November 23, 2015

The Irish Moon

This weeks has been a week full of awesome!!! We have taught a new investigator, committed her to baptism, and she has already had 3 lessons, and we are teaching her the 4th lesson today! She is so prepared!!! We also had the opportunity to meet M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles this week but more details on that later.  But his week has been crazy awesome!!! And NO AUF's!!! Woohoo!!!!

MONDAY- Monday was P-day, as we all know.  We had emailing and played a round of snooker in which I beat Elder Allred, so I might have damaged his pride a little bit.  But after snooker, we went to Cafe Nero (which is like a Starbucks) to teach a lesson to a new investigator name 'N'.  She is so prepared! We can't even explain how prepared she is.  She is awesome.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation, which she loved since she has lost 4 family members in the last 4 months.  The most recent to a brutal murder.  But she loved the Plan of Salvation.  We also had a fantastic joint teach with Alice who is amazing.  She is so good.  She has changed so much since I met her back in August.  She actually identified the Spirit in the lesson.  She literally took our job from us! It was so awesome!  You know the lesson is going great when you can feel the Spirit in a COFFEE SHOP and your RECENTLY REACTIVATED joint teach identifies the feelings of the investigator as the HOLY GHOST!  It was so fantastic! She has committed to baptism on the 19th of December and she is so excited!  It set the tone for the rest of this absolutely amazing week!  Then after that, we went over and read the Book of Mormon with Sister W, who is an 87 year old ETERNIGATOR.  This is the real deal.  She has been meeting with the missionaries since 1960.  1960 PEOPLE!!! But she is so awesome. Then we chapped a little bit to end the night and retired home to have a good night's rest.

TUESDAY- Tuesday would normally by the day we would have District Meeting but we didn't because we had an All Ireland conference Saturday in Dublin but more on that later.  So on Tuesday, we walked clear across town in the pouring rain and gale force winds.  Yep, we are devoted.  My umbrella got eaten up and spit out by this Northern Irish weather, and I was left with nothing but a stick with a button that extended, which I continued to play with until it exploded in my hand at the door we had just chapped as the guy opened the door!  So that was kinda fun to play off. 

 But then after that, we taught a lesson to 'C.W.'  He is from South Africa and has been investigating the church for a while. He has the desire to join, but he is literally busy out of his mind.  He is an anesthesiologist and works in hospitals all over Northern Ireland so it's hard to catch him at his house.  But we have good lessons once we do.  Then after that, we traveled to Portadown, where I dropped Elder Allred off and brought our new District Leader, Elder White, up to Lisburn for an exchange.  

WEDNESDAY- Wednesday was pretty awesome.  The exchange went great.  We had a whole day of finding ahead of us and it was a lot of fun to go finding with Elder White and to see some of the different approaches he uses.  I really enjoyed the exchange.  We went over to Phil Hamilton's house for dinner and that was pretty fun.  He is a good guy and their family is pretty cool.  Their one year old boy had a break down while he was dancing to the song, "Everything is Awesome," and started throwing the training toilet across the room and just lost it.  It was hilarious.  Elder White and I could not stop laughing and we couldn't breathe!

THURSDAY- Thursday we had weekly planning like we always do, and then we taught 'N' at the church.  The lesson was fantastic.  It was so spiritual and she loved the restoration videos.  It was awesome!  We had Alice join us for the lesson again and she is so great.  She is getting really good at teaching and she makes comments that are good and she is really being a friend to 'N'.  Everything that needs to happen to an investigator and that can happen is happening to 'N' and it makes me and Elder Allred victory screech all the time!  It is so great!  

After the lesson, we GQ'ed a bit and then knocked some doors while we waited for our dinner appointment with Daniel Hamilton, which was awesome!  They are a really good family.  Then after dinner we had a couple of appointments fall through, but we weren't discouraged.  People will be people and their agency doesn't bother me.  I LOVE THIS WORK! There is no reason to fear! But then we returned home and headed to bed.  Great day!

FRIDAY-Friday was another great day.  We had a District Blitz in Belfast, and it was so much fun!  I love Belfast.  We spent the day GQ-ing and then we whiteboarded in the city center.  Belfast City Center is so beautiful this time of year.  The lights are incredible and they have a bit Christmas market right in front of the City Hall.  It is so cool!  And it actually snowed.  Not like Idaho snow, but Norther Ireland snow which is heavy and wet and sticks to you and makes you so wet and cold in about .3 seconds flat.  But it was awesome! It just turns to water on the ground, but it is snow while it is falling.  Then we stayed the night at the Rosetta's flat since we have to catch a bus at 5:50am to go to Dublin for the All-Ireland Conference which was pretty fun.  It was an 8-man flat that night!

SATURDAY-Saturday was absolutely fantastic!  We started off by getting up at 3:30 in the morning and getting ready for the day.  Gotta look sharp when you are meeting an Apostle! And we all started walking to the bus station which was 30 minutes away.  We left with about 20 minutes until the bus left and we all had to run to the bus station.  It happens every single time we travel.  We are all walking and then someone says, "What time is the bus leaving?" and then someone else goes, "5 minutes," and we all know full well that we are 10 minutes away and it is a mad dash to the station.  EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! I am so glad that I lost all that weight (20 lbs. in 7 weeks) or I never would have made it!! 

So we took the bus down to Dublin and then had a Zone Conference.  It was so good.  We learned so much in the morning session but the afternoon session is where it is at.  We got to meet Elder Ballard.  He wanted to shake each of our hands and then after he said, "I wanted to look into each of your souls and you all look great!" It was so awesome to hear that!  To know that I am where I need to be is such a great feeling!  He gave the best instruction.  President Donaldson promised us that if we each came with a question, that our question would be answered and it was!  It was so incredible!!!  I loved every minute of it!!  he told us that we have amazing potential here and that we will baptize more people than ever!  It was so great!  I wish I could send off to all of you what I learned but I'd have to write for days.  I took soooo many notes! But it was so great to hear from him!  Then we headed back home and hit the hay after a long and crazy day!

SUNDAY- Sunday was awesome!  We had 3 investigators at church!!!!! It was amazing!!!  'N' brought a friend! She has been telling her friends everything about the gospel!  HOLY COW SHE IS AWESOME!!! It was great!  I also had to speak in church and I think I did a good job.  I wanted it to be investigator friendly and it turned out great.  I love this work and everything in it.  It is soooooooooo great!!!  It is hard to believe that I have been out almost 4 months.  And I have just blinked.  It is awesome! 

After church, we taught 'N' and she was just eating it up.  She loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was such a spiritual lesson.  We are thinking she will be able to move up a week if she keeps progressing like she is.  It is sooooo exciting!  After that, we chapped a bit and got let in by a Fijian Seventh Day Adventist.  It was quite the odd lesson.  He fed us some of his boiled sea bass, which was cold, and some Fijian potatoes and some coconut milk salad.  It was pretty mingen. (Mom side note: I had to look up what that meant but couldn't find it so I figured it was some Irish slang.  I asked my friend who lives near London and she answered with this: Haha! It means horrible! It usually refers to food or girls! Haha!)
But oh well, it got us out of the cold for a bit!  Then we traveled home and headed to bed.

This week has been filled with miracle and I can't even begin to express my thanks to the Lord for his willingness to bless us in this great work.  We can do nothing without Him, and without Him, we are nothing.

2 Nephi 26:23-24 for ponderization!  I love it!

23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the lord God worketh not in darkness.

24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

TILL THE WORK IS DONE MY FRIENDS!! LOVE YOU ALL!

-Elder Mickelsen