Teaching in Icelandic

Friends and Family, 

It's been a busy week here in Yakima, but a good one as well. Transfers have come and gone, I'm finally settled into my new apartment, and we taught a man from Iceland the other day.

One night this week we had a recent covert of about 4 months come out with us to teach some investigators. Unfortunately, every single person was either not home or didn't want to answer the door. Elder Taele and I looked at each other and looked at our member and told him that we were going to go knock some doors. Fear mixed with excitement filled his eyes at the thought of knocking on some stranger's door. We told him to take us to where he felt we should go and pick a door for us to start knocking. He looked around, paused on one house and said, "This house looks nice enough."

We went up and knocked and an older gentleman opened right up. We introduced ourselves and asked for his name and he replied, "My name is Thorbjorn *insert very long Icelandic last name here*, and you can't say it." We were very surprised and started talking with him about his name. He started to open up, and started asking us about who we were and what we do. Once the word 'church' left our mouth he closed up again and expressed that he didn't want anything to do with religion and was on the verge of slamming the door. We quickly began talking to him about family history and explained that we also love working with and teaching people more about how they can learn about their ancestors. His whole complexity changed once again, and opened up and when we asked to come in was very accepting. We went in and looked at a book he had about his family and talked with him about family search and had a great discussion.

I learned some Icelandic from him and also am starting to pick up an Icelandic accent as well. I hope to go back and with time completely master the Icelandic accent. Also, it was cool to see how some people have their hearts open to some things, but not all things. A lot of the time, we want others to have the desires that we want for their hearts! However, if we have the patience to learn and serve others and help them, sometimes we can help them to change their heart and see things from a new perspective.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder King