Apparently we're not Christians?

Family and Friends,
Don't worry, Mormons really are Christians, but I have never
heard more often that we are not than this week. So many people are
really bothered and disturbed by some of our beliefs and when we try
to explain them and show them plainly out of the bible they freak out
and walk away. Don't worry, it wasn't bashing at all, no contention
until they flip out. They would ask why we would believe what we do
and we would answer, 'well, it says it right here in the bible, so
that's why we believe it.' On Wednesday we had a couple people while
tracting and a referral we contacted tell us that it's ridiculous to
believe that Jesus Christ and Satan are brothers, it really bothers
them. It really strengthens my testimony when stuff like this happens
because it shows how Satan has taken simple, plain and precious truths
from the Gospel and twisted them to keep people from Christ's true
church. And this is Christ's true and living church.
We had a really good lesson with a less active family. We talked
about not procrastinating and how we need to sometimes just square our
shoulders to life and do whatever we need to. You could tell that by
the time we left the Holy Ghost had pricked their hearts and humbled
them quite a bit. Sadly, they weren't at church yesterday, but we'll
see them again tomorrow! After that lesson we met with one of our
progressing investigators and she told us about all the frustration
and anger that she feels when she reads the Book of Mormon. When I
heard that, my heart snapped in two. On my mission I have come to
love the Book of Mormon like I never thought I could, so it hurt to
hear from someone how they had a negative experience from reading it.
She said that she had never felt like she got anything out of reading
it, and she's almost all the way through 2 Nephi. So we reviewed some
of the things that are keeping her from baptism and shared 1 Nephi 3:7
with her. You could see the wheels turning in her head and we knew the
spirit had spoken to her. She said she really liked the verse and it
gave her hope and trust in God. We're reviewing the Word of Wisdom
with her again tomorrow and then we're going to start just reading
from the Book of Mormon with her multiple times a week so that we can
help her identify principles from the verses so she can apply it in
her life.
Friday we had zone training, pictures will be included. Elder
Hoschouer, Elder Schneider are in this zone as well! That means we're
only missing Elder Potter and then we'd have our entire room from the
MTC back together. But it was still super good. Most of the meeting
was focused on not focusing on ourselves. I really keep seeing over
and over is that your mission gets too hard when you're too hard on
yourself. A mission, and any other form of discipleship, is all about
forgetting yourself and serving others. That's the only way we can
really profit. Even if you serve perfect in every way possible, but
you do it grudgingly, you can gain no reward. This life is about
turning our will over to God and loving it.
Last crazy thing that happened this week was that yesterday I
gave my first baptismal interview! I was pretty nervous that it might
be some really intense and intimidating guy with a crazy past, instead
it was a 10 year old boy. During the interview I just kept thinking of
a statement from this past conference in Bradley Foster's talk, "Do we
recognize that our children are the largest group of investigators of
the Church? What must we do to bring about their lasting conversion?"
One of the reasons people fall away from the church later on in life
is a lack of righteous support. Obviously people have their free
agency and even if they have a perfect upbringing they can still
choose to go astray. But just because they have their own choices
doesn't mean that we can't help them understand that when they are
baptized they covenant, they make a literal and binding promise with
God, to follow him for the rest of their life. There isn't really away
to avoid answering to God for breaking that promise. This week
consider the covenants you have made and how you can be more true to
them. Also look for opportunities to strengthen other people's resolve
to keep their covenants. And of course, look for family members and
friends that still need to make covenants and prayerfully decide with
God's help what you can do to help them take the required steps.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Tippetts

Powell is the best!

Family and friends,

Powell is seriously the best! I love it here way too much. First
thing's first, my new address is 595 #2 Avenue B Powell, Wyoming
82435! My new companion is Elder Lankford. This is his 3rd transfer
and he is on fire! I love him and he is super bold and knows the
lessons well. We've been having lots of success so far at teaching
powerful lessons and finding new, solid investigators. It's been such
a testimony to me this past week about staying busy, we've barely had
any time to slow down and we've just kept going.
Something really cool from this last week: I spent all Wednesday
with Elder Hoschouer, my MTC companion! We made it to Billing Tuesday
night and I was talking with the Zone Leaders there. They said
something about Elder Hoschouer and I mentioned that he was my MTC
companion and I've seen him once since we parted ways. Right then and
there they rearranged the assignments for Elders staying in Billings
overnight and told me I'd be staying at Elder Hoschouer's apartment
because he's been serving in Billings! I walked in and he freaked out
and ran at me and picked me up and squeezed the life out of me. We
spent the whole night until bed time catching up and I'm sure the
other Elders there were a little annoyed, but hey, we haven't seen
each other in forever! The next morning the zone leaders told me that
I was going to be Elder Hoschouer's companion for the day! So we spent
all day together. Nothing was going on, we pretty much just ran
errands around town because it was transfer days. It gave us lots of
time to just talk and tell stories that have happened to us. Most of
the day was spent cleaning and packing up their apartment because they
were shutting down that area. After we finished getting everything
packed up we got a phone call telling us to put it back together
because some missionaries were going to use it for the next couple of
weeks before they officially shut it down. That was frustrating but it
just meant more time for us to talk!
We made it down to Powell Wednesday night and then got to work
the next day. We had some really awesome bold lessons with an
investigator named Vanessa and one named Paul, they'll definitely
accept baptism soon but they've been turning it down for a while. It
looks like they're picking up and progressing quick though. We also
had a part member family that we taught. The missionaries have tried
to get the kids baptized multiple times and it looks like this time
will go through. We've been meeting with some less active members that
haven't been interested in talking with us for a while now and they
look promising! Sunday night we went to the addiction recovery
program. We were the only ones there for a while but then people
showed up. It was really cool and really strengthened my testimony of
the atonement. We'll try to go each Sunday night and are trying to get
some of the investigators and less active members we're teaching to
come.
Last cool story. Yesterday we were tracting and there was this
one guy who wasn't interested at all, but he talked with us. Then he
told us about all of his neighbor's and what religions they are and
that they wouldn't be interested. We were knocking on one of his
neighbor's door and told them that one of their neighbor's said that
they'd be interested. Hopefully we'll be forgiven for lying because
she wanted to talk! We shared the restoration with her and it all made
sense to her. She said that baptism is definitely a possibility if she
finds out its true! We'll be heading back on Thursday to teach her and
give her an official baptismal date hopefully!

Love you all! Have a great week! I might send pictures tonight or I
might just send them next week.

Elder Tippetts

Bye to Sundance and Moorcroft

Family and friends,

Yup, after 7 1/2 months in the Northeastern part of Wyoming I'm
getting transferred...to the northWESTERN part of Wyoming! I'll be
serving in the 1st and 3rd Powell wards. I'll also be the District
Leader, that's freaking me out a bit. It's weird to think that this
transfer I'll be in almost the same position that Elder Hatton was
when I first met him. I think it was during his 6th transfer, around
the time that he hit 8months, that I became his companion. The only
difference is that I won't be with a brand new missionary. I'll be
with Elder Lankford, this'll be his 3rd transfer I believe so he just
finished training. I don't know who all the missionaries in my
district will be, but I believe there will be around 10 missionaries
including the Zone Leaders for the Wyoming West zone. The zone
includes the Cody, Lovell and Worland stakes as opposed to The Wyoming
East zone (where I am now) that is just the Gillette stake. The
district I'll be in is all the missionaries that are serving in the
Cody stake. We don't know exactly how transfers will happen yet, but
we'll find out soon hopefully!
This week was so awesome! It was the best last week in an area
that I could have asked for. Monday night we called 15 or so less
active members and invited them to the Moorcroft branch valentines
dinner for adults. We pretty much just went through the branch
directory and if there was someone we didn't think had been invited
yet and they had a number we gave them a call! We talked to pretty
much all of them but sadly none made it. On Wednesday we took around
10 invitations to less active members and some of our investigators,
sadly none of them came either. It was sad but we were still happy
because we had worked hard and for some of those people had to be
pretty persistent to get a hold of them. Thursday night came around
for the dinner and it was awesome! Dinner was very good and we had a
good turn out. The parents of a part member family we're working
showed up when they to,d us they wouldn't be able to make it, that was
great!
Also there's a family that recently started coming back to
church, the Hutchisons. They've gone back and forth between less
active and active for years and a few weeks ago they showed up to
church and brother Hutchison told president Jones that he wants to do
whatever he need to do so he can be right wi God and baptize his kids!
That was quite the miracle! The Hutchisons came to the dinner and we
sat by them and it was so much fun. We talked about so many things and
brother Hutchison likes me, even though I'm a city boy. The branch
mission leader and his wife were also sitting by us and they were
talking with the Hutchisons about their 2 year old horse that's
pregnant. I was only partially tuned in to the conversation, so I was
super confused. I completely missed the whole *horse* part, which was
a pretty big part. Some of the things I heard out of that context
were: "She's only two, I can't believe she's pregnant!", "Do you think
she'll make it?", "Ours wasn't quite that young, but almost, maybe
3?", "it was a complete accident.", "what do we even do with a baby
one? Do you know anyone that wants one?" When I asked to clarify that
it was, in deed, a horse they were talking about Brother Hutchison
almost died he was laughing so hard. Definitely a memorable night.
Tuesday morning Elder Bills and I were doing some family history
work training and studying the purpose of family history, especially
in missionary work. We learned a lot and were able to apply what we
learned that day! We met with Kellie finally, she's an investigator
that always has been busy whenever we have an appointment set up with
her. It was our first time actually talking with her and we taught her
the restoration. She really liked the idea but wasn't seeming too
interested all of a sudden. She told us that she had a question for
us, one that has bothered her since she was young about all churches.
She asked, "Pretty much all churches say that they're the only right
church, so are only members of your church going to be in heaven?" We
were able to teach her about the different glories of heaven and how
we do believe that if you don't receive the proper priesthood
ordinances through the right authority you can't be saved in the
celestial kingdom so we do proxy ordinance for those that didn't have
the opportunity to do it themselves so they have an equal chance at
salvation. She was glad to have an answer to a question she's had for
decades! She agreed that when she finds out that it's all true she'll
be baptized!
Also it's been super warm this week. Almost all the snow around
town was melted (until the big snow this morning). But last week there
was actually a day where we didn't wear our suits or sweaters while we
went tracting and we weren't cold at all! It was too grand.
There were lots of other cool things that happened as well but I
can't seem to put words to them right now. I'm super excited to see
how this next week goes! Remember that this gospel is so true and we
are so blessed to have the peace it brings in our lives!

Elder Tippetts

Love and exchanges!

Family and friends,

Don't worry, there isn't some sort of scandal going on, but there
was some love this week! On Tuesday we got to go to the Young
Ambassadors show Heartsongs: Songs of Love. It was a little strange
because they just sang love songs the whole time and there was kissing
in some of the dances, which is a big no no according to the
missionary handbook. But we were invited by the Zone Leaders to come,
who were told by President Wadsworth to bring the whole zone to it!
Apparently they just did a tour of Wyoming Colorado and Montana or
something like that and where ever they've been in our mission the
missionaries were all invited. When it was in Helena President
Wadsworth went and there was a member of the seventy there as well I
guess. It was really refreshing to hear some of my favorite songs
again though and we talked to some of the performers about the
missionary opportunities they've had because of the Young Ambassadors!
Going to the concert was like a nice nap that left me refreshed and
excited to get back to work!

This week we were also on exchanges from Monday until Thursday. I
was with Elder Bird, he's from Provo as well! It's pretty crazy
because he graduated a year before me and we never knew each other. We
know a lot of the same people though and he knows pretty much all the
same teachers from Provo High hat I do as well! It was really fun to
be with Elder Bird, we worked really hard and it was also refreshing.
The funny but sad thing about exchanges was that Elder Bird didn't
know we were going to the Young Ambassadors show and the Newcastle
elders weren't invited because they are too far away from Gillette, so
Elder Bills and Elder Blum didn't get to come.

Elder Bird and I went tracting a lot and I've never had so much
fun tracting, especially with literally nothing that came out of it.
We knocked on lots of doors over the 4 days we were together and had a
positive attitude the whole time! We may not have found anyone that
was interested, but we were able to talk with some people that had
negative views of the church and answer some questions that will
hopefully make them more receptive in the future. It's stuff like this
that reminds me throughout my mission that success doesn't come from
how many lessons you teach or new investigators you find or how many
baptisms you have, it comes from working hard and following the
spirit. Y'all should read the article "only two baptisms?" from the
February 2016 ensign, not just because the guy who wrote it is from
Montana, but because it's just an awesome article!

The other really awesome thing from this week is that we think we
found the miracle investigators that everyone in Sundance has been
praying for and fasting for! The last baptism they had in Sundance was
more than 5 or 6 years ago. Everyone here is hungry for growth and
they want to help but it just hasn't happened. I can't remember if I
mentioned this last week or the week before, but Elder Bills and I
tracted into this really nice young family. They were super nice and
readily agreed that we should come back and talk more. When we found
them we were just excited that they wanted to talk to us and we set an
appointment. The appointment was for this Tuesday afternoon and Elder
Bird and I went over to confirm that it would still work on Monday
night because we don't have a phone number for them yet. We went by
their house and he opened the door for us as we walked up and waved us
in. He offered us food and asked if we were still good to come over
the next day! We said we were and talked with him and his wife a
little more about the restoration. They asked why our church was
different from theirs and we just told them that the fullness of the
gospel was restored though prophets and scriptures along with the
priesthood authority of God and that if they read and pray about the
Book of Mormon that God would tell them that it's true. They were
super excited to find out and it made perfect sense to them! *insert
Billy Mays' voice* "BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE" The husband is really good
friends with a less active member apparently! They're a really nice
young couple and it doesn't seem like anything is really keeping them
from church, it's just early in the morning and he likes Sunday
football. We talked with them and they said they'd help out with this
new family we found! Everyone here is hoping that this will bring them
back into activity as well. Two young families would really help the
branch out a lot. We're super excited to move forward with all of
this!

Remember to read and pray! It's one of the best things to do to
keep your testimony strong and invite the spirit into your life! Look
for the principles taught in the stories and how the scripture
characters display Christlike attributes! Follow their example and the
world will be better off!

Love you all!

Elder Tippetts

Uhhhhhh...I don't know what to name this one...

Family and Friends,
This week has been pretty average mostly, so no super insanely
exciting thing to make a catchy subject line...sorry! But that being
said, this was an awesome week! Average, but average missionary life
is awesome! I like being a missionary.
This week we talked to Brother Glenn on Tuesday! He's the less
active member we found with the fu-man-chu mustache that fought in
Vietnam. We've tried going by his house so many times in the last few
weeks but he's never been home. We talked with him on Tuesday and got
mad at us a little because he said that a couple weeks ago he went to
church but no one was there, but he wasn't really mad because the
weather was bad. We were confused because we were pretty sure they had
never cancelled church here. It turns out he went to a different
church! But we got it all sorted out and we showed him where it is on
the map for sure. Sadly he wasn't there yesterday, he woke up and got
dressed but then fell asleep on his couch reading the newspaper. We
stopped by after church with President Booth and brother Glenn felt
really bad for missing church. He said he'll be here next week so
we're super excited!
Tuesday night and last night we had dinner up in Hulett, about 40
minutes N/NW of Sundance. It still blows my mind that people drive 40
minutes to go to church when I've pretty much always just had a 4ish
minute walk. It's really cool just how dedicated they are to making
sure they come each week! At the Tuesday dinner we had some
non-members there that we'll hopefully start teaching soon! They've
come to the branch Halloween and Christmas parties and their kids
participate in mutual and primary activities. They're super neat,
already pretty much live Latter Day Saint lives and love the members
around here. They asked us lots of questions about what it means to be
a missionary, how you become a missionary and just other logistical
stuff about missionaries. At our Sunday dinner we talked with the
people we were eating with about having the faith to formally invite
them to learn more about our church. Everyone in the branch has a
really good feeling about them!
On Wednesday we had random interviews with President Wadsworth!
It was super neat and such a highlight. Apparently he was just in
Gillette and for some reason our district leader decided to have
district meeting in Gillette this week. He needed to talk with some of
the Elders in the district about something and then decided that
because he was here he might as well talk with all of us! It was great
and definitely an answer to prayers. President and I talked with each
other about following the promptings of the spirit because that's
something I've been having some questions on lately, like on how to do
it better. He reminded me of something that Elder Bednar said during
the worldwide missionary broadcast. It was something along the lines
of 'thoughts to the mind, feelings to the heart, that is the essence
of revelation.' He helped me to see that whenever a thought to do
something good comes into my head, I can trust that it is revelation.
If we act on promptings with faith over and over, even if there
doesn't seem to be any positive production, the spirit will guide us
more and more and we'll find success in whatever we're doing! And
remember, success isn't measured by numbers of baptisms (or whatever
the equivalent might be in your life) but is rather measured by our
progressive levels of devotion, consecration and faith. Remember that
if you've been baptized you've convene tend to ALWAYS follow Christ
and keep his commandments and if you've received your endowment that
you're under covenant to be consecrated. The law of consecration has
not been done away with, we all need to live it. I challenge you all
to pray specifically to ask God how you might be keeping back part of
your heart, might, mind or strength from Him, promise Him you'll fix
it and then follow the promptings of the spirit to improve! Repent
daily and take the sacrament, I promise that your lives will improve
as you turn them over to the Lord!
I love you all and hope things are going well! We're just heading
off to clean and shop now. We're going on exchanges from tonight until
Wednesday and I'm excited for that. Also, tomorrow BYU Young
ambassadors is putting on a concert in Gillette and we get to go help
out with it! I'm definitely excited for that! I guess there are some
grand things that happened this week. Eh, I'm too lazy to go change
the subject line...

Bye!

Elder Tippetts