STILL IN KINGSTOWN WITH ELDER T, ELECTIONS WERE THIS WEEK, QUARANTINED TO OUR APARTMENT AND THE CRAZY NEVER ENDED

So, transfer calls came in, and I am staying here in Kingstown, St. Vincent with Elder T. (: which is great because now I can spend more time setting a solid wedding date with Brian and Sister Halloway and be able to go through with Kay's baptism on January 2nd! I'm pretty happy. We're going to start this new transfer with a lot of contacting as well, so we can get more people to teach. Hopefully, all goes well. I also just wanted to spend Christmas here in Kingstown because I've made a lot of good friends here.

But, other than that, this week has been craycray! Elections were Wednesday, and it ruined missionary work. The day before elections is crazy and the day of is crazy and the day after is actually a holiday. Aha, so we were in the apartment for those three days and then Labor (one of the parties) cheated, and they had to recount Thursday. Turns out they did cheat, but the Prime Minister was already sworn in, so now NDP (the other party) is protesting and it's getting crazy again. Well the crazy never ended... so it's dangerous. People usually die during election season, so we're told to stay inside, so not much has changed this week. Just a group of five missionaries doing silly things for a week in our apartment. aha.

CRAZY DRIVING, MANY STREET VENDORS, SLOW COMPUTERS AND UPDATE ON THE WORK

Driving with T. Good times.

The people drive crazy here, aha, but I manage just fine. I've adapted. The roads are thin and full of pot holes, there is no law enforcement, everyone drives super fast and will randomly stop in the middle of the road and park. So yeah, driving is fun. Also, people sell everything from fresh coconuts to pirated movies on the side of the road. Ice cold coconut water is a cool experience, but coconut water is not my favorite.. aha.. the juice here is amazing, though, and they have so many different types I've never heard of. Luckily, the water here is clean, so I drink plenty of it seeing as I'm in the hot sun all day.

Sorry about the lack of long letters. The computers here are really slow and sometimes the power surges, and I loose everything I was writing and other stuff, but I should tell you how the work is going. It's been less than stellar, but there's some amazing aspects as well. So this has been my life for the past few weeks. If you remember from my previous letter, we had three baptism dates a month ago... and now we have one and a half. One lady avoids us because her mom told her not to associate with our church and this if she's baptized she'll go to hell because you are only supposed to be baptized once, among other things. Moesha is 18, but she kind of has to obey her mother, so we haven't seen her in quite a while.

The other baptismal date was Brian. He's been living with Sister Halloway (a member) and has been for a very long time. They are practically married just without actually being married. So, we've been trying to set a marriage date for them. Sister Halloway is good to go whenever, but Brian is a little less sure. He's the one I gave the blessing to, by the way. So, we are teaching them together about the importance and beauty of marriage this week to try and set that wedding date. Just pray for us.

Lastly, is Kay. She's our golden investigator. Always progressing, keeps commitments, knows the church is true. But, the baptism date that she gave us was January 2nd because she wanted to do it at the new years to turn her life around. That's a solid baptism date, but I don't know if I'll still be here because it's after transfers. I guess that's not really the important part but I just wanted to be there to see the result of hard work. Kind of selfish thinking, I know.

Other than that, we've been contacting and meeting amazing people. The problem is, just because they are amazing doesn't mean they accept the restoration or care enough to change their lives. This letter might sound pretty down, but I want you to know that I'm doing fine. It's just the reality of missionary work. I guess people's agency just makes things very unpredictable. (:

Thank you for your prayers, love and support. It helps more than you know.

Love,
Elder Mikesell the 4th

So, it's election season here, and the two major parties are NDP (new democratic party) and Labor. So, Elder T and I got Labor t-shirts... and NDP shirts... I just haven't taken a picture in my NDP shirt yet, aha. 

I'M THE ONLY MISSIONARY IN MY ZONE WHO CAN DRIVE... SUPER BUSY

Thank you so much for telling me all about Thanksgiving and for all the questions, too! I plan on responding next week, I promise. I have just been super busy driving people around the island today because missionaries in my zone were moving, and I'm the only one who can drive. I just hopped on the computer to let you know I'm alive, I love you, and I'll email you next Monday! Trust me, I have a lot to say!

Elder Mikesell the 4th

DINNER WITH SISTER MCDOWELL, A HOMEMADE SWING & ATTACKED BY 4 PUPPIES

Dinner with Sister McDowell and her two daughters (:

Homemade swing

Hey! Elder T and I get along very well and are doing wonders in our area. We're mainly working on reactivation right now, though, because sacrament attendance is dropping... which isn't good.

It's crazy that Alec gets home in a month. I called him "trunky". College will be awesome for him. He's a smart one he is. (Just needs to learn some organization and time management skills) I wonder if the mission has helped at all in that sense... hmm.

Yes, we retaught the restoration to him, and it went well. We just need him to talk more. He's super quiet which can be hard with teaching sometimes. I'll let you know more about him and others next week (:

There is no temple in the Caribbean. No wards either. On St. Vincent there are two branches and one group. It's amazing none the less.

Love you lots,

Elder Mikesell the Fourth

4 puppies that attacked me in the streets.

ELDER T IS AWESOME, AMAZING EXPERIENCE GIVING A PRIESTHOOD BLESSINGS & BEAUTIFUL ST. VINCENT

Elder T and I

Yellow!

These little guys are everywhere.

I know, time is going by quickly! I just wish I had more time to email, answer questions and then talk about everything else, but it's just impossible! aha! Elder T is awesome. So nice and giving and a great trainer. He's also loud and funny. aha. Like he will yell "Elder Mysell! I will shot you!" In our apartment and stuff like that. So expect another good 6 weeks (: Our apartment is still pretty nice. The shower is a little jank. It's either high pressure cold showers or low pressure warm showers. So, I do the 2nd. I hate cold showers.

Most islands are a zone. I think Barbados has 2. Elder Merrell will be the new zone leader there now cause he is awesome.

Yes, yes... I'm facing the fact that the my farmers tan after a 2 year mission will be real bad...

Guess what happened this morning? So, I didn't personally have a super strong testimony on priesthood blessings, but this experience was quite amazing. Last Saturday, a member called Elder T and I and asked if we could come giver her husband (a nonmember) a blessing of comfort. So, we asked what's going on and she said that he had lost his job and gone through some "other things" that have thrown him into a deep depression and that he was talking about suicide and that she was scared. So, we head over there and he says he doesn't want the blessings. I was pretty disappointed because I know that priesthood blessings work soley on the faith of the person giving the blessing and the person receiving the blessing. We couldn't force him to want a blessing. So, Sunday goes by and we go to bed, but this morning at 6am his wife calls us and asks if we can come over right now because he would like a blessing. So, we get up and head down there again, this time because he asked for it. I explained priesthood blessings to him and begin to give him a blessings and although I was pretty nervous, my words were completely led by the Spirit. Directly after finishing the blessing he asks if he can be baptized. (He has apparently taken a few lessons before). We were like "Yes, of course!" and so we are going to teach him again and he said he is going to come to church. Keep him in your prayers. His name is Brian.

I have to go now. Thank you for all you do for me. I love you lots.

Elder Mikesell the Fourth

Beautiful St. Vincent

CELEBRATING ST. VINCENT'S INDEPENDENCE DAY, CLIMBING A COCONUT TREE & GETTING TRANSFERRED TO KINGSTOWN

Halloween was fun, and by fun, I mean a normal day... except we were fasting, aha. I know no one in the states did a 24 hour fast, though, aha, Halloween would make that impossible. Elder Merrell and I are doing well. We got transfer calls! I'm going down to Kingstown to be the new zone leader's companion. So, I will be driving now. (Pray for me. They drive crazy here...) My new companion is Elder Tulikahakau, aha, or Elder T as we call him. He is from Tonga. I already know him because he's in our tiny zone. He's pretty chill. Elder Merrell is going to Grenada. Oh, I don't know if I ever told you. I can only go to 5 islands in the mission: St. Vincent, St. Martin, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Barbados. The others are french speaking, so yeah.

This week has been good. Last Tuesday was St. Vincent's Independence day, so we kind of got to have fun all day, which was nice. We had a picnic at this beach park place, played cricket (which is big here), played football (or soccer), and all that good stuff. (: I even climbed a coconut tree! Other than that, this week has been quite busy. Oh, we also met this lady named Monica last week. She's about 40 and has lived here her whole life, but she suffered from a stroke about 2 years ago and can't really control the right side of her body anymore and has trouble speaking so Elder Merrell and I have been over there a lot teacher her and helping her around her house. She has a 20 year old son that usually helps her do things, but he's been really busy with work. He's helping to build the International Airport here. We've been doing that and a whole lot of other stuff, but now that I'm being moved, I won't see her or any of my other investigators anymore... but I'm sure the Sisters who are taking our area will do great. aha.

Keep letting me know how things are going at home. I love y'all.

Lots of Love,

Elder Mikesell IV

Selfie on the beach.

Elder Merrell and I on the beach expressing our comp unity.

Me and one of my favorite children. (: She is the daughter of Brother and Sister McDowell.
A less active family in our ward that we visit.

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.

FIRST AREA ST. VINCENT, COMPANION ELDER MERREL & EVERYTHING IS AMAZING HERE!

Elder Mikesell Barbados Bridgetown Mission

I'm on the island of St. Vincent here in the Caribbean. My area is mostly the south side of the island. Everything's amazing here. Best mission in the world, aha, well, other than the mid-day heat and humidity... and some other stuff. But, yeah. It's been an interesting week. My companion's name is Elder Merrell, and he's from some town in Utah. He's the zone leader, so we are one of the very few elders with a car. An amazingly air conditioned blessing, aha. Also, the AC broke in the guest house that we are staying in, so that sucks, but it will be fixed soon, apparently.

Elder Mikesell with his companion, Elder Merrell

Elder Merrell is a lot like Alec, in some ways... We get all of each other's movie quotes and references from Good Mythical Morning to Sponge-Bob to other random videos we've both seen. We quote stuff 24/7. It's quite a swell time. He plays piano pretty well by ear and played tennis in school. He also tells really funny stories. They mostly involve him getting rejected by girls, aha, but yeah.

I don't have a lot of time, but the people here are most of the time super nice and willing to listen to missionaries. The biggest problems are that young men usually smoke weed and drink, people just live together because marriage is expensive and not really a thing here, and most people don't have a car to get to church. So, we get a lot of new investigators all the time and run into one of those problems. It sucks, but I'll just keep looking and serving and all that.

Sunday was cool. There were about 35-ish people at church. I had never taken the sacrament in such a... poorly constructed ghetto building. I sat next to the window, and let me tell you, I had also never taken the sacrament with such a beautiful view. The hills and the ocean all right there. And the peoples faith and love for God is amazing.

I'm almost out of time! I love you! Talk to you next week. (:

SO FAR... I'VE HAD TWO PRACTICE INVESTIGATORS, EATEN SHRIMP FOR THE FIRST TIME, WRITTEN A SONG CALLED "TRAPPED IN THE MTC" AND CRIED... DON'T WORRY, IT WAS MANLY

Elder Mikesell in the MTC... Yep

My MTC District

Yeah! I've had two investigators here in the MTC for practice. One was My teacher, Brother Perry, who was an amazing dude! I'll send you a group picture of my district with him. He's a great teacher and really helped me understand the importance of getting to know and love your investigators, so you can teach them what they need to be taught at that point in their lives. He was also quite inspirational because he had a speech impediment where he would stutter all the time. He shared his story about how nervous he was about serving his mission because he wanted to be able to teach with the spirit, but he was worried that his stutter would distract from that spirit and affect his lessons with his investigators. But after being taught by him, his stutter only added personality to the class, aha, he really did teach with the spirit, and he was just a chill dude. So, that's my morning class teacher, Brother Perry.

Elder Nixon and I being super hot

My other investigator is what they call a TRC investigator. TRC investigators could be real people interested in the church who sign up to be taught in the MTC, or they can just be MTC teachers pretending to be that... and that's what Elder Nixon and I got. His name's Brandon, and he's definitely already a member, aha, we can just tell through things he's said and done throughout our lessons... and that he hangs out in the teacher's office place after we teach him with his obvious friends. But, it's still been nice. Unfortunately, we were paired up with another companionship to teach him... It's so hard to teach a lesson to one guy when there's four missionaries who all have a little different idea of where they want to go with the lesson and stuff. But, it's been swell... we are teaching him about baptism tonight because we invited him to be baptized, and he wants to know more first and all that. But Nixon and I got our teacher to agree to baptism! :D But, he was probably just being nice cause we're his kids, aha.

Other spiritual experiences! So, we watched this talk that Elder Bednar gave to the missionaries called "Characters of Christ", and oh my goodness was it good. It really gives you a new perspective on who Christ was just as a person while he was here on earth. Unfortunately, it's only available in the MTC which stinks. But, oh well. Another suuuuper cool thing that happened is Elder Dube just sat next to me and my district during lunch a couple days ago. It was so stellar. He's in the quorum of the 70 and he talked in the 2013 October General Conference. I actually remember him speaking, too. He was the guy from Zimbabwe. He had the cool African accent and everything.

Click here to read Elder Bednar's talk "The Character of Christ"

Saying goodbye to Brandon for 2 years

Last spiritual experience is that we had a devotional given by the General Primary Presidency leader. I can't remember her name, but she did a lot better than I thought she would. I was hoping for Holland or Bednar, but she was fine, too, aha. Anyways, she showed this clip of the Savior performing miracles, and he was perfecting the body deformities of these people, and I couldn't help but think of Brandon and his desire for a perfect body. When we had a district meeting afterwards, I was called on to share my favorite part and why and all that, so I told my district about Brandon and how much he means to me but how much more he means to the Savior, and of course, I had to cry in front of everyone. Aha, but don't worry, it was a manly cry.

Me in class everyday...

I wrote this song that my district sings called "Trapped in the MTC", lol! It goes:

"There's a world out thereee! but I'm trapped in the MTC... Yes, There's a world out thereee!" (the rest of the group) "Where?!" "Outside of the MTC!"

The MTC food is slightly above mediocre, aha. I had shrimp for the first time... it was good, but I think that might have just been because it was fried... and I had fish (also fried) and that was good too...

All my flippin snacks. #thanksfam

WHERE WE ARE GOING!

DAY 3 AT MTC PRETTY CHILL AND MTC COMPANION ELDER NIXON

It's day 3 at the MTC... it's pretty chill, I guess. My companion's name is Elder Nixon, and he's pretty chill. Well, he's "normal" which is all I really wanted, haha. He is from West Jordan, Utah. He's into football and lake stuff like boating and fishing. But now he's into the gospel, aha.

As far as what I've learned, more teaching skills than anything. We've been learning what to do in the field every day. We've been practicing lessons and how to plan according to your investigators needs. Which is coolio.

My MTC companion, Elder Nixon

MTC roommate, Elder Sandbakken

MTC roommate, Elder Stephens

TAKING CHASE TO THE MTC

Last night, Sean and Chase drove to Beaver, Utah to spend the night at Grandpa and Grandma Mikesell's and say goodbye. This morning they woke up, got ready, had breakfast at Arshel's in Beaver with Grandpa and Grandma and drove up to Provo. After picking Jay up, they stopped for lunch at a Thai restaurant, Justin's choice, not Chase's. Chase had chicken nuggets off the kid's menu! Afterwards, they took a few pictures in front of the Provo Temple and then dropped Chase off at the MTC! GOOD LUCK ELDER MIKESELL! WE LOVE YOU!

IT'S OFFICIAL! I'M NOW ELDER MIKESELL :D

It's official! I'm now a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I was set apart as a missionary tonight by President Stolworthy, my Stake President. I'm grateful my dad and grandpa could stand in as well. I'm just missing my name tag, though, then I'll be really official. :D The mission life has begun...

Me with my family just after being set apart as a missionary.

Me and President Stolworthy

They're going to have to make some room for my pic.

FAREWELL TALK & OPEN HOUSE

Thanks to everyone who came to listen to me speak today as well as those who came to my open house to wish me good luck on my mission! 100 days have passed since I recieved my mission call. Just 10 days left before I enter the MTC!

LAS VEGAS NEVADA TEMPLE

I received my endowment today at the Las Vegas Nevada Temple. I was able to have my dad as my escort. My step-mom, Kelly, my grandpa and friends, Jayden, Travis and Robert were there to support me. Lunch with my dad and friends followed by missionary shopping with my dad and Kelly. Thank you!

MISSION REASSIGNMENT: BARBADOS BRIDGETOWN MISSION

Got this email today:

"Our records indicate that Elder Mikesell, Chase Houston was assigned to the West Indies Mission. This mission is involved in the creation of a new mission on July 1, 2015.

The current West Indies Mission will be renamed the Trinidad Port of Spain Mission. The West Indies Mission will be divided and will create the new Barbados Bridgetown Mission. Since this involves some significant changes to mission boundaries, we wanted to clarify the mission assignment, language and MTC date for the missionary below."

Name	Mission Assignment	Assignment Language	MTC Date
Mikesell, Chase Houston	Barbados Bridgetown	English	9/9/2015

So, it looks like my new boundaries will include the following Caribbean islands:

St. Martin
Guadeloupe
Martinique
St. Lucia
St. Vincent
Barbados
Grenada
French Guina

It's getting closer!

THE MISSION CALL... WEST INDIES MISSION... BARBADOS MISSION REGION!

Chase's mission call came today! He was definitely NOT expecting it to arrive on a Saturday! He was expecting it on Thursday and was disappointed when it was not to be found in the mail. To our surprise, it arrived today! 

Chase's mission call just arrived!

Chase opening his mission call!

Where is he going?

Chase has been called to labor in the West Indies Mission and serve in the Barbados Mission Region. He will be speaking English, and he will report to the Provo MTC on September 9, 2015! 

110 days until he reports to the MTC! Chase was hoping to go to a foreign country but didn't want to learn a foreign language... I would definitely say that was a prayer answered! We are so excited for Chase and know he will be an amazing missionary!