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)