Transfers!

Family and friends,

Not much happened this week, it was pretty slow for a couple days.
But it's picking up again...right at the end of transfers...but that's
ok! Because Elder Bills and I will be staying!this will be our 3rd
transfer together in Sundance and Moorcroft Wyoming! I love it here.
The past two days have been really uplifting so I'll tell y'all mostly
about that. The other awesome part of the week was District meeting on
Wednesday. Last district meetings of the transfer are always
favorites.

This Wednesday we basically just had a testimony that lasted at
least 30-40ish minutes with the 6 of us. The spirit was so strong, I
really came away with so much more strength and energy. Some of the
biggest things I learned or had witnessed to me was that we need to
love everyone and understand that we will always be unworthy to God in
one way or another, we all have shortcomings that are not godly, but
God is okay with that! He helps us overcome them and slowly purge all
the ungodliness from ourselves. Also, the Book of Mormon is true. It
really is. I can promise that. It is a real record of real people that
had real problems and found real solutions by listening to prophets,
or real trials when they ignored them. It was truly translated by
Joseph Smith by the power of God. Also, obedience is so important for
everyone, especially missionaries. It's one of the biggest themes in
the Book of Mormon. When they follow God's commandments, they prosper.
When they don't, they don't. How often do we forget that? It really is
that simple. Follow God's commandments and be blessed! All of his
commandments. We can't be selectively obedient. In a lesson with one
of the members in Sundance we were comparing the commandments to
traffic laws. Selective obedience to traffic laws won't protect you in
a crash. If you always follow the speed limit but run stop signs,
you're probably not that safe. If you do everything except wear your
seatbelt then you're still not safe from outside conditions, the
weather or other drivers. If we follow every commandment we're not
guaranteed a perfect life, bad things still happen. But we're A LOT
more likely to get through them. It's not a perfect analogy, but it
answered lots of questions for me!

On Saturday we were contacting in Sundance with no success. We
knocked on a bunch of doors but the only person we talked to was an
investigator's husband that made it seem like they weren't interested
anymore. But we didn't let it get us down! We went on over to
Moorcroft and contacted people there! We talked to an investigator and
a different investigator's husband, both of them said that their
families were sick but at they're still interested. So we'll head back
next week to talk to them. We went traction and in 40 minutes knocked
on 23 doors. About half of them answered. Half the people that
answered slammed the doors in our faces, half the people that didn't
weren't interested and the rest were interested but we're really busy
at the time. It seems like at least 3 of them were super solid! One of
them said his dad was a bishop in the LDS church when he was young but
they just stopped going and haven't been back in forever. Another was
super nice and said he'll try to come to church sometime and set up an
appointment with us, his uncle is an active member in Gillette so
we'll let him know we're talking to his nephew! The last was a young
family that said they want to talk to us but they were getting in
their car when we talked to him. We found out that he works with one
of the members in the Moorcroft branch and he said that we could stop
by anytime and that he'll definitely be talking to Bro Cherry about
our church!

Sunday was when we got the call from our zone leaders telling us
our transfer information. We got the call during a lesson with
Jennifer and her mom, Dianna. Jennifer is the lady that was baptized
my first day in Moorcroft. When the phone rang we muted it but this
knife of fear went into my heart because I've been serving around here
for 6 months so we figured I'd probably be leaving. That's when I
realized I didn't want to leave. I realized how much I loved all the
people, I really wanted to stay. Our lesson with Jennifer and Dianna
went really well. The whole time I was thinking, "if I leave, what do
I want them to know that I know?" In a devotional by Elder Bednar I
recently read he started off by saying that it was very likely that he
would never address anyone from over that pulpit again, so he had some
important things to say. The lesson plus that devotional make me
realize that none of us know how long we'll be anywhere really.
Whether it's with someone, at a job, in a home or even just being
alive. We don't know when that could end, so we need to make sure we
say the most important things and we need to say them clearly and
concisely with true conviction.

Sunday night we also had a lesson with Tom, he's our investigator
that was given a lot of anti Mormon literature. We got over there and
for 40-60 minutes he laid into us about all the stuff he did last
time. After that things cooled off and really got better. The spirit
of contention was mostly gone and the Holy Ghost could be felt. As we
talked we all calmed down and really understood where we were all
coming from, what we all meant. It started going downhill and all of a
sudden we stopped and said, "Tom, that's not important, we're
misunderstanding each other again. Let us speak clearly. We believe
that the church of Jesus Christ is the only true church on the face of
the earth. Don't get us wrong, there are other good churches that
teach good things and do good things, but none of them have the 100%
true and full Gospel of Jesus Christ. None of them have the real, true
and only priesthood authority of God. All of this was restored through
the Prophet Joseph Smith. Would you like to find out if that is true?"
He stopped and did t say anything for a while and answered, "yes, yes
I would." From there everything went smoothly and we were able to help
him really see why we keep asking him to read the Book of Mormon and
why we're always disappointed when we find out that he hasn't. We have
another lesson set for Wednesday and hopefully things will work out.
Prayers will always be appreciated :)

Anyways, that was a pretty thick letter. I love you all and hope
you're doing well! Keep your testimonies burning. If you feel like you
don't have one or that it's dimming, read the Book of Mormon daily and
pray daily. I promise answers and strength will come. I know it.

Elder Tippetts