Transfer #2 - Done

Hello!

Well, you heard right, my 2nd transfer is outta here and so is Elder Turney!!!!! Honestly, great news for me, but he’s pretty bummed since he’s been here for so long. But, these past few weeks have been somewhat trying. BUT, I HAVE kept my patience, so lets all be happy about that . We don’t find out til Wednesday where he’s going and who my new companion will be. Elder Nygard?? That would be pretty sweet, but we shall see. So I will be running the show next week for a bit. I am not training though, and missionary lingo, this elder will be my “buster”, meaning he will be busting and changing a lot of things which elder Turney did because he will be different than him. So that will be an adventure. 2 other elders are getting transferred out of our district as well, Elders Hillyard and Allred. Allred came out with me and is already getting transferred, so that’s crazy. But I love it up here and hope I’m up here for some time.

This week has been sweet though. We did our final companion exchange of the transfer, Elder Hatch came up from Iron Mountain to Marquette and we spent the day up here. He’s been out just as long as Elder Turney has, but is very different than him. But it was a good time up here that day, and plus, I get to drive on exchanges! Like I said before, I don’t feel comftorable having somebody from a different country driving me around. But anyway, we went up to the Pendaz’s, my favorite family! But no seriously, they are cool. Harlan is progressing WAY good and we are technically done teaching him and now all we have to do is go over the baptismal interview questions with him and have him interviewed! Remembering that he is 11, we quiz him every time we are over there just to see if he is even paying attention, and to our surprise, HE IS!!! So good job Harlan. And whenever we go up there, Harlan always wants to race us. So when Elder Hatch and I were up there, we did and so did Bro. Pendaz this time. Bro. Pendaz was just wearing some pajama pants and when we started running, they about fell off and I about died laughing, it was hilarious. The Pendaz’s also came to church yesterday, all 3 of them! And for all 3 hours! So we were way excited, last time only Harlan and Bro. Pendaz came and they just stayed for sacrament. But they loved it and the ward is awesome here and they gave them all huge welcomes and talked to them and everything, they were so happy after church, it was awesome. I’m kinda mad at myself for at first thinking that Harlan would be a waste of time and we wouldn’t get anything accomplished by driving so far out and teaching such simple lessons. But through faith and prayer, anything can happen. Prayer is just sweet. He will be baptized September 27th and he is wanting to be baptized in the one and only Lake Superior!! It has been done before and if that’s what he wants, it will be done again. How sweet is that gonna be?! I’m pumped.

We also started teaching a referral from our recent convert Ernest this week named Dan. He is a guy who has a pretty bad and troubled past, he feels guilty for things he’s done and is doing, and just wants to be happy and normal again… well, I think he’s talking to the right guys! But it was a good first lesson, found out some interesting things, talked about interesting things, and yeah, it was just a great lesson. But next time we tried by him, turns out that Ernest had offended him pretty hardcore, nothing really to do with the church though, and that he wasn’t planning on talking to Ernest again. So that was not expected. Now we’re trying to figure out what we should do next, but he does need the gospel in his life and it can and will help him. So we’re working on that.

We went on campus a few more times this week. It’s a sweet place to get a lot of “gospel invites”, but not really a place to have immediate results, like new investigators. So really in my opinion, it’s not the sweetest. But Elder Turney is a big fan of it. So therefore, we do it. But who knows, we may have been seen or we may have talked to somebody who really needed to hear that or have that invite extended to him that may want to talk later in life. That’s just how I’m trying to think about that.

We’re still teaching that guy named Gabe, he’s the one who works at the casino and lays carpet with a masters in English and minor in religion…let’s just say the U.P. isn’t the best place for jobs right now. Anyway, he has changed since he first started meeting with us. He’s excited when we come over, he loves talking about the church, and you can see that he wants to change and get his life back on track. We honestly don’t know why we haven’t given him a baptismal date, but it’ll happen soon. I’ll tell ya next week. But we took Pres. Green, who’s name is also Gabe, with us and he see’s a lot of potential in him too. So we’re hoping and praying for him. It should be great.

Those college kids are still in the picture too, Josh and Joe. They’re also the guys who are hardcore religious and know the bible backwards and forwards. Elder Turney likes to bible bash, I’m not a huge scriptorian and I HATE bible bashing, so I just bare my testimony and try to get us outta there. Doesn’t happen, but oh well. But if they try to contend with us these next couple times, we’re probably just going to drop them or something.

Guess what else sweet happened yesterday? Zach got the priesthood!! We’re way excited. So apparently, he has overcome his word of wisdom issues and is worthy to hold the priesthood. He requested that I ordain him, so that was way cool. He’s a great guy and progressing very good. The church is continuing to work mighty changes in him and will continue to do so in ALL of our lives if we have that strong faith in Christ. We will overcome everything, and it all starts with faith. Zach has smoked for like 20 years, and you just don’t up and stop just like that. He saw that the church is exactly what he needed and he had that faith that he would stop, and look! He did! So that applies for all of us. I know we can all get through the hard things which come our way, it might suck, but we can do it.

Something else I failed to mention in my last email is that the leaves are ALREADY CHANGING!!! WHAT?!? It’s September! The leaves aren’t supposed to change til October! I’m telling ya, the U.P. is crazy. I sent a picture for proof. Winter I guess isn’t too far away up here. But I’ve been told it’s supposed to be an el nino this year and not be as cold. Who knows, but we’ll find out right? Maybe it’ll be -20 instead of -35. Sweet!

Hilary wanted to know what we do on pdays, so here is what we do, pretty much every pday. We wake up, study, have companion study, do laundry, come to the library and email, go shopping, get a haircut, and then go home and chill. Pretty lame. Elder Turney is a go go go kind of guy and so we don’t ever go do anything that would be like something we’d do back home, like go play football or go hiking or mountain biking or anything. So that’s kinda dumb. But that will change come next week. Other elders go hiking on the “mountains” we have around here, play football, go to sweet places like the Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, golfing, and other cool things. But yeah, that’s what our pdays look like. Subject to change.

But folks, that’s bout all the news I’ve got for today/this week. Hope everything back home is going well. I pray for you all and thank you for all your love and support you’ve given me and I hope that I can return the favor one of these days/years.

I love you!

Love
Elder Kissell

Pictures


1. Fall colors on our trees outside our apartment

2. This was on a doorstep outside a less active members home...made me laugh and she said we could take a picture of it.


3. A lady in our ward is moving and she used to own a restaraunt and she asked last time if we needed anything to cook with or whatever, and I jokingly said "I really want real waffles and we don't have a waffle iron. And she said "well I'll see what i can find." And next time we went over there, she gave me a sweet Mickey Mouse waffle iron! Way cool.


4. My Mickey Mouse waffle. Yum


5. On September 11, a college students placed flags in the lawn of the academic mall, each representing somebody who died in the attacks. We helped them clean up. It was a neat and sombering experience. Lots of flags.