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!

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.

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.

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."

Tilfinningavekjandi Myndir (Emotion-causing Pictures)

Why is it that some pictures cause such strong feelings or emotions when we look at them? Is it because our minds and heart can do such a good job of "filling in the blanks" when a really powerful picture is taken and we place ourselves there?

This first picture looks like it could have been taken with black and white film. It wasn't though. For me it is extremely easy to imagine being there. The mist. The wind. The freezing water and air. The desire to take it all in, while at the same time wanting to head for shelter. This picture was taken on the southern coast of Iceland a few years ago. The original Vikings would be out in open boats on the open seas in weather like this and not think anything of it.

I've been reading Egill's Saga recently (for the first time ever). I am about one third through it and am amazed at how the elements didn't frighten them like it might you and me out on the open sea, or even close to land like in this picture. That they sailed in open boats too amazes me.

I spent my early years from age 6 to 12 in Tallahassee, Florida. My father had a friend who we went to church with who regularly went deep sea fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. He took us along on occasion. We would leave at 5am and head out to sea three or four miles. Then we would trawl for King Mackerel or Hardtails. I thought seeing the fish come in on the lines was cool as a young kid, but the sea scared me to death. And then to be seasick often on top of that. And the Gulf of Mexico waters were warm! These Norwegian/Icelandic vikings must really have been tough.

I think I would want to stay in an area like this last picture from the Westmann Islands just off the south coast of Iceland. This picture evokes a lot of emotion for me as well. Imagine that being your backyard....

Trúboðaskór (Missionary shoes)

Back in 1984 when I went into the MTC, I remember thinking how cool my missionary shoes were. I thought they would last forever they seemed to be so well built. This picture shows pretty much what they looked like at the beginning of my mission. The sole was about 3/4 of an inch thick (it seemed) and looked like it could last even through an entire two-year mission in Iceland. I ended up being mostly right. They did last my whole mission and I could have worn them home. The missionaries of my day had a tradition though. Sometime in the last week or two of our time in Iceland we would take the bus down to one of the nearby rocky beaches with two pairs of shoes. We would wear our old worn out shoes to the beach and then change into the pair we would go home in once we had arrived at the beach. Then after a bit of nostalgia-filled expressions of shoe appreciation, we would tie the shoelaces together of the faithful pair and chuck them out into the ocean.

We thought doing so was an appropriate rite of passage, one that all missionaries there should go through. Maybe I would not do the same thing today, being the environmentally conscious fellow that I am now, but there was something very satisfying about sending those shoes to the cold Icelandic depths. In a way it was tangible evidence that we would soon be able to leave the cold behind and rejoin lives that were somewhat distantly remembered by that time but were dearly missed. It was also a physical act that allowed each of us to symbolically and in reality leave the pain and hardship of the past two years and start another life, one that focused a bit more on each of us as individuals after two years of the opposite. I remember the beach being very rocky that day, as most Icelandic beaches are, and the water and constant wind very cold.

I wonder where those shoes are today 22 years later....

Næðingur frá fortíðinni (Blast from the past)

Okay, so the translation leaves something to be desired. The one disadvantage of not having Icelandic be my native language is that when I want to translate a unique English colloquialism like this one, doing so ends up proving quite difficult. The Icelandic-English dictionaries out today are better than we ever had on my mission. They provide tons of common phrases using many of the individual words in the dictionary. This helps a lot when we are trying to know the proper ways to express these unique phrases. I am happy to know though that even advanced speakers of their second language often do not understand these unique phrases which do not translate word-for-word.

I got a very cool picture in an email today from a returned missionary who served in Iceland named Rob Mikkelsen. He was there from 1976-























1978, about seven years before me. I've attached it here. This is a picture of Gerhard Guðnason the day he was baptized in the summer of 1978. He has German and Icelandic roots. The missionaries in the picture from left to right are Doug Brinton, Jerry Ohrn, (Gerhard), Rob Mikkelsen, David Knechtel and Kevin Barton. I don't know the whole story behind Gerhard's conversion to the Church back then, but I know that every one of these missionaries was very happy that day. They are even happier today because 30 years later, Gerhard is still active. I saw and spoke with him two months ago on my trip and he is doing well. It is people like Gerhard who help to keep things stable in the Church in a land, like so many others, where people come and go spiritually. Golden for these missionaries and all who have known him since.

Eldur og ís (Fire and Ice)

As missionaries in Reykjavík we frequently found ourselves downtown on the Torg for a number of reasons. The woolen outlets were easy to find, each attempting to draw in as many tourists as possible. We'd browse on occasion to see what was being sold. Without fail there were the tourist books which frequently had titles like, "Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice" or something very similar. I guess it was what made Iceland unique in a lot of ways. You could find glaciers right on top of volcanos.

It isn't hard to imagine the cataclysm that must have occurred to make the rocks look as they do in this first picture. Broken lava flows are everywhere in Iceland, frequently with a freezing river running around each twisted mass of rocks.

It was sometime during my mission that I started to think about the earth, and land in particular, in a different way than I ever had before. The way each land on the earth looked was interesting and varied, to be sure. But the real reason that the earth has any land masses on it at all is so that man will have a place upon which to work out his salvation. Whether a person's "plot" of earth is in Iceland, Utah, Cypress, Banff Island, or anywhere else in the world, the Lord gave the land so that each person could have a place to work out his or her salvation. In Noah's day all of the land was taken away for a time so that those left would remember their God. "Behold, the Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it." 1 Nephi 17:36.

Iceland provides a unique set of trials for those attempting to come to God. The trials are different there than for those who live, say, in Hawaii, or Australia. And yet, each land gives the same opportunities to know one's God. I found it easy to get to know God better in Iceland.

Nútíma Vík (Modern-day Vík)

A friend sent me this modern-day picture of Vík recently. It was taken in June of 2006. In one of my early posts I posted a picture that I had taken of Vík twenty years earlier in 1986 from a different vantage point. I love this newer picture, again because it was taken from a spot where few people photograph the town with the church on the hill. I love the shadows in the foreground with the cloudy top part of the photo being fully half of the shot. I could have a summer home there and never get tired of it. The quiet with the waves and black sand beach and the endless individual flights of the birds in the cliffs off to the right and out of the picture.

There is a lot to be said for small þórps like Vík.

Ferðagætni

Ég verð að segja að ég er meira en dálítinn spenntur við að geta farið aftur til Íslands á fyrsta mars. Ég hef aðeins getað farið til baka einu sinni síðan ég kom heim í fyrsta sinn frá trúboði mínu í 1986. Nú fæ ég að fara til baka í 2008. Fyrst hugsaði ég bara um að sjá meira af landinu og taka margar fleiri myndir. En nú, eftir að hafa haft meiri tíma til að hugsa um ferðina, vil ég bara hjálpa trúboðunum, ef þeir vilja fá hjálp mína. Ég man eftir tíma þegar ég var trúboði þar þegar maður einn kom til Íslands sem hafði verið trúboði áður. Við vissum ekki hvernig að haga okkur meðan hann var hjá okkur. Við vissum ekki hvort hann ætlaði að koma til okkar til að segja okkur hvað við áttum að vera að gera í verkið. Kannski eru trúboðarnir að hugsa að ég ætla að koma til þeirra og gera það sama. Nei. Ég vil bara gera það sem mun hjálpa þeim gera verk sitt þar. Ég hef ekki verið kallaður (núna) til að prédika eða stjórna verkið. Ég mun hlusta fyrst of fremst, og hjálpa ef ég get á eftir.

Reykjavík frá loftinu (Reykjavik from the air)

Reykjavík from the air. Recently I was surfing the net trying to find some photos of Reykjavík and other places in Iceland that were not the normal, everyday pictures that seem to pop up when the average tourist shows you their pictures from their one and only trip to the island. Most of the time you will see shots like the shots taken from each of the four sides of the bell tower in Hallgrímskirkja. I get tired of seeing those whenever I see a collection of shots from a trip there.
This first picture was taken from the air--as were all of the photos in this particular blog entry--and shows downtown Reykjavík with tjörnin, part of Esja and a good deal of area 101. The apartment I lived in for four months or so of my time in Iceland back in 1985 is in this photo and just behind fríkirkjan to the right of the pond.
Another nice shot, which I am betting was taken in July. No tourist would come home with this shot. I don't think I every realized before seeing this picture how much of a landmark Hallgrímskirkja truly is. This picture seems to show how fully it dominates the landscape in all directions.























This is one of those ubiquitous shots that I must admit came from my camera in the bell tower of Hallgrímskirkja.
But I redeem myself with this one, from a similar spot in the air as the previous air shot, but in winter. Still quite beautiful....No matter how you look at it, Reykjavík is a city of unique and breathtaking beauty.

Seeing the city from this perspective helps a person to appreciate it in ways that are not possible from the ground. My dad would employ an "eagle vs. duck" example about now and he would be right. I'll let you think about that one.

Úr bygging minni (Outside my building)

Outside my building. In the last year and a half since I've gotten a digital camera I've been taking pictures everywhere. The freedom to take pictures of anything and everything I want did not exist when I was in Iceland in 1985. I still took tons of photos, but was always conscious of how much it was going to cost to develop the film and had to factor that cost in. I am glad to have seen the day where digital cameras are available to almost anyone.

This first picture is what you see right when you come out of my office and into the parking lot of the administration building at BYU. Some late February 2007 shots as the trees are just starting to bud with the bell tower in the left of the picture. The next few shots were taken looking further to the right down thisWasatch Mountain Range. This is what the students see as they go from class to class during the year. We have very unique and memorable mountains.


If you look out the second floor conference room window during a summer rain storm, this next picture is what you would see.
If you look the opposite direction out the back doors of the administration building into the heart of campus at BYU on a rainy summer day, this is what you would see. Definitely not a depressing environment to work in.

Ferskar myndir (Fresh pictures)

New pictures. I was sent a bunch of new pictures form Iceland in the last little while from those who are currently serving as missionaries for my Church there. This first one shows three missionaries in the foreground with President Ólafur Grímsson. The elders from left to right are Doxey, Balla and Mortensen. President Ólafur has always been very kind to us as a Church.

This second picture is of Bjarni and Regina, two Icelandic kids who are a part of our church in Selfoss with their parents. When I was a missionary in the 80's the farmers did NOT wrap up their hay (or whatever is inside these things) in these monstor-sized marshmallows. Now in the summertime wherever you go in the country you will see huge marshmallows dotting the countryside. I thought it looked funny but cool at the same time.











Everywhere you go there are these cool little nooks and crannies where the mountains and grass are so characteristic of Iceland.