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