February 27, 2017

Hello from Dumbarton Castle!

This week flew by! A complete blur! I feel like I just sent last week's update yesterday! So this week was good. We have had a lot of time to find this week, and it has been great!

We also went on exchanges this week, and got to see a bit more of the Zone. So that was really good. You always learn some good stuff on exchanges. We also started to go through our area book and did try by’s to all the formers that we can, and see if it is their time to learn about the restored gospel. We put together a list to kind of start us off, and we spent a day going by some. It was really good. It was nice to meet people that at least know the missionaries, and you don't have to spend a ton of time explaining who you are on the doorstep. Most of them open the door and they're like, "Oh, you guys!" So it has been good this week.

It is starting to warm up here, and we are on the cusp of spring! So I am excited for that! It gets lighter and lighter every day! And it is so nice still having light at 6 o’clock! 

I did learn something this week. While doing our try by's, we knocked on the door of a lady that had met missionaries in the past, and decided to stop investigating because she had some issues with things. When we knocked on her door, she was happy to see us, but didn't want to continue investigating. It was the classic, "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?" issue. We tried to talk to her about how people do things to others, and God lets that happen because we all have our agency, but she just wasn't having it. After walking away, we slipped a note through her door that said, "God loves you". We don't know what came from it, but we did know that God loved this person.

God loves all his children, and we should, too. We know that bad things happened, but if they never happened, we would never know what good is like. We would never know sweet, having never tasted bitter. Opposition in all things is part of the plan, and there would be no growth with it. I know it can be a hard thing to swallow, but the Holy Ghost will help us receive a testimony of it, and all things for that matter. And in the end, that is all the really matters.

-Till the Work is Done

-Elder Mickelsen

Elders Mickelsen and Sheppard

Dumbarton Castle

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February 20, 2017

This week flew by super fast!!! I can't even believe it! I think I say that every week, it's true. Every week on my way home from church I think, "I feel like I just walked out of Church yesterday." It is a weird feeling for sure. But the highlight of the week was definitely having our interviews with President Donaldson. It was really good.

They are doing interviews differently now, so we go into Glasgow for our interviews and it doesn't take place during a zone conference. We aren't even doing zone conferences anymore. It will just be All-Scotland and All-Ireland conferences from now on. SO that is really cool! But the interview was really good! President Donaldson talks to you about your spiritual wellbeing and your investigators, and Sister Donaldson asks you if you are eating healthy and if you are mentally healthy. Haha! Just like real parents! President Donaldson is a great leader for us!

But anyway, this is my spiritual thought for this week. It is my hands down, all time, favorite hymn. It is #72, Praise to the Lord, The Almighty. It goes like this,

Praise to the Lord, The Almighty

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!

O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation!

Join the great throng,

Psaltery, organ and song,

Sounding in glad adoration!

Praise to the Lord! Over all things he gloriously reigneth.

Borne as on eagle wings, safely his Saints he sustaineth.

Hast thou not seen

How all thou needest hath been

Granted in what he ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy way and defend thee.

Surely his goodness and mercy shall ever attend thee.

Ponder anew

What the Almighty can do,

Who with his love doth befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that is in me adore him!

All that hath breath, join with Abraham's seed to adore him!

Let the "amen"

Sum all our praises again,

Now as we worship before him.

Love you all!

--

Till the Work is Done

February 13, 2017

Well, this week was crazy fast as well! Elder Sheppard and I have been all over the place going by former investigators and doing some finding. We didn't get a chance to meet with our investigators this week, but that was all right. Things are starting to get busy around here again and sometimes you got to just work with it.

But I would like to share a principle that I learned from yesterday's Sunday School lesson. And it is this: We should constantly be cultivating an attitude of happiness and optimism. I really enjoyed yesterday's lesson on looking on the bright side of things, because that is something that I always try to do. And I really liked the scripture that was in the manual in Proverbs 17:22 and it says this:

22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

I think this scripture is so true in all aspects of life. If we are happy, then it heals us, but if we are sad, then we will just be constantly wounding ourselves. I always like to think of a comparison I heard in Sacrament meeting a bit ago. Are we radiators? Helping others and trying to cheer people up and looking on the bright side always? Or are we drains? Only looking to rob others of their happiness. Maybe not on purpose, but President Monson said this, "The only thing more contagious than enthusiasm, is the lack thereof."

I hope we can all try to be radiators and warm the world!

I love you all!

--

Till the Work is Done

- Elder Mickelsen