Northern Lights

OK I didn´t take these pictures but they are from Iceland and we saw the most beautiful Northern Lights Wednesday night very similar to these pictures. A member called us about 10:30 PM and said "I am sorry to call this late but the Northern Lights are beautiful." We quickly wrapped up and went outside. At first they seemed like those we have seen before and Eileen started back into the house when I said, "look!" She turned around and saw the beautiful beginning of a spectacular light show. We decided to go outside town so at not to have the city lights interfering. From there we could see the Northern Lights stretched across the sky from the eastern horizon to the western horizon. Most of the time it was basically a long band of greenish light that was very fluid and varied in intensity similar to the first two pictures. Then there would be areas that would begin to modulate up and down and as they did so change color intensity and colors. After viewing this show for sometime we headed back into town and right in front of us was this spectacular movement of lights changing from light green to yellow to pink and then purple. We had to stop and continue to watch the show. Finally we headed home and just as we came around the corner to our house we saw this huge ball of green that suddenly began to change colors in stripes across the ball much like the colorful picture above. Yesterday we mentioned to another member about the ball we saw and she said, "OH yes that was beautiful. I was driving and it just showed up in front of me and OH Wow!" I called the friend who called us and told him that was the most spectacular Northern Lights we had seen and a great finale to our mission in Iceland.

A Great Baptism Tonight

Ghomsi Guy Rodrigue was baptized this evening - the first to be baptized in Iceland in 2010. He is a student at the University of Iceland from Camaroon. He has been in Iceland the last 5 months and will be here 2 more years before returning to Camaroon. Courtney (baptized Ghomsi) and Betty Ward and their family have been fellowshipping Ghomsi since the missionaries first brought him to Church. They have become good friends. As Betty said in her talk on the Holy Ghost, they share a common thread both being from Africa. The reason for two pictures of the Elders - we could not get them all in the picture at the same time. One of the fun things about being such a small mission is all of the missionaries in the mission usually get an opportunity to teach everyone who is baptized. The only ones who usually are not involved in all the baptisms are the couples as we usually only teach those in our own branches since we do not transfer like the Elders.

Goodbyes!

Today we attended a very beautiful funeral for a member of the Reykjavík Branch. Gísli Ragnar Pétursson was only 72 years old. He was very active in the community and well loved. During the planning of the funeral it was projected there would be 130 people attend. Since our chapel is not big enough for that many people the funeral was held in a Lutheran Church (first picture outside the church). The Masons wanted to participate in the funeral services because of his membership in their organization. After the very beautiful Mormon, Mason, Lutheran funeral we went to a small cemetery for the burial (picture of the church at the cemetery). Our 6 young Elders were asked to be the pallbearers which was a new experience for them especially when there were handed the ropes to lower the casket into the grave.

Gísli was still working at the time of his death and his employer wanted to make sure there was a nice meal after the services, so we set up our church with every available table plus some and served an amazing amount of food. Over 200 people attended the funeral but we were so busy keeping the two food tables stocked and washing dishes, glasses and silverware no one counted how many came for the meal. We had 80 seats full all the time and many people stood and talked and ate. When you look at our small Church kitchen, you know it was a miracle to accomplish such a feat.

HP Madness!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All of you who follow our blog (which can't be many with the few comments we get) know about the motherboard dying on our HP laptop we bought the week before we left for Iceland. In September it started doing some weird things. I just thought they were glitches and didn't think much of them. I wasn't paying attention to our warranty though and when I called HP because they were worse than glitches, the computer was out of warranty by a few days and HP said OH SO SORRY. Luckily I had bought a 3rd party warranty and after 3 months they authorized me to have it fixed and send them the bill. The HP authorized service center in Reykjavík took 3 weeks to install a new motherboard. We were very happy to have our laptop back and to reinstall and update everything. Well the happiness was short lived as we had the computer 10 days when it all began again yesterday and today it went back for a new motherboard.

I think an Apple maybe in our future!

Our Elders

Just wanted to show off our great Elders. We had a great District Meeting this past Tuesday and after lunch the Elders went to work cleaning up!

Ölfusá River

The Ölfusá River flows in front of our apartment. It provides a wonderful view and soothing sound as it passes by every day. No matter how high or low the water level, it always moves quickly by. The level changes constantly though through out the year depending on precipitation and temperature. I find the ice formations some of the most interesting times. As we look out our windows we are always greeted by a small island that seems to go up and down. There have been a few times we have noticed it almost disappear and begin to wonder if we are going to have to prepare for flooding. The three pictures with ice were taken today but they could have been easily taken in mid January as it appeared much the same until January 26 - the day the island looked like it was going to go under.

Hnefatafl or Viking Chess

When we arrived in Iceland, Elder Redford would pick up interesting rocks on Preparation Days. I asked why, he said he was collecting them to make a game called Hnefatafl or Viking Chess. We later came across the game in a museum. The price was $50 and it was just made of a cardboard game board and 1/2" dowels cut about 1/4" thick and painted just on the top - very cheaply made and not something that would last. I started collecting rocks too. This week even though I have nothing to make a board out of but paper, I decided to make the game up and try it. Elder Ellsworth and Elder Christensen came over for dinner on Preparation Day yesterday an hour early so they tried out the game. It doesn't look real challenging when you first start playing it but as you begin to learn the rules if does become very challenging.

For dinner we had salmon. Eileen does not like fish and won't fix it, but I felt we needed to try some before we left. We bought it frozen in the discount grocery store we shop at. I was concerned it might not be that good but when I opened it and there was no smell I thought that was a good sign. There was no smell cooking it either and it was very good - no fishy taste. It is a shame Eileen doesn't like fish as I think we could have enjoyed many more varieties while we were here.