A Million Things We Did

Elder Briggs and I on splits.

March 27, 2017

Hello Everyone!

Wow. I can't ever quite get through a week and look back without there being a million things we did. But, I guess I can start at the beginning. A long time ago (last week)... In a church building not sofar away... we were bored one p-day. So we decided to play some

basketball. But to our disappointment, there was no basketball. So we snagged the closest thing to it, an indoor soccer ball. And that's all fine and dandy... until you start kicking the ball in a feeble attempt at getting it into the basketball hoop. It looks so easy in movies! They kick the ball. The ball goes in. IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT!!! Well it does, but not that easy. Maybe if you were like Ronaldo or some other professional soccer player with mad skills. But a few average Americans have ZERO chance at it. So in the course of an hour, Elder Mitchell managed to tear his pants (doing this in church clothes was a bad idea in the first place). He reached out his foot a little too far to get the ball... and RIIIIIIIIP..... Just grateful it was his pants and not like his leg or something. Anyways, the sister missionaries walk in to see what we are doing, and the ball bounced over to me (my back is facing the hoop) and I kick it backwards. AND IT WENT IN!!!! It was the most epic thing ever!!!! An hour of kicking it over and over and over again, finally payed off. Too bad it wasn't on video....

Us trying to get a tan #reallywhitearms (I'm on the right, but it

doesn't look like me at all because of the angle the picture was

taken)

Another fun story. Driving around Drammen is a lot of fun. Quite enjoyable. You see trucks, and four-wheelers here. And this last week,

Dusk one evening

a bunch of people have pulled their Harley-Davidsons out of their

garages and are riding them around. But in the course of all of that,

every once in awhile someone would flash their lights at us. It only

takes a couple times to realize that it's probably your headlight out.

So sure enough, we check it out, and yes, the headlight was out. No

problem, we'll take care of that. Just a few days later, we're driving and it's dusk or dark or something, and we go, "I don't know if we have any headlights. i can't tell a difference between the burned out side and the side with the light." Sure enough, we now have TWO burned out headlights.

Story continues with the decision to change it ourselves. I've changed a headlight before. So what if it was only once. How hard could it be? And the rest of us had all changed a headlight once. What's the worst that could happen? (No, nothing too bad) Anyways, we pop the hood, and start looking inside. Yup. The engine was still there. Yup, that's the huge casing for the headlights... Now, how does someone get into that......? After fiddling around with it, and some dirty arms later, we EVENTUALLY got the lights out. It was a lot harder than we anticipated. Then came putting the replacements in. It was hard getting them out, but they like click into place, but it's at such an awkward angle and so cramped with the little car. Ya, what we assumed could take a few minutes took a couple hours........ Hey, bonding moments. hahah

Viking burial mound

We went on splits with the Sandvika Elders this week. I went with

Elder Briggs who started his mission here. It was way fun for him to

be back in Drammen, seeing the sights, talking to old friends, etc.

Anyways, we were out knocking on some doors, this older lady comes to

the window. Yes, she talked to us through the window, didn't open the

door OR the window. So it sounds a bit weird, and you can't quite hear

perfectly. To make a long story short, she couldn't hear too well, and when she asked why were were there. I told here, "Vi kommer fra kirkenvår" (we come from our church) and because of the window and not being able to hear too well, she thought I said "vi kommer fra kirkegården"

Viking well which by legend appeared

suddenly and sick/disabled

people went to it afterwards.

(We come from the cemetery). This poor lady, jaw dropped, hand on the

chest, distressed, was like "nei, kirkegården" (no, the cemetery!...)

Poor lady, thought we were there having some terribly tragic news....

Luckily, I clarified, and said it even louder so she could hear more

clearly what I said. But yes, it was a hilarious experience!

As a side note to the week, I saw the world's largest ski jump out in

Vikersund outside of Norway. The world record is held there for the

farthest jump which is over 200 meters. It was cool to see.

Hope you all have a great week! Take care!

Sincerely,

Elder Justin Mickelson

“God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” 
(2 Timothy 1:7)

Spring Is Around The Corner

Elder Johnson and I

March 20, 2017

Wow! Hello Everyone!

With the passing of the season (winter leaving) and spring around the corner, it was about that time that moves happened! Well, more like just 6 weeks had passed, but oh well. With it having been a hectic week, we managed to have a busy week, but a really fun one at that.

Our deeply missed Elder Johnson left.... :'( but that's ok, we'll see him around. But, we did get someone just as great to replace him. Elder Decker!!! He's from Oregon, and he's a pretty cool cat.

We found out about the moves on Monday morning. So we decided as a district to all meet at the church and have waffles for breakfast to kick off moves week. So we showed up, had some delicious Norwegian waffles, with everything on top of it from brown cheese, to jam, to

whipped cream, to sour cream. Yes, sour cream gets put on waffles. And yes, it's surprisingly good haha!

Elder Johnson left a couple days later and Elder Decker flew in. But right before Elder Johnson had left, we met with one of the church members and got kebab all together. So it was a nice ending to the transfer.

Fufu. For those that don't know what fufu is, just go look it up on the internet (I didn't even know what it was until we had it for dinner one night). Fufu is this really good food that is like a food staple in Africa, where exactly, I couldn't tell you, but a lot of

countries make it. Anyways, we were at dinner with one of the sweetest families, and they had made fufu as a part of dinner. And boy was it delicious! If only I could just travel the world and eat food for a living, that'd be incredible. But ya, it was made from maize flour, and ya, I might just have to learn how to make it.

We had a street stand in the city center this weekend, and it was so much fun. We had given out hot dogs like last time, and we also talked a lot with people about the Plan of Salvation. It was really fun. We invited a ton of people to our Open House at our church building that was held yesterday. It was so great. Tons of members from the ward were there out inviting people to it, and it was a great time!

And now, for the long-awaited story. How does one simply lose a key? Well, I had the car key in my pocket. And I sat down on a bus seat. And when I got off, the key wasn't in my pocket. That'll make a person have a small panic attack. Not being able to get back on the bus because it was long gone, we came up with a plan. We figured out when the bus should be coming back in the opposite direction, and decided to hop onto it, as the driver if someone had returned the key, and go on our way. So we did. And the key didn't get returned to the driver... Nor was the key chilling on the seat that I had sat on.... That was awkward. So we were out of luck. Anyways, fast forward to the next day, we were in a meeting, and one of the church members walks in asking if anyone had lost a key. It was definitely our key. Apparently, someone had been on the bus at the same time with us, and

had noticed that the key had fallen out of my pocket, and just shown up to church to return it.

Long story short, I'm really grateful for so many wonderful people here in Norway that are looking out for others!

To start out this next week, I hope you all have a good one. Take care!

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson

"Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good" D&C 90:24

Scenery from a bus

More pretty scenery from a bus

This Was A Great Week!

Set up for the world cup of sprint cross country skiing here in Drammen (the race went around the state church and through the city)

March 13, 2017

Hello Everyone!!!

This was a great week! We had a lot of stuff happened this week.

We started out with helping out a member move into his new house. It was really great. It even ended perfectly with a little barbecue! We had some hot dogs which were delicious. Anytime you put cheese or pepperoni in a hot dog, it suddenly gets a million times better.

Almost without fail, I take a train ride somewhere around the fjord for splits. This week, the lucky city was Oslo! After buying myself a skolebrød and a strawberry milk, I stepped on the eastbound train headed for the capital!

Elder Mitchell (not the one here in Drammen) picked me up and we headed back to the apartment. It was loads of fun talking with people there, talked with a really cool guy from northern Norway, and even met some of the members in Oslo. It was really enjoyable. Oslo is a great city, with tons of things happening ALL of the time. Basically just full of life. I guess, what can you expect from the largest city in Norway?

In the course of the week, Elder Nelson also got to take a driving course with one of the local traffic school in preparation for taking his driving test soon. So hopefully, he'll soon be getting the plastic card with all of the privileges of getting to drive in Norway!

There's a couple members that I knew really well in one of my earlier cities I was in. Anyways, they had moved here to Drammen recently, and we got to drive out to their home and have dinner with them. And yes, they're just as funny as when I first met them. They live way out in the middle of nowhere essentially, but that's ok, it has a nice small town feel to the place.

So we were out knocking on some doors, talking to people and stuff, and the sweetest older lady answered the door. She comments on how she'd love to have us come in and share our message with her, but she says, "but I'm sorry. I've just been really sick lately". She goes on to say how she doesn't think she has much time left to live (really depressing to hear by the way). At this point, I kid you not, I could've sworn she was like 75 or 80, and she says she thinks she'll die soon because she's 96!!! Ok, I don't know what it is, but Norwegians have this odd ability to live basically forever. They just keep on cross country skiing when they're 80 years old like it's nobody else's business. It's just really impressive.

Well yes, I had a wonderful week, and I hope the rest of you all do too. Take care! Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Elder Justin Mickelson

Opera house in Oslo

I'm Back In The Saddle Again!

One of my best games of bowling. A whopping 118!!! Yay for me! I also beat the 
high score at their little arcade thing at the bowling alley. Bumped it up to 111! from like 
80 or something like that up even more! Felt so proud of myself! haha

March 6, 2017

Hello Everyone!

Well, as the title suggests. I'm back in the saddle again! (Song reference anyone?) Actually, I'm still impressed I remember any music lyrics. So good for me I guess. Well, this week was a crazy awesome one, I got to go back to a land of fairy tales and the city that I know and love all so well. Sandvika! I'll talk more about that later, but it was loads of fun and got to see a ton of people I know.

This week, we went to a family's home for dinner, and then we were invited to stay with them for family home evening. They have the most adorable little kids and they're just such a blast. Anyways, it was the funnest little activity we played for it. It basically ended up being scripture charades. Now just imagine playing charades with a few little kids. It's REALLY animated and TONS of fun! I don't know, I might have almost gotten more into it than they did, but I guess that's what happens when you never really grow up huh? (It's a joke, I've kinda grown up. At least I like to think I know what I'm doing and think I'm responsible haha).

Elder Mitchell and I caught a train (Again, I feel like every week I'm taking a train somewhere, oh well, it's great!) to Sandvika for their district meeting. It was wonderful seeing them all and being a part of their meeting. Afterwards, we decided to go to this restaurant called Egon's and get their all you can eat pizza. Boy was I stuffed after eating! I think in total, the six of us downed like 3 or 4 pizzas. I know I had like 7 or 8 pieces. I guess that's what happens when you have like a bunch of younger americans, and you tell them that they can eat AS MUCH AS THEY WANT. At that point you don't just eat until you're not hungry, you eat until you're stuffed. Plus, I wanted my money's worth out of it. Restaurant's aren't too cheap in Norway! haha

A few days later I went back to Sandvika on splits. So I was with Elder Hansen. We had loads of fun! I had already gone on splits with him a couple months ago back when he was in Tønsberg, so it was a lot of fun getting to be with him again.

Being there was great. We even met one guy that had been baptized while I was serving in Sandvika, so it was wonderful getting to see him again.

I even had a chance to meet with our awesome landlords there. It had been a while since I'd seen them, so it was a blast to catch up with them and see how they were doing. They're awesome so we had a lot of fun.

Right before I came back to Drammen, we had all played soccer together. So it was us, a bunch of people from the ward, and a few other friends there. I got to see several of the youth, and reminisce on good times and try to school them in soccer. Sadly, I still get beat. I guess that's what happens when you don't grow up playing soccer a ton. Oh well, but it was great!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take care!

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson

"Sometimes we can learn, study, and know, and sometimes we have to believe, trust, and hope." —M. Russell Ballard

It Was A Great Week Though In General

February 27, 2017

Hello Everyone!

I'm really starting to feel like the beginning of my emails are just turning into "This injury I got from running this week". So last week I wrote about scraping up my knee. That's whatever. I can live with that. In case you're wondering (which you're probably not but I'll tell you anyways) my scraped up knee is fine now. The Jurassic World band-aid made it feel a lot better. The story gets better (I know, how does someone top fun band-aid stories?). Anyways, the next day, I turn a corner on the run (it's EXTREMELY icy, FYI) and both of my legs fly out from under me, I'm parallel to the ground and land on my hip. I thought a scraped up knee wasn't fun, well, it's bruised to say the least. At least I don't feel it anymore. It just looks really gnarly. Way fun though.

We got dragonfruit this week. It tasted delicious. Weird, but good. Plus Elder Mitchell

As for the casual weather report. Norway is still being bipolar when it comes to snow, and sun, and rain, and refreezing. But luckily, spring is right around the corner.

It was a great week though in general. A lot happened. Everything from playing ping pong as a district again, to eating some food that didn't like me as much as I liked it, to trying to hand out free hot dogs.

Well, to start off with food. I first want to say, I haven't eaten a kebab that has completely wrecked me... yet... *knock on wood* But we went to this place with one of the youth in the ward to just see how it was going with him and stuff. He suggested this place, I had heard alright things about it, so we went. I ate it pretty quickly, but man... right as I finished it, I just felt like I had sat on a swing for a while (another FYI, I don't like swings too much. They're fun, just make me not feel so hot). The kebab tasted really good, don't get me wrong, I just didn't feel great the rest of the day. Almost had some kebab regret, but not quite.

Later throughout the week we had Zone Conference in Oslo. We caught the train into the city, and then got onto the Metro which got us to the church. It was a great conference, saw a lot of people because we combined to zones for it, and had a lot of fun. Learned a lot, etc.

Quick funny story from Zone Conference. On the way back, we were chilling at Oslo S, waiting for our train to head home, and one of the other missionaries was waiting there too, waiting for a train, but he had his ukulele in his backpack... Oh ya, we totally jammed out there. I've learned some ukulele while I've been out, but I'm still not very good. Anyways, he starts playing different songs and we're all just singing along. Needless to say, everyone around was just hardcore confused why people were playing and singing in public.

Elder Nelson, me, and Johnson

I don't know if this next story is funny, or just depressing. I guess I'll just kick it off with a quick explanation. So Drammen has been redoing one of their tunnels doing some repairs on the roof or something. Anyways, it happens to be this major tunnel that everyone uses leaving the city headed back home (you know, the commuter life). This tunnel has been open and closed off and on for like a month now, and luckily, we haven't driven TOO much in the ridiculous traffic it's caused. I didn't know how bad traffic actually got during rush hour, usually we're just in a small bit of it... I figured, oh, it should loosen up when we get passed the mall.... nope! So we were headed to a town like 8 or 9 miles away. Not too far. normally, it takes 15 minutes to get there. But knowing there'd be traffic, we gave it 30 minutes instead. Sounds reasonable right? NOPE. AN HOUR AND A HALF. We were basically parked on the road for most of it. It was bumper to bumper traffic the ENTIRE way, and like, not just bumper to bumper going fairly along, no, like snail pace the whole way. Oh, well, such is life, you live and you learn.

Some of us at the street stand trying to 

hand out hot dogs and talk with people

We had a little tent up in the middle of the city on Saturday. It was a lot of fun because we handed out free hot dogs and talked to people about the church. We even had a proper fire too to roast them over. It was cold, but the fire made it lots better!

Well I hope you all have a great week! Take care!

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson

"May I share with you a formula that in my judgment will help you and help me to journey well through mortality... First, fill your mind with truth; second, fill your life with service; and third, fill your heart with love." —Thomas S. Monson

As Usual, But Still Worth Noting, I'm Doing Great!

View from above the morning's fog

February 20, 2017

Hello Everyone!

Baked goods in the store (Bakevarer)

As usual, but still worth noting, I'm doing great. This week came and went and who knows where it flew off to. But anyways, I'm chilling here on the computer with a Jurassic World Band-Aid on my knee. I was hoping for a Hello Kitty one, but I can't complain. Anyways, I totally fell on the ice... twice... while running this morning. Scraped it up more than I would like, but oh well. Needless to say, the ice was VERY slick this morning. We had run down to this ice skating rink (in the summer it's a soccer field I think), and back. WAAAAY too much uphill, but such is life.

Epic P-Day Ping Pong

(yes, we put two tables together)

We kicked off the week with an epic game of ping pong as a district. We all got together and played ping pong in the church (there's totally just a couple tables chilling there, so we used them). Proudly, I can say I won a lot, but practically at the expense of being dizzy. We started playing to where you had to spin in a circle every time you hit the ball. It made it REALLY hard. I'm surprised I didn't fall over.

We (Elder Mitchell and I) also bought ourselves a couple train tickets, and hopped on the next train headed down to Tønsberg to be a part of their district meeting. That was really great getting to be with all of the missionaries down there. Elder Mitchell and I parted ways for the next day, he stayed in Tønsberg, and Elder Rogers (one of the missionaries in Tønsberg) came with me back to Drammen for splits.

Elder Rogers and I on splits

Splits was way fun. We spent some good time doing a bit of everything, and walked A TON uphill. I've only been to Bergen once, but it felt like I was ALWAYS walking uphill. That's what it seemed like when he was here in Drammen this last week haha. But it was way fun and it was really enjoyable. We even remembered to get a splits selfie!

A blurry picture of me (all bundled up for the cold)

Wednesday night, we were headed back into town and we got a text if we could start the seminary class before the teacher got there a few minutes later. So we said yes and went. It was really great because we had a chance to teach a little bit and share our experiences a bit at the beginning. One thing I'm very impressed while I've been in Norway is the youth within the church. They are just so awesome. They're an example to me of deciding what your standards are and living them. It was just so prevalent while we were there that evening. They'd talk about different things during the lesson, and I was just blown away by how incredible they are. For them, it seems to just click. So it was a great time.

So I do not know why, but now all of a sudden, I seem to be coming across more people with animal mounts chilling in their living rooms. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind, it just throws me off because I haven't seen too many here in Norway. But we were talking to this lady at her door, and Elder Nelson asks what was on the wall behind her. I was off to the

An emu (imagine a small ostrich)

side so I couldn't see, but I moved a little, and there was this GIANT moose head right at the back of the entryway. I've seen quite a few moose, but this head was like one of the largest I've ever seen! just chilling on the back wall. Anyways, it led to a fun little discussion, but it was just so shocking, just because I haven't seen too many while I've been here. There's a start for everything I guess.

Well I hope you all had a great week! Take care everyone!

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson

"Seek forgiveness from those you have wronged. Forgive those who have wronged you. Forgive yourself." —C. Scott Grow

Headed over the bridge in the city (Those were some giant flags)

Me inside the Blueberry (our Opel Corsa)