I'm Getting Transferred To Fredrikstad!

December 7, 2015

New Address:

Dalkleven 11

1671 Kråkerøy

Norway

Dear Family & Friends,

So this week went really well. Moves call was on Sunday morning and I found out that I'm getting transferred to Fredrikstad! It's way down South and next to Sweden. So from what I've heard, their dialect in Fredrikstad is very similar to those in Southern Sweden (I guess that makes sense considering that it's only a border that is between them). I'll be serving with Elder Mitchell. We were in the MTC at the same time. I'm really excited to go there. I've heard that the Ward there is really awesome! I'm really excited to go serve there.

But with every transfer, we have to say goodbye. These last few days have been full of goodbyes. I've made some really amazing friends here in Alta. I guess if you're in a city for three months you are bound to. So up until I leave, I'll be making my rounds saying bye. I'd really like to come back one day to visit all of them. They have been the best, and I can't really express how much I've appreciated them.

So I got asked what the food is like in Norway. So food here is pretty much like the United States. Traditional food in Norway is basically farm food, which, by the way, tastes amazing. Although, I do have to say, beef here in Norway is not like beef in the U.S. You can still buy it here, just not in great amounts and it's hard to find just slabs of beef. As a whole though, Norway's food selection is really similar. The only difference is that it's really hard to buy anything in bulk here. There's no Walmart here! It's okay though. I only have to feed myself, not an entire family so that works. Oh, and you can't buy milk in huge containers. Milk in gallon jugs don't exist as far as I know. Only 1 liter and 1.75 liter cartons. That's why I just buy a lot of cartons of milk a week! I hope that was a little bit of insight into Norwegian food/selections/stores.

One thing I've been thinking about this week has been what Christmas time means for us. Here in Norway, Christmas is a time for families to come together. It is a time for us to reflect on great times and look forward to the future. It is a time for us to enjoy what we have and enjoy one another's company. As Christmas comes closer, I'd hope all of you think about what Christmas means to you. Think about families and how we can use the Christmas season to help strengthen our family bonds. As always, think of the reason we have Christmas. It's a time for us to reflect on Christ also. Keep these thoughts in mind this week.

Ice Hotel under construction

So Alta has this really "cool" ice hotel! Sorry for the pun. We went and visited it. They're building it still, so I didn't get to go inside and see it. That was sad. But I can say I've been there! They have to rebuild it every year because it's not always cold up here! Every Winter they bring in huge construction machines and rebuild the hotel out of the fresh snow. It was pretty awesome still.

The Northern Lights Cathedral

There's a church here called Nordlyskatedralen (The Northern Lights Cathedral). It's the famous church of Alta. I've been here for four months and had never seen the inside. So we decided to go tour it before I left! It was a really nice church. It's a more abstract style, but still pretty cool.

Love,

Elder Mickelson

My First Thanksgiving In Norway!

Our Thanksgiving dinner

December 2, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

My first Thanksgiving in Norway! Well Norwegians don't celebrate Thanksgiving... I guess that's for obvious reasons, but we still celebrated it ourselves. So sadly, we didn't have turkey this year for Thanksgiving. I found out that turkeys come in boxes, not wrapped in plastic. So I didn't know I could buy one until after the fact. But that's ok! We ended up cooking up some whale instead. So we had some whale, mashed potatoes, more vegetables, some white gravy (tastes really good on whale by the way), and some rolls (well boller, but it's almost the same thing. I think it has some cinnamon in it though). To top off our feast, we bought ourselves some ice cream. This will definitely be a memorable Thanksgiving.

I got to attend my first District Meeting in person in Tromsø this week! We flew out Monday evening to Tromsø and stayed the night for splits. It was so fun. We had family home evening therein Tromsø with the senior couple and the other missionaries. It was really great to be all together for that. We had District Meeting the next morning. It was about family history. So we got to learn how we could help others start their genealogy work. I was surprised by how simple it is to help someone start their family history! We spent the rest of that day on splits with the Tromsø Elders. It was a lot of fun. We got to contact a ton of people in the streets and go knock on some houses. It was a really great time and I learned a lot more of how I can better teach people.

Alta's Christmas Tree

I will find out on Sunday whether or not I'm staying in Alta. So it's exciting! We'll see soon where I'll be for Christmas!

This week the Church came out with a great Christmas video. I really enjoyed it. The website is christmas.mormon.org It was an awesome video though. Check it out! We've been sharing the website with a lot of people on the streets and it's been working great. Christmas is definitely a time to be with families and enjoy each other's company. It also is a great time for us to think about the Savior and why we even have Christmas.

Have a great week everybody!

Love,

Elder Mickelson

As Of Now The Sun Won't Come Up Anymore

Elder Mickelson and Elder Jefferies in the Trondheim church building

November 23, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

So mørketid has officially begun! As of now, the sun won't come up anymore in Alta until end of January. It's actually a really cool sight, well lack of sight I guess, to not be seeing the sun. Because Alta is settled in a fjord and mountains surround it, I haven't actually seen the sun in the last week and a half haha! It's really cool though. Whenever we have some.... light?....., it comes out as a sunrise/sunset which is really beautiful. I love it up here. It's unique, which makes it so great.

The Nord Zone!

This week we went to Trondheim for a Zone Conference. President and Sister Hill were there, along with the entire zone of course. We talked about using our family history as a teaching tool. It was great to learn about how we need to keep changing things up as missionaries. Our work and goal doesn't really change, but the way we go about it can. We also talked about unity as a mission. We need to be united with our companions and also as a mission. We have such a great mission. We try to always be making friendships, and I'm seeing how it just continues to bring us closer together.

Also, while I was in Trondheim, I got an amazing kebab. So the kebab shop is called Golden Kebab. I neglected to take a picture... sorry about that, but just wanted to let everyone know it tastes amazing. It's a kebab... with fries inside of it... Delicious! haha

This week we started visiting less active members of our branch. We started getting a list together of all of the members and we've made it a goal to go visit all of them. It is just so nice to start seeing members who haven't been to church in a long time and try to help them come back.

On the way to Trondheim I had a really nice conversation with the man next to me. We talked about different things and religion got brought up, naturally, most people my age don't come to Norway for no reason, especially if they aren't students here. At one point he just asked, in Norwegian of course, 'So what is your message that you go around sharing with others?'. Normally most people aren't just super open to hearing what we have to say. But for him, he was super open to learning about our faith. He was open to hearing everything I had to say, and for me, it was just so great just to be able to say what I wanted to, and not worry that he'd just start arguing. It was a really nice conversation we had.

So this week I'd have to say that I learned more about what I've learned in the past. We can have opportunities to share our beliefs with anyone. A person's faith can come up anytime, anywhere. It's a matter of whether or not we choose to shrug off the opportunity to share what we know, or whether we be open with our beliefs. We don't always have to go out of our way to share the Gospel, many times, those chances come in regular conversations.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone! Take care!

-Elder Mickelson

So Life Gets Really Interesting Living Above The Arctic Circle!

November 16, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Snow outside our house

So life gets really interesting living above the Arctic Circle. This week has been full of service, embracing the culture, and trying not to freeze (just kidding, it hasn't been too cold, we have just had a bunch of snow though which has been really fun to have).

This week we were doing a bunch more service. I built more of a deck and a roof extension. So that was super fun. While doing different service, I've learned one really interesting lesson. No matter what we are doing, we can always share the Gospel. Our examples play a big role in the impression that others get about us. So naturally, our values get brought up and we have the opportunity to share our beliefs. When we've been working, religion and beliefs and thoughts are exchanged, and it's just so cool to me that even when building something, we can still have these cool spiritual conversations with others. By the way, the couple people we've been helping came to church yesterday! It was just so wonderful to see them come and be welcomed so warmly by such an amazing branch up here.

This week we went to a Sami market. The Sami people are the native inhabitants of the Scandinavian Arctic region. Many Sami people fish, trap, or herd animals. Many Sami people are well known for herding reindeer. So the market has many handcrafted items and homemade food. You can buy reindeer meat, reindeer skins, hand-knitted gloves and hats, and an assortment of other things. I ended up buying some Lefsa, which is a traditional flatbread with butter, cinnamon, and sugar. I also bought some julebrød which is a traditional Christmas bread. Oh! I also bought some whale steaks there. Whale tastes amazing by the way. I don't really know how to describe it. I cooked it up like a steak, and then made up some mashed potatoes and grilled onions and poured some white sauce on it. It was delicious. It's funny because it was the most I had put into a meal that I had made for myself the entire time I've been here. Absolutely worth it though! It was an awesome dinner.

The Catholic Church building here in Alta
supporting France after their recent tragedy.

Every year there is a town tree lighting. So it kind of was like How the Grinch Stole Christmas when all of the Who's came together when the tree was decorated. There was a bunch of people gathered together for this tree lighting ceremony and it was just a very cool experience. Elder Jefferies and I got volunteered/asked to join a few other people in our branch to sing some Norwegian Christmas Songs there. So we did. It was way cool. It was funny because it was almost like a flash mob because after the tree was lit, we just started singing. Then everyone turned around and watched us. It was still a really fun time though.

This week I was thinking about something to share with all of you that would be a great spiritual thought. One thing that really stuck with me was the importance of remembering where we come from. Most of the time, we think about where we grew up, our town we lived in, going to school, our family, and things like that. Those are are really important because it reminds us of who we are and our values that were instilled in us when we were younger. I was thinking about that this week and I thought about how we should also remember where we came from before we were born. I think we need to remember that we used to all live together as spirit children of our Heavenly Father. We chose to come to earth and receive a mortal body and be tried and tested and live following Christ's example so that we would be able to return again to our Father in Heaven. I love that when we think of remembering where we came from in that sense, we can see more of our eternal purpose and have a deeper understanding of who we want to be.

I hope you all have an amazing week. Take care and have fun!

-Elder Mickelson

This Week Has Been Super Fun!

November 9, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

This week has been super fun! We got to help with some service, teach some more, be a part of a Nepali Cultural Celebration, and take a trip up to Hammerfest!

So for the service report for the week! We got to put some insulation up in an extension to a house up here. So that was really cool to learn how to insulate a house. I also got to help with building a deck. I'm learning how doing things on our own can be much easier than we thought it would be. Things in life can seem really hard, no matter what it is, but when we start doing it, we realize that it really isn't that difficult.

While we've been doing our service, we've gotten many opportunities to share the Gospel. We share our beliefs and discuss different doctrines and teachings of Christ. It's really cool to see that we don't have to be so formal in sharing the Gospel with others. Discussions of beliefs and religion come up so much in life, we can share simple truths with others all of the time without even really realizing it.

We were visiting one of our friends at a cultural celebration where he and a bunch of others were selling different crafts from around the world. While we were there, the theme for that week of the culture market was Nepal. So many of the Nepalese people from Alta got together and there was Nepalese food and music and dancing. It was super fun to see it and taste the food (which is REALLY good by the way), dance a bit, and learn about another culture. One really cool thing was that while we were there, we ran across someone we knew that we had shared the Gospel with before, and we talked a little bit. So we will be meeting with him again! It was just a super cool experience. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

We also had the Tromsø Elders over this week. It was wonderful to get to see them and have them over to help us. We also went to Hammerfest this week to visit the members up there and do some contacting up there also. It was really great to meet our members up there and also talk to some people on the streets and share a message about the Gospel with them. I really loved it.

One question I've got asked a lot was to tell more about my companion. We've been companions for the last week and a half. He's super cool. We came into Norway at the same time, but we weren't in the MTC together. While I was in the MTC, he was starting his mission in Arizona on a Navajo Reservation waiting for his Visa.

As for an update on the sun, or lack of, the sun is up at around 9am, and then the sun starts going down at around 1pm. By 3pm is completely dark. haha Gotta love Norway! I do think it is really cool though because it's an experience that I will probably won't have again.

Here's a picture of the Northern Lights last night! They weren't the best Northern Lights I've seen, but still super cool!

Have a great week everybody!

Love,

Elder Mickelson

My new companion Elder Jefferies

November 2, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

So you know mørketid (dark time(the time where the sun literally doesn't come up for 2 months straight)) is coming really soon when the sun comes up at 7 and it's already dark by 3. It's coming fast. I guess it's the end of November that the sun quits shining. That'll be a really cool experience to look forward to!

This week has been awesome. I dropped off Elder Cheney at the airport and I picked up Elder Jefferies. He's from Provo, UT. He's really into medicine and science. He worked as an EMT before he came on his mission. That has been really fun. He's been in Norway just as long as I have. So it's been an adventure getting to try and learn the language together. We make it work though. We have been getting along really well.

We started having the missionary discussions with members. It helps the members out, but also has been helping us teach better.

The work is going really well up here. We got to do some more service over this last week. There is a lot to be done up in Alta in preparation for the Winter. We really haven't gotten anyone new to teach, but we have just kept working with those that we have. It's been really great to get to build relationships here and help others out. The members here are awesome. They do so much to stay active and they always participate so well. They are some of the strongest members I have ever seen.

After being here for 3 months, I've not only gotten to know the members, but also have gotten to make some really amazing friends. It's really cool to see how people with different cultures can still come together. I have gotten to learn here that everyone has a story. Everyone is where they are for a reason, and it's really cool to me to see how they've reached their unique place in life.

This week has just flown by, and I'm sure this next one will too. Take care and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Mickelson

Leaving Early Today To Do Some Service!

October 26, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Sorry in advance for such a short letter. I don't have much time because we have to leave early to go do some service. But this week has been really good. I had my first birthday up here in Alta!!! So ya, I'll get a picture sent hopefully next week of it. We had our ZLT on Monday and Tuesday in Trondheim so we got home late Tuesday night. It was really great. We talked about different ways to find people to teach and better ways of teaching. That was really good to go over.

We've continued to do some service. We got to help work on an extension to a house. So it's really been a cool experience getting to serve others and make their lives easier.

We had moves call yesterday. Elder Cheney is getting moved to Stavanger and I'll stay here in Alta for most likely another 6 weeks.

Sorry for the short email again. I'll have more next week! Have a great week!

Elder Mickelson

Stayed Busy With More Service!

October 19, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

So this week we stayed busy with more service! We helped build the foundation for the extension of a house. We moved gravel for 8 hours (always fun! :D) seriously, it's really fun lol. We helped put some siding up on a garage. We also stacked some wood. That really made me feel at home haha. Hopefully we get to keep doing more service this week. We might get to help build an extension on a tree house. It would be so legit! haha

But it's been a really good week. We've just been busy with service and the normal stuff. Other than this, not too much sticks out as too noteworthy.

I'm headed to Tronheim here in a few hours to go to a zone conference. That's super exciting. It'll be really fun to get to go there again. It's a really cool city. I think it'd be fun to serve there one day. I guess we'll see!

Have a great week everyone! Here's a picture of Elder Cheney and I with some Bad Limes. You can only get it above the Arctic Circle. It tastes really good by the way. It tastes like Mountain Dew. So have a great week!

Love,

Elder Mickelson

So This Week We Have Kept On Doing More Service

The Northern Lights

October 12, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

So this week, we have kept on doing more service. We worked on installing a garage door. We also ended up putting up some siding for the garage too. One day we went and moved a wind mill. Super legit. Pretty much, most of this week has revolved around service.

We had splits this week. The Tromsø Elders came up to Alta. It was really fun to have more people up here. While we were on splits, we came across a Nepali guy at the university. We got to talking about our church a little bit and he told us we could meet again. So we get to meet with him this week and talk about the Book of Mormon. I'm really excited. I'm hoping for the best!

So I figured you guys would be interested in kinda how my day goes. It's pretty basic but still really awesome. Pretty much getting up. Studies are from 8-11, personal, comp, and language study. Then we take lunch from 11-12. we go work from 12-7. 7-8 is dinner. 8-9 is 12 week (basically a 12 week program which is your training program with your trainer). Then 9-10:30 is just time for yourself. A lot of that time has been spent being outside looking at the northern lights haha.

So the Northern Lights have been super legit this week. We had a few nights where they just filled the entire sky. I got to see green, red, white, blue, purple. It was so cool to see them dancing across the sky.

Here's some pictures of the Northern Lights and the first snow that I saw up here in Norway.

Love,

Elder Mickelson

So This Has Been Quite The Week!

October 5, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

So this has been quite the week! We've been doing a bunch of service throughout the week. We got to work some more on the garage we had helped with earlier. We also got to help with building a little carport.

I ended up finally buying a winter coat. It was definitely a necessary purchase. It's been getting a lot colder up here. It really does feel like Wyoming lol. We got our first snow here. It just so happened to be while we were on a hike! Super awesome! But ya, we are getting our snow tires put onto our car so it'll be just fine.

So we had General Conference these last couple days. It was really wonderful to get to hear from the Apostles. Three new ones were called and I think that was super cool. It'll be strange having a few different ones. I do think that it is so wonderful though to see how Christ's church functions, that it doesn't just end, but that it still continues today.

So I have only seen a few of the conference sessions because of the time difference, but we are going to be watching the last couple over the next few days. So next week I'll fill you in with which were my favorites. Oh! So for those that are wondering, we ended up watching conference over the internet. We just watched it on the computer so that was pretty great.

Sorry for not any pictures this week. I'll get some sent next week!

So for a random thought, I can't remember if I've shared this yet or not, but I got to eat some reindeer heart. It tastes pretty awesome. Oh, and some dried fish, so both are really awesome. They taste interesting, but they still are awesome!

Have an awesome week everyone!

Love,

Elder Mickelson

I Went To Hell And Back Again!

September 28, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

This was a REALLY awesome week. We went to Trondheim this week for Zone Conference. Right outside of the airport going into Trondheim is this little town called Hell. It's pretty hilarious in my opinion lol.

Zone Conference went great. We talked about working with the members. And we talked about how we can best work them. It takes work on both sides, members and missionaries, to hasten the work of the Lord.

I got to see some of the Elders from my MTC group and it was was fun to catch up with them and visit. They are so awesome.

On our way back to Alta we stopped in Tromsø for the afternoon for splits. We were with Elder Gingrich and Killpack. Tromsø is a really fun little city. We met some people on the streets. One we had a pretty cool conversation about how we can better our lives.

This week has been super fun but flew by with the conference and splits. So this week will be a blast!

Love,

Elder Mickelson

This Week Has Been Really Eventful!

September 21, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

So when Norway got invaded by the Nazis during WW2, they built a bunch of bunkers all over the place. So I've seen a couple ran down, crumbled bunkers so far. This week we came across one that wasn't fallen apart yet, so that was really cool. It wasn't too big, but it was still fun nonetheless.

We got to do a bunch of service this week, which was really awesome. We got invited to help paint a barn. It was really fun. I managed to not get too much paint on myself haha. Right by the barn was a ram... and we managed to get some pretty legit pictures with it. It was super fun haha. And it was pretty epic.

Well when we got done, we were told by the guy we painted the barn for, if we wanted to help someone else the next day, so we said yes (obviously, missionaries are always looking for service to do for others). Well we find out that we get to demolish some of a garage/workshop and then rebuild some of it. Not to mention rebuilding included raising the roof another meter haha. All part of the adventure.

Being missionaries, people are always curious as to why we are in Norway, how long we've been here, and what we actually do. So the Gospel always gets brought up. We don't always need to share a lot about our beliefs, but we can always share a little something that helps others and ourselves feel the Spirit so we all can draw closer to Christ.

Love,

Elder Mickelson

This Week Has Been Really Cool.

September 14, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

This week has been really cool. We got to teach a really cool guy this week. He's younger but is really interested in religion. So it was really an amazing experience to get to talk with him. He said we could come back another time, so we will visit him again and teach him more.

Our seagull friend we saved!

Wednesday we were in our room studying and heard a bunch of noise coming from the roof. After a bit I looked out the window and a seagull was hanging upside down from the corner of our roof. We went out there and pulled up a ladder and moved the gutter on the roof that was keeping its foot caught there. So we got to be heroes for a seagull this week haha.

Me under the Northern Lights

That same night, and every night since, we've been seeing the Northern Lights. I freaked out when I first saw them. They were really strong the first night. It was so cool to see them dancing around the sky. That first night we got to see a bunch of different colors and they were really active. So it's been such an amazing experience. I'm just so excited to get to keep seeing them.

We had our transfers call yesterday and both Elder Cheney and I are staying here in Alta for the next 6 weeks! It's going to be fun!

We tried making cookies Saturday for a member in our branch that has helped us a ton. They started as cookies... and then turned into a brownie-like mix when we added the melted chocolate...and then seemed like a mix between a brownie and cake after baking it. I guess it turned out really good though. So that's a perk for us haha.

So I didn't explain the Polar Bear Club very well when I wrote about joining the Club. So pretty much there is this museum for the Polar Bear Club in Hammerfest. So if you want to be a member, you go through the museum and see the history of Polar Bears and hunting of Arctic animals in the Hammerfest area. Well they made this Club to help preserve polar bears. It was really interesting to learn about it all. But I ended up getting a certificate and a card saying I'm a member, and I ended up getting a little polar bear pin with it too. It's pretty cool haha.

So one quick thing about some of the food in Norway. Reindeer. You can buy reindeer sticks (similar to beef jerky) in Norway as easily as you buy beef jerky in the U.S. It tastes really good. It's pretty similar to elk, a little fattier tasting though (well the reindeer sticks at least).

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Mickelson