"Where ere thou art, Act well thy part"

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

January 11, 2016

Hello again everybody!  This past week has absolutely flown by!  I really feel like I just wrote the weekly update yesterday!  I cannot believe how fast things are going!  I actually just received word that it is January now.  I just sat there and thought, "Dang." But time really does fly!  Well, I know you are all probably just itching to hear about this week, (okay, maybe just Mom) but here we go…

MONDAY- was a good Pday.  I took Elder Tolk and taught him how to play snooker.  He picked it up quick and we had a good match, but I came out on top!  Woo!  And then we walked around town just looking at different shops and things that I had never really been before.  It's amazing how much stuff I didn't notice.  Being here for almost 6 months, I thought I had a knowledge of what Lisburn has, but I guess not!  Anyway, it was a fun day.  We ended the night with some pizza.  But it is not anything like the regular good ole American pizza.  O, the day when I eat regular pizza again! Anyway, that was Monday.

TUESDAY- Elder Tolk and I did some finding in the morning and then I went on exchange with Elder Plewe.  Then we did some GQing and chapping all day, so there isn't much to report.  We did find one potential, though, so hopefully we will be hearing from him soon.

WEDNESDAY- Elder Plewe and I were together all day since Portadown was busy teaching, so we got an extended exchange.  It was pretty good.  We did some more finding, and a crazy ton of walking!  We talked to as many people as we could.  People are starting to open their hearts again.  People will briefly stop, if but a moment, and listen to something we have to say to see if it interests them.  I believe this area is going to see a major welcoming of the gospel in the near future.  We exchanged back around 2100 and then we headed to bed.

THURSDAY- We had Weekly Planning, which was pretty good.  I don't really like it because we are sitting down for so long, but I do enjoy setting up an outline for how we want our week to go.  It makes things flow just that much smoother, but after Weekly Planning, we had some lunch and then we went and GQed the nature footpath for a while.  After no success there, we decided to head back into the center of town to talk to all the people there.  On the way, we chapped a neighborhood, and we found a potential named, 'G'.  We set up a return appointment for the next day and then we headed to town.  Nothing much happened there, and then we headed home for dinner and bed time.

FRIDAY- Nothing really happened on Friday finding-wise, but we did teach 'G' and 'N'.  'G's lesson was good.  It turns out she has 2 friends that are living with her, so we were able to  teach all three of them!  They all went to the Belfast Bible College, and are pretty well versed, but they don't use it against us.  They are really good to teach.  They all committed to read the Book of Mormon as well.  It was a pretty good lesson to teach.  We have a return appointment for Wednesday and we have to bring 2 more Books of Mormon because we didn't now we would have three investigators!  Then we went and taught 'N' the Plan of Salvation with emphasis on Temples and things and then we headed for bed.

SATURDAY- was good.  We taught 'T' in the morning, and that was a good lesson.  We showed him the talk, "Faith is not by chance, but by choice", from this past conference.  He liked it.  I think we are getting through to him.  After that, we just went finding for the rest of the day.  So nothing much else to report.

SUNDAY- We had church today.  It was a pretty good service.  We had a lot of good speakers, although, I can't really remember what they spoke about!  We also had a good time talking with the members afterwards.  Then we went finding for the rest of the day and talked to so many people that I lost count.  Then it got really bitter cold, and we went inside for dinner.  All in all, a good Sunday.

Well, that was my week!  Hopefully, all y'alls are having good weeks as well!  Time flies when you're having fun!  Talk to you all soon!

Alma 5:13

A mighty change was wrought in their hearts!  Can ye feel so now?

-Elder Mickelsen

January 4th, 2016 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Hello All! This week has been pretty crazy!  Some totally unexpected things went down!  But it's all good. The week was pretty much almost the same thing every day, so here we go!

MONDAY- was only email day because we were going to have a little bit of Thursday night off, as well as all of Friday.  So we only got to email for one hour.  Then we went shopping, and then decided to go chapping for a good part of the day while we waited to teach 'N'. Her lesson was good, but her friend was listening intently so we are hoping to start teaching her soon.  Afterwards, we went home and had dinner.  Exciting, I know!

TUESDAY- We had District Meeting.  It was good.  We then had a District lunch at Subway and then retired to our respective areas.  It was a pretty good start to  our day.  After, we did some chapping and GQing and then we had one of our lessons fall through.  So we did, wait for it, MORE CHAPPING AND GQING!!! WOOHOO!!!!  It was good, though.  I have come to enjoy it.  It is pretty fun.

WEDNESDAY- was very…dynamic.  We went and did a giant GQ loop on a footpath around Lisburn but there was an enormous rain storm the night before and it had caused some debris to fall to the ground.  We were making our way around fallen trees, an overflowing river and even a mudslide.  It was quite the experience.  Then there was a crazy ice storm that really hurt, like really! Pain. Cold. Icy pain!  But we headed back to the flat and dried off, had lunch then it was all good!  We went out and did some more GQing, and low and behold, the flipping sun came out!  We were dumbfounded.  Then we went over to the Harkness' house to have dinner and to teach a lesson.  It was a good time.  Soon after arriving back at the flat, we received a call from the AP's and found out that a missionary in Limerick Zone (down south) went home and they had done some crazy e-moving to fix it, so Elder Allred was bring transferred to Bangor to be the new District Leader and Elder Toll, who is in my group, came down to Lisburn to be my companion. We are on Special Assignment, which means that none of us is Senior or Junior companion so it's pretty great.  We get along fantastic.  I was sad to see Elder Allred go, but my current companion is still awesome!
DJ-ing the New Year's Eve Party 2016
They both look a little sad from the sudden transfer earlier that day.  They both loved their companions and the people they were teaching.  But, they are happy to be able to work together!


THURSDAY- Elder Allred left and Elder Tolk arrived.  We had weekly planning, GQed for a bit, and then had to go in because of New Year's Eve.  So, we went to the Church and helped set up for their party an also played with some DJ equipment, which was pretty fun.  Then we went home and headed to bed.
Niamh took these pics of Cody.  He wasn't smiling in the first one because he was sad from Elder Allred being transferred so she told him to pose and smile for the second photo.  Haha!

FRIDAY- was New Year's Day and nothing much really happened.  Elder Tolk slept a lot and I got a chance to read a ton of Jesus the Christ.  IT is a really good book if any one is looking for a good read.  We also went to Five Guys, which is brand new in Belfast, and it was a good taste of home.

SATURDAY- We went bak to work.  We started by teaching 'T' in the morning and then having Subway for lunch.  We love Subway.  Then we basically GQed all day and did some chapping, and we found out that we have quite a good rhythm of teaching and talking to people.  We get along pretty good.  So there's nothing much left to report from Saturday.

SUNDAY- was good.  We had church, which is always a good time.  Even though I fell asleep for about 10 minutes in Elder's Quorum, Don't tell anyone.  But church was just the right boost we needed to push through for the week and get back into the grind.  Afterwards, we did some tracting and GQing and we had a try-by.  She answered the door but said she wasn't interested anymore.  It wasn't exactly the best thing to happen, but oh well.  It wasn't her time, I guess.  Then we just did a giant GQ loop home and had dinner.  

Well, that was this past week!  Sorry if it wasn't that gripping to read.  It was a good week, though.  Anyway, here is my ponderizing for the week.  

D&C 100:5-6

Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;

For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment what ye shall say.


Til the work is done!

-Elder Mickelsen