This Week Has Been Super Crazy!

Drammen in the evening

February 6, 2016

Hey Everyone!

This week has been super crazy! One of the busiest ones I might dare say. Elder Hoopes and Jefferies moved this last week. And, naturally when anyone moves, it involves visiting a lot of people and saying goodbye. It was really good getting to meet with a bunch of people Elder Hoopes had gotten close with, but sad for him saying goodbye. Well, nice thing is that you can still stay in touch after moving!

Elder Nelson (my new companion) got here this last week too. He's from Lehi, UT and actually played some lacrosse! I think he's the second person I've met that played lacrosse. Not too huge of a sport in small towns ya know. But that's what happens when schools and cities and everything is small.

Elder Jefferies, Hoopes, Me, Johnson

Elder Mitchell, who I was with in Fredrikstad, moved here to Drammen too, and that's been a blast. He's also been way fun to have in the apartment. Old inside jokes, and catching up has been so much fun. That and quoting The Other Guys with him has been awesome.

We try working a lot with the youth here in Drammen. So we were at the young men's activity night this week. We got there a little later than we expected but it was no problem. They had it set up like a man cave. The young men had set up a small FIFA tournament, and I tried my hand at beating them at ping pong... My somewhat ping pong skills are rusty to say the least. But that's ok. I still held my own.

We were out visiting a family for dinner, and we hopped on the bus to go out there (mind you, I've been in that area only once before) and we started our little adventure there. We got to where I thought the bus was supposed to turn and go up their road... and it just kept on going forward... even further down the hillside. After a few bus stops I knew we were way past where we needed to be. We were a few minute drive PAST where we were supposed to be. I found out later after so kindly getting picked up that there's two busses, which both go along the same road, and only one of them turned on to their road, and that was the OTHER bus, NOT the one we were on. Well, I won't make that mistake again. Luckily, we weren't too late getting there.

So, as the subject of the email led you all to wonder, working out. So this week I've worked out A LOT. More than usual. We even had an apartment run this morning. It wasn't so bad running downhill, it was run back that sucked. So that, in addition to other work outs, and over 500 squats in one day, and other stuff spread out this week, my body (mainly my legs) has been hating me. But I'm finally feeling good again.

We had sport this Saturday, us missionaries and a few other from the church, we played soccer, and basketball, and indoor hockey (another reason my body was aching). Anyways, because I'm American I'm naturally bad at soccer, and then at basketball, the Norwegians dominated us... (Disappointing, I know), but I didn't do too bad at indoor hockey. I'm much better at it than I thought I was. So that was loads of fun.

Church was really good yesterday. We had a great class on charity and how we can find more opportunities to help others in our daily lives. It was a great class.

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

Sincerely,

Elder Justin Mickelson

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." Moroni 7:47

Drammen Was Hit With Quite A Bit Of Snow

A bunch of us over at President's home after New Year's.

January 16, 2016

Hello Everyone!

A week ago, Drammen was hit with quite a bit of snow. A whole several inches. The snow we'd been missing since November finally came. Well anyways, we had gotten up one morning and were about to go out the door to catch the southbound train to Tønsberg, and all I hear is... "It's raining..." It's one thing to rain overnight, melt all of the snow, and stop... but the rain went on for a couple of days. Needless to say, I got soaked pretty fast.

Our District together after interviews.

We still caught the train and made it just fine to Tønsberg to spend the day with the missionaries there. It was really cool because we not only were in Tønsberg for a bit, but we drove down to another city called Sandefjord because that's the city they normally are in. With a constant pour, we hit the streets and it was a blast. We were with Elder Arveseth (he was in Fredrikstad when I was there) and then his companion Elder Hansen.

Elder Hansen and I spent some time knocking on some doors talking to different people. We had walked up to a door and there was just country music blaring and I thought someone was having a party. But, it wasn't like a ton of cars were parked there, so we knocked. When they came out it was fun asking about the country music and finding out that they had just been jamming to it. Fun meeting people who love country music too! haha

A game we all played to try and get a piece of a cereal box off the ground with only your feet on the ground, I found out I'm more flexible than I thought (yes, that is me)

A few days ago, we had been over at a family's home for dinner, and while we were waiting for a few minutes for the food to finish cooking, several of us sat down and played some with LEGOs with their daughter. It was fun seeing all of us, sitting around the classic bucket, loaded with LEGOs and building fun little houses. It's quite entertaining having a blast to the past with something that was such a part of my childhood.

We had finished up eating and their son, Elder Jefferies, Elder Hoopes, and I all had a wall sit competition. Everyone was out by the 2 and a half minute mark and it was just Elder Hoopes and I left. We had gone for 5 minutes straight (By the way, the longest wall sit I've ever done in my life) and we decided to fall at the same time. My legs were shaking pretty hard-core, but we managed.

I was out talking with people and started talking to this guy in high school. He had this really nice camera, and come to find out, he's way into film-making. He's helped make a few music videos for some local musicians. He was a way cool guy to talk to.

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

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson

"Difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us." Thomas S. Monson

MERRY CHRISTMAS THIS WEEK!

Me and one of the youth here in Drammen. Way cool guy!

December 19, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow! Hectic week, but a great one at that!

After an amazing 6 months in the Arctic circle, I moved back down to Oslofjorden. It was really sad saying bye to everyone up there in Bodø. They are just so incredible up there. They were and still are such great examples of the kind of person I want to be.

After having a great stay in Bodø, I said bye to Elder Dawes. I went through airport security and started the next chapter of my mission here in Norway.

A quick thank you to all of those that I got to get to know in Bodø!

Luckily, all of my luggage made it to Oslo (I'd be really concerned if it didn't). I caught the Flytog (the airport's train system) and started my way through the oh-so-familiar winding hills, through Oslo, through good ol' Sandvika, and continued down to Drammen.

I got off the train, and made my way off the platform and found all of the Drammen Elders. My companion is Elder Hoopes. We came to Norway at the same time (we actually sat right next to each other in class in the MTC in Provo, UT also). So it was exciting seeing him again. He's from California, and loves the beach (a HUGE beach guy). Elder Jefferies is also in our apartment. I served with him at the beginning of my mission up in Alta. He was my second companion. Elder Jefferies is also training a new missionary, Elder Johnson. We have an awesome apartment, and a bunch of great guys. So long story short, it'll be a great time in Drammen!

Drammen is GIANT! Ok, not really. But kind of. There's a lot more people in Drammen than Bodø. Drammen actually is one of the largest cities in Norway. It has one of the biggest congregations too in all of Norway. I showed up to church yesterday and was practically overwhelmed. There had to be over 200 members there! I've been pretty used to about a dozen in church, so it was quite the change. But it's a good one. If there's anything I've learned, it's that all of the members here in Norway are incredible. They are the greatest examples of what I'd like to be one day. There's no doubt about that!

It's interesting moving back down here to Eastern Norway. This is where part of my family actually comes from (like 150 years ago, but still). We drove through this area called Eiker, right outside of Drammen, and it dawned on me I was practically in the same spot that some of my ancestors were from. It was just a real neat experience being where my family used to be.

And last but not least, CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! Ok, so now it's been about a year since I talked much about Christmas traditions in Norway.

Well, to sum it up, it's INCREDIBLE!!!

But I can elaborate a bit. Any time that you have 4 days of Christmas, it HAS to be great. so they have Little Christmas Eve (Lillejulaften) on the 23rd, Christmas Eve (Julaften), which actually is the biggest of the days of Christmas (it's when Santa comes). That's on the 24th. Then you have the Førstejuledag on the 25, the first day of Christmas. and then the second day of Christmas (Andre juledag) on the 26th. It's just a great time to just spend at home with family or at your cabin.

Food at Christmas time is wonderful! There's ribbe, pinnekjøtt, potatoes, kjøttkaker, and tons of baked goods. It's like the greatest assortment of food you can think of!

Well I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! Take care and have a wonderful holiday season coming up!

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson

Luke 2:11 "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

Merry Christmas! God Jul!

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