Hey everyone!

Well, this week was a little bit slower paced than usual due to transfers week, but, I still of news to tell you so never fear!

So Elder Barker got transferred to northern Milwaukee to the Lake Michigan area, which is actually Blakes first area.  And speaking of Blake, guess where he went?!  Marquette!!  So that’s pretty crazy, I totally loved it up there and I know he will too.  He was pretty excited about it, I talked to him for a little bit on transfer call night.  But my new companion is Elder Roberts, he’s from Alpine, UT, he was last up in Manitowoc, and he’s been on his mission 20 months.  So he’s an older missionary and there’s a possibility I could “kill” him/be his last companion.  So that’d be sweet.  He isn’t trunky and wants to close his mission out strong so that’s sweet.  He’s a cool guy too.  It’s a requirement I think to be cool to serve on campus, so he is cool.  We’ve got quite a bit in common, we like doing things outdoors and mountain biking and such, so we have stuff to talk about.

So Elder Barker and I at the beginning of this week bid farewell to some members and he wanted to go see a few touristy things before he left.  But we made these little trips legit for missionaries because we talked to lots of people and even got some potentials out of it, so that was cool.  We went inside the capitol, it’s way sweet in there, and went to some cool stores around there.  I’m pretty sad he’s gone though, I liked Barker quite a bit, we had fun and got a lot of work done.  Transfer day was crazy though and super unorganized, the transfer bus didn’t get to Madison til 8:30 in the evening and we were with a couple who absolutely loves the missionaries and she is mega pregnant and is in pre-labor right now.  She’s actually on bed rest, but she was sad elder Barker was leaving and wanted to see him off, but she was ticked the bus wasn’t there with elder Roberts at 5:30 when it was supposed to be and so we went out to dinner with them.  Coolio!

So Martin is still doing well, great actually!  On Wednesday there was a stake priesthood meeting and some members took him to that and he thought it was really great.  There was a man from Africa who spoke and he really enjoyed that.  And we also had a dinner with him on Thursday night.  Some members had us and him over and they absolutely loved him.  We watched the Restoration DVD afterwards and he thought that was really awesome.  It’s a great show and really makes everything make sense.  So he thought that was really awesome.  He also asked a question that really surprised us:  how do I pay tithing?  Yup, he is really that awesome.  We hadn’t mentioned anything about tithing to him but he figured that there must be some way that the church gets money and he wanted to know how he could contribute.  We actually weren’t planning on teaching him about tithing till later, but he asked so we won’t deny him that!  We told him what tithing is used for, temples and church buildings, etc.  And he goes “so that’s how that beautiful temple in Ghana was built then?”  He really loves the Accra temple.  He’s way excited to go inside someday.  He still hasn’t been able to contact his kids’ caretaker yet to talk to him about the missionaries, so hopefully he does that, we really want to get missionaries over there.  He is still working on getting days off on Sunday’s from Walmart, still hasn’t happened quite yet, but, keep those prayers coming!!  He’s great though, reads and prays every single day and is still just golden.  He said a really awesome prayer at the end of that lesson we had with him Thursday night too.  The spirit is always so powerful when he prays, he will be a great priesthood holder.  HE ROCKS!!!!!!!

We weren’t able to contact other potentials we had this week.  That Russian guy that sounded like Mrs. Doubtfire wasn’t home and a couple others turned out to be not interested.  That’s ok though, we’ll find the ones who are ready.  Something else I’m really excited about is that there’s a new sister missionary here who has worked on several other campuses in the mission and really knows how to work with them and has some sweet ideas how to get more singles ward investigators, something we really need!  So I’m excited to work with them and get some work in that regard goin.  We do a lot with the singles ward like playing basketball and going to the temple and FHE’s and Institute, so hopefully things start coming of it.  Basketball has actually proven most effective so far!  It’s fun and we meet lots of non members!  Cool!

Oh, so something that was way spiritual and sweet this week just came to my mind that I wanted to talk about.  So, Barker and I, after that priesthood meeting, went with our zone leader to a member families home who needed blessings because lots of them were sick.  We helped the father administer and bless his kids and it was just really really sweet.  We gave blessings to his 9 year old daughter, 6 year old boy, and 18 month year old daughter.  This experience just made me way excited to be a dad and made me proud to hold the priesthood.  Each and every one of those blessings, you could tell the dad was being directed by Heavenly Father.  They were each so powerful and individual to the child being blessed.  It was really sweet giving the 18 month old daughter a blessing.  She was scared to have 4 big men around her, so she sat on the moms lap, and since her head was so small, we just put one hand each on her head.  It was a way good blessing and all in all just a great experience.  I love being able to hold the priesthood and do miraculous things such as this.  Just another event that emphasizes the truthfulness and awesomeness of this church. I love it so much!!!

Well folks, I don’t really have too much more to say.  The weather has been “warm” here this week at a steady 30ish degrees.  I have not been impressed by these ferocious Wisconsin winters yet!!!  I think it’s colder and snowier back home!!  Oh well, I won’t complain about the warm since I have to walk around in the stuff.
Love you guys!!!!
Elder Kissell

pictures!

1.  ohhhhh yeahhhhhh

2.  best sandwich ever

3.  walkin to el capitol

4.  inside the capitol, cool eh?

5.  the dome.  Sweet!

6.  worlds biggest water fountain, well, probably not, but still huge.

January 19, 2010

Howdy!
Well, I had a WAY sweet week this week.  Fun and spiritual, very spiritual.  I grew a lot this week in my testimony.  I love being out on a mission and learning, growing, and feeling so much every single day.
So, MARTIN UPDATE!!!  He still rocks.  We had a couple meetings with him this week.  We taught him the word of wisdom and it was a great lesson.  We figured that since he is as golden as he is, we might as well be bold and fearless.  I guess we should be that way all the time, but more so with him.  Anyway, he drank tea every now and then and he was concerned with the no tea part, brought out his box, we told him it was the bad kind, and he says “ok, don’t need that anymore,” as he threw it behind the couch.  Awesome!!  And he is having no problems with it and we don’t expect him to.  We also met with him Thursday night I think to just show him the chapel and explain church to him.  He loved the building.  The church here is really sweet.  It’s an old building and has some sweet architecture inside.  He thought it was great and was really really excited to come this Sunday.  When we were at the church, we showed him the baptismal font and said that that’s where he will be baptized in a few weeks!  He thought it was  very nice and is so excited.  We then just talked to him about life and got to know him a little better.  He is such a humble and great man.  He has made so many changes in his life and has grown so close to the Savior.  I just got to thinking how I can do that in my life, even though I don’t have problems with the things he did.  But, I still do have my struggles and all I need to do is put my trust in the Savior and have that strong of faith like Martin does.  He thinks he learns a lot from us, but I think maybe we learn more from him than he does from us!  He rocks.  Then on Sunday, he came to church and absolutely LOVED it.  That’s underlined and bold for a reason!  He was there early, a member he had met earlier this week invited him to sit with him and his family (AWESOME!!), and the bishopric gave great talks that must have been pre planned for Martin or something.  He thought the organ was really sweet too.  As do I…the organ is really big.  Anyway, gospel principles was also really awesome too.  We asked the teacher to prepare a lesson on eternal families because that is something we really really want for him.  It was a great lesson, but the better part was that Martin made comments and answered questions like a lifelong member would!!  Me and Elder Barker would just look at each other and go “dang man!”  He has been SO prepared by the lord, it is unbelievable.  Then in priesthood, visitors were asked to introduce themselves.  Martin was the only visitor and we just expected him to say hello I’m Martin or something, but, he told his whole story of how he found the church and met us!  He basically told the priesthood brethren how golden he was.  Some guys even turned around to Barker and I and gave us thumbs up and stuff.  It was great.  And in the lesson, he made yet more comments that were really deep and thoughtful.  It was amazing.  People were introducing themselves to him and talking to him, inviting him over for dinners, offering us their homes to teach him in, and just giving him a very good welcome.  He loved it so much.  He told me as I walked him out to his car that he felt like he was home.  It was very special.  But, as he has every other Sunday morning off, we are praying super hard that he will get EVERY Sunday off, or have another job opportunity arise.  So, if ya’ll would like to, keep him and that in your prayers.  That’d be sweet!

But, the rest of our week was great as well.   We did some more bus contacting, fun stuff I’m tellin ya.  I met this cool black guy and got talking to him about the gospel and had a pretty sweet conversation.  I gave him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and he was pretty stoked.  Sounds like I did good right?  Wrong!!  I forgot to get his information so we could go see him and teach him!!!  I felt so lame!  But, never fear, I redeemed myself the next day.  I met a Russian guy, I’ll be totally honest though, I couldn’t figure out if it was a guy or a girl, he/she sounded like Mrs. Doubtfire.  But we asked a RM who went to Russia if the name was a guys or girls and he said it was a guys.  Anyway, he was a Jew, but interested in learning more about the gospel as our message is for everybody.  I got his info and we will be trying to see him this week!!  Oh yeah, totally redeemed myself.  So yeah, I think I’m finally getting better at the whole bus thing.  The bus is fun!

We went to the temple on Friday night with the singles ward, it was really awesome.  It was a pretty late session that we went to, 7:30, so needless to say we got home late.  But, the temple experience was awesome.  Before we started our session and while waiting in the chapel, I prayed that I would be able to feel Heavenly Fathers and the Saviors love in abundance in the temple that night.  It’s kind of impossible to NOT feel it in the temple, but I really wanted to feel something.  Something more and something that I could totally not deny.  Kind of like praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true, when you get an answer, there is no way you can deny it.  Anyway, the spirit was very strong throughout and once again, the Celestial room was amazing.  Right when I walked in, it was like the love of our Father and Savior was just dumped on me by a bucket.  It was crazy.  But I just prayed for a really long time and was brought to tears by all the things that I have been blessed with in my life.  The 3 that really stuck out to me when I was in there was 1) My family.  2) The gospel.  And 3) Being on a mission.  Of course there were other things, but those 3 just stuck out a ton to me.  And thinking about it longer in there and on the way home, those 3 things are really what matter the most to me right now in my life.  There just seemed to be something resounding in my mind, and that was love.  Not the lovey dovey romantic kind of love, but just the sincere, heartfelt, gratuitous kind of love.  I felt it so strongly in the celestial room that night, probably more so than I have in my life.  I am so grateful for my family.  I would not be anywhere near where I am today without you.  I am so grateful for the gospel.  I know I wouldn’t be anywhere near Madison if I didn’t have that in my life either.  And I am so grateful for my mission.  The family and the gospel all lead up to this.  I am SO grateful to be out here, if I hadn’t, I’d still be being a bump on the log back home getting my truck covered in mud just for the heck of it.  But instead, thanks to my family and this gospel and changes I have made in my life, I am out here.  I am learning and growing and having so many experiences that are changing and molding my life to the way I want it to be, and it’s awesome.  I couldn’t get that anywhere else but here.  I LOVE my life.  I love everybody who is reading this.  This gospel is true and I am so grateful to be sharing it with Wisconsin-ites.

But, sadly, Elder Barker is getting transferred.  I got along with him really well and we had a lot of fun together and got a lot of work done.  I hope my new companion rocks too and that we continue the awesomeness we have going here.  I’ll be staying put!!  Scary!!  I still don’t have this crazy Mad-Town figured out!!  I’ll get it though.

But, love you guys.  You all rock.  Keep on keepin on!

Love
Elder Jesse Kissell

pictures!

1.  This is what happens to a missionaries math skills when he's out...uh oh.

2.  The whole Madison zone!  minus one companionship.

Crazy Madtown

Heeeeeeeyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!

Howdy folks!

 Well, second cold week of January, actually, it wasn’t too bad, but we got some snow dumped on us.  That was fun!  But… this week was pretty sweet, so I’ll get started in tellin ya!

Last pday was sweet because I’m in an area  now where there’s actually elders within driving distance of each other so that means we can hang out and do  cool things on pday!  So we went and walked around on State Street (the main street of Madison) and played basketball for forever and ever.  It was a ton of fun.  And we went to a weird Oriental Market place to get drinks because our district leader is Japanese and wanted us to try this kind of drink.  It had strips of aloe in it and looked nasty, but it was excellent.  But that evening was crazy because we had several appointments all far away from each other.  And since the bus system stinks, that meant a lot of walking.  But, we meant another sweet investigator that evening for the first time and this is HIS story.  So this guy is a media referral and he ordered the Restoration DVD.  We asked him why he ordered it and he said that he just needed some restoration in his life.  I don’t think he really comprehended what the movie was about, but that’s ok.  We taught a really good first lesson and by the end, we felt prompted to extend a baptismal commitment.  We asked him to prepare for his baptism on Feb. 6th.  He was a bit hesitant at first, but after us assuring him and reading him some scriptures promising great blessings from baptism, he accepted!!  But it wasn’t but a few minutes later that he told us something that scratched his date.  He stabbed a guy and is on probation til 2016!!!  So yeah….he doesn’t have a date anymore.  It stunk though because we had his date written down on paper and had already layed out the things he needed to do before baptism and yeah, we were just pretty far into it and he told us that.  We talked to the zone leaders that night and they said that he wouldn’t be able to, so we had to think of a way to tell him he couldn’t be baptized.  A few days later in our next lesson we did.  It was really hard to do, but he took it really well.  The lesson was a fairly in depth lesson on repentance and why it was necessary to be totally and completely clean before baptism.  He took it well and is committed to repenting.  We hope that we can just get him to start living a gospel based life and get him coming to church regularly and maybe he will get off probation soon and be baptized before 2016.

MARTIN update!!  Martin is amazing!  He unfortunately wasn’t able to talk to his boss all this week because she was gone and so he wasn’t able to make it to church yesterday.  But he is still golden as ever.  We call him everyday and see how he’s doing and how his reading is going.  Every reading assignment we give him, he reads it immediately after we get off the phone.  He fully comprehends everything and loves everything about the Book of Mormon.  We had a lesson with him this week about the plan of salvation and we took a member with us and when we walked in the door he gave all of us a big hug, even the member whom he had never met yet.  He’s so sweet!!  And we were talking for a little bit.  He told us that he’d been fasting and praying all day and had just ended his fast.  We didn’t ask what he was fasting for, but kind of assumed it was about the church.  Funny thing is that we hadn’t even asked him to fast about it!!  He’s so cool, but then he says “ok lets get down to business, I’m excited to learn what you have to teach me today, lets start with a prayer and I’ll say it.”  And then he prays immediately!!  It was so cool.  Never before have I seen or heard of an investigator this excited to learn.  It was a great plan of salvation lesson and the spirit was strong there.  He said that he really wants to read right from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and we found no problem with that because we know he will.  Next time we see him we really want to talk with him about how we can get missionaries in Ghana to go and teach his 6 kids, I’m certain he would absolutely love that.  Then they could all get sealed in the temple together!!!! That would be so sweet!!!!  Man…isn’t the gospel awesome?  I love it!!

We also met with our Indian Hindu friend again, Josh.  This was an interesting lesson.  We taught him the restoration because the last time we talked to him we just talked about developing a faith in Christ and about who he was.  It was a great lesson and he thought that it was sweet that there was a prophet here on earth today and would be excited to listen to him and hear the counsel and guidance he gives us.  He committed to do all that we asked him to and again, felt prompted to extend a date!  We read him a sweet scripture in Alma talking about baptism and the blessings that come with it and then bore our testimonies about baptism and how it has blessed our lives with the Holy Ghost and asked him if he would want to enjoy these blessings in his life by being baptized.  He said “no I sure wouldn’t.”  Wait, what?!  Did I hear you correctly?  And we basically asked him how come?  And he said that he was baptized as a baby and that his mom would be upset.  It’s just kind of annoying because Josh is in his late 40’s and probably shouldn’t be too worried about telling his mom about the church and that he would be getting baptized into it.  I dunno, I’m not him.  But we asked him to read Moroni 8 and to pray about being baptized by proper authority.  We’ll see how that rolls around, hopefully great!!

And the last crazy lesson of the week that we taught was to a chinese guy named Wayne.  This guy has to be the smartest, most logical thinker, and in depth person I have ever met in my life.  We had a 2.5 hour lesson on the first principle of the first lesson, God is our loving Heavenly Father.  I have never yet taught an actual sit down lesson to someone who doesn’t believe in God, talked to many people without that belief, but never an actual sit down lesson.  But Wayne is a great guy, but so so in depth.  He believes in science and needs actual physical evidence to prove that something is real.  He says he wants to believe in God, but needs physical evidence that he actually exists.  He says that he wouldn’t take the feeling of the Holy Ghost as evidence because it’s not something physical, just a feeling.  It amazed me.  I’m such a simple minded person and I couldn’t comprehend or understand half the things he was saying because it was all so complex and just crazy what he was talking about.  He doesn’t want to pray because he doesn’t believe anybody is listening so he would feel dumb doing it and yeah, I was just amazed and confused.  We had a member with us and he saved us on multiple occasions by giving his testimony and opinions on things that Wayne was saying.  But that was a super draining lesson and we were both so tired.  It was crazy.  But yeah, we don’t really know how to progress and move forward with him.  He needs to realize that he probably will not see God and if he wants to in the first place, he needs to have faith, something he doesn’t have.  So we need to address that issue again.

This week we also spent some time bus contacting, that was fun.  Basically you just get on a bus and ride and talk to people.  People are crazy, I’ll just say that much.  Bus contacting is difficult and I have some room to improve, it requires a good people person, and I’m not one of those yet.  Getting better, but not awesome.  We also spent a lot of time with a member who is in the hospital this week.  He’s from down by the Quad Cities in Iowa/Illinois and is up here recovering from heart surgery.  We have given him a few blessings and also gave him the sacrament.  His daughter and her husband and daughter were up visiting who were also form the Quad Cities!!!  They’re AWESOME!!!!!  Probably the coolest family I have met out on my mission and they aren’t even in my mission boundaries.  But they’re super cool and they took us out to eat and provided us with some much needed stress relieving time after stressful days.  They’re way cool.  I told them that Natalie and Paul lived down in the Quad Cities and they said that if I gave them their address they’d go and say hi!!  So Natalie, if an awesome couple randomly knocks on your door, take them out to dinner and become their best friends because they’re awesome!!

I gave a talk yesterday in singles ward about drawing nearer to Heavenly Father.  A scripture that stuck out to me about that was D&C 88:63, 67-68.  They’re great verses and I suggest reading them.  But, I know that if we keep our covenants and do the things we know we need to do, but probably aren’t doing, we will be super close to our Heavenly Father and we will be blessed greatly.  It was a great topic to speak on and I learned a lot from it.  I know that we can all improve on it, so that can be my little commitment I leave with you all.  Think of ways you can be closer to our Heavenly Father and start or stop doing things that will enable you to.

This week was sweet and I hope your guys’ was too!!!

I love you!
Elder Kissell

p.s.  for those of you who write me, my address is 425 Paunack Pl. #1B, not #113.  I have still been receiving the 113 mail, but just in case, start doing #1B!

pictures!

1.  my newest suit addition, grey!  I found it in our basement, sweet!

2.  Camp Randall on a snowy day.

3.  Large piles of snow on the side of the road

4.  The Mckune family (part of them) from the Quad Cities, they're AWESOME!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!

Well, this first week has been crazy awesome and crazy cold here in Madison.  I can honestly say that my nose hairs have never frozen and my eyelashes have never frozen together up until a few days ago.  It is FREEZING!!!  We went tracting for about 45 minutes in 4 degree weather the other day with a member and we were dying.  Not fun.  But a nice girl let us in to warm up.  So that was sweet.  But, we probably will not be tracting anytime soon in single digit weather.  Not great.  Oh, and our heater broke in our apartment!  It stinks.  It was usually around 60 degrees in our apartment, coldest it was was about 59 degrees.  It feels warm coming in for about 15 minutes, but then it’s freezing.  They better fix it soon.  But, let me tell you about the sweetest thing EVER.

So, just to let you know, this story will be in the Ensign someday, but I’ll give you a sneak preview of it.  So on Tuesday this week, a guy called us and asked for Elder Abe or Echivarre.  Elder Echivarre is home and Elder Abe is our district leader and he’s about 35 miles away from Madison.  But we gave him Elder Abe’s number and thought really nothing of it.  But on Friday, Elder Abe calls us and says that some random guy called him from our area and really wants to meet with us.  So on Saturday, me, Barker, Elder Abe, and his companion went to go meet this man who none of us even knew.  His name is Martin and he is a very great man from Ghana.  He met Elder Abe and Echivarre over a year ago and they gave him a pass along card with their names and phone number on it.  That number is still ours.  He says he wasn’t interested at the time in learning more but he really liked the picture on the pass along card so he framed it!!  It’s been framed in his house for over a year.  But in the past year, his wife has passed away and he resorted to drinking and trying to drown his sorrows that way.  But one day, he just felt something in his heart that if he kept this up, he was going to die too and his 6 kids back home in Ghana would not have a parent anymore.  So from that point on, he quit drinking and hanging out with his bad influence friends.  This year, he decided to make a New Years resolution to go back to church.  He has been reading the Bible and he just realized that he needed God more so in his life.  Then one day, he remembered about his framed pass along card with the Elders’ names and phone number on the back and called us up and the story goes from there.  He has a baptismal date set for the 24th of January.  He is SO awesome.  He is excited to know that there is a prophet on the Earth and he is willing to do whatever the prophet says and read the Book of Mormon and pray and do whatever it takes to be baptized.  He is GOLDEN.  He gave the sweetest prayer I think I’ve heard from an investigator as well, he prayed that he would be able to learn all that he needed to learn and do all that he needed to do in order to be baptized.  It was so amazing.  He wasn’t able to come to church yesterday though because he works on Sunday at Walmart but he is going to be asking for Sundays off so he can.  I’m so pumped for him.  So please keep him in your prayers, he’s so amazing.  And it all started from a simple invite and a pass along card.  You never know who you’re going to effect or touch.  Elder Abe doesn’t even remember who he is, the Lord works in mysterious ways, but He sure knows what he’s doing.  He’s definitely been being prepared for the gospel in crazy ways.  It rocked!!!

Sadly though, we dropped Kristen.  She wasn’t keeping our appointments or any commitments.  It takes about an hour to get to her place on the bus and when she’s not there, it kinda kills our day.  And if she isn’t making the effort to be there or keep commitments, there really is no point in continuing to teach her.  So I really hope she will be ready here later on and be able to meet some of the other missionaries later on.  She is a great lady.  But right now, our only real investigator that is progressing is Martin, still trying to contact referrals and such that we have received but it is hard with everybody being gone for the holidays.
New Years wasn’t too exciting.  We were allowed to stay up til 12 if we wanted to but I myself think that New Years is lame unless you have fireworks to play with so I just went to bed.  We weren’t encouraged to be out proselyting in the evening either unless we had appointments.  We were at members homes and such though so we didn’t have much to worry about.  But Madison was basically a ghost town on New Years morning.  There was nobody.  Kinda creepy.  Usually there’s a ton of cars and stuff driving around downtown and stuff, it’s a big city so it’s what big cities are like, but we saw about 4 cars in about 2 miles.  That’s always a little weird and uncomftorable feeling when it feels like you’re the only 2 people in a 300,000 person city.  We met with a previous investigator who was super anti and a bit hostile towards us.  Not a whole lot of fun, all she wanted to do was bash, so needless to say we weren’t there too long.
We had interviews this week also with the Barretts, that was good.  I always love meeting with them and taking their council.  They’re amazing people and give us great ideas and ways to progress in the work here.
But, that was our week really, highlighted by Martin the great.  I love that guy.  I hope you all are having an amazing 2010 and that you make this year the best year of your life yet!!!

Love
Elder Kissell

pictures

1.  59 stinking degrees in our apartment!!!!  BRRRRRRR

2.  We put blankets up over our windows because getting a draft that is 4 degrees isn't fun.

3.  UW Madison!

Happy 2010!

Happy Holidays from Madison Everybody!!!

Well, this letter probably won’t be, in fact it won’t be as long as they usually are because I talked to all of you just a few days ago in REAL LIFE!!!!  SWEET!!!!  But, this week really was wonderful and full of great fun and success.  We spent a lot of time trying to contact less actives and referrals yesterday and on Saturday.  We also tracted in a really awesome neighborhood in south Madison.  It’s a newer development area that we went to with the intentions of finding families and such.  We did find a few that are interested so that was sweet!!  It sure was freezing when we went though, well, not SUPER cold but I would rather be chillin inside by the fire or something.  But, the Lord does test our faithfulness and obedience in all things, even in tracting in the freezing cold!  Those scarves that you sent, mom, are lifesavers for sure.  The wind is what kills you though!!  It is just a bundle of fun being out there!

But for Christmas, we decided to forgo the ward Christmas party thing and just talk to our families.  It was well worth it.  After talking to ya’ll, we hung out with a YSA named Lyle and had dinner at his place.  We had broccoli soup and bacon sandwiches for Christmas dinner!  Beats out prime rib!!  Haha just playin, but it was a good dinner for sure.  Then we went to the church and closed the day out with some basketball.  Good times.

Gave a talk at church yesterday, it went great.  The 1st ward and the University wards are only holding sacrament meetings for the next few weeks because there are so many people home.  So that’s kinda lameo.  But the talk went great and got a lot of compliments.  Not like they’d tell me if I did a bad job anyway, but, yeah, it was a good talk I think.  We met a less active guy yesterday who believes in UFO’s, that was cool.  He is a funny guy.  He is less active because he was offended when the bishop told him he shouldn’t talk about UFO’s in his testimony.  Pretty funny.  There are some unique people in this world but God loves them all .

Well, can’t think of too much more excitement to tell you all.  But, I love you all very very much and wish you a merry Christmas and a happy 2010!!

Talk to you next year!!!!!!!!!!

Love
Elder Kissell

pictures

1. We walked around on a frozen lake!!  Sweet huh

2.  Ice...

3.  One of the many Christmas storms

4.  Caroling crew!

5.  The Stocks, the family we spent Christmas eve  with.

6.  Cool....

7.  Christmas tree and presents!!!

8.  Santa came!!!

9.  Presents!!! Thanks everybody!!!

Merry Christmas!

CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!  Well, hello everybody, how was your weeks?  Hopefully they were great and groovy, like mine.  Got some pretty cool stuff and stories to tell you this week too.  I never fail to have good ones!!!
So this week, we got a TON of media referrals.  The way the referral system works is somebody gets a pass along card, see’s a commercial on TV, or some other way, and they call in for any number of things.  Usually, a Bible, a Book of Mormon, and DVD’s.  They call the number on the card or the ad, they’re transferred to missionaries at the MTC, they take down their info, send that info to mission offices, and the mission office sends us a text with all their info and item they want.  This week, we got a lot of DVD requests and Book of Mormon requests so that was cool.  But, one in particular stood out to me that I’d like to tell you about.  This was a missionary visit request, don’t get those too often!!  But these people were Charles and Pamela.  This couple lives in Madison and a close person to them passed away in Florida and they went to the funeral in Florida and they met the missionaries.  Charles is a former Deacon in the Presbyterian church and he left because he found so many discrepancies with the doctrine and has been searching for the truth and he knows he found it with this church and him and his wife want to be baptized!!  We haven’t even met them, I have just talked to them on the phone twice and they’re so excited to meet with us.  It’s going to be sweet.  The missionaries in Florida taught them the first lesson, gave them a Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 11), and asked them to pray about it.  He says that they have read and they have prayed.  They love the Book of Mormon and he has prayed to know if it’s true.  He said it took him a few days to get an answer, but he got it and he says there was no denying that it was the Holy Ghost testifying to him.  SO SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!   We’ll be meeting with them on Wednesday and setting a baptismal date with them.  So, good news for Christmas time!!

Sadly, we haven’t been able to see Kristen ALL WEEK.  It was a bummer for sure.  We had an appointment set with her for Wednesday at 3, went over there, and she wasn’t home.  Her husband said that she was having a flair up with arthritis and needed to go to the hospital, so that was sad.  She doesn’t have a phone so we couldn’t call her.  That makes things majorly difficult.  The bus takes about 45 minutes to get to her house from our main area we are in and that takes up a huge chunk of our day.  The buses are so lame.  We really do need a car, but we really honestly probably won’t get one anytime soon.  But we would be able to get so much more work done.  We have a  ton of people to teach, but we just can’t get to them all the time.  It is really annoying.  The bus system is good, but we have to plan our schedule around the time we need to be on it.  A lot of the people we are teaching live in the ghetto, like Kristen, and it is not a great place to be.  Members are afraid of this area and won’t come too willingly with us.  We’ve tried and it’s hard.  If you want my opinion though, it’s bad, but it’s not bad enough that I would stay out of the area.  But maybe one of these days I’ll get jumped and I’ll have a different opinion, but hopefully not!  But, that brings up a funny story…  On Friday, we met with this couple who just moved from Liberia a few years ago.  They met the Spanish elders on the bus last week and wanted to meet with us since they were in our area.  We went over there and met them, they were way nice and very hospitable and caring for us and were excited to start discussing religion and things with us.  They are very strong Christians and they believe a lot of the same things we do and even believe that the church that they attend now is false and they need to find the right one.  Sounds good doesn’t it?  Well, moving on with the story, Elder Barker was discussing with them how to find out if what we teach is true.  He read them Moroni’s promise and testified and things, but before he did that, the man and woman we were teaching told us that they would come to our church in 2 weeks and if they liked it, they would make it their church.  And so this is when Barker did his thing.  They got way mad at him because they didn’t like the fact that we didn’t stop the lesson right there, we just encouraged them to pray and ask if what we teach is true.  It was really weird and I honestly have no idea why they got mad at us.  But they were yelling at us and right up in our face and stuff and it was way scary!!  This guy is not a skinny scrawny guy either, he’s pretty strong and could’ve inflicted some harm on us if he really wanted to.  So, we decided within the span of about 2 seconds that it was time to leave.  We hadn’t even got to talk about Joseph Smith!!!  But, we asked if we could leave with a prayer, they said yes, and after the prayer, they were happy again!!  It was crazy weird.  I’m just glad I didn’t get chopped to bits by a machete or something, it was scary.
On Saturday it was pretty neat, i went on exchanges with the spanish elders and we went caroling with them and the Hmong elders.  We were late to the main thing unfortunately, but we went to a family after we got there...this family is COOL!!  They got sealed that day in the temple.  The father used to be a very strong Jehovahs Witness and had a mighty change of heart and spirit to say the least and became a member with this church!!  He got sealed to his wife and family on saturday.  How cool is that?  THeir home had such a great spirit in it, they were all so happy and it was just amazing.

We went tracting in an area one day because both our appointments we had fell through and turns out a member lived in that area that Barker failed to tell me about.  So, on this doorstep, it was his door, but he rang the bell and said “ok Kissell, it’s all you man.”  And I was like “ok man whatever, this is your door but ok.”  This old man answers the door, late 60’s or so, and I start talking to him.  I tell him who we are and what we share and I ask him if he believes in Christ, he says no, and I told him some ways he could develop a belief in Jesus Christ by meeting with us and reading a little of the Book of Mormon.  Then he says, “Well, Elder Kissell from Wenatchee, WA, I met you on Sunday, but you did a fine job with that door approach, would you and your companion like to come to Culvers with my wife and I?”  I felt SO dumb, you have no idea!!  But it was pretty funny for sure.  Elder Barker was pretty happy with himself and gave me some guff about it, but it was pretty funny though, and plus I got us a free lunch!!  So no complaining here.
We had a great week though.  And also on Thursday we had our zone conference.  It’s sweet being in Wisconsin because you only have to drive an hour maybe to get to those, up in the U.P., we’re talkin like a 4 hour drive sometimes.  So it was great to be so close.  But this was a great conference, we learned about how to ask better questions and interact with investigators in lessons and such.  It was good stuff.  And we also sang carols and did Christmas skits and stuff.  It was fun.  And Blake was at the zone conference!!  They combine zones for zone conference and so he was at that one.  It was sweet spending several hours with him.  It is just even more crazy to me that we came to the same mission.  Nobody believes us that we’re best friends and have known each other for 13 years.  It’s sweet though.

Well, it sure was a good week.  I’m excited to talk to you this week, well, some of you.  Sorry to those of you who I can’t call!!  I still love you though for sure.   I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and remember why we celebrate this wonderful holiday.  How about this…how about for an amazing Christmas present to one of your nonmember friends, you get a Book of Mormon from your missionaries, write your testimony and put it in there, and give it to your friend.  Your present to them will be eternal happiness if they choose to accept it.  Remember, they have their agency and will still be your friend even if they don’t accept the gospel in this life.  You’ve got nothing to lose, so try it!!  You’ll be blessed greatly and we can all use the blessings.

I love you and Merry Christmas!!!
Elder Kissell

pictures

1.  So this picture is really gross i know, but let me explain...  this is a Hmong dessert, i have no idea what it's called.  But what it is is this tapioca stuff with things in there that have the texture of gummy worms and noodles.  It was the grossest texture of anything I've eaten in my life.  A combination of tapioca balls, gummy worm texture stuff, and noodle texture stuff.  ANd there was also something in there that was like bean sprouts.  It was so weird but super good.  It was something you drank too.  But it tasted like coconut and tapioca pudding...with gummy worms...and noodles.  But, remember that they weren't gummy worms and noodles, it was just weird!!!!!

2.  Our nasty tub...we're going to clean it soon.  Was not happy when i saw that.

3.  Yay for tracting in the snow and in the dark

4.  Elder Barker, i forgot i still hadn't sent you a picture of him so i just took one right now.

Welcome to Madtown Elder Kissell

Hello Everyone!!!

Well…do you all wanna know where I’m at??????? I am now serving in Madison on the campus! It is InSaNe!!!! Here’s the rundown…Madison is the states capital, there are about 350,000 more people here than in Marquette, I live in an apartment right smack dab in the middle of the city, I work in a singles ward and in a regular ward, there are like 6 different companionships in the area, and there are just a ton of people here!! It’s so crazy. I’m basically going through culture shock right now, it’s crazy. I went from Wenatchee (25,000 people) to Marquette (25,000 people) to Madison (400,000 people)! It is nutso. But I love it here. It’s a very clean city, it reminds me a little of like Salt Lake or something. The University of Wisconsin is here obviously, so there are a ton of college kids. There is a pretty sweet and nice little institute building here, so that’s a plus. There aren’t a ton of LDS kids attending but there are enough to have that building. There are about 40 or so active college students. The ward we work in is all super busy graduate students with young families. It’s pretty nuts.

And I guess I should tell you about my new companion, Elder Barker. He has been out one transfer less than me so that puts me at senior companion! So that’s interesting and new. Really, the title of senior doesn’t count for much. Basically you just get the last say in things and make executive and important decisions. And if we had a car, I would get to drive it. But we don’t and have to take the buses, so I don’t drive. The bus is so lame. A car would be so useful. We would be able to get so much more work done and would be able to spend more time in areas but we have to base our schedules around the bus system and schedule. Oh well, life does go on somehow. But the bus is a good place to talk to people and meet people, that’s a plus. I just need to stop being a chicken and talk more. Afterall, that is what I’m here to do! But I really do love this place.

On Friday, just the second day I was here, we got a referral from a member in one of the wards here and told us that she would be golden and asked us to go meet with her. Her name is Kristen, a 47 year old black woman, and she is just lost and going through some pretty hard times right now. The member who referred her to us gave her a Book of Mormon and she was very excited about it. She is going through hard economic times and is a bit depressed about things in her life and how they’re going. We’re the ones to talk to about that!!! But we had a great first lesson and she was excited to read and to pray about the first lesson and the Book of Mormon. We set up a return time for the next day and we went with a super awesome member/ward missionary, Sis. Elisberg and taught the plan of salvation. This was the person I’ve been waiting to meet on my mission. Her mother died 4 years ago and is still pretty sad and emotional about it. Just like me with dad. Elder Barker and I discussed who would teach what in the lesson and I would be teaching about Adam and Eve, the atonement, and the resurrection. I knew from the beginning of the lesson that I needed to tell the story about dad and bear my strong testimony of the atonement when I taught it. The spirit was so so strong. I wish you all could’ve been there. I started to cry, Sis. Elisberg started to cry, and Kristen started to cry. Afterwards, Kristen gave me a big huge hug. Easily one of, if not the best feelings and experiences I’ve had on my mission so far. She committed to come to church and guess what? She did and she loved it!!! She even says she wants to keep coming and she even signed herself up on the dinner calendar. I’m so stinkin excited. We will be extending a baptismal commitment to her and seeing what happens with that this week. So please pray for her and her continued development and growth. We’ve also just received a ton of referrals these past couple days for some reason. We stopped by another and met him yesterday and he is an Indian guy, former Hindu, and wanting to quit that and learn about Jesus. He ordered a Lamb of God DVD that we delivered to him. Unique huh? I have not taught anybody yet who doesn’t at least know a bit about Jesus and so this was a definite first for me. It was cool though. He came to understand the need and reason to pray, the meaning behind the Godhead, and what the Holy Ghost felt like because he was there for sure. We also challenged him to fast and to pray to quit smoking, right from the first lesson!! It is going to be sweet. I love it here, there will be a lot going on this transfer, I can feel it. The ward is so much different than Marquette. Tons of young families. There are no young men or young women, the oldest person might be in their 60’s here, and yeah, it’s just weird and different. They all seem very nice, but very busy. Elder Barker tells me we won’t see a ton of the members a lot because of that, so we’ll see.

But this week has been nuts. The beginning of the week was crazy because of all the packing I had to do and goodbyes I had to say and stuff. Tuesday was a great day. It was the day we had district meeting and the day we were supposed to go to Green Bay and from there down to Milwaukee the next day. Well, we go out in the morning to drive to district meeting and there’s a huge nail in our tire!! So, I spent the morning changing a tire. Fun. I also smashed my pinky trying to get the dumb spare off, but don’t worry, I didn’t swear!! And so, we had district meeting over the phone, that was different for sure. After that, we get a call from the zone leaders that we had to drive to Milwaukee that day!!! Keep in mind that it takes about 8 hours to get to Milwaukee from Marquette and that a huge storm was coming in that day. So, since it hadn’t come yet, Elder Wessely turned the highway into the Autobahn. Hooray!! We were hauling, but we needed to get to Milwaukee and pronto because of Presidents orders. He wanted us to be down there because of that storm. And good thing because by the time we got to Milwaukee, it was dumping snow. Milwaukee got about 10 inches I think. We driving in the worst of it too and got lost. That was great. But we found our way and thank goodness for 4 wheel drive. It was insane weather and snow. Wednesday, I bid farewell to Elder Wessely who would be training this transfer and spent the day with the office elders. They basically do errands for the president and arrange transfer info and fun stuff like that. It was nuts. They’re so busy and I’m grateful to be just a regular missionary.

Thursday was transfer day and guess who I finally got to see!!! BLAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome. It has been forever since I’ve seen him and it was a happy reunion. Also Tucker Chapman, from the 3rd ward, was there!!! So we had a little Wenatchee reunion. Sweet! It was pretty cool seeing 3 people from Wenatchee serving in the same mission in one spot. Doesn’t happen too often for sure. But Blake will be serving in a different zone than me again, but I will see him at zone conferences now at least. They combine zones for those things. But yeah, I was happy to finally see him. I’m excited for the day that I can either be in his district, or better yet, be his companion. But nobody thinks it will happen. I think it will. Gotta have some faith!!!

Well, I’m all about out of news. Oh, Madison has a ton of snow and it was super super cold for a few days. Madison shut down on Wednesday because of all the snow. That’s saying something. They got pummeled with about 17” of super heavy snow. And it was in the negative and single digits for a few days. That was fun!! Welcome to Wisconsin!!!

Now I’m out of news… I love you guys!!! Have a great holiday season and I will talk to you next Monday!! I will be literally talking to you mom in 11 days!!!

Love
Elder Kissell

pictures


1. the most yooper picture you'll ever see!! A Stormy Kromer hat and a pasty. And some other dumb stuff.


2. Elder Crossley, love this kid.

3. Look!! Wenatchee kids!!

4. Look who it is!

5. Wisconsin Campus action


6. Yup, it did


7. More campus action

8. On State Street to see the Capital


9. Sweet!!

December 7, 2009

Greetings family and friends!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love
Elder Jesse Kissell

pictures!


1. Snow!


2. 6 months!


3. Yummy yummy venison made by Jesse


4. Early Christmas present!


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


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

Brrrr

Hey!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love
Elder Kissell

the massive ski jump

sweet huh?

i look like a turkey after the turkey bowl :)

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

muddy missionary truck!

:)

our nasty dishwasher. gross huh?

Lady Antebellum shirt

Lady Antebellum shirt