Easter

Family and Friends,
I hope you all had a great Easter! And I hope you were able to
remember what the season's real meaning is. Hint: it's not about
bunnies and eggs and chocolate ;)
Anyways, I'll start out with some of the fun stuff we did this
week. We had dinner with Brother Rosendahl, he's such a cool guy. Less
active for decades and then 3ish years ago he decided he wanted to
come back and then the next day the missionaries knocked on his door
and he's come ever since! He took us to a Barbecue place and I had
some of the best Barbecue chicken I've had in a while, except it was
pretty pink in some places and the next day my stomach felt pretty
messed up. But besides that it was good! We were looking through the
menu and I started laughing when I saw they had Rocky Mountain Oysters
for an appetizer and Brother Rosendahl couldn't believe I'd never had
any, he cut me some slack though because I'm a city kid. The waitress
came back and got our orders then asked if there was anything else we
wanted, Bro R and Elder Lankford looked at me and the waitress started
laughing and said "just get them," so I ordered some and.....THEY WERE
SUPER GOOD!!! So check that of my bucket list ;)
Then on Saturday Brother Cozzens fed us. He's been off his
mission for less than 5 or 6 years. He's one of the funniest people
I've met on my mission and he's always there to help us out when we
need a member to go with us or when missionary work isn't going how we
want it to. His wife couldn't come with us because of the Women's
session of conference, so he drove us a couple miles out of town to
start a fire in the middle of nowhere and roast hot dogs! It was super
simple but it was so nice. He was just telling us funny stories from
his mission the whole time and we were laughing hard. Then we drove
back through a rougher part of the country and climbed up some pretty
steep, bumpy hills in his truck. He brought his .22 rifle just in case
there were any coyotes around or big crows. He pulled over a couple of
times and got it out but didn't feel good about the shot. Don't worry,
we didn't touch or handle (as the missionary handbook says) any form
of firearm at all, it was all him! Needless to say, it was a great
dinner and a breath of fresh air.
This last week I went on an exchange with Elder Nuffer, he's the
biggest stud out there. He came up to Powell with me and Elder
Lankford went down to Cody with Elder Loehr. We had such a great time
together and got a lot of good things done. Sadly all of our set
appointments fell through with some of our more promising
investigators, but we still taught some! We also visited some less
active families that he knows because he used to serve in Powell. He
was so happy to see how some of them have progressed and some are
preparing to go to the temple to be sealed! So as for investigators we
found he helped us with Joe and Jessica. Joe was starting to dodge out
on us because of some medical problems but Elder Nuffer is so bold and
wouldn't let him back out. He helped Joe see that when problems come
up in our lives we need to turn to the Savior rather than turn away
from Him. We also talked to Jessica, the potential we finally got into
contact with last week! After talking with her for a little bit,
here's how the conversation went:
Elder Nuffer: "So are you actually interested in talking with us? Are
you really looking to change your life?"
Jessica: "Yes!"
Elder Nuffer: "Okay, so what do you know about baptism?"
Jessica: "Nor much."
Elder Nuffer: "When you see the things we teach you bless your life,
will you be baptized?"
Jessica: "Um, of course!"
Elder Nuffer: "We'll be having a baptismal service on the 30th of
April, will you meet with us regularly to prepare yourself to be
baptized on that day?"
Jessica: "Ya!"

And that's how we got our first person on date since I've been here!
Last story. On Saturday we were walking around on the south side
of town and we got an unexpected phone call from a member that lives
in Cowley. She told us that her grandmother has been in the Powell
Nursing home for a while, that ye were driving there right then and
that they wanted us to come give her a blessing before she passed
away. We got there and she was definitely in bad shape. The lady that
called us and her daughter were the only members there and the rest of
the people there couldn't stop thanking us for coming. They'd tried
getting their pastor to come, her pastor to come and any other pastor
they could find to come but none of them would. They were impressed
and thankful that our church can respond so quickly to any body that
asks for help, even people who aren't members of our church. So we
anointed and then blessed her. In the spirit of Easter, while our
hands were on her head I felt the spirit tell me so strongly that she
would live again. It was completely unmistakable. Then on Sunday
morning we got a text from the lady that asked us to come bless her
grandma letting us know that she had just passed away. I again felt
that spirit of comfort and this Easter, Christ's sacrifice took on a
whole new meaning to me. I know that we'll all live again and we all
have the opportunity to repent and change so we may live in God's
presence again. According to preach my gospel, "the purpose of the
gospel is to cleanse people of their sins so they can receive Savior's
mercy at the day of judgment." (Pg. 6) That's the glorious message
that accompanies he Easter season, that we can access mercy and be
saved by grace. I hope you were all able to feel your Savior's love
this week. Make sure you find someone to share that with this week!

Until next week! I love you all!


Elder Tippetts