Öldungur "Kapishki"

Sæl! This week was pretty awesome! We had Elder Kapishki (IDK how to spell his name) come. He's the mission area president for Europe! It was awesome. He participated in zone conference with us, the Iceland zone. And we learned so much. It was my first zone conference and what a way to start off with a bang. Yesterday, the members and missionaries of Iceland met together to rededicate themselves to the work. We went to this place called Perlan, where Iceland was dedicated and opened for missionary work in the 1970s, and Elder Kapishki lead us in a prayer. We want to rededicate ourselves to the work because this is the most important work on the planet, for all people. The day before that, we had the first session of conference, IDK what its name is, but it's the equivalent of stake conference for branches, and elder Kapishki spoke. He talked about having faith to move moutains. He said all we need is faith, a shovel, and a pickaxe. That really resinated with me. We were reminded that miracles come after the action. We need to start digging most of the time before God will help us move the mountain. Like how Moses had to get his feet wet in the red see before it would part, or how the priests carrying the Arch of the Covenant had to enter the river before the water stopped flowing. We have to start digging before the mountain will move. And we need to have faith. We need to keep digging, even if it feels like we have had no divine help in moving the mountain. We need to keep digging and trust that even if you don't get through the mountain, that the lord will have you where he needs you to be. Sometimes the lord will only give us the strength for one scoup of the shovel at a time. Sometimes it might seem like he doesn't help at all, but even His "not" helping is helping. We'll grow stronger and braver and prove our trust in the lord the longer we keep digging. We also had another baptism this weekend! Ólafur was baptized on saturday right after that conference meeting. It was pretty amazing! He's so jolly, and that's one of the best words to describe him. He's so fun. Yesterday, he was confirmed a member of the church. President Mattsson (my mission president) also came for the conference. He's so awesome! He kinda dropped a bomb though, in two weeks, on the transfer date he's planning on sending sisters to Iceland for a few months. Apparently we haven't had sisters in Iceland for over a year, probably since before covid, because everyone seemed really surprised. One of them has a little bit of spanish in their background, so he's hoping that they'll be able to connect with the hispanic families better than we've been able to. Those families are awesome! Even though we don't have spanish down, we communicate way better than I ever expected us to be able to. They're a vital part of the branch here in Reykjavik. Next Sunday I get to give a talk about the restoration! (In icelandic) so that's gonna be super awesome! I'm gonna need an extra dose of gift of Tongues, but it will be so great, I'm super excited. In the saturday meeting, someone shared a quote by President Monson, I don't have it word for word, but here's the general message: Don't ask for tasks the size of your ability, ask for ability the size of your task. Then, as you work hard, you yourself will become the miracle. I really love this quote! Last p-day we got permission to go on a day trip to see some cool stops in Iceland, I'll have a few photos in this email. All the missionaries came to Reykjavik for this conference weekend, and we got to do a super awesome thing called Blitz Splits. Basically, everyone got together and went to this area that's kinda hard to get to because we don't have cars and the bus system doesn't reach that far. Then, we split up into new companionships and knocked out a whole bunch of streets. My companion for the event, elder Peterson, and myself only knocked one door the whole time. We were answered by this man, who's super sweet (nearly all Icelanders are, even if they're not interested in our message) and he invited us in! I've only been here 4 weeks, but when we left elder Peterson told me that rarely happens. We went in and we talked with this man for nearly an hour, about an experience he had where he knew that mankind was "asleep" and that we had to wake up. The way he described it was essentially how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints talks about eternal progression, divine potential, and coming closer to Christ, just with different vocabulary. He seemed so excited to talk to us, because most of the Churches in Iceland won't talk about experiences like that, he said the priests would smile at him awkwardly then just change the whole subject. I'm so hopeful for him! Ugh, it's been awesome to grow to care for people individually! I really want to help all the people here in Iceland. I might send another Email with just pictures, but yeahhhhhhhhhhh. Icelandic's really coming along! I've been able to have more in depth conversations and have a better understanding of what people are saying too. I do have a super small vocab bank still, but it's growing! Still haven't been awake for the few hours of darkness we get because that's against mission rules, but Iceland's amazing. I'm so grateful to have an opportunity to serve in this amazing country! Ö. Rasmussen