29 May 2006

Day 2 - Iceland Trip with Steve Andersen

From my Journal, 5 Maí 2006
Just an indescribable day today! It all started with a wonderful breakfast in the hotel of smoked salmon, skýr, biekon, caviar, kokomjólk, o.s.v....We met Gummi at his apartment, and headed out on the Golden Circle tour of Gullfoss, Geysir and Þingvellir.



Guðmundur works for one of the tour companies here in Reykjavík, and was able to share with us many stories about what we were seeing. Much information that I never heard as a missionary. Stopped at Gullfoss for a quick lunch of Soup, fresh bread and malt...mmmmmm! On the way home we stopped to see Margrét Annie. It was so great to see her again. She always was so kind to us as missionaries. Found out that her dad passed away a few years previous. Margrét is in her 40´s now, but the years have been kind to her, as you can see in this picture.


Her daughter Melanie has two small children, making Margrét a grandmother...my, how time flies. From there, we tried to stop and see Víðir and Klara, but they were not home. We traveled on to Sister Sveinbjörg´s house, out in Hveragerði. I can´t tell you how wonderful it was to see her. As Davíð Gíslasson said, 'when I think of Iceland, I think of Sveinbjörg'....


Throught most of the day, President Guðmundur sat in the back of the car, and made phone calls, inviting people to the next day´s screeening of Steve´s movie, 'Fire on Ice'.

After our trip, we stopped back at Gummi´s, and picked up Valla and the girls for dinner. Gummi has two daughters left at home, Rebekka Rán, and Regína Ösp. They are both wonderful young women. Rebekka is 17, and Regína is 14.

Rakell Mjöll lives out in Garðabæ, and we saw her several times during the trip. I have fond memories of sitting on the floor playing with an infant Rakell. She is a beautiful, talented and sensitive young woman, who will do many great things in her life. We went to a Chinese Restaurant with the girls, and had alot of fun. There were NEVER restaurants like this when we were here. The food was mediocre, but the company was super. I love Gummi and Valla.

26 May 2006

Time to Reconnect

Steve Andersen ('83-85) and I visited Iceland and Denmark recently in conjunction with the showing of Fire on Ice to the saints in Iceland. It was a wonderful trip, and a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends. I encourage all of you who read this, to reestablish your ties with the friends you made while serving in Iceland. This "Blog" will serve as a vehicle for all of us to get reconnected with each other, and the Saints we love so much. Please visit www.icelandmission.com and get registered. Steve and I both have the most recent copy of the Branch Directory. Call us or send an email if you need to find someone. We will be happy to help.
Dale Tanner.

Here are some pictures from the trip. Melva Geslison and the twins, Dave and Dan, were also there while we were there.