served leg of lamb with all the trimmings (it was a feast) - I think we thought we had to redeem ourselves for serving the Svið. Enjoy the pictures. The last two pictures are Elder Fillmore eating the eyeball. He said served on a scone with lots of jam it wasn´t too bad!

Elder Christensen and Elder DeCelle

We met our other new missionary to Iceland this evening at a special dinner for President Olauson and the new Elders. Elder Christensen has been assigned Elder DeCelle as his companion and trainer and they have been assigned to Reykjavík. Elder DeCelle is a great Elder and will be a great trainer. We worked with him when he fist arrived back in January. He didn´t let the language hold him back as he went right to work. He is excited to serve the Lord and to be a trainer.

Elder Fillmore and Elder Walsh

Our two new Elders arrived in Iceland today and Elder Walsh was assigned Elder Fillmore as his trainer. Elder Fillmore has served in Selfoss before and has now returned. Selfoss has not been the favorite area of the mission but Elder Smith and Elder Ellsworth were sad to leave as they have been having great success teaching and were excited with the progress. Elder Fillmore is a great missionary and will be a great trainer so we are excited to see the progress continue.

Trunky ??

I think the Church must have sent out our travel itinerary for the end of our mission really early in order to keep us from getting trunky. We still have over 6 months left to serve and we received our itinerary yesterday for our trip home. We leave Monday March 22, 2010 at 5 PM and arrive in Boston at 6:35 PM. We then spend the night in Boston with a flight out at 5:55 AM the next morning arriving in Rochester at 12:25 Tuesday afternoon. Maybe the idea is to get the anticipation over when we really aren't ready for it and then we will keep on working without any thought of going home. Will be interesting to see how well it works. We had anticipated our travel would be dependent on when our replacement arrives - maybe it could change or maybe there is no replacement. The bottom picture is our departure airport. At least we won't have to cram all our luggage into a train compartment that only left enough floor space for one of us at a time when it was time for us to leave Arad Romania for that trip home.

Elders From Denmark Returned Today

Yesterday we had our last District Meeting with the two Elders from Denmark. Elder Meyer and Elder Smedley have been providing training each week at our District Meetings. Having been Assistants to the President before coming to Iceland they know how to teach and gave another excellent training session - this time on planning. We will miss these fine Elders as they have taught with the Spirit and blessed Iceland with their love of the Gospel and their love of the Savior Jesus Christ. The picture of them all together is the last time for this Zone. Thursday morning we receive two new Elders from the MTC. Elder Fillmore and Elder DeCelle will be the trainers and Elder Smith will continue training Elder Ellsworth who is doing great for only one + month in Iceland. Our three trainers have only been here since the middle of January and their language and teaching skills are fantastic. Sure shows what the Lord can do with willing young men. Each District Meeting and Zone Conference Sister Koyle and Sister Bremner provide lunch, but as a special treat for this District Meeting the Elders in Reykjavik made lunch or shall I say a dinner feast. They had a pork roast, potatoes and gravy, peas, corn, fruit salad, and punch. They did ask Sister Koyle to make her delicious cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls and Sister Bremner her famous brownies. So needless to say we didn't need dinner last night.