What a Psycho Week

Hello everybody!!!

Well, it's true, it was a very pshyco week. On Tuesday we had zone conference in Marinette which is about 2 hours away from here. We here in the U.P. are way out in the sticks away from everybody and we have to travel at least an hour and a half to get to anything. So we spend a lot of time in the car. This month we were given 2350 miles, we are killing that. Unintentionally. We walk a lot and bike and stuff but just going to zone conference and district meetings kills us. So, we might be getting yelled at but it’s funny because they can’t take miles away from us since we are so far out and have such a massive area to cover. The U.P. district is the biggest district in the continental United States. Somethin’ to be proud of eh? But yeah, zone conference in Marinette on Tuesday. It was sweet. Pres. Barrett shared a scripture about baptism that totally is going to work for this “eternigator”, an investigator that investigates for eternity, and I’m super excited to use it. And the funny thing was is that I wasn’t even thinking about her, just when he said it, that scripture was perfect. So, maybe we’ll get another baptismal date. That’d be awesome. But zone conferences are always great, Pres. Barrett is always so in tune with the spirit and I always learn so much there. And it’s also great because you get to see all the other missionaries in the zone and I have developed some pretty great friendships with a lot of elders out here and it’s a ton of fun seeing and being with them. But then after zone conference, we had to wait for interviews. They always take forever and ever to get to us. But it was good to just hang out with other elders and take pictures and stuff. And elder Crossley and I played basketball with a golfball, it was quite difficult. But for some reason, I always seem to have the shortest interviews out of anybody, so I was done real quick and back to waiting. But Pres. Barrett said that he has great feelings about this transfer up in Marquette and is excited to have elder Wessely and I up here running the area. Sis. Barrett also told elder Crossley something I thought was pretty cool. Pres. Barrett only puts elders up in the U.P. he knows that he can trust. The reason being is that we’re so far away from everybody else and that we could do a lot of damage (bad damage) if we wanted to and nobody would ever know about it. So I thought that was neat. But then that night we had to drive back up to Marquette with 4 elders in the truck, us and Houghton, and try to get there as close to 10:30 as possible. What’s cool about elder Wessely is that he’s a real German who actually drove on the Autobahn and drove fast on it. So the road between Marinette and Marquette was turned into the Autobahn. It was sweet. But we decided that we should probably not be going that fast because we were disobeying and slowed down quite a bit, so probably a good thing. And another funny story is that in Escanaba (in between Marquette and Marinette) there’s a guy named Tommy Chicago who lives there and he’s a member and loves the missionaries. He’s a true Yooper, complete with no teeth, and he always buys the missionaries dinner and gives them stuff. He buys stuff at Goodwill and other thrift stores and sells it on eBay for what they’re really worth. So he always gives us sweet random stuff. It was hilarious though because he knew elder Wessely was German and he bought him some German pants back from a long time ago and he was all excited to give them to him because of that. I didn’t get anything that time but I have got some cool stuff from him. I got my pink Marquette shirt, a sweatshirt, and a pocketknife from him. Pretty sweet for sure.

Tuesday we spent up in Marquette, what a miracle that we spend a day in OUR area!! We did a lot of introducing for elder Wessely to members and investigators alike. People seem to like him quite a bit and he was even already asked to give a talk! Probably because of his accent. I haven’t even been asked to talk yet…don’t tell. But yeah, I think it’ll be great having him up here. He’s pretty blunt and straight forward with questions and doctrine we teach, something I am not good at and that our investigators need. I’m worried about offending them and stuff but he’s not worried, and that is what we are out here to do is to bring them closer to Christ, not just drag them along. So it’ll be a good transfer I’m sure.

Wednesday, one of our service days, we had a ton of fun. Elder Wessely loves the snakes. He puts them around his neck and doesn’t take them off until we have to leave. It’s way funny. And he’s always saying that they’re so cute and he cuddles them and stuff. Makes me laugh. Wednesday was also the day we had exchanges because Elder Hatch (district leader) had to come interview Harlan for baptism. So we drove down to Escanaba and came back up and he interviewed Harlan and he passed!!! All the while I was having yet another weird/interesting conversation with the Pendaz’s. Then we discussed his baptism and what’s going to happen and where it’s going to be and stuff. He changed his mind about the lake, so we did decide to do it in the font. Reason for is because it’s already in the mid 50’s here. Pretty toasty…NOT!! The leaves are changing more now and some are already without their leaves. Brrrrrr
Thursday, exchanged back in Escanaba and had a mongo sized lunch with the family the Escanaba elders stay with. It was great. And they had a guitar with a beginners guide thing so I had fun with that. Then back to our world we go. We had a great discussion with some girls I have a lot of hope for, Ashley and Emmy. They’re very interested in the message and have lots of questions and they think church sounds sweet. So hopefully they come one of these times. It’d be great. Next time we teach them we are also planning on extending a baptismal commitment, so pray for good things to happen from that!!

Friday was a regular day, try by people, not home, try by some other people, they’re there, but don’t have time. Things like that. But we did catch some good less active people home and taught them a lot and encouraged them to read their scriptures and read a few scriptures with them to encourage/motivate them to do that. I’m excited to reactivate some of these people. There’s a lot of less active people around here. Kinda sad, but hopefully we will change that. Also Friday night we had a great discussion with bishop about missionary work here and things he’d like us to do and things he’d like to help us with. Bishop Johnson rocks.

Saturday was SWEET!! An awesome member family, the Carruths, thought it would be fun to take us hiking if they got somebody who wasn’t a member to go with them. Brittony, she’s a senior in high school, brought her friend and we went up Sugarloaf “mountain.” In all reality, this “mountain” was just a big rock. And it was a walk, not a “hike.” But it was a ton of fun and very beautiful. Even though it isn’t that big, you still get a sweet view of Marquette and the lake. It rocked. And surprisingly, the view from up there proved me wrong in the fact that like none of the leaves were changing. It’s going to be spectacular when all the colors are out. But yeah, that was a ton of fun. But that was only about 2 hours of our Saturday, the rest of the time we taught some pretty good lessons to some more less active people. I love being out here and teaching people. It’s WAY fun.

Sunday, BAPTISM!!! But sacrament meeting and the rest of church was great too. We had a RM sister give an awesome talk about member missionary work and how members are the full time finders and we are the full time teachers. It’s TRUE!!!! So do it!! You’ll be blessed greatly for your efforts, even if you are denied. Nothing wrong with blessings right? No way jose. So you tell your friends and neighbors who you love about the gospel and invite them to meet with the missionaries, and we’ll take care of the rest with you by our side. I’m way happy that she gave that talk though. Them members here rock, but we really don’t get a ton of referrals from them. So hopefully this talk kickstarted them a bit. And after church was baptism time!!! It was amazing. The Pendaz’s were so happy and Harlan was way excited too. Bro. Pendaz kept patting me on the back and kept telling me how grateful he was for me. It was really neat and it made me feel great that I could be the physical aspect for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christs teachings. It was a wonderful feeling. The baptism was awesome, lots of happy smiling faces. And before we started to change, Harlan said “hey, thanks for baptizing me.” It was so cool hearing that come from the mouth of a crazy 11 year old kid. And you could tell he meant it. It was awesome. So yeah, that all put a great cap on the end of a great week. No better way to close that one off. But then again, later that night we taught another lesson to this family that lives way down in Gwinn and got 4 new investigators out of it. It went great but the only problem is that they’re super busy until November and won’t be able to meet with us until then. Which is kinda lame, but we’re still going to stop by them when we are in the area and teach them what little we can with the little time we do have.

But, that’s my awesome week!!! It was great! I pray for all you guys back home and abroad, wherever you may be. I thank you all for your love, prayers, support, and letters. All are beneficial to me and the missionary work out here. Keep it up!!!

I love you!!
Elder Kissell


PICTURES!!


1. Elder Wessely!! and I


2. My friends :)


3. We have fun

4. Snapping turtle!!


5. Elder Wessely and his friend


6. Lake Superior, Presque Isle, and part of Marquette from on top Sugarloaf


7. Marquette!

8. The 3 on the left are part of the Carruths (2 missing), myself, James (a priest with nothing else to do that day), and Wessely


9. Elder Wessely and I with "our town" in the background


10. The Pendaz's and I after the baptism.


11. Elder Wessely and I with Harlan before the baptism

Crazy Week

HEY!

How’s life treating all ya’ll? This week has been pshyco for me, but hey, nothing wrong with that right?

So as you all know, Elder Turney is gone. He went down to West Bend, WI. Now the big news…my new companion is Elder Wessely. Not elder Nygard yet, but one of these times. But Elder Wessely (pronounced Vessely) is a pure blood 100% German. Complete with a sweet accent. He speaks way good English, but very accented. Kinda weird that I get 2 German companions in a row right? I thought it was funny myself. But elder Wessely is a cool guy and I like him a lot. He is way funny and just his accent alone makes me smile. But he is a very different missionary than Turney was and it might take some getting used to for me, but that’s alright. He is a way hard worker and shares a similar view with me about missionary work, it’s about the members. Turney was all about tracting and street contacting. Sometimes it is effective, but missionary work through the members is SO much more effective than that. So I’m excited to start doing this. We actually have already made progress in that. We went to see an awesome member family last night and we told them that we wanted to start finding through members and teaching their friends and such. They have a daughter who is a senior in high school, a son who is a freshman, and another daughter who’s like 8 and she’s super cool. But this family rocks. Without really any encouragement from us, they suggested that we set up some cool activity for this Saturday, which will be hiking, and they will bring some of their non member friends so that we can see if they’d be interested in learning more. It was way sweet. And the same family asked us for some pamphlets and some pass along cards so that they could give them to their friends. And all we had to do was ask!! Something we always said we’d do when elder Turney was around, but never happened. So I’m excited to start this whole thing up with elder Wessely. It should be a sweet transfer.

But this week went pretty well. Before Turney left on Friday, we taught 2 in particular, very good lessons. One to that guy Gabe and another to a guy named Trevor. Gabe is the guy who likes to party a lot and drinks and just really needs direction in his life. We had always said we would extend a baptismal commitment to him, but never had yet. Well we finally did. It wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t a no either. He still loves meeting with us and loves learning more about the church. He asks way good questions and really is just a sweet investigator. We just now need to address his concerns on baptism and see how we can help him out and get him comftorable with baptism. Trevor is a guy that was found tracting way back in April, but he moved downstate during the summer and moved back up a couple months ago. We finally got a time to go and teach him about the restoration and it went great as well. Mission wide, we have been counseled to extend baptismal dates on the first lesson, so we listened to the spirit and prayed that we would have it and be able to do so. The lesson rocked. Let me just make that clear haha. When we scheduled the time to come back and teach him, we asked him to read 3 Nephi 11. When we started the lesson, we asked if he’d read that and he said “well, I forgot what chapter you wanted me to read, 10 or 11, so I read both of them.” That was way sweet! And then we asked what he thought was interesting and what stuck out to him. This surprised me a lot! He said “well, baptism was talked about a lot in there and I guess just the doctrines of baptism stuck out to me.” Sweet!! So obviously, after the lesson we extended a baptismal commitment to him and he said that it is a definite possibility. We’re pumped about that. So there is some definite potential baptisms around here. We just need to be bold and fearless and do what we’ve been counseled to do and life will be good.

Amidst the lessons and stuff we had this week, elder Turney had to pack so we spent quite a bit of time in the apartment and such. It was kinda funny though, I had to take his bike apart and stuff because he was afraid of getting dirty and he had no idea how to. He didn’t even know how to deflate a tire! But hey, you’ve got to learn somehow, we just don’t all know everything. So lucky me, I got to teach him how to take apart his bike and deflate a tire. And we also went to a lot of members homes to say goodbye to members and stuff, so this weeks numbers really were not so sweet. Oh well, we can make it up this transfer.

Thursday evening, we drove down to Marinette to spend the night there with the rest of our district and be able to drive to Green Bay’s transfer station in the morning. It was a good fun night. We had a sweet district, still do, but it was fun. Next morning, we headed down to Green Bay. We were going to go to Lambeau Field and tour it, but we got there too late. So we just went to the transfer station and waited…..and waited…….and waited…….for like 3 hours!!! And finally the fun bus showed up…without my companion! He had a baptism in his last area and was going to stay there and come up Saturday evening. But we met the new members of our district and said goodbye to the old. Elders Hillyard, Allred, and Turney are gone. They have been replaced by Ross, Cottle, and Wessely. Elder Cottle was in my district in the MTC and I like him a lot, so I’m excited. Elder Ross is way awesome too. And you already know about elder Wessely! So since I didn’t have my companion for a couple more days, I hung out with the zone leaders Friday night and with the Marinette elders (Hatch and Cottle) on Saturday. It was way sweet, in Green Bay with the zone leaders, we were going to go see a member and see if he could come to an appointment with us. The member was a player on the GREEN BAY PACKERS!!!!!! And guess where he came from?!? WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY!!! He’s a rookie this year and his name is Devin Freschneckt. He was the tight end for WSU last year, about the only thing WSU had going for them. But the appointment we were going to need him for fell through unfortunately, I was so pumped and excited. Another member that I wasn’t going to meet that day, but goes out with them a lot is another Green Bay Packer player!! It’s BRADY POPINGA!!! He is from the one and only BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY!!! He’s a linebacker and is pretty good I guess, not starting though I don’t think. But wouldn’t that be sweet to take a NFL player with you to appointments? That would be so cool.

I spent my Saturday with the Marinette elders tracting and trying by tons of people that weren’t home. Kinda lame sauce that nobody was home, but we did catch a few and tried to teach them as long as we could. We also helped a Catholic school move in new lockers and stuff and the people were very appreciative of us and the old ladies there thought we were the best ever and gave us lots of good food. Yum And then at about 9 p.m. I finally meet my new companion! Then the drive home took forever and we didn’t get home til about 1 in the morning. Long drives up here in the U.P., that’s how we roll.

Yesterday was stake conference, but seeing as we were just down in Green Bay 2 days ago, and seeing that it’s forever away and we’re already destroying our miles, we decided to stay up here. It was pretty different. It was broadcast via telephone, not TV. So we just sat there and listened, it was pretty different and a little boring. But the talks were super awesome and all about missionary work. They were encouraging members to start doing missionary work and giving the missionaries referrals and stuff. So that was sweet and exactly what we wanted to hear. It was great.

But yeah, that’s been my week. It’s getting colder, leaves are starting to change more, and snow should be flying before too long here. Yikes! Way too early if you ask me, but I’m gonna have to toughen up and not be a wuss these next couple years huh?
Well, I’ll be writing back to ya’ll next week! Keep missionary work in your prayers and I will continue to pray for all of you!! Love you all!!

Love
Elder Kissell

PICTURES


1. So funny fun fact about elder Turney. He wore girls deodorant because he said that "it works way better than guys' deodorant." So to prove that he does use it, here you go.


2. Our old district. Left to right: Elders Crossley, Turney, Hillyard, Kissell, and Allred. In the front, new district leader elder Hatch.

3. Same. I laugh way hard whenever i see this picture

4. Same

5. Results of a district tie trade. You win some and you lose some. I was also wearing another one that i got so you can't see it. Like the brown with flowers? Cool eh? haha

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6. I thought i'd show you my sweet bed with the snazzy pillow case and snazzy blanket.


7. Way sweet sunset in Marinette


8. That's what we're about up here in Michigan.

No pictures of me and elder Wessely yet, but we will soon. Never fear.

Transfer #2 - Done

Hello!

Well, you heard right, my 2nd transfer is outta here and so is Elder Turney!!!!! Honestly, great news for me, but he’s pretty bummed since he’s been here for so long. But, these past few weeks have been somewhat trying. BUT, I HAVE kept my patience, so lets all be happy about that . We don’t find out til Wednesday where he’s going and who my new companion will be. Elder Nygard?? That would be pretty sweet, but we shall see. So I will be running the show next week for a bit. I am not training though, and missionary lingo, this elder will be my “buster”, meaning he will be busting and changing a lot of things which elder Turney did because he will be different than him. So that will be an adventure. 2 other elders are getting transferred out of our district as well, Elders Hillyard and Allred. Allred came out with me and is already getting transferred, so that’s crazy. But I love it up here and hope I’m up here for some time.

This week has been sweet though. We did our final companion exchange of the transfer, Elder Hatch came up from Iron Mountain to Marquette and we spent the day up here. He’s been out just as long as Elder Turney has, but is very different than him. But it was a good time up here that day, and plus, I get to drive on exchanges! Like I said before, I don’t feel comftorable having somebody from a different country driving me around. But anyway, we went up to the Pendaz’s, my favorite family! But no seriously, they are cool. Harlan is progressing WAY good and we are technically done teaching him and now all we have to do is go over the baptismal interview questions with him and have him interviewed! Remembering that he is 11, we quiz him every time we are over there just to see if he is even paying attention, and to our surprise, HE IS!!! So good job Harlan. And whenever we go up there, Harlan always wants to race us. So when Elder Hatch and I were up there, we did and so did Bro. Pendaz this time. Bro. Pendaz was just wearing some pajama pants and when we started running, they about fell off and I about died laughing, it was hilarious. The Pendaz’s also came to church yesterday, all 3 of them! And for all 3 hours! So we were way excited, last time only Harlan and Bro. Pendaz came and they just stayed for sacrament. But they loved it and the ward is awesome here and they gave them all huge welcomes and talked to them and everything, they were so happy after church, it was awesome. I’m kinda mad at myself for at first thinking that Harlan would be a waste of time and we wouldn’t get anything accomplished by driving so far out and teaching such simple lessons. But through faith and prayer, anything can happen. Prayer is just sweet. He will be baptized September 27th and he is wanting to be baptized in the one and only Lake Superior!! It has been done before and if that’s what he wants, it will be done again. How sweet is that gonna be?! I’m pumped.

We also started teaching a referral from our recent convert Ernest this week named Dan. He is a guy who has a pretty bad and troubled past, he feels guilty for things he’s done and is doing, and just wants to be happy and normal again… well, I think he’s talking to the right guys! But it was a good first lesson, found out some interesting things, talked about interesting things, and yeah, it was just a great lesson. But next time we tried by him, turns out that Ernest had offended him pretty hardcore, nothing really to do with the church though, and that he wasn’t planning on talking to Ernest again. So that was not expected. Now we’re trying to figure out what we should do next, but he does need the gospel in his life and it can and will help him. So we’re working on that.

We went on campus a few more times this week. It’s a sweet place to get a lot of “gospel invites”, but not really a place to have immediate results, like new investigators. So really in my opinion, it’s not the sweetest. But Elder Turney is a big fan of it. So therefore, we do it. But who knows, we may have been seen or we may have talked to somebody who really needed to hear that or have that invite extended to him that may want to talk later in life. That’s just how I’m trying to think about that.

We’re still teaching that guy named Gabe, he’s the one who works at the casino and lays carpet with a masters in English and minor in religion…let’s just say the U.P. isn’t the best place for jobs right now. Anyway, he has changed since he first started meeting with us. He’s excited when we come over, he loves talking about the church, and you can see that he wants to change and get his life back on track. We honestly don’t know why we haven’t given him a baptismal date, but it’ll happen soon. I’ll tell ya next week. But we took Pres. Green, who’s name is also Gabe, with us and he see’s a lot of potential in him too. So we’re hoping and praying for him. It should be great.

Those college kids are still in the picture too, Josh and Joe. They’re also the guys who are hardcore religious and know the bible backwards and forwards. Elder Turney likes to bible bash, I’m not a huge scriptorian and I HATE bible bashing, so I just bare my testimony and try to get us outta there. Doesn’t happen, but oh well. But if they try to contend with us these next couple times, we’re probably just going to drop them or something.

Guess what else sweet happened yesterday? Zach got the priesthood!! We’re way excited. So apparently, he has overcome his word of wisdom issues and is worthy to hold the priesthood. He requested that I ordain him, so that was way cool. He’s a great guy and progressing very good. The church is continuing to work mighty changes in him and will continue to do so in ALL of our lives if we have that strong faith in Christ. We will overcome everything, and it all starts with faith. Zach has smoked for like 20 years, and you just don’t up and stop just like that. He saw that the church is exactly what he needed and he had that faith that he would stop, and look! He did! So that applies for all of us. I know we can all get through the hard things which come our way, it might suck, but we can do it.

Something else I failed to mention in my last email is that the leaves are ALREADY CHANGING!!! WHAT?!? It’s September! The leaves aren’t supposed to change til October! I’m telling ya, the U.P. is crazy. I sent a picture for proof. Winter I guess isn’t too far away up here. But I’ve been told it’s supposed to be an el nino this year and not be as cold. Who knows, but we’ll find out right? Maybe it’ll be -20 instead of -35. Sweet!

Hilary wanted to know what we do on pdays, so here is what we do, pretty much every pday. We wake up, study, have companion study, do laundry, come to the library and email, go shopping, get a haircut, and then go home and chill. Pretty lame. Elder Turney is a go go go kind of guy and so we don’t ever go do anything that would be like something we’d do back home, like go play football or go hiking or mountain biking or anything. So that’s kinda dumb. But that will change come next week. Other elders go hiking on the “mountains” we have around here, play football, go to sweet places like the Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, golfing, and other cool things. But yeah, that’s what our pdays look like. Subject to change.

But folks, that’s bout all the news I’ve got for today/this week. Hope everything back home is going well. I pray for you all and thank you for all your love and support you’ve given me and I hope that I can return the favor one of these days/years.

I love you!

Love
Elder Kissell

Pictures


1. Fall colors on our trees outside our apartment

2. This was on a doorstep outside a less active members home...made me laugh and she said we could take a picture of it.


3. A lady in our ward is moving and she used to own a restaraunt and she asked last time if we needed anything to cook with or whatever, and I jokingly said "I really want real waffles and we don't have a waffle iron. And she said "well I'll see what i can find." And next time we went over there, she gave me a sweet Mickey Mouse waffle iron! Way cool.


4. My Mickey Mouse waffle. Yum


5. On September 11, a college students placed flags in the lawn of the academic mall, each representing somebody who died in the attacks. We helped them clean up. It was a neat and sombering experience. Lots of flags.

September 7, 2009

Hello everybody!

Well, we had a pretty sweet week this week. And we also had COMPANION EXCHANGES!! Love those. I went with Elder Crossley up to Houghton and was up there for the day. So funny story... Whenever we go to district conferences, we usually go to Taco Bell and i usually get the volcano box, a big box full of goodness. But a couple weeks ago, my district wanted me to take it to another level and eat the volcano nachos AND the volcano box. It wasn't fun. Super hot and a ton of food. I couldn't finish it. But then the next week, I told elder Crossley that if he could finish it and keep it down, i'd give him 10 bucks. Well, i'm 10 bucks poorer. He downed it, not too easily, but he did it. But he told me about this monster cinnamon roll place on the way up to Houghton and if i ate that, i wouldn't have to pay him 10 bucks and he would pay for my cinnamon roll. So we stopped at this place and these cinnamon rolls are MASSIVE!!! They're probably bigger than Rhode Island. I only had 4 bites left, but i couldn't do it. It was great fun though, felt 15 pounds fatter. But it's gone now, lots of biking.

Houghton is way sweet. It's in the middle of nowhere, majority of the roads are dirt roads, and there's ALMOST mountains!! They look more like buttes to me, but they're pretty cool. The people up there are pretty crazy. We went and talked to a few members up there and one of them, Bro. Seaburg, is quite the interesting character to say the least. He lives in a "big" trailer i guess you'd call it, but the driveway leading up to it, he has cameras and sensors so he can tell when somebody is coming up his property. He met us outside, gun in his pocket. He has a big old black beard and he has a wolf for a dog. A WOLF!! You can't pet it, or else it will attack you. What a fun dog eh? And it's always trying to kill his other dog, so that dog always has to be moving, i feel sorry for it. But he's quite the character for sure. He got baptized in a horse trough in his backyard last year because he hates the "city" and doesn't like leaving his property. He sounds like the weirdest guy ever, but he's super cool. We also helped out with the nastiest move i've ever helped out in while i was up there too. It smelled SO bad. Nasty. But we had a good time anyways. We tried visiting alot of their investigators, but most of them weren't home. But we did catch one home who had an anti book. I HATE anti stuff. It's the dumbest thing in the world. But i felt prompted to just be bold and blunt with her and i told her "maam, if you want to learn the truth about the church and about the Book of Mormon, you need to throw that book away, read the Book of Mormon, and truthfully and honestly pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true." Then i bore my testimony of how i know it's true and that i know she can feel that same way too. You could tell she felt the spirit, but she didn't really say anything. But hopefully i was a help, not too mean or anything.

But in Marquette life, life has been good. My companion still seems to pull those strings to annoy the heck out of me. But, prayer helps. It does. So i do that alot it seems to keep my temper under control. We proselyted on campus this week, that was pretty cool. Didn't get any times to teach them again, but talked to alot of students and gave out a few BoM's. I enjoyed it. We did some tracting too this week. We met a really nice old lady who just loved us and told us she didn't know that there were young people like us still out in the world today and she was honored to be talking to us. So that was neat. We talked with her on her porch for a way long time, like an hour. She said she's catholic, but doesn't like it too much. So we invited her to church in Wisconsin, because that's where she's from, and she said she'd have to check it out. So hopefully she does, perfect Mormon lady right there. And yesterday, this was exciting, I knocked on this one door and a guy answered and we taught him for a little bit and then he said "hang on a sec", he left, I thought he was going to get a shotgun, Turney thought he was going to get a Book of Mormon, but he came back with 10 kids!! They were like 10-17 years old and in a christian youth group. So we taught all about the restoration to these kids and their youth group leaders. It was pretty cool. None were interested in learning more, but it was still pretty fun.

The Pendaz's came to church yesterday! I was kind of concerned because in our morning meetings, Bro Pendaz called and said that his daughter and granddaughter were up visiting and his granddaughter was sick so he had to stay home and take care of her. But i asked him "well why cant your daughter take care of her?" And he goes "ya know, that's a great idea! I don't know why i didn't think of that one before. That's what i like about you missionaries, so steadfast in the church and trying to get people like us back out." And guess what, they came!!! Hooray. Turney was surprised i was so bold because he said he would've just said well, that's unfortunate and we'll see you next week. But, bold and fearless i tell ya, it works. Bro Pendaz bore his testimony too, i was a little scared, i thought he would say something weird and crazy like he usually does, but he didn't, so that was a good thing. Yesterday was a way sweet day at church, 2 of our investigators were there, 2 guys looking for a different church were there, lots of nonmember visitors of familys, it was sweet. So hopefully we'll be able to start or continue teaching these people and seeing more baptismal dates. Harlan Pendaz's date is still on for the 26th of this month. SWEET!

But yeah, it's been a great and rewarding week. Lots of hard work, studying and being out and about was involved. Prayer was also a huge part of this as well, as always. So thank you all for all of your prayers! Continue to pray for missionary opportunities so you can help your friends feel the love of the gospel that you feel. Wouldn't it be sweet if all your friends were in the celestial kingdom with you? I think it would be. So even though it might be scary, talk to your friends about the church and invite them to meet with the missionaries. If you don't do that, how are they ever going to get to the celestial kingdom?

Again, i love you. Thank you all for your support, love, kindness, and letters. I continue to pray for you all too:) Have a sweet week!

Love
Elder Kissell

p.s. almost broke my finger playing church football, that was fun. It was swollen up for a way long time. Not cool, but i'm ok:)

PICTURES


1. The massive cinnamon roll i almost ate. Look closely at the plate, the bottom of the cinnamon roll is sitting in a half inch of frosting...mmm


2. Bishop Baraga shrine. Bishop Baraga is a catholic pioneer/settler guy in the U.P. this thing is huge.

3. A view of Lake Superior. Apparently in winter, this part freezes way good and there is a village of shacks and huts out there for ice fishing.


4. Me and Bishop Baraga, big huh?


5. Countryside by Houghton, pretty pretty.

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.