August 24th - Mission tour and more exchanges!

Family and friends,

Man this has been the best week ever! Like seriously best week of the
mission so far! Monday was just a normal preparation day so I won't
really get into it but the rest of the week was pretty awesome! And
apparently it looks like I'm not sending this out individually this
week haha, sorry!

Tuesday
We had dinner with the Clarks, they're a super solid family. Bro Clark
is the one that gave the really amazing talk about families last week!
Sister Clark is working with a friend that she thinks might need some
help from the missionaries, we're gonna keep working with her and show
her how to work with us to get that done. We taught a lesson to
Christene tonight finally! An RM from the Ward, Ramiee, that's
visiting home here while she's off track at BYU-I went with us to the
lesson and it turns out they were really good friends in high school
and played soccer together! It was a perfect example of how important
and successful member missionary work can be! When we were driving
home from the appointment we stopped by a gas station and they had
coonskin caps so we bought matching ones, regrettably we didn't get a
picture though, sorry...

Wednesday
We were walking down Main Street and Elder Clark wanted to go look at
some jerseys he saw in a wedding shop, we went in there and ended up
having a really good conversation about God and I came away with a
really good looking tie at a really good price! We taught Mikey
tonight and put him on date to be baptized! He's so awesome and I
can't wait to continue watching him progress, his parents are members
and he's really ready. He said, 'lots of other churches have tried to
make me join them and be baptized, but something in my heart is
pushing me to be baptized in this church.' Look at that! A
missionaries dream! Mikey is the one that we found at Pizza Hut.

Thursday
We drove into billings at 3 this morning to get here by 7:30. We have
MISSION TOUR today! A member of the 70, Elder Martino, came and spoke
to us in a mission conference! It was so powerful! I got to is the EFY
medley in a small missionary choir, the spirit was so strong and it
made me miss singing so much! Elder Martino and President Wadsworth
talked A LOT about member missionary work. At the end Elder Martino
taught us super in depth about the Atonement. My testimony was
strengthened so much and I know that our brother, Jesus Christ, chose
to suffer and sacrifice himself because of how much he loves us,
because there was no other way. I got to see my MTC roommates (except
for my companion....he's in the most northwest area and I'm in the
most southeast) Elder Potter and Schneider! Then I said goodbye to
Elder Clark, I'm going to miss him a lot. He's one of the funniest
people I know!

Friday
Today I went on Exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder
Partridge. He's super cool and I learned so much about missionary work
from him! He put someone on date on their porch with me, he's such a
good missionary! We talked a lot about what we learned from Mission
Tour and how we can apply it. He also taught me so much about the
sacredness and power of the priesthood.

Saturday
We met up with Elder Hatton and Mason in Moorcroft to switch back.
Elder Hatton and I stopped at Subway on the way home and had a really
good talk about what we've learned over the past few days and about
all the things we need to do to be better here. We're so excited to
work! When we got home we basically planned for the rest of the day
because we've been gone so not much has been happening, we know what
we're going to be doing now and can't wait to put it into practice!

Sunday
I sang in sacrament meeting today with Elder Hatton! We sang I Love To
See The Temple, it was super powerful and the spirit really testified
to me of the importance of temples! The teacher for the Sunday school
class we usually go to didn't show up and so we ended up teaching the
class last minute! And it went pretty well! We watched tv today! Just
kidding...we got the closest missionaries get to watching tv today! We
had an hour long marathon of preach my gospel district DVDs! We popped
popcorn and learned about planning and area books haha! It was a good
relaxing Sunday! We tracted for 3 hours and got so much done! Man it
was a great week

Also, right now I'm on exchanges again! I'm with Elder Perez! He's so
awesome! I'll tell you more about it next week! I love you all so
much! Thanks for the support!

Elder Tippetts