Well, this first week has been crazy awesome and crazy cold here in Madison. I can honestly say that my nose hairs have never frozen and my eyelashes have never frozen together up until a few days ago. It is FREEZING!!! We went tracting for about 45 minutes in 4 degree weather the other day with a member and we were dying. Not fun. But a nice girl let us in to warm up. So that was sweet. But, we probably will not be tracting anytime soon in single digit weather. Not great. Oh, and our heater broke in our apartment! It stinks. It was usually around 60 degrees in our apartment, coldest it was was about 59 degrees. It feels warm coming in for about 15 minutes, but then it’s freezing. They better fix it soon. But, let me tell you about the sweetest thing EVER.
So, just to let you know, this story will be in the Ensign someday, but I’ll give you a sneak preview of it. So on Tuesday this week, a guy called us and asked for Elder Abe or Echivarre. Elder Echivarre is home and Elder Abe is our district leader and he’s about 35 miles away from Madison. But we gave him Elder Abe’s number and thought really nothing of it. But on Friday, Elder Abe calls us and says that some random guy called him from our area and really wants to meet with us. So on Saturday, me, Barker, Elder Abe, and his companion went to go meet this man who none of us even knew. His name is Martin and he is a very great man from Ghana. He met Elder Abe and Echivarre over a year ago and they gave him a pass along card with their names and phone number on it. That number is still ours. He says he wasn’t interested at the time in learning more but he really liked the picture on the pass along card so he framed it!! It’s been framed in his house for over a year. But in the past year, his wife has passed away and he resorted to drinking and trying to drown his sorrows that way. But one day, he just felt something in his heart that if he kept this up, he was going to die too and his 6 kids back home in Ghana would not have a parent anymore. So from that point on, he quit drinking and hanging out with his bad influence friends. This year, he decided to make a New Years resolution to go back to church. He has been reading the Bible and he just realized that he needed God more so in his life. Then one day, he remembered about his framed pass along card with the Elders’ names and phone number on the back and called us up and the story goes from there. He has a baptismal date set for the 24th of January. He is SO awesome. He is excited to know that there is a prophet on the Earth and he is willing to do whatever the prophet says and read the Book of Mormon and pray and do whatever it takes to be baptized. He is GOLDEN. He gave the sweetest prayer I think I’ve heard from an investigator as well, he prayed that he would be able to learn all that he needed to learn and do all that he needed to do in order to be baptized. It was so amazing. He wasn’t able to come to church yesterday though because he works on Sunday at Walmart but he is going to be asking for Sundays off so he can. I’m so pumped for him. So please keep him in your prayers, he’s so amazing. And it all started from a simple invite and a pass along card. You never know who you’re going to effect or touch. Elder Abe doesn’t even remember who he is, the Lord works in mysterious ways, but He sure knows what he’s doing. He’s definitely been being prepared for the gospel in crazy ways. It rocked!!!
Sadly though, we dropped Kristen. She wasn’t keeping our appointments or any commitments. It takes about an hour to get to her place on the bus and when she’s not there, it kinda kills our day. And if she isn’t making the effort to be there or keep commitments, there really is no point in continuing to teach her. So I really hope she will be ready here later on and be able to meet some of the other missionaries later on. She is a great lady. But right now, our only real investigator that is progressing is Martin, still trying to contact referrals and such that we have received but it is hard with everybody being gone for the holidays.
New Years wasn’t too exciting. We were allowed to stay up til 12 if we wanted to but I myself think that New Years is lame unless you have fireworks to play with so I just went to bed. We weren’t encouraged to be out proselyting in the evening either unless we had appointments. We were at members homes and such though so we didn’t have much to worry about. But Madison was basically a ghost town on New Years morning. There was nobody. Kinda creepy. Usually there’s a ton of cars and stuff driving around downtown and stuff, it’s a big city so it’s what big cities are like, but we saw about 4 cars in about 2 miles. That’s always a little weird and uncomftorable feeling when it feels like you’re the only 2 people in a 300,000 person city. We met with a previous investigator who was super anti and a bit hostile towards us. Not a whole lot of fun, all she wanted to do was bash, so needless to say we weren’t there too long.
We had interviews this week also with the Barretts, that was good. I always love meeting with them and taking their council. They’re amazing people and give us great ideas and ways to progress in the work here.
But, that was our week really, highlighted by Martin the great. I love that guy. I hope you all are having an amazing 2010 and that you make this year the best year of your life yet!!!
Love
Elder Kissell
pictures
1. 59 stinking degrees in our apartment!!!! BRRRRRRR
2. We put blankets up over our windows because getting a draft that is 4 degrees isn't fun.
3. UW Madison!
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