Christmas Week!

Family and friends,

     This week has been pretty fantastic. Obviously Christmas was a
highlight, getting to skype your family after not seeing them for
nearly 6 months is always a good thing. I really appreciated letters
that were sent, kind notes and candy haha! I have lots of candy now :)
and not much else happened this week.

     On Tuesday we had our Moorcroft Christmas party and that was a
huge success! We were at the church waiting for people to show up and
the first 3 groups of people were all less actives, and they were all
ones we had never met before as well! Throughout the night so many
different families kept showing up. The members did really good at
missionary work and had brought lots of non member or less active
friends and family! We went caroling and some of the less active
members came with us and they had a blast! President Jones drove
around with a giant flat bed trailer on the back of his truck and we
all sat on hay bale benches on the trailer! It was so much fun and it
really helped me get in the mood for Christmas! I got to sit on
Santa's lap again that night as well! My 3 picture with Santa this
year, I think that's the most I've ever gotten pretty much. It was
grand.

     On Wednesday we had another great district meeting! We acted out
the nativity and because our district is made up of only Elders I had
the privilege of being Mary! Haha it was grand and Elder Perez was
Joseph. We used wrapped up scarves as the baby and put it in a little
manger we found in the church. All of us were just switching off
different parts and it was quite the experience.

     Thursday was Christmas Eve...obviously. We had an appointment
with an investigator that is really hard to get a hold of so that was
awesome! After that we had A WEDDING! SURPRISE! It was quite the
surprise to us as well. We found out about it on Tuesday at the
Christmas party. It was a wedding for a less active member and her non
member boyfriend. It was a really great surprise and we were able to
go and support them! There will definitely be pictures coming. That
night we had dinner at President Booths house. He taught us how to
play marbles and then we acted out the nativity again with some of his
daughter's non member friends when they showed up unexpectedly. Don't
worry, I wasn't Mary this time.

     CHRISTMAS! It was a great day. We had lunch at the Haskells
house. Their daughter is super adorable and 3 times during lunch she
exclaimed "This is the best Christmas ever!" And when we asked her
why, each time she responded, "because the missionaries are here. We
never get to eat with the missionaries." That's a super rad family. We
had dinner at the Gerstner's house and played lots of fun Christmas
games and shared Christmas stories.

     And lastly Sunday was my birthday! Just in case you all didn't
know haha! Not saying you have to or anything...buuuuut...if people
were to coincidentally send me happy birthday email I wouldn't mind
even if they're a couple days late haha! Anyways, it was a good
birthday. We spoke in church and Elder Bills spoke first and spoke
from 9:20 to 9:24. There was a special musical number that went until
9:27 and then I had filled the rest of the time from 9:27 to 10:02. It
was really funny and on my way up a member stopped me and asked if I
had enough prepared. I just shrugged and laughed and went for it and I
apparently prepared enough. I joked around with Elder Bills about it
afterwards but I honestly really enjoy talking in church. Well...just
talking in general. And when people have to sit there and can't
interrupt you it's even better!

I love you all and hope your Christmases went grandly!

Elder Tippetts

It's Christmas!

Family and friends,

Wow. Christmas is seriously in four days. That's wacko. It doesn't
feel like it's been an entire year since last Christmas haha! You want
to know what else is crazy? This is the last email I will send as an
18 year old! Yup that's right, on Sunday I turn 19 and then on Monday
I'll email again. That's also wacko and weirds me out. It doesn't feel
like an entire year since my last birthday! I really hope you all have
such a great week this week. It's a great week to have a great week if
I may say so myself. Share the Christmas spirit. Sharing the video 'A
Savior Is Born' is a great way to spread that spirit! This time of the
year should be a time when we all focus on the Savior. We wouldn't
have this time of year without him, in fact we wouldn't have any time
at all without him. Anyways, I'll get to that a little more
momentarily!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were super grand days. We went to
Gillette on Monday for preparation day and got to be with the Gillette
elders, I love them all! We got a call from the assistants around 4ish
saying that we needed to leave Gillette immediately for Billings
otherwise we wouldn't make it, so we rounded everyone up and headed
out. By the time we left they already had more than 5 inches of snow
in Billings, so we knew we had a long drive ahead of us. There were a
couple really sketchy parts but we made it right around 9 and spent
the night in the mission home. Tuesday was our Christmas conference
for the East side zones of the mission; Billings, Billings East,
Bozeman, Wyoming West and Wyoming East. The other 7 zones met in
Helena on Thursday.

The first thing we did was teach every missionary there to sing
like a choir! I was so happy. We split up into parts and learned and
rehearsed 3 of the Christmas hymns to perform for the Mission
Presidency, their wives and the office missionaries during the bulk of
our program. Their was a lot of confusion sometimes and they asked me
to help clarify and fix things, which I was more than happy to do.
After clarifying some basic rhythmic motifs I heard, 'Amen Elder
Tippetts!' and when I looked to see who said that I saw Elder
Hoschouer! My MTC companion! He's been serving in Kalispell Montana up
until this transfer, apparently now he's in Billings. That means my
whole room from the MTC is on this half of the mission now! Elders
Schneider and Potter have both been in Bozeman their whole missions
and I've been in Wyoming East the whole time. Don't worry, I've got
lots of pictures of our happy reunion after the program and food.
Every missionary was invited to prepare a talk about missionary
work and the atonement and we were going to be randomly called to give
them. The program went like so; 2 talks, choir number, 2 talks,
special musical number, 2 talks, special musical number, 2 talks,
choir, 2 talks, special musical number, 2 talks, choir, 2 talks,
special musical number, 2 talks, choir. The second special musical
number was Elder Thomas and I singing a super rad arrangement of The
First Noel. One of the two missionaries in charge of all the music
found it for us. When we performed it went really well, even though we
were insanely nervous and both were shaking quite a bit. The spirit
was so strong the whole program. I learned so much about the Atonement
that I'll be able to apply into my missionary work now.
We all went into the cultural hall for food after the main meeting
and they had a few surprises for us. First, they showed us Elder
McGrath's restoration rap. Elder McGrath was an assistant when I first
came into the mission, but he finished his mission around Thanksgiving
same time as my first trainer, Elder Clark. He wrote it and with a
bunch of other missionaries and President Wadsworth they made a music
video with it. Is was the first time most of us were able to see it
because I believe that right now it is going through the process of
being approved by church headquarters to put the church seal on it to
make it an official church video! I've been told that it's been
approved by all the quorums of the seventy and the twelve, now they're
just waiting for the word from the first presidency! They also showed
us a big slideshow with pictures of all the missionaries that the
office missionaries got from all of our parents. It was hilarious.
While we were eating President Wadsworth ran screaming into the
room telling us that he just got off the phone with Santa and that he
was on his way but he couldn't remember how to make it to the Billings
Stake a Center! So of course we all had to sing Christmas songs like
jingle bells and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer at the top of our
lungs to guide him! All of a sudden an elf runs into the room (one of
the assistants) quickly followed by Santa (the other one) so we could
all get pictures with Santa! It was completely grand in every way. We
left billings at 4 and made it back to Gillette around 9 and stayed
the night at the Zone Leader's apartment. In the morning for our
exercises we woke up early and played basketball and intense dodgeball
and did a bunch of different workouts all over the stake center
cultural hall.

Last thing I'd like to mention is the concept of being a true
disciple and to be Christlike. I'd encourage you all to read the
article 'The Saviors Teachings on Discipleship' from the June 2015
Ensign, Elder Holland's talk 'The Cost-and Blessings-of Discipleship'
from April 2014 conference and chapter 24 from the Teachings of
President Ezra Taft Benson. Here's two super rad quotes from Ezra Taft
Benson, “I testify to you that there is no greater, more thrilling,
and more soul-ennobling challenge than to try to learn of Christ and
walk in His steps," and, "Walking in His way is the greatest
achievement of life." During his week where we celebrate the Savior's
birth I challenge you all to take a few minutes alone to examine how
devoted of a disciple you have been recently, find areas you'd like to
improve on, set goals for improvement, repent and then do it! I know
that we can change because of the atonement, it allows us to become as
he is more fully every day.

I love you all, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Elder Tippetts

Apparently I'm not serving in Montana and Wyoming?

Family and Friends,

Don't worry, I'm not getting transfered missions or anything.
Besides, the next transfer isn't until January. I just keep feeling
like I'm not in Wyoming, even Pugh everybody says I am, yesterday was
pretty much the only day this week that it got into the low 30s and
high 20s! He had multiple days in the mid 50s and high 40s so I feel
like there may have been some big mix up, because this isn't the
weather I was expecting haha! I'm really grateful for it though.
Pretty much all the snow has melted and gone and we only had one very
light dusting some morning this week. It looks like we'll be making up
for it though, today we're driving up to Billings for our Christmas
Conference! And there's a severe winter weather warning out! And we're
supposed to get 12 or more inches of snow! And we might get stuck
there because the interstate back might be shut down! All sarcasm
aside, I'm pretty excited. I love snow and have been missing it.
Last week we had some interviews with President Wadsworth. That's
always one of my favorite things. He loves us so much and there's no
way to avoid feeling it! We had some really funny conversations with
sister Wadsworth while we waited for our turn to talk to President
Wadsworth. Sister Breinholt, the Stake President's wife showed up and
brought us all Christmas packages from the stake! They had wool socks
and candy in them, good wool socks. Then yesterday the primary class
came and invited us in to give us more presents from the stake haha!
We got scarves and ties and gloves and socks and hand warmers! Also a
really cool Wyoming Flag lapel pin, but sadly we're not allowed to
wear lapel pins :-( Anyways, the Gillette stake is awesome!
To celebrate MY FIVE MONTH MARK on Tuesday we went tracting and
did 3 entire streets, super fast too! So many people were home and we
found a couple people that seemed super interested. Multiple people
told us to come back another time, but that they'd love to see the 'A
Savior is Born' video.

This week we also had our first district meeting of the transfer, on
week 3. The first week didn't happen because of transfers, like usual,
and the second week didn't happen because of Zone Training, and this
week won't happen because of the Christmas Conference. Like I said
before, the only person that changed in our district was Elder Hatton.
Now our District Leader is Elder Bird. Funny story, he went to Provo
high and graduated in 2014!!!!! How crazy is that? We about all the
classes he had and the people he knew. He knows quite a few people I
knew so it's pretty crazy that we never officially met or that I
didn't know he was out here. He's super funny and awesome. Sadly, I
asked and he did not have Mrs. Tippetts for middle school science.
On Saturday we had a really interesting discussion with one of
our investigators. We got to his house the same time he did after a
really long and frustrating day at work. Also, apparently earlier in
the week he met a pastor while he was working and told him he was
talking with Mormon missionaries. I'm guessing you can guess where
this is going. He pulled out all the anti Mormon literature he was
given, pamphlets and DVDs, and started firing off the questions. The
first bit we were there was a lot of him not being happy and raising
his voice. Multiple times Elder Bills and I both thought we should
leave, but we both felt we should just wait it out. After he vented
for a while we got around to having a decently civil conversation. He
kept telling us how he didn't have time to read the Book of Mormon and
pray about it, but he did get around to reading all the anti stuff.
Which was 10x longer than the portion we had asked him to read. We
helped him see how trying to learn that way was a little silly. We had
to be very patient and avoid a few topics that set him off again and
had to be very careful not to argue, because bible bashing and
contention are bad. In the end it turned out alright. He told us that
this doesn't mean he'll stop coming to church or meeting with us, it
just means that he's going to be a little more wary. We love him and I
know he's a great man. He just has lots of questions and different
opinions.

On another day of the week, I can't remember which, we had a cool
experience following promptings. We were driving to somewhere for a
backup appointment and I saw a lady sitting on her porch and I felt we
should go talk to her. We pulled over down the street a block or two
then walked back and tried talking to her. She wasn't interested and
when some guys in the house saw us talking to her they ran to the door
and told us to leave. So we quickly did, I was sort of disappointed
that it didn't work out the way we wanted it to. Elder Bills suggested
we knock on the neighbors house, but I didn't want to so I kept
walking. I stopped and thought that it was unfair of me to ignore one
of his ideas and just do mine, so we went and knocked there. Another
lady answered and she was very nice. She said that from time to time
she had met with different religions and said that she thinks God
always bring them into her life. She said she'd like to meet with us
and took a Book of Mormon and said she'd read it!

Y'all are grand, focus on bringing the Christmas spirit more
fully into your lives and then naturally it will start to spread.
Share the new Christmas videos that the church has produced.
Prayerfully think about your family and friends that you could
introduce to the gospel and the missionaries at this time of the year.
It's the best gift you can give, I promise.


Elder Tippetts

Sickness :(

Family and friends,

Preparation day last week was a great start to the week. We got
the regular stuff done and then all evening we went and helped out at
the senior center. On the last Monday of every month the do a pancake
dinner. We helped set up, eat, finish a puzzle and clean up! While
people were eating we sat down and got quite a few pieces placed in
there tine 1500 piece puzzle, it was quite the challenge and we
impressed a few of the ladies that were there eating!

On Tuesday we got into the week with me being sick. I woke up not
feeling well at all, and I never get sick. So I went back to bed. When
I got up I tried to just tough it out but didn't do that well. A
member in town came and helped elder bills give me a blessing. It was
really humbling to have to ask for help like that, and it helped. I
felt better immediately, not 100% better, but it was undeniable that I
felt better. Throughout the day I kept getting better as I rested and
got my strength back. We went out tracting that night even though it
was 10° and I didn't feel good. I know I was helped to do it, I didn't
feel like passing out or falling over and the cold didn't bother me!
More rest and more rest and taking it easy paired with working really
hard when it was time has really fixed me up. Now I just have a little
scratchiness in my throat still, a stuffy nose and my voice isn't 100%
back. But it's miles better than I was feeling before!
Not much happened Tuesday and Thursday because I was still a
little sick and we had LOTS of cancelled appointments. Friday was zone
training! It was so much fun and I learned so much! One of the Zone
Leader shared a story they heard at Mission Leadership Conference that
demonstrates what faith really is, here it is:

"A Dad was walking through his house, past his little daughter's
room, when he noticed she was on her knees praying. He was curious to
see what she was praying about so he stopped and listened. She said,
'please bless that none of the birds or animals will get hurt by the
traps.' He was devastated and worried, he had helped his son place
traps out that day, and they were good traps. He knew they were
definitely going to hurt some birds. He didn't want his daughter to
lose faith when they got hurt, so he talked with her the next morning
and said 'you know, sometimes God doesn't answer all our prayers the
way we want him to, it's not because he doesn't love us, it's because
his plan is better.' To which she responded 'No. I know that no birds
will get hurt' and walked off. He kept thinking about what to say to
protect her, the next morning he said, 'you know, sometimes bad things
happen to good people too because we need to grow. Maybe those birds
need some trials, or they need a little pain or something bad to
happen so they can appreciate life more.' She again responded, 'No. I
know that the birds won't get hurt' and left. All throughout the day
he kept trying to figure out how his daughter had gained such great
trust and faith in God for Him to answer her prayers. He couldn't
figure out why, so he asked her the next morning. She responded, 'I
know God won't let any birds get hurt because the second I finished
praying I went outside and kicked all those traps to pieces!' "
Moral of the story: GO KICK THOSE TRAPS TO PIECES! God expects us
to act. When we pray for something he usually doesn't just give it to
us if we can fix it ourselves, but he will help us and give us aid to
accomplish what we wanted help with! That's faith.
Friday night I also filled up my first journal! My whole mission
I've filled in an entire page every day (except for once, the night
before we flew to billings...I only did half a page...). I know that
having this record of my mission will bless me and my family for years
to come. If you've always wanted to have a journal, start! Kick those
traps! Pray for a desire to do it and then let nothing get in your
way. When you fail or mess up pray and apologize, then ask for help to
do better. We've been counseled by prophets and apostles to keep
journals, I know it's possible and there are so many blessings waiting
for all of us as we choose to heed their words!

The Christmas Devotional was awesome, recently Elder Bednar has
become one of my favorite people to study, he understands doctrine so
well and organizes everything in neat lists. I like lists. Also, y'all
should read the ensigns. I never did before and now I do while I eat
breakfast before study time. In the December 2015 ensign there's an
article compilation of some of Boyd K Packer's teachings, A Witness of
the Savior Jesus Christ, that he chose to put in an article before he
passed on. The last one really touched me and is really cool.
“After all the years that I have lived and taught and served,
after the millions of miles I have traveled around the world, with all
that I have experienced, there is one great truth that I would share.
That is my witness of the Savior Jesus Christ.

“Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon recorded the following after a sacred
experience:
“‘And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him,
this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he
lives!
"‘For we saw him’ (D&C 76:22–23).
“Their words are my words.”
“How privileged I have been throughout my life to be able to bear my
special witness that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. I testify in
all humility, but with absolute certainty, that He is the Only
Begotten of the Father. This is His Church; He presides over it and
directs this work. He is our Redeemer. I know He lives, and I know
Him. Of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”


I love you all. Catch the Christmas spirit, it's the best thing to spread!


Elder Tippetts

It's working! Missionary work is working!

Family and friends,

This week was pretty fantastic. I've been doing a couple of
things differently to get myself more involved and invested in
missionary work on every level. We've really seen the work start picks
up this week here in Sundance and Moorcroft. There are definitely many
things that the Lord is putting into motion in this part of his
vineyard and I feel privileged to witness them.
Last preparation day was fantastic because I found out that Elder
Thomas has a bunch of our approved music that I don't have so we
ripped everything off his CDs and put them on our flash drives. The
best part of it was he had a recording of one of my favorite choir
pieces, My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Thee! You should all take
some time to read 3 Nephi 22 and D&C 122, many of the lyrics come from
there. I'm so happy to have it now!

Wednesday was super rad! We went tracting and found a part member
family that no one knew about! They moved here in Spetember and he is
just ordained a teacher. His fiancé isn't a member and their kids are
too young to be baptized. We talked with them and he asked how old
they have to be to be baptized and she asked what the process would be
for her to get baptized! We set up an appointment and invited them to
church and got his information to request his records to be
transferred. When we left, we knocked on the neighbor's trailer and he
said he'd love to learn about our church but he's leaving to Canada
for the rest of the year, so we'll get back in contact with him then
haha! We also had our first lesson with the Tom, Alisha and their
daughter Hayley! We tracted into Hayley and she said her family used
to talk with the missionaries and that we should come back when her
parents were home. We did and they were interested again! We started
talking with them about the Restoration and then he started telling us
about his religious background and just started asking us questions
about our church! And they were good questions, the ones that aren't
unanswerable or unnecessary! He asked us what time church was, where
it was and promised to be there. It was grand.
Thanksgiving was definitely filling. We had a lunch at 1 with the
Gennings and some non member friends and family, and then another mean
at 3 at the Skeens' house! So much turkey. Plenty of leftovers too.
Sis Skeens bought chalkboard tablecloths and after dinner we decorated
them. Everyone else drew pictures and the usual things....I wrote out
a grand staff with half the music to one of my favorite barbershop
songs, Ebb Tide, from memory haha! I still find ways to enjoy
barbershop out here 😉

Friday we helped the part member family move from one trailer to
another in the same little park win the help of some of the Lawrence
boys. We got lots done and they were really grateful and were
impressed by the help we gave. After we stopped by the Lawrence's home
to meet Tyrell, he got home from his mission to Brazil on Thanksgiving
Day! He asked us to brief him on the work that's going on here and
wants to go with us on visits often, so we'll definitely use him a
lot. On Saturday we did our weekly planning because Thursday and
Friday were packed. We went around trying to contact a bunch of
investigators but no one was home. At the last one, before we headed
back to the church, we decided to knock on his neighbor's door before
we left. We found a really nice lady that hasn't lived here for long
and is looking for a church! We told her about the restoration and
offered to teach her more about it and she agreed.

This was probably the best Sunday of my mission yet! So many
awesome things. We were really excited for Tyrell's homecoming,
especially because investigators were coming! Before on my mission the
only investigators we've had come are pretty much Trent and Mikey
because they were getting baptized and they never had a problem with
coming to church, but this was going to be the first time we were
unsure about if we'd have someone show up. It didn't look like we were
going to have any luck and then 3 minutes before sacrament Tom and
Alisha pulled up! I was smiling so before the rest of church, and they
really enjoyed it. They had to leave after sacrament to go to work,
but here's the kicker. They were supposed to go to work way earlier
but decided to just not go because they decided church was more
important to them! Tom also told their boss that they were no longer
going to work on any Sundays! Sadly the part member family didn't show
up but we got to go teach them the first lesson later that day. They
hadn't come because she had fallen on Sarurday and was in pain, but it
looks like she's doing a lot better now.

I love you all! Thanks for the support! Look for opportunities
everyday to help prepare people to receive the restored gospel, your
local missionaries will be so thankful! And so will all of their
posterity!

Elder Tippetts

Another transfer down!

Family and Friends,

I can't believe my first full transfer after train is over, and I
trained the whole time! It's completely crazy! We got transfer calls
on Saturday instead of Sunday, which is pretty abnormal, because
transfers happened today instead of tomorrow due to Thanksgiving this
week. We both will be staying in Sundance and Moorcroft which means
Elder Bills will have me for his entire training period, so pray for
him haha! Just kidding, I think we're doing pretty good and we're
always improving. But prayers are always appreciated 😄😄😄

Last Monday not much happened, just a typical preparation day
with basketball and pod ball. The week got to a slow start on Tuesday
when I woke up and didn't feel too good. I had a headache and felt
super clogged so I fell back asleep and woke up fully rejuvenated and
ready to get on with the day! And it was a good day too. We were in
Moorcroft and found a new investigator, a new potential investigator
and contacted an investigator. The one we contacted was interested in
meeting again and we made an appointment, and they know some members
here and they'll be coming to the appointment hopefully! We've started
walking around a lot more instead of driving the car everywhere even
though it's getting super cold. We layer and then just head out and
rarely feel chilly. But anyways, the reason I mention that is because
it makes me feel like a real missionary! My whole life I've just
imagined missionaries walking around and now that we're doing it more
often I feel even more like a missionary! It just feels right to be
walking down dirt roads at night with a Book of Mormon in hand, it's a
good feeling.
Wednesday was our last district meeting of the transfer
😭😭😭😭😭 Transfer calls for the entire zone has left every single
missionary stay except Elder Hatton and Elder Kimball. So my district
is stain the same except Elder Hatton is leaving. It's going to be
really weird and sad to not have him around. He's the only district
leader I've known so far and he was my trainer for 3 months. After a
really great district meeting we made ELK BURGER SANDWICHES!!!! We had
a bunch of Elk Burger in our freezer in Sundance and Elder Perez has a
bunch of things he likes to mix into the burger so we brought the
burger and he made it taste magnificent! That night no one showed up
to the Moorcroft Family History Night so while we were waiting and
hoping for people to show up we talked with Brother Valdon and
President Jones about the Gospel and how important it is to belong to
God's true church and to be faithful in these days. We all shared
experiences of how we've seen the gospel bless lives and how we've
seen people struggle without the gospel. It strengthen my testimony of
how true this church is and how much it blesses my life and filled me
with fire and desire to share it with everyone.
On Thursday we had our first official investigator sit down
lesson of the transfer! It was with the new investigator we found on
Tuesday. The branch mission leader came with us and it was quite the
interesting experience. She didn't want to start out with a prayer and
has 3 very young rambunctious boys, so it was sometimes hard to listen
to the spirit and teach by it. But it still went well and she had lots
of questions and agreed to let us come back! We're super excited to
have a real investigator to teach!
Have you seen the Cokeville Miracle? If not, go watch it! The
Moorcroft branch had a movie night on Friday and watched it. We didn't
get to watch the movie but we went to the potluck before and the
fireside after. The Cokeville Miracle is a true story about a town in
Wyoming, Cokeville, with a population of less than 600. A mad man and
his wife took hostage the elementary school and brought all the
students and teachers into the smallest kindergarten room where he had
a large homemade bomb, ~160 people crammed in there I believe (don't
quote me on numbers haha). He demanded 2 million dollars ransom for
each child and wanted to start a new world. The kids and teachers
started to pray. The man left to use the restroom and unstrapped the
trigger from himself onto his wife. The lady accidentally jerked the
trigger and it went off. No one died except the mad and his wife. Many
of the kids, when interviewed later, told the same story of looking up
before it went off to see glowing men robed in white holding hands
around the bomb. When it went off they flew through the ceiling taking
the explosion with them. Years later as some many of the children
worked on family history work they found pictures of their ancestors
and identified them as the ones surrounding the bomb and the ones that
led or carried them out of the building. The Lead Bomb Investigator's
son is a member here in Moorcroft and he came here and talked with us
and bore testimony of the power of prayer and that angels exist. He
didn't hear anything about the angel stories until more than 3 years
after the event and had never been able to understand the evidence.
The bomb was large and had many things that were obviously tampered
with so that it wouldn't go off completely, and the explosion that did
go off should have leveled the building. When he learned about the
Angels he knew what he was missing. As they looked through evidence
photos again they found burned silhouettes of angels on the wall.
Hopefully you'll go watch it, I know that I will when I get home!
Also, I can't believe I forgot to mention this last week! After
praying about a place to go tracting last Sunday Elder Bills and I
both chose the same street. We went and knocked doors and found a less
active member, brother Glenn, that no one knew about. He joined the
church back in Vietnam and pretty much has never been to church ever
since. He agreed to have us come back again. We taught him and he
agreed to come to church. Sadly he didn't come even though we went by
on Saturday to remind him and he said he would.
Last thing I promise, sorry about the long letter. Last night we
had a perfect 'thy will, not mine be done' experience. We went to go
contact an investigator, parked on the block she lives on, and said a
prayer before we got out of the car. As we ended the prayer saying we
wanted God's will to happen and then looked up we saw her driving away
in her car! Immediately I was tempted to complain literally moments
after praying for God's will to happen. I realized I was being a
hypocrite and so we decided to contact people in the area and I
quickly realized that it was what we were supposed to do! We met
someone who wasn't interested but he was very nice and we now he had
felt something. He told us he has lots of Mormon friends. Hopefully in
the future that seed will be harvested by friends and family that will
be grateful for missionaries that sparked his interest. We also found
a less active we've been looking for and another less active couple
let us in! The husband really loves football and everyone has told us
it's impossible to get his attention during a game. He was watching
Sunday night football and turned it off to talk with us!!! The spirit
was definitely there and we even got a cupcake haha! So A+ for
everyone!

I love you all, pray for guidance and the spirit every day. It will happen.

Elder Tippetts

You know you're living in Wyoming when...

Family and friends,

I can't help but start out with this story first. So...you know
you're in Wyoming when you have dinner at a members house and it's
their child's birthday and they open up their presents and they get
camo bibbers, a camo vest, .22 ammo and a camo .22 rifle. The kid was
11. I love it here haha!

Really quick now I want to put in a plug for patriarchal
blessings. Get one if you haven't. I procrastinated getting mine until
about a month before my mission and it has benefited me so much on my
mission. It has held answers to almost every single question I've had
and if it hasn't directly held the answer it's told me exactly what I
need to do to get the answer. One of my biggest pre mission regrets
now is not getting mine sooner. As I look back on my life before my
mission I can see how much peace and guidance I would have had if I
had only received my blessing years before.

We had a super rad district meeting on Wednesday and I led a
discussion and the rest of the meeting was filled with other awesome
role plays and discussions as well. Wednesday night we went to the
Family History class in Moorcroft and had lots of fun. The members
here are really into it and all help each other do it. They also all
bring pizza and lots of dessert and lots of other foods too. So family
history nights are always good! On the way to the on ramp in Moorcroft
to get back to Sundance I got pulled over...but it was brother Skeens,
the branch mission leader from Sundance, so everything was alright. I
had forgotten to turn on my headlights because for some reason I had
turned them off earlier in the day. Before you judge my abilities to
drive remember that I got my license 1 month before my mission and
then for 3 months I didn't drive.

Friday was President Uchtdorf's birthday! I posted about it on
Friday. Y'all can go check it out on my page at
Facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts if you'd like. He's an amazing man.
Over the past few years I've really grown to appreciate his talks so
much. We also got to talk to a less active lady and she seems very
willing to come back to church. She really just needs someone to
fellowship her successfully and everything will work out. Right after
we talked with her we had a dinner appointment with the couple that's
fellowshipping her! So we had a great discussion on how we can work
together to bring them back into the fold of Christ's church!

On Saturday we spent most of the morning building a deck for a
less active member that's pretty much reactivated! She's super cool
and it's amazing to see how much of a change has come over her since
we met her during my second transfer until now! We tore apart her
deck, tearing things apart is always fun. The we built a new one
because her old one was extremely sketchy and precarious. Saturday
night was the first night we stayed with the Campbell's as well.
They're a family in Moorcroft that has missionary approved housing so
we can stay there overnight instead of having to drive back to
Sundance every night. They're so kind and awesome and completely
missionary minded. When we got to their house they sat us down and
told us about every family they're working with and how we're going to
help them. Needless to say that was grand.

Sunday was a pretty average Sunday besides the fact that it was
Moorcroft's linger longer/after church potluck. There was so much good
food. So much. I definitely ate more than I should have but...eh..it
was good. Sunday night was where we had our birthday dinner with the
guns.

See ya later! Y'all are grand!

Elder Tippetts

Happy (late) Halloween!

Family and friends,

This was a pretty rad week! Everything from Mission conference to a
baptism to Halloween!

On Monday we had an awesome preparation day like previously
mentioned last week with intense basket ball and dodge ball! It was
quite the day ending with a long drive to Sheridan. We stayed there
overnight and then left the next morning for Worland. The drive was
pretty cool. Except then we were almost spirits for Halloween...we
went through the big horns and the road has lots of sharp curves.
There was a portion of the road that was randomly really snowy and as
we came around a corner so did another truck that spun out of control
and luckily it swerved off the road away from us instead of at us like
we first thought. But all is well! We were definitely protected and
the lady was too. She hit a tree pretty hard with the tail of her
truck but she's fine. Her truck just doesn't have a tail gate anymore
and we got to help her replace her tire! So everything was fine and we
made it to Worland for our Zone Conference safely!
Zone conference was super amazing! We had training from President
Wadsworth and the assistants! Lots of great discussions led to lots of
answers to lots of questions I've been having! I'm super excited to
continue applying the things I've learned and we've already seen
blessings as we've applied what we learned already.
Wednesday night we had the Sundance Branch Halloween party and it
was grand. Lots of non members and less actives showed up so we were
able to meet lots of people! Also the food was amazing. Sister
Schaeffer made probably some of the best soup I've ever had. She gave
us all the leftovers because I loved it so much haha! They also played
dress up the missionaries. We weren't expecting that. They had a
competition where they split up the little kids and gave them toilet
paper and outfits. They wrapped us up in toilet paper and then put
clothes on us. I was a construction worker and Elder Bills was a yoga
Barbie doll I think. Pictures will be included.
On Thursday we spent a good amount of time exploring family
search and figuring out how to do family history work. I really wish I
had done more of it with my dad before my mission, lots of people just
expect missionaries to know how to do it so now we're trying to figure
it out! We also got to meet with one of our investigators that's super
awesome. He reminds me of my TRC investigator from the MTC, Jonathan
Baker. He's very similar and really cool. We're working on figuring
out times to meet with him, he has a pretty intense schedule. We also
tracted into a guy in Sundance that Elder Hatton and I met a while ago
and he was a lot more accepting than when we first met him. He has
lots of questions that are very similar to the ones that Joseph Smith
had!

I don't remember if I told y'all about the lion we saw. The
really big dog that scared Elder Bills? It's scary. Well we knocking
on some doors again and there was a very intimidation dog not on a
chain that kept inching closer to us so we almost got to use our
pocket knives for first time. Just kidding, I probably wouldn't stab a
dog. But we were walking away and it barked again and Elder Bills
freaked out like he did with the other big dog. We left that area
pretty quickly haha!

Halloween was pretty bomb. We started off the day heading down to
Newcastle for Trent's baptism! When the Newcastle Elders were getting
everything ready for the baptism he kept asking them multiple times
'Elder Tippetts is going to be there, right?' And 'You got it approved
for Elder Tippetts to come, right?' I was so happy to be able to make
it to his baptism! He was so prepared and such an inspiration to me!
On the drive to Newcastle we drove through a herd of cows, it was
pretty cool! We just had to pull up behind a 4 wheeler and it led us
through. Then after the Baptism the city of Newcastle has a big trunk
or treat on Main Street. We stayed to help them out with that and it
was fun! I got to see a bunch of people from Newcastle that I haven't
seen since I left! Then we had the Moorcroft Halloween Party! It was
super fun and I got lots of candy and they had really good dinner! We
played basketball with the youth in the branch after because we
couldn't be out proselyting on Halloween.

Sunday was pretty typical. We went to church in Moorcroft this
week, which we haven't done before. It was awesome! I love the members
in both of our branches. Back in Sundance on of the less active
members came to church again! She's come to church for 4 weeks in a
row now and yesterday she bore her testimony in Fast and Testimony
meeting! I wish we could have been there but sadly we were not.

Anyways, I hope y'all have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Tippetts

Week 2 of Training

Family and friends

Good week! Sorry this is late this week. I feel pretty dead right now,
just finished an hour long game of pod ball and a couple grueling
rounds of lightning basketball. We've been in Gillette today so far
for preparation day and now we're in Sheridan to stay the night and
tomorrow we're driving to Worland Wyoming for Zone Leader Training.
The two Wyoming zones (Wyoming east and west) are meeting there for a
big conference. I'm excited! So we spent most of today in Gillette
with some other elders and sisters in our zone. It was fun! One of our
Zone Leaders used to play college football and it was no fun getting
hit by him. Pod ball is basically an insane game of dodgeball. He can
throw hard haha.

This was my first full proselyting week with Elder Bills and it was
awesome! He's getting a hold of things and we're loving being
together. We've been working together well and really focusing on
teaching as a companionship in unity! When you teach with a companion
well miracles happen. I love it.

On Tuesday I became a real member of the Montana Billings Mission. Now
I truly fit in with the people of Wyoming. I RAN OVER A RACOON ON
TUESDAY! That seriously makes me so happy. I feel like I belong here
now haha! Tuesday we also taught a lesson to Jennifer. She's the
baptism we got to go to in Moorcroft! We taught her and her mother
with the branch mission leader there and it was one of the most
spiritually uplifting lessons I've ever been a part of. She is so
confident in her testimony and it was so inspiring to see her simple
and pure love for the gospel.

Wednesday was pretty rad as well! We had our first district meeting of
the transfer with our new companions. Our district is now Elder
Hatton, Perez and me with our companions Elder Thomas (from American
Fork), Elder Angle (from somewhere in California) and my companion
Elder Bills. I love this district so much. It's probably my favorite
yet! The three of us that were here before are all training new
missionaries so it's a really young district! It's grand. I led a
really fun Roleplay on finding people's needs. It was cool and caught
the new missionaries off guard but they got better at it pretty fast
so it worked out! That night I was invited by someone in Moorcroft to
attend church with them! Hopefully next week I'll be going to a
Christian church somewhere in Moorcroft, the guy said he'd come to
ours if we went with him! I'm super excited!

We had interviews with a member of the mission presidency in Gillette
on Friday. While we were up there we had lunch at McDonalds and saw
Brother Erickson! The Ward mission leader from Newcastle! We were
there with Elder Hatton and his companion so it was fun seeing him. We
also met a sketchy man named Mark. He was pretty sketchy and if we go
back then we'll bring our branch mission leader who's a cop. Haha it's
alright because one of his neighbors was super interested!

On Saturday we spent 7 hours helping a family in Moorcroft move and we
were there the whole time and not too many other people showed up. My
back was pretty tweaked until today when Elder Kimball popped my back!
It feels awesome! They were all hilarious while we were helping out
though. A bunch of them were totally redneck it was awesome! They just
talked about hunting the entire time! Sunday was also amazing! We went
on visits with President booth and we found a family who's daughter is
dating a member from Moorcroft and we're going to start teaching them
soon!

I love you all!

Elder Tippetts

Training Week 1

Family and Friends,

This week has been quite the ride and it looks like there's no letting up in the future! I'm super excited to keep moving forward. To start this off, quick little funny things. For the days that came before we received our transfer calls everybody was guessing what was going to happen with them. Not a single person said I was getting transferred, everyone said Elder Hatton was leaving. We thought it was really funny especially when I was the one that was moving on and he was staying. I don't know if you all think that's funny but we did haha!

So we had breakfast to start out Monday at Dallas' house again. He makes good pancakes and I miss them. He also guessed the popular transfer outcome. He was blown away when he wasn't correct. Over breakfast he showed us lots of stuff from back before he joined the church. He used to be a part of the Knights of Columbus and he showed us pictures of him in his uniform and brought his sword out for us to see! Sadly I didn't think to get a picture wielding it :( Then I got to pack on preparation day and that's no fun too.

We had quite the delightful surprise on Tuesday! We had a baptism! Elder Hatton's the District Leader so he did the baptismal interview for the other Elders in our district for a lady in the Moorcroft Branch. Elder Hatton had to hold onto all the paperwork so we had to take it to the baptism. I was officially assigned to Moorcroft by then so I got to meet lots of the members and the branch president and mission leader and the woman who got baptised! She's so cool. I got to be a witness for the baptism and participate in giving the Holy Ghost, they asked me to because I was going to be in Moorcroft now. It was a really powerful experience and I was able to see how much the baptism meant to her and her family and her friends. The spirit there was so strong and inspiring!

Wednesday was a normal day for the first half and then we drove to Upton to meet with President Booth, the Sundance branch president to talk about the work in Sundance. We spent the rest of the night in Moorcroft waiting for our new companions (Elder Hatton and I both are training, I don't remember if I mentioned that last week). Elder Hatton helped me as we walked around Moorcroft getting to know the area and meeting some members and investigators. It was really fun! It was really late though and there aren't many street lamps in Moorcroft and lots of people had Halloween decorations up that weren't well lit so it was pretty creepy haha. We had a couple of close encounters with some big dogs for the first time on my mission, but nothing to sketchy! So don't worry. Mostly really big dogs that barked a lot and we couldn't see their fences and the gates they were behind so we thought we were in big trouble but we were fine.

The Zone Leaders pulled in with our new companions around 10:45PM and we got everything moved around and drove home. We got to the Sundance apartment around 11:30 and got to bed real quick after a decently long transfer day. My new missionary is Elder Bills. He's such a stud. He's from Aurora, Utah down by Richfield. I'd never heard of it but it's even smaller than Sundance being 1000 people instead of 1200! He graduated back in 2014 and just turned 19. He's in the Army reserves and did his basic in South Carolina. He wrestled and ran cross country in high school. He's taking a 2 year leave from service to serve a mission. I love him so much and he's a hard worker! When he got here we had a good discussion on the importance of exact obedience and the blessings that come because of it and are loving being together. He understands how to work and is okay with tracting quite a bit, which I love! Because tracting is the bomb!

We went to church this Sunday here in Sundance and were asked to speak on Thursday. It was a great way to start off our stay here and the members here really liked having us speak. They love having missionaries so much and have missed having us by often. They're all excited to work and are ready to get to it! We got 4 referrals from a less active member that's been coming back into full activity! We've been tracting and lots of people in town know the members. It's a pretty small town so what else would you expect? There are lots of churches here in this tiny town though. Like a lot. There's a big sign when you come into town that says "The churches of Sundance welcome you!" and it has 15-20 churches on there with their addresses and phone numbers! There are a lot of religious people here and most are very friendly to us. We've done quite a bit of service already. 8 hours since we moved in. We helped out brother Millard again clearing away some stuff out by his house, chopping some wood for some less active members and a little bit of help painting some non-members home! I really love it here so much. God is so good and there are so many blessings he's just waiting to give us!

​Last thing and then we've got to go meet some members at Subway! Our new address is

106 Edna​ P.O. box 1500

Sundance, WY 82728

I'd love to hear from any of you and I've never had a po box before so we asked the post office lady and she said to make sure you put both the street address and po box number on everything so that it definitely makes it here!

I love you all! Look everywhere for missionary opportunities! Pray and you'll find them!

Elder Tippetts

Good week! Now my head is spinning a bit...

Family and friends,

Like I said, it's been a good week and now my head is spinning at
least a little bit. Lots of exciting things have happened! I'll start
off with the one that was probably most exciting and causes my head to
spin the most. I'm being transferred about 40-50 minutes northeast to
cover the Sundance branch and the Moorcroft branch. I'll most
definitely be sad to leave Elder Hatton and Newcastle, but I'm
excited. The part that makes my head spin at least a little bit is
that I'm training. I'm going to meet a new missionary Wednesday night
and then for probably at least the next transfer I'm responsible for
making sure he understands what missionary work is and how to do it
even when I'm not always entirely sure I understand it. But just about
everyone tells me you never do really fully understand how to do it,
you just study plan and prepare as much as possible and then let the
spirit take you from there! I'm having a crutch, my fantastic
companion, taken away and am now going to have to wholly rely on the
spirit and Christ's atonement to get us through this. I'm going to
learn and grow a lot and it won't always be easy, but if a mission was
easy I wouldn't have wanted to come out. I'm excited for this pretty
big change, I'm excited for an uncomfortable stretch. Prayers would be
much appreciated haha!

Now on to some more awesome things from this week! We had a baptism on
Saturday! I had my first baptism my first week out here but this was
my first baptism that I was a part of finding and teaching the person
the whole way through. We went and read the Book of Mormon with him on
Tuesday and then brought his jumpsuit over to try it on on Friday. On
Saturday everything went well and he was super happy and prepared and
excited! The baptism went off with no mishaps or anything like that.
The talks were fantastic and I've never been as happy as when Mikey
came out of the font and said "I feel clean" he had the biggest smile
on his face. There really is such an infinite amount of worth in every
soul and I'm feeling the joy! I'll send pictures of us with Mikey and
his step dad Mike later if I remember haha!

On Thursday we had a pretty unique experience. We ran into some
missionaries from the Rapid City South Dakota mission! Don't worry
they weren't breaking rules. Normally you're not allowed to leave your
mission boundaries for any reason but there's a member that goes to
their Ward that lives just outside of Newcastle. He goes to their Ward
because of some allergy issues. So they have permission to come here
to have dinner with him when it's his turn to feed the missionaries.
Besides that, the really unique and awesome thing about it is that one
of the missionaries, Elder Hunt, played soccer in high school with
Elder Hatton down in southern Utah and they were close friends. And
his companion, Elder White, was in the same MTC district as Elder
Jesse Carter! I was so happy when I found out so we took a picture
together and I sent it his way today! It's not everyday you get to
talk with missionaries from a different mission haha!

I attended another alcoholic party this week! But don't worry,that's
not why my head is spinning. On Thursdays we help out at the senior
center at lunch time serving food. This last Friday they asked us to
come help with a banquet they were holding at the senior center. We
helped prepare the banquet hall and helped serve food before the
auction. They had a live bar and once again I think it's funny that I
haven't really been around alcohol ever but now that I'm on my mission
I've been to two alcoholic parties haha!

On Saturday we went out to the Stewart's ranch again to help build the
log house. We only worked until 1:30 this week though because we had
to get back in time to shower, get dressed, fill up the baptismal font
and make copies of the program! But all went well!

Lastly we're still working with our golden investigator Trent. He
really is the definition of golden. He's so prepared and can't wait to
get baptized, he reads the scriptures and came to church before we
were even able to start teaching him, he has told us that he believes
what we teach him is true. He recognizes the spirit and says he really
wants to live in the celestial kingdom with his family. His faith is
so inspiring to me and I'll be sad to not be teaching him anymore, but
I'll definitely be looking for more Trents! Alma 16 says the Lord is
continually pouring his spirit out upon the land and preparing the
hearts of the children of men. When you show faith as a missionary and
deal with all the hard parts involved in missionary work, you are led
to the people God has prepared to be taught by you!

I love you all! Pray for opportunities to share the gospel! Always be
missionary minded!


Elder Tippetts

!!!

Family and Friends,

This week was one filled with miracles! There were so many opportunities we had to grow and I learned so much about myself and how I can improve to serve the Lord better! I hope your week was just as fantastic!

I started out the week with an awesome exchange with Elder Eyslee again! On Monday we went to a thrift shop around lunch time and I found 3 completely rad ties for 4-5 dollars each! If you know me and my ties, you know I'm very happy right now. We had a great day and ended up doing an exchange within an exchange with the zone leaders because one of them was sick and they had a lesson they had to go to. Tuesday was also great! I was studying some more old conference talks! President Uchtdorf's and Elder Bednar's first conference talks as apostles! You can find them in October 2004, it was an idea I had to look them up in preparation for this new conference and I was not disappointed! It was really cool to see how much they've grown! I also looked up a the earliest talk by President Packer that's in Gospel Library, all the way back in April 1971. There's a cool video that the church posted on Facebook today that was so cool! It was a compilation of the first presidency and living apostles and their concluding testimonies at each of their first conferences as apostles! It was really touching, they are all men of God! I know it! Then Tuesday night we went tracting and we had a great discussion about showing faith while we were walking around and we found 2 new investigators for his area!

Wednesday night was a new experience for me! I had my first investigator that had his baptismal interview! Mikey is getting baptized on Saturday and I can't wait! He's such a stud and he's very prepared and ready. He says he's excited and nervous for Saturday. Excited because his heart tells him it's right, and nervous because it's a new experience. We've got everything all set up and are excited!

Friday was a great opener to a weekend of conference! We had zone training and I learned a lot about what it means to consecrate yourself fully as a missionary. I had some questions answered that I'd been wondering about for a while that really helped me. We did an activity off of page 152 in PMG that talks about goals for the end of your mission. As I've put in perspective what I want to have happened by the end of my mission, what I want to happen at the end of my mission and what I want to happen after my mission I've seen what I need to do now to reach those goals! Goals are amazing. To any of you that are on missions or preparing to go or want to go, the 2nd personal study activity on page 152 will help you a lot. And it's totally fine to change or adjust your goals as you start or continue to serve!

Conference was so insanely uplifting for me! One of the biggest reasons why was because I set some goals! Goals help with everything. I decided that I wanted to take notes on spiritual impressions rather than exact quotes, I wanted to write down all challenges/commitments/invitations that were given and I wanted to say a quick prayer of thanks after every talk. You may ask how I did wi my goals. I failed. But that's okay! Not all goals are meant to be achieved 100% and even though I didn't meet any of those goals 100% I got a lot more out of conference that was personal and meaningful and constructive than I would have if I had not set goals for myself! I would encourage you all to set goals in the future for General Conferences and all other aspects of your lives. My favorite talk for Satuday was probably by Niell F. Marriot! She spoke powerful,y and you could feel her experiences that led her family to their firm motto "It will all work out." On Sunday my favorite talk was probably a stereotypical crowd favorite that many people will love for years to come. It was Devin G. Durrant's on ponderizing! It was really cool to listen to him talk at conference after I've known his daughter and met him a few times! His invitation to ponderize a scripture every week is a powerful one that can sustain and uplift all of us in times of trial or doubt. During times when trials and doubt are lacking, ponderizing can give us the strength we need to withstand them later in life. I strongly encourage you all to throughly study and apply his words. You will feel so many blessings in your life. If it seems like a daunting task to do it every week, don't think about that! Just do it one week, and then tell yourself you'll do it one more week, and then one more week, and one more! Time will fly by, life will be more fruitful and enjoyable and you'll understand what it means to endure to the end! I also loved the talks of all of the first presidency members like usual. I loved that they all focused around simple things like obedience, courage and faith. Especially that they emphasized how simple it all really is! This gospel is a simple one, but it is profound and holds eternal consequences! I hope you all study and pray about the personal revelations you have received and will receive because of this wonderful weekend!

I love you all. Go ponderize!

Elder Tippetts

Service service service and marching band

Family and Friends,

Good week! I had one and I hope you did too! It's been a weird
week though haha! Not a bad weird, a pretty refreshing weird! We only
had Tuesday and Sunday as full days of proselytizing. Monday was
preparation day, Wednesday was district meeting and exchanges with the
zone leaders. Thursday was weekly planning and some random non member
lady called us to help her move. We helped her most of Thursday and
Friday. Friday was Newcastle's homecoming so there was a parade and
the football game and then all day Saturday we were out on a Ranch
building a log house! Sunday was a normal Sunday except we went around
helping lots of people with their home teaching and helped teach
mission prep.

My exchange on Wednesday was fantastic! I love exchanges because
I feel like I just learn so much and it's really refreshing to see
missionary work from another missionaries perspective. Especially
Elder Mason. He's definitely the most hard working missionary I know.
When I spent the day in Gillette we had every second of the day
planned with multiple back ups and people from the Ward to come with
us on our visits. He's such a great teacher and I learned a lot about
the need to simplify and intensify. Pure testimony and doctrine is
what converts people. That's what the spirit confirms to people in
their hearts

The homecoming parade was cool! We don't really do those in Provo
so it was a new experience for me. I saw lots of the youth from the
Ward and cheered and yelled their names haha! Then we saw them at the
homecoming football game and they told us that all of their friends
were wondering why the missionaries were saying hi to them haha! Now a
lot more people know who the missionaries are! Hahaha! That night we
went to the homecoming football game because in a small town no one is
home the night of homecoming. Sadly Newcastle lost by one point. But
it was great and we were introduced to a lot of different people by
the members we were sitting with!

The lady that we helped move wasn't a member. The guy from Uhaul
(who also isn't a member) gave her our number. I guess some previous
missionaries gave our number to him so that if anyone needs help
loading and moving then he just has them call us! We get calls every
once in a while from people we don't know that just need help moving.
It's really great and fun to help out that way! This lady literally
had nothing packed though haha. She had us move some heavy things and
then she left and we brought the Ward Mission Leader over and just
started stuffing everything we could find in boxes. That's what she
told us to do and I've never seen a house get so clean so fast haha!
Saturday we went to the Stewart's ranch. It's brother Stewart's
ranch but his son (another brother Stewart) is building a log house
for him and his wife. They've been working on it for a while but
haven't had much help. So at one time or another 8-12 of us were out
there helping. I was a part of the group that spent 10 hours rotating
through using draw knives to strip the bark off of logs. And then we'd
either carry the logs to the house to be fitted or they'd come pick it
up with the backhoe. All in all it was an extremely hot and tiring
day. I'm surprised I barely got sunburnt at all! We got a lot done and
are going back on the 10th to help out again! Now my fingers are just
super sore and stiff still from gripping a draw knife for that long!
That's all that happened this week, lots of service. Oh ya! The
marching bands! There was one in the homecoming parade and it was
great to see a band march down the asphalt! And when I was on my
exchange with Elder Mason we were walking down a street and I heard a
familiar sounding metronome and drumline, I mentioned it to him and we
drove over to the high school and it was pretty nostalgic to see a
good 60-70 person sized marching band out on football field cleaning
pictures and music!

Keep being great people and make sure you're allowing others to feel
Christ's love through you!

Elder Tippetts

Pulled pork cinnamon rolls and my first party with alcohol!

Family and Friends,

I think I'm abandoning writing my letters spaces out by day now.
I think it made me just write super long letter, I'll try to write
more about highlights instead of everyday stuff. I think that will
make my letters more meaningful. But who knows, maybe I won't like
this and I'll switch back in a couple of weeks haha! And don't worry
about the heading, I've still never tasted alcohol
Two quick things from last week that I didn't put in my quick
letter last week! We were tracting once and a guy answered the door
and he was really nice but told us he was already Christian and like
usual we asked him which christian denomination he belongs to and he
told us Baptist. Then from the back of the house we hear a harsh voice
yell 'We're not baptist! What are you talki about!?' To which he
responds, 'We're not Baptist!? Then what are we!?' Haha it was really
funny and I thought y'all would enjoy that! Also if you remember from
a couple of weeks ago I met a kid over Facebook and his name was
Cooper. We were finally able to meet with him again and teach him
more! He agreed to get baptized if he found out for himself if the
priesthood authority that's required for baptism is found in our
church!

Now this week:
I started off this week with exchanges again! I was with Elder
Eyslee from Chico, California. He is super cool and it was so easy to
work by the spirit with him! There were several situations where we
were in the right place but for the wrong event, meaning an
appointment or something cancelled and we were able to meet someone
with that time instead! We also went to contact a referral for a lady
named Barbra but she wasn't very interested...but her son was! His
name is tony and we sat down with him and gave him most of the first
lesson and he also agreed to baptism! Then we went to a lesson with
Trent. I think I've mentioned him before, his younger brother, Slade,
was baptized by the missionaries before us and Trent wanted to be
taught the lessons but because of his work schedule he couldn't. We
got to meet with him on Tuesday with Slade and Bro Wilkes, Trent also
agreed to be baptized! Now we've got those three and Mikey all working
towards baptism! Speaking of Mikey, he's a stud. He'll be baptized on
the 10th of October.
We met brother Palmer again this week but he still hasn't been
able to make it out to church because he's been on call for work every
Sunday. But when we went to his house he had found a little kitten
under his trailer house and is taking care of it! It was adorable!
I'll attach a picture at the end!
We spent sometime up in Sundance this past week. Good news is
that the Sundance are should be getting their own set of missionaries
soon so then we'll just be covering Newcastle! It'll make things a lot
more convenient for everyone! We had dinner with Bro Gennings up
there. He's awesome and used to be a musician. He has a room in his
house with 2 walls that are completely covered in super nice guitars!
He played some songs for us and it was awesome! We helped Bro Millard
do some cleaning up around his farm as well. He had a giant trailer
full of scrap and we took it to the back of his property and he has a
giant trash pile. It was so much funny just taking trash and throwing
it as far as we could haha!
While we were in Sundance I met my first bible basher too! I
think that's an important milestone for a new missionary haha! His
name was David and he was really nice, but with people like him you
can tell that they aren't really interested in learning more at all.
He had lots of questions and wouldn't really accept any of our
answers, but he wasn't contentious about it. I think a lot of his
questions were mostly him trying to get us to doubt ourselves, but I
left with a stronger testimony. I realized that even if I didn't have
answers to all his questions, that doesn't diminish the fact that the
spirit of the Lord has told me this church and the Book of Mormon and
our prophets are all true.

Now to my header. We had dinner with the Branch mission leader
and his family in Sundance on Saturday. Sister Skeens made us pulled
pork cinnamon rolls! Elder Hatton was wary about trying them but I was
so excited! It was probably my favorite meal I've had so far. It's
basically just brown sugar and cinnamon pulled pork wrapped up in
cinnamon roll dough and then baked! If you think it sounds iffy,
google it or look it up on Pinterest (I think that's where she said
she found it) and then try it! You won't regret it!
Now the party with alcohol! Last night was a birthday party for
our landlord's wife, sister Carr. She's the young women's president
but lots of her extended family aren't members. I've been around
random drunk people here and there throughout town but I've never been
that close to alcohol haha! It wasn't anything serious though so don't
worry, someone just brought a small jar of homemade cherry moonshine
haha. No one was drunk but I just think it's funny that I'm from Provo
so I'm pretty sheltered still, but now that I'm on my mission I can
officially say I've been to a party where there's been alcohol haha!

Thank you all for your support! I love you all! If you have any
critiques on my formatting please feel free to inform me haha! Until
next week!

Elder Tippetts

Late Weekly Letter

Sorry everyone! I totally forgot to finish and send this earlier. It's
late so I'm going to finish it real quick so it won't be as long or as
in depth as normal, I'll maybe rehash on some things next week!

Honestly not much happened this week, so there are two important
things I want to mention! One is how I'm a complete music nerd and
there are people here that appreciate it! And the other is about
agency and attitude!

There are two members here in Newcastle that have degrees in music
education! One teaches 7th-12th grade band and choir in Upton and the
other teaches piano lessons out of her home! We had breakfast at the
Wilkes the other day and both of them were there so I had a very
refreshing conversation about music theory classes and some of our
favorite pieces of choral literature! Hahaha man I miss talking about
that stuff with people that appreciate it! We talked about chords and
non chord tones and favorite composers and styles, it was all around
one of the most refreshing conversations I've had in a while!
Completely grand in every way possible! Haha sorry for all the
exclamation points. I use them a lot, I'm tired and it's a very
exciting topic to me!

The other thing is about agency. It is such a miracle and blessing
that I think so many people take for granted. Please take the time to
study 2 Nephi chapter 2 and think about what agency really is and why
you're thankful for it. It all comes down to making choices between
eternal life and eternal death haha! It's really a very bold but
simple truth. There are really only two influences in this world. Good
and bad or Christ and Satan. When you make decisions on how you use
your time and even what attitude you're going to have, make sure you
stop and think which direction you want to be heading and how your
current decisions will affect that! When you think about it it should
become pretty obvious which to choose, because I don't think any of us
really truly desire eternal death and pain haha! I know I don't!
There's an awesome quote I'll attach from Elder Holland, keep moving
forward and remember that the journey of a thousand miles can be in a
good or bad direction. If you're heading in a bad direction turn
around and start your thousand in the other direction today! The
atonement makes that possible!

Elder Tippetts

We tracted into a VIKING!!!

No joke. We totally tracted into a Viking. It's probably been the
funniest/awesomest experience I've had yet! But I'm going to make you
wait to hear it until the end of my letter because it happened Sunday
night. But no cheating, don't read the end first haha! Elder Hatton
and I are doing awesome out here! I love missionary work!

Monday

Not much happened last preparation day. We bought a lot of food. A
lot of food haha! We decided to go to family dollar for the first time
and everything was so cheap haha! We filled our pantries for way less
than we usually do! Elder Hatton and I are pretty content haha!

Tuesday

We went to Upton on Tuesday because normally we go on Wednesday
but we don't haven't had much success so we decided to try a different
day and it worked! We stopped by the house of someone who used to meet
with the elders but they've moved and the person that lives there now
wasn't interested. Even though she wasn't interested we had a really
good gospel conversation about the importance of Christ and she asked
us to go visit one of her friends that's going through a hard time! A
non member that wasn't meeting with us gave us a referral! It's really
awesome that she realizes that Christ is so important that she's fine
with us sharing a message about Christ with her friend haha! We also
had an awesome revelatory experience! We were planning on tracting a
specific street that we picked from a map before we went, but the
street doesn't actually exist...so we looked at a map and elder Hatton
said 'how about East st?' And that was the exact street I had just
looked at and was about to suggest we go there! So we went there and
met some great people and found two people that could be super solid
investigators!

When we got back to Newcastle we had a lesson with Miles. I don't
think I've told you much about him before, he's a 14 year old boy with
3 younger siblings all over the age of 8 and they live with their mom,
a less active member. She won't let them get baptized yet but she lets
us meet with him each week. In the past all of the family members
except miles evacuate the area whenever we show up and they deny any
invitations to come listen. This week 2 of the kids came in and read
from the Book of Mormon with us! It was really cool and they reall
like us!

Wednesday

This morning we woke up and did our studies then went to help
Dallas cut some branches off his tree. It was a little sketchy because
they were pretty big branches and he had to stand right underneath
them to reach them with the chainsaw, so we stood off like 20-30 feet
with a rope tied to the branch and had to pull it away from him when
it started to fall haha! Also, on Wednesdays we get a free meal at
Howdy's, a locally owned fast food place. And it has good food!
Awesome burgers!

We went and visited Brother Palmer in Upton with his old home
teacher. Bro Palmer has been less active for a long time and decided
this last week that he's officially coming back to church! I've only
known him the way he is now but he used to be really bitter towards
the church because of some really negative experiences. It's so cool
talking with him about what's changed over the past 10 years! It has
so much to do with him reading the Book of Mormon every day. I know
that it's so true and it changes lives.

Thursday

This morning we went running for the first time! Elder Hatton was
a 2A State Champ x-country runner his junior year but none of his
companions before would go running with him and we just randomly
decided to run today! It was a mistake...haha just kidding it was good
for us! Even though he hasn't run in over a year he's in a lot better
shape than me so I was dying, but we plan on running more consistently
and it will help a lot!

We drove to Sundance today to do some work up there and on the
drive we listened to 'How to Write an Anti-Mormon Book' by Hugh
Nibley. It was hilarious and really cool as he just proved wrong all
the accusations that were made and disproved the validity of the rest.
I know from the spirit that this church is true but it was cool to see
him explain it logically too. But don't let anything like that be the
basis of your testimony! It's all about getting your own answer from
God.

Friday

Speaking of the Book of Mormon on Friday we studied how to use it
to answer any objection anyone has about the church. It all comes down
to one fact, that it's true. That's why Joseph smith said it's the
keystone of our religion. Without it everything falls apart, and I
mean everything. So when anyone has any concern it all comes down to
is it true or not? Because if it's true then the concern doesn't
really matter or change anything anymore.

We went tracting in a part of Sundance that for 18 houses in a row
no one answered. It was a little hard because it was so hot but we
know that we were guided there and that means there's a reason we were
there, even if we never find out what that reason was. The next street
we found 2 new investigators! So maybe a reason for before was that
these two people wouldn't have been home or ready to talk to us if we
had come by earlier!

We went and contacted the referral we got from Upton with
President Booth, the branch president for Sundance. We knocked on the
door we though we were looking for after nearly 20 minutes of looking
and driving and Gona (Joana) didn't answer. But the guy she moved in
with did. He's an alcoholic that suffers from severe vertigo. He was
nice and said that Gona is staying there and we'd have to come back a
different time to find her. We offered him a priesthood blessing for
his vertigo and he declined but agreed to pray with us. He came over
and grabbed our hands and so we held hands in a circle and prayed. A
different experience for me! And he goes to one of the churches in
town that when the person is praying it's okay for you to say things
too. Definitely a new and interesting experience haha! It was really
cool though, he really wanted God's help to get over his problems!

After that president Booth took us to an Upton high school football
game! It's really different than a Provo one. They didn't have big
bleachers like Provo, their pep band was only like maybe 8 people big!
Upton's team is combined with Sundance's and their mascot is the
bulldog too, so that's awesome! The band teacher is in our Ward in
Newcastle and she offered to let Elder Hatton and I come play with
their pep band whenever we want to! We can met lots of people at the
game and can meet more that way!

Saturday

Well we got pulled over in Saturday...just kidding sort of. We
were pulled off to the side of the road and a cop came and told us it
was private property so we had to leave. But he was really nice and
made sure we knew he wasn't sending us off only because we're LDS
haha! It was sketchy at first because he pulled up a way off and was
looking at us and he ran our plates but then he came and talked with
us and it was all chill haha!

The branch mission leader is awesome. Brother Skeens and his wife
made dinner for us and some other members on Saturday! We got there
right at the end of the Nebraska BYU game! Sister Skeens was freaking
out and screaming she was so happy about that last pass haha! Go
Cougars! They're cool and love the gospel and want to share it with
everyone!!

Sunday

Almost to the Viking! Sorry it's been a long letter haha, lots of
stuff happened this week! We went 'inspired tracting' yesterday.
Basically we say a prayed and drive around until one of us chooses a
house to go to! It was really fun and the spirit led us to an awesome
house with a lady that has the potential to be super solid! She was
really nice and very interested in what we said! We also tracted her
neighbors' houses and met Lee. He's an Army vet from Vietnam and Worl
War II is what he said. He's had really negative experiences with
Christians before and said nothing gives him joy in life but watching
politicians make fools of themselves on TV. We listened to some of his
stories and he agreed that we could come back and teach him some of
our own stories about Jesus! When we left he thanked us a lot and said
that we really brightened his day!

Now the Viking. We went inspired tracting again with the last 15
minutes of the night. Elder Hatton and I both see this one house and
immediately feel the need to go knock there! We go and knock and a
very strong looking man with curly red hair, a big beard and a
mustache that curls on the ends answers the door! Here's how the
conversation went.

"Hi"

"How are you doing tonight"

"Good"

"Awesome, well we'd love to share a message with you about Jesus
Christ. We believe that baptism is really important. Will you follow
the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the
priesthood of God?"

"No, I think I'm fine. Thanks for asking though!"
"That's all fine, do you have a specific religion or church you belong to?"
"I tend to lean toward the Norse religion. I believe that if I live an
honorable life and die nobly in battle then I will be taken up to the
golden gates of Valhalla in the arms of Odin himself."
"Oh, well we haven't heard that one before! Why is that important to you?"
"I live by a pretty strict code of noble morals."
"Great! Well we'd love to come by another time and share a message
with you about Jesus Christ and why that's so important to us!"
"Sure! That'd be awesome!"

Normally you don't just give a baptismal invitation with nothing else
backing it up basically but before this house we decided we should. It
was a very unique door haha! His name was Cody and I can't wait to go
talk with him again! It was definitely the most unique experience I've
had and it was awesome! I loved it. It was hilarious but there were
also some cool spiritual aspects of it too. I loved when he basically
bore his testimony to us why it's important to live by a code of
morals and standards that you personally strongly believe in!

Once again, sorry for the long letter! Hopefully I'll send the email
myself out to you all next week myself! I love you all! Continue
moving forward!

Elder Tippetts