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

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