Steinninn Lausnarans

Góðan Daginn Allir! Þessi vika var góð! Ég er að læra meira Íslensku, og dvalarleyfið mitt kom! Ég er mjög hamingjusamur! This week was so long too! Congratulations to my Sister, Brother-in-law and his sister! (My sister in law? or would that be reserved for my brothers' wives?) They graduated from BYU and had their graduation ceremony last week! I'm still working on Icelandic! My teacher said that when I'm fluent enough to understand what I read, I'd be able to read Old Norse as well, which is insane! Elder Christiansen is awesome! And all the other Swedish/Norwegian sisters too! It's really nice to have other people learning similar languages and going to places closer to Iceland. It's also really weird though, because a whole bunch of my missionary friends are going to the field next week. It's gonna be weird not to see their faces and say hello to them in passing. Yesterday Elder and Sister Gonzalez of the Seventy came to give our devotional! It was really good, but I think choir was my favorite part. Brother Eggett is awesome! He fills the practices with stories about songs and missions and it's so fun. We sang "More Holiness Give Me", and he gave us a moment to look at the lyrics and choose which phrase we'd like to have applied to ourselves. It took a while, and had a lot of back and forths, but I decided on "More joy in His service". I'm so excited that I get to be a full time missionary and representative of the Lord and His church! It makes me so happy that I get to be here and to dedicate everything I have over the next two years to him! I'm so excited to get to the field and to serve others! Even if I have no clue what's being said. My teacher quoted "The Best Two Years" movie when it says "that isn't the language they taught me at the MTC" and she said that was about accurate. 😂 She also said that when I'm there I'll pick it up really fast because I'll be so exposed to it. My ankle's been healing very well! I'm super glad too. I was scared I wouldn't be able to play soccer, which is the main sport in Iceland (and pretty much all of Europe) except they call it by the name that makes more sense (fótbolta or football) because you actually use your feet for it a whole lot more than American Football. One of my Teachers is visiting Iceland right now so I don't have any more classes with him, which is kinda sad. I'm super excited to try all the food! Apparently fermented fish doesn't taste the best, but I'm not sure if I believe my teacher when he said he was dry heaving the entire time he tried to eat it. Sheep's head is also one I'm really looking forward too! My teacher described one of the areas in Iceland to me and told me where a super good restaurant is. He also told me there was this building called the Christmas house that was devoted purely to Christmas, year round. It sounds super awesome! Bless bless! Öldungur Rasmussen

The Land of Fire and Ice

Hello everyone! Wowzers this past week has been so weird. I'm getting a new companion who's learning Swedish today, and next week we'll be in a trio with a Norwegian elder. Ugh p-day is so busy. I'm super excited to meet my new companion, but I also gotta move rooms and everything. Idk when I'm gonna get my laundry out of the dryer, but it's totally worth it. I'm so glad that I get to be here though! I love being a missionary so much. I met a senior missionary couple who's going to Iceland! they're going to be in Reykjavik and will likely be in the Branch Presidency there. Today's my last class with Brother Hill which is super sad (he's going to Iceland with his family). Easter was amazing! We got to watch the Lamb of God performance live and in person, which was super amazing! I got a super nice package from my family, and I'm still working on eating my sour patch watermelon from them. I decided to attempt to go vegetarian while I'm in the MTC, because we talked with an investigator about the word of wisdom and he asked about the eating meat sparingly portion of it. (I'm not saying everyone has to go vegetarian, I thought it would be a cool experience though and might help me later on in my mission. That being said, I did eat bacon today, but it was an accident. I had to drink another glass of milk, because I made another short joke on accident, but I managed to drink a mixture of sprite and milk to limit the amount of lactose entering my body. It sounds really gross, and I won't be advertising anyone trying it, but It honestly just tasted like watered down sprite. Anyways, All things considered I was getting tired of the mtc lifestyle. I loved my classes and devotionals, but the cafeteria gets pretty repetitive sometimes. Anyways, D&C 31:3 is my favorite scripture right now. Elder Stevenson of the Quorum of the 12 shared it in a devotional yesterday. It was broadcasted to all the MTCs, so my beautiful choir voice was literally heard around the world. Anyways, I'm out of email writing time! Elder Rasmussen

Páskar

Góðan Daginn! Oh my goodness this week felt so long and so short at the same time. Thursday to Saturday felt so long, but now Sunday to Wednesday has been a blink. The other elders in my zone are mostly headed for the field now. One of them got temporarily assigned to Houston Texas as he waits for his visa for Jamaica I believe. Honestly I can't remember where they all are headed. Sunday morning I learned that I'd be missing part of my monday evening class for a music devotional by BYU's Vocal Point (the singing group thing). Not gonna lie, I was pretty annoyed because I didn't want to miss class for it (I really love learning Icelandic). Anyways, I went there and the first song they played was "Teach me to walk in the Light". On Sunday I was studying Christ and his atonement, and that song came to my mind because that's what we're here for. We're here to learn how to walk in the light. We don't do it perfectly, but we're learning and through the atonement we can return to the light despite our mistakes. Anyways, hearing that song softened my heart and enabled me to feel the spirit so much for the remainder of that meeting. Tuesday was also pretty amazing. In the scriptures I had been studying around king Benjamin's sermon about having a mighty change of heart like the people he preached to. I've had the largest desire to have a change of heart like that too because I wanna be an amazing disciple of Christ. So anyways, Tuesday comes and the general Authority devotional was by Elder Johnson of the Seventy. And he talked partially about having a mighty change of heart. Icelandic is going well! I definitely have a whole lot to learn, but in these past 3 weeks I've become able to speak more Icelandic than after two years of spanish. Tungutalsgjöfn er sönn. I know I don't know a whole lot of Icelandic but that doesnt matter. 1 Corinthians 14:19 Yet in the church I had rather aspeak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. Being in the MTC over Easter and General Conference!!!!! It's so amazing. My love and appreciation for Christ and his Atonement have never been higher. I'm even enjoying going to Choir. Not sure if the Choir director is as happy for me to be there as I am, but nobody has said that it sounds like a raccoon got run over by a big wheel tricycle yet so lets goooo. I did end up having to drink a glass of milk, but the lord must really want me to serve a mission because I'm still alive. Having donuts available at every breakfast has been the main source of agony for my belt but we are still moving forward B). Dang four weeks feels a lot shorter than five does until I leave. I'm still super excited! Himneski Faðir elskar þið! I'm so excited for easter.

Aðalráðstefnu

Hi guys! Man this has been such a long week. First off, general conference! It was so amazing to be sitting in a room of nearly one thousand missionaries when the first two speakers who got up talked about missionary work. The spirit was so strong and the words throughout the whole conference were piercing me to the core in ways I had never felt before. I absolutely loved President Nelson's talk. I'm so excited to get my spiritual momentum rolling as I heed his words over the coming months and years. We got some new Elders in our Branch since last wednesday and let me just say that our housing area is definitely a little more hectic. They're going to various places, all english speaking though, so they're gonna leave next week. It's weird to know that I've been here longer than they'll be this whole time and I still have over a month to go before I leave for the field. I met another Elder Rasmussen at choir practice and we found out that we're connected to Jens Peters. (IDK if that's how it's spelled) He's the guy that migrated from Denmark to the USA so that's really cool. Elder Nielson of the seventy spoke to us the tuesday before conference at the MTC devotional so it was really cool to see him at General Conference. I'm learning a whole bunch of Icelandic, which is really cool. I think I understand how to use the grammar rules, but there's not one set pattern to use them on, and there's so many different forms of words that come from the grammar rules that I feel like most of the remaining 5 weeks here will be devoted to just memorizing all the vocab words and how they fit with the grammar rules. One of the sisters in my district is 4'11" and she's the first adult under 5' that I've ever met. I don't know why but it's so funny to me that she's that height. Because of that I teased her and joked about it, but I'm trying to be more christlike so I made a bet where if I make a joke then I'll have to drink a whole glass of milk which would devastate my stomach. Sooo wish me luck. Today we were playing a game of ping pong as part of our exercise time and I did a beautiful serve that she didn't reach in time, and Elder Dyson said that it was a short joke. I'm already on very thin ice. It got cold a few days ago which is really nice but also kinda terrifying because I was freezing today to the point where my teeth were chattering and Iceland's gonna be a whole lot worse in the winter. I definitely need to buy my coat ASAP when I get there. I'm super excited to serve still and learning Icelandic is just so fun. The cafeteria food has decided to increase its attacks on my poor stomach, but thankfully I have yet to die. Man, conference was just so amazing. I wrote more notes in this one semiannual conference than probably the entire summation of all previous conferences that I've been alive. A different sister in my district plays the piano sometimes when we're all studying and it's inspired me to start trying to learn how to play. I found a beginner's piano guide on the gospel library that I downloaded to my missionary google drive. Spring has started and I finally understand after 19.5 years why popcorn, infact, pops on apricot trees. The flowers and trees are so beautiful. The air is so fresh as we walk between classes and things. I also love when they hang the Icelandic flag and it unfurls in the wind. We got a new sister in our district last Saturday from Finland. She speaks Finish, Swedish, English, and a little bit of Spanish. It made me begin to question the Texas public school language education capabilities. Last week I didn't put any photos on my email, so here's a whole bunch: