AUGUST 8, 2016

Traditional "Burning of the Shirt" Ceremony

This week was pretty quick! We spent a lot of time running around all over Ireland! But it was good! I enjoyed it very much! This week was also 1 year since I left on a mission! Boy how the time flies! Anyway, here's the week.

MONDAY- we had P-Day, and didn't do much else besides the usual email, shop, and clean. I took a nap though. And that would come to pay off later in the week. But that evening, we were supposed to be teaching Vanessa and Billy, but there was a bank holiday, so they were out of town. So that was a bummer. We just ended up finding for the rest of the evening. 

TUESDAY - we went out and GQ-ed the town centre, and that was pretty fun. It was weird being in Coleraine on a Tuesday morning since we usually head to Belfast on a Tuesday. But since we had Zone Conference this week, no DM. But anyway, we pretty much went finding in the town all day since our one lesson fell through, but we did go to Limavady, which was fun. It is the home of Danny Boy, and the bus ride was beautiful. The town centre there was dead, so we eventually just headed back to Coleraine, but the experience was fun.Then we went up to the church to help Alwyn with his family history, so that was good. That was Tuesday.

WEDNESDAY - We were finding all day, and then we took Trevor and Isobel to the Antrim Sister's baptism. That went really well. It has been a long time since I have seen a baptism. It really has. The Spirit was really strong there, and Trevor and Isobel really liked it. Isobel got along really well with the Sisters, and it was really good for Trevor to see a baptism to help with his progress in the gospel. So that was the highlight of Wednesday.

THURSDAY- We headed off to Belfast in the morning since we had ZLC, and then we were on exchange with the ZL's. My exchange went well. I was with Elder Stoker. He is a convert from England. So that was fun. We traveled all over the place! He gave a baptismal interview in Bangor,and then we had some good lessons and finding time in Belfast, then we headed up to Newtonabbey to pick up those Elders since they are catching an early bus to Dublin in the morning. So we spent the night at the Zone Leaders flat, and as missionaries sometimes do, we were chatting for a bit, so that was fun.

FRIDAY - We got up at 3 am so we could get ready and then take the Newtonabbey Elders to the bus station to catch a 5 am bus, and then we dropped Elder Richards off at the YSA flat so he could get a lift with them and then we went to Bangor and picked up the missionaries there and peeled out to Dublin at 5am. Which would have been fine, except for Elder Stoker likes to go fast, and we made it to Dublin by 6:45. We were told to be there no later than 9. So we got that covered, and on top of that, we beat Dublin traffic. So that was fun. Then we went and got some breakfast, and then the meeting started. We had Elder Hertbertson of the Seventy instructing us all day on unity and using the Holy Ghost in our teaching. It was a really good conference. I learned so much! As well as I got to see some of my mission buddies! It was great! But the meeting was really good. Gave me some new ideas to try in the area. Then after the meeting, the ZL's took us back to Belfast and we caught a train back to our area, after a Boojums of course. We got back to our flat at 1015 pm. What a day. What a day.

SATURDAY - we spent the day GQ-ing until we had a lesson with James. It went well, we didn't have a lot of time, so it was just a quick catch up and invitation. So that was a good lesson. James is getting ready to move back to Belfast soon, so we are trying to get him to progress as quick as we can! After that, we went GQ-ing some more, and then we went over to Alwyn's for dinner. He made some duck. It wasn't bad. He also made chips and peas. It was really good. We had a good lesson about testimonies, and we also listened to the talk by President Uchtdorf called, "Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth". It was pretty good. I really enjoyed it, and so did he. After that, we headed home.

SUNDAY - We had church, and it was good. We usually have really good fast and testimony meetings. James was going to come to church today, but his shift got changed literally an hour before church, so that was frustrating. But what can you do. After church, we went and did our Weekly Planning and then we went out and taught the McCrellis family. It was really good as well. We only had about 25 minutes, so we showed them the little video from President Uchtdorf about how we need to live up to our privileges. It was pretty good. They are a part member family, so it was good to share that with them. After that, we went up and had dinner with Trevor. Trevor made us so much food. So much! It was awesome! Then we helped him with his Book of Mormon study. Afterwards, we headed home.

That was the week! We were kind of all over the place this week, but it was really fun! I learned a lot this week about what we need to do to be the best that we can be! The Lord loves all of his children, my friends!

Love you all!

--

Till the Work is Done

- Elder Mickelsen