It's official! I'm contagious

Family and friends,

So once upon a time today I found out I have Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. Nothing too serious but it means these next couple days can be a little uncomfortable. I got really sick on Friday and then Saturday and Sunday everything went away except for a sore throat and now today I'm getting the little sores on my hands and feet that characterize it. So Elder Childers (he's a practicing Doctor here in Powell that is also a medical coordinator for our mission) told me to have lots of chocolate milk, ice cream, Tylenol and cough drops this week. It is moderately contagious but only through saliva and mucous and other bodily fluids so we'll still be doing some teaching.

Anyways, on to the rest of the week. Last preparation was probably the best one ever! We went out to the George's dairy farm with the Zone Leaders. Bro George is a member of the bishopric here and all the rest of his family lives in Cody and it's their family dairy! We spent 3 hours out there and he gave us a really in depth tour. They forever disprove the idea that farmers are dumb, I never knew that taking care of a farm and dairy took so much work. He showed us how they milk the cows (it's all automated and pretty hi-tech) and how they feed the cows (the cows get a more balanced and regulated diet than any human probably does). They even showed us the breeding barn and walked us through the process of artificial insemination. Sorry if that weirds you out. The best part though was the baby cows. They all had their own individual giant do house (the igloo style ones) with a little wire fence around them. They were in there just hopping around and bellowing and having a good time. Then brother George showed us that if you stick your fingers in front of their face they'll just latch on and start sucking. It was a really weird sensation but all of us thought it was hilarious to see the baby cows put our hands in their mouths. They only have their bottom teeth half formed and no top teeth, so there's no danger of them biting off your hand.

We did A LOT of service this past week. Tuesday Morning we spent 2 hours sweeping some outdoor patios at The Manor, it's an assisted living place here in town. We didn't even get halfway through that stuff and there's more stuff to do after that. We were able to talk to some of the people living there, some of them are less active members. And the lady at the front desk (non-member) was so appreciative and we talked to her a bit about our beliefs about service and what it means to be on a mission, it was a great experience. We met an older guy that wanted some help moving some water heaters so we went back on Thursday and he wasn't home. We were walking back and his neighbor was outside so we offered some service and ended up trimming her hedges for a couple hours and she told us about her life and all the trees and other plants she has. We had to get going so we went back on Saturday and finished up and she had baked cookies for us! She was a great friend to find, not particularly interested in learning about the gospel but really kind. We also did more service at one of the thrift shops in Powell again! For any of you that don't know, my love for Thrift Shops is immense. We vacuumed some more, fixed another vacuum and steamed the wrinkles out of some clothes.

Last service we did was we found Clarence, the older guy with the water heaters, on Saturday. He already got those taken care of so we helped him clean out one of his tomato gardens. We were walking up and he was looking at us weird so we called out, "don't you recognize us without our ties on?" And he laughed and yelled back "Oh look! I thought it was them Mormon Boys!" He offered us a cool beer for our help too many times to count, we finally got him to settle on a cold water bottle. After cleaning out the garden he showed us his animal shed. He has a full body Elk Mount that took second place in the World Taxidermy Competition! He also had a giant trophy Moose head, a bunch of deer and my favorite thing he had was a wolf! It was really majestic and so realistic. I was expecting it to start snarling and eat my face off.

Anyways, last thing is an update on one of the miracles I shared last week. It just keeps getting better. This is about Kyle, he's the less active member we met by mixing up the address we were looking for. So we taught him and it was really awesome! We read out of the Book of Mormon and Brother Spomer kept testifying of how the gospel has changed his life since he started coming back to church in the past year. The spirit was super strong. But wait, there's more. He told us that his family stopped going to church when he was 6 or 7. SIX OR SEVEN. Do you see what we were excited about? So we nonchalantly asked him if he was ever baptized, or at least as nonchalantly as a missionary can ask at the prospect of a potential baptism. He said that he doesn't know if he's ever been baptized and that over the past couple of years he's been really wondering if he has been. We asked if he'd want to get baptized if he found out that he never was and he said, "Sure, I've always liked the Mormon religion." So we talked to the bishop of the Ward he used to live in over in Cody and got his records transferred over and he's not baptized! Moral of the story is we're super excited to keep working with him! The main hurdle we'll need to get over with him is that his work schedule won't currently allow him to come to church...prayers would be appreciated!



I love you all! Have a grand week!


Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

1. The Wyoming West Zone for this transfer

2. Us next to a bunch of cows

3. Me in a John Deere tractor

4. A baby cow sucking on my fingers! This cow was my favorite because it doesn't have ears.

Two miracles. Short but sweet.

Family and friends,

So much stuff ended up happening today so this will be pretty short. I just want to share two miracles from the week.

Elder Stone and I decided to work super hard to show our faith that there are people prepared to receive the gospel. One day we had some plans to go to an area we felt we needed to go to. Along the way we kept feeling like there were some other places we needed to stop at, so we kept putting off the original place by the park we were walking to. We've been working hard at sticking to the plans we make but we felt really strongly about each place we went so we were talking and decided that the place we were going was the right place but God needed us to get there a little late than we planned. We were getting a little discouraged because all of our promptings were not coming up with anything. We finally got to the place and skipped the first door because the second one had a light on. The second, third and fourth doors all answered but none were interested. Then we turned around to head back and someone had come out of the first door and was sitting on his porch, this is Sam. We end up having a great conversation with Sam about the Book of Mormon and he committed to read and accepted a specific return appointment!

Last one. We went to go contact a less active lady and I knew her address and I had tried by her house multiple times already, so I knew where I was going. When we got to her street I began to doubt that it was the right street, so I checked the address and sure enough it was the wrong street! So we went to the street that I now knew it was but couldn't find the house. So we went to a young couple that was sitting in a car nearby to ask if they knew where the lady lived. They didn't, but then we started talking with them about the Book of Mormon. It turns out the guy is a less active member and his records aren't here and the girl has been wanting to know more about Mormons for a while! So they committed to be reading the Book of Mormon and praying until our return appointment this week! Then I checked the lady's address again and it was the original street that we had gone to before I doubted. I know I didn't misread it. God moves in mysterious ways to get us to be with the right people!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E
Powell, Wyoming 82435

The work is hastening!

Family and friends,



First off, we moved! We're out of the cozy little apartment we were living in on Avenue B and now we're living with the Jeide's on Avenue E! My new address is at the bottom, so feel free to send anything :)

Anyways, the first week being with my cousin has seriously been the best thing ever! I love him so much. He's a super refreshing companion, meaning I always feel so full of energy with him around! We've been working super hard and are really seeing the Lord's hand in the work. I've really had my testimony strengthened that this is His work, gospel and church.

This week I'll sorta go through each day one at a time because it was that good. Tuesday night the Cody Elders came up and Elder Nuffer and Elder Lankford left, leaving Elder Loehr and I in Powell. That night we had a great lesson with a young less active couple where we applied Elder Holland's talk from conference to their desire to get sealed in the temple. It really answered lots of their questions and gave them the hope they need to push through tomorrows to get there. The rest of the night was cleaning and getting other logistics taken care of for transfers.

Transfer Wednesdays are usually a day where next to no missionary work is done and I'll be honest, I was looking forward to a bit of relaxation, but I really felt the need to get the transfer started that day so a Elder Loehr and I hit the pavement! We walked around and talked with people of the streets and contacted a bunch of investigators. We even got a new one! Then we drove down south of town contacting some more people. We had a really cool doorstep lesson with an investigator that we thought was dodging us, but literally everything that could have gone wrong in her life did, so we're glad we found her. While we talked she realized that all these hard things that were getting in the way of our appointments came from Satan trying to stop us from meeting. She's really starting to understand how this Gospel can bless her. We also talked with a lady we thought was a less active member, Aletha, and we found out that she's actually excommunicated. She was very open with her feelings again, like usual, and told us that she was scared to possibly convert again but is willing to try! She wouldn't stop thanking us for being persistent and never give up on her because we've been trying to teach her this whole transfer but it's never worked out. We told her that we don't give up on her because we know it's the right thing for her and that it's what God wants for her, she really liked that. We also talked with Joe, he's in his 20s and his Dad is a recently reactivated member. We read from Mosiah 24 with him about God making us strong and our burdens light and he started tearing up pretty bad, right there on his porch!

Late Wednesday night Elder Stone showed up and then Thursday we started working hard. Elder Stone is super good at talking to everyone and I couldn't tell you how many times since Thursday that we've pulled over and ran a couple people down! We didn't got any new investigators from it yet, but we've met some nice people and had good conversations. That night we met one of the coolest people from my entire mission so far. His name is Dennis, he's 70 years old and a philosophy/art professor at Northwest College. Every time we walk by his house we see his big truck out front. And when I say big mean BIG. The wheels are more than half as tall as me. But the real unique thing about the truck is the horns (don't worry, pictures will come). He has 90 real cattle horns coming out of the bed of his truck. That's not even the entire unique part yet because this is Wyoming, lots of people have cattle horns in the back of their trucks. Dennis has every inch of them covered in small pieces of mirrors. It's quite the bright and reflective sight! Anyways, we talked with him and he told us stories about his truck and cops pulling him over just to get pictures of it! He's had so many crazy experiences in his life, especially with that truck. Then he told us that he used to be a minister and wasn't looking for a new church, but he said we could come back and chat with him about religion during May when he's working on his lawn!

Saturday night we had a pretty cool miracle with a referral. We got Mark's name and address and went to contact him but it was a motel. The motel owner finally told us which one he lives in so we visited him. It turns out he's a less active member, we're trying to find his records now. He asked us for a blessing because of some bad lung problems he has. We talked with him about faith and then gave him a blessing. Before, he was really drowsy and sick looking. After, he was happy and smiling and healthy looking! He told us that he felt tingly all over and good inside. We gave him a Book of Mormon because he doesn't have a copy anymore and invited him to church, sadly he didn't show but that leads us on to our next miracle!

Sunday night it was 8:50 and we had planned on checking in on Mark because he wasn't at church but we both felt it was too late to see him that night. We prayed about it and felt strongly to visit him. He wasn't home, so we knocked on his neighbor's door that had a light on. Normally we don't knock around in motels because the owners get really mad, but we figured that God told us to go there so there had to be a reason. Well, his neighbor wasn't interested. So we started walking back to the car which was a block away. On the way we passed a house that only had a garage light on and we figured 'hey, it's 8:57, let's try it! What's e worst that can happen?' So we knocked on it and I had a scared moment thinking this was a bad idea because the place looked pretty run down on the outside. I said a silent prayer asking for protection and help and then the Victor came to the door. He brought us right in and sat us down and told us he's been wanting to talk with us for a while! When he was in prison a while ago he was reading the Book of Mormon and everyone there would persecute him for it, but he kept reading it because he thought it was the word of God. It turns out he grew up here and is best friends with some members that really helped him through some of the struggles of his life. So we taught a quick lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon and got a return appointment for Wednesday and the house of the member he knows! I am seriously so stoked for this transfer! Victor seems so prepared and I can't wait to talk with him more!

Anyways, you all have a great week! Pray to see how you can help God in this work and then act!



Elder Tippetts
607 Avenue E
Powell, Wyoming 82435