I'm Back In The Saddle Again!

One of my best games of bowling. A whopping 118!!! Yay for me! I also beat the 
high score at their little arcade thing at the bowling alley. Bumped it up to 111! from like 
80 or something like that up even more! Felt so proud of myself! haha

March 6, 2017

Hello Everyone!

Well, as the title suggests. I'm back in the saddle again! (Song reference anyone?) Actually, I'm still impressed I remember any music lyrics. So good for me I guess. Well, this week was a crazy awesome one, I got to go back to a land of fairy tales and the city that I know and love all so well. Sandvika! I'll talk more about that later, but it was loads of fun and got to see a ton of people I know.

This week, we went to a family's home for dinner, and then we were invited to stay with them for family home evening. They have the most adorable little kids and they're just such a blast. Anyways, it was the funnest little activity we played for it. It basically ended up being scripture charades. Now just imagine playing charades with a few little kids. It's REALLY animated and TONS of fun! I don't know, I might have almost gotten more into it than they did, but I guess that's what happens when you never really grow up huh? (It's a joke, I've kinda grown up. At least I like to think I know what I'm doing and think I'm responsible haha).

Elder Mitchell and I caught a train (Again, I feel like every week I'm taking a train somewhere, oh well, it's great!) to Sandvika for their district meeting. It was wonderful seeing them all and being a part of their meeting. Afterwards, we decided to go to this restaurant called Egon's and get their all you can eat pizza. Boy was I stuffed after eating! I think in total, the six of us downed like 3 or 4 pizzas. I know I had like 7 or 8 pieces. I guess that's what happens when you have like a bunch of younger americans, and you tell them that they can eat AS MUCH AS THEY WANT. At that point you don't just eat until you're not hungry, you eat until you're stuffed. Plus, I wanted my money's worth out of it. Restaurant's aren't too cheap in Norway! haha

A few days later I went back to Sandvika on splits. So I was with Elder Hansen. We had loads of fun! I had already gone on splits with him a couple months ago back when he was in Tønsberg, so it was a lot of fun getting to be with him again.

Being there was great. We even met one guy that had been baptized while I was serving in Sandvika, so it was wonderful getting to see him again.

I even had a chance to meet with our awesome landlords there. It had been a while since I'd seen them, so it was a blast to catch up with them and see how they were doing. They're awesome so we had a lot of fun.

Right before I came back to Drammen, we had all played soccer together. So it was us, a bunch of people from the ward, and a few other friends there. I got to see several of the youth, and reminisce on good times and try to school them in soccer. Sadly, I still get beat. I guess that's what happens when you don't grow up playing soccer a ton. Oh well, but it was great!

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

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson

"Sometimes we can learn, study, and know, and sometimes we have to believe, trust, and hope." —M. Russell Ballard

So This Has Been A Cool Week!

A view from Borras Vestre from a week ago.

August 25, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Me with some horses behind the house.

Hey! So this has been a cool week. We've been trying to find some more people to teach, which has been a bit of a challenge, although it's been really good. We have a referral that we hopefully which we should be teaching soon. We also got to go talk with a lady. She let us in, but she mostly just likes to talk, but that's ok. I believe she'll open up a bit more and more every time we talk with her. She might come to church which is super exciting. We also taught another older lady a little of the Plan of Salvation. We teach her again in about a week, so that's super exciting. She likes having us over (I'm guessing so, she lets us come back ha-ha).

A view from Halide, an old northern lights
observatory that was burned by the
Germans in WW2, they're restoring it
some more now.

We went on two hikes this week with Johan. We get to go over the lessons again now that he's baptized. So we have the discussions on the top of the mountains, so that's been really cool.

Today we went to Nordkapp. It's the most northern part of Norway (excluding Svalbard). It was super cool. It was really foggy but it was still super awesome. It's pretty amazing to be able to be so far north.

This week we have a Zone-Mission Conference in Bergen. I'm super excited. Our area Seventy will be there. I'm excited to be going there. I'll be in Bergen for a couple days.

So to answer some common questions I guess that people would like to know,

1. We have a car for our area (it's great to have one).

2. No, our mission doesn't have ipads, but we might sometime while I'm here in Norway.

3. We have around 70 missionaries in my mission.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

Thanks for all of your love, support, and prayers.

Have a great week!

Elder Mickelson

Out by the river near our house.

Me with some sheep on our way down from Haldde.

A view of me at Nordkapp.

I Made It To Norway Finally!

My first companion Elder Cheney

August 10, 2015

Hey Family & Friends!

I made it to Norway finally. I got delayed on Monday so we didn't leave until Wednesday. I got to the mission home in Oslo with all of my bags so that was really awesome. A really cool thing happened at the airport. A Norwegian lady with a couple young kids walked up to me randomly while we were waiting for our bags. Many Norwegians don't approach random people and start talking with them, especially with missionaries. She just started asking a few questions she had about the church. She had seen Meet the Mormons and had many questions about the church. So I got her name and phone number and gave it to the Sister missionaries in Oslo. They teach her and her family tomorrow so it is really exciting.

At the mission home the next morning I met my trainer Elder Cheney from Las Vegas. He's really cool and has been helping me a lot with learning Norwegian. We flew from Oslo to Alta and it is so amazing up here.

My first baptism Johan in the fjord

Saturday, we had a baptism here. Johan got baptized in the fjord and it was such a spectacular experience.  He is such an amazing member.

As far as the language goes, I actually can kind of understand what people are saying. It's not as bad as it was in 'The Best Two Years'. In Alta, they speak a lot slower, which I appreciate... A LOT. They speak around my pace of speech. So that is really nice.

The branch here is very small. We had 16 in church yesterday, but they are so amazing. They are so nice and awesome.

My first Kebab!

I got my first kebab here in Alta (it's tradition that your trainer buys you your first one. so, lucky me) I loved it, and they taste fantastic! I'll include a picture of me with my kebab.

I got to go knock on my first house, that was scary, but really cool. No one let us in but that's ok. Just keep on trying. It's been an awesome week and I'm excited to be a missionary here!

Love,

Elder Mickelson