This May Be Message Number 100

All of us together

May 29, 2017

Hey Everyone!

So, rumor has it that this is email number 100. I don't know how true it is, but it seems legit. It's been fun for me to see how my emails have evolved over the last couple years. It started as practically a few sentences. After finding out that people would want to read more than a couple lines, I had to step it up a notch. But that's aside from the point. That is a TON of emails.

Coming back down on
a mountain bike trail

I've been asked a lot lately, "Are you excited to be going home soon?" (by the way, I'm coming home next week). And I guess I'll answer that. I'm excited to see everyone, but I'm really going to miss it a lot here. I have so many new friends I've made over here, and it'll be hard to leave. Thankfully Facebook exists! Luckily, it's easier to hold contact with people nowadays than it used to be. So yes, I am excited to be home, but I think part of me will be left here. And I'll take a bit of Norway home with me.

So this week has been definitely a great one. We started out with another hike. It was soooo much fun! We went out with one of the young men, and it was a blast.

We also went and got kebab too that evening with another one of the young men. Tons of fun. That's for sure. The youth in this ward are so great. I've really appreciated the church here in Norway, they're just all studs!

I had my interview with our mission president too this week. So Elder Mitchell, Sanchez, and I took a train (see right there? I took yet another train haha) over to the mission president's home. So we spent the early afternoon over there with interviews and lunch. So it was really good.

This week was a great one, but definitely hot! It was up in the 80s this week. Really nice to be out in, but I got a bit of a sunburn. Oh well, it wasn't too bad!

Well I hope you all have a great week! Take care! And I'll see some of you next week!

Sincerely,

Elder Justin Mickelson

“Even in the most difficult and darkest of times, there is light and goodness all around us.” -Mark A. Bragg

Extreme ramp/turn thing (wall of death maybe?)

River along the hike

Snake that we nearly stepped on.

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

Telemark Zone (Our Largest Zone)

April 17, 2017

Happy Easter everyone!!!

I hope you all had a great vacation and weekend and stuff! Something that is pretty cool here is that in Norway, people celebrate Easter week. So everything from Palm Sunday, to Good Friday and Easter. Even today, being Monday, is the second day of Easter. So, it's different celebrating more than just one day for Easter. I think it's pretty great!

It was quite an eventful week! That's for sure! We helped a member in the ward paint his house, and it's looking pretty good if I do say so myself haha! It was real fun though. I got a bunch of paint on my jeans so we'll see how well it goes trying to get it off. It'll be an adventure nonetheless.

A ton of people from the ward got together to play soccer over Easter break and we went and played with them. There was a couple dozen there. Proper sized teams. Us Americans suck at playing soccer. Luckily, because of my time in Sandvika and here in Drammen, I've gotten better. I'm not completely hopeless. Just somewhat of a lost cause. But no, we did alright haha! (Still lost though, but just barely).

Speaking of soccer, one afternoon we spent the evening with a family, and after dinner us and their kids all headed out to this little soccer field and played soccer. It was a blast, but we still lost to their kids. I'm not that great after all. Oh well.

No weekly email would quite be the same without the train update. Well, the trains are still running, and I'm still catching them. This week I went on splits to Tønsberg. And it was a lot of fun. I was with Elder Rogers again and it was a blast seeing him again. We got to go help an older couple with some yard work too. I can thank my mom for teaching me how to clean out flowerbeds! :) Thanks mom!

We spent Easter yesterday over at the mission home with the mission president and his wife, along with some other senior couples and a bunch of other missionaries. We had a nice dinner (the food was amazing) and we sang a ton of songs together. A really nice way to spend Easter afternoon!

Elder Mickelson is playing the piano

Well we are headed out soon to go climb Norway's biggest ski jump, so that'll be fun!

Hope you all have a great week! Happy 2nd day of Easter!

Sincerely,

Elder Justin Mickelson

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for

his friends." John 15:13

Elder Decker with our super small shopping cart :)

Elder Mickelson and Elder Mitchell spent the morning 

teaching the missionaries how to keep their “line in the water.”

There are wonderful large windows around the top of the Drammen Chapel. They let in lots of light 🙂 We were happy to have a visitor Eivind Top join us for the day!

We Had A Really Great Week!

Elder Rial and Elder Mickelson

June 6, 2016

Hello everyone!

We had a really great week! It was a lot of fun talking to everyone that was out and about.  Although, this week has been HOT for Norway. It was up in the 80s this week. Talk about a shock by going from a Norwegian Winter into a hot, humid Summer! But the weather has evened out a bit and it's cooled off enough to go around comfortably enough.  As with any nice weather, it brings everyone outside. That's great for us because we start talking with a lot of happy people each day! As many people know, happy people are fun to talk to!

The set up for weekly planning

Last week we got to go to the mission home for breakfast. So we went over, had some breakfast, and got to study while we were having interviews. So that was a ton of fun. The cinnamon rolls were quite delicious haha!

This week I've been thinking a lot about what people need to understand for them to want to be changed people through Christ. Many people in life have everything they need. They have a home, food on the table, a car sitting in the driveway, a stable job, and a happy family. When everything in life seems to be going great, people have a tendency to feel like they no longer need God. Many feel as though that they can do everything on their own and that they got where they are by their own sheer will-power. Yes, it's true that with hard work we can get what we want in life. But at the end of the day, despite what we have, how successful we are, or what we've worked for, do we turn to God? Do we find ourselves praying, thanking our loving Heavenly Father for what we have? Or do we find ourselves "puffed up in pride"? Do we shun God, or embrace His love for us? What are we doing to come closer to Him?

Elder Rial casually walking down the street with an electric keyboard

I believe that when we understand who we truly are, THEN we will come closer to God, THEN we will have a desire to change, THEN we will want to turn to Christ and follow His example. We are all the spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father. A father who created us, who cared about every single one of us before we came to earth, and sent us to earth so we could receive a body, so that one day, we would be able to return to live in His presence. He loves us, regardless. Please remember that God wants the best for us, and the only way to experience true happiness, happiness that lasts into eternity, is by living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I see it everyday. I see the blessings in people's lives because of living the gospel, and I see pain and discouragement when people don't. I have never met anyone who is happier now in their lives because they fell away from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Never. Blessings come to those who follow Christ. I know that's true.

I hope all of you have a great week!

Sincerely,

Elder Mickelson

Me with some skolebrød (school bread- bread with 
custard in the middle and frosting on top 

dipped in coconut. Yes, it's delicious)

2016 Has Rolled In With...

Elder Mitchell, Elder Christensen, Sister Lowater and I for New Year's Eve.

January 4, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

2016 has rolled in with fireworks, celebrations, and plenty of laughs. People all around the world have begun their New Year's resolutions, many of which are sticking to them, and in a few months time, most people will have stopped for one reason or another. But that is okay! We have a desire right now to try and make our lives better. To improve. To be healthier. To be happier. Whatever the case may be, we all see that there is something greater out in the world. There is something that we can achieve. There is something greater than ourselves that we cannot even completely understand. But at the end of the day, we still recognize that we have the potential to be something better, to be a part of something greater. I hope that all of us take our resolution, realize that we can achieve it, and put our minds to it and accomplish our goals. When the going gets tough and we don't want to keep trying, when we want to give up, or when we can't find the motivation to keep progressing, I hope that we all look back at why we wanted to start in the first place. Remember what we wanted to accomplish. Remember why we knew it would be good for us. Remember how it would benefit us. And then remember that we all had faith in ourselves. We knew that we could do it. After that, keep going.

I'm hoping that was pretty inspirational. It probably was cheesy, but that's alright. It's true though. I guess we try a lot in life to better ourselves. We try to be better today than we were yesterday, and better tomorrow than we were today.

This week was incredible. I had so much fun. We got to spend a lot of time with the members here in Fredrikstad. Much of our time was spent being with the members and helping out with whatever we could.

Our fantastic dessert after the
New Year's Eve dinner
(notice the Ben & Jerry's ice cream
on the back of the island)

For New Year's Eve we got to travel to Sweden and celebrate with a family in our ward that lives there. I never thought that I would be in Sweden during my life, but things happen, and we get surprised! We had so much fun there. All of us missionaries in the ward got to go and it was just a really cool experience. We played games (I did really well at Uno and managed not to lose any friends because of it. Some feelings were hurt though by the end) and had dinner together. We had dessert afterwards, and I was extremely happy. We had Ben & Jerry's ice cream. It was delicious! It's not very easy to find in Norway, well for a low price. I found some right across the street from where I live at a gas station. Expensive, but I might be buying myself some. It's the first time I have seen in in the last 6 months.

Every New Year's at midnight, to ring in the new year, everyone lights off a bunch of fireworks. It felt like the Fourth of July, just with smaller and fewer fireworks, but still, a ton of fireworks nonetheless! It's really awesome to be surrounded in another culture to celebrate New Years. It's just really cool to see how others celebrate differently than you, but we still are celebrating for the same reason.

Yesterday, Elder Mitchell and I got to teach a small lesson during Primary class in church. We joined in for singing time with all of the little kids (super fun) and afterwards, shared our little thought. We shared how the scriptures are the word of God. We all talked about how we use both the Bible and the Book of Mormon to learn about Christ and that if we follow what we learn, we'll have better lives. I think that is a really great though. If we read the word of God, and apply it in our lives, we will not only be blessed, but we will see a change in ourselves. Over time, we will find ourselves being kinder to others, having more patience, and living a better life. We need to be reading the scriptures to know how we can be better people. It's the beginning of the new year! We can learn in the scriptures of how to live a better life this coming year!

I hope all of you have a wonderful week, a happy new year, and keep up on your resolutions! Happy New Year everyone!

Love,

Elder Mickelson

Below are some pictures from a District Meeting Training on family search on December 30, 2015.

Elder Mitchell

Elder Mickelson, Elder Mitchell, President & Sister Hill

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

The Hills in Norway

This Week Was Really Good!

August 31, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

A view from an area around Alta

Picture of Bergen

Picture at Bergen

This week was really good. I had the opportunity to fly to Bergen for a mission conference. We flew down there Wednesday. So we had a group pday on Wednesday so I went and got to go explore a bit of Bergen. It's such a cool city. There's so much life there and it's really fun to explore! 

That night we went on splits. I went with Elder Arnold. He's really a cool missionary. He serves in Bergen so he got to take me around to try and contact members and less active members. It was a great experience to go with him on splits. 

Bergen Zone Conference
with Elder and Sister Johnson

Thursday was our conference. Elder Johnsen, our area Seventy, spoke to us for the conference. It was really cool. One question that was asked to him was "how can we change ourselves to be better". If we focus on ourselves we can't grow. So what I came to understand better is that if we want to be able to change ourselves to be better, we do that best by loving and serving others.

Alta Branch Meal

President Hill and Sister Hill came up to Alta and Hammerfest (our branch) and visited after the conference. It was cool to have them up here with us because they came to church with us. After church our branch had lunch together. Its was fantastic. There was some lapskaus and grøt and boller. All of which is delicious.

The panorama is a view from an area around Alta, and the other two are pictures while I was in Bergen.

Love,

Elder Mickelson

These missionaries are all serving above the Arctic Circle!

Missionaries have lived in the upstairs of this house
for many, many, years!  Sister Kristensen and her son
have been great to the missionaries.

Elder Cheney and Elder Mickelson

Lunch with President & Sister Hill

I Made It And Am Still Alive!

June 27, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Hey Dad, I made it and am still alive haha. My P-Day is Wednesday so I can actually send an email then. My companion is Elder Gurr from Mesa, Arizona. We've had a ton of fun. The language is coming along. I can pray in Norwegian. We taught our first lesson in Norwegian yesterday. We teach the second tonight. We did fairly well considering what we know. 

President Tracy & Joeen Hill

We also met our mission president last night. They are wonderful. Share this with mom.

Love you, I'll email Wednesday.

Love,

Elder Justin Mickelson