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!

Such Is Life On A Mission; You Never Know Who Will Stay

A snail that slowly made its way across the sidewalk

May 23, 2016

Hello everyone!

Such is life on a mission. You never know who will stay, who will leave, or in what combination. Missions have a way of mixing things up... for 2 years... with no breaks haha. As we were listening to the moves call, finding out who was going where, assuming that Elder Tangen and I were staying together her in Sandvika for another transfer, we find out a big surprise! Elder Tangen is moving up to Mo i Rana, and I'll be staying here in Sandvika for another while! It's really sad to have Elder Tangen move, especially considering we've only been serving together for 6 weeks, but he's needed elsewhere. I will be getting Elder Rial, who was Elder Tangen's trainer, this week. So that's really exciting. I'm excited to get to know him and keep serving here in such an awesome ward! Elder Rial actually started his mission here so that's really cool to be here for when he comes back!

A clay tennis court in literally the 

middle of the woods

So this week we have been trying to start an initiative to meet with as many members as we can. It's been really fun to start visiting as many as we can. This ward is really cool. It's fun to keep getting to know them better!

I thought I would share something that we do every week which most of you don't know. So every week, a bunch of us from the ward get together and play soccer. It's so fun. I've been getting good over the last 3 months. And by getting good, I mean that I don't suck terribly! haha I guess that's what happens when you don't play soccer much in the US. I've now got at least another 6 weeks to get mad soccer skills!

This scripture is one that I really like. It comes from Alma 17:2-3.

Some people riding horses in the middle 

of the city (Always great to see 

when you come from a small town)

2 Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel first appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.

3 But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God.

A common bread slicer in the grocery store. 

It gives a new meaning to the phrase 

"as great as sliced bread" considering you 

buy unsliced loaves at the store and put 

them in the bread machine to get it sliced.

I really liked these scriptures. I really liked how their bond as friends, as brethren in the Lord, had grown strong because of their service. Because they had served the Lord faithfully, and continued to trying to help others come to an understanding of Christ, and a knowledge of God's plan of happiness, they were strengthened. They grew because of their desire to bless others and their dedication to the work which they did.

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

Sincerely,

Eldste Mickelson

The dutch guy selling great cheese and stroopwaffles

Dutch stroopwaffles that I bought from the 

dutch guy selling cheese in the last picture