Talk About A Crazy Week!

Midnight Sun, Me and the Midnight Sun, Outside my window in the evening.

July 18, 2016

Hello everyone!

Talk about a crazy week! First off, I finally got to see the midnight sun, and it was EPIC! Needless to say, we finally got a night which was clear enough and not entirely clouded over. That was definitely an experience of a lifetime. It's something I'd wish everyone could experience sometime in their lives! I do have to say though, pictures don't even come close to how cool it was.

A payphone. They still exist!

It did feel like a bit of a slow week for the first bit. Because it's summer, many people are on vacation, and that doesn't mean just relaxing at home. When people go on vacation, they're gone for weeks at a time (great if you're not a missionary). Mostly it just makes it a bit more difficult to meet with people. But lucky for us, most people seem to be finishing up vacation here soon, so that's exciting!

The Elders in Mo i Rana came up to Bodø for splits this last week. It was really awesome having them over, especially because I know both of them really well. It was Elder Tangen (who I was companions with a few months ago) and Elder McIntire (who was in Fredrikstad serving at the same time I was there). It was great to catch up with them, see how they were doing, and get to spend some time doing missionary work with them. It was a blast having them come up and visit.

(top) Elder Stephens and Elder Tangen
(left) Epicish Bad Limes with Elder Stephens
(right) Elder Mcintyre and I with Bad Limes

Yesterday was a pretty great day. We had church, both Elder Stephens and I gave talks for it, and it started out with just 5 of us there in total. While I started speaking, we had some visitors come and it was awesome because all of a sudden the number of us in church doubled! haha Normally there's more in church, but many were out of town of vacation this week. Next week it should be back to normal.

After church we went and visited an older lady in the city. She lives in a care center and is just the nicest lady ever. But we had gone there and sometimes we play the piano for her (that's what we ended up doing yesterday) and as I started to play, one of the nurses asked if we minded if they brought out some of the other people there too to listen. We naturally said yes, and it was a really fun experience playing for a bunch of people there. It was nice just seeing them happy and enjoying it.

There was a scripture which I read yesterday that I like very much. It is the last verse of Ether 12, and it says:

"41 And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen."

I really like his invitation for all of us, to not just think of Christ, or to just hope He is there, but to SEEK Jesus. I think that is something really important, that we not only just believe in Christ, but continually seek him out. That we continually try to come closer to Him.

I feel like that word "seek" means that we are engaged in finding. That it is more than just wandering around and maybe stumble across it, but that it becomes our goal, our desire, and our focus. I think that is something that we all need. We all need to continue seeking Christ. That once we've found Christ, that we continue drawing closer to Him and having a better relationship with Him. I think it's important for all of us to try to understand Christ better, that He becomes a more active part of our faith.

I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for everything you do!

From,

Elder Mickelson

A fun sign we saw in the grocery store (no, it wasn't us that corrected the spelling).