TRANSFERS and barbecue

I think I forgot to send this last week but this was a fun experience meeting Tom




So the fun and exciting news is what's happening for transfers. Since this is the seventh transfer it seems like it should be getting old. Which having my life turn upside down every six weeks is getting a bit old but the news doesn't get old ;) So Elder Peterson is indeed going home with all of my other companions except Elder Blommeart and Lee :'( Speaking of Elder Lee he's now my Zone Lord :D But, I'm getting another companion that is nigh unto death. His name is Elder Wilson and he goes home in two transfers. It should be good. Also I'm becoming the Battlefords district leader. Elder Peterson keeps telling me that I'm getting important now but I'm pretty sure all that it means is that I get to call more missionaries more often :) So yeah that's fun :)

Other good and exciting news is the branch barbecue went pretty well. We had a pretty good turn out and we got a few people to it as well. It was kindof ironic because we had been inviting so many people over the past week and a half and the only two people that came was someone we met a few days before and our boss at the food bank. It was great because we texted our boss the morning of and was like hey if you can you should come to this. So about the time it started he calls us and was like "hey i'm here where are you guys?" We later found out his wife thought he was going on a drive so that their son would take a nap. Instead his son ended up running around playing soccer with the other kids there :D It was also hilarious because when it was over and he was holding his kid he was saying for his son "dad I want to be a Mormon" :) We'll see if that's the case or if he'll stay being a leader in his own church. 

Welp, the work goes on and so does life. I hope you have a great week and I'll try and enjoy "Canada day" but secretly I'll be singing in my heart "I'm proud to be 'Murican" and I'll try and celebrate the true holiday "The 4th of July" next week. Love y'all potatoes gonna potate

Finding for days round 2

So first of all I left a nice cliff hanger from last week about zone conference. Since I don't have too much time I'll try glancing over a few highlights. First of all we had to get ready super early because we had interviews with President Craig that morning. I think the idea of the Lord breathing life into you each morning was taken very literally by me that morning because I woke up at 6 and I was wide awake. I was like "why I am I awake a this unearthly time of the morning??" So I told myself to wake back up in twenty so we could get into the shower first. I did that and I got breathed into again quite a lot and was just ready for the day. It was wild :)

Second in interviews, President likes dropping hints all over the place and he hinted at the chance of me training soon so that will be fun :) 

Third the District stuff wasn't quite like I was thinking but it was still so much fun :) We all took videos of ourselves practicing street contacts so that the whole zone could laugh at them and critique them :) The Meadow Lake video was pretty great because Elder Mccoard was doing a little pump up dance before hand and Elder Peterson got it on video :) It really boosted Elder Mccoards popularity ;) 

So now about the title. We went finding for days again this last week and were blessed quite similarly to two weeks ago. It was so good to be able to meet so many people but the highlight of the week was finding this Native family. The wife's whole family had been baptized into the church except her so that probably got us in the door both literally and metaphorically. The second appointment we had with them they were so excited to read from the Book of Mormon so we started from the beginning and I think that was the time I've felt the spirit the strongest while reading the Book of Mormon with investigators. It was so good :) I'm excited to see where this goes :) 

That's all I got time for but I'll try and get more time for next week. I love y'all and I hope you have a great week. Potatoes gonna potate

A Taste of Culture

So the highlight of this week was that some members invited us to come with them to an event called A Taste of Culture. At the event there was a lot of ethnicity represented and some of the food that's unique to their culture. IT WAS WONDERFUL. I got to have some indian food that was made by one of our investigators and have a nice conversation with him. He also gave us a discount to which he said "this is what you get for proclaiming the most high God" It was such a humbling experience to realize that we're known as both those weird guys who go from door to door to witnesses of the truth and God. Elder Peterson was also just loving it because he's learned a lot of things from different languages and was trying them all out. The biggest wast there were some people from Honduras that he had a conversation in Spanish with. I also got to have some of the "best" bannock from a guy we met on the street who looks like Mr. Clean. It was really some of the best bannock ever :) I wish I could've spent more time there to try all the foods but, there's a greater cause to be fought. Tis the life of a missionary.

Another thing that happened this week was that we hosted the Meadow lake Elders and the Zone Lords in our house before they had exchanges and we all had district meeting. But, the "fun" part was that we woke up at 6:00 so we could go play ultimate frisbee for our exercise in the morning. It was nice to switch up the schedule but, it was one of the most unique things I've done that early in the morning. It was also funny because of a secret combination I made with some friends of mine to never touch a frisbee again :D But, it worked out and I had a fun time :) 

Finally, we weren't able to go to this *sad face* but there was a couple in our branch that got sealed together this last saturday. It was so much fun to see them work towards that :) She had only been a member for a year as well and it was so good to see how far she had progressed in a years time :) Her husband in one of our meetings also talked about how the next goal is going on a mission :) They're such a good family. 

That's all for now. This next week we're going in for Zone Conference and we're doing something along the lines of The District the tv show or whatever you want to call it. So there should be some fun stories from that :) Thank you for all of your support. Potatoes gonna potate 

Love, Elder Mikesell

Witnesses and Crashing Parties

So there were a few pretty fun stories from this week. I think to start off I'll talk about the poor returned missionary. For his name I'll just call him Howie baby because that's one of his nicknames and what he have his phone as in our contacts :) So Howie baby's return is one of the weirdest experiences that I'll probably has as a missionary. It was like seeing someone who recently died and came to haunt you and really missed being alive. It's given me a bit of hope of how my life will be after I die but it's still odd. He's already come out with us a few times to go teach so that is wonderful :) He's a great guy and a great missionary. He still answers to Elder so when we're trying to get his attention we just call him Elder instead of his name :D 

So the next story is a three part story. The first part was when we had to make an emergency trip to wallyworld because our cards finally got money on them. But we meet this lady at wallyworld who Elder Peterson originally thinks is Filipino so he says "Como esta Po" In the which she says "What did you say??" Come to find out she's 100% Cree. Whoops :) Anywho she had talked to missionaries because her ex husband had mormon friends whatdayaknow? So we go on with our day and we found this lady that we started teaching in a stairwell because fellowship rules. While we're teaching her we see this dress coming down the stairs and we're like "that looks familiar..." Ends up same girl completely different place. That was funny :) So I guess you can imagine we see her again but the story is so much better than that. So fast forward again we've got 30 minutes left of proselyting. We decide to go a different way than we normally do and happen across this lady going out to car to get something. She says that she's going back to a birthday party so Elder Peterson asks if she has some birthday cake for us. After she gets a bit wishy washy about it he says "I'm honestly kindof serious about getting some cake" So she agrees that we can have some cake to go. We get into the house and get some cake and then we're like "We need to go sing to the reason we got cake from a stranger" So we go out back and THE SAME LADY IS OUT THERE. She starts uncontrollably laughing and Elder Peterson and I are just confused how this happened. It was quite the turn of events. We sang happy birthday and it was all good :) 

Finally we decided to go talk to some Jehovah's Witness friends of ours. I'm not sure if I told you that story but we met some Witnesses and compared faiths with them. They had talked to some missionaries before and were decent friends with them. So anywho we weren't going to go visit them because Jehovah's Witness, The Church of Jesus Christ the two highest active proselyting churches in the world both think they're the true church it's risky biscuits. But, Elder Peterson felt prompted to go visit them so we did. We end up basically discussing the differences of the Fall that we believe and talking about the whole Plan of Salvation. It was wild. Honestly in situations like that you would think that there would be a contentious spirit but I think we both went away edified about our own beliefs it was so good :) When we got out we realized we had been there for about three hours. We're going to be going back because I was wondering if I could get one of their Proselyting bibles. You don't need to worry I'm not converted and I'll tell you why. We determined that the biggest difference between the two Faiths was the relationship with God. In their Faith you can only become a son of God by being part of the 144,000 whereas we believe that we are all children of God. Honestly every other difference stems from that relationship. I think that's why the first thing we teach as missionaries is that God not only loves us but is our Heavenly Father. He is a literal father to our spirits. Another thing was that they believed that we were just bodies thus making it so we could just be a creation. It also makes it so we part ways with the progression deal. Something that Elder Peterson and I had been talking about progression is such a big part of the gospel. It was really amazing :) I have a ton more of respect for them and honestly a little pity because I don't know how I could live a life without knowing that God loves us as children. It's good :) 

I hope you all have a great week and Potatoes gonna Potate

*from my email*

This last week has been so great for missionary work as well :) We've felt like we've just been led by the hand by Christ and just been given a lot of success. I think when you feel that way you know that you're following the spirit in missionary work and thus being a good missionary. Because we all know that even though we think that we've got it all together it's really the Holy Ghost doing all the work ;)