The Week Was Quite Legendary!

Our tie selection (mine are the 5 on the right)

August 29, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

This week was quite legendary. Needless to say, this week will have gone down in mission lore and will be talked about for years to come...

Ok, so what, it really is just one thing that will get talked about, but hey, at least it's noteworthy.

As background to this story, I'll run everyone down on why this is so important. It is every missionary's dream and aspiration to find/collect cool ties throughout their mission. Well here in Norway there is this store called Dressman, and it's basically a men's store with dress shirts and suits and ties and what not. Well, there is this story that has been told that there was a missionary a few years back that found a tie sale at dressman where he could fill a bag with as many ties as he could, and only pay one set price, something like a couple hundred kroner or something, which is pretty cheap considering how pricey ties are here. Ties cost about 20 or 30 dollars here. This previous story is true because I talked to someone who was companions with the guy that had gotten this incredible tie sale. He verified that it was true.

Ever since then, missionaries just wait for these types or crazy sales to come out.... and they never happen. Hence, it is just mission lore, because you hear about the possibility, but it never happens. Well this following story is one to write down in the books.

The day was cold, dark, and dreary... actually the weather was just fine. But it makes a better intro. Elder Stephens and I were walking down the street trying to talk to people. We walk passed this Dressman, and I said, "Hey, let's go in." It's nice to take a break every once in awhile so we went in and started looking around. And that's when we saw it... THE SALE... Most people are happy with a buy 2 get 1 free sale, that's all fine and dandy, but what we saw was one that we will probably never see again.

Receipt proving we actually got this sale

10 ties, for 100 kroner. For conversion sake, 100 kroner is like 12 dollars. Now these are NOT cheap ties. They are like 100 dollars a pop, but definitely not cheap ones either. Like I said earlier, they're nice ties. Like 100% silk and stuff. So, we say to ourselves, "Well when you see a deal like that, you can't turn it down!" So I picked 5 tie’s, and Elder Stephens picked 5 tie’s, and we got 10 tie’s for 100 kroner! We get to the checkout after picking way cool ties, and the guy just laughs. He rings it all up and asks us if we want to know how much we would've paid without having the sale, and we said yes. 2,340 kroner. We saved 2,240 kroner because of the sale. It was over 95% off! Without the sale it would've been about 280 dollars worth of ties, but we got it for a little over 10 bucks! Definitely a great deal and an incredible story.

The rest of the week went as normal. Not too much was out of the ordinary. Fall is coming so that's been exciting to look forward too. The Summer is basically over and school is back into full swing, so with all of that, not too many tourists anymore here in Bodø.

Something I've noticed while reading the scriptures this last week, has been how often we forget how merciful God has been for us. He's always trying to help us and guide us, but too often, we find ourselves turning away from Him, turning away from help, and trying to do everything on our own. Maybe we as people are too prideful. Maybe we just believe that we can just do everything in our own strength. I think about a person's ideal dream, that they can make anything for their life if they just work hard enough for it. I think about those that paved the way before us, what they did to create a better world. They tried and tried again. They didn't try again because they succeeded, but because they failed. And as people, after enough times of failing, we decide that it's not worth it. The trial humbles us. But I think that most people who pioneered the world to what it is today, didn't give up, not because they were more strong willed, but that the trial brought them to their knees and humbled them enough to ask for divine help. The divine help sometimes comes as the motivation to try again, to keep going and try one more time. And when that happens, they create something better in the world, because they were able to try over and over again, despite when they didn't want to. We don't always see God's hand in our lives, but if we look back, it's a lot clearer to see the help we received.

"Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions" -Robin Hood (the new Robin Hood movie that came out like 4 years ago or something like that)

I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all of you and what you do!

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson

Funny road construction sign