Christmas

I've got to say one thing. Talking to the fam was good.

Also my branch has a bunch of most excellent members. We were fed a ton of food but even better we have a bunch of great members who took us under their wings. I've got to say my first Christmas away from the fam was a success. I found a lot of extended family this last week.

Now for the follow up from last email. My exchange with the Zone leader was a success. He is more of a Yolo missionary so our plans for the day kindof happened. But, when you yolo it right you are more receptive to the spirit. So we had a bit of "exchange magic" as he called it. He felt inspired to text this guy who has been busy with finals at the university. Said guy texted back that he had his last final and we could come anytime that day after 2:00. So we went over there and went over the book of Enos with him. Some background to this guy: his first language is Not english so old style english is like a foreign language to him and the last lesson they had with him (which was on exchanges with the APs) he decided to start believing in God. So he's quite the guy to be doing all of this stuff. Anyway in our lesson with him we committed him to Baptism. Dang fetch oh my heck. For not believing in God not too long ago he's making massive changes. It was indeed some "exchange magic". Needless to say I'm pretty excited to be going on exchanges with Elder Grant from CTK (Carry the Kettle) in our district.

Also another interesting story from the exchange was we swung by this guys house to see how he was doing. He let us right in which was pretty great. He seemed like a super chill kinda hipstery guy. Also something great he had this old old poster for Lord of the Rings. I was super jealous ;) We didn't have much time with him so we just read the intro to the Book of Mormon. We talked about it a bit and when we got to the part where it talks about when you get to know that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God you can also know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is also the true church we invited him to be baptised. He declined, in a nice way, and we continued on. Come to find out, HE WAS a MEmber THIs Whole time. We don't know why he's pretending to be just an investigator of the Church but that's how it is. And of course to see how I am in lessons Elder Coleman did not inform me of this until after the fact. It was some funky business.

That's all I got for now. I may send a following email about some Native stuff but for now that's all I got. Thank you all for your support and I hope y'all had a Merry Christmas. It's odd to think that it actually happened and now it's over but life goes on. Potatoes gonna potate.

Regina

So I'm currently in Regina (again ugh) :) This is why I'm so late today at emailing and also why I might not be able to get back to everyone that I would like to so please excuse me.  BTW interesting things about Regina (Re-jeye-na): Once you pronounce that out you'll wonder why anyone would name anything like that instead of Re jee na. It's become second nature to me now and I'm pretty used to it but when I first heard it I kinda had a "WHat did you Say??" moment. Lotsa fun. The drive from Yorkton is 2 hours (Yay...) and it is the second largest city in Saskatchewan with the only temple in our mission. The reason I'm here right now is because of Exchanges. Now that I'm the comp of a district leader I get to do exchanges with Zone leaders. So woo here in the dirty city again :)

Anywho the big news for this week is we finally have our missionary couple here and getting settled in. Yesterday at church it was wild. We had the new missionary couple (the Olsens) the stake president (President Noblet (No-blay(He's French))) and his cronie and President Craig decided to make a surprise visit. WHooo :) So basically our branch got a spiritual shot of roids. I was so yoked when I saw President Craig walk in. We talked about a lot of great things and we're having a pilot program get started out in Cote all good stuff for missionaries to hear. 

Also it's been getting really cold and wintry now. We got down to about -28 degrees wind chill C. I'm not sure what is worse though. -28 wind chill or -10 with humidity. Either way it's cold cold cold. But I'm surviving so far so that's good :) I'm going to have to see what happens when it gets to -39 degrees C because we can't go out at -40 :) For those of you on Fahrenheit scale -28 is about -18 degrees. So colder than what most of you are experiencing :D Today is fairly nice actually. It's around -5 degrees so no thermal underwear weather :)

CHRISTMAS!! for my moms sake becasue I didn't tell her this yet we've got dinner appointments scheduled every day this week and a couple on Christmas day. We started getting people fighting for us to come over this last sunday so that was good :) It helps when you're the only two Elders within 200 ks :)

Hope y'all have a very very merry Christmas and remember the true meaning as well :) Love you all. Till next time Potatoes gonna potate

 

Love Elder Mikesell

SNOW

Yep we got snow but I'll be talking more about that later. To begin the mass email this week we had our Zone Christmas devotional. It was a really great experience. I think one of the things that stuck with me most about Christmas from it was President Craig talking about "the hopes and fears of all the years" If you're familiar with the Carols in the hymnbook that is a line from "O Little Town of Bethlehem". Christ's coming was truly the hopes and fears of all the years.

One thing I really enjoyed about this Zone conference was we were able to stay at the Zone leaders house for two nights. The first night we had 8 people in this house and the second night we had 10. IT was a blast. We were only expecting 6 people the first night but the APs decided to crash there because they had a washer and drier. That was quite the surprise for us but it was good and kinda fun. Partially because one of the Elders that was staying there was being extremely angry. But one of the ZLs was his former companion and worked his magic to get him calmed down and having a good time. Watching that happen was quite amazing. Especially since it was something the ZLs did that got him going. Another thing that was interesting and fun to watch was the second night there was much tie trading going on. I didn't participate because nobody wanted any of my "Beauties" or in other words ties that are not visually pleasing to the eye. I now have doubled my tie collection by collecting these "beauties". I actually came away from that experience with one more tie. The story behind it was kinda funny.

So there I was... I had been trying a bunch of new stuff on the mish already so this went quite well with what I had been doing in the past. One of the Elders had this Ginger drink mix and he was offering it to anyone who would take it. For good reason. So I was like what the heck I'll try it. So i warmed up some water and dumped it in. It was nasty. Somehow I took one or two more spoonfuls of it before I decided that it was truly nasty and I wasn't imagining it. But, another Elder who was trying to get some ties for cheap got offered to drink the rest of it for a tie. He declined multiple times so I piped up and asked if I could get a tie if I drank the rest of it. He said I could so I tried as hard as I could to just drain it. It ended with me coughing my lungs out and looking for something to get the nasty out of my mouth. Nasty.

The final thing about Zone Conference was an answer to my prayers. We were able to attend the temple the end of the first day. It was sooooo good. I had been wanting to go to the temple ever since I found out I would be in the Stake with the temple in it. But lucky me I got sent 2 and a half hours away from it. However one of our trips out to Regina Elder Spell and I snuck over to take a look at it. But yeah I was soooo yoked to go to the temple. 

Back to the subject line of this email. We got snow and lots of it. IT just absolutely dumped on us this last Thursday. We got at least half a foot in a day and it's been snowing off and on since then. It's been interesting driving around with bald tires but we've survived so far :D But there

s a miracle story that goes along wtih this snow. We felt like we should go shovel the snow off of the driveway of a lady who did not like the missionaries too much. She blew up at Elder Spell the last time he tried going over there so we were a little worried. But when we started shoveling her driveway she came out and thanked us a lot for shoveling her driveway. She also offered to have us over for dinner. Which at any time before then and after the missionaries that put the bad taste in her mouth she would've avoided us like the plague. It was amazing. 

That's all I got for now. Love you all and have a great Christmas season

CHRISTMASSSSS!!!!

 Mountain (kindof)

Mountain of the Lord

Blizzard

First self haircut

More Mountains

Random

Blurry moon

Weird cloud formation

Kamsack Water tower

So first of all I'm really going to try to make this short so I can finally get my pictures to you. If I get more time I might have to add some more but for now its gonna be short.

Now for the beef. Y'all should go to the Churches website for the christmas initiative #asaviorisborn. It's really low key and has a lot of videos with some great talent. Plus CHRISTMAS. I think one of my favorites so far has been the one by Alex Boye.

Next our branch had a Christmas Party. WOO! I think that at that party we had more people in the building than I have ever seen. There was also a ton of good food and Elder Spell and I got plenty of leftovers :D Also some members from Noodledorf brought that kid I was telling you about like five months or so ago. Gage was his name and he's still a beauty. He's actually been sitting in on lessons we have with this member families son. He sat by us while we were eating and we had a grand time. Another funny thing that happened was this nonmember who's living with a member got up to the front of the room and got us all to start singing a rousing round of Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer. And during the parts where some people repeat or add things like "like a lightbulb!!" I started saying those but in the most monotone voice ever and kindof slowly and behind the beat. I don't know what it was about that but people started laughing about that. I was pleased with myself because I got people to laugh. It was a good time :) Also for my mothers sake and for those of you who know about this. I haven't got away from the poinsettias. They had a massive poinsettias plant in the building and my face was not having it. For those of you who don't know I'm highly allergic to poinsettias. My eyes start itching like someone poured tarantula hairs on them and my nose starts running. It's lots of fun you should try it sometime. Anywho Apologies for the short email but I REALLy want to send pictures. So TTFN

Public Announcement

First of all I love hearing about Thanksgiving back in the U.S. I hope all y'all had a great Thanksgiving with the Fam and stuff. I'm thankful for all of you and for my opportunity to serve a mission. I'm thankful for Jesus Christ and his atonement.

Now for the public announcement.... I celebrated thanksgiving about a transfer ago. I was still with Elder Lee when it happened... so my thanksgiving was good but I didn't technically have thanksgiving this last week... :) I did have a turkey dinner at the BBB though :) BBB: (acronym) B.'s Bed and Breakfast; A members acronym for his hosting of missionaries at his house; a sought after experience by many missionaries for the excellent food. Since Elder Spell and I are the only Elders in the Yorkton branch now, we get to go out to Kamsack and Cote reserve as part of our area. Time at the library is up so I will get back to writing in a few. Love you all


Anyways I'm back. To continue with Elder Spell and I being the only missionaries in Yorkton Branch it's odd. The closest Elders to us now are about an hour away. So District meeting is going to be a little different because it'll be Elder Spell and I in Yorkton Skyping Elder Grant and Wright in CTK. No more district lunch this transfer. Basically it means either that President trusts us or they just wanted us out of the way and away from other missionaries to keep our bad influence from affecting them. I like to go with the first.

This week was pretty eventful. We made a surprise trip out to Dauphin to drop off Elder Muller. So our tripan basically lasted for 48 hours tops. We were a bit disappointed about that because it's not every transfer that you get to be in a tripan. It was kinda weird because crossing the Saskatchewan Manitoba border had noticeable changes. When we crossed the border there was a few more inches of snow just like that. We also got to see some elevation change which I'll send some pics of that. 

Another great thing that happened this week was Brother B. told us about how teaching the Natives out in Cote and giving them Book of Mormons is fulfilling a prophecy. This morning in studies I opened the Book of Mormon to the scriptures about that. Part of it is in the Words of Mormon and another part in 2nd Nephi. I was kinda wanting to see where it said that in the Book of Mormon and I got my prayers answered. It was great :) 

Also for church we had the Primary program :) I got to "play" the piano for them which was a lot of fun. I didn't actually play the piano I just selected songs and pressed buttons but it was still a lot of fun. Elder Spell and I also were asked to sing along with the primary with the song "He sent his son" we sang the questions and the Primary sang the answers. It was a lot of fun and I had a smile on my face the entire program. 

Things are going well. We're figuring out how in the world to work with three areas where the distance from one end to the other is roughly 2 hours. It'll be a rough transfer in that aspect but Elder Spell and I were deciding that this is going to be a fun transfer. 

That's all I got for now. Potatoes gonna Potate. Love you all have a great beginning of December. 

Elder Mikesell 

More to come and Winter is come

So I only have a short time right now to email. I would like to let y'all know that I am staying in the same area (kindof). I will be moving to the Yorkton apartment so any of you who have my old address it is no longer valid. Elder Spell and I will be staying together and we will be in a tripan with Elder Muller. Tripan: (sl) a companionship that includes three companions rather than two. We will also be taking all of Yorktons old area and adding it onto the Melville area. This is partially why I'm going to be sending emails later. We have got a LOT of packing/moving to do. wish me luck

*Later*

So. this week has been quite a wild one. I think you could gather that with the major upset we had again with transfer calls. We literally just lost one Elder from our district that's all. And for those of you who understand how transfers work this is quite the odd occurrence.

One of the wild things that happened was the weather change. It all happened in one day. We got weather warnings that there was going to be close to blizzard level. It ended up being about a couple centimeters of snow but being in the plains area the wind was around 50 ks per hour gusting up to 90 ks per hour. This combined with the already cold weather put us around -20, -25 degrees C. That was cold. I was only wearing slacks that day so my knees felt like they were going to shatter from the cold and walking. My face was the worst though. Bare skin with wind chill is not a good combination. Other than that I was fine. My hands were getting decently cold but my feet and body were just chillin. I learned a lot though and I'm never going to let it happen again :)

Another thing that happened just yesterday is we were able to attend the Montreal Quebec temple rededication. We had to go out to Regina to do that but it was a great experience. Everyone except President Eyring spoke French so that was weird. But it was great. We had some members take us out there and we had a great time with them as well. They also fed us that night so double bonus :) I realized the last dedication that I remember going to was the Oquirrh mountain temple and Elder Spell had his card from that so we found out it was in 2009. That was an eye opener for me.

Another crazy thing that happened this week was we went and visited a member who's name is Tom. Tom is his english name because he is originally from Taiwan. It is SO hard to understand him but he's got a big heart and he always feeds us. Which is not always a good thing and you'll see why. So we went over to his house at around 4 and we thought we were safe but when we got there he was eating this massive pot of wontons (I think) During the entire time we were there he was just eating through this massive heap of food. And he was like are you guys hungry (translation) When he asked us that he went into the kitchen and started microwaving something without us really saying anything. He then brought out this plate of buns (rolls) with meat in them. These things were pretty big to begin with and he had 7 of them on the plate. He then said Eata Eata (which roughly translates to you better eat) After we started that he went back into the kitchen and started microwaving something else. Elder Spell and I started looking at eachother like "what are we going to do???" By the point the second plate of buns finished we were already starting to feel full but he set it down and said "Eata Eata" I think I was only able to eat 5 of them.... it was brutal. and when we would slow down he would just repeat "Eata Eata" It was funny but we were stuffed.

That's all I got for now I love you all and have a great thanksgiving if you are celebrating thanksgiving this week. As for myself I already have had my turkey dinner.

*from my email*

We're no longer going to be living in Melville so I would just advise everyone to send the mail to the mission office. Hopefully they do like last year and have a Christmas devotional in Winnipeg and I should be able to get all of the mail then. I may be able to get some mail before then if they have another zone conference this transfer.

Food.

So first of all this may be short because I'm runny low on time. I've been sending a lot of long personal emails so if you want a little bit more from me check the blog or try to talk to one of my parents. If you're on missions and you want more... Whoops ;)

Anywho one of the things that I've been neglecting to talk about is the food that's around here. For those of you that are familiar with Canadian stereotypes you would think of begs (bags) of milk and beg bacon and maple syrup. Sadly that is not what I have found. Yet again research has undermined stereotypes. :D Anyways the food that I have found is Perogies and Poutine. Poutine was something I heard about it the MTC from my canadian native companion. Poutine is the best. Poutine is just fries with gravy and hunks of cheese on it. If you are doubting about its supremeness go and make some fries and put some gravy on it you will not be disappoint. Perogies are pretty good as well. They're just things of mashed potatoes with varieties of stuff in thems such as cheese bacon and onions. they have a doughy shell and you boil and fry them. They're good. Another thing I've encountered around here is Pancit. Pancit is Phillipino noodles and it's pretty good. There is a asian store here in Yorkton and they sell little instant noodle things of Pancit. One thing that I have not encountered but will be at some point is these half formed fetuses of chickens which I have forgotten the names of. It sounds nasty looks nasty and I would expect is nasty. I've had some pretty nasty things out here already (of my own chosing) and I think this'll top them. Some of those nasties are straight allgreens and water and marmite.

One thing that I would like to talk about with this week is Remembrance Day. We were able to go to a service for that and I had no regrets. R.D. is on the same day as the U.S.s Veterans Day but for me has found a special place in my heart. Instead of honor (U.S.) they talked about Peace. Instead of war stories it was quotations from the Bible. I won't give up my American Heritage and Honor but I really enjoyed what happened at this service. Don't get me wrong Honor is a great American attribute and Canadians don't quite understand it (especially with their new Prime Minister) but Peace is great as well. There could be a lot more peace in the world. But I have a feeling we'll be needing a lot of honor and defending the innocent anymore.

Other than Remembrance Day this week has been pretty low key. It reminded me a lot of how things were when it was just Elder Lee and I vs. Melville. but I survived and am here to tell the tale. That reminds me this next saturday is transfer calls so pray for me because it's going to get crazy again.

*from my email*

Mom:  "It was fun to hear about the nerf sword fight. Getting a practice sword really paid off - except it sounds like you need more practice since he overpowered you. :) "

Calvin:  "I've just got to clarify. Liam overpowered me because he had invincibility on and I didn't. It was an unfair fight to begin with. I jabbed at him a few times and he kept on fighting. But, since I didn't have invincibility when he hit me it counted and I eventually "died" :) It was a lot of fun needless to say."

 *from Garth's email*

Service projects have slowed down quite a lot now that it's cold and we're in Yorkton a lot of the week. We're hoping to take part of a massive clothes drive happening at Cote one of the reserves in our district. I'm not too sure what all is going to happen with us living in Melville but Transfer Calls are this week so cross your fingers cause I have a feeling their is going to be an upset again.

Best week

Hopefully I'll get through everything I want to in this email. Time is running short for me so here it goes.

First of all this week has had a low of -2 degrees (around 28 degrees I think) and a high of 12 degrees (around 50-60 degrees again IDK ) So any snow that was on the ground got melted. I'm starting to think I've brought a bit of Utah weather with me. :)

We were able to have three dinner appointments in a row this week with a total of 5 meals from members. Personal record so far :) the best one for fun was either the one earlier in the week or the weekly sunday dinner. I will talk about the one earlier in the week. This is a family we've been wanting to get with for a while and all four of us were able to come. Right when we walked into the door their son Liam (like liam neeson) told all four of us Elders to come downstairs. This kid is like 8 years old and he had nerf swords lined up on the couch to sword fight us. I was the first to go and he did not hold back. I was so glad I had played around with swordfighting in my life cause I was just barely holding my ground. He soon overtook me and the next Elder was up. It went like this until he just started whacking at everyone and we were all just running around trying to survive. IT was soooo much fun. after we had dinner we had a full out war in the basement. His dad is a bow hunter and he had these deadly little bow things that he was shooting at us and it turned into a war between who had the bows with Liam running all over the place reking anyone who got too close. Good companionship inventory :).

Another great thing was we were able to get with both of our investigators this week and have great lessons with them. That hasn't happened at all since I've been here so I was so yoked.

To tie up the week we had a girl in our branch get baptized out in Regina. We had a great road trip with us Elders squished in the back of another members car. It was a great experience and the first baptism I've been to out here on the mish. Funny story though the son who was baptizing her didn't have white underwear and the only underwear there was one that could've fit the moon and another that was for a tiny 8 year old. So (also good learning experience) he just put two of the white jumpsuits on so nobody could see through it. The water ended up only going up to just above his knees but we had quite the scare.

That's all I got love you all

*from my email*

First of all I have to say this has been one of the best most productive weeks since I came out here. I'll probably explain more in the mass email but we had three dinner appointments in a row. First with the Bs, then the Ks (I'll be talking about that one a lot) and thirdly the Ds which is someone we've been trying to get to since I arrived in the Dirty Ville. Also along with that we were able to meet with the Ds and teach their son and also we had a pretty good lesson with our main gator and I was able to give a blessing to his fiancee to help her with the word of wisdom. So yoked to do that it's been the first time I've been able to exercise my priesthood like that out on the mish. Neither of them showed up at church though... The atonement is real though hopefully they'll eventually get to church more. 

The snow was sticking to the ground till it got to a whopping 10 degrees [Celsius] yesterday. It was really hot. Today we have a nice fog though so it's back to being cold.

 It has now since melted HAHA

Example of how much fog we get out here cause there is water EVERYWHERE

The perfect knot.

"I can literally see the curvature of the Earth from here"

Laying Low

Welp, 'Murican holidays are for sure better. Halloween at least in Melville is a remnant of what it was or should be. To get all of my thoughts on it it should be on my blog because I sent a lot of stuff to my mom about it but right now I'll just say it was disappointing. Mainly because everyone starts trick or treating around High Noon. Kids running around in costumes trackting does not work with us running around and trackting as well. We had to lie low for pretty much the entire day. We actually got told to be hiding in our houses by 6:00 but we got permission from the pres. to have a dinner appointment. It was so much better than dying of boredom in our house.

One good thing that happened was we were able to go to mutual on thursday and take part in their halloween party. I dressed up as a band kid for a bit but I felt uncomfortable around other people with out my proselyting clothes. So I just changed back into those and put my band shirt over all of it. Another great thing about it was we were able to get a less active girl to mutual. We were so yoked that she actually went.

Other than those two things not much else happened this week. Except I just remembered that we also talked to president Craig about our housing situation now that we are going 500 or more Ks over our allotment. not forgetting to mention that we almost got rebuked by both the zone leaders AND the assistants to the President. It was fun to rebuke them for trying to rebuke us. Mainly because Elder Spell and I are pretty much the only really obedient Elders in the mission and it looked like we were being extremely disobedient when we weren't. which brings me back to what I was first saying. We talked to President Craig about possibly moving to Yorkton now that we're working there five days out of the week but I am glad to stay we're staying in the dirty ville for at least another month. Next month though we have a good possibility of getting a new address.

So yeah, It's all chill in the Ville. Love you all. be good and be good at it.

ps for those who get it... potatoes gonna potate

*from my email*

Halloween is a sad excuse here if you ask me. Pretty much all of the spirit goes into decorating houses weeks before it actually happens. The worst part is everyone starts trackting sorry trick or treating ;) at around noon. NOON! what in the world happened to Hallowed Eve or however Halloween started? So pretty much everyone stops trick or treating around 9 at night and it's over.. Melville is the worst because we were at the Blocks for a while for a dinner appointment and they only got 17 kids the entire day. I've decided that Canada holidays don't have as much spirit as 'Murica holidays.

I got to hold a puppy this week! Forgot to mention it in my mass email but it was so cute.

It has since melted but we have some more snow falling right now

Winter is Coming(and Kittens)

Chances are that this halloween we're going to have a blizzard. We've already been getting a lot of rain and all it's going to take is about -2 degrees more to changes that into snow.

So as many of you know happy birthday to me happened this last week. I think the Lord realized that because the day of my birthday was pretty much our only good day doing finding. pretty much the rest of the week was a drag but we survived which is good if you ask me. For my B-day we went to subway for district lunch ( even though Elder Spell was the only one who knew it was my birthday (whoops ;) )) That night I got myself a birthday Blizzy from DQ. I then proceeded to sing happy birthday to me and blew out the candles. Just another day in the Dirty Ville.

Even though finding was a pain this week we were able to have a few lessons which is always good :)

Another interesting thing that happened was we were able to have a dinner appointment with a family we don't usually get to see because they live for days away. But, since elder Spell and I have Ks(short for kilometers we're allowed to have with mission vehicles) for days and Elder Baker and Muller found out they got lied to on how many Ks they have as well as not caring as much we went out to their house. Upon entry we were bombarded with waves of kittens. we had to throw them out of the vehicle time and time again. We were getting overwhelmed they were just crawling everywhere. But we made our escape and tried getting our bags out of the back but to no avail. The kittens were too many.

I'll send some pictures later but there was just like 5-8 kittens and they just wanted hugs. I had two of them on my lap while sitting in my seat and when I tossed one away it would get back before I could toss the other one away. Lots of fun just little needles crawling all over you.

Love you all and thanks for the love

 *from my email*

For my birthday we didn't do much ;) Probably because of my own fault but it's all good. We went to eat at subway for district lunch which hit the spot. In the evening right before bed Elder Spell and I went and got some Blizzies from DQ. I got a birthday cake flavored one and put some candles in it. I got a video of me singing happy birthday to myself but I'm not sure if I will be able to send it. I think it was dad telling me to sing happy birthday to myself but if it wasn't I don't know who it was. Also pretty much everyone told me happy birthday the day after my birthday.. If you go look at my facebook page you'll see why :D I still haven't mustered up the courage to tell some of the people that it wasn't that day... :) I did indeed get myself a Bionicle. Elder Spell and I have used it for practices which has been funny.

I think the best birthday present I received though was the miracle at Davis. Having Facebook allows me to see stuff before I hear about it in emails. This may not be good sometimes but it's been helpful as well. When I watched and heard about how that happened I about started crying because it was so good. I'm so glad you told me more about it and made that analogy because it's just an awe inspiring experience. I know that there are going to be more miracles again with this band this year. Have luck with BOA and try and keep your sanity ;)

This week other than my birthday has been fairly uneventful except for we were able to get in with an investigator that Elder Lee and I were not able to for an entire transfer. We actually met with them twice this week which has been great.

P.s the first major frost has come......

[I asked what exactly he does with the bionicle. This is what he said.]

We practice lessons and stuff for comp. study and training and it's just weird not having a third party to practice on. we prefer to do it with living people but its nice to have a object of focus for our practice lessons

.

Elder MikeSpell

So... The change has occurred Elder Spell is my new companion/trainer. He's been out for a long time so I've been glad to draw from his experience. Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts I've survived the transfer and am planning on having a most excellent transfer coming up. We've been really bonding together pretty well. He's a good and funny guy. It's going to be such a good transfer.

So this week was Canadian thanksgiving and something I wasn't able to talk about was a massive fire we had at the H's after it all happened. Let's just say that gasoline was in excess at this event with at least two jugs of it being tossed onto the fire to get it started. Plus there was about ten pallets stacked on top of each other drenched in gasoline and left over oil from deep frying the turkeys. Needless to say if anything gets done at the H's it gets done. I almost forgot to mention we started it using fireworks :D

Another great thing that happened this week was we were able to go out to the BBBs in Kamsack. Kamsack technically isn't in our area but since Elder Baker was still waiting for his new companion because somebody decided to put diesel into the truck rather than gasoline... But, since he was gone Elder Spell and I were out to go have an experience at B's Bed and Breakfast which has legends tied to it. We didn't get the Bed and Breakfast part but Brother B still fed us like there was no tomorrow and not just fed us but FED us. He was telling us a story how he while on his mission helped his companion gain 40 pounds in about two months :D. IT was hilarious.

That's all I got for now. I've got to finally send my pictures because I've been unable to for the last forever so TTFN.

*some from my email*

But yeah that fire was legit. I have a video of how we tried starting it (with fireworks) and also Brother H just loves gasoline. There was so much gasoline on that thing :D but it had rained so it didn't start right away. We had to start a little fire by it and throw a couple jugs of gasoline on it before it started :D Lots of safe fun. good times. Also Elder Baker had passed his year mark so he burned his shirt in that fire it was great.

Elder Spell and I have gotten off to such a wonderful start we're becoming good buddies and just having the time of our lives. I respect and love him so much and I'm excited for where we're going to go.

I'm planning on a having a good birthday and I might get myself a Bionicle... ;) Thanks for the birthday stuff and I'll be having district lunch on my birthday which'll be good. Something that happens a lot out here is we go out to eat. I kindof get sick of how much we go out to eat sometime but it's a way a lot of people back home spent time with their friends. I've been having to figure out how to spend money wisely with eating out because I never really had to figure that out before. I've been great at spending money wisely with food else where but not eating out... It's all good it's a good learning experience. 

Big changes

There was a major upset in what's happening in the Dirty Ville. So technically I'm staying in Meville but I'm getting a new trainer and we're becoming the Yorkton/Melville Elders. We're not going to be in Melville as much but we're not getting rid of the house yet. The Postal address is still valid for at least another month or two. I'll also probably eventually get the Yorkton address posted. Anywho Elder Lee is going to Winkler. Another small town ;) I'm getting paired with Elder Spell who is in our district. He is a good good guy. I have a lot of respect for him and am excited as well as sad for this change. He's going to be my stepdad if you'll think back to my mission genealogy. I'm not sure which lineage I'll claim but I do like having Elder Martens as my grandpa cause a lot of people liked Elder Martens. So basically finding that out blew all of our nuggets as Elder Lee puts it. He's especially sad cause this is his first real change and he really loves the Dirty Ville.

Also for our last week as the squad we were also able to go to the Melville Yorkton hockey game which was hilarious and fun. Melville got their first win which the Yorkton elders were sad about but we were so juiced. We also hung out with Haiden and his buddy Stick at the game which was fun but interesting. Probably since they were both pretty buzzed from their beers ;) BTW stick is hilarious. He's got one of the more Canadian hick accents that I've heard and he just is hilarious always. He gets even more funny when a bit buzzed but I'm with Elder Baker I want to remember my fun in the morning. It was a good day.

We were also able to party with the H's for thanksgiving dinner on sunday. It was fun to meet the whole fam and just have a good time with them. Elder Lee is probably the most sad about leaving them. We played some crazy spoons and just had a fun time.

One thing to bring it back to missionary appropriateness. We were able to have an exchange with the zone leaders this week. It was really good and I learned a lot. This is something that doesn't normally happen on the mish but we got lucky :D It's been quite the week and I'm psyched to go golfing with Bro H today. That's all I got. Potatoes gonna potate.

Gen Con

I must say that this conference has to be the best conference I've been able to watch. Probably because I'm a missionary now ;) But, I hope that all y'all were able to watch it and get something out of it. I would like to make a special note on the men called to be apostles. I know of a surety that they were called of God and by the authority of the priesthood held by President Monson. I know that they will be the mouthpiece of God in this day and will declare his will to us. That being said I want to say that missionaries in my district guessed two out of the three of them :D. Not only that but Elder Renlund came to our mission not only a month ago and talked with us. I was able to shake his hand and speak with him. One of the missionaries in my district had a one on one interview with him so we were all just mind blown. We could not believe that we were so close to one of the men who was just called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It's just insane, one of the perks of being a missionary :D

As for this week not much else happened that was of a great note as General Conference. I was able to get a hair cut from this totally hipster guy. it was legit. He has this barber shop in Yorkton with this smallish mutt dog and a bunch of old TVs and an ancient Barber chair. his name is Sean. Another thing that happened this week is I decided to try looking for more service and we found some. There's like 20 billboard things around Melville. If any of you were part of my Eagle project they are similar to that thing. But they all have a billion staples on them so we decided to try taking out all the staples and cleaning up these billboards. It's arduous work and different than what you would think a missionary would do but it's been working out for us. Through it we've been able to talk to some people and even find another service we can do for Melville. It's all chill in the Ville. It's a short one today but it's seemed like a short week.

love you all

Millionares

This email is going to be a bit shorter because I want to send more pictures this week so just hang with me. 

For those of you wondering: Yoked: adj sl in the state of being physically strong to the point of immense size of muscles; strong excitement, usually accompanied by so e.g. That huge man walking that tiny dog is so yoked. That game got me so yoked.

I think I talked about Melvilles home team called the Millionares before. At least I've talked about the building and the name. But for a less actives birthday we went to another Mill's game and we were in for a treat. Even though we lost, it was quite the game. We could tell from the start that the teams were just getting rowdy. But in the second part (there are three parts to a hockey game) it was getting real bad. Right towards the end of it this guy on the Mill's team came and blind sided this dude to the ground. When he hit the ground he started seizing and a bunch of bad stuff but the refs didn't call it. So this other guy on the other team got pissed and attacked the guy who blindsided they guy who's still seizing on the ground. A punchout ensued with pieces of uniforms and hockey sticks laying all over the ice and eventually the player for the Mill's grounded his attacker and they got pulled apart with the guy from the other team getting escorted out of the rink. Just good Missionary entertainment don't yah think? In the end the other team just dropped three goals in a row and humiliated the Mill's but it's all chill in the ville.

Another good thing that happened this week was we were able to help a member move just a truck load of horse riding supplies across the street. To the store that he's moving to. It was some good work and some good stories cause Elder Lee got about 50 to 75 bridles put on him each time he went across the street. It looked hilarious. I don't have any pictures of it but if you try facebook stalking Elder Triton Lee you'll probably see the beauty.

One last thing for all of you worried about us not being able to get out to the reserve we were able to make it this week. It was interesting and dogs out there breed like rabbits. It was all good and we got a lesson out of it. We also were able to get out to Neudorf or as a lot of people here in the ville call it: Noodledorf. I think they call it that cause there is a lot of "interesting" people out there. One of them, the king of all beauties, Gage, was the best. If you just take your mind to a lot of movies how they have that kid who's like 10 and knows the whole town like the back of his hand if you toss him a coin. I imagine the kid from Les Mis. I can't remember his name though... But this kid Gage just roams Neudorf and just goes and visits anyone there. Pretty much everyone takes him in and claims him. Anyway this kid, who's about 10, we see him walking his dog on his bike. So we stop to talk to him and the first thing that comes out of his mouth, while grinning, is "What the hell are you guys doing round here"  I just about lost it right there so us while hiding laughter ask him where this family is and he just tells us right where they are. It was one of the funniest exchanges I've had with anyone so far.

Welp, I've got to have time to send pictures so that's all for today.

 

lots of love,

Elder Mikesell

 

I just remembered another crazy thing. Thanksgiving isn't only a U.S. Holiday. But, Canadians celebrate it the second week in October on a Monday so they can get a long weekend and so they can celebrate it without snow on the ground. Just another crazy thing about Canada.

 

 

Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

"When the lights go down in the city"