August 15, 2016

Woo! Another week has flown by!!! This week was pretty intense! Well, actually pretty normal, but still awesome!! It was great! And it all culminated with moves call! Everyone back home seems to know our moves before we do, so hopefully I will surprise at least one of you! 

MONDAY- was P-Day, like usual. We cleaned a lot and then we had FHE, which we haven't had in 2 weeks! So it was nice to get back into things! But Monday was just the usual Monday, so nothing much to report. But I did get into a bake off with Sister Hall, and she claimed that she could make a better cake than me! So, I rose to the occasion, and said let's find out. So she gave me the cake recipe, which was in Danish and Norweigan, and told me to go for it, and we would present the fruits of our labors at District Meeting.

So, I did. I baked a cake. And turns out, I can't really bake cake. I have never made cake in my life, and now I know why. I followed the recipe exact. And the cake looked really good and cooked on top. I even stuck a knife in the top and it came out clean, so I was like, "Oh ya. I'm gonna win." So I cut into this cake, right, and turns out, the ENTIRE BOTTOM HALF WAS STILL BATTER. My cake went all over the place. I was only able to salvage one piece of cake from it. And I had to do the walk of shame into DM with my one measly piece of cake compared to Sister Hall's huge platter of cake. I promised to redeem myself however. So we are good there!

TUESDAY - We had DM in the morning, so we caught the early train to Belfast. DM was good. We had quite a few people there! The meeting went really well. Lots of good insights and teachings shared. I actually really enjoy DM when it is as good as it was this time! But after that, we went and taught James in Belfast since he is living up there now, and he had some free time to meet up. It was good. We asked him about the Book of Mormon and stuff, and it went really well. Elder Richards found this crazy insane Rubiks cube and worked on it a bit as well! It was nuts looking! It didn't even look like a cube! But he almost solved it! It was crazy!

After the lesson, we went and got a Boojum's! So good! And then we headed back to Coleraine, and went to a Branch Presidency meeting. It was a solid meeting. We are finally getting the ward missionary process rolling! It's exciting! Then, we went out to dinner with President Culbertson and Brother Kilgore, and they took us to Pizza Pomodoro! It was dang good! We had a good talk there about the work as well. Then we headed home. It was great!

WEDNESDAY - We went finding all day. It was a good day, a tad bit rainy, but still really good! After we went finding, we went out to dinner with Sister Dunn and Trevor! It was really cool! We went to this restaurant in Portrush! It was delicious!!! And Sister Dunn got us these pimpin’ minion keychains! It was great! After dinner, we went back over to Trevor's and watched the Testaments with him. It is a really good show! He liked it a lot! Then we headed home.

THURSDAY - We went finding, and then we taught Book of Mormon class! It was really good! We had a good turn out! It was great! We read the story of Enos and had some really good discussions! It was awesome!!! After the class, we went over to Brother Cunning's house and had coordination! It was great! The Branch is starting to catch the missionary work bug! It should be really good!!!! 

FRIDAY - We GQ-ed all day, and then we taught Trevor in the evening. We have been helping him with his Book of Mormon study lately, and it has really helped him since he has gotten into the Isaiah chapters of the BoM. So that has been great reading that with him! After that, the Newtonabbey Elders came over to stay the night since we are having a District Blitz tomorrow. Sister Dunn also gave us a ton of Domino's gift cards, so we ate like kings for the next 2 days! It was awesome!

SATURDAY - We had a District Blitz in Coleraine! It was great!!! We had the Newtonabbey Elders and the Antrim Sisters up for the day. So Elder Shiels and I GQ-ed all day and got a few potentials, and then we went and taught Alwyn. That was a really good lesson. If anybody has not seen the Patterns of Light videos by Elder Bednar, I would highly recommend and exhort you to view them! They are great! Afterwards, The Elders left and then we went to a Turkish place and I got chicken and chips. I was positive that my stomach could not handle another kebab. But it was awesome! Then, I made a pumpkin pie that evening for the luncheon we have at church tomorrow.

SUNDAY - was awesome! Church was really great! We had an old missionary couple come back to visit today, so they had a luncheon for them. So that was really good! The branch presidency also really hammered down on the ward missionary process and you could just feel the Spirit of progress in the room! It was amazing! The talks were also dang good as well. After church, Elder Richards and I had weekly planning, and then we went to visit Trevor.

We also got moves call while we were there! I am staying in Coleraine! And Elder Richards is headed to Edinburgh to a town called Dalkieth! My new companion is from California and his name is Elder Cropper! I have never met him, but I have heard he is a great guy! 

Well, that was my week! It was quick, it was long, it was awesome! Being a missionary is so great! I love every minute of it! Well, almost every minute! Haha! But through all the ups and downs, I remember the Lord, and that makes it all worth it. Love you all!!!

-Til The Work is Done

-Elder Mickelsen

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

August 1, 2016

Got "Hump Day" Package from home!!

Sweet Sister Dunn hand delivered the package to the Elders and found them GQing in the Town Centre!

Well, this week was pretty good! Lots of travel! And some surprise interviews with the mission president! So that was really fun! All in all, Elder Richards and I have spent just about 10 hours on a train! So, that was intense! Speaking of intense, I have a joke for everybody! But I will tell it at the end! Anyway, I am gonna make this a bit of a short one, and eliminate all of the useless details! So here we go!

MONDAY - we had P-Day. Usual P-day stuff, nothing to crazy. Except for cleaning like crazy people. After that we taught a lesson to this couple named Vanessa and Billy. They are pretty great. The lesson got off to rocky start, and there were a ton of random distractions. They even had like, 12 hunting dogs in their backyard. And they don't have a backyard. They live in a "town house" in Northern Ireland. That essentially means that they DO NOT have space for that many dogs, but they have ‘em. So that was awesome. We had started to teach the Plan of Salvation, and once we got to earth life, we swapped to the Restoration. I had no idea why, so I kept trying to tie it in to the Plan of Salvation, but it was so rocky. But we did get invited back, and they did enjoy meeting with us. So that was good. The Spirit did its job. The messengers were a bit out of sync, but we pulled it together thankfully. So after we got home that night, the Zone Leaders called us and told us that we would have an interview with President Donaldson on Wednesday. That was unexpected. But everyone in our same District got the same call as well, so we were a bit confused.

TUESDAY- We had our DM, which was really good. We had a council session, and then we had a group discussion on the talk, "Following Christ to Victory" by Hartman Rector Jr. It was pretty good. It just talks about some of the basic principles of success and also how we can be the best we can be through Christ. After DM, we traveled back to Coleraine and did some finding. Pretty normal day.

WEDNESDAY - So, we go to Belfast in the morning for our interviews. And when we get there, President Donaldson and President Thompson were in the room speaking with the Zone Leaders, so we just did some extra studying while we waited. Once they were done, President Donaldson took Elder Richards, and President Thompson took me. And my interview went great. Turns out that they just wanted to meet with the missionaries in the Zone to see how we were doing since they don't get out to Ireland as much as they like and for as long as they like. After that, we went out to lunch with the Antrim Sisters and President Donaldson and President Thompson. We went and got fish and chips. So that was pretty fun. It was really great actually. Good way to spend the day. After that, we traveled home, and then we went to a restaurant with Sister Dunn. And that was awesome.

THURSDAY- We went and visited Trevor first thing in the morning, and that was pretty great. He is super solid. We read the Book of Mormon with him, and we showed him the Restoration video this time. So that was fun. Then we went back and went finding until we had to catch a train to go to Antrim so that Elder Richards could do some baptismal interviews. So we were in Antrim for a few hours. And then we went to Subway, and raced the train from Antrim to Ballymena. The member that gave us a lift was haulin’ butt. That drive is 20 minutes. He did it in 11. That was a tad bit scary.

FRIDAY - We went finding all day, but we did teach Jack. Jack is 8 and he really liked the Plan of Salvation.  His biggest concern is that he doesn't like water on his face. SO we are trying to help him cope. He also roasted me on his knowledge of Pokemon. That was ridiculous. After that, we went finding some more and we found a guy named Dean. We taught him the Restoration and he liked it, so we are gonna continue meeting up with him. Then we went to Ballymoney, and taught Alwayn. That was really good. We talked about Patriarchal blessings and a bit more about family history and the temple. So that was pretty great.

SATURDAY - We had our weekly planning in the morning, and then we taught Isobel. That was okay. She is doing allright. After we did that, we went finding for the rest of that day.

SUNDAY - We started off by going to the train station to pick up Trevor so we could walk to church together. And Kevin was there as well. I met Kevin almost 3 months ago. And we haven't really heard from him since. But all of a sudden, he just decided to come to church. SO that was flippin’ sweet! So we headed up to church, and got a lift at about the halfway point, and church was really good! I really enjoyed it. All the lessons were good. Trevor was participating and Kevin said he would like to meet up with us, but he just needs to check his schedule. So that was awesome! After church, we just went finding, and then up to visit Trevor again. He is getting into the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon, so we are like his source of understanding. It was a good visit. Then we headed back for the night.

Well, that was the week! It was really good! It also flew by!!! We have seen the hand of the Lord this week! 

Here is the joke:

Did you ever hear the story about Abraham's life?? 

No? 

It was in-tents!!!!!! 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I came up with that all by myself! 

Anyway, love you all!!!! Talk to you next week!

--

Till the Work is Done

- Elder Mickelsen

July 25, 2016

This week was pretty good! It was a bit slow, but we still enjoyed it! We had a lot of time to go finding, so that was pretty fun. This update might be a bit short, so we'll see how it goes!

Monday - was P-Day, so we did the usual thing. After we emailed, we went over to ASDA, and then we went with Gary to play Risk at the church. We also played a bit of footbal in the church parking lot. Nothing too strenuous, just some good fun. It was awesome! But after that, we headed over to family home evening, where we dominated the quiz again, so that was really baller! It was great! We have such a good time at Family Home Evening. It is a really good opportunity we have to build relationships with the members. So that was really fun.

Tuesday - we had DM, and it was sweltering outside! It was so hot! Like, not back home hot, or surface of the sun hot, but it was Irish hot. Which is pretty bad since we had about 95% humidity. So it was boderline awful. Luckily we were inside the church and on the train for the hottest part, but the rest of the day was really beautiful! So I enjoyed it thoroughly! We had a few try by's after DM, so we did those, and then a meeting that we were supposed to go to got cancelled, so we went finding. Then we went over to the church to teach James. We answered a lot of his questions, and he said he would follow through on his commitments. So it was a really solid lesson. We also set a record for riding our bikes from the church to the flat!! We did it in 6 mins!!! It was really great! My bike wouldn't shift though, so we are gonna try and get it faster this week! After that, we had some dinner and then headed to bed!

Wednesday - We taught Trevor in the morning, and that was really good! He also feed us a ton of food too!! Trevor is like the most solid, humble guy I have ever met! He is really good!!! The lesson went well. We read the Book of Mormon with him. After that, we pretty much went finding all day. We met some nice people! It has been really good!

Thursday - We did our Weekly Planning, and we set some goals! I am excited for these goals!!!! They are gonna be so great!!!!! We are gonna crush it this week!!! After that We did some finding for a few hours, and then went and visited John! So, that was awesome! We had a good chat, and then we gave him a blessing since he is leaving for Scotland in a few days, and that would be the last time we saw him. We also got some pictures with him, so that was awesome! After that, we went over to the church to teach the Book of Mormon class, but no one came since most everybody is on holiday. So, we filled out our progress report and then called it a day.

Friday - we went finding all day. We had intended to try by a less active, but he wasn't in, so we had more time for finding. That was awesome! We had a Bible bash with a drunk man. And we got out of it when I offered him a sandwhich and then he got mad and walked off saying that we weren't listening to him. There was this tractor show where all of these old guys on old tractors blazed into town playing oldies music and then they had a display for a bit, so that was really cool to see. They are not as cool looking as American tractors, but still good! As well as, a random Indian guy told Elder Richards that he shouldn't drink fizzy drinks because they are bad for you. Then he walked off. So that was really hilarious.

Saturday - We started off by going finding. And we got into a really long discussion with a member of the Vineyard church, who are really Born Again, and he was kind of bashing with us. So we talked to him for a bit, and then we did some finding. We then snagged some lunch, and went back out finding. Not much success there. But we did get a referral, but he wasn't in. So that was a bummer. But then we traveled out to Alwyn's house to teach him. It was a really good lesson. We have been really focusing on family history and temples with him, so it was really good. Alwyn is just a really good guy in general. So that was awesome! After that, we headed home for the night.

Sunday - We had church, which went well. Elder Richards and I blessed the Sacrament, and we also had a few visitors at church! No investigators, but it was nice to see more than 30 people at church. Sacrament meeting was good. It was all about making sure we are able and ready to share the gospel with others. Then we had Sunday School, and then priesthood. Andrew had me play The Spirit of God for the opening hymn so he wouldn't have to stretch his lesson too long, so that went alright. That was the first time I played that for people to sing to! After church, we did some area book finding and reorganizing, and then we went up to visit Trevor again. Super solid visit. I really enjoyed it. Then we returned home.

Well, sorry this week was kind of boring! Next week it will be better! Haha! I know that the Lord is in this work! I read this scripture this morning in studies, and I realized how true it is! It is when one of the leaders of the Sanhedrin tells the High Priests to leave the Apostles alone.

38: And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught:

39: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

This work is of God. Not of men. It will go forth, and nothing will get in its way. The designs and purposes of God will not be frustrated!

LOVE YOU ALL!

--Till the Work is Done

- Elder Mickelsen