End of Transfer #3

Family and friends!

Howdy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love
Elder Jesse Kissell

Pictures!


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


2. Irontown, USA Negaunee Michigan!


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

Pictures!!

New district!

Our massive supply of Chinese food

SNOW!!
Ugly nasty little rat dog
Leaves in Ishpeming
My bad...
Me, my new hat from Tommy Chicago, and new cowboy suit! (found it in the closet!)
Leaves on the way to Au Train

A beach by Au Train


Me dead on the beach

The KissNews!

Hey!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love you guys!!

Elder Jesse Kissell

Baby, it's cold!

Howdy!

Well, guess what everybody? I saw snow the earliest I’ve ever seen it in my life this week! It snowed on Saturday, the 10th! Isn’t that NUTS?! I think it is. And we were playing football in it so that was sweet. Every Saturday morning we either play football or basketball with the youth and I convinced them to man up and go play some football in the snow! It was way fun. And I didn’t break another finger! Yay! But nevertheless, it was snowing, and it was freezing. It didn’t stick either. But still. It snowed. Enough said. And since we were playing football, I didn’t have my camera to prove it. So you just have to believe me I guess!

This week went pretty well. Slowly but surely the work is picking back up here and we get to talk to sweet people. At district meeting last week, our district leader Elder Hatch told us that we really on our missions need to forget who we were back home and forget ourselves and work. I half and half agree with that. Our personality determines the kind of missionary we are so I’m not going to change my personality, but I will be trying to fully devote myself to the Lord for the rest of my mission. Maybe that’s what he was trying to say, I don’t know, but don’t worry, I’ll still be me I promise! No fakeys here. But we spent a lot of our time this week just trying to get return appointments with people and it happened!! I’m so happy. So this next week we’ll have a pretty sweet week so I’m stoked. I’m just kind of sick and tired of having people saying “oh just swing by I guess, if I’m here I’m here, if not try by later!” I hate it!! But when they said that this time I wouldn’t let it fly, I said that we need a specific return time or else they wouldn’t be seeing us. So we got one! Bold and fearless, that’s me. There’s a couple part member families we’ll be teaching this week. One, the Laplaunts, are a family that just randomly shows up to conference last week without anybody seeing them for the past 5 years! And we didn’t even tell them or anything about conference and they just came! So that’s cool. But we are going to be teaching them this week and helping them relearn and learn about the gospel. I’m pretty pumped. Then another couple, the Greens, they’re both wrestlers and are ripped, are really interested in coming back out and learning and we finally got a specific time with them this week and are excited for that. And yeah, it should be good. And the other day we went tracting for the first time in forever. Strange as it seems, I kind of missed it. It’s fun talking to people, even if they don’t like you. It’s funny to see different rejection methods. Either they do it politely and nicely, or they’re blatantly and obviously very upset you knocked on their door and interrupted their video game or something. Tough luck guys. But yeah, we didn’t have any success that day, but it was nice to go out knocking again.

On Thursday, we went out to a place I’d never been to before. It’s a little dinky podunk town called Au Train. It’s a gorgeous drive out there and more than half the time you’re driving right next to Superior. And I think I might’ve even seen a mountain going out there! But it disappeared. It was exciting for a few seconds though. But the leaves are gorgeous out here most definitely. There’s some less active people we stopped by, luckily they were home, and a referral we also stopped by. She wasn’t home though. But the less active family we saw want us to come back out and help them cut and stack wood next week sometime and they’re going to make us a turkey. I’m pretty pumped. And we’ve also been asked by a few other people to help them with their wood too, so I’m excited to wear jeans again! But on the way back, we saw this weird roadside museum thing that we stopped at. It’s pretty much a big park that you drive through and what it is is that these people have made art out of scrap metal and painted it and done sweet stuff with it. It was so random but it was way cool. I only got one picture but we’re going to stop by again when we are out that way again. It was sweet. But we are going to be teaching a former investigator later today who I guess was really close to a baptismal date a few years ago and she was excited to see us, so hopefully we can help her out and get her there this time. Also on Thursday we found out that Pete Judici, one of the less active members we were working with, had passed away. He had throat and tongue cancer. Pretty sad. But I guess he passed away peacefully so that’s good. But his wife, Dusti, is not a member and she’s the one who we taught a couple months ago and was crying at the end of the lesson. So we hope to start working with her more and get her to the temple to get sealed to Pete! They had asked about that and we are more than happy to teach her about it. We’re excited.

On Saturday evening, we were way out in Ishpeming and we figured since we wouldn’t be there for another week or so, we would stop at Da Yoopers Tourist Trap for a few minutes!! It was ridiculous. But pretty funny. Pretty much yoopers are just a Canadian or Upper Peninsula version of a redneck. So it made me laugh. I got some cool things in the store too. A sweet shirt and a tie pin and some surprises for back home people! But yeah it was sweet. Saw the worlds biggest operating chainsaw and shotgun. Bet you’re jealous! After that, we saw our people there in Ishpeming and one of our investigators had the smallest dog I’d ever seen in my life. It was nasty as heck but I still got a picture with it. Gross. But yeah, we saw a bunch of people out there and have return appointments with a lot of people for next week. Should be a sweet one. I’ll hopefully have some sweet news next week.

But yeah, life’s going great. No complaints from me. I have been learning a lot to persevere through the hard times and to look for the good and humor in bad days. It’s helped. If you have a bad attitude about things, nothing will get done in missionary work. So I’ve just been focusing a lot on being happy and working with what I’ve got. And it’s been working! So my suggestion for anybody if they’re going through a hard time, just look for the good in dumb things that happen to you. Like Elder Wirthlin said in one of his talks in one of the lasts conferences, look for the good in things! I get some sweet quotes every now and then from Kiana and Hilary and lots of the times they are quotes saying to be happy. And I’ve been doing what they tell me to do and be happy. So I suggest this to everybody, BE HAPPY!!!!!!

I love you guys and have a SWEET week!

Love,
Elder Kissell

Da Week

Hey everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,
Elder Kissell

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

Pictures!


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


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



3. My service place :)



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

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.