Elder Stephens & I Staying Together For Another 6 Weeks

Anyone want to buy some blood and whale meat at the grocery store for some food?

August 15, 2016

Hello Everyone!

Well, I guess 6 weeks have come and gone, and I'm not really quite sure where it went. But what I do know is that it was full of a lot of fun, adventure, a ton of beautiful sights, and getting to meet a bunch of really cool people. Yesterday we found out that Elder Stephens and I get to stay together here in Bodø for another transfer. So that's really exciting. We'll be up here for another transfer!

Not too many different eventful things happened this week. Everyone in the mission got to spend a day to clean literally their entire apartment. Now we got a sparkling clean house! haha

Arctic Race of Norway

One cool thing that happened this week was the Arctic Race of Norway. It's a race here in northern Norway with professional cycling teams that compete for several days cycling around the area. So this week was busy with them being around and attracting crowds of people to watch.

Elder Mickelson with the Subway
dude handing out free cookies

On Saturday there were a bunch of people around because of the cycling race, AND as a result, a ton of food places were giving out free food. So in the space of a couple hours we had gotten samples from Burger King, Subway, and free cake because of Nordland Music Week. Definitely some great samples! And to explain the walking sandwich in the subject of the email, the Subway guy was dressed up as a sub sandwich! And I totally got a picture with him!

In case you all haven't caught on yet, I like ending my letters with a small spiritual thought, something that I've noticed or thought about a lot in the last week. This week comes from something I was thinking about yesterday.

I think too often as people, inside and outside of the church, we expect that our lives or other people's lives can be changed in a matter of days, a couple weeks, or just a month. We think that change happens basically overnight, but despite as much as we want change to occur that fast, I don't believe it occurs like that most of the time. Most change in life takes time. I believe that in life we go through "the refiner's fire", that through time we are molded and shaped into something greater. But a blacksmith doesn't take some ore and turn it into something great the first time he heats the ore and beats it across an anvil. It isn't complete even the second time it is hit, or even the tenth. So it is with us as people. We as people, and everyone around us usually can't change overnight, but we do change with time. We change through experiences and how we manage situations and whatnot. I think we expect change to occur too fast, not recognizing that change and conversion to the Lord with that change come over time. We aren't changed beings automatically because we went to church one time, but we are changed with time when we follow God's guidance.

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

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson