JANK COMPUTER, CULTURAL DIFFERENCES, SUPER HEALTHY EATING & NO HALLOWEEN IN ST. VINCENT "WHY YA WANTA INVITE DE EVIL SPIRITS?"

We made homemade chocolate shakes! So good!

So, long story short, I have very little time today. The people who run the little internet cafe put me on this jank computer, and I wasted 40 minutes before I was like, "Can I get another computer?" and they wouldn't refund the wasted time, aha, but anyways...

Me and Elder Merrell

We taught our investigator, Malinda, this week. Kennald had his semi-finals football games, so of course we went to support him. :P Nicole... we're not sure where she went. We can't get a hold of her, and she didn't show up to our last lesson. Let's pray she's okay. The Preach My Gospel talks about not feeling discouraged because it drains your productivity. I just naturally haven't been discouraged, though. I just do my work the best I can and have fun :D and the people ultimately decide to progress, you know? It's disappointing sometimes but not discouraging.

You asked about any cultural differences... I'm actually keeping a list of everything that I find strange here. It's a loooong list, but I'll give you a couple. Dad might find this interesting... Some poor people, in order to get food, will walk to the beach and fish with nothing but a hook and fishing line. No pole.. which I would imagine would be difficult. And, I have now had two women just randomly start breastfeeding during a lesson. LOL. I'll keep adding to the list, though!

You can get "American" food at the grocery stores. We eat super healthy... everything from frozen pizzas to cereal, really. With the occasional taco night. We make spaghetti, just with fatter shorter noodles. The only two fast food places here are KFC and Subway. There's not a whole lot of tourism here in St. Vincent that I've seen. As a missionary, you move around your island for maybe 4 to 6 transfers then move to a new island. Time really has been going fast!

They don't celebrate Halloween in St. Vincent. They think it's weird and kind of satanic. aha. They're like, "Why ya wanta invite de evil spirits!" It makes no sense!"aha!

I'll send some pictures now. Love you all!

Elder Mikesell IV

A wedding we went to in another ward. I love weddings. aha!

A random cat.

GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR, CRAZY PEOPLE, THE BOOK OF MORMON IS AWESOME AND A MURDER IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE

Another pic from my La Soufriere volcano hike!

Yep, I'm in a month now... Oh! We have a golden investigator... kind of.. her name is Nicole. She's 25 years old and super interested in the Book of Mormon and where it came from and what it is all about. The whole first lesson was answering her many, many questions. We taught her a few days ago about the restoration of the gospel. It was a long lesson, but it was amazing. When I told her about the first vision, she said she was getting goose bumps, and I told her, "That's the Spirit Nicole." Then we got her to come to church this Sunday, but she had to leave after Sacrament meeting. She says she'll stay the whole time next week, though. (: But, I just really learned to love her last lesson because she really opened up about how she felt really confused and lost and just needed some sort of help from God, so she's looking for Him right now and what we are teaching feels right. So, yeah... that's Nicole. She's awesome.

Our other investigators are Malinda and Kennald. Malinda is sick, so our last appointment was canceled, but other than that she's well. She keeps all of the commitments. Kennald is... busy. Like actually busy. If he weren't so awesome and friendly and most of all NORMAL, we would think he's avoiding us, but he just got a job as an elementary gym teacher, and he plays football (soccer, not American football.. that's not even a thing here.) We just never find time to teach him, but we'll keep trying. The reason I said NORMAL by the way is because a lot of people you meet here are just crazy people, aha. There's crazy Rasta men, crazy old ladies, and just all sorts of crazy people. aha. We have a lot of investigators, that's not too big of a problem, it's just that they don't progress usually. We do a lot of work with inactive members as well. We get an occasional referral, but most investigators are from street contacts.

You don't knock doors here. You walk up to the house and say, "Good day inside!" or "Good night inside!" depending on the time of day, but we have talked to a few people that way as well. That's how we found Kennald.

Me and Elder Merrell

What is a typical day like for me? Wake up... shower, eat, get dressed, study forever, lunch, go out and teach investigators or inactives, when an appointment falls through at the last second, use that time to contact new people, go home, eat, shower again, sleep. That's pretty typical, I'd say. Elder Merrell and I get along a little too well sometimes, aha. Because we have a similar sense of humor, we can sometimes get a little "distracted" from the work. aha. But, we are doing great. I think my mission experience can only get worse from here (:

What's the biggest thing I've learned so far? hmmm... how little I knew about the Book of Mormon, so I'd say the biggest thing I've learned is how awesome The Book of Mormon really is. It is a spiritual nourishment like none other but more than that it's just entertaining, ya know? When you actually know who's who and where they are and what's going on and all that. So, I've learned to love the Book of Mormon.

Beautiful scenery here in St. Vincent

St. Vincent is just great. I love... the people the most. They are so nice (most of them anyways) and willing to just sit down for a second and listen to some white boys talk about Jesus. I've had bread fruit, five finger fruit, golden apple and sugar apple. Bread fruit is very strange... the others are just fruity and sometimes good, sometimes bad, aha, just like other fruit. Mangoes are really good here, though!

Oh! I forgot to tell you! A few weeks ago, there was a strait up murder right outside our house. aha. The gunshots woke me up. That morning Elder Merrell and I go check it out and there were a bunch of scary military looking people with assault rifles securing the area and the dead body was just through the bushes. They ended up just burning the bush.

Love,
Elder Mikesell the Fourth

Another pic from my La Soufriere volcano hike!

TWO PROGRESSING INVESTIGATORS, PICS FROM MY HIKE LAST WEEK & I LOVE IT HERE!

From my hike to the top of the volcano last week.

When I flew to Barbados to meet President Herrington, I spent two days there before heading to St. Vincent. St. Vincent is far more beautiful than Barbados. It is more hilly and lush with vegetation. It's one of the less developed islands. I love it here, though. (: We cover the Caliqua building, so that's Diamond, Brighton, Caulder Ridge, Stubbs and another village. It's a big area and kind of hard to explain... aha.

We teach a lot of people. It's just a matter of who's progressing. We have two progressing investigators right now. Malinda, who just needs to come to church, but she has no car and lives far away. And, Kennald, who is a young 23 year old guy we found on my second day here. he's super cool, but also very busy. He has a car, but it's hard to find a time to teach him and eventually we will have to help him to quit smoking week. That's a tough thing to do here because everyoneee here his age does it. How do we deal with it? With the Spirit! Aha, unfortunately and fortunately, both of these people have their agency, so we can testify all day long about what's right and extend invitations, but they really have to want to live the gospel cause it takes a lot more to live it here than in Vegas, so we are asking a lot of them. But ya know... we're trying. Aha.

Me and Elder Merrell

MEETING PRESIDENT, HIKING A VOLCANO & ENJOYING ST. VINCENT

La Soufriere, an active volcano having
last erupted in 1979.

Yesterday I hiked a volcano with my district, and it took all day, so by the time I got back all the little email shops were closed... but alas, I am here with this weeks email! La Soufriere was the volcano we hiked! It was actually a little tough, aha. But it's an amaaaazing hike. You end up in the clouds. Plus some of the other elders and I actually climbed down into the crater at the peak. It's like rappelling without a harness, on loose dirt, without vision of much due to the clouds, aha.

When I flew to the Caribbean, I went to Barbados first and met with my mission President and his wife. He was only called a few months ago, so I'll have him my whole mission, which I think is a good thing because he's pretty great. Not a huge "rules" guy or constantly on you about little things but focuses more on what really matters, ya know? I mean, he obviously enforces rules, but mostly in the "do you think that would be acceptable?" kind of way. Like sock ties aren't a problem or any of the other stuff we were worried about. But he is quite a spiritual man. Kind of reminds me of dad in some ways. However, he's over like 9 different countries, so I have very little interaction with him personally.

As for customs... customs sucks. Because we are going from one country to another every time we fly, we have to fill out a bunch of stuff but it's whatevs. They don't weight your personal items, so I just put all the small but heavy stuff in there, and I've been alright.

My companion, Elder Merrell, is pretty cool. This will probably be one of my best transfers, so I'm trying to enjoy it, aha. My companion and I get along, we have a car, AC in the house, a washer and dryer, it's just Elder Merrell and I in the guest home, it's beautiful here, the people are humble and all that jazz. So, it could really only go downhill for the next two years, aha.

There are three branches in St. Vincent. No wards or Bishops or anything, just Branch Presidents and Branches. There's not a whole lot of people here, most don't have cars in my area and are generally pretty poor. Not everyone... just like 70 percent of them. The members are great, aha, pretty funny. Church is different here, but the Sacrament remains the same, and that's what really matters. Some of these members walk for 30-40 minutes up and down hills in the humid heat to get to church, and it reminds me of the times when I was just too lazy to get out of bed because showering was so much work, aha! I've had a few dinner appointments. Most people will just feed you fruit when you come over. Their diet is mostly rice, chicken and fruit, so I'm doing just fine (: There are 14 missionaries on the island right now, but the mission is getting 25 new missionaries next transfer, so I'll probably be training next month... which is funny because I just got here! My MTC companion, Elder Nixon, is on St. Martin (that's where I want to go next).

Elder Mysell (That's what the natives call me, aha)

St. Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean, and is the largest island of the country Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It's located in the Caribbean Sea between Saint Lucia and Grenada.