Blessing of Skype

Not only do we enjoy seeing our family as well as talk to them on Skype, we are now using it to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those that are too far away to visit personally on a regular basis. We have a family we have been teaching in the Westman Islands and last night our new Elders came over to teach Andy and Doreen via Skype. It was a new experience for them and a little challenging not having that closeness that comes from being in their home but they were excited for the challenge and the opportunity to teach this fine family. They will be going to the Westman Islands in a few weeks. This was a good opportunity for them to meet prior to going.

Burrrrrr

We woke up to below zero this morning - that is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit for you in that mode. We didn't know it until we took our walk and we started noticing all the frozen puddles plus the fact we were very cold. But that is not the reason for this post. I just wanted to share one of the blessings of being a missionary - even a senior missionary. Not only do we spend a lot of time with these fine Elders in our mission, we get the blessing of Missionary Correlation every week. It is a special time each Sunday morning we meet with our Elders to discuss the past week and the great teaching that has taken place. We also discuss what the members can do to help the missionaries and then as the Branch Mission Leader I go to the members and ask them for specific help with either teaching or fellowshipping or having individual in their homes for Family Home Evening or some other activity. We have such great members in the Selfoss Branch it is always easy to ask them to take an assignment or just ask them to make friends with those the missionaries are teaching and they do a great job. The picture is Elder Fillmore and Elder Walsh and myself meeting in the Young Women classroom. As you can tell it is small. Sister Bremner is taking the picture from the teachers position. We only have 3 Young Women so it works for now.

Backing Up To Last Sunday

President Olauson, President of the Denmark Copenhagen Mission traveled from Reykjavík to Selfoss early last Sunday morning for interviews and then to speak in our Sacrament Meeting. I then drove him to Reykjavík to speak in their Sacrament Meeting and do interviews. I conducted the semi-annual branch audit and then President Olauson and I returned to Hveragerði (a small town in our branch). Sister Sveinbjörg had invited us and our two missionaries assigned to Selfoss for dinner and to hear her testimony and story of when she helped translate The Book of Mormon back in 1979. She is such a special lady and her testimony and story are so special - the Spirit testified to each of us of the truth of her story. We first had dinner and it was fantastic. She was very concerned because she says she doesn´t cook any more (she is turning 80 next month). We had the best trout dinner I have ever had - for that matter the best fish dinner I have ever had (for those who don´t know it, the first 18 years of my life I spent two weeks every summer in the Wallow Mountains of Oregon and we ate Rainbow Trout every night for dinner)! She then told the story of how The Book of Mormon was translated into Icelandic and her experiences throughout the translation and how she gave up her dream trip to Salt Lake City to be sure the translation was done on time. She then told how she was rewarded four fold for her sacrifice with four trips to Salt Lake City none of which she ever anticipated. It was a special evening for all who were blessed to be there just as it had been the first time she told us. During the first time, Sister Bremner asked her if she had ever written it down and she hadn´t so Sister Bremner has been encouraging her to do so. She finally wrote it in Icelandic for her children and she graciously allowed us to tape her this time. I have been transcribing it which has not been easy due to the equipment we had to work with. Another few days and it will be ready for her approval and disposition as she considers it a very sacred experience and indeed it was for us to hear too. After we drove President Olauson back to his hotel and we return home after 11 PM. A full day to say the least but one to ever be remembered.

SNOW!!!

Just a quick note - yesterday we saw Mt Hekla for the first time in several days. We noted there was new snow on it. No bid deal as it is a big mountain far in the distance and it always has snow on it. This photo was taken in June and up until yesterday there was quite a bit less snow, but yesterday it was starting to look like this photo again. This morning though is another matter. We were exercising and looked up at the foothills not far from us and the tops are covered in snow. This is earlier than last year as there wasn't any snow until the first weekend of October last year.

Training for a Center for Young Adults

We have been trying to establish what used to be call an Outreach Center since back in January. We had what we called Outreach Centers in Romania that were not official and somewhat the same here too. In March the senior couple Brother and Sister Koyle who are assigned to Reykjavík really went to work to find out the requirements to have an official center. The last requirement that need to be done was training by the Area office in Frankfurt Germany. It is usually done before all the other requirements are completed but the Koyle´s moved right through all the requirements so when the training was completed on Saturday we were officially recognized as having a Center for Young Adults as they are now known. The Koyle´s are the missionary couple assigned to the center and Sister Bremner and I are part of an advisory committee as the Seminary and Institute Coordinators. Those who attended the training included the Mission President and his counselor, the Branch Presidents, the missionaries, and the young adult leaders. The schedule called for 3 hours of training but because of the previous work by the Koyle´s it went much quicker. That was good because everyone wanted to keep going after it was over and we didn´t get to dinner with the trainers Sister Hanson and Sister Guthrie, President Olauson, the Koyles and us until late thus making for a late night. As this posting is late I will finish Sunday´s activities tomorrow.

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.