Marquette World

Howdy everybody!

Well, this week has been a rollercoaster to say the least. I have some really awesome news, and some pretty terrible news. But never the less, it was still a good week.

So I’ll start with the terrible news so I don’t keep you wondering about that. So in my email last week, I was talking about our super sweet new investigator D’andrea, the black lady. She was super cool and had baptism in her sights and LOVED the church. Well, she died on Tuesday night. It was very very unexpected. She went in for surgery that day for carpal tunnel and it was an outpatient procedure but after the surgery, her son found her unconscious on the floor and they couldn’t save her. She was young, but had many health problems. We still don’t know what happened. But yeah, it was really unexpected and sad. But when we were at the hospital that night with her sister and her sisters family (her sister, Sis. Abott, is a member), I had the best feeling ever that dad would be teaching her. It was undeniable, and I was just smiling from ear to ear. I know he’s teaching her right now. I started teaching her and he’ll finish it. The gospel is so sweet. But yeah, it was very sad, very unexpected, but that feeling was amazing. She’ll be ok .

The awesome news we had was that that 11 year old kid we’re teaching, Harlan Pendaz, he will be getting baptized hopefully on September 26th. His family is the crazy one that wears machetes. He’s also recently been telling us that he is “the holder of the pipe.” He has this old Seminole Indian pipe that has religious meaning or something to him and when they aren’t able to make it out to church…so the past 10 years…he uses his power of the pipe to do religious stuff, because he’s the holder of it. He’s crazy I tell ya. But yeah, we’re finally figuring out how to get through to this kid and teach him and he’s progressing and they’re reading the Book of Mormon as a family. So that’s sweet. But they live out in the boonies and they aren’t in the best financial situation and so they don’t have means of transportation and they live at least 20 minutes away from the nearest member. But they’ll be getting paid soon and coming back out to church. I made Bro. Pendaz promise me they would and he promised, so I told him that I would be way mad if he didn’t show up and he said I wouldn’t need to worry about getting my temper worked up so that’s a good thing haha. But they really are crazy I tell ya. Recently he’s been wearing nothing but a full body poncho with snaps on it whenever we go over there. It’s pretty sweet though I won’t lie to ya. I would probably wear it if I had one.

Here’s some exciting news… we helped out at a dog show for 6 hours on Saturday! That was great. It wasn’t too bad for the first little while, but after 6 hours, not so fun. But what we did was pretty sweet. We were helping at the obedience station and set up jumps and put out things they needed to smell and stuff like that. But these dogs are crazy obedient. If Waldo could do even one of those things these dogs did, I would be impressed. But I saw millions of dogs. Some totally awesome, others downright ugly and miserable. But the dogs we were helping with were my kind of dogs. We had several labs, Labrador retrievers, spaniels, german shepherds, and we even had a few shelties. But the whole time, I would not only watch the dogs but the owners. These people love their dogs WAY too much. I bet you some of them don’t even have kids because they love their dogs so much. I mean I love Waldo, but I’m not going to French kiss him anytime soon or get dog kennels and bowls and shirts and leashes that say “I love Waldo” on them. These people were nuts. So I suggest if you want some free entertainment, go watch a dog show for a couple of hours and watch the people, not the dogs. And it was pretty cool, I guess elders have been helping out at this thing for years and the people LOVED us, but of course not as much as their dogs. But we got quite the royal treatment. It was weird. I’m not used to that many people enjoying our presence and talking to us and offering us food and stuff! It was crazy. It was pretty funny, one lady she saw that we were leaving after 6 hours and she says “oh no are you leaving?” And we said “yeah, we’ve been here for way too long.” And she said “well dangit I thought I was excited to go next because God would be in the ring with me!” It was way funny.

We met some really cool guys yesterday while we were tracting. There’s 3 of them and they’re college kids. They were super nice and way interested in what we were teaching and then after talking for like 15 minutes outside, they invited us in and we talked to them in their house. Turns out they’re all 3 hardcore Christians. They know the bible backwards and front, they love God, they love helping people out, and they say they try to be nice and accepting of everybody. Pretty awesome. But these guys had some WAY hard questions and like I said, they knew their bible backwards and front. I unfortunately know very little about the bible. So thankfully my companion knows everything. Seriously, he does. So I kind of just sat there and let them talk, I’d get way excited when he asked a question I actually knew the answer to and those would be like the only times I talked, so not too many haha. But we talked to them for an hour and will be going back to them next week, so pray that I will know what to say and how to answer their questions! But we’re excited. These guys even stumped elder Turney, but he somehow answered their questions in other ways. He’s crazy.

On Thursday night we went down to Green Bay, that was sweet. Turney had a leadership meeting on Friday morning so we went down that night. We stayed the night at the Zone Leaders place, they’re living in the stake presidents basement. The stake president is quite well off to say the least so they have a way nice place to live and it’s out in the middle of dairy land so it’s way secluded and awesome. I even got to see the stars for the first time since June 2nd! And I layed in the grass! It was so cool. It’s funny how you miss little things like that. But it was kinda lame on Friday I went on exchanges with a way sick elder and just stayed at their apartment, but we had fun. We made a cake and talked and slept. Not my funnest day, but it was relaxing to do that for a few hours. Kinda went crazy because I didn’t have anything to do. That was weird feeling frantic because of lack of things to do. Usually you should feel relaxed and stuff, but not the case.

Weather in Marquette has been pretty good this week, well kind of. The low last night was 36 degrees!! Aren’t you jealous? And it’s been raining a ton too. But it’s usually every other day and it’s a nice day today. It keeps you guessing that’s for sure. The other day during the middle of the rainstorm, we were driving by the lake and the waves were MASSIVE!! Probably some of the biggest waves I’ve seen in my life, on lake superior, not the ocean. Up in Houghton, they have surf shops. Something I learned last week. So forget spending tons of money to go to Hawaii or California to surf, come to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan! Bring your winter clothes even if you do come in July or August! This is a crazy place I tell ya.

But, that’s my news of the week. Some sweet news, some not so sweet. But that’s part of the mission life. I’m lovin it and love sharing this gospel. It is such a wonderful blessing to be here. People all over the place haven’t even heard of the church so don’t be afraid to open your mouths! Don’t even be afraid to open your mouths if they have heard of the church. It’s not anything to be ashamed of. I miss you all, love you all, pray for you all. Be sure to keep the missionaries in your prayers, we need all we can get. Keep praying for missionary opportunities and keep being the wonderful people you are. I love you!!

Love,
Elder Kissell

Pictures!!
Didn't take a ton this week, sorry folks. But funny thing about these pictures is that they were taken at the same exact place, just different times of the week, except the 2 of me. That's why there are sailboats in that one.


1. Lower Harbor looking West

2. Like my face? Look at the cool sailboats in the background.

3. Better face, and a look at my sweet bike. I named him Stealth.

Cold and dreary world of Marquette

Howdy!

Well, this week was pretty much the exact opposite of last week weather wise. Last week it was insanely hot and muggy, but this week it was cold and wet! It's usually this cold in October in Wenatchee! It’s insane. The worst day was on Friday I think… it was about 50 degrees and wet. It wasn’t raining, but it was this super weird mist stuff. Pretend like somebody was squirting you with a spray bottle on the mist mode all the time. And that it was constant and windy and cold. It was awesome. Luckily, elder Turney had the same idea as me that bikes were a bad idea that day. But I think that mist stuff is worse than rain. If you stand outside for a second, you are soaked from head to toe. And I had to do that a lot! My favorite missionary rule entails that I stand outside and back the truck up everytime we back up! Fun stuff. Another fun story about that is that yesterday we went to a referral and they had tons of dogs. Like they were jumping out the windows and stuff, it was nuts. And of course, I had to back the truck up with all these dogs jumping all over me and stuff. Love it.

But this week was pretty sweet. We went to the fair on Tuesday! That was way fun. We were there for like 4 hours running the booth that the church had set up there. It went pretty good. The Houghton elders were with us for that time too. But we walked around and looked at the booths and stuff and the cows and pigs and stuff. I stepped in a massive pile of cow poop. That was way nasty. And I got to touch the Budweiser Clydesdales and the dalmation! It was sweet. But the booth was pretty good. Talked to a good handful of people. But we were later told that the missionaries tend to scare people off. Oh well, we still had fun and were out and about and seen.

And we started teaching this black lady named D’andrea. She’s way awesome. She is a sister of a lady who goes to the church, but she’s kinda less active herself, so we’ll work on that too. But D’andrea has been to church before and loves it and knows that our message is true and that we are the true church and she wants to be a part of it. We extended a baptismal date for her but she wants to know more before the date that we had set. But it should be fine. We are planning it for mid September. But she’s awesome. We had dinner with her one night and she said that she just loves watching people eat her food, so that’s good because I’m an eater and the food was delicious! It was KFC and some potatoes that she made and biscuits she made too. It was good. But my companion is quite picky about his food. But she loved me. I made a friend through eating  hooray! But she’s totally awesome. We’re excited for her.

But, we had some fun tracting experiences this week! So one door we knocked on, a lady came to the door and said “are you here to praise Jesus?” and I was it was my door and so I said “well, uhh, yeah we are!” and she says “well alright come on in!” And right when we walk in, she grabs our hands and we stand in a circle and she’s like “ok who’s going to start?” I had no idea what was going on and I was about to bust out laughing and I just looked at Elder Turney and he said “well maam, how about you start?” And so then she said a prayer and thanked the lord for Jesus and for people that spread his word and stuff like that. I was so confused. I thought she was going to have one of us do it too, but that didn’t happen. But it was super weird, I was laughing for a while afterwards. But she was a very nice, very catholic lady. Not interested. Then another one was this super cool girl, probably college age, early 20’s, but we were talking to her for like 15 minutes about the church and stuff and she was just awesome. But come the end of our conversation, we didn’t know how to invite her to meet with us and learn more! And she seemed interested and stuff, we just didn’t know how to extend that invitation without making it seem out of place or anything. So we were kickin ourselves for that. And as if it was a slap in the face, she came back outside as we were getting on our bikes to say goodbye to us! I was going to say something but then elder Turney asked if she had ever heard of a “stroop waffle” (they’re these cookie things from Holland that his parents sent him) and she said no, surprisingly, and he gave her one and that was that. I was pretty mad that we STILL didn’t even invite her to meet with us. But we’re going to go back later this week and do it. Hopefully we didn’t miss a golden opportunity.

On Saturday, Pres. and Sis. Barrett came up to Marquette to spend part of the day with us. They’re so cool. But, we had a quick interview session, Sis. Barrett interviewed me, pretty much just how life is and how I’m enjoying my mission and such so far. And about my family and friends and if I am getting support….yes! Thank you! So she was glad to hear that. But then we tried by a few people with him. He wanted to meet the recent converts in the area, Ernest, Zach, and a lady named Marie Haas, the sweetest lady in the world. But we stopped by Ernest, that was good. Zach couldn’t do it that day. We had an appointment with D’andrea that we took them to, but that fell through, and luckily Sis. Haas was home. But Pres. Barrett is just awesome. There’s just something about him that makes him special and it makes me so happy. He’s the closest guy to a prophet I’ll probably ever get to meet. He’s so cool. I have the deepest respect for him and Sis. Barrett. But then they had to leave and go up to Houghton so we continued on with our evening.

But yesterday on Sunday, they came back down and did a fireside after church and about how special the Book of Mormon is and that we need to utilize this and share the blessings it has blessed us with with our friends. It was way good and the turnout was awesome. So hopefully that kickstarts member missionary work around here. Hopefully we’ll be seeing some results here soon. We’re pumped.

But yeah, this week was sweet. All prayers are wonderful and totally appreciated. The missionary work is going well, but can always be better. So keep them comin! Hope all is going well back in the Wenatchee world! I miss the HEAT! Weird saying that… but yeah, I pray for all ya’ll too and know that the savior is blessing you day by day. I know the church is true, missionary work is going forth wonderfully, the world will hear this wonderful message, and someday, we will all be in Heaven again with our eternal family. What a wonderful blessing. I love this church, and I love you guys.

Love
Elder Kissell
p.s. Protein powder is sweet!

PICTURES!!!


1. The Superior Dome, the largest wooden dome in the WORLD!


2. Marquette is home to one of the Worlds few Olympic Training Centers, specializing in wrestling, weightlifting, and wintersports. Pretty bomb.


3. Inside the dome on the field


4. Me and my cow friends, right before i stepped in poo.


5. Wouldn't it be funny if we slepped like that?


6. A legit Budweiser Clydesdale! They're massive!


7. A Yooper semi truck, tires straight from the junkyard!

8. My cool pink Marquette shirt

Roastin and Toastin!!

Hello hello!

Well, I was complaining about the weather being cold last month, 50 degrees on the first of July…but let me tell ya, it was stinkin hot this week!! It was in the mid 90’s and super humid all week and elder Turney had the sweet idea of us riding bikes this entire week everywhere!! So, possibly why nobody wanted to talk to us was because of us dripping in sweat. It was so hot. I didn’t even sleep with the covers on at night. We would be sweating without any physical exertion. Pretty cool…not really. But, that’s all part of the fun right? But it is good for working out and stuff. Last pday, I bought some of that protein powder stuff. I made fun of a lot of people for using that stuff but I got to thinking about it, that all the buff guys I know, like Blake and some of the elders out right now, use that stuff. So we’ll see what it does to me haha. It’s really good so even if it doesn’t work, it tastes way good.

Anyways, this week was pretty good. Kinda a down week but I’m not letting it get to me. We have a lot of investigators, but none are really progressing. So we just did a lot of tracting and doorstop visits with these investigators. It’s kind of annoying because they all say they’re so busy and don’t have time to meet with us, yet they always seem to be home whenever we try by them. Whatev. But hopefully we can give them something they love and spark some interest so they do want a return appointment and to start progressing. But tracting was fun. Met some interesting people out and about. Marquette is the home of Northern Michigan University, so we are getting quite the influx of students now. There are several professors in the ward and they said to expect about 10,000 students coming in these next couple weeks. Pretty crazy. But yeah, hopefully we’ll see about getting some college kids interested. We’ve talked to several already. One thing that really bugs me about elder Turney is that he NEVER talks to teenagers. He is also very VERY by the book. Drives me nuts. So if we see a teenager outside, boy or girl, he just acts like they aren’t there and then he tells me later that we aren’t supposed to talk to teenagers…but it never says that in the white handbook and tons of baptisms have come because of teenagers. But oh well, I still do what he says. We have been playing a fun game though…the license plate game!! We have found 26 of the states up here in the U.P.!! Who woulda thunk it? I just barely found Washington, so I’m pretty stoked about that. But my goal is to find at least 49, Hawaii would be cool, but probably won’t find it.

One of the guys we are sort of teaching, that super old guy Tom Normand, he’s 77, he told us some of his daughters friends were mormon, but we had never heard of them, so we got their addresses and went and checked it out the other day. They definitely were not, and were not too happy to see us. But, they did give us referrals!! Even referrals from grumpy non members are good. So give the missionarys referrals!! But anyways, they told us, “well, you could try by our drug dealer and drug pushing neighbors, they aren’t too good and need some religion in our lives. You could also try by our other neighbors, they’re way weird, but they could use some too.” So, you know, not really the people I’d like to meet the most, but hey, those are some of my lost brothers and sisters! Unfortunately, they weren’t home… darn. But, we will be trying again.

This is an exciting story…so, on Saturday, we decided to go out to Ishpeming and Negaunee. We tried by this guy named Grant who has been dogging us the past times we’ve tried by him, but we finally caught him home this time. But, he was drunker than a sailor. Turns out he found out that his wife/girlfriend was cheating on him and was “sippin” some vodka that day. I’m pretty sure he had to have downed at least a few bottles. But he was cussin every other word, sayin weird stuff, and just talking nonsense. Elder Turney was like awestruck, almost like he’s never seen a drunk person or something…but I have and I wasn’t too worried or afraid like he was. It was pretty funny. So I did all the talking this time. He seemed to like me. But this was the funny part, he was talking just about how awesome he thought he is and just cranked Bruce Springsteen and started rockin out to it and singing and dancing and stuff. And then he’s like “I can do stuff that most other men can’t do, even if I was crippled I could still do this stuff.” Except throw in several cuss words and you’ll understand more…but turns out he’s a chainsaw artist and is quite good if I do say. He was showing us some of his things he made, and several pictures, all the while rockin out to Springsteen. Elder Turney was pretty uncomftorable and asked him to turn it down, about the only thing he said the whole time. But after a while, he got back on the topic of his girlfriend. I asked him if he prayed about it or read the bible to comfort him. He said no but that that was a good idea. I asked him if he liked Garth Brooks and if he had listened to the song Unanswered Prayers. He said that it was funny I asked that because he’d just bought his CD that day with that song on it, and he doesn’t even really like country that much. But I told him I love that song and that he should have a listen and maybe that would help him out a little bit. See mom, country helps everything! But yeah, that had to have been the most interesting experience of my mission thus far.

We had zone conference this week. It was down in Shawano Wisconsin, like 5 hours away from Marquette. We’re so isolated up here, it’s kinda lame. But anyway, I saw Elder Cottle and Olsen from my MTC district there! Elder Olsen was my MTC comp if you forgot. But it was awesome to see them and catch up with them and stuff. Our transfer theme this time is repentance. So we talked a lot about that and how we should have better faith not only in ourselves, but in our investigators to overcome obstacles and trials in our lives. Pres. Barrett also emphasized praying for, and expecting results. If we don’t expect, then why should we receive? I really liked that and have been doing that since then. So I would encourage all of you to do likewise. Prayer is so amazing and I know that even though your prayers may not be answered your way and in the time you want it, they will be answered. Well heck, you might as well listen to Unanswered Prayers yourself!! Good song, but I do love prayer, anything is possible with our faith in Christ and in prayer.

This week should be exciting though, we are helping out at the U.P. State Fair!!! Woohoo!! I love the fair! But it will be way fun. The church has a booth set up and we are signed up to help out one of the days. So I’m pretty pumped about that. Also, Pres. Barrett will be up here next week to hold a fireside for the ward, probably about missionary work. I’m pretty excited. I love Pres. Barrett so much. He is totally awesome. And I keep trying to imagine what Curt is like as a mission president. It seems like, and is, a ton of work. I couldn’t do it. But a lot of people say they couldn’t be missionaries, and I’m doing that!! But I love being out here, I’m learning so much, meeting a ton of cool/interesting people, helping them have a chance to hear the gospel, and just doing my job as a missionary. Nothin better in the world!! I’m glad that I was raised in such a way to be here and that the church is true. No way I would be here if I didn’t know that. That’d be quite the waste of time if I didn’t know it was true and was trying to convince others that it was true. But even now still sometimes, I pray and take up Moroni’s promise, to read and pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. That is found in Moroni 10:4-5. I would encourage you to do the same. Ask in faith and it will be made known unto you. I already know that it’s true, but I just love the feeling the Holy Ghost brings to me and I don’t know anybody who doesn’t enjoy it. So that’s my commitment I leave with you this week! Read and pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true. And also, continue to pray for the missionaries and that our investigators will have that desire to keep learning and having that desire to grow.

I love you all!!

Keep those letters coming!

Love,
Elder Kissell

p.s.... I need some music!! I'm all about country music you all know, but it needs to be church appropriate, and i have found some country gospel CD's at Walmart with Alan Jackson and Randy Travis. MoTab is good too, but i really don't like Elder Turney's musical selection, he probably doesn't like mine either, but CD's would be sweet!! Love you!

PICTURES!!!!!

1,2,3,4 are all just air views of Marquette. Notice the large and in charge Catholic Cathedral...


5. Bad picture of what i thought would make a good picture in an elevator...oh well


6. Our apartment, can you find Jesus?


7. We got a trophy for having the cleanest truck at zone conference... a cow.


8. The truck.

Sweet Week in Marquette

Howdy everybody!!

Well, it was definetely a sweet week in my world. It is always great getting letters from you all, as always, and yeah, they're awesome. Keep it up!
So yeah, this week was pretty cool, but it was quite the roller coaster ride sometimes and not too fun. But like at the end of most roller coasters, you think you’re gonna be sick, but you were glad you did it. That’s how this week was! So I’ll just start off from the beginning and rattle it off.

Tuesday is our district meeting day. We usually have it in either Iron Mountain or Escanaba. I don’t know why because Marquette is the most central place and those places are about 2 hours away from us. Anyways…this week it was in Escanaba. On the way back up with the Houghton elders, we stopped by and visited a lady who lives in a town named Gwinn about 45 min away from Marquette and gave her the sacrament. She is the sweetest old lady in the world. Unfortunately, she’s been recently diagnosed with breast cancer and has not been able to come to church because of that. She was a very active member of the church and came every week but has not been able to due to this. Pretty sad. But she is the sweetest lady in the world. She’s in her 70’s and has just recently lost her hair due to the chemo. But we called and just confirmed our being there and when we got there she greeted the 4 us with brownies! So cool. So we sat and talked with her for some time and just gave her some company and then we gave her the sacrament. She was so grateful, but I could just tell she wanted/needed something more so I asked if there was anything else we could do for her. At first she said no and then I said “are you sure?” And then she said that she really wanted and needed a blessing but was too afraid to ask. Her eyes were already filling with tears as we gathered around and started giving the blessing. By the end of the blessing, the front of her shirt was covered in tears. The spirit was so strong and so real. The priesthood is so amazing and is back on this earth today. It almost felt like something was going through us and into her. It was so cool. Then she went around the circle and gave the 4 of us nice big hugs. It made my day, maybe even my week, maybe even my mission so far. The spirit was so strong there and it was just a sweet sweet experience. Those are just the kind of things a missionary lives for.

The next big event this week was that we started teaching Zach’s ex-wife Jen. To my understanding, they still have a good enough relationship, he didn’t object to us teaching her or anything and he just kind of laughed and said good luck. But the lesson went really well. She has part custody of the kids and so they were all there which was really good. We brought Pres. Compton (2nd counselor in the stake presidency, lives here in Marquette and is flippin cool) and he helped us teach. She listened really intently and had good questions and we have a return appointment with her. So I’m pretty excited. So this was eventful yes, but not the main thing I was going to talk about. Chelsea, Zach’s oldest daughter, she’s 14, acted like she wanted to tell us something right from the start when we got there, and she finally asked us. She asked “what happens if somebody gets baptized into your church after they say they don’t smoke and drink anymore but they’re still doing it and lying to you and telling his kids not to say anything?” That pretty much just crushed us. We knew exactly who she was talking about, Zach, and we were kind of just speechless for a couple seconds and Elder Turney said something, I dunno what, but it was too the effect that repentance was available to everybody and that he wouldn’t get kicked out of the church or anything. But yeah. That was really hard and not too cool at all. The next day we had an appointment with Zach, and bishop was going to be coming with us. We were going to teach about priesthood and auxillaries but both felt that enduring to the end might be a better topic to teach. So that’s what we did. It went really well, shared a few scriptures, and just talked a lot about endurance and repentance, something we all need. And again, you could tell that he had something on his mind and something he was thinking about and wanting to tell us. He mentioned something to the effect of what happens if you slip up, and bishop jumped on that and asked what he might be afraid of slipping up on. By the way, we told bishop about this so he knew. And then Zach told us that he had slipped up on the word of wisdom and had smoked and drank a few times after he was baptized. He was really sorrowful and sorry and felt terrible. Bishop talked with him and gave him a lot of encouragement and it was just really awesome. Zach is an awesome guy and is totally honest. We didn’t even have to pry it out of him, and he just told us straight up. He’s a great guy. So yeah, bad situation made good again! Elder Turney and I were pretty crushed though for that day. First time I felt something like that. And unfortunately, probably not the last.

Friday was temple day!! Well, leaving for the temple day…we left at 5 p.m. Friday and got there at 1 a.m. Saturday! It’s like a 7 hour ride from Marquette to Chicago. It was crazy. So be thankful that temples are so close to the rest of you guys!! But it was a really fun bus ride, talked to everybody on the bus, got to know them better, talked and chilled with the youth, watched movies…if they were “appropriate” for us. Missionaries have pretty strict rules for what we can and can’t watch. Kinda lame. But it was a lot of fun. Saturday at the temple was amazing. I wasn’t too sold on the picture of the temple on how pretty it was, but in real life, man it was pretty. I loved it. Just the way all those spires and things are all over the place and the granite/marble/whatever it’s built with, just looks cool. I loved it. But it was quite the day for us there. We were witnesses for the youth baptisms (the font was really cool), did initiatory work for several people, and did an endowment session. It was super fun and amazing. I love the temple so much. Afterwards, we went out and took some pictures and stuff and then got back on the bus and headed home. It was pretty funny, elder Turney saw some people from his last ward he served in and we talked with them for a bit. One lady when I shook her hand she screamed and I kinda freaked out. I started apologizing but I told her I didn’t know what I did! She said that I had the strongest handshake out of anybody she’s met and said that I’d better not do that when I get home with the girls I date or I might scare them and break their hands or something. It was pretty funny. So she taught me how to shake a girls hand, now I know. Phew. But bus ride home was fun, got to see Milwaukee again and the Wisconsin countryside. Quite pretty. It was still super muggy and nasty in Wisconsin and Chicago too. I’m so glad it’s not like that up here, I would not be happy.

Then on Sunday, we visited quite a few people after church, but the coolest one we did was again going with the bishop and visiting a part member family. It was actually a couple, but whatever. But Pete Judici and his wife Dusti, are awesome. Pete is dying of throat, mouth, and tongue cancer and is a less active member. Sad and crazy thing is, is that he has never smoked or chewed tobacco in his life and he has all those cancers! I would be pretty frustrated. But they were both super happy to see us and gave us all hugs and we sat and talked with them for a while. Bishop is a doctor, and Dusti is one of his nurses, so she is very good friends with him and his family so she knows about the church. Bishop feels that she’s ready for the gospel so he took us with him this time to meet them. It was awesome. Bishop just shared what he believes and why he loves this church so much, so basically just his testimony. A very strong one too. Then he asked us to share a brief restoration lesson and share our testimonys as well. By the end of this, Dusti was in tears, with a Book of Mormon in her hand, wanting to learn more. It was so amazing. She is totally ready and willing to listen to us, yet another lost sheep found. But, we have to keep that sheep with us and not let her run away again, so we need to start teaching her and teaching her now!! But yeah, it was very amazing and wonderful. I love doing this so much.

And another cool thing we did was we stopped by another less active guy, his name is Gene, and we finally caught him home after trying to catch him since I have been here. He just got a total hip replacement and is recovering well. His wife is a technical member but went anti after learning about polygamy and stuff…lame. But he still has a very strong testimony and loves the gospel. But we talked with him for quite a while and he mentioned that his friend had just recently passed away. Although he knew about the plan of salvation, he still asked us a few questions and I felt it would be good to share my testimony about dad and my experience and views about the plan of salvation. I am glad I did. He seemed really touched by it and it always helps me to feel the spirit and grow stronger in my knowledge and faith. He then asked for a blessing and so I gave him one. It was so cool. It was one of those things where you are talking and talking, and then when you’re done, you have no idea what you said. That’s because it wasn’t you talking. It was the Holy Ghost. It was so cool. I know this church is true. I love it so much. I know I have said this before, but every week, every day, my testimony and faith in this church just grows stronger and stronger. The priesthood, the authority to act in God’s name, is back on the earth, never to be taken away again. Same as this church, it ain’t goin anywhere. I love being a missionary and teaching these great people, investigator or less active, it doesn’t matter. In last months Ensign I think it was, Pres. Monsons story about the sugar beets explains it perfectly. If you don’t know what it is, read it. It’s in the Ensign with the African painting on the front. He just says that there is as much worth in less active members as there are in new members and all need to be helped out and saved. So I just encourage all of you, whoever is reading this, to read that article and to help those people out who are having a hard time in the church. Also, be a missionary!! This is FUN!!! In case you can’t tell, I love it. It may seem hard, but just do it. You will be blessed so greatly and you will help so many people. And you in turn will love it too!

I love you so much and I hope this week goes amazing for you all!!

Love
Elder Kissell

Transfer #1-Complete

Hello hello!

It sure is fun to get your letters! They always make me smile and make my day, especially if times are tough. But I try to not have too many of those.

This week has been pretty awesome. I finally got to ride my bike!! that was way fun. And yesterday, Zach and Sky WERE confirmed!! It was pretty interesting what Zach wore though. The past few sundays he has actually dressed up in shirt and tie and stuff but yesterday, he came in an old shirt and pair of jeans to be confirmed. Later that night we dropped by to just say hi because we were in the neighborhood and he explained why he was wearing that instead of dressing up. So the shirt he was wearing was his companys shirt that he went out with in the army. He said that when he went into the military and overseas that that was when he lost religion from his life and that it really sucked. But he wore that shirt yesterday when he was confirmed because religion is back in his life now more than ever. And he loves it. It's pretty awesome i think. I like him alot. I was given the privelege of confirming Sky and that was really awesome. I was pretty nervous before i did but i figured who's going to care if i mess up or studder or something? I didn't screw up at all and it just felt so cool saying "recieve the Holy Ghost". You could totally feel the spirit and the love that Christ has for us. I love being a missionary so stinkin much. So yeah, that was an amazing start to a wonderful day for sure. That one weird guy i talked about a few weeks ago who played his harmonica during church was back again. The bad thing about him is that he feels kind of jaded towards the church because he wasn't allowed to go to the temple because of lack of preparation. So he feels like the church hates him and he always brings a contentious spirit during classes and it's not cool. But sometimes he says some things that just make me laugh. I try to hold it back but sometimes it's just not possible. But more than not, a primary teacher forgets to prepare a lesson and we have to teach a primary class. It was pretty fun though. We taught the 10 year olds yesterday, just about missionary work and played hangman. It was sweet. But after church, we made our rounds visiting people who didn't come or couldn't come to church. Then we headed up to Champion with a family named the Jones's to go visit them. I don't believe i have talked about this family much though who lives in Champion. They're the Pendaz family. They're very very strange to put it politely. Bro. and Sis. Pendaz are baptized but have not come to church in 6-7 years. They didn't even know who Thomas Monson was. But anyways, you can't understand hardly anything Bro. Pendaz says, i'm getting better at it though. And they have a son named Harlan who is 11 and he is the most stubborn kid i know, he drives me CRAZY! Sis Pendaz is a junk collector. Our house/garage is NOTHING compared to what they have. You have to jump over stuff in the hallways to just get to the kitchen table, which likewise is covered in more stuff that you have to put on the ground. ANYWAYS!!! Harlan is not baptized. He wants to be so he can "be like his old man". That's the only reason. And he won't listen to us when we are telling him what baptism entails and what he needs to start doing in his life to be baptized. He drives me nuts to say it lightly. I just want to have a very blunt, straight forward conversation with him but Elder Turney won't let that fly. Probably a good thing. But he doesn't participate in our lessons, he's a jerk to us when we call to see how he's doing, and yeah, he's just weird. But he is a child of God and he loves him too so i need to too.....it might take me a while though. And sadly, he is really our only progressing investigator. We have been having a hard time contacting the others.
But our investigators that we do have our awesome. We are getting better at it but it's just really hard setting up solid appointments where we can teach them and possibly have a member there. But sometimes we just barely catch them right before they leave and teach them a 5 min lesson or something. The Dunklees (redneck family) live like 45 minutes away and have been at several camps this summer and haven't been able to see them much but they're all done with camps now and so we should be starting to teach them again and hopefully filling up the font for them soon. The whole family was at church yesterday. All like 9 of them. So that was way cool. But the ward council is really pleased with us. We have been focusing alot on less active members and families and sharing scriptures and teaching them and inviting them out to church and bringing them back to the fold. It's pretty neat. We got one family, well part of it, who hasn't been to church in about 3 years, to come back. That was neat. But they have a daughter who is autistic and sleeping disorders on top of that and they are constantly dead tired and aren't able to do a whole lot so that's too bad. And plus, they live like a half hour away in Ishpeming. But hopefully we get the Pendaz's back after 6 years! That would be sweet. But our investigators are doing way good and even though they aren't progressing now, they will be.

The end of the transfer is coming up on the 6th and i will thankfully be staying here in Marquette at least one more transfer, probably/possibly more. A transfer is 6 weeks. Elder Turney and i are still getting along pretty well. Although he does do some things that kind of annoy me...alot. But i just need to build the courage up to tell him to knock it off. But he cuts me off all the time and that is one of my biggest pet peeves and he also will only stay at members houses for like 5 minutes max. Like last week we stopped by a members house to see if they were back from their trip to oregon and they were and they went and got pictures to show us and about a 2 minutes into it he said that we had to be at an appointment soon and that we needed to get going...we had nothing for about an hour. But just things like that he does that just drives me nuts. But he is a good missionary and we still teach well together and get along just fine. He is also here for 6 more weeks. We had companion exchanges this week too. Elder Crossley who serves in Houghton and also came out at the same time as i did, came down here to Marquette and we made the rounds and taught several lessons. It's kind of sad, but it seems like when we are on exchanges, we get so much more done! With both Elder Allred and Crossley, we contacted so many referrals and had so many more lessons than what elder Turney and i do. I think it's probably because we actually talk to people and take the time to figure out who they are and what they need. Something elder Turney hasn't figured out that might be helpful. But elder Crossley is super cool and we had a ton of fun and a ton of success that day. I also gave my first priesthood blessing with him that day. I have participated in several, before and during my mission, but had never given the actual blessing. But during lunch at Culvers, the mission office called and said that a lady on vacation from Arizona was in an ATV accident and was in the hospital going into surgery in a half hour at 1 and needed a blessing. So we were quite a ways away from the hospital so i had to break a few speed limits (that doesn't sound like me does it?) to get there on time. We got there like 2 minutes before 1 and it turns out that she actually went in at 4. It was 1 Arizona time. So we were 3 hours early and that gave us plenty of time to give her a blessing. It was really neat though. The priesthood is pretty awesome for sure. I love it.

There was one day this week i was hardcore homesick. I missed everything about home. It wasn't cool. It was actually the first time i had been homesick. I had missed things about home but never been homesick. But thankfully it only lasted about a day. I even missed cleaning up dog poop, how weird is that? Anyways, i kept it to myself, wasn't super productive, and realized that i needed to be doin what i was assigned to do. So i sincerely prayed that i would not be homesick and that everything would be fine back home and that i would be doing what i needed to do with his guidance. Next day, perfecto. It was awesome. Prayer is so cool. It works for anything. So if times are hard, just pray. You'll be answered in one way or another. Just be open to the possibilitys and you will be so greatly blessed.

The weather has been pretty weak sauce here according to all the Yoopers. I like it though. It is always like 68 degrees and very comftorable with slacks and shirts on. I guess it's usually in the 90's by now but it has consistently been under 70 degrees. The bad thing with when it gets that hot is that it's muggy so i'm totally fine with it not being hot. Although i do greatly miss Wenatchee heat and being able to just go jump in the river whenever. But it's a really pretty day now and it sure is beautiful here. With all the rain that we get, everything is green. Nobody even has sprinkler systems! That's also due in part that winter is 6 months of the year...fun. But i honestly hope that i am here in the winter time. The UP gets a ton of snow and it isn't as cold as Wisconsin. I think that'd be cool. But we'll see.

WWWWWWWWWWeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllll......I can't think of a whole ton more of news. But i did tell a lady in our ward, Sis. Jones, that i missed your apple pies alot. She said she would make me apple dumplings! Never had those i don't think, but she says if i like apple pie i'll like those. I also discussed with her my love of peanut butter, as she likewise has. Her favorite dessert is peanut butter-chocolate pie...hooray! She also said that she would make me one of them too. I am pretty excited about that. I also got a package from the wells! that was pretty exciting. Lots of goodies in that.

But yeah, nothing else i can really totally think of. Except that being a missionary is sweeeeeeeet. It is hard sometimes but just put your trust in God and it is fun! The scriptures are amazing and i am learning so much. I also reccomend for anybody reading this, the book called Our Search for Happiness. It is a book written by M. Russel Ballard and it is totally awesome. It is one of the books in the missionary library that i have been reading. It is super cool. I'm not going to tell you what it's about because i want YOU to read it.
But, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep keeping me updated!!!

Love your elder:)
Elder Jesse Kissell

Yo yo!

Well hello!!!

Life here in the UP has been pretty sweet this past week. Although there were a few downers, but hey that's ok. The main one is that Zach and Sky didn't come to church yesterday and so we have to wait a whole other week for them to get confirmed... lame. But his kids got pretty sick at a party and then they got him sick so yeah, lame. But next week will be the week! Zach is being confirmed by the elders quorum president who is one of his pretty good friends, and i am confirming Sky! Scary! It'll be the first priesthood blessing i've done. I've done alot of consecrating but none of the actual blessings. But hey, it'll be quite the experience. Just gotta jump right in and get it over with! Kinda like jumping into the Icicle River haha.
But yesterday was a pretty funny day at church, besides the fact Zach and Sky didn't show. Bro. Cherry, 1st counselor in the bishopric realized he had forgotten to assign talks. Not good. So we had a mini testimony meeting pretty much. He had some of the youth bear their testimonies and share experiences from EFY, girls camp, scout camp, and high adventures. Of course that only lasted like 5 minutes with about 10 youth fitting in that 5 minutes, but that's ok. It was pretty funny listening to the boys talk about scout camp and their high adventure. They went on a 180 mile bike ride to the very tip of the UP and so there was a lot of complaining and such. But it was funny. And the youth leaders were asked to bear their testimonies and then we had the branch president from Houghton down here for some reason and they asked him to say something as well. He talks alot so we killed some time with that. But after he was done talking, he said "Well, i would really like to sing you one of my favorite patriotic songs." And i was just kind of in awe just like uhh...really? So he goes over to the piano, uncovers it, and starts singing and playing this really weird version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It was so stinkin funny. I was trying so hard not to laugh. I had the biggest smile off my face and if it went just 5 seconds longer, i don't think i could've held it any longer. And just looking around, people had kind of the same looks on the face, it was just so random and so weird. Totally made my day and made up for Zach not coming. But the rest of church was good and we also had a stake priesthood meeting last night. Did you know that i am a part of the largest land covering stake in the U.S.? Pretty sweet. So we had to drive for 2 hours last night to get to that, kinda reminds me of how it would feel to drive down from Brewster or Twisp or something. Pretty crazy. But anyways, priesthood meeting rocked. We even got to take a nap on the way down! Elder Turney tells me you can usually tell how long a missionary has been out by how dead he looks because of sleep deprevation. So the nap was good. But the meeting was very good. Missionary work was emphasized a ton. They were pleased to tell us that this stake had the lowest baptismal rate in the mission but in the past year has risen to the top. So that's neat. There were also a ton of elders down there too so it was good to see them. It's crazy how well you get to know and like these guys. Awesome.

Had a few pretty cool/weird tracting experiences this week. So Turney and I were walking down the street and i heard some girl yell at us. So i turn and look and there's like 4 of them over there. But right then, Turney starts talking to this kid on the side of the road i didn't see. So we finish talking to him, and then head over to them. A couple of these girls were just W-A-S-T-E-D, beer cans all over, they were smoking, the whole 9 yards. And i was thinkin, is this really worth our time? But it got better. 2 out of the 4 were sober, so we could at least teach them. So we taught all of them. But they were all way interested in what we were talking about, except one, she might as well have not even been there she was so drunk. She was weird. But Turney ended up talking to half of them and i end up talking to half. We were both talking about the restoration and just answering some of their random questions. But then, this native american indian guy comes walking down the road with a beer and cigarette in hand. The girls were like "hey dude wanna come chill and talk to these mormon guys?" And he was like alright sweet. So he comes over, and just is totally trying to hit on these girls. Pretty weird. And they didn't even know this guy! It was so random and funny. I couldn't help but laugh, so i did. But we finally got through the lesson, which was only supposed to last 10 minutes at most, in about 45 minutes, and went on our merry way. But we got 1 technical new investigator, she was one of the sober ones, and one of the drunk (not as drunk) ones is very interested too. We'll try by her on a better day though haha. But yeah, funny stuff. We're teaching Stephanie, our new investigator one, tonight so i'm pretty excited for that. We've also finally been getting referrals from members! So we've found at least 2 new potential investigators we are going to teach later this week. So if they keep comin, we'll keep teachin. It's so much cooler getting a referral than tracting, believe it or not. So help out your elders by giving them referrals and not making them tract!!

We went on exchanges last week and we are again tomorrow. I had Elder Allred come up to Marquette and we made the rounds. Exchanges are way fun. All the elders in our zone rock. Elder Allred is an amazing piano player and just makes stuff up as he goes along. He's nuts. And tomorrow, Elder Crossley, who was actually Blakes MTC companion, is coming down to Marquette. He is a motocross rider. They're the guys who do crazy tricks on dirtbikes. He's way cool. I'm lookin forward to that.

It's been raining a ton here this week. It's pretty weird, sometimes it's like you're just walking around in a misting machine. It would feel good if it was HOT but it isn't... it's like 60 degrees haha. I pretty much miss Wenatchee summers, but i bet it isn't too comfy for them when they're all dressed up and stuff. So i'll look at it that way. I like it fine though...i ain't complaining. It was pretty funny one day though, there was this weird fog stuff that didn't look like fog, so we asked a lady while we were tracting and she said "oh that's just fog, it's not a bad omen or anything for you guys so you don't need to worry." Wow...thank you! But it got SUPER foggy that day, so it was way cool. It's pretty neat, we have a fox that lives in the trees behind our house. He comes runnin by with a bird in his mouth sometimes. I've never seen a fox before so i think that's cool.

Elder Turney has been here for quite a while, since February actually. So his time here could be coming to an end unfortunately. Transfers are on the 6th and i really don't want him or I to be transferred. I love it up here and i would be freakin out without him. He is way organized, i am not. We get along great, sometimes we have a clash with music but that's ok. He is kind of weird sometimes and says some things that you don't really know what to say back to. But besides that awkwardness, he's awesome. I think we'll be together for another transfer though. All 3 baptisms that have happened this year have been as a result from him. He has taught all of those baptized. So people here like him. Hopefully they'll like me too. I haven't done anything bad yet so i'm pretty sure i'm good haha.

I was pretty excited the other day though, at Walmart, they had STEMILT APPLES!!!! It was sweet! So i bought some and thoroughly enjoyed them. It's a pretty drastic difference between the taste of Washington apples and Wisconsin apples. I also for some reason had a ton of leftover money in my account today so i bought some hamburger and some ribs that i'm going to grill up in our CHARCOAL GRILL!!! I didn't buy that though, don't worry. So i'm pretty pumped. And Elder Turney is a health freak, again, so i won't have to worry about him eating any of my stuff. Maybe i've been given all these health freak companions for a reason? I
dunno... but i'm still eating the same!

Well.....i don't have too much more news for ya'll. Just keep writing me and i'll write you back!! It's that simple! It's great hearing from you and i love you and miss you guys all so so much.

I've found a pretty awesome scripture too that i think you guys will like. It's in Alma 38:5-6. I love it. It's just about how all we need to do in the hard times of life is just put our trust in the Lord and he will help us out. We all have hard times and it's just that simple. I love this church and i love being a missionary. This IS the ONLY true church on this earth and i am proud to be working for the Lord this next year and 10 months. It is SWEET!!!!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
LOVE YOU MOM!!!!!!!!!
YOU ROCK!!!

Love,
Elder Kissell

by the way...could you send me my dad blanket? And also, it would be awesome if you could take my truck into toyota to have them do a FULL SERVICE on it. I remember that before i left it would come close to over heating, so that needs to be checked. Just have them run the works on it and it'll be good. Thank you!

PICTURES
sorry...there ain't too many this week. I'll do better!


1. the first picture are a couple of my young men buddies, Josh and Aaron

2. Elder Allred and I exchanging back in Sagola. Like my face? haha

3. Me

4. Trying to creep out/annoy elder turney in the bathroom haha.

5. Way foggy Marquette. You would usually be able to see Lake Superior down there, but nope. It was pretty cool though, all the ships were using their foghorns so it was pretty loud.

Howdy from Marquette County

Howdy howdy!!!

Well this week was SWEET!!! Yesterday was the big day for Zach and Skys baptism! It was super awesome. But, I will start from the beginning and save the best for last!

Well, Tuesdays are our district meeting days and we either go to one of two places. Either Iron Mountain or Escanaba, so far I have only been to Iron Mountain. But it is a really pretty drive down there and lots of things to look at. Probably about an hour and a half away or so. So like driving to Moses Lake. But it was a good one, we did it differently than we had done any of our other district meetings, we just discussed our investigators and how we can meet their needs. Usually we just talk about better ways to teach and stuff. But turns out that we ARE supposed to do them that way anyways so it was good. But on the way back, we stopped in a dinky little town called Champion. Fun fact about Champion, it is the horse pulling capital of the U.P. They might as well make it horse pulling capital of the world because nobody cares. But they do, it’s right on their welcome to Champion sign haha. But these people we visited here were honestly probably the weirdest people I’ve met yet on my mission. Elder Turney said that last time he went to visit this family, the guy answered the door with a machete around his neck so I didn’t really know what to expect haha. But they were all there and they were pretty weird. No machetes though. But they’re just one of those familys you just can’t figure out why they’re so strange. He said the reason they stopped coming to church 4 years ago was because a guy brought a gun to church and was cleaning it and pointing it at him. Yeah right! But that was his reason but we told him that that guy had moved and it would be ok for them to come now. But they still didn’t. But they have an 11 year old son who isn’t baptized and he wants to be but we don’t think they really understand what baptism is really all about. So we are going to try to address that and fix that problem and hopefully baptize him! But yeah, pretty weird. But one thing that Pres. Barrett has emphasized a lot, as well as our bishop, is reactivating less actives. That is just as important as baptisms. So we have been doing a ton of that. There are several less active members in Negaunee and Ishpeming we are trying to reactivate and not having a ton of luck yet but we have found some and talked with them for a while. Hopefully we’ll be seeing them more often. But the ward really isn’t that big here in Marquette so we are trying to get more of those people reactivated to ensure we don’t turn into a branch. That would stink.
Wednesday was a pretty sweet day. Did our “service” and taught quite a few lessons, some to members and some to investigators. Pres. Barrett has also emphasized teaching lessons to active members so that they will see our teaching styles and possibly give us referrals to their friends that they think we would teach well to. But no such luck there yet. It is pretty fun though to teach them and reaffirm what they already believe and such so fun stuff.

That day we also had a run in with some Jehovahs Witnesses…yup. Pretty awesome. We had a priest with us at the time and were knocking on our appointments’ door and the apartment next to us thought we were knocking on theirs and answered. But unfortunately, that was the Jehovahs Witnesses apartment. And our set appointment wasn’t home so we were stuck with these guys for a whole stinkin hour! It was retarded. Elder Turney doesn’t like being wrong, I can’t think super well on my feet, and this priest kid named James thinks he can negate everything that these guys are saying. So pretty much all I did was stand there and I said a few things here and there but mostly just listened and observed some bible bashing action. JW’s have some pretty interesting beliefs. I’ve never met one or seen one and I had no idea what they believed, but now I do! But when I did talk, I would say that we had to get going or I would invite them to visit our website, but Turney just kept talking! So yeah, huge waste of time but it was interesting and fun sometimes. But still pretty lame. But afterwards, Turney was pretty bummed about being there so long and kept on apologizing and stuff to me. But it was totally fine, I forgive easily. But he was pretty mad at himself for awhile until we went tracting again and had another sweet experience. We met this guy, I think I might’ve mentioned him last week, but his name is Tom Normand and he is a way old guy. He’s 76. But we taught him a restoration lesson that day and it was probably the best lesson I have taught. The spirit was totally there and he totally felt it. He asked really sweet questions and was very interested in what we were saying. We asked him to give the closing prayer and he did! It was totally awesome. He couldn’t read the Book of Mormon we gave him though so we had to find a large print for him to read. But the next appointment we had with him we read a chapter to him and he thought it was great. He said at that appointment he knows our message is true but he just wants to read more of the Book of Mormon before he comes to church. He is already talking about what happens after baptism so we know he is interested in that. Pretty sweet! Hopefully we can extend a baptismal date to him in our next appointment or so. But then later that night, the Zone Leaders came up and spent the night in preparation for the baptismal interview with Zach the next day. They’re super cool. So we went on exchanges with them for the night and went to some potentials and talked with some members and stuff like that. I really like them.

Thursday, we did our service again and had our weekly planning session. Not so fun. Usually takes 2 hours. But after that, visited a few more people and headed over to Zachs to interview him. But when we got there, only Zach was home, not Sky! So that was lame. But we just decided to have his baptism this week and hers next week or something. But Zach passed, hooray! And then the ZL’s and Elder Turney and I had to book it down to Green Bay right afterwards. There was a leadership training meeting down there that Turney had to go to in the morning. But after a solid 3 and a half hour ride we got there. Green Bay is a cool city. It is surprisingly small and pretty similar to Spokane. It has about 101,000 people. So not too bad. And it smells intensely of cows. Thus far, all of the stereotypes about Wisconsin have proven true. Pretty funny. But that night we just hung out with the other elders and went to bed because it was already about 9:30. They’re cool dudes down there in Green Bay. But we found out from the ZL’s that Sky could still get baptized on Sunday because a ZL could go up with one of the assistants on exchanges to interview her because the assistants have unlimited miles in their car. So we called Zach and told him that. He explained to us in what turned out to be an hour long phone call that he didn’t think she was ready yet. So we kind of had to agree with him. But after some discussing with the ZL’s we decided that we should call him back and have one of them talk to him. But just then he called back and Sky wanted to talk to Turney. She was pretty sad but after talking to her for a while, he thought she would be ready too. So the ZL’s talked to Zach again and for some reason he liked what they said and he decided that would be fine. So long story short, Sky was going to get interviewed!

Next day was pretty sweet. I went on exchanges with a Hmong and a Spanish elder. Usually if you are with another language speaking elder, you are called a “zebra” companionship. But since it was 3 totally different languages, people called us a “chameleon” companionship. Pretty funny. But these elders were super cool and a ton of fun. We did service for a member of the church and mowed their long and stuff. He rewarded us with a TON of cheese. He is an international cheese salesman…that’s right. I’m not lying. And he is pretty wealthy. Anyways, that cheese was awesome. I finally got my cheese fix! I finally got to drive that day too! Neither of these elders had drivers licenses because Elder Lokboj, he’s from the Marshall islands, didn’t get his record transferred. And Elder Alestia did street racing back home and that’s illegal so I was pretty happy. But yeah, we had a pretty good day. Visited some of their investigators down there and met some Hmong and Spanish people. Fun stuff. But these elders were awesome and way funny so it made for a great day.

Wisconsin weather is really weird too. It is raining torrentially hard one minute and the next, there is nothing. Pretty random and weird. But after exchanges we headed back up to Marquette to interview Sky. Got there just in time and she passed too!! Hooray.

Saturday was fun, we helped at a triathlon! Basically it consisted of us telling kids to go this way and telling them they were doing awesome. They do a thing like the Ridge to River in Negaunee here and we helped at the kids one. Pretty fun. And I got a free tshirt out of it! Can’t beat that! But we visited our members up there and got free food from some of them… can’t deny that. Helped a member move, did that pretty fast. And then we had another appointment with Tom again. He again was very accepting and loved it. Pretty excited for him.

Sunday was sweeet!!! The talks were about temples and Zach was way interested in that so that was totally sweet. In our gospel doctrine class, we have some “different” people that come and we usually get on some pretty strange topics. But Zach really focused on temples and that was pretty neat. He is pretty interested and excited to do that. And then Elder Turney and I had to teach Elders quorum which stinked because we had no time to prepare, but it went just fine. Then baptism time!! Elder Turney baptized both of them and I was kind of directing the thing. The room was packed and Zach and Sky were totally excited and pumped but pretty nervous too. They did awesome and the spirit was there hardcore. Zachs ex wife and his new girlfriend were there, both nonmembers, and thought it was really neat. His other 2 kids that are baptizeable were also there and seemed quite interested. We even had some of our other investigators show up and see what baptism was all about. Overall, it was pretty amazing and very successful. I was so happy and so proud of them all and loved every minute of it. But then afterwards we had dinner at Ernests house, the massive guy who likes to crush my hand whenever he shakes it, and it was actually pretty good. And then more missionary excitement with visiting people and trying by potentials. Pretty sweet week!!!!

My Culvers trip was successful. Pretty unhealthy though haha. Probably won’t do that again for a while. I suggest it whenever you are in the Midwest though that is for sure.

It has been another beautiful, comftorable week here in Marquette! Only 3 months of summer, if that, so I have to enjoy it! It is beautiful though!

Well, that is pretty much all my news for the week. But I enjoy your letters! Emails and snail mail! Keep them coming! Snail mail is pretty exciting though…hint hint. But either way, I love it!

And feel free to send me pictures over the email, I can see them, but you can send those snail mail to me too ya know! Haha.

I love you all!!!!!!!! I pray for all my family and loved ones every time I pray and if you are reading this email, that means I am praying for you and love you!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!! Haha..

Love,
Elder Jesse Merrill Kissell

The Marquette Weekly

Howdy ya’ll!

Well week 4! I’m already halfway over my first transfer! I only have 17 of these! Pretty crazy! But this week has gone pretty well that is for sure.

Zach, unfortunately, was scheduled to have his baptism on the 11th with his kid Sky. But he felt a little unprepared still with his smoking and some other things. So we postponed it til this Sunday, the 19th, and he is doing great. He hasn’t smoked since the 4th and has promised his kids to not buy anymore packs and yeah, he’s doing awesome.

We also started teaching these kids who have been adopted by a family in the church. They live in a little town about 20 min away called Gwinn. But these kids Sam (girl), Robbie, and Steve, are all way cool kids. Robbie and steve are a little mentally slow but are a couple of the nicest kids you’ll meet. We need to teach really simply towards them and have been doing good with that. They’re going to be out of town for a few weeks so we won’t be able to teach them for a bit but they are reading and praying and doing way good. And the Dunklees, like I mentioned in my last letter, are rednecks. They’re super cool and the parents always have good insight and opinions during the lessons. The mom is active but the dad is less active. He is still a great guy but has made a few wrong turns in his life but is turning back around. They both told us after one of our lessons that we are not only helping Sam, Steve and Robbie, but we are helping them and bringing a good spirit into their homes and helping things function much better than before. We had dinner with them one night this week and it was pretty interesting. The dad, in his mid 50’s, also had open heart surgery fairly recently, was wrestling with one of his kids, the rodeo cowboy, in the kitchen knocking over chairs and stuff and everybody just acted like it was totally natural. It was pretty funny. But Elder Turney had to take a phone call from Pres. Barrett and was talking to him for about 20 min so I got to talk to them all by myself for that whole time. It was pretty fun.

Also this week, we had a couple of pretty cool experiences tracting. We were in Ishpeming visiting some members, and when we walked out the door and were walking back to the truck, a lady pulled over and asked us where the church was. We said “well it’s not here it’s down in Harvey.” And she told us that she had lived here for 3 years and was a member and had not seen any missionaries or other members of the church for her entire time here. She’s a return missionary but married a non Mormon and hasn’t been to church in years. She also introduced us to her 2 boys and said “call me next week sometime so we can set up a time for you to come teach us and you can baptize my kids!” Ok!! Actually no, we don’t do it that easy…just kidding! So yeah that was pretty amazing. I’m very excited. We will probably be doing this on Tuesday or so. We’ll see. Then we met a girl here in Marquette whose mom is a member downstate but she has never shared anything with her about the gospel and has been curious for quite a while. So I guess we answered her prayers! But she’s way cool and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she was going to talk to her mom about it and we’re also going to teach her this week sometime. It was sweet. Also talked to some pretty weird people tracting too…one guy started shaking and studdering when we started talking to him. It almost seemed like he thought we were satan or something. It was way weird. Then one lady said that we are terrible people and we don’t believe in God and that our church is blasphemous and a bunch of other stuff. She said she is not going to wish us luck because we shouldn’t be dragging people into our church but that she will pray for us. People are crazy I’m telling ya. We also had a fun experience trying to find a very less active guy who lives in the same place as the Dunklees in Gwinn. It was on this back country dirt road winding through a thick forest and lots of lakes and no houses. It was pretty exciting. We finally found the house but he didn’t live there anymore and they told us that if we wanted to talk to him, we would have to find him ourselves. Thank you!! But yeah, it was a nice little drive haha.

It has actually been pretty warm up here this week. Usually in the 70’s and no humidity. We had a thunderstorm one night when we were getting ready for bed that dumped a lot of rain on us so that was pretty cool. But it was pretty humid that day but nothing like Milwaukee. It has also been quite windy a couple of days too, I hate the wind so that wasn’t fun. But overall, this week was a beautiful week. Definetely you all would love it up here. It reminds me a lot of Pullman I decided. There are a ton of hills, no mountains, and there are a ton of trees all over the place. It is really pretty. But there aren’t any wheat fields or anything, just the in town part reminds me a lot of Pullman. Also there isn’t a massive lake right next to Pullman. I just think it’s amazing how stinking huge lake superior is. It is just like the ocean. There are a couple of members up here who have lakefront property and it is awesome. There are usually little swampy areas in between the house and the lake and there are boardwalks over that and then you get to the lake and beach and it is just like the ocean. Complete with sand, shells, sailboats, and waves. It is way cool. The waves get pretty big too depending on the day.
Service was pretty cool this week. They got a chameleon so I had fun with that. His name is Ozzie and he is a little veiled chameleon, kind of like the one I had. But the kids like him a lot. That place is always so fun. Sometimes, I don’t know how, but the parents think that I’m just holding a fake snake around my neck so when they walk by they totally freak out when the snake moves in their direction to smell them and stuff. It’s pretty funny. Why would I just be holding a fake snake? Whatever haha.

I went on splits with the elders quorum president and another guy in our ward. It was pretty weird being without Elder Turney. But it was awesome because I didn’t have to abide by my least favorite mission rule…whenever you back up, the passenger has to get out and back the driver up. It is pretty annoying. Especially if your companion is from Germany and is a very scary driver. He is not a good driver haha. But he is a good elder and that’s what matters. He isn’t very good at turning around either so that entails a lot of backing up. Oh well. But yeah splits were cool, we visited a lot of less active members in Negaunee and Ishpeming. There are a TON of those who live out there, kinda sad. But we visited a lot of them and just showed them that we still cared about them and that we would love to have them at church.
Church is still going great. It was pretty funny Zach and his family yesterday came an hour early because they thought it started at 9 but it starts at 10. He was pretty confused because there was only like 5 cars in the parking lot and nobody was there. But we told him the story and he came back when it actually started. The organist, who was actually just here for the week visiting, played the organ really loud. So that meant that people actually sang! But it was REALLY loud organ. Kind of annoying sometimes, but hey at least people sang right? There was this new guy there who Turney said was a very less active member who hardly ever comes and has some pretty weird beliefs and is just a weird guy. He still seemed cool and I went to talk to him for a bit after sacrament. He has long hair and a long beard and when I was talking to him, he seemed just fine, a pretty cool and nice guy. But then in gospel principles he started talking about some pretty weird things… I won’t go into it but it made me think twice about him, pretty strange. Then in priesthood, we were talking about baptisms for the dead and I guess he’s had issues with not being allowed into the temple and he was being pretty bitter and contentious about it during the lesson, to the point that Zach asked if we could leave and go somewhere else. So we did and we just went and taught him in another rooms about temples and about the things we can do in there. It was pretty cool.

We are gaining the trust of the ward members here, especially the bishopric and their families. We talk to them frequently and they are surprised with all the people we are teaching and visiting and inviting. They mentioned that we were making the most progress out of many of the missionaries who have been here so that’s always great to hear. I’m not trying to brag or anything but we are doing awesome! We have a ward mission goal of 8 baptisms a year and that is very attainable for sure. There is already 2, and with Zach and his kids that makes 4 so now we have 6, then throw in Steve and Robbie and Sam and that’s 9! So yeah, it’s pretty cool. I was also going to tell you that we are allowed to go to the temple twice a year. The next temple trip is August 8th and we are planning on going. It will be in the Chicago temple so I’m pretty excited for that. It’s going to be a 2 day trip I believe since we are so far away from everything. Milwaukee is 7 hours away and Chicago I heard is about 2 hours away from Milwaukee, so around a 9 hour trip. But it’ll be sweet!

Some people have asked me in letters if I have eaten any authentic Michigan foods. You may not think there are any but there are! I believe I mentioned pasties, they’re like tinfoil dinners in a pot pie. A lot of people don’t like them but I do. They are pretty dry, but just throw some ketchup on there and life is good. A story about pasties…they make them in pocket like crusts so when loggers go out in the cold, they can put a hot pastie in their pockets so they can be warm. And they also have a flat crust around the edges so you can hold onto that part instead of the center part that you eat and not get it dirty. Pretty neato. Also, they have things called cudighis, pronounced coo-duh-hee. These are just Italian sausages soaked in red wine. They are also very good. The last elder who was here bought like 5 packages of them but then he got transferred so now they’re all mine! Haha. But yeah those are good. And also another big thing in the Midwest area, including Iowa (I saw a few there) is a place called Culvers. Culvers serves burgers called butter burgers. They’re essentially just a burger with a slab of butter on them. I’ve heard they’re delicious but I haven’t had one yet, we are going later today so I’m excited! They also serve custard. Custard is ice cream essentially that is made from milk and eggs. Sound healthy? NO WAY!!! But it’s gonna be good! I’m pretty excited. I’m going to get the whole shebang so I can have the Culvers experience. And really, that’s about all the exciting foods I can think of.

But yeah, that is my week in a nutshell! I’m sorry I didn’t take a ton of pictures this week, I promise I will take more this week. I wish you guys could all be here with me and experience all the things I do so I don’t just have to cram all 7 days into an email. But I hope you are getting a sense of things and enjoying it.

I love you!!!

Love,
Elder Kissell

Hope you like my sweet lizard pictures! That's all i took this week i'm sorry haha.