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
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