Iceland Volcano eruption - April 15, 2010

You have probably heard that there was a large volcanic eruption in Iceland earlier today.  We have not seen any effects of it here, except there are no airplanes flying anywhere in Scandanavia, Great Britian, The Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, several large airports in Germany and France have closed also.  Fortunately, we were not planning to fly anywhere in the next few days. One of the women here is leaving tonight on the train to go to Drammen. She said it was fortunate that she had bought her ticket earlier, as the trains are all sold out now.  Watching the news on TV reminded us of the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980.  

It has been raining off and on all day today, fortunately we chose to walk up to the store this morning when the rain was "off". We even got a little hail and snow, but it was nothing that stuck.  The hill out back is almost all brown now, as is the soccer field below the hill.

We are not being affected by the volcano, except for those who want to fly anywhere. All airports in Norway from Trondheim south are closed.  We don't see any ash falling from the sky--just rain and snow.  The Trondheim airport was open for about 6 hours yesterday (Friday) morning, but you could only fly to places North of here.  All of the major airports in Europe are closed--London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, etc. So even if you could fly out of here, you can't get anywhere.  Sister Engebretsen was scheduled to leave here next Wednesday to return home, having completed her mission, but she was told last night that her departure will be delayed for at least a week--could be longer, depending on when they open airports and get the crowds who are now stranded, out. She is on a bit of an emotional roller coaster as you might imagine.

We won't be going anywhere by train for a while either, as all the trains are booked.  Transfers for the missionaries should be occurring on Wednesday next week, but that is delayed also, as they have to fly or take the train. New missionaries should be arriving on Tuesday, but they won't be able to travel from the US because they can't land in Norway or any of the places in Europe where they would normally transfer.  I can't imagine what it must be like in the MTC travel department, with all of the missionaries who are scheduled to leave next Monday to various parts of the world which require a transfer or stop anywhere in Europe. They are stuck in Provo and there will be new missionaries arriving there on Wednesday scheduled to occupy the rooms these missionaries should be vacating.  As one broadcaster said, "it lets those of us who run our lives on plans and schedules know that the earth has its own schedule."

The eruption has resulted in some beautiful pictures. Here is a link I found to a Time website.

 

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1982747_2126388,00.html

 

Love, 

Mom and Dad/Gerald and Nancy/Nana and Granddad/grandma and grandpa