Not Quite The Same - But A Memory

One of the many things Iceland is famous is their wool. Icelandic wool is famous for its warmth and water shedding qualities. We of course have been enjoying more where the wool comes from. We have eaten more leg of lamb since we have been here than I think I have eaten in all the years before. It is delicious and we are going to miss it.

I think every missionary goes home with at least one Icelandic wool sweater but Eileen is allergic to wool and and I am not a sweater person so thought we would just go home having enjoyed the lamb. However we saw a beautiful lamb skin throw in a hotel a year ago and thought we keep an eye out for one. We have never seen one like it but last week we saw a regular lamb skin we thought might make a nice memory. Then since Eileen has really wanted an Icelandic wool sweater even though she reacts to it every time she tries one on, bought one Wednesday. Then today we decided to buy the lamb skin we saw two weeks ago. Of all the many there are to choose from we liked this one for the great variety of color and its large size. As I was sitting with it behind my back I was amazed by the warmth I felt. No wonder the Vikings slept under them.

Twist and Shout

Wouldn't you know it! We have less than 6 weeks to go in Iceland and a new store opens in Reykjavík selling one of our favorite cookies. I don´t like to advertise but we are both hooked on these cookies - better than Oreo Double Stuff!

I am not sure what WalMart is doing selling their products through another store but we also bought a couple of other items we like that are not available in Iceland. They also have many other WalMart and Costco brands. Oh well we will be home soon and then for sure we will miss all the great lamb we enjoy here. The next post will be about maintaining a memory though.

Enjoying Iceland

Wednesday (our preparation day) we took Elder Christensen and Elder Ellsworth to Vík to see the sights along the way. This was the first time for Elder Christensen. It was a fun day with very little wind, temperatures above freezing and no rain. Although we have seen all these sites many times now, it was fun to see them again through their eyes. A new one for me though was getting wet by the ocean. The tide was in further than we have ever seen and we could not get to the cave and rocks we always go to. I was or at least I thought was far back from the surf when suddenly I saw it coming at me. I took off running but not fast enough and I ended up with soaked shoes.

Then in the evening the Elders asked me to help them teach a family we have been working with for a long time. They came to Church Sunday and asked us to come and teach again. The Elders assigned me obedience. Tre and her two children were very intent listening to the Elders teach and even me. I appreciated the thoughts that came to me about how obedience to Gospel principles has worked in their lives and how Tre has been obedient and received blessing. Also how Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and have joy and that is why he gives us commandments just like when Tre gives instruction and guidance to her children because she loves them and wants the best for them. They are such a sweet family and we are looking forward to the day they are baptized. It has been a slow process because they are from Thailand and she speaks more English than Icelandic and the kids speak more Thai than Icelandic or English. They listen though and are slowly learning the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

After the lesson the Elders wanted to help them with their hook work. They attach hooks to leaders for the fishing industry. The leaders are in bundles of 100. For each bundle of 100 complete with hooks they receive 85 krónur or at todays exchange $0.66. I call it slave labor because the most the Elders can do in one hour is one bundle of hooks and for Tre and her family I think the most one can do in 1 hour is 6 bundles.

All in all it was a very enjoyable and fulfilling day.

Iceland - Far From a Sub-Mission

Iceland is called a sub-mission of the Denmark Copenhagen Mission. Why the term sub-mission? We have never been able to find out. After a great District Meeting today, I determined it is because we have great missionaries and if we were bigger we would be a mission all our own. When President Olauson visits from Denmark he shares mission concerns and always prefaces with "I know this is not a problem in Iceland". Yes, we have great missionaries and they are that way all the time.

I wonder why as I think of the challenges of bigger missions? Is it because we only have 6 Elders, two apartments to transfer between, and two Branches to serve? Or is it that together with the two couples there are only 10 of us to share the training, give talks and do planning? Whatever it is, I am most impressed with the great Elders we have worked with the past 16 months. Everyone of our Assistants to the President have been excellent, the training effective and the talks uplifting. Even though these Elders have fun as President Olauson is always telling them to do, they are worthy servants of the Lord preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bringing souls unto Him.

We again forgot to take pictures today but here are some from our last Zone Conference I have not used before. The first one includes two of our great member missionaries that have been such a blessing to the people of Iceland.

Likening the Scriptures Unto Us

Friday night Brother Jensen - our Seminary and Institute Director from Germany arrived in Iceland for another great round of teaching. He began with a Fireside for the Young Single Adults on the signs of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and how we have to receive our own testimony of these signs.

Sadly for us Saturday was our last day with Brother Jensen. He has been a great asset to the Seminary and Institute teachers and students in Iceland. His next visit to Iceland is in March after we leave so we will miss him but Iceland will continue to be blessed by his great skill as a teacher of the Gospel. We began the day with teacher training specifically for the 5 Seminary and Institute teachers. There was a great discussion on how to help the students develop their own personal testimony that The Book of Mormon is the word of God. While Brother Jensen was teaching the teachers, the Seminary students were having a scripture chase activity as today was devoted to the Seminary students. After the teacher training and the Seminar activity, Brother Jensen met with the Seminary students to teach them. At about 1 PM we broke for a delicious lunch which Sister Bremner had prepared and Elder Koyle did the grilling. As we were eating, I asked some of the students how the day had been so far and they had really enjoyed it. Little did they know how much more they would enjoy the day because next we spent almost 3 hours in the National Museum of Iceland. The first two plus hours were directed but they enjoyed themselves so much they kept going until we finally had to leave. Sister Bremner had put together a discussion that was conducted by the Reykjavik Branch President so it would be in their language. The theme was to help the students understand why The Book of Mormon was written and how they can liken it unto themselves as they learned about the history of their own country. She provided each of the students with a list of questions (translated by Sister Sveinbjörg) and a journal and pen so they could think about what they were learning and write their thoughts and discoveries down which we saw them doing. She had also found an Icelandic legend about a great white God who came to Iceland and about gold plates being hidden in the grass. The legend also had drawings. The legend and the drawings fascinated the students and they want to know more about it. I think we can feel it was a successful day when the students keep going until we finally have to end and they want to know more.

Zone Conference - Again So Soon?

The Denmark Copenhagen Mission has 2 Zones in Denmark and one in Iceland. We just had our Zone Conference this last Saturday as noted in an earlier post. Denmark combined their two Zone Conferences this month so they could go to the Temple together. It was then decided to include the Iceland Zone in their meeting via SKYPE. It was a great conference even though there were some technical problems. The Assistants to the President, the Zone Leaders and two sisters taught great lessons and there was two beautiful musical numbers (at least we think so as the sound was extremely poor for those). President and Sister Olauson also spoke along with his counselor and his wife. During lunch the Elders talked to each other over Skype renewing friendships they had developed in the MTC. It was a great day for learning how to be better missionaries and understanding our roll in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ here in Iceland and Denmark. Elder Fillmore was called on to give a 5 minute talk and he gave a very spiritual message. The picture is our Assistant Elder DeCelle who had to make many trips to the PC to send messages regarding challenges with SKYPE. Remarks from the audience could not be heard so one of the Office Elders did a lot of typing which we appreciated.

Breakfast in Bed

Well at least that was the plan, but she never lets me do it. Today is Eileen's birthday so I got up early and had Eggs Benedict, fresh sliced pears and fruit juice already for her when she got up.

The first photo was the sunrise at 10:15 this morning. The second photo is Eileen after the potluck at Church telling me to take pictures of everyone else but not her. The rest of the photos are from the potluck or at least of those that were still there. Eileen fixed everything she was taking last night so I do not have to worry about making any more meals today. Sister Koyle even made her two Birthday cakes we had at Zone Conference yesterday and she sent the leftovers home with us.

On the way to Church, Eileen said "Let's make sure we take pictures during the potluck". As usual we didn't and I remembered when the potluck was basically over except for the final dishes. I wanted a picture of her on her birthday and she kept telling me not to take pictures of her so I finally said - got to do this since it is your birthday and then everyone sang Happy Birthday in Icelandic.