July 11, 2016

Well, this week has been pretty awesome! It has flown by and has had a lot happen! So I will just get right to it!

MONDAY - was P-Day, as well as INDEPENDENCE DAY! It was pretty great. Elder Richards and I went to this cafe in town to start off the morning and got a nice giant breakfast. There were these giant pancakes and hashbrowns and bacon and eggs. It was awesome! Not quite like home, but close enough! It was really great! After breakfast, we headed to the library, did our emailing things and then we walked around town trying to find a flag shop so we could snag and American flag, but our search yielded no fruit. And then from there we just went around town looking at the things that we really haven't noticed since we usually leave Coleraine on Mondays to go see stuff.

But the rest of the day was good. We had family home evening, but we got stuffed on the quiz. It was 3 vs. 5, so we were heavily outnumbered. But it was still a good time! Afterwards, we headed back to the flat and celebrated the 4th by throwing poppers on the ground! It was awesome! But there was something that happened later in the week that made up for it. the 4th was also freezing! I had to wear my winter jacket! It was so cold! And then by the evening, it was so warm that I had to roll my sleeves way up just to survive! The weather here is quite bipolar.

TUESDAY - We didn't have DM since this week is moves week, so Elder Richards and I made cookies in the morning to take to our dinner appointment that evening with Gary. Then we went finding pretty much all day. It was weird going finding all day, but it was really super nice! Haven't had a good finding marathon in a while! Haha! But later that evening, we helped Alwyn set up his family history, so that went well. Then we had a DA with Gary. And he made some bomb curry. We talked about some good books that the church has put out as well, so it was pretty awesome!

WEDNESDAY - was pretty much finding until a DA we had with Andrew and his family. It was really awesome! They made some dang good chicken. I have found that a lot of people make 

dang good chicken here. After Andrew, we headed over to the church and had a young men's activity. It was pretty great!

THURSDAY - was interesting. We had the Newtonabbey Elders move in with us since there have been lots of killings and shootings and stuff in their area, so they have been living with us. They will check to see if the area is safe on the 13th, so they should be returning then. But it was pretty intense. So we spent the day finding. Now that we have 4 Elders in this area, we cover so much more ground! It is awesome! We had a dinner appointment with Trevor that night as well, so that was awesome! He made some really good spaghetti, and had enough to feed four missionaries to full capacity! It was awesome! We then shared a little spiritual thought with him and read Helaman 5. We talked about faith and how it has to be centered in the right place in order to be effective. So that was a pretty good lesson. After Trevor, we headed back to Coleraine, and GQ'ed for a bit, and then called it a day.

FRIDAY - was pretty good. I spent the day with Elder Schiels he is from Syrup Land. We had a lesson fall through, and then went finding for a good chunk of the day. We had an appointment with John, and he showed us some ninja swords, and told us the most effective way to make a Molotov Cocktail. We then shared a message about the atonement with him, and that went really well! So Friday was good. There was also a huge fireworks display across the river from our flat, so that made up for the 4th of July.

SATURDAY - Elder Schiels and I spent the day finding in the town center. I had a really good bible bash with a really mean minister whole stole the guy we had talked to. He was really cheeky and was being really mean. SO We testified and he couldn't really do much about that. But then we found a guy named Lewis, and Lewis was availiable right then and there to have a lesson. So we taught him and gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment. It was really good. He said he would love to be baptized when he came to know that the message is true. So that was pretty solid. After that, we had some more GQing and then we had some dinner. SO it was pretty awesome. Saturday was also god because we got about 5 or 6 potentials.

SUNDAY - was good. I spoke in sacrament meeting on staying strong in the faith. I thought it went well. It was a really good meeting as well since the whole meeting was on faith. James wasn't able to make it to church this week because work called him in, so that was a bummer, but we made it work. We will be meeting with him this week though. So that is a plus. After church, we headed out and went a visited the McCrellis family. And shared the Dare to Be a Mormon video with them. It was a good lesson. Then Elder Richards and I had our weekly planning and then we all regrouped at the flat, had some dang good curry, and headed to bed.

Well, that was the week! It was pretty great! We have seen the hand of the Lord in our work, so it has been an amazing week! Love you all!

-Till the Work is Done

-Elder Mickelsen