Elder Jesse Kissell: Madison is definitely keeping its downtown elders busy!

Hey everybody!

Well this week sure was sweet. Madison is definetely keeping its downtown elders busy. We got ANOTHER solid investigator who has a date for April 10th! This is such a cool story I don't want to wait to tell you about it. So his name is Bo Khamphoumy, he is Laotion. I'm tellin ya, I'm serving a foreign mission here! Haha just kidding. But Bo is super cool. He was found by the Spanish elders at a bus stop reading the Book of Mormon!! He checked it out from the library! But some more background on Bo is he met with the sisters last year but they lost contact with him because he is homeless. He is a younger guy, in his 20's, and you can't even really tell he's homeless. But he is and that obviously makes it hard to keep in contact with him. But he really loves the Book of Mormon and knows it better than some members I'm betting. The Spanish elders met him on Thursday, he came to a singles ward baptism on Saturday morning (i'll tell you about that later), and he went to the temple with us on Saturday afternoon! He said that he felt so good at the baptism and was really honored to have witnessed that and just felt really great there. And at the temple, Elder Roberts went and helped with confirmations while I stayed in the waiting room with Tim and Bo (yep, 2 investigators at the temple!!!!). While we were sitting in the waiting room, I just felt really strongly that I should talk to Bo about baptism and set a firm date with him to be baptized. I said "Hey Bo, can I show you one of my favorite scripture passages in the Book of Mormon?" "Yes yes I would really love that." Then I showed him Alma 7:11-15, talking about the Atonement and about baptism. When we finished reading that, I asked him how he'd like to be clean and feel the Holy Ghost all the time. He said that he "would love that." "Well Bo, can we set a date for when you will be baptized?" "Oh yes, I would love to do that!" "Well how about April 10th, that'll give you time to come to church a few times and recieve all the lessons you need to recieve." "Oh yes! That would be wonderful!" So April 10th is the day folks. He's pretty excited and willing to do all he needs to do to prepare himself for that day. But it was so cool being able to set a baptismal date at the temple! I can gurantee that that doesn't happen too often. It was really awesome. There probably isn't a better place to do it than at the temple, the spirit is always there! And also Tim came to the temple. He actually almost dropped us this week too, that was scary. He just felt crowded by all the church stuff he does. He really does spend alot of time with us and at church and FHE and institute and things like that, but he was pretty flustered that day and almost dropped us. Thankfully he didn't. But he too came to the baptism and the temple. He thought the baptism was really neat and enjoyed witnessing that and he really enjoyed the temple too. He did say at the temple he didn't feel anything different unfortunately. He is such a good guy though but we need to figure out a way to explain the Holy Ghost to him and help him realize he has felt it several times. But he said he wasn't bored and that he enjoyed the peace and quiet there and thought it was a really neat looking building. But I was one happy missionary that day, having 2 investigators at the temple and setting a baptismal date with one of them. How cool. I was a little sad though that I may not be able to do anything while I was at the temple but a member of the bishopric wanted me to be able to go through a session before we went home so that was really nice of him. It was another spiritual and sacred experience for me. I love the temple. The Chicago temple really has found a place in my heart. It's a good one!

So the baptism this Saturday was actually the sisters baptism. They cover singles ward with us and the girl they had baptized, Shylina, is a super cool girl. So we actually were the ones who "sparked her interest" and caused her investigating to begin about a month and a half ago. She's a very close friend of a guy in the singles ward and he felt that it would be better for the sisters to teach her, so they took the reigns from there. But it was a really neat baptismal service and there were 4 other investigators there, 2 of ours, 2 of the sisters. So cool. There's some statistic, I have no idea what it is though, but regardless, investigators who attend a baptismal service are more likely to be baptized themselves. So we're praying and hoping for the best!

So some more good news! Martin has a new baptismal date! We're exercising our faith and praying that he will be able to get an online accounting job and only have to work part time at Wal-Mart, thus allowing him to come to church and be baptized into activity instead of inactivity! His date is for April 24. He's so excited. He was so excited that when we were there at his apartment and he went to cut up some fruit for us in his kitchen and he was talking out loud "I need to be baptized!" as he was cutting up our fruit. It was great. But President Barrett really feels that this is the answer and that this will be the best thing for him and it will allow him to be baptized. If President says that's the way, then that is the way!

Hmmm what else...well Fidentio, Donnette, Carol, Abe, and everyone else we are working with are doing great too. I can't believe how busy we are! We had interviews with President this Friday and he is really excited to see so much happening in Madison and is really pleased with the way the work is going. As are we, we can hardly keep up with it! But thank goodness for prayer and for planners and awesome members. We tried to set a date with Donnette for April 17 but she prayed about it and doesn't feel that that's right and she wants to be baptized in June or July. Well, that's plenty of time for her to lose interest in the church and we don't want that! So we're kind of at a brickwall with her that we can't plow through. Fidentio still rocks, it's really annoying teaching him with that girl there though, she again threw our plans out of wack and started talking about deep doctrine that an investigator really doesn't need to hear. But he thought it was cool, so luckily it didn't cause contention or anything, but it is distracting to our main focus points of the lesson. Carol is still wonderful. She wants to quit smoking and is starting to pray again. She stopped doing that for a long time and is starting that back up again, it's great. She is a strong and receptive woman, it is definetely great to be able to teach her. And Abe, he's still the best non-member Mormon there is!! Hasn't prayed still, but soon is what he said.

And the weather sure has been sweet here! It's been in the 60's a few days here this week. We broke the bikes out and rode around finally. That was sweet. I like riding bikes. The flowers are starting to come out and 99% of the snow is gone. Spring is here! New life and new exciting times and experiences lie ahead. And even better, I asked President if I would be in Madison 1 more transfer and he said that since we have so much going on and lots of people we need to baptize, he feels pretty positive, but that he'll "leave it up to the Lord." So hopefully I'll be here at least 1 more!! Transfers are on April 15.

Oh man! So one more highlight of my week. So in interviews, president turns his phone on and plays a message for me that he just got. It was Elder Olsen (my MTC companion) and Elder Nygard! Elder Olsen left him a message saying that they just set a date with a lady me and Elder Wessely found!!! President called them back in my interview and turned the phone on speaker mode and i heard the whole conversation. It was awesome. And it's a pretty solid date too it sounds. She has prayed to know if the church is true and has recieved the answer in the affirmative manner. Man, I was so happy! My seed planting up there in the U.P. is being harvested by my best friend and MTC companion. How cool!! And Blake called me on Saturday night and told me more about it. It's so cool. I love being a missionary, I'm almost always happy! This is such a great work.

Well folks, I think I've scraped the bottom of the bucket on news. Keep being the great people you are and know that you are loved.

I love you!

Elder Jesse Merrill Kissell

pictures