Elder Jesse Kissell: Conference is so sweet!

Hey everyone!!

Man, so how sweet was conference?!?! It was so good!! Definetely the best way to have spent a birthday weekend. The talks were all so wonderful and they totally filled me with the spirit and made me feel so grateful to be a member of this church, being led by a prophet of the Lord. So easily and without a doubt, Pres. Monsons Sunday morning talk was my favorite. In fact, it was the best conference talk I have ever heard. It was so so so good. It had me crying by the end. I just love Pres. Monson and the way he speaks, the stories he tells, and the evident love he has for every one of us. It is so wonderful to have him as our prophet. But the message he shared, about the resurrection and life after death, if we ever had doubts or wondered about that, we should know now with a surety that there is life after death. I myself knew that there is going to be life after we die, but after hearing the stories, scriptures, and prophetic knowledge that our beloved prophet spoke to us Sunday morning, I know without a doubt that I will live again after this life. IT WAS SUCH A GOOD TALK!!!! READ IT!!! But we were blessed to have 2 of our investigators attend conference with us. We watched it at the institute building where all meals for both days would be provided. Bo and Abe came and were able to watch it. Bo was there every session except for priesthood and Abe I think saw 3 sessions. It was really great. Martin was invited by a member of the ward to watch it in their home with them but he was really sick this weekened and wasn't able to watch it, so that was a big bummer. But we will definetely have to watch it, at least bits and pieces of it with him later on. He would love listening to Pres. Monson. He prays for him in his prayers, it's really cool.

But man, this week flew by. It was a really really warm week too. It was in the 70's all the way up til Saturday so that was exciting. We don't have to wear our suit jackets when it is above 70 degrees and after conference. But yeah, it is getting warm! The trees are starting to bud and the flowers are coming up and lots of exciting new life! So it's kind of neat in Wisconsin, there are a lot of cardinals, the little red cool looking birds. Have you ever heard one of those things? They sound like lasers! So we call them "laser birds", they're really cool. When there's like 4 or 5 of them in an area and they start chirping or singing or what have you, it sounds like there's an arcade war going on!! It's awesome.

So we didn't actually have a ton of appointments this week, something we haven't been used to, free time! But free time isn't good as a missionary so we had to find things to do and spend more time out and about instead of inside teaching. But that's ok. This week is looking about the same too, but hey, that means we can go tracting or street contacting and find some new investigators! I haven't been tracting that much in Madison, but that's fine. Although it would be neat to get some new investigators. So Tim unfortunately totally dropped us this week. That was a big disappointment. He hadn't answered or returned any of our calls and we were by his place the other day and decided to swing by. He said that he just wanted to take a break for now and probably won't be interested in investigating for a while. He also mentioned that he had been investigating Buddhism. Hopefully he realizes that the Holy Ghost is not present there and that he isn't feeling it. I hope he decides to investigate again, but only time and faith can tell. We had lots of other appointments fall through too and that was annoying, especially when you are on bikes and bike a long ways to see these people. Oh well, my quads are turning into iron! Haha. But we would really rather be inside teaching these great people rather than playing tag with them. We'll be working on that this week! We had a couple lessons with Martin this week that were really wonderful! So a member couple in the ward was actually trying to get rid of their laptop and they gave it to us to give to him and that was a huge blessing! It's pretty old and pretty slow. So we spent a little time fixing it and trying to make it faster. Well Elder Roberts did it more so, I don't understand computers, they're dumb. But we got it a little faster and took it over to him. He was so excited!! He was so grateful. So now the online job search begins. He is really computer illiterate, so hopefully we can find an easy, well paying job that won't confuse him. And we watched Finding Faith in Christ, he thought that was awesome. It was funny, he would actually talk to the TV when the movie was telling a story of Jesus or something and he would say things like "oh yes, tell me this story!" or "oh my, how wonderful." and things to that effect. Martin is so sweet.

There's a really cool guy that hangs out with the elders alot, he's a Hmong guy named Chia, and he is leaving this week to go to BYU-I and he had a going away party for himself and a birthday party for me and Elder Campbell, his birthday was on April 1. But it was sweet, lots of people were there and we made and ate lots of Hmong egg rolls. Yum! And for my birthday, Elder Roberts made me a cake (thanks mom!) and we played basketball with the singles ward and then went to the institute and had breakfast and watched conference. Then it was super cool, the sisters, Sister Johnson and Sister Johnson, had made me chocolate chip cookies and they spelled my name out with them and everybody sang happy birthday! It was a way cool birthday. I definetely wouldn't have had it any other way!

Huh...well I gues I'm not really full of new news this week! Bo and Martin are still on track for baptism! Bo although needs to find a place to live by Saturday...I don't know how that'll work, but hey, I'm a missionary!! I have faith! Martin is still going strong for the 24th.

I love you all! Thank you all again for your prayers in my behalf. I am super blessed to have such an awesome family, friends and such an AMAZING mission that I love so much.

Love

Elder Kissell