Howdy from Marquette County

Howdy howdy!!!

Well this week was SWEET!!! Yesterday was the big day for Zach and Skys baptism! It was super awesome. But, I will start from the beginning and save the best for last!

Well, Tuesdays are our district meeting days and we either go to one of two places. Either Iron Mountain or Escanaba, so far I have only been to Iron Mountain. But it is a really pretty drive down there and lots of things to look at. Probably about an hour and a half away or so. So like driving to Moses Lake. But it was a good one, we did it differently than we had done any of our other district meetings, we just discussed our investigators and how we can meet their needs. Usually we just talk about better ways to teach and stuff. But turns out that we ARE supposed to do them that way anyways so it was good. But on the way back, we stopped in a dinky little town called Champion. Fun fact about Champion, it is the horse pulling capital of the U.P. They might as well make it horse pulling capital of the world because nobody cares. But they do, it’s right on their welcome to Champion sign haha. But these people we visited here were honestly probably the weirdest people I’ve met yet on my mission. Elder Turney said that last time he went to visit this family, the guy answered the door with a machete around his neck so I didn’t really know what to expect haha. But they were all there and they were pretty weird. No machetes though. But they’re just one of those familys you just can’t figure out why they’re so strange. He said the reason they stopped coming to church 4 years ago was because a guy brought a gun to church and was cleaning it and pointing it at him. Yeah right! But that was his reason but we told him that that guy had moved and it would be ok for them to come now. But they still didn’t. But they have an 11 year old son who isn’t baptized and he wants to be but we don’t think they really understand what baptism is really all about. So we are going to try to address that and fix that problem and hopefully baptize him! But yeah, pretty weird. But one thing that Pres. Barrett has emphasized a lot, as well as our bishop, is reactivating less actives. That is just as important as baptisms. So we have been doing a ton of that. There are several less active members in Negaunee and Ishpeming we are trying to reactivate and not having a ton of luck yet but we have found some and talked with them for a while. Hopefully we’ll be seeing them more often. But the ward really isn’t that big here in Marquette so we are trying to get more of those people reactivated to ensure we don’t turn into a branch. That would stink.
Wednesday was a pretty sweet day. Did our “service” and taught quite a few lessons, some to members and some to investigators. Pres. Barrett has also emphasized teaching lessons to active members so that they will see our teaching styles and possibly give us referrals to their friends that they think we would teach well to. But no such luck there yet. It is pretty fun though to teach them and reaffirm what they already believe and such so fun stuff.

That day we also had a run in with some Jehovahs Witnesses…yup. Pretty awesome. We had a priest with us at the time and were knocking on our appointments’ door and the apartment next to us thought we were knocking on theirs and answered. But unfortunately, that was the Jehovahs Witnesses apartment. And our set appointment wasn’t home so we were stuck with these guys for a whole stinkin hour! It was retarded. Elder Turney doesn’t like being wrong, I can’t think super well on my feet, and this priest kid named James thinks he can negate everything that these guys are saying. So pretty much all I did was stand there and I said a few things here and there but mostly just listened and observed some bible bashing action. JW’s have some pretty interesting beliefs. I’ve never met one or seen one and I had no idea what they believed, but now I do! But when I did talk, I would say that we had to get going or I would invite them to visit our website, but Turney just kept talking! So yeah, huge waste of time but it was interesting and fun sometimes. But still pretty lame. But afterwards, Turney was pretty bummed about being there so long and kept on apologizing and stuff to me. But it was totally fine, I forgive easily. But he was pretty mad at himself for awhile until we went tracting again and had another sweet experience. We met this guy, I think I might’ve mentioned him last week, but his name is Tom Normand and he is a way old guy. He’s 76. But we taught him a restoration lesson that day and it was probably the best lesson I have taught. The spirit was totally there and he totally felt it. He asked really sweet questions and was very interested in what we were saying. We asked him to give the closing prayer and he did! It was totally awesome. He couldn’t read the Book of Mormon we gave him though so we had to find a large print for him to read. But the next appointment we had with him we read a chapter to him and he thought it was great. He said at that appointment he knows our message is true but he just wants to read more of the Book of Mormon before he comes to church. He is already talking about what happens after baptism so we know he is interested in that. Pretty sweet! Hopefully we can extend a baptismal date to him in our next appointment or so. But then later that night, the Zone Leaders came up and spent the night in preparation for the baptismal interview with Zach the next day. They’re super cool. So we went on exchanges with them for the night and went to some potentials and talked with some members and stuff like that. I really like them.

Thursday, we did our service again and had our weekly planning session. Not so fun. Usually takes 2 hours. But after that, visited a few more people and headed over to Zachs to interview him. But when we got there, only Zach was home, not Sky! So that was lame. But we just decided to have his baptism this week and hers next week or something. But Zach passed, hooray! And then the ZL’s and Elder Turney and I had to book it down to Green Bay right afterwards. There was a leadership training meeting down there that Turney had to go to in the morning. But after a solid 3 and a half hour ride we got there. Green Bay is a cool city. It is surprisingly small and pretty similar to Spokane. It has about 101,000 people. So not too bad. And it smells intensely of cows. Thus far, all of the stereotypes about Wisconsin have proven true. Pretty funny. But that night we just hung out with the other elders and went to bed because it was already about 9:30. They’re cool dudes down there in Green Bay. But we found out from the ZL’s that Sky could still get baptized on Sunday because a ZL could go up with one of the assistants on exchanges to interview her because the assistants have unlimited miles in their car. So we called Zach and told him that. He explained to us in what turned out to be an hour long phone call that he didn’t think she was ready yet. So we kind of had to agree with him. But after some discussing with the ZL’s we decided that we should call him back and have one of them talk to him. But just then he called back and Sky wanted to talk to Turney. She was pretty sad but after talking to her for a while, he thought she would be ready too. So the ZL’s talked to Zach again and for some reason he liked what they said and he decided that would be fine. So long story short, Sky was going to get interviewed!

Next day was pretty sweet. I went on exchanges with a Hmong and a Spanish elder. Usually if you are with another language speaking elder, you are called a “zebra” companionship. But since it was 3 totally different languages, people called us a “chameleon” companionship. Pretty funny. But these elders were super cool and a ton of fun. We did service for a member of the church and mowed their long and stuff. He rewarded us with a TON of cheese. He is an international cheese salesman…that’s right. I’m not lying. And he is pretty wealthy. Anyways, that cheese was awesome. I finally got my cheese fix! I finally got to drive that day too! Neither of these elders had drivers licenses because Elder Lokboj, he’s from the Marshall islands, didn’t get his record transferred. And Elder Alestia did street racing back home and that’s illegal so I was pretty happy. But yeah, we had a pretty good day. Visited some of their investigators down there and met some Hmong and Spanish people. Fun stuff. But these elders were awesome and way funny so it made for a great day.

Wisconsin weather is really weird too. It is raining torrentially hard one minute and the next, there is nothing. Pretty random and weird. But after exchanges we headed back up to Marquette to interview Sky. Got there just in time and she passed too!! Hooray.

Saturday was fun, we helped at a triathlon! Basically it consisted of us telling kids to go this way and telling them they were doing awesome. They do a thing like the Ridge to River in Negaunee here and we helped at the kids one. Pretty fun. And I got a free tshirt out of it! Can’t beat that! But we visited our members up there and got free food from some of them… can’t deny that. Helped a member move, did that pretty fast. And then we had another appointment with Tom again. He again was very accepting and loved it. Pretty excited for him.

Sunday was sweeet!!! The talks were about temples and Zach was way interested in that so that was totally sweet. In our gospel doctrine class, we have some “different” people that come and we usually get on some pretty strange topics. But Zach really focused on temples and that was pretty neat. He is pretty interested and excited to do that. And then Elder Turney and I had to teach Elders quorum which stinked because we had no time to prepare, but it went just fine. Then baptism time!! Elder Turney baptized both of them and I was kind of directing the thing. The room was packed and Zach and Sky were totally excited and pumped but pretty nervous too. They did awesome and the spirit was there hardcore. Zachs ex wife and his new girlfriend were there, both nonmembers, and thought it was really neat. His other 2 kids that are baptizeable were also there and seemed quite interested. We even had some of our other investigators show up and see what baptism was all about. Overall, it was pretty amazing and very successful. I was so happy and so proud of them all and loved every minute of it. But then afterwards we had dinner at Ernests house, the massive guy who likes to crush my hand whenever he shakes it, and it was actually pretty good. And then more missionary excitement with visiting people and trying by potentials. Pretty sweet week!!!!

My Culvers trip was successful. Pretty unhealthy though haha. Probably won’t do that again for a while. I suggest it whenever you are in the Midwest though that is for sure.

It has been another beautiful, comftorable week here in Marquette! Only 3 months of summer, if that, so I have to enjoy it! It is beautiful though!

Well, that is pretty much all my news for the week. But I enjoy your letters! Emails and snail mail! Keep them coming! Snail mail is pretty exciting though…hint hint. But either way, I love it!

And feel free to send me pictures over the email, I can see them, but you can send those snail mail to me too ya know! Haha.

I love you all!!!!!!!! I pray for all my family and loved ones every time I pray and if you are reading this email, that means I am praying for you and love you!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!! Haha..

Love,
Elder Jesse Merrill Kissell