Well…do you all wanna know where I’m at??????? I am now serving in Madison on the campus! It is InSaNe!!!! Here’s the rundown…Madison is the states capital, there are about 350,000 more people here than in Marquette, I live in an apartment right smack dab in the middle of the city, I work in a singles ward and in a regular ward, there are like 6 different companionships in the area, and there are just a ton of people here!! It’s so crazy. I’m basically going through culture shock right now, it’s crazy. I went from Wenatchee (25,000 people) to Marquette (25,000 people) to Madison (400,000 people)! It is nutso. But I love it here. It’s a very clean city, it reminds me a little of like Salt Lake or something. The University of Wisconsin is here obviously, so there are a ton of college kids. There is a pretty sweet and nice little institute building here, so that’s a plus. There aren’t a ton of LDS kids attending but there are enough to have that building. There are about 40 or so active college students. The ward we work in is all super busy graduate students with young families. It’s pretty nuts.
And I guess I should tell you about my new companion, Elder Barker. He has been out one transfer less than me so that puts me at senior companion! So that’s interesting and new. Really, the title of senior doesn’t count for much. Basically you just get the last say in things and make executive and important decisions. And if we had a car, I would get to drive it. But we don’t and have to take the buses, so I don’t drive. The bus is so lame. A car would be so useful. We would be able to get so much more work done and would be able to spend more time in areas but we have to base our schedules around the bus system and schedule. Oh well, life does go on somehow. But the bus is a good place to talk to people and meet people, that’s a plus. I just need to stop being a chicken and talk more. Afterall, that is what I’m here to do! But I really do love this place.
On Friday, just the second day I was here, we got a referral from a member in one of the wards here and told us that she would be golden and asked us to go meet with her. Her name is Kristen, a 47 year old black woman, and she is just lost and going through some pretty hard times right now. The member who referred her to us gave her a Book of Mormon and she was very excited about it. She is going through hard economic times and is a bit depressed about things in her life and how they’re going. We’re the ones to talk to about that!!! But we had a great first lesson and she was excited to read and to pray about the first lesson and the Book of Mormon. We set up a return time for the next day and we went with a super awesome member/ward missionary, Sis. Elisberg and taught the plan of salvation. This was the person I’ve been waiting to meet on my mission. Her mother died 4 years ago and is still pretty sad and emotional about it. Just like me with dad. Elder Barker and I discussed who would teach what in the lesson and I would be teaching about Adam and Eve, the atonement, and the resurrection. I knew from the beginning of the lesson that I needed to tell the story about dad and bear my strong testimony of the atonement when I taught it. The spirit was so so strong. I wish you all could’ve been there. I started to cry, Sis. Elisberg started to cry, and Kristen started to cry. Afterwards, Kristen gave me a big huge hug. Easily one of, if not the best feelings and experiences I’ve had on my mission so far. She committed to come to church and guess what? She did and she loved it!!! She even says she wants to keep coming and she even signed herself up on the dinner calendar. I’m so stinkin excited. We will be extending a baptismal commitment to her and seeing what happens with that this week. So please pray for her and her continued development and growth. We’ve also just received a ton of referrals these past couple days for some reason. We stopped by another and met him yesterday and he is an Indian guy, former Hindu, and wanting to quit that and learn about Jesus. He ordered a Lamb of God DVD that we delivered to him. Unique huh? I have not taught anybody yet who doesn’t at least know a bit about Jesus and so this was a definite first for me. It was cool though. He came to understand the need and reason to pray, the meaning behind the Godhead, and what the Holy Ghost felt like because he was there for sure. We also challenged him to fast and to pray to quit smoking, right from the first lesson!! It is going to be sweet. I love it here, there will be a lot going on this transfer, I can feel it. The ward is so much different than Marquette. Tons of young families. There are no young men or young women, the oldest person might be in their 60’s here, and yeah, it’s just weird and different. They all seem very nice, but very busy. Elder Barker tells me we won’t see a ton of the members a lot because of that, so we’ll see.
But this week has been nuts. The beginning of the week was crazy because of all the packing I had to do and goodbyes I had to say and stuff. Tuesday was a great day. It was the day we had district meeting and the day we were supposed to go to Green Bay and from there down to Milwaukee the next day. Well, we go out in the morning to drive to district meeting and there’s a huge nail in our tire!! So, I spent the morning changing a tire. Fun. I also smashed my pinky trying to get the dumb spare off, but don’t worry, I didn’t swear!! And so, we had district meeting over the phone, that was different for sure. After that, we get a call from the zone leaders that we had to drive to Milwaukee that day!!! Keep in mind that it takes about 8 hours to get to Milwaukee from Marquette and that a huge storm was coming in that day. So, since it hadn’t come yet, Elder Wessely turned the highway into the Autobahn. Hooray!! We were hauling, but we needed to get to Milwaukee and pronto because of Presidents orders. He wanted us to be down there because of that storm. And good thing because by the time we got to Milwaukee, it was dumping snow. Milwaukee got about 10 inches I think. We driving in the worst of it too and got lost. That was great. But we found our way and thank goodness for 4 wheel drive. It was insane weather and snow. Wednesday, I bid farewell to Elder Wessely who would be training this transfer and spent the day with the office elders. They basically do errands for the president and arrange transfer info and fun stuff like that. It was nuts. They’re so busy and I’m grateful to be just a regular missionary.
Thursday was transfer day and guess who I finally got to see!!! BLAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome. It has been forever since I’ve seen him and it was a happy reunion. Also Tucker Chapman, from the 3rd ward, was there!!! So we had a little Wenatchee reunion. Sweet! It was pretty cool seeing 3 people from Wenatchee serving in the same mission in one spot. Doesn’t happen too often for sure. But Blake will be serving in a different zone than me again, but I will see him at zone conferences now at least. They combine zones for those things. But yeah, I was happy to finally see him. I’m excited for the day that I can either be in his district, or better yet, be his companion. But nobody thinks it will happen. I think it will. Gotta have some faith!!!
Well, I’m all about out of news. Oh, Madison has a ton of snow and it was super super cold for a few days. Madison shut down on Wednesday because of all the snow. That’s saying something. They got pummeled with about 17” of super heavy snow. And it was in the negative and single digits for a few days. That was fun!! Welcome to Wisconsin!!!
Now I’m out of news… I love you guys!!! Have a great holiday season and I will talk to you next Monday!! I will be literally talking to you mom in 11 days!!!
Love
Elder Kissell
pictures
1. the most yooper picture you'll ever see!! A Stormy Kromer hat and a pasty. And some other dumb stuff.
2. Elder Crossley, love this kid.
3. Look!! Wenatchee kids!!
4. Look who it is!
5. Wisconsin Campus action
6. Yup, it did
7. More campus action
8. On State Street to see the Capital
9. Sweet!!
