October 12, 2015

Hello Everybody! This week has been full of awesomeness and amazing things.  I have had the opportunity to see things happen that I was under the impression couldn't happen.  Things have been going awesome here! There is a renewed energy in this area and I cannot find words too explain it! Here is a Day by Day Play by Play! (Say that 5xfast:)

MONDAY- as we all know is P-Day.  It is a great day, since it offers us the opportunity to chillax and enjoy Lisburn.  After emailing, we traveled to Tesco's, where we did our weekly shopping.  I mean, that is like the best part almost of Monday, stocking up on food.  After that, we traveled back to our flat to put away our groceries and plan our next move.  We decided that we would go and check out the mall.  The mall is pretty cool and it tempted us with lunch.  The food court is on the second floor and has a great ambiance.  Elder Allred opted for a KFC bargain bucket with 4 bags of chips (fries) and I myself made the ill decision to find out if the UK Burger King was better than the USA Burger King.  NOPE! They both suck.  I do not recommend UK Burger King to anybody, and if you try it, I am free from the blame because I have warned you all!  After P-Day was over, we continued on up to an area close to our flat to begin chapping.  And we found two potentials! So that is an awesome start to the week!

Elders Plewe and Allred headed to Zone Conference

Elders Mickelsen and Thayne headed to Zone Conference

TUESDAY-we had Zone Conference pretty much all day.  It was from 9am to 4pm, and it was really good.  We all had interviews with President Donaldson, and we all got to know him a little bit better.  Being in Norther Ireland, we don't get to see him as much as the Scotland Missionaries get to see him.  But he had good teachings for us.  After Zone Conference, we headed back to the area to teach 'M'.  But she had to reschedule because she had come down with a hardcore flu.  So we rescheduled her to Saturday and we looked forward to finally teaching her.  But that night we taught the stepmother of a recent convert and she was really interested so we were able to add another investigator to the pool! It was so good!

Crazy Chapping Elders! Love them!

WEDNESDAY-Well Wednesday was our first full chapping day this week.  We chapped up in the North end of town and found little success.  But we pressed on.  Our new motto is one that I adopted from Elder Plewe, "Finding is Good.  Finding is Fun." So shout out to Elder Plewe for the new motto.  But after lunch, we went finding over on the West side, near a member's home and we found some really good people there, but not a lot of them were interested in hearing the message but we had fun nonetheless! We then went to dinner with the Hamilton's, and they took us to a chippy since it was a last minute dinner.  But hey, I'm not complaining about a chicken sandwich! After dinner, we traveled back up North to chap until bedtime and we found one more solid potential.  So things are going great!

THURSDAY-Thursdays are always fun.  We have weekly planning and then lunch, which takes up most of our morning.  And it was nice to finally have some investigators to plan for.  But we chapped for the rest of Thursday and found 3 more potentials! So there really isn't much else to report on Thursday.

Preaching the Word!

FRIDAY-Friday was pretty great.  We spent the morning chapping, but were not seeing much success, so we returned to the flat for lunch and to replan our battle strategy.  We decided to attack a different area instead and work our way towards a member's house so we could be there for our dinner appointment.  We finally made it, after walking for about 45 minutes straight uphill and we were exhausted! But for all the right reasons!  We had dinner and then traveled to a lesson with 'S and D' that fell through because they had unexpected visitors.  But, we will keep working with them.  So, we chapped! Woohoo! I'm becoming an expert at it! We only found one more potential on Friday, so it was kind of an uneventful day but it still worked out well and we were able to plant many seeds!

SATURDAY-was awesome! This was the day that we taught 'M'.  We had coordination, which went pretty good, and then we headed over to chap in the Palmer area some more while we waited for lunch.  After chapping for a bit, we decided to go to lunch at Chopstix Noodle Bar in the mall since it was on the way to 'M's' house, which was pretty dang good.  Caramel Coconut Chicken is the bomb! But, the lesson was even better! We made our way to her house and at first she didn't answer so we were freaking out! But, then she answered after the second knock and we made it in to teach the lesson.  And the lesson was so strong! We used the Holy Ghost principle, and it worked marvelously!  We taught the Restoration with such a strong spirit that she felt it and told us.  To which we responded with an invitation to baptism.  SHE ACCEPTED! She is on track now to have her and her family be baptized on the 14th of November! And we are so excited for her!  She loves the Gospel and says that it all sounds familiar to her! It was truly a miracle! The lesson was fantastic!!!!! I don't know how else to explain it! But after the lesson, we said a gratitude prayer and headed back to town to get some cream from the chemist for me.  I found ringworm about 2 weeks ago, but thought it was a bruise because I had fallen down the stairs in Portadown just the day before, but it didn't go away so now I have cream for it and now it's just fine. (Don't worry mom!) We finished the day with some chapping and returned home for bed.

Beautiful Lisburn

SUNDAY-was great as it always is.  We went to church and had a really good fast and testimony meeting.  And some awesome things happened this week as well! We had 'T' come to church, (which hasn't happened in 6 months) and Alice bore her testimony!  She had been reactivated and it is so great to see her progression! She really loves church and everything! I was so happy to see the fruits of our labors! After church, we headed back to the flat for lunch, and then we headed out chapping, and we found one guy who was semi interested! But we'll work with it! Anyway, Sunday was great! And this week was great!

PONDERIZE! This last week I pondered Mosiah 4:27. This week I will be pondering Moroni 7:46-47! It reads: 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faitheth.  Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail -
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

ANYWAY! Good luck to you all this week!! The Church is true!!

-Elder Mickelsen