The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2004, Qupperneq 25

Vol. 58 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
171
Letters from Fridjon FriSriksson
Translated by Sigurbjorg Stefansson
Fridjon Fridriksson
Letter #12
Gimli, Apr.4, 1877
Dear Friend:
My writing to you is certainly some-
thing new, but for a while I have often
thought about you and talked about you
behind your back - therefore I think that it
is high time I write to you revealing some
of my views.
I am extremely grateful to you for
your interest in and empathy for Icelanders
north here. Knowing that the three of you
constantly pray for our spiritual as well as
physical welfare, certainly makes us glad.
I, as well as many others, appreciate your
interest especially because I know that the
three of you (and I do mean this) are the
ones who are the most likely to be able to
help us make it here. I do realize that the
best men are too few to be able to do every-
thing that needs to be done. Besides, these
men lack sufficient education to be able to
put our plans into practice.
You and Halldor, however, have this
kind of education in addition to many fine
skills. Therefore, I repeat: the three of you
are those who can, with the help of God,
carry through our hopes. Your wife would
have plenty of work to do here, and I am
sure that her intelligence and enthusiasm
would enable her to reform the women and
the teenagers. She could, hopefully, join
hands with the most sensible and best
women here in order to eliminate unclean-
lieness an ignorance characterizing the
majority of the women. They could turn
many homes from being abominably filthy
- a disgrace to the Icelandic nation as well
as being a serious health hazard - into neat
and tidy places.
I would like Halldor to edit "Fanfare"
(a periodical: "Progress") and teach English
and sciences, subjects which many young
men want to learn. Besides, a lot of things
can come up unexpectedly, making it
essential for us to have an educated man
among us qualified to take care of these
problems. Admittedly, this is a wide range
of activities, but I am confident that you are
able to take care of all these things, besides
serving as a minister. Moreover, I am hop-
ing that you would be able to give sermons
in various places throughout the colony, so
that the majority of the people would get
the opportunity to hear the words of God
approximately once a month adding to
their spiritual welfare. I am opposed to
hiring more than one minister because hir-
ing the minister is easy enough, paying him
acceptable salaries (preventing him from
suffering from financial difficulties) is the
hard art. Presently the colony is unable to
support more than one minister. Right