April 18, 2016

Here we are in Coleraine!

Hello again but this time from Coleraine in the Beautiful Belfast Zone!  I am so happy to be back in the Belfast Zone! I enjoy my time here so much! Belfast makes me so happy! Anyway, this week was super crazy so I will just get right down to it…

MONDAY- was PACK DAY since we move on Tuesdays now.  We emailed and then I spent the evening just packing up.  I hadn't quite settled down in Bray yet, so I wasn't too rooted.  My stuff was still relatively packed, haha! We were told that we would need to catch the 5:40am train to get to Dublin so I could be on the 7:00am bus to Belfast.  That will be great! Then, we hit the hay.

TUESDAY- MOVES DAY!  We got up at 4:00am something and got ready then I made some final preparations and away we went to Dublin.  Lemme tell you, the train ride to Dublin at 5:30 in the morning is super dead.  Nothing is really on the train and Dublin is still asleep.  We arrived at the train station and all of the missionaries that were moving got on the bus and away we went! I arrived in Belfast at about 9:30ish and then we just waited for other missionaries to arrive and did some finding in the meantime.  Oh how I missed finding in Belfast!  It is so much fun! We also went shopping with the Zone Leaders and picked up the new missionaries and their trainers who just arrived from Edinburgh.  Then we finished the day with some more finding and some Boojums, an eating establishment, which is awesome! We then spent the night at the Zone Leaders flat.

WEDNESDAY- We dropped my new companion, Elder Richards, off at the airport to go to Edinburgh since he has to attend the New Leadership Training meeting with the Mission President.  Elder Richards is the new District Leader here in Coleraine.  Afterwards, I spent the day finding with the Zone Leaders and helping them teach a few lessons.  We had Boojums again today, as well.  Boojums is dang good, people! I highly recommend it.  We also ate dinner with some relatives of Elder McCappin, our Zone Leader, and they took us to this BBQ place that was fantastic.  I had an incredible chicken sandwich that was to die for.  I also indulged in a brownie sundae that was called "The Chocolate Skyscraper".  It was class.  Then that night, we picked up Elder Richards from the airport after his meeting in Edinburgh.  We then went to spend the night in the Newtonabbey Elder's flat since they were going to drive us to Coleraine in the morning.

THURSDAY-We woke up, had our studies and then we went to the Antrim flat to pick up Elder Richards' luggage.  We then headed to our new home in Coleraine, which is about 2 hours north of Belfast.  It is a beautiful drive.  We arrived in Coleraine at about 2:00pm.  We unpacked and went grocery shopping.  Then we did a bit of finding to finish off the day.  After we arrived home, we sat down and chilled by the river, which is in our back yard.  Yep, our flat is right on the river, like, it doesn't get much closer than where we are.  It is great! It was a beautiful day!

FRIDAY-We did our weekly planning and spent a good chunk of time looking through the area book.  We are basically whitewashing Coleraine, which means we are two new missionaries in the area and starting over from where the last set of missionaries left off, and it is so awesome.  We were able to get a few appointments set up as well as finding a few potentials.

SATURDAY- We went chapping and just offered service to people.  It was a really grand time.  We got our names out there and really tried to introduce ourselves to as many people as we can.  I am having so much fun here!!

SUNDAY-We had church but we were late since our shower is a little nuts and you can turn it on with every light switch in the flat.  It is pretty funny.  Here's the catch: The shower only stays on for about .00000000001 seconds and then it turns off again.  So, we were in the bathroom trying to figure it out for three hours! We then realized that we were gonna be a few minutes late to church and we just decided to bag the shower.  The landlord is definitely getting a call on Monday, though.

We finally made it to church and had a great Sacrament meeting, but we spent the entire hour of Sunday School talking to a less active lady who only believes in Joseph and Emma Smith. She even prays to them! She repeated the same 4 things to us over and over and then she left.  It was a good welcome to Coleraine! Haha!

Priesthood was good.  We talked about building the Kingdom of God from the teachings of President Howard W. Hunter.  After church, we did some finding, had lunch, continued finding and then we ate dinner.

Well, that was this week all summed up! The Lord has great blessings in store for all of us! All we have to do is ASK, SEEK and KNOCK! 

Love you all!!

Till the Work is Done

-Elder Mickelen

April 11, 2016

Hello everybody! This week went by quick! And it was quite the wek as well! And it culminated in a moves call.  So, I'll just give you the run down!

TUESDAY- Well, on Tuesday, we had our District Meeting which was pretty good! We had lots of treats and stuff since one of the sisters in our district is dying! (going home) and it was a pretty great meeting.  We talked all about how we can be better and how we need to get to know people as friends as we teach them.  After that, we traveled back to Bray and we taught 'P.F.'  He is doing good.  He really enjoys the Living Scriptures cartoons and he learns a lot from them.  He also just loves cartoons.  Then after that, we went to the church to set up our progress record, and then we had our branch council meeting.  It was a pretty good meeting.  We were able to talk about a lot of things that we can do to help this area and the branch.  

WEDNESDAY- We went finding all day. I don't really have much to report.  Wednesday just kind of ended up being empty, but it was fun to go out and go finding.

THURSDAY- We had our weekly planning! And then we had a lesson with 'A'.  He is pretty cool.  He is interested in Family History so we told him a bit about that.  And then afterwards, we went finding until our English class.  We had a few people show up, so that was fun.  We helped them become more fluent in their English, so we just sit and talk with them.  It was pretty great.  After that, we went home and went to bed.

FRIDAY- ended up a lot like Wednesday.  We went finding all day.  We also stopped by a referral to deliver a Book of Mormon, but she wasn't in, so we left her a note saying to call us and then we did some more finding. Pretty good day.

SATURDAY- We went finding in the morning and then had some lunch.  Then we went finding some more.  Then Elder Giles had to go and get his GARDA card, so we went and did that  and then we set up the church for Sunday and then we headed home.  We ordered some pizza, as per tradition on moves call eve, and then we headed to bed.  

SUNDAY- Church was good.  We had fast and testimony meeting.  The rest of church went pretty well.  We had our missionary correlation meeting right after church, so that was really good.  Then right after church, we went to McDonald's to teach 'A'.  Don't worry, we didn't buy anything.  But it was a good lesson.  We told him a little more about family history.  Then we went with Corneliu to Monkstown where we tried a lady named Sister Carter.  She said she was busy at the moment and we couldn't come in.  So, instead, we went over to visit another sister in the branch named Jean Cowap.  She was really nice.  It was a really good meeting.  After that, we headed over to the Bunda's house to teach Mathoni and have some dinner.  It was a pretty good night.  And we also got moves call right after church! It was the earliest moved call i have every experienced! And I am moving out of Bray.  I am headed up to the Belfast Zone! I will be moving to Coleraine, which is on the North coast of Ireland.  I am really excited! Bray has been fun but I am excited for this new step!

Well, that was my week.  Sorry it wasn't too interesting.  But is was really quick for me.  Anyway, hope you all are doing well!

Till the Work is Done

-Elder Mickelsen

March 4, 2016

Hello Everybody! This past week has been great and definitely a highlight of the week was seeing General Conference!! It was a very good one indeed!! Well, this week's update is going to short (sorry, mom!) This week was a bit slow, otherwise, but things are starting to pick back up again.

I am just going to start with Tuesday now, since all of my Monday summaries are just, "Today was Pday" So, here is Tuesday.

TUESDAY- We had a Blitz in Bray. Our District Leader, Elder Taylor and Elder Perkes came down to help us find some more people to teach in Bray.  I was with Elder Perkes all day and it was really fun! We ended up finding 9 people in total that day, and we ended the night with some burgers at Eddie Rockets.  It was good! Elder Perkes and I even taught 2 lessons: one to a visiting Spanish girl and the other one to 'P.F.'  We taught the Spanish girl all about prayer and recognizing the blessings that God has given us in our lives and we showed 'P.F.' the "Mormon and Moroni" video from the Book of Mormon animated stories.  

WEDNESDAY- We spent most of the day finding.  It is starting to rain here everyday again, and it was weird to see the rain, as crazy as that sounds.  But it was a good day, wet, but good.  We had a lot of lessons from our potentials fall through, so we were kinda bummed about that, but we began to teach a guy named, 'A', and he is pretty cool.  Hopefully he will progress and come closer to God.

THURSDAY-We did our weekly planning in the morning and that was good.  We were able to get that done pretty fast and go out finding.  We also went finding all day on Thursday, as well.  The days just kind of blur together when you're finding all day in the rain.  But hey, such is life in the SIM.

FRIDAY- You guessed it! We spent the day finding.  It was really crazy.  By this day, we were a little worn out, but we kept going.  Nothing much really to report for Friday.

SATURDAY- We went finding until 3:00, then we caught a train down to Dublin to watch the Saturday morning session of Conference, which started at 5:00.  So we headed down there for that and it was a good session.  We were a little tired but the best sessions were yet to come.

SUNDAY- was a really good day.  I really enjoyed the Conference sessions.  We started off by watching Priesthood session, then we watched Saturday afternoon and then Sunday morning.  I still haven't seen Sunday afternoon but I can tell it was a good session.  My favorite speaker by far was President Uchtdorf.  He gave one of the best talks I have heard.  I loved how he talked about building new things, and following God to receive blessings.  My favorite part was when he said that we do not need to do anything to deserve to be rescued.  If we ask, the Savior will rescue us.  That was the best thing I have ever heard.  I realized that all I need to do is ask, and I can be helped.  I have decided to apply this principle even more in my every day missionary labors.  TO JUST ASK! 

Sorry for the short update! I definitely needed the boost that conference gave on the weekend. My favorite quote now is this, "I CANNOT has never accomplished anything. I WILL TRY has wrought wonders." I know that all we have to do is try our best and work our hardest and we will see blessings.  No matter how long we have to wait.  No matter how hard it becomes.  If we keep persevering, we will see the arm of Go and we will be rescued.

Till the work is done.

-Elder Mickelsen

March 28, 2016

Hello again, everybody! This week has gone by even quicker than the last and it's hard to believe that March is coming to a close! We had a really good week with Zone interview training and some good finding sessions, as well as teaching some less actives and finding a new investigator!!! Woo!!! I will just jump right into it then…

MONDAY- was fun.  We walked around Bray in the morning and just looked around at the shops and then we ate some lunch.  It was a pretty good morning.  Then, we headed up to Dun Laoghaire to do our usual emailing and then we went back to Bray to do our shopping as well as look at a music store that is right by LIDL's (which is where we shop). It was pretty fun.  Next we dropped our groceries off and headed out to do some tracting and GQing.  We were supposed to have a less active lesson with a lady named, 'S', today, but she got sick last minute and had to cancel.  So, we just did some good finding.  People are opening up here now! They actually talk to us! The only thing is that they are all tourists, so we will have to teach em quick! hahahaha! But this week started off on a good note.

TUESDAY- was pretty great! There was no District Meeting on account of having Zone Conference tomorrow, so we were able to spend another good day finding.  In case you haven't noticed, we spend a good chunk of our time finding! We don't really have anyone to teach.  Our only investigator is having some Visa problems, so we are trying to build up our teaching pool and keep this area alive! But we are finding like mad! So we spent a good amount of time knocking doors in the morning and then we went to go and teach 'P.F.'  He is a character.  He likes to have us over, but sometimes he doesn't really listen that well.  Lucky for us, we have struck a gold mine with the living scriptures cartoons! (Thanks Elder Allred!) So, he was really engaged in that.  We showed him the story of Helaman and the Stripling Warriors and it was really great.  We focused on the fact that if we know we are being righteous and we know God is on our side, we can never truly lose.  It was a great lesson.  

Afterwards, we went finding some more and then we went home to have some dinner.  Then we crashed hard because we have to get up early and head to Dublin for Zone Conference in the morning.

WEDNESDAY- So today we had Zone Conference.  It was pretty fun.  I always enjoy meeting up with the other missionaries in my zone, even though I don't really know most of them.  Being around other missionaries is just fun in general.  You are around people you can relate to and have a good time with.  It is great!  We learned a lot of good things in Zone Conference.  And although it felt a bit hasty and sped up at times, I came away knowing more than I did when I went in and also realized that my teaching style is the way that works for me and I don't need to change anything to conform to what every other missionary thinks I should do.  That is the main thing I learned.

I also had a good interview with President Donaldson.  He was able to guess my concerns without me even saying anything! It was crazy! He gave me some solutions on how I could work on improving my area and growing the church in Bray and I was very thankful for that!

After Zone Conference, we headed back to Bray and we did some GQing by the seafront and on a road that is just off the main street.  Afterwards, we headed home for some dinner and some wind down time.  Then we headed to bed.

THURSDAY- was good.  We did our weekly planning and then we had some lunch. Then we did some finding pretty much all day until we had our English class, which nobody showed up to, so we did some more finding and went home for dinner.  Thursday was definitely the low point of our week. But still good!

FRIDAY- was also just finding.  I don't really know what else to say.  We talked to a ton of people and also knocked on a ton of doors.  There were quite a few people in town because of Easter this weekend, so that was great.  But for the most part, Friday was a blur.

SATURDAY- was nice.  We went and set up the chairs and did the progress record first thing in the morning since we had a pretty booked evening.  We did that really quick and then we went out and GQed the main street.  Then we had some delicious lunch.  Afterwards, we made some paper eggs to put in the hymn books for the Branch on Easter.  We wrote little spiritual messages on the back and then added the church's new hashtag, #Hallelujah.  It was pretty fun to make those, then we went and visited with 'J.Mc.' We showed him the Hallelujah video and then a Mormon Message about God's constant shower of blessings on us.  It was a pretty good lesson.  I really felt the spirit when the Mormon Message was playing.  It is really a good one! Especially since the only thing the sky does over here is rain!! 

After that, we headed down to the new investigator appointment that we had scheduled but her husband hadn't arrived home yet, so we just shared some spiritual thoughts on the doorstep and we set up a return appointment to come back and teach her more.  It is very exciting!  Especially right before Easter! Bray might be seeing a "Resurrection" of it's own!  I hope so!  And then after the doorstep lesson, we headed home and had our dinner and then we went to bed.

SUNDAY- was really good. Church was the best part of the day.  We had so many people at church! We had 2 investigators and we were able to re-establish contact with the one when she came to church.  It was really good! Also, we had some less active members as well! Things at church were just great!  I also spoke in Sacrament Meeting.  I spoke on the Atonement of Jesus Christ as taught by the Book of Mormon Prophets, as well as the Nephite Easter.  I had never thought of 3rd Nephi 11 as the Nephite Easter before and it shined a whole new light on the chapter for me!  I would encourage you all to read that chapter and put yourself in the position of the people and really think what that was like!  I was a really amazing thing that happened! Ack, it was just so good!

Then after church, we went and did some more area book finding to clean it up a little bit and see if we could call anyone and wish them a Happy Easter.  Afterwards, we headed over to the Bunda's house and had some lasagna! It was awesome!  Then we taught Mathoni.  He is a typical 7 year old, but he is learning!  Then we headed home and went to bed.

On the cliffs of Bray at Sunset

Well, that was the week! It was really good!! Things are starting to look up here in Bray!  And I am getting excited!  The season is changing and what better time to change ourselves and celebrate this time of New Life!! This Gospel is True!! Love you all!!

Till the Work is Done.

-Elder Mickelsen

March 21, 2016

Hello again! I feel like this past week never even happened! Holy cow, that was fast.  Well, I will just go into my week now since I don't really know how to write a better intro than that.  But here we go!

MONDAY- was P-day.  We woke up first thing in the morning and went and hiked the Bray Head.  It was a beautiful hike!  I took lots of pictures, some of which probably showed up in last week's email.  But it was awesome! Then we went and looked around some of the little touristy shops around Bray and then we had a branch FHE activity where we taught a lesson and also played some games.  Elder Giles and I came up with a game.  We threw marshmallows into each other's mouths!  It was awesome! It was a really good Family Home Evening.  Good way to end the day!

TUESDAY- We had District Meeting and it was pretty good.  Elder Giles and I instructed.  There was only one other missionary team since the sisters had to be somewhere else, so it was a tiny meeting.  But we had a lot of fun! After the meeting, we went on exchanges and I went with Elder Taylor and we went out and GQ'ed in Dublin City Centre.  Holy cow! That was a ton of people! Dublin was super packed last week with St. Patrick's Day coming up and there were a ton of tourists getting in early for the festivities.  St. Patrick's Day is like a 4 day event here!  It's nuts!  But we had a lot of fun talking to people in the city and we even got a few potentials out of it!  

It was really nice having a wealth of people to talk to, as we sometimes get stuck in ruts here in Bray.  It was a good refresher!  We then finished up the night be eating at Boojum's which is like a Costa Vida kind of place.  It was really delicious! Then we spent the night in Dublin.

WEDNESDAY- We got up and Elder Giles and I headed back to Bray.  Once back in Bray, we went and did some GQing and chapping whilst we waited for our dinner appointment.  Nothing much to report on finding.  Just a lot of politely rejective people. But no matter.  

We then had a dinner appointment at the Rosas, and then made some good pasta.  Andy, their son, also gave me a haircut! And it is pretty good! He offered, and I was in need, so I got one.  Wasn't gonna turn down a free haircut!  He did a pretty good job, though.  After that, we headed back home and hit the hay.

Andy Rosa giving Cody a haircut! Lookin' good!

THURSDAY-  St. Patrick's Day! It was pretty fun.  We started off by going to the church to do our weekly planning.  And while we were in there, the parade was going by on Main Street.  So we go to see a piece of the parade from the church window.  It looked good but President wanted us to avoid large groups of people and to stay away from parades, so I can't really say how good it was.  But I heard there were 40,000 people in Bray, which is well over the average population, so that was cool!

After that, we went over to the Jacksons and had dinner and little spiritual thought.  We shared a message about how we can only be saved through Jesus Christ.  We are especially focusing on that this Easter season.  Especially with the new #Hallelujah videos coming out from the church.  But that was St. Patrick's Day.  Pretty crazy, I know.

FRIDAY- We had a flat check so we did some last minute tidying and stuff around the tiny flat and we passed the check.  So that was great! And then after that, we went out and did some tracting and some GQing on the seafront.  Still not a lot of people are interested, so it can be a little tiring sometimes. But we did have a dinner appointment that night in Greystones.  We headed down there and it was a good appointment.  The member made us some fish pie.  Fish pie is pretty much cottage pie with salmon, tilapia, prawns and other kinds of fish.  (I try really hard to like it, but I just do not like fish. Any fish. At all. Period) but I do appreciate the efforts of the members to feed us:)

Afterwards, we headed home.  Things have been a bit dry with teaching this week.  I did hear some good news: I just found out that a man that Elder Tolk and I found in Lisburn just got baptized! That is awesome!!

SATURDAY- We helped a member load some trash up from church to take to the recycling place and we also helped another member decorate for the St. Patrick's Day party that night.  It was a pretty fun way to spend the morning.  Then we went out and did some tracting and GQing, but to no avail.  We are going hard here, but this is a trial period for us.  To see if we will work hard even in the dry season.  So we go hard! 

Setting up for the St. Patrick's Day Party for the Branch

Then that night, we had the party.  It was pretty fun.  Lots of good food and lots of good people.  The members brought a lot of friends, so we got to talk to a ton of people and got some numbers to set up appointments in the future!  So that is very exciting! Baby Steps!  But the activity was great! Irish music and dancing and stuff. Then we headed home and went to bed.

SUNDAY- was pretty great!  We had church and it was a good meeting.  There has been a real focus on the Atonement for speaking topics this month and I enjoy hearing everybody's opinion on the center of our gospel and of Heavenly Father's plan.  It was really good.  The rest of church went by pretty smoothly and then we did some GQing on the seafront before our dinner appointment at President Bunda's house.  They are from the Phillipines, so they make some dang good food!! They made pork and rice and a vegetable salad this time.  It was pretty good.  I enjoyed it very much.  We were also able to teach their son, who is preparing for baptism, the Plan of Salvation. We tested him to see how much he remembers from Primary and stuff.  He did did pretty good, so we had a great lesson with him.

All in all, a pretty good week! A little slow on the finding front, but for the most part, it was a good week!  Lots of things were learned this week.  I learned how I can grown as a missionary.  My desire to share this wonderful message is burning brighter and brighter everyday! It is amazing!

Til the work is done!

-Elder Mickelsen

March 14, 2016

Hike to the top of Bray Head with Elder Giles

Hello everybody!  Sorry this email is so late today! Elder Giles and I went out and hiked the Bray head this morning so the first few hours were devoted to that!  It has been a good day so far.  The view from the top is incredible!

This past week has been a good one, a little slow with appointments falling through, but still a good week nonetheless!  Anyway, here it is…

Panoramic View from the top of Bray Head

MONDAY- We emailed and then we shopped and then just took a chill day since we were both exhausted.  We spent some time at Church, and that was fun as well.  I got to practice my piano skills! But Monday was just a nice relaxing day.

TUESDAY- We had District Meeting in Dublin in the morning.  It was a pretty good meeting.  I gave some more instruction.  For some reason, I have been asked to instruct at the last 3 District Meetings and Elder Giles and myself will be instructing again tomorrow.  But it's all good.  I love teaching!  After the meeting, we headed back to good ole Bray and taught 'P.F.'  He is less active and we have been seeing him for the past little while.  We finally decided that it would be a good idea to show him the Book of Mormon animated series and we were right!  He was very engage in the show and he paid attention.  Normally, he isn't very attentive during the lessons, but this one worked out really well.  After that, we spent some more time chapping.  No potentials, but we were working hard!

WEDNESDAY- We did some chapping.  We also did a bit of GQing.  It was pretty nice.  We then returned to the flat for lunch and then we decided to do a little bit of area book finding.  We were able to set up an appointment from that, so we were stoked!  We then spent the rest of the day finding some more.  We met tons of people.  There are lots of foreigners in Bray, so sometimes you meed some real characters! Anyway, we finished off the night with some dinner with Erik and Erin.  They made some awesome tacos.  Like, some of the best tacos I have ever had in my life.  It was absolutely amazing!  That was an incredible dinner appointment. After dinner, we played some Farkle and then we headed home.

THURSDAY- was good.  We did some phone calls in the morning and then we went out finding.  Bray is a small town and we don't have many people to teach, so we spend a lot of time finding.  But then we had a lunch appointment with our branch mission leader and he made us some tacos.  They were awesome, too!  Tacos, Tacos, Tacos!!! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!  It was really good!!  I have had a bit of tacos this week.  But after lunch, we went to the Church and did our weekly planning.  Pretty uneventful there.  Weekly planning can be a real drag sometimes.  Ugh! Afterward, we did some finding on Main Street.  It was okay, but we didn't find anybody.  Main Street was pretty dead for some reason.  But then we taught our English class and it went really well.  We only had one person show up this week and his name was Sergio.  He is from Rio and he is really cool.  So we taught him some English and then we turned in for dinner.

FRIDAY- was pretty uneventful.  We did a lot of finding.  And I mean, a lot! It was crazy.  And the even scarier part is nobody was home all day!  The town was like a ghost town. It was a little bit weird.  At least it seemed like that.  But later that evening, we went over to the Scott's for dinner.  They made us homemade pizza! It was pretty good.  Elder Giles and myself made our own pizza even!  It was pretty fun.  After dinner, we almost missed the bus and it only comes once every hour, so we had to run as fast as we could and wave it down to pick us up.  That was awesome.  It just really confirmed to me how much I hate running.  But we made it! Woo!

SATURDAY- was pretty fun.  First thing in the morning, we traveled to Arklow to go see Collette.  The drive down to Arklow is a really pretty drive.  She fed us and it was awesome.  She make chicken and potatoes and stuffing and a whole Thanksgiving dinner, pretty much!  When she let us in, she said she had just made a "light" lunch.  Tell you what, that meal about put me to sleep! It was great! Collette is really nice.  She is a recently re-activated member and we are helping her get her testimony back.  She has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot lately and she can't put it down! So we are helping her understand what is in it and we also gave her a blessing since she will be having surgery in a few weeks.  It was a really great lesson.

After that, we headed back to Bray and went by to teach 'A'.  He wasn't in. Again.  We tried to call him and text him but no answer.  So we just went finding.  Then we had a sit down and really just thought about what we can do better in this area.  We have some really good ideas so hopefully things start getting better!  That night we also ordered some pizza.

SUNDAY- was good.  We had a really nice church meeting.  Elder Giles spoke and the meeting was very enlightening. The rest of the classes were good and I taught Gospel Principles.  The lesson went well.  After church, we did some more finding and then went through some potentials and invited them to Family Home Evening tonight.  But Sunday for the most part was more relaxed.  But still a good missionary Sunday.  Well everyone, that was the week!  Hope all of ya'lls have had a good week as well.  Talk to you soon.

Till the work is done!

-Elder Mickelsen

Practicing my selfie skills :)

March 7, 2016

Hello Everybody! Another week has come and gone.  This week was a little slow, so the update isn't very long or very interesting.  Sorry about that, but hey! That's the moves week for you! Anyway, here it goes!

MONDAY- was email and clean day so we did just that.  We emailed and then we headed back to the flat and Elder Bates started packing while I cleaned.  Nothing much really to report.  We also had dinner with a member at a place called Eddie Rockets.  It's like this American style diner, so it was pretty great.  But other than that, nothing much to report for Monday.

TUESDAY- was pretty fun. We did some GQing in the morning and then we headed back to the flat so Elder Bates could finish packing since we had to head to Dublin that night.  We also visited 'P.F.', which was good.  So I made some cookies, Elder Bates finished packing and then we headed to Dublin to spend the night with the Zone Leaders since we have a crazy moves day tomorrow.

WEDNESDAY- was nuts! We got up at 5:30 in the morning so we could take Elder Bates and the other missionaries that are moving to the bus station.  That was an early start.  Then the rest of us that didn't move spent a good chunk of the day taxiing other missionaries around to their individual areas.  Once we had a few minutes of free time, we did a little bit of looking around Dublin.  Dublin is a really nice city.  We went to this touristy shop and I got a hoodie and a shirt.  Then at 5:30 in the evening, Elder Giles arrived.  He was born in Utah and has lived in Arizona for a few years but he and his family have lived all over Europe.  Elder Giles spent most of his life in Germany and England.  His parents are in England now for the next three years.  

We quickly rounded up our stuff and headed back to Bray since we had a dinner appointment with the Rosas that evening.  The dinner went well, they made pork chops and chips.  It was nice.  Then we headed home and absolutely crashed from the exhaustion.  Good day though.

THURSDAY- We had some weekly planning.  Always good doing weekly planning, especially with a new companion.  After planning, we made a stop by McDonald's and got a Shamrock Shake.  Yes, everybody, that is correct.  I had a shamrock shake.  In March.  In Ireland.  It was as awesome as it sounds.  After that, we spent a good chunk of the day doing some finding and Elder Giles unpacked.  Thursday was great.

The Shamrock Shake, in March, in Ireland!

FRIDAY- was awesome!  We did finding pretty much all day and then we had a meal appointment with Tom and John McDaid.  They are really nice guys.  They fed us ramen.  My first Ramen meal appointment.  It was great!  But we just had a really good time on Friday.

SATURDAY- was great, too.  The weather was absolutely fantastic!  It was really warm and sunny in the morning! It was so great!  It made finding so much better but later that evening, we went to the seafront to go GQing and no joke- a giant hail storm hit right as we stepped onto the boardwalk.  It was really crazy!  But it was kind of fun to just stand there and watch people run all over the place seeking shelter.  Gave us a good chuckle.  Then we did some more finding to finish off the night and we called it a day.

SUNDAY- was nice and relaxing.  We had church, which was good.  It was fast and testimony meeting and also Mother's Day, so there were a lot of good testimonies.  Then after church, we went over to the Jackson's house so Elder Giles could Skype his family.  That was really fun.  I didn't Skype though.  I gotta wait until May when it's Mother's Day in America.  After that, we headed back to Bray to have dinner at President Bunda's house.  They made this really good spaghetti stuff.  I have never eaten so much in my life.  Fasting this week made me starving.  It was great.  But that was Sunday!

Well this week wasn't the best in terms of finding potentials,  but we are looking to turn that around in the coming weeks!  People are becoming more hardened by the day!  And we need to work harder to combat that!  The Lord will bless his people.  I know this to be true.

Till the work is done!  Love you all!

-Elder Mickelsen