December 7, 2009

Greetings family and friends!

Well, this was an exciting week. Another rollercoaster one. But hey, rollercoasters are fun!!
But, I am getting transferred. Called it from the start of the transfer. I don’t know where I am going yet. We get 2 calls. 1 to tell us if we’re leaving, and the 2nd is if we are leaving, where we are going and who our new companion is. And I should be receiving that call later today or tomorrow sometime. But I do know that I will not be going anywhere in the U.P. because nobody else got transferred in our district, so Wisconsin, here I come! And when Pres. Barrett talked to me, he said that he had a “new, exciting, and important mission” for me to do. I’m pretty sad that I’m leaving Marquette though. It’s basically my second home because I’ve been here so long and the last place I was was home. But I’m fine with leaving, it would be sweet to see some more of the mission and to get to meet new and exciting people and great stuff like that. So it’ll be an adventure!! And elder Wessely is training this next transfer for his first time. He’s going to be training a guy from the Czech Republic!! And he doesn’t speak a lot of English and it should be an interesting transfer for the both of them. He’s not too excited about training though for some reason, he’s been in a bad mood the past few days. I think it’d be awesome to train, so hopefully someday I will.

But this week was actually the first week that it was actually cold! It was consistently in the 20’s and it snowed and is currently snowing. The weather is so weird here though. At our apartment, we only got about 2” of snow, but just across town they had about 6” and down by where the church is about 5 miles down the road, there was about 8”. So weird. We had to do a lot of tracting this week too because unfortunately some of our appointments fell through and we partially just felt like it. So it was my first time tracting in the snow! And definitely not the last. We found a new investigator this week off of tracting and a few potentials off of it as well. So I would consider it successful. Tracting is fun if you make it, if you don’t, it’s miserable. And so basically you just learn to laugh and move on with life if they slam the door or something. And really, people aren’t mean ALL the time, you meet some really nice people tracting too.

Thursday was my 6 month mark!!! That’s pretty crazy huh? I think it’s nuts that I’ve been out this long already. But that day was a pretty good day for tracting and we had some good appointments too. And as missionary tradition goes, it’s your choice to follow or not, but 6 months means you burn a tie. So, if your name happens to be Jesse Kissell and you LOVE burning stuff, then you have to! So I burned a few of my old and junky ties that have ripped or gotten stained beyond reason.

But we had a really good lesson with Shaun and Brandy this week on the Gospel. The spirit was very much there and it was a very interactive lesson and we feel that they understand that message very well. We noticed that our lessons lately have not been very interactive so we have been developing questions that are deep and cause some pondering and tried that that night and it worked amazing. They’re so cool and I am going to miss them a ton. And we also met with our investigators, Cory and Crystal and watched the Restoration DVD with them and that went great too! It was a bummer though because they had to leave almost right after the lesson and we couldn’t discuss it too much. But they liked it a lot. They love us too. They honk and wave at us when they see us walking, they give us food, and they just feel good about the church and love it thus far. Unfortunately they didn’t make it to church yesterday because Crystal had, and still does, have a really bad migraine, so that’s no fun.

Yesterday was a very good day though. Church went well and I was asked to do 3 things in sacrament meeting it was crazy. I was asked to do prayer, pass the sacrament, and bear my testimony. It was pretty cool, but I felt like I was being seen too much and was a little weird. But that’s ok. But the ward is sad, or seems to be sad, that I’m leaving. We stopped by a few members after church to bid adieu since I’ll be leaving Tuesday probably and don’t have much time to do that. And we also had 2 dinner appointments yesterday…not fun. That’s all I gotta say. We had dinner with the Collins family (Bro. Collins is really good friends with Zach) and with Zachs family for one dinner and then we went to the Carruth family to teach one of their daughters friends and have dinner. I’m really going to miss all those people though. Zach is doing really well this week and has been in good shape and was at church with his family yesterday. So I’m pumped about that.

Marquette has been an awesome place and I’m sad to leave but excited to see what my next area(s) have in store for me. I have a pretty strong/bad feeling that I may be serving in the middle of a city because in my last interview with Pres. Barrett I asked him to keep me in the country, not a city. So maybe he wants to see what a country boy does in the middle of a huge city. We’ll find out soon enough!!!

This week has been an awesome week, I have learned and grown a lot I feel and am getting to be a better person and missionary. I hope to keep that going and be the best I can be, that’s all I want. I want to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength in my next area. I’m not perfect, so a few of those were lacking every once in a while. So pray for me, pray for the investigators, and have a wonderful December week wherever you may be!

Love
Elder Jesse Kissell

pictures!


1. Snow!


2. 6 months!


3. Yummy yummy venison made by Jesse


4. Early Christmas present!


5. Th Collins Family (missing 2) and the Boyle Family


6. The Carruth family! They're short :)

Brrrr

Hey!

Well, this week was quite the rollercoaster, I’ll tell you that much. We had a bunch of sweet appointments planned for after our pday on Monday, but they all fell through! So that was a bummer. On pdays (Ryan wants to know what we do on pdays…) we do laundry, email, go shopping, and then basically do whatever. We usually just go home and chill and take naps. Sometimes if elder Wessely is more motivated or what not, we go out and do something cool like go out on the break walls or on a hike or something. Or go walk around in the malls and look for cool stuff. But yeah, it’s always just great to relax for a solid 8 hours every week. I’ll take it for sure.

Tuesday was district meeting day down in Iron Mountain, it was good. I always feel like junk though after district meeting because there’s always so stinkin much I can and need to improve on to be a better missionary. But hey, I’m trying my hardest and that’s all you can do right? But I like district meetings, I learn a lot and need that extra motivation. After district meeting it was sweet…there’s this huge ski jump, the largest free standing ski jump in the world, in Iron Mountain, and a crazy member gave us a couple bowling balls and told us to go up and drop them off the top of the ski jump. Sounded fun to us! But holy cow, I thought I was overcoming my fear of heights, but now way jose. This jump was so high and I have a whole new different respect for ski jumpers. Those guys have got some guts. I’d rather do belly flops off the high dive 50 times before doing a ski jump. Way scary. I could only make it half way up this thing before I had to turn back. One out of the 4 of us made it to the top, but then again only 2 attempted and I was the wussy. Oh well but we didn’t even drop the balls, it was just cool being up there. On the way back from district meeting we always stop and see people that live far out from our area out there, one of these people being the Pendaz family, who unfortunately haven’t been to church in about 5 weeks. So that’s pretty sad. But they’ve all been way sick and going through hard times so we gave them blessings and hope to see them back soon. Tuesday nights we also go to institute, we need to get some of our investigators to come to that. It’s a sweet program for sure.

Wednesday was an interesting day to say the least. We talked to a lady we have talked to before in the past with bishop and she was way interested when we talked to her with bishop, but it was totally different with us just being there. She is a very liberal thinker and doesn’t think organized religion is right and she asked why the church has such strong viewpoints on homosexuality. We explained and tried to help her understand, I hope she did. But we were trying super hard to not say anything that would hurt her feelings because she is just the sweetest lady in the world. She isn’t gay or anything either, that was just one of her main questions. She thinks love is love and that whatever people way people want to do things is the right way for them. There is so much wrong with those two statements, but that’s ok. We just need to see here again with bishop. But this was nothing compared to our next appointment 15 minutes later. Last week, we met some sweet people by helping them move some stuff in to their apartment and they told us to come back. So we came back, and before we started teaching this married couple, they had a question. They wanted to know what the churches stand on it was and we figured that it was about alcohol or smoking or something, but they told us that they were BOTH bi-sexual, and not only that but they were looking for a third member to add to their relationship! It was so awkward, and we were both trying not to be grossed out or start laughing or anything and so we answered and told them the churches view on that and read the family proclamation to them. Then, we had a sweet lesson with them about the restoration. They’re way awesome people and they have a ton of potential, but we hope that we can convey to them that this is something that they need to work on fixing. But yeah, never been asked so many questions about homosexuality in my life in one day, that was crazy. And that same day, (Wednesday was a good day) we had an appointment with our wrestling couple Shaun and Brandy. Still awesome and still moving unfortunately. But we reviewed Adam and Eve and the Atonement with them again. They are still praying about things and baptism in particular, so we hope things are made true to them soon and they want to continue to learn when they move to Tennessee. We’re just making them golden and ripe to pick for those
elders!! Aren’t we nice?

And Thursday, Thanksgiving!!! What a great day. In the morning, we played in the churches Turkey Bowl and it was awesome. It was freezing and snowing pretty hard. There was a lot of people there too and it was just a lot of fun. I dominated too, don’t worry, I knew you guys were wondering if I did or not. But it was a ton of fun and super sweet. But man was I sore afterward, but it was worth it. Then we had our dinner with the Rayhorn family, and it was soooo good. KC, their 15 year old daughter, did ALL the cooking and it was all soo good. Impressive for sure. But they’re a great family and they love us and we had a great thanksgiving with them. I did miss apple pie though. That’s the only thing that I needed to make my life great. And I got some sweet Tobasco Sauce ties from Bro. Rayhorn, unfortunately I can’t wear them out here. So I’ll send them home. And then that evening we went to another members home and just hung out and talked with him about the work and about his family and life in general, it was good.

Friday, this was cool too! We tried to find some referrals we had out in the boonies and we had a trusty GPS system we borrowed from a member, but it was not so trusty. It took us down some crazy backroads that turned into 4 wheeldrive roads and roads that reminded me of when I got my truck covered head to toe up on Burch Mountain, but nowhere near as sweet, but it was pretty fun! I had to teach elder Wessely how to drive in it too because he has never driven off road, so I helped him have his first off roading experience!! Fun huh? But that GPS was lame and took us to the completely wrong spot so we drove to where we were pretty sure it should be and lo and behold, that’s where it was. So that was fun stuff for sure. And that evening, we went to see Zach with the elders quorum president and he’s still working to overcome his problems, so keep him up in your prayers.

Saturday we were all over the place in our area. Lots of driving and lots of finding. We tracted in one area in Negaunee and finally we found somebody home who told us that this area was where retired pastors/ministers of various faiths lived. These houses were HUGE! It’s just ironic to me that these pastors live in these huge houses. And it was funny because the next 3 people that we caught home were born again Christians, Methodists, and Lutherans. The head of the home was in all 3 of these places, a retired preacher. It was great. And all these men were not nice to us at all. I would at least think that they would have the humility and kindness to be at least somewhat nice to us. Oh well, life goes on. Needless to say, our tracting time that day was unfruitful at the moment, hopefully some seeds were planted. But that evening was not sweet at all. We talked to a less active lady who is bi polar and she talks so much and always about herself and nobody else and won’t let anybody have a word in edgewise. I just don’t have the patience for these people and I tried to talk and calm her down a little bit but then she just lit me up and yelled at me nonstop for about 10 minutes. She was so mad at me. She was telling me that I didn’t know what the real world was like and that I was rude and inconsiderate and just all this stuff. Not cool. But then I finally was able to talk and related with her on a few things and then she apologized and was humbled by what I told her, so that was good. But it was not a fun hour that we were there.

Sunday was good. Sadly, no investigators were there again. But our recent convert Ernest came finally after a 3 week vacation of not being at church. So that was good to see him. And it was cool, 2 young women in our ward went to a country concert this week (Lady Antebellum) and they told me about it earlier in the week and I was telling them that I was jealous and to tell the singers hi for me and stuff like that. But guess what?! They made me a shirt and got it signed by one of the singers!! So sweet. I was pretty decently happy for sure. But the young women around here are funny. KC, the girl who made thanksgiving for us, says that the young women always talk about the elders. Great to know! But they’re all awesome girls and we get referrals from them sometimes to go talk to their friends. Referrals are sweet!! Have you given your missionaries any recently?? Pray about 5 nonmember friends you know and pray that you will be able to refer at least one of these people to the elders. You’ll be greatly blessed and the elders will love you!! I promise. But our lessons were really good this Sunday. We learned about the Living Christ thing that the first presidency issued in 2000 and we got into the “Christmas Spirit” of things. I’m pretty excited for Christmas and teaching people about Christ. The elders say there’s something special about this time of year so I’m pumped for sure.

Well, life is good for me. Keep us in your prayers though, we need all the help we can get! I love you guys and I hope you know I pray for you every night. Hope everybodys Thanksgiving was good too!

Love
Elder Kissell

the massive ski jump

sweet huh?

i look like a turkey after the turkey bowl :)

you know you're lost when the road youre on looks like this...

muddy missionary truck!

:)

our nasty dishwasher. gross huh?

Lady Antebellum shirt

Lady Antebellum shirt

Summer weather in wintertime!

HEY fellow loved ones!

Well, this week was wwwwaaaaaarrrrmmm! We're talking like 55 degrees!! That’s how warm it was here in July!! So it’s pretty strange. All the Yoopers up here are stressing out because last year at this time there was over a foot of snow here in Marquette. Well, I guess things change for sure. But I guess it’s supposed to snow this week on Wednesday and Thanksgiving, so that’ll be sweet. I want to see at least a little snow before I leave.

But, the week went very well. We had a fun and exciting pday last week. The Houghton missionaries came down and spent the day with us. We played monopoly and the guitar and hung out and fun stuff like that. But the cool part was that Wessely and I had planned to go out to a members home for a few days to work in the area out where they live. They live in a little town, not even a town, out in the middle of nowhere about 45 minutes away from Marquette. They have 40 acres of property and a very nice home. So it was a lot of fun that night. We just went there that night and spent the evening chatting with them. Didn’t have any time to do any work that evening unfortunately because we got there so late. But that’s ok, the following days were much better. Tuesday, we had our district meeting and then we came back that afternoon and started working the area. We basically went out there with the intentions of contacting all the less active members who live out there, and there are quite a few, about 15-20 or so families out there that are less active. But this was an exciting guy…the fun thing about seeing less active people is you never know what to expect. It’s almost like tracting! And that’s what makes it fun. But this one guy we came in contact with, his name was William, and he was 80 years old. Guess how long he hasn’t been to church? 57 years!!!! So insane. But he was a fun guy and was a pretty big smart alec, so we had a little bit of fun teasing each other back and forth. And as we were talking he says “hey come on now, help us unload all this booze out of our car.” And looking into the back of the car and seeing tons of boxes and also keeping in mind that this guy was a smart alec, I didn’t think it would be booze at all. So we helped him unload a bit, but then after a while I got curious. He wasn’t lying! Each box held 6 bottles of vodka and he had 20 boxes AT LEAST that we helped him unload. That’s a ton of booze. So I asked him what the heck he needs all this booze for and he told me that if you drink 2 glasses a day you’ll be so much more healthier than what you are and you’ll live longer. I don’t really think he drinks 2 glasses a day though, maybe 2 bottles! Oh well, but wouldn’t that make a great missionary picture? “Mormon missionaries in Marquette help unload boxes of vodka to help reactivate members.” Good thing he lived in the boonies and nobody could take pictures of us…but this guy was a nice guy. After talking to him, he still loves and respects the church, it’s just not his “thing”. He says he even tries to convert Jehovah’s Witnesses when they talk to him! I don’t get it…but oh well, he’s still a good guy. Then we went and saw another less active member not too far away from him. I believe I’ve already talked about this guy in the past before, but his name is Terry and this summer he miraculously overcame kidney and liver failure. He was poisoned by some fumes in his work and they caused his kidneys and liver to shutdown but after receiving a few blessings, they made a complete recovery. Unfortunately, the rest of his body was affected by this stuff too and his body is not totally recovered yet and he still has some not so good health problems. He has also lost all his money due to medical expenses, he can’t work, he lives in a small trailer with no running water, his family lives in downstate Michigan, he’s weaker than weak, he has no transportation, he has nothing. He is struggling pretty bad right now to say the least and is pretty miserable and down. I think I would be too, life has dealt him some heavy blows. But we helped him split wood for a while, that was a lot of fun. And we gave him a blessing and just talked to him and gave him comfort and encouragement. But this experience humbled me so much. I definitely needed it. It helped me to realize all the billions and billions of thing that I have everyday to be thankful for. I have the strength to wake up everyday and get up out of my comftorable and warm bed and go study in a comftorable and warm apartment. I can also go and get food out of my fridge and I can take a nice warm shower and I can then put a clean shirt on my back and sweet tie and get ready to go and serve the Lord. I have so much to be thankful for in just the first few minutes I wake up.

So my challenge for you this week is to think to yourself, maybe even write a list of things that you are grateful for. This is a small list of mine…

1. I am on a mission. I am serving the Lord.
2. I have an amazing family who love and support me.
3. I have amazing friends who love and support me.
4. My best friend is in the same mission as me!
5. I am a member of the only true church on earth.
6. I can read the Book of Mormon everyday and be uplifted by everything I read.
7. I have a comftorable bed and a warm apartment.
8. I serve in an amazing ward who loves and supports us.
9. I was called to serve a mission by a PROPHET who is called by the Lord.
10. I have good health.
11. I can help people be happy.
12. I have warm clothes that will help me be warm when it snows.
13. I am grateful for music that makes me happy and feel the spirit.
14. I am grateful for education that helps me become smarter and excel in the church as well as in life.
15. I am grateful to wake up each and every morning and see a beautiful world.

That is just a small list that took me only a few minutes to make. But there is so much I have to be grateful for.

The next day we were still out in that area. We decided to drive a little ways and go up to another part of our area we’ve never been to that was very close by. It was in a nice little town called Munising. We caught some people home and invited them back out to church. I hope that they felt our love and that the ward misses them. There’s a cool little town up there called Christmas! I thought it was neat. Everything thing there is Christmas oriented with Santa and Mrs. Claus and elves and reindeer and stuff like that. It’s pretty neat. Yoopers are weird. But yeah, our time out there was productive and we saw several less active people.

Thursday we were back in Marquette and saw several potentials that we had and talked to some of them. I think things will pick up here soon. We just need to excite our potentials that we have now. It’ll happen sometime. We talked to another older man who is a potential and he was giving elder Wessely a hard time because he never talked. I thought it was funny because he always gets mad at me for telling him he never talks, so I’m glad an investigator did. So he started talking. Hooray! Now I don’t have to talk nonstop. So that was good for him.
Friday was spent here in Marquette and Harvey too, we saw more potentials and even taught a few people. So that was great. Helped some recent converts move a couch and taught them some things. But nothing really too noteworthy or spectacular happened that day.
Saturday was a great day though, we went out to Ishpeming and saw our people out there. We had an awkward conversation with an investigator out there who told us about how her son is going through puberty…great! So, we quickly changed the subject and talked about the scriptures instead of that. A topic I appreciate much more. But hopefully we have some progression with her. She believes that the Book of Mormon is true, believes in the apostasy, believes in everything, BUT, she doesn’t believe the church has the true priesthood authority. So that presents a problem. She needs to read and to pray with faith and humility and she’ll find out that what we teach is true and that this is the only true church. That evening we also saw Ashley and Ben!! They’re awesome. We were going in there with the intention of just finding out there interest level, but we ended up teaching the plan of salvation. So that was good. They still haven’t kept any commitments or anything, so that is frustrating. And they didn’t come to church yesterday either. So, we really hope the ball gets rolling with them.
That’d be so awesome. They would be a perfect little Mormon family.

Sunday was a good day. Fun fact about elder Wessely is that he plays the flute really well, and today, he played in sacrament meeting. It was very nice. But now the scary thing is that everybody is asking me if I have any hidden talents and elder Wessely mentions every time that I can play the piano and other members have said that I have a very nice voice singing the hymns in sacrament meeting. By the way…I have been regaining some of my piano skill. I’m certain that that makes some of you happy. But the scary thing is that the ward music lady has eluded to the fact of a piano/flute/singing trio for a sacrament meeting around Christmas. But, I will more than likely not be here so I won’t have to worry about it!! But we’ll see, I’m a little nervous though. But church was good because a few of the less actives we saw the other day came to church!! Yay! And one of them was Terry, so that was awesome. But still no investigators. Sad. The talks were also really awesome, strangely, talking about gratitude! And the member we stayed with out there, the Simpsons, she was one of the speakers. She started naming things off in the middle of her talk that she was grateful for and one of the things she was grateful for was “Elder Kissell’s appetite.” And everybody laughed and turned around and looked at me. It was funny. But I just thought it was a weird thing to be grateful for. But thinking about it, I did eat a lot out there. I put down 4 potatoes one night because they didn’t want any leftovers, so I guess that’s where it came from! So now I’m known as the missionary who eats a lot! Sweet. But Sunday evening we had a really good appointment with the husband of a member in our ward. He’s a dry Mormon, and he loves us but just doesn’t feel comftorable being baptized yet. We asked him to pray about it. So hopefully that goes well and he has good news to tell us next time. I want to be baptized! That’d be so sweet. It could happen though.

But this week was great. I am excited for Thanksgiving and I hope all will go well with everybody elses holiday back home! We have been invited to several members homes for Thanksgiving and have been invited to participate in the Turkey Bowl, so all is well is Jesse-ville! And we’ll also be teaching some sweet people too probably.

Love ya’ll!!
Elder Kissell

pictures (kinda lame this week...sorry)


1. Christmas in Michigan!!!


2. Signs of a working missionary :)

Mid November Excitement

Hey everyone!

Well, this week was ok for the most part. I went on exchanges and went up to Houghton again on Tuesday and Wednesday and that was pretty sweet. Exchanges are always alot of fun. Not only do you get to serve with another companion (i love mine, don't get me wrong) for a day, but you get to see how they do things differently and better in their areas. So it helps us to be able to incorporate some of that into our areas. But, you remember what's in Houghton right? One HUGE cinnamon roll!! And guess what? I finished it this time!! Round 2 was worth it for sure. Lets not talk about the calories in that thing though… But I learned some good things up there with our district leader Elder Ross. We tried to incorporate things we learned from those elders the rest of our week but we got a little distracted by other trials and challenges unfortunately…

But before I get into that, I’ll talk about some good stuff first We tracted quite a bit this week. We had some sound rejections and some not so cool people that we talked to. That’s ok, we still found one diamond in the rough. We knocked into a lady who had a pretty huge yard and had a bunch of yard clippings and leaves and stuff that she needed to take to the compost pile before 6 and it was 5:30, so we helped her out and loaded everything into her truck, suits on and all. We got pretty dirty, but it was sweet. And she loved us so we are going to go back soon and talk to her and her family. Perfect Mormons though for sure. We also had a sweet lesson with our investigator Brandy and her fiancé Shaun. They love us, they feed us, and they love learning about the gospel. I’m so bummed that they’re moving though. But we’ll make them all ripe and golden for the elders down in Tennessee because we’re nice like that.

Alright, so the bummer part of our week…Zach is going through a very hard time right now. I’ll just leave it at that. PLEASE keep him in your prayers though. He is struggling with past problems and is just going through a hard time in life right now in general. We did teach him about temples though later this past week. He is a super bright guy and loves learning about the gospel. It just breaks my heart to see him struggling. But him and his family were all there at church yesterday, even on opening day of deer season! So I was thrilled about that. Bishop is also talking to him about working with the young men, which would be amazing for him. He needs something like that.

We didn’t see Ashley or Ben all week unfortunately. Ben is a trucker and is gone usually about 5 days of the week. So that creates a very difficult teaching situation. We may just have to start teaching Ashley singley. We don’t really know, but we’re going to talk to Pres. Barrett about that. They’re awesome people, I don’t want to have these guys slip through our fingers. They weren’t at church though, so that’s a bummer. Basically, here in Marquette right now, we have SO much potential going on. We just can’t them from a “potential” investigator to a “real” investigator. So RM’s reading this, any sweet ideas, write me! We’re trying our hardest and best though. It’s part of the work though I guess. I’m not letting it get me down, nothing happens when you’re sad and depressed and lacking faith. So, I’m not going to be a bum like that.

We visited several less actives and recent converts this week too. It’s always good to see a less active you haven’t seen in ages and help him feel Christ’s love again and see it working on them. Pretty much, I love being a missionary! There is probably nothing in my life so far that I have felt so good about doing every single day. Serving the Lord is so awesome. Helping members learn how to serve is awesome too. We’re the full time teachers, all the members are the full time finders! So we emphasize that whenever we are in member homes. Usually they respond well and hand us a few referrals the next time we see them.

This week has flown by, lots of things have happened. We did spend a lot of time with Zach though, trying to help him out, so that’s where we spent a few hours of the week. We also are going to start teaching Zach’s brother. He expressed interest and asked us to come by! So, good things still do, well always, come out of bad situations I’ve learned.

Sorry this letter is shorter than the past, but in all seriousness, this week has been a great learning experience for me and I hope I helped somebody who reads this letter in some way or another. I love being a missionary and I love my family, I love my friends, and I love my Heavenly Father. I thank you all so much for your love, support, compassion, letters, random packages, and everything. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better life. I love my Heavenly Father so much and I thank him for putting all of you in my life.

Love,
Elder Kissell

Pictures

1. Little kids love me!

2. Round 2

3. I did it!

4. Look at the sign!

Spring in November!

Greetings from Marquette!

Well hey everybody! How is life for all ya’ll? Life here in Marquette is pretty good. This week went much better than the past we’ve been having and was much more successful. So, let me tell you about it!

On Tuesday at district meeting, President and Sister Barrett were there and taught us how to be more successful missonaries and we had our interviews. The training we received was awesome, about how to find families tracting and about how to prevent appointments from falling through. Exactly what we needed! So that was very helpful to me. My interview with president went awesome too. The first thing he told me was “Elder Kissell, you’ve been in Marquette quite a while.” So I’m taking that as a pretty heavy hint that I will probably be leaving after this transfer. But we will see! I’m not ruling anything out though. I love it up here so I’d be fine with staying another 6 weeks. But president Barrett is awesome. He is just very involved with the work and with us and our lives that it is just unbelievable. I don’t know how he does it, but he does. He is truly a worthy man called of God to do this. So I greatly respect him and how much he not only helps me, but how he helps our investigators. He knows ALL of our investigators by name and he asks about them whenever we talk. I just think that’s awesome.

Wednesday was a sweet day. We taught 2 way solid lessons that day to a couple of our investigators. We taught Ashley (one of the sisters with a baptismal date) and her husband Ben!! He was finally home and we taught him quite a bit. We helped get him from thinking, “oh these guys are cool but I don’t want to hear anything about their religion” to “man these guys believe in some sweet stuff!” They both had a ton of awesome questions and we answered all of them. Some questions I know I couldn’t have answered before my mission. It’s just so awesome teaching by the spirit and knowing that they feel it. We emphasized eternal marriage and eternal families a lot. They have a 2 year old boy. They were very interested and accepting and wanting to prepare for that. And Ben, a stubborn trucker, said he would prepare himself for baptism! No date yet, but we plan on setting a solid one with him and rescheduling Ashley’s this week. Ashley’s needs to be rescheduled anyway because she hasn’t come to church yet and needs to be there at least 3 times before baptism and it’s physically impossible for her to now with the date she has. So we’ll ponder and pray over that one. That evening we also taught our investigator Brandy and her less active fiancé Shaun. It was solid and awesome too. They’re such amazing people. We watched the Restoration DVD and discussed the restoration once more with them. They totally felt the spirit and we know that they love this gospel. We plan on setting a date with her this week. The only lame thing is that they’re moving to Tennessee in December! So we need to work fast for sure. But they’re awesome people. We took bishop over to meet them later in the week and he thinks that they’re amazing people as well.

We tracted a super rich street this week too. There are some crazy insane huge houses around this place. I almost died that time too. There was this huge dog that we didn’t see at one of the houses and as we are walking away, he comes out of nowhere, barking super loud and running full speed right towards ME!!! I had the deer in the headlights look, or the missionary about to get eaten by a dog look, and was about to deck the dog if he jumped on me. But he stopped like 2 feet in front of me and was just barking and stuff. That was my first bad experience with dogs on my mission. Not too fun!! Elder Wessely had a good laugh out of it though. And it seems like rich people are just as humble about religion as the not so rich people! So, we’ll try to tract in all sorts of places now that we found that out. Nobody was interested, but we planted some good seeds in some fertile ground.

Thursday we went out to Ishpeming and Negaunee and tried to set up some appointments there. Problem this time is that nobody wanted to make appointments! But, we talked to some less active people out there and shared messages with them and invited them to come back to church. No luck this Sunday though…sad. But we had another solid lesson that night with a less active guy and his girlfriend, not a member. He comes to church fairly often, but he is still a little on the rebel side. But this lesson was sweet, he said we could come over and teach him to “practice” our lessons. Halfway through, his girlfriend came and we turned the focus to her and she really liked what we taught and they committed to read and to pray together. So, hoping that they did! It rocked though!

Friday…this was a great day. You’ll probably get some laughs out of this one. We were at our recent converts Ernest place and we were there for quite a while. He called a less active lady who lives in the same building as he does and she wanted to talk to us, and this lady talks for everrrrrrrrr so we decided that we should probably go use the restroom before she gets here. Wessely goes first and then I go. There was a chain in there that I thought was for flushing the toilet and I thought that was sweet so I pulled it, nothing happened. So I looked a little closer and it said EMERGENCY written on it. It was engraved on a dark brown faceplate and very small lettering, and how I was supposed to know that’s what it was, I don’t know. So I was just hoping I didn’t do anything bad. Then right before I walked out, Wessely knocked on the door and said that I had just called the ambulance. WOOPS!! So the nurse had to call and cancel the ambulance since no emergency happened, just a dumb missionary boy was curious and pulled the chain. And there was a super loud alarm that was going off in the main nurses office, I felt like a dork. But hey, you live and you learn right? We also had a follow up visit with Ben and Ashley that night. We read 3 Nephi 11 with them. They thought it was awesome. They had already forgotten a bit about the apostasy and stuff. So we need to probably reteach the restoration and things before we move on. It’s all good. But it was sweet and they really like us and our lessons so they give us food.

On Saturday, nothing really too exciting happened. It was super warm though so that was awesome. We had our first dropped appointment of the week that day though, so that was a bummer, and it was a long ways away too. It frustrated us a little because we had called twice and she didn’t answer and we go out there and she was sick and didn’t have a reason for not calling us back. So that was a bit frustrating. Oh well, what can ya do.
Sunday, none of our investigators came again…bummer. Zach and his family came though despite the fact they slept in and missed most of sacrament meeting. But Zach learned a lot in Sunday school and in priesthood. He took lots of mental notes and asked us a bunch of stuff later on. He also kicked his girlfriend out too. So, he’s making some progress!! Yay! So, all in all, pretty good Sunday.

I had a great week. Hope yours went well too. I pray for you all!!! Family, loved ones, friends, etc. You guys all rock! Keep praying for the elders!!

Love
Elder Jesse Merrill Kissell

Pictures


1. Walking the break wall last pday!


2. Breakwall


3. Beacon at the end of the breakwall


4. View of Marquette/Lower Harbor from the breakwall


5. False, you cannot buy happiness. But we can GIVE it to you!

November?!

Hello everyone!!

Well, we thought this week was going to be AWESOME, well it was, but we had about 9 fallen through appointments again. NOT cool. I just don’t see how hard it is to call us and say “hey, I’m going to be shopping at this time so can we reschedule?” But, I guess that is too hard, so we show up, lesson prepared, only to be greeted with an unopening door. So that is a bummer. And we do all that we can to ensure that they’ll be there. We call, we confirm with them the day before, and they even right down our appointment times. So, having no idea what to do now, we fasted yesterday for less falling through appointments and discernment to figure out how to help address peoples needs to make them excited to meet with us. So, hopefully I will have better news to report next week.

Ashley and Emmy, the 2 girls we have baptismal dates with, we haven’t seen for 2 weeks. We think they may even be trying to avoid us, even though we did nothing to offend them or scare them off. So that kinda stinks, we need to see them soon! This is my favorite dropped lesson story though…so we met this guy named Alex and his girlfriend Vanessa tracting last week and they told us to come back Wednesday at 3. So, around a quarter to 3, we went up to that area and since we had a little time, we went and saw a less active who lives right across the street from him. Alex was talking to some of his buddies outside his apartment and when he saw us he said “hey guys!” And we say “hey man, we’ll be there in a second!” We go see the less active for about 4 minutes, go across the street to Alex’s apartment, and he’s not there. So standing there in unbelief for a few minutes we knocked really hard again and his girlfriend answered the door and said that he’d gone to football practice and that she was going to go watch him. Why couldn’t he have said something?! Crazy people I tell ya. But, life goes on. But long story short, we had a potential to have a sweet, lesson filled week, but the lesson filled part didn’t follow through.

We started teaching a “dry Mormon” guy in our ward this week named Curt. He is married to the bishops sister. And the bishops mom and dad are still in the ward and have 11 kids, all active in the church, and Curt is kind of like the black sheep. But they still totally all love him, but just wish he would join. So, we tried our luck. He’s totally not interested in joining, but loves the church. So, don’t know so much what to do with him. And in the past, missionaries haven’t really been such a big influence on him. He says that they’ve stayed at their house all night watching concerts and on Sundays watching football with him…not good. So, we’ll see what we can do to change his views on the elders.

On Tuesday we had a super long companion study in the morning, 3 hours, discussing the atonement. It was sweet. We had a couple articles from Elder Bruce C. Hafen talking about the atonement and we had a sheet with questions we had to answer and we had a big long discussion about the atonement. It was very enlightening and helped me realize how beautiful and amazing the atonement really is. One of the things that is most special to me that I learned about the atonement is that after ALL we can do to fix the consequences of a sin, after ALL we can do to help somebody else out, after ALL we can do to be the best we can be, after ALL we can do, Jesus Christ will take care of the rest for us and wipe away our tears. I think that that is really special. I love the atonement.

Wednesday was one of the days where we had a ton of appointments, but all fell through, so we tracted in a couple places, Marquette and Gwinn. Nobody was interested in Marquette so we went down to Gwinn and nobody was home there! So, that was annoying. But we did have some funny experiences down there. One lady answered the door and said “oh hold on, my phones ringing, I’ll be back.” She was gone for like 5 minutes!! It was way awkward, and right when I kinda felt like we should ring the bell again, and did, she came out and was kinda annoyed with my impatience. Oh well. It just made me laugh that she just left us standing out there awkwardly. Then another lady said that the Book of Mormon was just a book full of garbage and that it is a terrible book and that the Bible is the only word of God. We asked if she had read the Book of Mormon and she said “no, and I don’t need to!” And she stormed off, funny how people are sometimes. But what was sweet about Wednesday night was that it was our wards Halloween party and we got to eat a ton of candy and a ton of chili and wonderful stuff like that. We didn’t dress up because we can’t, but that’s ok! Something cool still happened… At the end, awards were handed out for the best costumes. The scariest, most creative, funniest, cutest, etc. And guess what?! We got the award for the cutest adult costume!!!:) We’re pretty darn cute I guess. It made me laugh.

Thursday, more tracting, more fallen through appointments. And also the day we drove down for mission tour which was on Friday! Mission tour rocked. Bruce C. Hafen and his wife were there, President and Sister Barrett, and a Stake president were all there and spoke to us. In order for us to get Neenah, WI on time, we had to get up at 4:30 in Green Bay to get there. It was not my favorite thing in the world. And when we got there we were told he wouldn’t be there for another hour. But it finally started at 8 and went til 7 in the evening! It was super long. But it was 11 hours of solid awesomeness. And I knew that I had heard Elder Hafen speak somewhere other than general conference, and when he asked me where I was from, he said “oh, I’ve spoken at a stake conference in Wenatchee!” So, that’s where I’ve heard him speak before! That was neat. And it was sad because I was excited to shake his hand, but because of the flu he wouldn’t. So I got to elbow bump with a general authority and his wife! I thought that was kinda funny. But the talks were amazing and very enlightening. He spoke on the atonement predominantly and his wife gave an awesome talk on the plan of salvation with a huge emphasis on the atonement. Both emphasized that without teaching the atonement, there would be no need in even teaching investigators the lessons. Nothing would even matter about our lessons if the atonement wasn’t mentioned. So after 11 hours of hearing about the atonement, I think I am good to go. But I imagine we would probably still be talking about the atonement if we could. The atonement is so in depth and so intricate and so beautiful that days could be spent on it. I just think that it is a beautiful thing. And the fact that we don’t even know half of what took place during the atonement amazes me. The millennium will be an interesting time when we find out all these unknown truths and things. I’m pretty excited to learn more about it. In my studies, I think the best scripture for me that talks about the atonement is Alma 7:11-13. Give that one a looksy.

Saturday was our deep cleaning day! It’s a mission rule that we aren’t to go out on 2 days of the year, Halloween and Good Friday, and on those days we clean our apartment. I thought ours was pretty clean but it was pretty gross. I found about 4 inches of standing water in our dishwasher which we never use, so who knows how long that’s been there! Long enough for algae to start growing, so that was a disgusting discovery. And there was nasty grease stains on the ceiling which still won’t come off after a long time of trying to remove them. Fun times.
And Sunday yesterday, we taught an impromptu lesson in priesthood, which everybody told us afterwards was really amazing, so I’m glad they liked it. We committed them to read the first lesson in Preach My Gospel and to pick one principle in that lesson and share it with one of their friends this week. I extend this commitment to whoever reads this letter. Sound good? After you do both those parts, write me a letter and tell me how it went! And after church yesterday we tracted. Unfortunately we found out that there was a Packer game yesterday, and not only was it just a Packer game, it was the Packer-Vikings game, the most important of the year! So, we were greeted very unhappily at several doors before deciding to just go see members. So that was a bummer. Don’t mess with Pack fans in this part of the country, they’ll rip your head off!!

But, this week went ok. I’m still happy despite the bad luck we’ve been having with appointments. Continue to pray for me and the rest of the missionaries in the world, we need all we can get. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Kissell

Pictures!


1. Elevator mirror shot!

2. Cutest youth and cutest adult costume award winners!

3. Our hardware.

4. Our backyard.

5. My zone, the Green Bay, WI zone, with Elder Hafen and his wife, President and Sister Barrett, and the assistants. Sweet!!

End of Transfer #3

Family and friends!

Howdy!

Well, at the end of 3 transfers, I will be in Marquette for at least one more! But this week was pretty sweet if I do say so myself. It wasn’t a downer as it seems the past have been. It rocked!! The best news that I have for you is that we set 2 baptismal dates!!!! Yay!!!! They are with 2 sisters, Ashley and Emmy, and the dates are for the 28th of November. I am pretty excited. But the bummer of it all is that we had a return appointment to teach them and their friend again on Friday and they were also all supposed to be at church yesterday. Well, lo and behold, crazy as it seems, they dogged us on Friday and didn’t come to church. So yeah, that stunk. But still, we are excited that they want to feel clean from sin and start a new life. And it was just cool because we had decided that we would mention baptism in every principle we taught in the first lesson and they were the ones who came out and said that they wanted to be baptized! I didn’t even know what to do. I was just smiling really big and couldn’t really talk. It was weird, but I studdered something out, don’t remember what. Oh well. But yeah that was sweet. And that was also the day that the zone leaders were up to help us out and figure out ways to help us and our area since things weren’t going as sweet as we had liked. But as we were teaching the lesson to Ashley and Emmy, they went out tracting and found us 2 awesome families to teach! So I’m pretty excited for this week. We actually have several set appointments for this week. Now, they just need to be there. Something that people in the U.P. don’t like doing. But we’ll pray for the best and do our part to make sure that they are there!

Tuesday was also our last district meeting together as a district. Elder Hatch was our district leader this past transfer and was an amazing one. I learned a ton from him, but unfortunately he’s leaving to be a zone leader in Milwaukee. But yeah, we had another sweet meeting and it was encouraging for Wessely and I. We just needed some major help in our area at the time, and still do, and it was just sweet getting ideas and revelation on how to make things better. And then of course since it was our last district meeting together…TIE TRADE!! I got some pretty cool ties if I do say so myself.

This week weather wise stunk. It was raining nonstop Tuesday-Sunday it seemed. But on Friday I believe it was, all our appointments fell through, so that means tracting!! Great. And in the heavy rain. But luckily I had brought my coat so I wasn’t freezing and was dry for the most part. Only problem was that I found out later on that my backpack wasn’t waterproof. So one of my books, my gospel art book, got ruined. But everything else was ok! But we found some sweet people tracting again! Probably the most successful day of tracting I have had yet. We found 3 interested people/families. So I’m pretty excited for that. It almost wasn’t normal being invited in by people who were actually interested! So, maybe all those cruddy weeks we had up here are finally paying off. We hope to see much more success this week.

Something else cool this upcoming week is that it’s our Mission Tour. Elder Bruce C. Hafen of the Seventy is coming and we will be seeing him Friday. So I’m excited about that. And Saturday, Halloween, is a day where we are not allowed to go proselyting and is an unofficial “deep cleaning day.” So we will be in our apartments all day Saturday cleaning. So that’s exciting. Lame thing is that our apartment doesn’t even really need too much cleaning, so we won’t be really doing that much. Oh well.

This past week we also arranged and set up times to teach part member families in our ward. There are a lot of “dry Mormons” up here. “Dry” refers to not baptized yet but these people maybe have one or two hold ups that are keeping them from being baptized. So we’ll see what we can do. Problem is that these guys have been taught by several different sets of missionaries and still have not been spiritually converted yet. So hopefully we’ll be the ones that they see the truth with. We’ll find out.

On Thursday we saw the Pendaz family. That was exciting. Harlan, he’s a chunky kid, lifted up his shirt to show us how strong his chest was and Wessely told him that he needed to lose some weight. It was hilarious. And he also was bragging about how strong he was and he told me he could pick me up and carry me up the stairs. But he realized how much bigger I was than him and couldn’t do it. It made me laugh. He’s a crazy kid. I remember how much he used to bug me but now I’ve grown to love him and like seeing him whenever I can. They’re a cool family.
Hopefully those pictures came through last week? But we taught that lady with the nasty ugly little dog again. That thing is so gross. But she’s practically a dry Mormon too. She just doesn’t believe that the church has the full priesthood authority and that she thinks it is going to be like any other church, everyone is different since every one has a different bishop. It was a tough lesson, but we commited her to pray sincerely about it and to come to church next week, so hopefully she keeps those commitments because those are the only ways she’ll find out.
Sunday, yesterday, was the primary program. It was awesome. There are some funny kids in the ward. It just makes me way excited to have kids of my own someday. They rock. But they did something I thought was pretty sweet. They had a girl, she was like 7 I think, play “I Love to See the Temple” (my favorite primary song by the way) very simply. She played it just one handed, single notes, etc. It was cute. And then they had a 11 year old girl play the same song, but this time with both hands and with chords and stuff, it was very good as well. And then they had an 18 year old girl, the first girls older sister, play an amazing arrangement of the song. It was awesome. I just thought it was cool seeing the same song being played from very simply to very difficult. I liked it a lot. I’m pretty bummed that Ashley and Emmy weren’t there for it. They would’ve loved it because they have primary aged kids. Oh well…

But yeah, this week was sweet. I’m excited for the start of a new transfer and a new week. It should be groovy for sure. But, I love you all! Keep me in your prayers, you’re all in mine! 

Love
Elder Jesse Kissell

Pictures!


1. Ties acquired from the trade, minus a couple.


2. Irontown, USA Negaunee Michigan!


3. 2nd pair of pants that have ripped! How lame is that?! But this time the hole was little so that was an easy repair job for duct tape:)

The KissNews!

Hey!

Well, this week went pretty well, not amazingly awesome, but it was good. No complaints. On last Monday, the Houghton elders came down and we went shopping around downtown and looked at some cool stuff. The downtown area here is pretty neat. And it also snowed again that day too. Crazy stuff. But that evening, we had made an appointment with a part member, previous investigator family and went to go teach them. It was a sweet lesson. The less active member, his name is Kim, hasn’t been to church in forever. But it seems almost like he reads the Book of Mormon everyday, he doesn’t, but that’s how strong his testimony is! It’s sweet. But his wife, the previous investigator, said that she would get baptized if she came to church. Well, get to church!! She’s awesome, but they just have a hard time getting to church, and they only live like 10 minutes away, so I don’t know how to help them in that regard. Probably just have a member go over there Sunday morning and kick them in the pants. We’ll see. But it was a sweet lesson and we pretty much just got Kim talking, and he taught Amber the first lesson pretty much. It was pretty sweet. Then after the lesson, he showed us his sweet guitar skills. He’s pretty good, but the catch is that he plays the guitar upside down and backwards. It’s flippin weird. He strums the wrong way and everything and it sounds awesome. I was impressed for sure.

On Tuesday we had our district meeting in Escanaba again. It also snowed like an inch in Marquette that night too. That was cool. But whenever we are down there, there is a member whose name is Tommy Chicago and he always brings us sweet random stuff and buys us lunch usually. This week I got a Craftsman tools belt buckle from him! It’s super cool. Now I just need to get a belt that I can wear it with. But later that day, we went tracting for a while, nobody was really interested but it was still fun to get out and knock again. We set some later appointments with people and yeah, it was sweet.

Wednesday was kind of lameo. We stayed in Marquette for a few hours, tracted some more up in the woodland areas. Oh man that just reminded me of something funny. So one of the houses we tracted into, a lady answered the door with a HUGE moustache. And of course it was my door to talk at and I came so close to saying something and laughing, but I didn’t luckily. I was scared I would. I don’t know how she could NOT know she had that and would want to shave it off. Who knows. But yeah, that was definitely interesting. But the lameo part about the day was we had an appointment in a town called Sawyer, the ghetto of the U.P., and it’s about a half hour away, and of course, she wasn’t there. She was in Wisconsin. It’s times like that that I wonder why people wouldn’t have the courtesy to call us and tell us that. But that’s just me. But since we were down in the area of Gwinn where lots of less actives live, we headed down there and saw a bunch of people. So that was neat. The leaves are still awesome and there are a lot of lakes by Gwinn so it’s pretty sweet to see all the fall leaves and a glassy smooth lake. I would live there for sure. But then we had to head back up the highway several miles for a dinner appointment with a less active lady in our ward, she is actually D’andreas sister, our investigator who died a couple months ago. But her husband is an alcoholic and he decided to come out and visit with us while we were eating. Lets just say he’s not a happy drunk. So I looked at elder Wessely and we both just chowed down as fast as we could and got out of there. It was pretty not fun. We were there for like 15-20 minutes. But yeah, most eventful dinner appointment I’ve had yet.

Thursday was another not so fun day. But the fun part about it was that we got to help a less active guy stack wood!! I was way happy. I miss doing physical labor like that a lot. And we helped him with several other physical-ish things. So that made me happy. But the lame part was we had 3 appointments bail on us that day. All out in Ishpeming and Negaunee, several miles away from Marquette. So that was disappointing. And of course, we had members with us. But, we’ll just have to try again I guess. But the exciting part about the evening was Sis. Smith, an oriental lady who lives out there, called us and told us she made us some food. We were expecting like a casserole or 2 at the most. All the stuff she made us filled up the back seat of our truck!! It’s so much food. It’s crazy. And all Chinese. And all deep fried. Needless to say we’re going to have this stuff for quite a while and I’m already sick of eating Chinese for lunch and dinner everyday. But, some of it is pretty good. But it’s just SO much food. You’ll see.
Friday was exciting. We went up to Big Bay, a redneck town from what we’ve heard, so I was pretty excited for that. We had a referral all the way up there and decided why not. So we went up there and the road that she lived on wasn’t even in Big Bay so I didn’t get to see it. Oh another cool thing about this town is that the highway that you take to get up there comes to a dead end. So there’s only one way out. I thought that was funny. But this lady lived way out in the sticks. And we couldn’t find HER house for the life of us so we decided to knock some doors on the houses we could see and ask them if they knew where they lived. And you have to keep in mind that these people probably moved out here for a reason, to not be bothered. And that’s exactly what we did!! I was way scared that we would have a shotgun pulled on us, but that didn’t happen. Elder Wessely says that he has had that happen before. So that brought me comfort. But these people weren’t happy to see us, but not unhappy enough to pull a shotgun on us. The first guy wasn’t any help at all. The second lady said “well they either live in this house across the street or back there in that house.” Me: “uhh, what house?” Her: “Oh, just keep walkin down the road and keep your eyes open and you’ll see a roof over there, but don’t walk too fast.” Great help huh? So, that’s what we did, and we found the roof…and the house. Our referral wasn’t there, but her husband was, so we just gave him the stuff she ordered and went on our merry way. It was a fun experience. And the highway is like a roller coaster too, so that was another plus.

Saturday and Sunday were both pretty good days though. We got some referrals from a member too!! It was great. But unfortunately, neither was interested. But that doesn’t mean stop giving us referrals!! But we met some cool people, talked to some cool people, and met with ward members about doing missionary work. We also gave a blessing to a lady in the hospital who talks FOREVER about things that aren’t super important. But we helped her out, so that’s good. Sunday, we had 5 investigators at church. Zach finally came for the first time in like a month. So that was good. And his 2 kids who are investigators came as well. And the redneck adopted kids also came. They aren’t really interested, but hey, they came and it was sweet. We also had dinner with the bishop and Zach and his family and another member family who Zach really likes. So it was a sweet evening and I am happy and excited for Zach again. So thank you everybody who prayed for him. It has helped!

But yeah, that was my week. Pretty good, but it could be better. So just keep the prayers, love, and support coming. And another exciting thing about this week, well some of it, was that it was “warm” again! Well, 50 degrees, but it feels awesome. Hopefully it’ll be like that for a while now. But yeah, that’s about all my news! I’ll try sending those pictures again and the ones from this week. Some did get messed up on my card though, some cool ones too. But, I’ll send the ones that I still have. I think the computer messed them up somehow.

Love you guys!!

Elder Jesse Kissell

Da Week

Hey everyone!

Well, it’s kinda weird it’s already October ain’t it? I think it is! I’ve been out 4 months now already! I know it’s not much, but hey, it’s gone by way fast. AND, I’m lovin’ it! But let me tell ya bout my week…

So this week was a pretty bittersweet week. The bitter part wasn’t my favorite. But here’s kinda the jist of what happened. On Tuesday, we had our district meeting in Iron Mountain and on the way back from that we stopped by some referrals that we got from the fair a long time ago in Ishpeming. Both people were home and we got a return appointment, which means investigator, with one. Her name was Rene’. She was really excited for us to come back and we gave her a Book of Mormon and the DVD’s that she ordered and sweet stuff like that. Then we went over to the other referral and I about killed her…literally. It was kinda funny though haha. I knocked on her door pretty loud because I could hear the TV and she came to the door and she was breathing super hard and couldn’t talk for about 3 minutes because I had scared her so bad. But, she was less accountable and we were talking to her at her doorstep about anything and everything you could think about. From McDonalds to hurricanes. We were there for forever and finally I just had to say that we would stop by next time we were out in the area and see her. We had been on her doorstep for like 25 minutes and got nothing done, so I wasn’t really being that mean. And then we went down to Negaunee and were trying by some less active people and stuff down there. There was this black guy who was walking down the street with an office chair and I told elder Wessely I was going to ask him what he was doing with an office chair. So I did, turns out he just bought it and was walking it home, but anyway, he asked why we were all dressed up and we started talking about the church. We taught him very briefly and asked if we could come back and teach him and he said “of course brothas!” He was way excited and said he’s been searching for a long time for a perfect church for him. We told him he was probably gonna find it here. He was way pumped and set the time up for when we taught him. Same night we were going to teach Rene’, but later. So yeah that was SWEET! 2 new investigators in one night and our Thursday was getting filled up quick. The next day we went and talked to 2 of our other investigators, Ashley and Emmy, the sisters, and set up an appointment to teach them at the chapel and have a chapel tour lesson. Something I haven’t done yet but is said to be one of the sweetest methods to teach somebody. And they said yes that would be awesome and we got that all set up. So by that time we were way excited for Thursday and couldn’t wait for it. We had planned for a member to be with us for all those appointments too, including a brand new RM sister. But here comes Thursday…it STUNK!!!!!!!!!! EVERYTHING fell through. It was not cool. Ashley and Emmy didn’t show, Rene’ dropped us before we could even get inside, Eric (the black guy) wasn’t home, and a couple college girls we’ve been trying to teach for sometime weren’t home either. So yeah, our dream day fell apart. We were planning on having 4 investigators with a baptismal date and 4 lessons with a member which would’ve been sweet. Oh well…it happens. But yeah, the elders quorum president was with us at the end of the day and he said whenever he had a bad day on his mission he would go out to eat. So he took us out to eat and then we came home and contemplated what we could do better. But yeah, not my favorite day Thursday was.
Friday was a really stormy day and we had a few set appointments with less actives and luckily they were home. But it was really stormy out and we would get soaked instantly, raincoats and all. So no tracting that day. A tree even fell down right behind our apartment that day. That made me feel real safe. But we had some good visits. Nothing too spectacular though.

Saturday was CONFERENCE!!!!!!! How sweet was conference this year?! WAY SWEET! I have never been so excited for conference in my life. And it rocked. My favorite talks on Saturday were elder Bednars, president Uchtdorfs, elder Callister for the 70, and elder Andersens. Those were my faves but all the talks rocked for sure. We had 2 food appointments that day so that was awesome. And then late that day, we had priesthood session. It started at 8 here! So we didn’t get home til 10:15! I thought that was weird. But priesthood was awesome. I learned so much this year in all of conference. People say it’s the “missionary fire”…whatever that means. But maybe it is. I learned a lot.

Sunday was also great for conference. But it was a little discouraging in the morning though because we found out that Zachs girlfriend was living with him…not good. So yeah, he’s kind of struggling. So definitely keep him in your prayers. I don’t really know how to help him though, and besides, he’s technically the wards responsibility now. Harsh sounding, but that’s the truth. And he also told us he was going to conference 20 minutes before it started and he never showed. So that was also concerning. But conference on Sunday rocked. I had several favorites for Sundays sessions too. L. Tom Perrys, president Monson, elder Hollands, and Brent Nielsons. They all rocked though. Those were just the ones that stuck out to me. Elder Hollands was sweet though. His talks are always awesome to me. Straight forward, to the point, no denying, and just powerful. I loved it a lot. That will be a good article to use for our investigators most definitely. But I hope that you all enjoyed conference as much as I did! It was sweet.

But yeah, that was our week pretty much. Keep me, elder Wessely, and Marquette in your prayers. We don’t have any progressing investigators and the investigators we do have are more just talking to us because they’re curious, not interested. We are planning on doing some serious tracting this week, not making me too happy. We also need to get the ward more excited about missionary work. REMEMBER!!!! MEMBERS are full time FINDERS!!! WE are full time TEACHERS!!! That will make the work go so much smoother and help it be so much more successful.

Clark, my congrats to you and the Brazil mission call! That’s sweet man. You sure aren’t leaving for quite a while though. Kinda stinks. But have fun man. I’m way excited for ya. The mission is one spiritual high after another, can’t get that anywhere else in the world besides a mission. An apostle said that so that means it’s legit!

Love you all!! Keep me in your prayers. Look for missionary opportunities!!! Seriously. The lord will bless you greatly and the missionaries will be in love with you!

Love,
Elder Kissell

p.s. Guess what? I can see my breath in Marquette now! Jealous?! Oh, and remember how i said that like 4 weeks ago i might've broke my finger? Well, bishop, who is a doctor said i did. So i'm going to go see what i can do about getting that fixed today. It's going to be fun!!

Pictures!


1. One of the elders had to stop to use the bathroom on the way home from district meeting and there were bathrooms randomly at this sweet roadside park thing. Pretty eh?


2. Elder Crossley and i found a water pump. Haven't seen one in forever!!



3. My service place :)



4. My broken left middle finger. It's looked like that for 4 weeks. Should probably do something about that.