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