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