A week in the life...

Hey everyone!!

 

Well, i'll be totally honest with you all, this week has been tough.  These past few weeks have been the toughest and hardest weeks emotionally so far for me.  I guess i'm starting to realize that not every week you find a perfect, golden investigator who has no obstacles in sight and baptism is right in view.  I'm also starting to realize that not everybody is ready for the gospel, as hard as you try to make it seem like they are.  Martin is still lost, Tim still doesn't have a testimony, and we just haven't been able to really find anybody new.  Well, i have somebody i can tell you guys about in a bit, but it's been difficult.  But i know that these weeks have for sure been for my benefit and my testimony and trust in the Lord will be much stronger than they were at the start of this transfer.

 

So Martin, I'm pretty sure, is still here in Madison.  We went to his apartment the other day, his car was there, his phone rang, and his apartment lights were on we are pretty sure.  But, he didn't answer his phone and didn't answer his buzzer.  He also didn't answer our ward mission leaders call.  That was on Thursday afternoon and kinda destroyed my day.  I have no idea what got to him but something obviously did.  Something i don't know if i shared with you guys about my previous temple trip was that i prayed to know what we needed to do for Martin and my answer was love and patience.  Love made sense obviously but patience at the time didn't make sense.  But thursday talking to Roberts about that, he was pretty confident and sure that he will still get baptized if i got that answer in the temple.  Definetely a confidence booster for me.  And i know that i myself am not a patient person, so i have faith that this will all work out in the end and not only benefit me, but Martin is probably working something out that may have hindered his path to baptism.  I really just wish that he would answer the phone.  It really stinks not having even talked to him for 2 weeks.  

 

Tim is still working on his baptism as previously stated.  He really loves meeting with us and learning, but just hasn't found out if it's all true yet.  He's doing everything that he needs to to get an answer including coming to FHE and Institute as well as reading and praying.  President told us that we should teach him about prayer though and make sure he is doing everything correctly, all the little tiny details.  So we went over that and we hope he will recieve an answer here shortly.  He opted out of coming to the temple unfortunately.  The sisters have an investigator who came to the temple and she absolutely loved it and has a date for the end of March.  I was pretty sad he didn't come because I have a strong testimony of the power of temples, which i shared with him, and i know he probably would've had prayers answered there.  He also wasn't able to come to church on Sunday, which freaked us out because we thought we may have offended him and he would disappear too, but turns out he went down to Iowa to see his mom and visit her.  That's a good thing though that he did that because he has had a bad relationship with his mom growing up and i imagine he was forgiving her or making restitution or something because he's awesome like that.  Luckily, he returned our phone call and told us that or right now i would be ultra bummed because both our golden's dropped off the earth. 

But let me tell you about one of our new investigators.  Her name is Dawnette and she was found by our ward mission leader on the bus.  He set up a time for us to go teach her and we went and did that Tuesday.  Well, i actually didn't go because we were on exchanges that day, lame.  But the appointment went sweet and we have an appointment with her tonight.  I still haven't even met her yet!  But the lesson rocked last time.  I guess she's been wanting to be Mormon for quite a while now, her daughter is a member in south western Wisconsin and her grandson is on a mission and she has listened to the Book of Mormon on tape.  That's pretty sweet huh?  She wants to be baptized but the only catch, she wants to be baptized in a river.  I wonder if she's forgotten that it's FEBRUARY in WISCONSIN? She wants to be baptized in a river because that's where Jesus was baptized, so that's sweet, but this water ain't gonna be warm here anytime soon.  This ICE won't be melted here anytime soon.  So we're going to see how she feels about being baptized in a font when we talk to her tonight.  I still haven't met her yet, so i can't really tell you too much about her, but i smell another golden investigator with her.  

 

On Friday we got to go to the temple again, definetely a perk about serving in the singles ward, President says that we should be involved with the singles ward as much as possible and go on the temple trips and stuff.  No complaints about that here!  The temple was great though.  I prayed that i would be comforted and calm and destressed in the temple.  It worked and it was awesome.  The temple is so sweet.  "I Love to See the Temple!"  It makes me happy and feel great.  I just wish there was more!!  We're workin on it.  

 

But definetely somethings i've noticed here in the past couple weeks is that missionary work is tough, time is FLYING by (kinda stinks), there's not a lot of time to do other things (like replying to letters, i have like 5 that i need to reply to!!  Sorry!), that i need to be obedient, and that i need to totally and truly apply myself and lose myself in this great and glorious (and hard) work to be totally and truly blessed by the Lord.  The mission has truly been life changing and i have learned and grown immensely, and still have alot of growing to do here in my time as a missionary.  I'm really trying to savor it all and work hard and reap the blessings that come from my work here.  They don't lie when missionaries say time flys!  Elder Roberts says that it gets worse too, so i'm not looking forward to it.  1 week seems like 2 days.  But i am looking to get the fire back and my happiness and optimism back here soon, it's no fun when you're down.  And that's what i'm all about is having fun while you work.  Madison is waiting for the gospel and we're going to find them all and give it to them!!!

I love you guys a ton and a half and am so grateful to have such a sweet and loving family and a ward family and group of friends back home to die for.  Keep on keeping the faith and choosing the right!!  We all go through hard times to shape us and make us into so much more better people.  A talk yesterday at singles ward really stuck out to me. This girl was talking about hard and difficult times and she said that these expereiences either make us into something so much more or they leave us really bitter and holding a grudge.  I think that if we let these experiences make us bitter and grudge-ful (is that a word) we become weak and useless and we lose alot of respect from others and from then on, lots of things will be hard and difficult for us.  So don't do that!!  Let these tests and trials help you become better!!  

 

Alrighty, well, i'm gonna roll out now.  Have a good week!!  You're in my prayers.

 

Love

Elder Kissell  

THE WEEK

Hey folks!

 

Well this week was a different one than what i'm used to.  The past few weeks things have been pretty high flying and sweet and nothing really going wrong.  But this week, we hit a few speed bumps.  Some were a little bigger than speed bumps, some were kind of like brick walls.  But never fear, i'm still smilin and goin with the flow of missionary work.  But, let me ellaborate a little on my week now...

 

So Martin unfortunately will not be getting baptized this saturday.  He wasn't at church yesterday and in fact, we have no idea where he is.  He has Thursdays and Fridays off, so we usually try to teach him on both of those days.  Thursday morning we talked to him and he said he had an appointment at the hospital where he was going to take care of some billing issues because he got medicine from the hospital a few weeks ago.  He was supposed to be done in the evening but he never called us back and he didn't answer when we called and Friday through Sunday, his phone was off.  The only thing we can really think of that happened was that somebody found out he was not a legal citizen.  His visa ran out late last year and technically is an illegal alien now.  So he may be suffering the consequences of that, but we really have no idea where he is.  We kind of figured that unless there was something seriously wrong, he would be at church.  But he wasn't, so that must mean that there is something not so good going on in his life right now.  It is pretty stressful and frustrating.  I really am pretty nervous and freaking out a little about the whole situation.  But i have faith that he'll be found soon and he'll be baptized.  My problem is that i want to know WHEN that will be.  So, pray for Martin and that things will work out for him, whatever his situation may be.

 

Tim still rocks.  We had a couple sweet lessons with him this week.  One about the word of wisdom which he is now living!  He drank alot of tea, but not anymore!!  Sweet.  And then the other lesson was the plan of salvation part 1.  He loved it.  But he did bring up the fact that he wasn't so sure about the whole baptism idea.  He hasn't found out if the church is true yet and isn't comftorable being baptized.  That's good!  But he really needs to come to know if it's true.  Patience i guess.  The Lord works in mysterious ways and those mysterious ways are always the best ways.  And when Tim does find out, i have confidence that it will be a super sweet experience and one that he can't deny and will love and cherish it forever.  That's usually the way it happens!!!  And he wants it to happen too, so do you think the Lord will deny him that blessing?  Nope, me neither.  But Tim loves everything about church, including FHE and EARLY MORNING institute!!  It's not that early actually, it's at 7, but if Tim can do it, so can I!  

 

We went to a hockey game this week!!  It was pretty sweet.  One of the sisters' investigators was playing and the singles ward decided to make a ward activity out of it to go watch.  So that was sweet.  Hockey is way fun, i would totally play it if i could skate.  

 

So this is cool...my hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows all froze this week!!  Not something you can say everyday eh?  And the cool thing was that it wasn't even that cold out.  And you want to know something that i've decided?  The cold feels good!!!  No more weird cold problems!!:)  And it finally snowed again this week, it's about time.  Our snow was old and gross but now it looks good out with a nice new layer of whiteness. 

We have another temple trip this week with the singles ward.  That will be great.  We are planning on inviting Tim to go and sit in the waiting room.  The spirit is so strong everywhere at the temple, even outside.  I think it would be a really great experience for him.  He has said before that he doesn't like big fancy buildings, but we'll explain the reasons behind the temple being so big and beautiful beforehand.  

 

Our ward mission leader found us a sweet new potential investigator on the bus this week!!  And i do smell another baptismal date coming up here this week.  She sounds pretty golden.  I guess her daughter is a member down in a small town in southeastern Wisconsin and her grandson is on a mission.  And she listens to the Book of Mormon on tape and thinks it is sweet!!!  So on wednesday, we should have a pretty awesome lesson i'm thinking.  The Lord does prepare people, this area has made that known to me and there are so many of them.  And this time, a member found us somebody!!  That means YOU CAN TOO!!!!  You love the gospel right?  You love your friends, right?  Well, how about showing your friends how much you love them by sharing with them the gospel.  You can totally do it!

 

The bus was fun again this week!!  I talked to one guy who said i looked like i was off of an MTV show and that i looked totally awesome!!  Not interested at all, but he thought i was pretty hot stuff and made it known to a couple other people on the bus...awkward!  I don't think he was gay though, i sure hope not!  And i talked to some businessmen and hippies and crazy black guys.  The bus is always an adventure!! 

Hmmmm....  well!  I must say that i'm quickly running out of more exciting things to tell you.  I love you all and hope everybody had a sweet V-Day!  Oh and happy Presidents day!!  No mail today!  Lame!!!  Speaking of which...don't  be afraid to write me!!!:)  I heard from somebody that every week was a "write your missionary" week!  

 

Love ya'll!

Elder Jesse Kissell

 

pictures!

 

1.  Frozen hair and eyelashes and eyebrows! Cool!

 

 

2.  Hockey!

 

 

3.  Out on a frozen lake at sunset.  Nice.

February 8, 2010

Hey family and awesome loved ones!

 

The week was great!!  We had some good success and great lessons with Martin and Tim.  We really weren't as productive as we could've been though, so that kind of got us down at the end of the week when we saw how terrible our numbers were.  We're out and about, not sitting in our apartment, but we just don't open our mouths.  I feel pretty bad and am going to step up my act this week.  Don't get me wrong though, we still had a productive week, our numbers just weren't sweet.  So let me tell you about it!

So real quick, Martin update!  He still rocks, still will be getting baptized the 20th of the month.  We had a really good night with him on Thursday when a member invited us and him over for dinner.  He loves the members, and he should, because they have ALL been so welcoming and loving to him.  We talked alot about Ghana and his life before america, so that was interesting.  Grandma, you should send me a list of all the areas you were in on your mission and dates and such so i can show him that!  I bet he would be thrilled.  We shared the story of Ammon with him and the members and he really thought that was exciting and at the same time very meaningful.  I think it's cool when investigators see the need and importance of missionary work.  Ammons story is all about missionary work and he realized that and made several more wise and thought out remarks and statements as he is so good at.  Still, no sundays off.  We fasted very hard for him to receive that blessing yesterday and hope that something comes of it.  He wants so badly to be at church every sunday.  Today is also the year mark since his wifes passing and we are planning on doing something for him like make him cookies or something.  I'm certain he'd appreciate that. 

 

Tim still rocks too!  He came to church yesterday and it was awesome.  You know how they say sacrament meeting either makes or breaks an investigator?  Well, this one totally made him.  He still hasn't found out if the Book of Mormon is true yet and we, including him, fasted and prayed that he will be able to feel and find that out soon.  Testimony meeting was great because almost all those who bore testimony mentioned something remarkable about the Book of Mormon and how it has blessed their lives and such.  Alot was also said about repentance.  He thought it was great.  I know he felt the spirit there and i imagine even his prayer about the Book of Mormon was answered.  We have another meeting with him Tuesday, so we'll be excited to find out then!  But we did have a really sweet lesson with him this Friday.  We talked all about repentance because he kind of needs alot of that before baptism.  We taught alot from King Benjamins address and bore testimony of it.  He didn't like the sound of it at first since King Benjamin is bold and fearless in calling people to repentance, but we showed him other scriptures in those chapters where the blessings of repentance were given and we asked him how he would like to feel and recieve those blessings.  He said that would rock. Then we committed him to repent, he said "of course i will!"  So yeah, Tim is pretty dang awesome. 

We walked around alot this week and tried to talk to people walking and contact former investigators and such, we had some success.  Oh!  So we got a pretty sweet sounding referral last week, a lady went to temple square and really wanted a Book of Mormon, so we deliverred that to her one day.  We rang the bell, and both her and her husband got to the door at around the same time, she looked super excited, him, not excited at all.  But she opened the door and said "are you guys Mormons?"  "We sure are!"  "Come on in!"  We don't hear that too much!!  But after she briefly explained to her husband who we were, he remembered a previous conversation he must have had with her where we were discussed and looked a littlle happier.  But then she asked where the Book of Mormon was, we gave it to her, and then she started telling her husband about Moroni and Nephi and Joseph Smith and stuff!!  And then she asked us if Mormons really don't drink coffee, we said yes, and she said "well, we really love coffee, but i guess we might have to stop drinking that herre soon!"  Woah!!  How many times can i say sweet?!  But, unfortunately, she said she didn't want to talk with us then, but she did want to read the Book of Mormon first, talk to her friend in Utah, and then she would call us.  She seemed very sincere, so we are counting and expecting a call from her in the near future.  But that was a very cool and once in a mission sort of experience!!

 

Thank you all who prayed for me on Friday.  I felt your love and prayers with me exceedingly on that day, not even joking.  I asked for a blessing from my companion the night before just so i could be totally sure i would be ok on friday.  I know that Dad is with me, i really just need to stop and listen and feel and i will notice his presence.  Friday was a good day, taught Tim, did service at the food pantry, a YSA took us out to lunch, and we just kept busy.  I'm so grateful for the comfort of the Holy Ghost and i know that we truly can be blessed, healed, and blessed abundantly from the Holy Ghost.  I'm trying to make dad proud out here!

Well folks, I'm still doing great out here in Madtown.  We have sweet investigators, but want more!!  I'll have something to report back next week about that for sure.  We have a snow storm coming our way tomorrow that should dump 8ish inches on us, exciting!  Something cool i've learned about snow days is that they're WARM!!!  It has to be warm enough to snow, if it's super cold, it doesn't!  So that's something we look forward to on snowy days. 

 

Alright guys, have a good week and choose the right!!

 

Love

Elder Jesse Kissell

 

pictures!

 

 

1.  Meet Elder Roberts!

 

 

2.  Gazing off into the distance to find another golden investigator, where are you?

 

 

3.  Bus ride...dang.  Nobody to talk to.

 

 

4.  We had the not so sweet idea of trying to rearrange our kitchen to see if we could fit a table in there, but if your food cabinent is held together by packing tape, that probably won't go so well.

 

 

5.  The capitol is red for valentines!!  Sweet eh?

My amazing week of awesomeness!

Howdy folks!

Well, this week was a sweet one!  It’ll be a more exciting letter this week, I promise.

So, Martin still rocks the world and guess what?  We met a new investigator who is also pretty darn golden who ALSO has a baptismal date!!!  Sweetness!!  But, let me give you your weekly Martin report.  We were actually pretty nervous for a few days this week because he wouldn’t answer his phone or return our phone calls, but it turns out that he was fairly sick and just forgot.  But he did call our ward mission leader to ask if he could get a blessing.  How did he know about blessings?  Golden I’m tellin ya.  But we didn’t know til a day past that he requested a blessing due to miscommunication with our ward mission leader so we weren’t able to see him and give him one.  But, he finally answered his phone, feeling much better, and we set up a time to go see him.  We shared a lesson on faith.  We did this with the intention being to boost his faith that he will be able to get all Sundays totally off.  He already has plenty of it, so we just reviewed faith basically and shared some scriptures with him that he totally loved.  He really liked Alma 37:6-7, by small and simple means, great things are brought to pass, and Alma 37:36-37, counsel with the Lord in all that you do.  He was all over both those scriptures highlighting them and everything.  So it was a great lesson and he felt a lot and enjoyed it.  And church yesterday was another super great experience for him.  It was ward conference yesterday and the stake presidency gave great talks, I thought that they were some of the best sacrament talks I’ve ever heard before, and they really hit home to Martin.  He really felt the spirit and loved it.  In the second hour, it’s a new stake presidency and so we had sort of just an informal question and answer thing with the counselors of the stake presidency.  The majority of the first questions had to do with young couples asking what they should do with their kids so that they could attend the temple more frequently and still have a spiritual experience and questions a lot like that.  We’ve taught Martin a lot about temples, but he, like the rest of us, still had questions about the temple.  He asked another very profound and amazing question.  He asked “I am fairly new here still and I have heard a lot about temples, in fact, the most beautiful of your temples is in my home back in Ghana, I want to know what the temple is, what you do there, and how I can go inside.”  Whoa!!  The counselors answered his question perfectly and they asked “how long have you been a member for?”  Martin says “well, I am not one yet.”  “You’re an investigator!!  Wow!  Well you need to be a member first and it seems to me like you’re right on track to the temple!”  It was awesome.  Then there were more questions, but to finish up the hour, one of the counselors turned and looked directly at Martin, bore his testimony that the church was true, and closed the meeting.  SWEEEEEEEETTTTTT!!!!!!  It rocked.  We then had a linger longer thing afterwards, a potato bar, and Martin stuck around for that and bishop snagged him and took him to his office just to talk to him and get to know him a little better.   They were talking for 20 minutes or so and Martin came back out and found us and said that bishop made him feel very loved and special and that he was very touched and teary eyed.  He loves church and is so excited to be baptized!!  I talked to bishop about their discussion too and he is totally impressed and excited for him.  All Martin really needs now is to get Sundays off, so please pray for him.  He is so stinkin awesome.  I wish you guys could meet him.

So now, let me tell you about Tim.  Tim is a 29 year old guy who has had one crazy life.  He’s had the kind of life you only hear or see on movies.  He’s been involved heavily with drugs the past 12 years of his life, he had a very hard childhood, he has had some very bad friends that have gotten him into some bad habits, and yeah, his life has been something that nobody should have to go through, but he has.  On new years, he had an epiphone that God really did exist and that he was far from him.  He wanted to be closer to him and to feel clean again.  Since New Years, he has quit cold turkey drugs and alcohol.  He celebrated 30 days of sobriety and being clean just the other day and is loving life so much better now.  He met one of the Spanish elders on the bus and they referred him to us and we went and met him on Wednesday and saw him again yesterday and set a baptismal date for him for the 27th!  He is super humble and wants to be clean again.  He feels terrible for all the things he’s done and been involved with and wants to feel new again.  That’s the atonement baby!!  He’s had some pretty terrible experiences in his life with other people, who he has grown to love and accept and wants to use his experience to help troubled youth like himself stay away from the path that he followed.  He’s so cool.  He also came to church yesterday, only for the first hour though cuz he had to go to a meeting, but he loved ward conference and the messages that were shared as well. He really like the scripture in 3 Nephi 27:19-20 about how baptism cleanses us completely.  We asked if he wanted that and he said “yes, that sounds awesome.”

So yeah, we have some pretty sweet stuff going on here.  I am loving it here in Mad-town.  Despite the fact it’s huge, we are having a ton of fun, we are teaching great people that I am learning so much from, and I am totally loving my mission.  President is very excited about our success and is excited to meet these awesome investigators.  We are also getting to know more members here and they are excited about Martin and are giving us referrals and excited to be involved in the work.  Sweet sweet stuff folks.  Even though it was way cold this week, we were roastin and toastin with the spirituality!!!  Hooray for the gospel and hooray for missionary work!! I love you all!!

Love
Elder Jesse Kissell

pictures

1.  Meet Martin the Great and the card that started it all.  (the Jesus pass along card in the middle underneath the light.)

2.  Thanks mom!  He's gonna love it!

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.