Well, we had a pretty sweet week this week. And we also had COMPANION EXCHANGES!! Love those. I went with Elder Crossley up to Houghton and was up there for the day. So funny story... Whenever we go to district conferences, we usually go to Taco Bell and i usually get the volcano box, a big box full of goodness. But a couple weeks ago, my district wanted me to take it to another level and eat the volcano nachos AND the volcano box. It wasn't fun. Super hot and a ton of food. I couldn't finish it. But then the next week, I told elder Crossley that if he could finish it and keep it down, i'd give him 10 bucks. Well, i'm 10 bucks poorer. He downed it, not too easily, but he did it. But he told me about this monster cinnamon roll place on the way up to Houghton and if i ate that, i wouldn't have to pay him 10 bucks and he would pay for my cinnamon roll. So we stopped at this place and these cinnamon rolls are MASSIVE!!! They're probably bigger than Rhode Island. I only had 4 bites left, but i couldn't do it. It was great fun though, felt 15 pounds fatter. But it's gone now, lots of biking.
Houghton is way sweet. It's in the middle of nowhere, majority of the roads are dirt roads, and there's ALMOST mountains!! They look more like buttes to me, but they're pretty cool. The people up there are pretty crazy. We went and talked to a few members up there and one of them, Bro. Seaburg, is quite the interesting character to say the least. He lives in a "big" trailer i guess you'd call it, but the driveway leading up to it, he has cameras and sensors so he can tell when somebody is coming up his property. He met us outside, gun in his pocket. He has a big old black beard and he has a wolf for a dog. A WOLF!! You can't pet it, or else it will attack you. What a fun dog eh? And it's always trying to kill his other dog, so that dog always has to be moving, i feel sorry for it. But he's quite the character for sure. He got baptized in a horse trough in his backyard last year because he hates the "city" and doesn't like leaving his property. He sounds like the weirdest guy ever, but he's super cool. We also helped out with the nastiest move i've ever helped out in while i was up there too. It smelled SO bad. Nasty. But we had a good time anyways. We tried visiting alot of their investigators, but most of them weren't home. But we did catch one home who had an anti book. I HATE anti stuff. It's the dumbest thing in the world. But i felt prompted to just be bold and blunt with her and i told her "maam, if you want to learn the truth about the church and about the Book of Mormon, you need to throw that book away, read the Book of Mormon, and truthfully and honestly pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true." Then i bore my testimony of how i know it's true and that i know she can feel that same way too. You could tell she felt the spirit, but she didn't really say anything. But hopefully i was a help, not too mean or anything.
But in Marquette life, life has been good. My companion still seems to pull those strings to annoy the heck out of me. But, prayer helps. It does. So i do that alot it seems to keep my temper under control. We proselyted on campus this week, that was pretty cool. Didn't get any times to teach them again, but talked to alot of students and gave out a few BoM's. I enjoyed it. We did some tracting too this week. We met a really nice old lady who just loved us and told us she didn't know that there were young people like us still out in the world today and she was honored to be talking to us. So that was neat. We talked with her on her porch for a way long time, like an hour. She said she's catholic, but doesn't like it too much. So we invited her to church in Wisconsin, because that's where she's from, and she said she'd have to check it out. So hopefully she does, perfect Mormon lady right there. And yesterday, this was exciting, I knocked on this one door and a guy answered and we taught him for a little bit and then he said "hang on a sec", he left, I thought he was going to get a shotgun, Turney thought he was going to get a Book of Mormon, but he came back with 10 kids!! They were like 10-17 years old and in a christian youth group. So we taught all about the restoration to these kids and their youth group leaders. It was pretty cool. None were interested in learning more, but it was still pretty fun.
The Pendaz's came to church yesterday! I was kind of concerned because in our morning meetings, Bro Pendaz called and said that his daughter and granddaughter were up visiting and his granddaughter was sick so he had to stay home and take care of her. But i asked him "well why cant your daughter take care of her?" And he goes "ya know, that's a great idea! I don't know why i didn't think of that one before. That's what i like about you missionaries, so steadfast in the church and trying to get people like us back out." And guess what, they came!!! Hooray. Turney was surprised i was so bold because he said he would've just said well, that's unfortunate and we'll see you next week. But, bold and fearless i tell ya, it works. Bro Pendaz bore his testimony too, i was a little scared, i thought he would say something weird and crazy like he usually does, but he didn't, so that was a good thing. Yesterday was a way sweet day at church, 2 of our investigators were there, 2 guys looking for a different church were there, lots of nonmember visitors of familys, it was sweet. So hopefully we'll be able to start or continue teaching these people and seeing more baptismal dates. Harlan Pendaz's date is still on for the 26th of this month. SWEET!
But yeah, it's been a great and rewarding week. Lots of hard work, studying and being out and about was involved. Prayer was also a huge part of this as well, as always. So thank you all for all of your prayers! Continue to pray for missionary opportunities so you can help your friends feel the love of the gospel that you feel. Wouldn't it be sweet if all your friends were in the celestial kingdom with you? I think it would be. So even though it might be scary, talk to your friends about the church and invite them to meet with the missionaries. If you don't do that, how are they ever going to get to the celestial kingdom?
Again, i love you. Thank you all for your support, love, kindness, and letters. I continue to pray for you all too:) Have a sweet week!
Love
Elder Kissell
p.s. almost broke my finger playing church football, that was fun. It was swollen up for a way long time. Not cool, but i'm ok:)
PICTURES
1. The massive cinnamon roll i almost ate. Look closely at the plate, the bottom of the cinnamon roll is sitting in a half inch of frosting...mmm
2. Bishop Baraga shrine. Bishop Baraga is a catholic pioneer/settler guy in the U.P. this thing is huge.
3. A view of Lake Superior. Apparently in winter, this part freezes way good and there is a village of shacks and huts out there for ice fishing.
4. Me and Bishop Baraga, big huh?
5. Countryside by Houghton, pretty pretty.
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