Elder Jesse Kissell: Crazy Madtown

Heeeeeeeyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!

Howdy folks!

Well, second cold week of January, actually, it wasn’t too bad, but we got some snow dumped on us. That was fun! But… this week was pretty sweet, so I’ll get started in tellin ya!

Last pday was sweet because I’m in an area now where there’s actually elders within driving distance of each other so that means we can hang out and do cool things on pday! So we went and walked around on State Street (the main street of Madison) and played basketball for forever and ever. It was a ton of fun. And we went to a weird Oriental Market place to get drinks because our district leader is Japanese and wanted us to try this kind of drink. It had strips of aloe in it and looked nasty, but it was excellent. But that evening was crazy because we had several appointments all far away from each other. And since the bus system stinks, that meant a lot of walking. But, we meant another sweet investigator that evening for the first time and this is HIS story. So this guy is a media referral and he ordered the Restoration DVD. We asked him why he ordered it and he said that he just needed some restoration in his life. I don’t think he really comprehended what the movie was about, but that’s ok. We taught a really good first lesson and by the end, we felt prompted to extend a baptismal commitment. We asked him to prepare for his baptism on Feb. 6th. He was a bit hesitant at first, but after us assuring him and reading him some scriptures promising great blessings from baptism, he accepted!! But it wasn’t but a few minutes later that he told us something that scratched his date. He stabbed a guy and is on probation til 2016!!! So yeah….he doesn’t have a date anymore. It stunk though because we had his date written down on paper and had already layed out the things he needed to do before baptism and yeah, we were just pretty far into it and he told us that. We talked to the zone leaders that night and they said that he wouldn’t be able to, so we had to think of a way to tell him he couldn’t be baptized. A few days later in our next lesson we did. It was really hard to do, but he took it really well. The lesson was a fairly in depth lesson on repentance and why it was necessary to be totally and completely clean before baptism. He took it well and is committed to repenting. We hope that we can just get him to start living a gospel based life and get him coming to church regularly and maybe he will get off probation soon and be baptized before 2016.

MARTIN update!! Martin is amazing! He unfortunately wasn’t able to talk to his boss all this week because she was gone and so he wasn’t able to make it to church yesterday. But he is still golden as ever. We call him everyday and see how he’s doing and how his reading is going. Every reading assignment we give him, he reads it immediately after we get off the phone. He fully comprehends everything and loves everything about the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson with him this week about the plan of salvation and we took a member with us and when we walked in the door he gave all of us a big hug, even the member whom he had never met yet. He’s so sweet!! And we were talking for a little bit. He told us that he’d been fasting and praying all day and had just ended his fast. We didn’t ask what he was fasting for, but kind of assumed it was about the church. Funny thing is that we hadn’t even asked him to fast about it!! He’s so cool, but then he says “ok lets get down to business, I’m excited to learn what you have to teach me today, lets start with a prayer and I’ll say it.” And then he prays immediately!! It was so cool. Never before have I seen or heard of an investigator this excited to learn. It was a great plan of salvation lesson and the spirit was strong there. He said that he really wants to read right from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and we found no problem with that because we know he will. Next time we see him we really want to talk with him about how we can get missionaries in Ghana to go and teach his 6 kids, I’m certain he would absolutely love that. Then they could all get sealed in the temple together!!!! That would be so sweet!!!! Man…isn’t the gospel awesome? I love it!!

We also met with our Indian Hindu friend again, Josh. This was an interesting lesson. We taught him the restoration because the last time we talked to him we just talked about developing a faith in Christ and about who he was. It was a great lesson and he thought that it was sweet that there was a prophet here on earth today and would be excited to listen to him and hear the counsel and guidance he gives us. He committed to do all that we asked him to and again, felt prompted to extend a date! We read him a sweet scripture in Alma talking about baptism and the blessings that come with it and then bore our testimonies about baptism and how it has blessed our lives with the Holy Ghost and asked him if he would want to enjoy these blessings in his life by being baptized. He said “no I sure wouldn’t.” Wait, what?! Did I hear you correctly? And we basically asked him how come? And he said that he was baptized as a baby and that his mom would be upset. It’s just kind of annoying because Josh is in his late 40’s and probably shouldn’t be too worried about telling his mom about the church and that he would be getting baptized into it. I dunno, I’m not him. But we asked him to read Moroni 8 and to pray about being baptized by proper authority. We’ll see how that rolls around, hopefully great!!

And the last crazy lesson of the week that we taught was to a chinese guy named Wayne. This guy has to be the smartest, most logical thinker, and in depth person I have ever met in my life. We had a 2.5 hour lesson on the first principle of the first lesson, God is our loving Heavenly Father. I have never yet taught an actual sit down lesson to someone who doesn’t believe in God, talked to many people without that belief, but never an actual sit down lesson. But Wayne is a great guy, but so so in depth. He believes in science and needs actual physical evidence to prove that something is real. He says he wants to believe in God, but needs physical evidence that he actually exists. He says that he wouldn’t take the feeling of the Holy Ghost as evidence because it’s not something physical, just a feeling. It amazed me. I’m such a simple minded person and I couldn’t comprehend or understand half the things he was saying because it was all so complex and just crazy what he was talking about. He doesn’t want to pray because he doesn’t believe anybody is listening so he would feel dumb doing it and yeah, I was just amazed and confused. We had a member with us and he saved us on multiple occasions by giving his testimony and opinions on things that Wayne was saying. But that was a super draining lesson and we were both so tired. It was crazy. But yeah, we don’t really know how to progress and move forward with him. He needs to realize that he probably will not see God and if he wants to in the first place, he needs to have faith, something he doesn’t have. So we need to address that issue again.

This week we also spent some time bus contacting, that was fun. Basically you just get on a bus and ride and talk to people. People are crazy, I’ll just say that much. Bus contacting is difficult and I have some room to improve, it requires a good people person, and I’m not one of those yet. Getting better, but not awesome. We also spent a lot of time with a member who is in the hospital this week. He’s from down by the Quad Cities in Iowa/Illinois and is up here recovering from heart surgery. We have given him a few blessings and also gave him the sacrament. His daughter and her husband and daughter were up visiting who were also form the Quad Cities!!! They’re AWESOME!!!!! Probably the coolest family I have met out on my mission and they aren’t even in my mission boundaries. But they’re super cool and they took us out to eat and provided us with some much needed stress relieving time after stressful days. They’re way cool. I told them that Natalie and Paul lived down in the Quad Cities and they said that if I gave them their address they’d go and say hi!! So Natalie, if an awesome couple randomly knocks on your door, take them out to dinner and become their best friends because they’re awesome!!

I gave a talk yesterday in singles ward about drawing nearer to Heavenly Father. A scripture that stuck out to me about that was D&C 88:63, 67-68. They’re great verses and I suggest reading them. But, I know that if we keep our covenants and do the things we know we need to do, but probably aren’t doing, we will be super close to our Heavenly Father and we will be blessed greatly. It was a great topic to speak on and I learned a lot from it. I know that we can all improve on it, so that can be my little commitment I leave with you all. Think of ways you can be closer to our Heavenly Father and start or stop doing things that will enable you to.

This week was sweet and I hope your guys’ was too!!!

I love you!
Elder Kissell

p.s. for those of you who write me, my address is 425 Paunack Pl. #1B, not #113. I have still been receiving the 113 mail, but just in case, start doing #1B!

pictures!