Ógnartími (Terror Time)

In exactly six days I will begin teaching Icelandic 201 at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. I got offered the job five or six months ago when the current teacher, Friðrik Guðmundsson, told the department that he would be graduating and leaving BYU. He recommended me, so that was that. I was already working full-time at BYU and will do this as an evening class (for extra pay), even though it starts at 4pm on MWF and goes till 5:20pm.

To put it mildly, the TERROR HAS BEGUN! I never knew how demanding putting together a course like this was and how many things the teacher was required to think about and prepare. Setting up the syllabus alone was a nightmare, only made easier because Friðrik gave me the framework so I didn't have to start from scratch. I went to teacher orientation and training today, most of which was spent with the four other student instructors who will be teaching Norwegian, Danish and Swedish. The outgoing Swedish teacher is a native, the newly hired one for winter is an RM. The other two teachers who will teach Danish and Norwegian were RMs as well.

We did part of our training together with the French Department since they have so many more students in those classes each semester. I felt uniquely important and yet insignificant in that part of the training. There were 15 French teachers in the room and one lone Icelandic teacher who was experiencing the increasing terror over the minutes and then hours. The Frenchies all use the same textbook with modern pictures, examples and curriculum. For ICLND 201, I have a book that was printed originally in 1949 which has been reprinted several times, but never updated with more appropriate translation exercises or lesson materials. 101 and 102 have a newer text written by four women professors at the University of Iceland, but these students have already gone through all that material. I felt like Cosette in Les Miserables, when she was little and her mother had died and before Jean came and rescued her. Hand-me-down clothes (books) with most all the faces in the room facing conspicuously in a different direction.

I did feel better that there were more 201 students signed up for Icelandic (seven) than for Swedish (five). Hopefully I can keep at least four or five of them for 201 and then into 202.

Friðrik did say that the terror for him did go away after a month or so (oh, great!) but he never went to class feeling completely at ease since it is a big responsibility to teach a class like this at a university level. My wife starts her first semester of her Master's degree program this semester too, so we won't be busy at all....What option do I have but to prepare as well as I can and show the students the passion that I have for Iceland and it's beautiful language?

Sigur eða ósigur? (Victory or Defeat?)

A friend of mine, Þorbergur Sigurjónsson (pictured at left with his daughter), came to visit me today in my office at BYU. He lives in Utah with his American wife, Amy, and their three daughters, the most recent of whom was just born two months or so ago (this picture is a little older. Jóhannes his brother is also in the picture). He is getting back into BYU to finish up his computer science degree. He took a few semesters off while he was working heavily but now wants to finish up.

Þorbergur always speaks Icelandic to me when he visits or calls (which I really appreciate). Since I had been so involved with the Icelandic Men's Handball team games during the Olympics recently, I asked him what his family back in Iceland and everyone else thought about the team making it to the gold-medal game. He said everyone in the whole country stopped everything to watch the game and cheer on the boys. He said even the Icelandic stock market closed--probably since no one would be trading or paying attention to their stocks during that time anyway. What a great thing to have your whole country behind you as you defeat one opponent after another.

Everyone was heartbroken when the team didn't beat France, but in the end, how could the Icelanders not be happy with the team's performance. They only lost to South Korea early on (a fluke) and to France finally. So in the end, winning the silver is really a "glass is half full" kind of thing instead of the opposite. The head coach Guðmundur Guðmundsson and the team did so well that winning the silver was as exciting as winning the gold for such a small country. And they were a blast to watch. Way to go guys!

Ólympíuleikar og handbolti (The Olympic Games and Handball)

I'm sure my old missionary friend who I taught in the MTC was just being polite by sending around the email, but now I think I'm hooked. I haven't seen a full hour-long game of European style handball since I was a missionary 23 years ago. And even back then, we never saw a full game of handball since we didn't watch TV or go to sporting events.

I got an email on Wednesday last week (Aug 13th) from Eric Tuttle who served a mission in Iceland from 1987-1989. He is an architect in Salt Lake City now and has a website for his business at etuttle.net. The email was sent to me and a bunch of other RM's who served in Iceland. The gist of the email was that the Icelandic mens handball team had just beaten the world champions (their second game and second win) and that if we were interested, we could watch a replay of the match at http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=1118451. Well, I watched the match against the Germans, then went back and watched the first game they played against the Russians where they beat them too. Well, once I had watched those two games I really was hooked. So this is the standing for the mens handball team from Iceland:

Russia vs. Iceland = 31-33

Germany vs. Iceland = 29-33

South Korea vs. Iceland = 22-21

Denmark vs. Iceland = 32-32 (both teams advance)

Egypt vs. Iceland = 32-32 (Egypt had to beat Iceland to advance and didn't)

Poland vs. Iceland = scheduled

The game between Poland and Iceland will be played at 12:15am Wednesday morning (tomorrow). If you are reading this late, you already know the score. We hope Iceland can go all the way. You can hear their coach calling the whole game from the sidelines saying, "strákar!" which is the word for "boys."

Fun to watch, but since it is not a sport played in the U.S., hard to watch in the U.S. unless you get all the cable channels. "Áfram, strákar!"

Nokkrar Staðreyndir (A Few Facts)

In size, Iceland claims about 40,000 square miles of land. In comparison, that is less that half the size of Utah which claims almost 85,000 square miles of land. Iceland can only boast one land mammal, the Arctic Fox. Six different seal species have been seen around the island, but only the common seal and the grey seal breed all around the country. Twenty-three individual species of whales have been seen in Icelandic waters.

A number of Irish monks wrote of a land called Thule in the 8th and 9th centuries, before Norsemen came to permanently inhabit it. Ari Þorgilsson the Learned, Iceland’s first historian, said that the Irish monks who first were in the land went away eventually because they did not want to live with heathans.

The Faroe Island were discovered and settled before Iceland. Since the Norseman of that day had no compass to sail by, it is not suprising that eventually someone would miss the Faroes when traveling from Norway and then arrive at Iceland. Both versions of Landnámabók or The Book of Settlements agree that the name Iceland came from a disappointed Norwegian named Flóki who made the first attempt to settle the island but lost all his livestock during a very hard winter. Both versions also agree that Iceland was discovered and settled by Norsemen in consequence of their insatiable lust for travel among the Scandinavians during the Viking Age.

Ingólfur Arnarson is named in the Book of Settlements as the first to leave for Iceland and set up a permanent settlement there. He did so in what is now called Reykjavík, the capital. Ari states that Iceland was settled first in 870 A.D. whereas the Book of Settlements states that it was settled first in 874. Recent studies of the Greenland ice cap have settled the matter that Iceland was likely settled just a few years previous to these dates. Icelandic settlement scholars mostly agree that the original number of settlers was around 10,000.

The most common reason for leaving Norway at that time was the aggressive nature of the Norwegian King, Harald Fairhair. Harald inherited a kingdom in eastern Norway but moved to unite all Norway under his rule. He did so with a firm hand and once accomplished, many of the lesser nobles left Norway out of self-preservation and not wanting to be subject to the whims of the new king of all of Norway. Those who had opposed his attempts at taking over all of Norway were then "black listed" in essence and could not be assured of their safety. Egill's Saga is one of the best of the sagas which discusses this tumultuous time in Norway and the lives and events leading these noblemen to Iceland, away from the tempermental King Harald.

Íslenskur trúboði á Íslandi (An Icelandic missionary in Iceland)

I don't know exactly how many years ago it was, maybe five or six, but I remember when it was normal to go up to Salt Lake City in early April and October of each year to help with the translation of General Conference for the Icelanders. There was one or two people who were over the process of keeping the RM's who were still around on a list and calling on them when conference was getting close to help out. I was on that list since I planned to stay in the area and still had contact with those who were putting everything together. During a few of those years there was not an Icelander around to help us with the process. During other years Þorbergur Sigurjónsson and Friðrik Guðmundsson were at BYU and able to keep the group of us organized.

I remember starting out as a translator in the basement of the old tabernacle on Temple Square. Then, once the Conference Center was complete, we moved over there to a beautiful facility above the main floor in the north-west corner of the building.

In my third or four go-around doing this, I showed up to my particular session of conference and met up with some of the other RM's who would be helping out. I saw this one elder who I didn't recognize and didn't hear his name right off. He was speaking Icelandic to one of the two natives there and my mouth fell open. I said to myself, "wow, this guy's Icelandic is perfect. He is gifted and probably just barely home from his mission." I'd never seen him before, not even a picture of him so I was curious. Well I asked Friðrik, I think, who he was and he told me that he wasn't just an RM but an Icelander who was baptized after I left my mission. No wonder I didn't know him. His name was Kristján Mathiesen and had served his mission mostly in Bristol, England.

I learned a bit about his story that night and then a bunch more later on. He, it turns out, is the only Icelander to my knowledge who has ever served part of his regular mission in his home country, Iceland. He served his last three months in Iceland because of either the death or illness of one of his parents. That is why he is in this picture with the other missionaries of his day back in early 1993. He is the 2nd from the left on the bottom row. An interesting three months that must have been.

Kristján married Sóley Ólafsdóttir whose family are all faithful members of the Church. It is very difficult for LDS Icelanders to find spouses who are also LDS Icelanders, but in Kristján's case, he found a great one; one who was a favorite of all the missionaries since she was so happy and helped us patiently with our Icelandic. She was seven when I arrived in Iceland. Now the two of them have three kids of their own, the oldest of whom, Daníel, just became a deacon.

Fyrr 1975 (Before 1975)

I was speaking with Hera Toutai recently, an Icelander who I knew when I was a missionary in Iceland and who I stay in contact with. Her husband, Henele, is Tongan, hence the last name. She told me an interesting story about a Mormon American living in Iceland before the mission got formally started in 1975.

It was actually nearer the end of 1975 that the mission started in Iceland. Byron and Melva Geslison came to start things off at that time, but they didn't just hop on a plane and then go right to work without speaking to anyone in Iceland about what they would be getting themselves into. Byron found out that there was an LDS American man there named Payne who was teaching Sociology at the University of Iceland as a guest professor for a period of time. Byron called Payne on a number of occasions and they discussed the cost of housing, possible receptivity of the Icelanders to the Church, etc. Housing was very expensive, so the Paynes agreed to allow the Geslisons to share their apartment when they arrived until they could find something of their own or until the Paynes left Iceland. Byron mentioned in an interview with Fred Woods for his book, Fire on Ice, that the boys had slept of the floor during that time with their coats over them.

Time went by and Bro. Payne's assignment at the University came to an end without the Geslisons having found a better apartment for themselves and the twins. It was hoped that the Geslisons would be able to take over the Payne's apartment, but for some reason they were not allowed to do so. One of the few Icelandic members on the island at the time was Þorsteinn Jónsson. Þorsteinn felt so bad for the Geslisons that he agreed to let them stay in his apartment for a time and he went and moved onto his boat (he was a seaman) until they were able to find another apartment. I lived with Þorsteinn in his apartment for about a year and a half of my mission back in the mid-eighties. He always let missionaries share his apartment. A true Latter-day Saint. I gained a lot from my relationship with Þorsteinn.

Hera told me that the Paynes were the first to help her understand some of basic principles of the gospel at the age of 12 when she was sure she was not going to heaven. The Paynes were set apart as special missionaries to the Icelanders by a General Authority. She her comment on this blog on 17 Jul 2008.

Þorsteinn, the Paynes, the Geslisons, Hera, Sveinbjörg and others. All willing pioneers in that far away tiny land.

Trúboðadagbækur mínar (My missionary Journals)

My wife and I have moved seven times in the 20 years we've been married. The reason for some of the moves was because of school, other times we just didn't have enough room for our growing family.

Sometime after our last move to Orem, Utah, I lost track of my mission journals. I had been wanting for some time to find them and remember things I did and saw and heard since I would be writing some of the stuff in this blog. I found them today....

10Jan1986: "I can't figure people out sometimes. We taught--or should I say tried to teach--another man but he just sat and watched TV. He fed us cookies and milk but hadn't read any in the BofM. I'd sure like to find someone out there who was pure in heart and who was trying to really follow the Lord...The Church is true even if no one ever listens to us."

It seems lots of my entries were like this, having a hard time understanding why people didn't understand or grasp onto our message. But that is what made the other days when people did hear and accept our message so great!

Nokkrar trúboðamyndir í viðbót (Just a few additional missionary pictures)

I have just received the following three pictures from former missionaries and an Icelandic member or two who went through their photo albums for me. In this entry I thought it would be fun to name all the people. So in this first one from a 1980 zone conference in Iceland we have on the top from left to right: Bret Leifson, Court Skabelund and Mike DeYoung. On the middle row L-R: Danish AP, Curt Hutchings, Orell Anderson, Kevin Barton, Ted Davis, another Danish AP and President Jensen from Denmark. Bottom row L-R: Grant Grow, Arthur Hansen, Bob Farris and Bryan Beck. Bryan is one of only two missionaries (of the 163) who has passed away since the mission opened in 1975. He died of cancer some time ago. The other who died was David Chadwell, who I taught in the MTC, who also died some time ago a few years after he was married.

This next picture was taken in early 1993. On the top from L-R: Danish AP, Chris Smith, Eric Ball, Mark Patey, Andre Geurts, Thomas Eastmond, Joe Staker. On the bottom L-R: Ben Johnson, Kristján Mathieson, Phillip Papenfuss and Nathan Taylor.

This last one I really like. It is from May 1980. From left to right on a great day of baptisms in Iceland: Snorri Einhversson (ha ha), Bryan Beck, Jóhann Karlsson, Gerhard Guðnason, three Icelandic girls, the little one named Halla, Bret Leifson and Ýrr Bertelsdóttir, the mother of Halla. I remember Snorri, Jóhann, Gerhard and Ýrr from my mission from 1984 to 1986. All together, a good looking bunch of Icelanders and faithful servants.

Svo Mörg Orð (So many words)

There were so many Icelandic words that missionaries had to learn quickly upon arrival in Iceland if they wanted to be able to carry on the most simple of conversations. We had to know the difference between sæll and sæl when greeting people. You didn’t say “sæll” as a greeting to a woman your first time in church trying to make a good impression for example (I never did that, of course).

As we went along, we learned lots of new words from our companions and from the people we met with. We frequently would go to our dictionaries in the mornings during companion study and write down 10 new words that we thought would be useful to learn and try to use them during the day. Every missionary new the following Icelandic words or phrases in a very short time and how to inflect them:

Ég skil ekki = I don’t understand
Aftur = again
Áfram = onward
Áætlun = plan
Að þekkja = to know
Bók = book
Drukkinn = drunk
Erfiður = hard
Að gefa = to give

I was having a hard time focusing in a meeting one day at work about a year ago and I decided to write down all the Icelandic verbs I could think of. I don’t remember how many I wrote down that day, but I remember it being a lot. Every missionary hits a plateau though, being able to communicate well in almost every conversation without feeling stupid, but never being able to get close to a native’s ability because we usually spent most of our time talking about spiritual topics.

I loved certain words or names like:

Sáluhjálparáætlun = plan of salvation
Frón = Iceland (the way poets said it)
Hlakka til = look forward to
Hallgrímur = (a man’s name)
Ævintýri = adventure

On my 2004 trip to Iceland, I was walking through a churchyard early one morning and saw a number of names on the gravestones that I really liked but that were not so common in Iceland any more. One was Guðfinna (one who finds God) and Friðfinna (one who finds peace). They sound really nice in Icelandic, but say them with an American accent and they sound stupid. So needless to say, only one of my children got an Icelandic name and it is her middle name. She still says it is hard to say, but I am letting her grow from the experience. Kristjana.

Wohlgemuth Trúboðshjónin (The Wohlgemuth Missionary Couple)

Þegar ég var trúboði, fékk ég þá blessun til að kynnast þremur trúboðshjónum á Íslandi. Fyrstu hjónin voru Byron og Melva Gíslason frá Spanish Fork, Utah. Þau þjónuðu þrisvar sínum á Íslandi sem trúboðar. Þá komu Austin og Geniel Loveless sem voru þar á miðju trúboðs míns frá Logan, Utah. Síðast komu þau Don og Mary Dilworth from Pocatello, Idaho.

Síðan ég kom heim, hef ég ekki haft samband með trúboðshjónunum mikið fyrir en síðasta þrjú ár. Ég byrjaði þrjú ár síðan að senda email til trúboðshjónanna öðru hverju. Þegar ég for til Íslands í 2004 voru Shirl og Mary Holt hjónin að þjóna á Íslandi, að hafa komið frá St. George, Utah. Þá komu Mike og Kristi Simkins frá Washington ríki. Núna eru þau, Lee og Marti Wohlgemuth þar að gefa íslendingunum og kirkju þeirra tíma og peninga þeirra til að kenna íslendingunum um Drottinn og það sem hann er að gera fyrir börnin sín í dag.

Ég er búinn að taka eftir því hvernig hver hjón koma til Íslands með hæfileika sem eru afar ólíkar en þeir sem síðastu hjónin sýndu. Þetta blessar líf þeirra sem eru í og fyrir utan kirkjuna þar. Wohlgemuth hjónin sem þjóna í dag eiga hæfileika við að „skipuleggja”. Þau eru búin að skipuleggja trúboðsheimildirnar sem voru í íbuð þeirra og hafa verið þar í langan tíma. Þau nota mikinn tíma að hjálpa ungu trúboðunum með ábyrgðar þeirra og að standa í stað fyrir foreldrar og afa og ömmur þeirra.

Ég er mjög þakklátur fyrir hjón eins og Gíslason, Loveless, Dilworth, Holt, Simkins, og Wohlgemuth hjónin sem eru öll fús til að fara á trúboð og þjóna á þennan hátt án þess að hugsa jafnvel pínulítið um það sem þau vildu frekar vera að gera. Guð blessi þau og hin sem eru eins og þau um allan heim.

Helmingur Trúboðanna (Half of the missionaries)

I have been gathering a collection of photos over the last 3 or 4 years of all the missionaries who have ever served in Iceland as Mormon missionaries. There have been 161 of the young missionaries to have served thus far since 1975. I have at least one photo of all but 13 of them. Still working on getting at least one of these elusive thirteen.

Here is a collection of 14 pictures which include about half of all those who have served.

1975-1989






















1976-1980























1979-1982

1983-1985

1984-1987

1988-1990















1989-1992

1990-1993

1993-1996
1999-2005

2000-2004












2003-2005

2004-2007

2006-2009

Gamlar myndir út í sveit (Old pictures from the country)

Rural life in Iceland has changed dramatically from what it was even 20 years ago. Environmental concerns are taking hold in the minds of Icelanders like never before. But sometimes it's important to stop...to think about yesterday...and then to consider what is most important in life.

Mikið frá mynd (A lot from a picture)

You can tell a lot from a picture. Take this one for example. It is of some unknown Icelanders. I got it during a random search of websites having to do with Iceland.
What can you tell from the picture? It is easy to see that more than one family is represented here. At first glance it appears that there are two daughters and a son in the foreground. Upon closer inspection though you can see that the little girl on the right has the hand of, not the grandfather in the picture, but the woman behind her. The little one wanted to see something through the crowd but couldn't do so without squeezing through. Mom is holding on tight though. Whatever is being looked at is fascinating to the kids and adults alike. The boy in the red shirt appears to be a part of a youth soccer team and if you translate the words on his shirt, they read, "corner ball". There are some kind of festivities in the area. The red-shirt boy has a ballon with a netting around it. The girl on the left has a ballon but it is not blown up, though it appears she has and is trying. The boy in the blue shirt, by the way he is standing, seems to have been right there for at least a few minutes. There is likely some kind of performance underway that is captivating them all. I would dare to say that this boy is "popular" at school.

The date of the picture is August 21, 2004. On that day in Reykjavík it was the Reykjavík Marathon. There may have been festivities downtown on a warm Icelandic day in August that would have brought everyone out. The mom on the left is being entertained. She and at least one of her children came to the events with a jacket, just in case, but has taken hers off, as well as has perhaps the boy. The girl on the left doesn't mind dressing like one since she is wearing pink, has a butterfly on her pants and lace at the bottom of her shirt. Grandpa has a newspaper or a program of the days events and seems to be intent on the out of sight performance as well.

What else can you see about the picture of these unknown Icelanders?

Trip of a lifetime....again!

About nine months ago I received a phone call from my mother. During our conversation, she reminded me that in 2008, she and dad would be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I had already given the subject some thought, and was ready (i thought) for what was to follow. I told her not to worry. I was already in the preliminary planning phases of a big party. We would fly in long-lost friends and relatives for an extravaganza not to be soon forgotten. She stopped me mid sentence, and said that they had some ting else in mind. She said, "Iceland has always been such an important part of your life, and dad and I feel like we've missed out on something....We want to go to Iceland, and we want you and Chris (my wife) to come with us. We readily accepted.

We left on the 12th of June, and arrived in Reykjavík at nearly midnight to a beautiful midnight sun. This is a picture we took at a baptism that we were able to attend on the first night there Mattíus Olafsson had a friend that was baptized. He got to know some of the kids in the branch through work.



This is Olafur Olafsson´s extended family. Olafur married Björg Marteinsdottir while I was there in 1984. When I left, Björg was expecting Unnur. That is her on the left. Sóley and her family are on the right. The young man third from the left was the one baptized that night.


Sóley hates it when I tell this story, but I can´t help myself. When I was just a new missionary, Björg and Sóley had just moved back to Iceland from the states. Sóley spoke very little Icelandic, but was learning quickly....probably more quickly than us. She used to corner the Elders in church and beg us, "Please .......speak English to me!" Inevitably, Björg would find us, and scold both of us. Sóley has such a great family. Kristján is a great man, and has done much for the church in Iceland. Together they are raising another generation of Icelandic saints. Daniel, their oldest, just became a Deacon this week. The girls are the cutest. Anja and Yrja. This was a great evening, getting caught up with Olí and Björg.

Að Læra Nýtt Tungumál (Learning a New Language)

Stundum hugsa ég svo oft um íslensku og Ísland and ég þreytast. Það er ekki einfalt ferli fyrir mig til að allt í einu og snögglega byrja að tala eða hugsa á íslensku þegar það er nauðsynlegt. Ég kann það nokkuð þegar nauðsynlegt er, en það er ekki auðvelt fyrir mig.

Ég man eftir því, jafnvel þegar ég hafði verið á Íslandi eitt og hálft ár og gat talað nokkuð, að ég hafði erfitt með að muna að tala hægt, eða á minnsta kosti á venjulegan hraða. Ég vildi alltaf virðast geta talað vel svo að fólk myndi hlusta á boð okkar heldur en hve slæmt tal mitt væri. Svo ég talaði of hratt stundum og myndi hrasa um orðin mín oft. Ef ég hugsaði um það, gat ég hægt ferð orða minna og orðið skilinn.

Ég held að allir sem læra nýtt tungumál verða taugaóstyrkir reglulega (í byrjunni) þegar nauðsyn kemur fram til að tala málið við einhvern sem talar málið sem moðurmál sitt. Jafnvel á þessa stund er ég að nota orðabækur mínar til að skrifa þessa grein þegar ég get ekki munað eftir orði hér og þar sem ég vil nota. En að skrifa þetta hjálpar mér til að æfa mig svo að hæfileiki minn með málinu heldur áfram að vaxa heldur en að minnka. Ef ég hugsa aldrei á íslensku og tala aldrei, hvernig getur hann vaxið?

Nokkrum finnst gaman að læra mörg tungumál. Ég hef enn svo mikið til að læra af íslensku að ég hugsa ekki um önnur mál. Ég kann ekki að tala önnur tungumál. Það er í lagi. Ég skil mikið á spænsku og pínulítið á fáein önnur. Ég veit þegar ég er að heyra þýsku, dönsku, norsku, ítalsku, frönsku, portúgalsku, hebresku, kantonsku, mandarínsku og rússnesku. En, ég er ánægður með að eyða tíma mínum að læra íslensku vel. Er alltaf meira að læra um hana og dýpri til að komast í henni.

Karlakór (Men's Choir)

A few weeks ago I was contacted by two people who serve in the leadership of the Icelandic Association of Utah, David Ashby and Jack Tobiasson. They asked if I would do as I have done in years past and arrange some kind of musical number for the Sunday night fireside which is associated every year with "Iceland Days" in Spanish Fork. I agreed and then proceeded to send out a mass email to all the former LDS missionaries who had served in Iceland. The email went out to over 100 email addresses. I asked all who might be in the area and available to come to Spanish Fork and sing "God Be With You" in Icelandic for the fireside last night. There ended up being eight of us there: Tyler Shepherd, Craig Holdaway, Matt Lillywhite, Brian Moser, Cody Sunderland, Matt Hyatt, Dennis Flynn and myself. Right before we sang I told the audience that we had not rehearsed, but that we would sing the same "parts" as we did when we were missionaries. The pianist played the introduction and I heard a power come out of these men as they sang that favorite hymn, "Guð sé með sér uns við hittumst heil".

I was able to get everyone rounded up afterwords for a picture except for Matt Hyatt. He got away somehow before I could catch him. From left to right in this picture we are: Darron Allred, Dennis Flynn, Cody Sunderland, Tyler Shepherd, Brian Moser, Craig Holdaway and Matt Lillywhite.

A woman named Telma Marínósdóttir gave the opening prayer in Icelandic. Then I noticed her crying as we sang. When I heard her fluent Icelandic during her prayer and noticed her crying, I wondered who she was. I had never heard of her, and yet here she was, involved, praying powerfully in the spirit. She was not a Western Icelander so who was she? I spoke to her afterward and got her interesting story. She basically moved with her family to Las Vegas when she was younger for her father's work, found the Church there and joined, has since married and just found out about the Icelandic Association of Utah not too long ago. We became friends immediately and she promised to help me in any way she can with my teaching Icelandic 201 in the fall at BYU.

The Western Icelanders in the Icelandic Association of Utah continue to hold on to their heritage. I heard someone say that the first Icelandic Days celebration was held in the 1880's. A proud heritage that I am honored to be a part of, even though the closest blood tie I have found so far is only in Denmark....

Þurrkaðir Fiskar (Dried Fish)

Some of us have been back from Mormon missions to Iceland now for 33 years. Not me, of course, but some of the 165 of us. Dan and Dave Geslison, Gary Buckway and Blake Hansen, for example. We come home from that nearly other-worldly experience and pick back up with our former lives. Some of us maintain some pretty close ties with a few Icelanders who we got to know well and loved. Some of us developed deep and long lasting friendships with some of the other missionaries who served there and with whom we had some amazing experiences. Those experiences were often laced with a fair bit of pain and hardship along with the occasional amazing point in time. These experiences are hard to describe to those who didn't go through the same thing there....

On that rare occasion when you get into a conversation with someone who has never even heard about Iceland, let alone been there, the back and forth of that exchange usually revolves around only one or two questions and our standard answers of, "yeah, it was pretty cold there." and "no, not many people were interested in our message." (Kind of a dry conversation, like these drying fish). We walk away though with very specific and vivid memories returning, very few of which would have been considered "normal" or "cliché" to the person we just spoke to (like the story about how the Icelanders dry their fish). If we had been able to sense an interest from the person in getting past those initial clichés, then we sense we can be a little more open about how deeply our feelings run for that land and the people there.

A few times each year, a former missionary will be able travel to Iceland, not always on the way to somewhere else, and spend a few days with old friends and somewhat familiar places. That is when the store of love for and interest in Iceland and the Icelanders returns and we each feel the same feelings we did when we lived there as missionaries, wanting to help that group of people to come to know God better.

I know it is the same for Mormon missionaries wherever in the world they serve, but to me, Iceland, its people, its land and its language are THE place. There is nothing cliché about Iceland to any of us.

Auka Fréttir (Additional News)

Just a few additional bits of information about members of the Church in Iceland and how the "jarðskjálfti" affected them. This is from Lee Wohlgemuth in an email he sent me yesterday from Iceland where he and his wife are serving as a senior missionary couple.

"All of us are fine. A number of local people were injured and had to go to the hospital, and a few members also sustained some minor injuries. The epicenter of the quake was near Selfoss, about 40 miles from where we live in Reykajvik. We have missionaries and members in Selfoss, and many members in Hveragerði, a small town about 9 miles from Selfoss. The mountain between Selfoss and Hveragerði is where the quake was centered. We had driven by the area about 1/2 hour before the quake occurred, as we were returning to Reykajvik from Selfoss.

The quake was, of course, felt in Reykjavik and in surrounding areas, but the damage was worst in Hveragerði and Selfoss. Our chapel, a rented hall in a store building in Selfoss, was also slightly damaged, and we have some small repairs to make. Our members in the area were harder hit in their homes. The Selfoss Elders Quorum President, Jóhann, who lives in Hveragerði, lost about everything in his kitchen and dining room. Everything was dumped onto the floor and is broken. The house itself sustained damage, and the walls are not at right angles any more! During some of the aftershocks, Jóhann could see the walls swaying and moving a bit, then settling a bit further off square. A nearby neighbor, Sveinbjörg, also lost almost all of her dishes and crockery and china, plus the cabinets all came off the walls. Sveinbjörg is the lady who translated the Book of Mormon into Icelandic in 1981. Her house is a mess.

Other members in Hveragerði and Selfoss had some significant losses, but not as bad as Jóhann and Sveinbjörg. They all have their miracle stories, of things that were spared, and they are all grateful that everyone got through it as well as they did. They have had a very healthy attitude, as they have simply cleaned up, thrown away the broken items, and moved on. Stoic. And faithful.

There is a little remaining road damage in the quake area. The surrounding area is well known for the hot geysirs which are everywhere. They are all steaming as usual. They seem to be even more active than normal, so you never know when the ground will open up again. The whole countryside is broken up lava rock from previous eruptions, and nothing is very stable.

You may be interested to know that the mountain Hekla erupts about every ten years. Hekla is about 40 miles from the latest quake area, further away from Reykjavik. There is talk that Hekla will spew lava again, perhaps earlier than its expected next eruption in 2010 or 2011. Of course, the Elders are praying that it will blow while we are here, so we can see it. The Relief Society President of the Selfoss branch lives near Hekla, and has a good view of it from her living room window. We always joke that we´ll all come to her house when Hekla blows again, and eat popcorn while we watch the eruption in comfort. Until we have to run! Hekla erupted the last time in 2001, and ash darkened the sky and fell in Reykjavik at that time. We drove up near Hekla a few days ago, just to look."

Nýjar upplýsingar um jarðskjálftann (New Information about the Earthquake)

The earthquake in China was an 8.0 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was in Sichuan Province. About 90 kilometers away is a city called Du Jiang Yan. I girl at BYU sent me a few pictures of the damage to her family's home today in Du Jiang Yan. It had been condemned and will need to be rebuilt. Many families there are living in tents at the edge of the city. The following is a portion of an email I received from this girl in my office at BYU, "My hometown Du Jiang Yan is only 92 kilometers away from the center of the earthquake; therefore, my hometown is one of the cities that has been damaged most severely. Over 4000 people died in my hometown alone and 80% of the households are so seriously ruined that they need to be demolished."

In contrast, the earthquake in Iceland was not as strong--in the 6.0 category--and did not kill anyone thankfully. But there was still a lot of damage. I just received a few pictures of the Nóatun grocery store showing some of the damage there. Lots of things thrown off of shelves and broken glass.

I wrote to the current senior couple who are serving in Iceland right now and they wrote me back the following about the members who were in that area: "Most of the damage was in Hveragerði and some in Selfoss. In Selfoss, Barður had some glass things break, they were able to clean up the damage. No one was injured. Johan and Þorstina seemed to have a good deal of damage in their home. Things fell off the walls, much internal damage. In fact Johan said that his walls weren´t at right angles anymore. They are not cleaning up because insurance needs to come and take pictures. They also had a trip to Paris planned and will leave on Tuesday for a week. When they return, many have offered to come and help them clean up. Sveinbgörg had many things fall out of her cupboards. She said she has 4 plates left out of a servive for 12 china and everyday ware. Her children have been very good to come and help her clean up things in her home. She said after the earthquake they were told to stay out of their homes. She said she had walked up and down the street for as long as she could and then she went into her garden to work. She said she was kneeling to work in her flowers and for about 20 minutes while working, the earth just kept moving around. She mentioned that she has felt many after shocks, as have many of the people in Selfoss and Hveragerði. Valla said they just had a few trinckets that were broken. Margret Annie did not report any damage either, but she was further away from the center of the earthquake. Greta was in Spain at the time with the kids. There was minor damage to the road from Hveragerði to Selfoss, a couple of new bumps and one small crack across the road. We have felt no aftershocks in the Reykjavik area. We were very blessed that there were very few injuries, and nothing serious. Since it was a good day in Iceland, some school children were outdoors playing and a ceiling came down in their school. Also some men digging ditches took a late break and so they were away from their machinery when the quake occured. All is well with us here. We are happy to report that everyone is safe and many of the messes have been cleaned up and now they are back to their regular lives. We will send more reports if anything major occurs."

Sigh of relief....

Jarðskjálfti (Earthquake)

Not knowing more about the causes of earthquakes than that the tectonic plates are involved as they move, I used to think it was strange when I would hear about an earthquake occuring in Iceland like it did last week. I thought it was strange because the plates are pulling apart in Iceland, not coming together and colliding. That is why when you go to the visitor's center at Thingvellir in Iceland, there is a display there which shows how much the land has separated in the last 1000 years. I saw that back in 2004 and was reminded again how unique Iceland was as a landmass.

I searched the internet today looking for a unique picture which showed what the earthquake had been like in Iceland last week. I found this seismograph image which is said to be showing the "P wave and the surface waves." I don't remember enough from my college geology class to remember exactly what those were, but it is easy to see that some serious movement was going on. All news reports say that the damage will be expensive to repair, but no one was seriously injured.

As missionaries in Iceland, every one of us used to wish for some kind of cataclysmic event there to help people realize they needed God. I suppose we didn't really want people to suffer much of what that type of event would bring, but something Elijah-esque would be okay. A famine, bank and money problems, an earthquake or two, with a volcano eruption in a populated area thrown in for good measure. Oh, wait. All of these things have happened in Iceland, if not during this last 12 months alone, then we can go back to the volcano that covered a good part of Heimaey of the Westmann Islands back in the 70's. And okay, the famines were not that recent, but some serious suffering was going on in those days.

But even when those things do happen, the missionaries continue to move along, working as hard as they know how, and continue to find just the one here and two there who can sense the gift they are being offered. The key then, I suppose, is to try to avoid having to receive a "shaking" from God in the spiritual sense by trying to sense the gifts that are right in front of us.

He exists. He loves us. He has ALWAYS given his truth through his Son, in person, to prophets who then go forward with authority to preach the purest Word. We can know him today and hope to avoid a spiritual shaking. As Nephi was commanded in the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 17:53 "And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: Stretch forth thine hand again unto thy brethren, and they shall not wither before thee, but I will shock them, saith the Lord, and this will I do, that they may know that I am the Lord their God."