Are we going to stop doing service? No.

Family and friends,
We keep doing spice, and lots of it. Before my mission I was never too big into service projects most of the time but on my mission I've had my testimony really strengthened on service. We feel happier as missionaries and see more miracles and blessings daily! We went over to a older guy in the other Elder's area and we helped him move a bunch of dirt around in his planters and tomorrow we're going back to finish tilling his garden tomorrow afternoon. We were supposed to go to his house on Friday but we had Zone Training that morning so we went over Thursday instead.
We also joined the other Elders to help a cool family rip out carpet and linoleum. It was fun because I haven't done that in a long time. We also went with them to help some members move. I also really love helping people move now because of my mission. It's fun to organize the things in the truck so it all fits, sort of exhilarating. Sorry if that sounds super lame. We were down under their house in the crawl space hauling a lot of things out, again pretty fun. It was nice and clean, I appreciated that because I don't do spiders.
Saturday we did some awesome service for the Jeides, the family we live with. We were climbing in trees and ripping out vines. My arms got pretty cut up, I've got scratches all over. Brother Jeide was using a chainsaw and cutting trees out pretty short and then we'd drag them out. We hauled a bunch of the dirt over to their home from the Lutheran church across the street. They're building a super nice church that's cost a pretty penny and apparently they have a super nice mural that an artist came and painted there. We know a couple people that go there so they're going to give us a tour sometime soon! Anyways, they have a bunch of leftover dirt because of the construction so they're basically letting anyone take rock or dirt if they want. So we went picking around the big piles until we found good dirt and then hauled it to some new planters that Sister Jeide built. It was a good time.
We had Zone Training this last week. I gave a discussion about humility and it was pretty good. Most of it was focused on getting rid of pride, pride is a fun subject. I always get asked to talk about pride, I guess I need a lot more humility. I feel like President Uchtdorf when, in his 2010 October talk to the priesthood, said, "Every mortal has at least a casual if not intimate relationship with the sin of pride. No one has avoided it; few overcome it. When I told my wife that this would be the topic of my talk, she smiled and said, “It is so good that you talk about things you know so much about.”"
Lastly we've seen some cool miracles as we exercise faith and trust that people can change and accept the gospel. There's a part member family that hasn't come to church in a long time. A member of the Ward council has been praying for their family for over a year and they recently went through some humbling experiences. We stopped by a couple weeks ago and they let us right in and we got to know each other really well. This last week we had a miracle lesson with them. We talked with them and then we shared a Mormon message and the dad just took over from there. He was just leading the discussion on humility and patience in trials and basically to whole time was bearing his testimony to his unbaptized kids! Then they told us that they should be able to make it to church this next week! At the end of the lesson the Dad said the prayer, he kneeling prayer, and it was probably the most humble and honest prayer I've heard on my mission.

I love you all! I appreciate all the prayers y'all are sending my way!

Elder Tippetts
607 Avenue E
Powell, Wyoming 82435

More service!

Family and Friends,

     I can't believe another week has gone by. We're officially a week into the new transfer and I'm so excited to keep moving forward. The work is good. God is good.

     Elder Fleming is Elder Hobbs' replacement here in Powell as one of our Zone Leaders. It's great to be around him. He's from my transfer group and I've never served around him before. He's hilarious, from Salem Utah and has a full ride scholarship to play football for ASU.

     Once again we've been doing so much service in the mornings. For Clarence this week we moved a whole bunch of garage doors again and then we got back to garden work. Elder Fleming and I had a big strap that we tied around his tractor and some trees and then Clarence would rip the trees out of the ground. The wood gave a very satisfying snapping noise every time. Then the two of us went over to the nearby Lutheran church and, with their permission, pulled big rocks out of the dirt piles that are there because of construction. We loaded them in his tractor's bucket and took 5 big loads of giant rocks back to his house. The biggest was easily the size of my torso but twice as thick. Elder Stone and Elder Decker worked on hoeing the garden some more.

     We helped a less active family build some stairs and a railway for a deck. He said that I looked like a real construction worker and seemed to know what I was doing. I contribute that to my Dad and all the times he's had me help him build decks and also when we built my eagle project. We also helped another semi-active lady mow her lawn and dig some holes for flowers. Then we went and mowed one of our investigator's lawn and edged it and all that good jazz.

     The last interesting thing we did was laying sod! That was on Tuesday, the day before Elder Hobbs headed down to Burlington. He was really happy that he didn't miss it because back home his family has a sod farm. He showed us all the ins and outs and nuances of sod laying. The whole time I was making up dumb sod jokes, and for some reason they all seemed to be Lord of the Rings themed. Q: What white-wizard grows grass for a living? A: Sod-omon. Q: If Legolas was a sod farmer, what would his favorite weapon be? A: The lawn-bow. I know, they're pretty great, right?

     One last highlight for the week. Kyle J is doing awesome! Mostly. We taught 2 awesome lessons to him this week, one at the church and one at the Wisniewski's home. When he showed up to our lesson on Wednesday, before we even started or had a prayer or anything, he said, "Elders, I'm ready for my baptism, I just wish we could do it sooner." He loves the gospel and has been working hard for the 11th of June. I guess there is a little downside to the story, but nothing to bring you down. Kyle got a little offended over the weekend so he didn't come to church. We stopped by his home after church with Brother Wisniewski and were able to talk him through things and he was doing better by the time we finished talking. We have scheduled to do family history work with him this week and then teach him again more. But he texted us again and said he might want to wait on his baptismal date, so please pray for him. He's such a sincere guy and we love him so much.

Have a great week!

Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E

Powell, Wyoming 82435

We're hitting the new transfers running

Family and friends,

Transfer calls came in yesterday and I'll be staying in Powell with Elder Stone for another transfer! I'm super excited because we have a lot of good work going for us. We have baptisms happening on the 11th and 25th of June and we've got one that's supposed to get baptized on the 28th of May but we'll probably be pushing that back to sometime in June as well.

The last district meeting of the transfer was really awesome. A lot of spiritual power was packed into it. Elder Sorensen gave his departing discussion and it was great. He talked about having a good attitude and charity during your mission so that you don't have any regrets when you get home. Elder Sorensen finished his mission this transfer and as of Saturday he is no longer a missionary, that's pretty weird. He was the first missionary that I've served around and been with on exchanges that has gone home. We had lunch with him on Friday before he drove up to Billings and it was a tough goodbye.

Two cool miracles from the week. (1) We were trying by Victor's house and he wasn't answering. When we turned around we saw a mother and her young kids walking across the street and Elder Stone, being the stud he is, ran after them and we started talking! They had just moved here from Billings and they told us that they don't have a church to go to around here so of course we invited them and told them that our church always accepts visitors and they seemed excited to come! It was also the oldest girl's 8th birthday so definitely another baptism. Sadly when we stopped by their house for our set appointment and their landlord said that they moved unexpectedly so hopefully we'll catch them around town sometime. (2) We went to the Parish family (recent converts) to re-teach some of the lessons but their friend Cheyanne was there and we ended up teaching him the whole Restoration. I know that before I was here, Elder Lankford and Elder Rose had talked with him a couple of times but he wasn't interested at all. At the end of the lesson he just started telling us that he felt so good and that he knew it was the spirit and that he knew everything we had told him was true! So we invited him to be baptized and even though he had just finished telling us how much he loved his church and getting baptized previously he didn't even hesitate to say yes!

We did some more service for Clarence this week. All four of us went over there and we spent a couple hours helping him irrigate his big garden. He hoed out all the roes and then tug the drain trenches. It was all fun and the whole time Clarence kept saying, "Good work boys! Stick with me and you'll be wearing diamonds the size of horse turds!" Instead we got pizza, but that's still pretty good! We also went out to the Redd's. They live out in the country and they're called as missionaries to teach the Addiction Recovery Program at the church here. We helped them move a bunch of railroad ties around to make terraces on the hill next to their house so it doesn't erode as much. We landscaped it and helped them move dirt around and make everything nice and level and even. I love service, it makes me feel so much more like a missionary!

Other than all that things are still going great here! I am unbelievably stoked for another 6 weeks in Powell! Since Elder Sorensen went home we have his companion, Elder Gutierrez, with us until Wednesday. I hope y'all have a great week!



Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

Mother's day

Family and Friends,

I can't believe Mother's Day has come and gone. It was definitely a relaxing day. I feel so refreshed and renewed after talking to my family. Both sacrament meetings, 1st and 3rd Wards, we're so good. We were able to take some flowers and other gifts to a couple of our investigators and they really appreciated it! During lunch I played pool with a 12 year old (we live with the Jeide's, they have a pool table, their grandson was here) and he beat me twice in a row so I felt sufficiently humbled for my skype call. While Elder Stone was talking with his family I was playing on the piano, 1st ward's mission leader sent us music for Shenandoah and asked me to learn to play and sing it. Needless to say I was having lots of fun. Then we had a correlation meeting with Bro Wisniewiski (Wiz-nih-ski), the 3rd Ward mission leader. He's such a great guy and really helps us get everything set up for the upcoming week.

This week was super great! We put 3 people on date! (Sorry...didn't mean to rhyme) First was Kyle J, he's the one that showed up to church last week with a friend that we then taught Monday night. He accepted everything we taught, even a baptismal date! As we finished talking about reading the Book of Mormon, before we even invited him to do anything with it, he said, "so I should probably get myself a copy and read a couple chapters each night, right?" RIGHT! Perfect answer! We met with him again on Wednesday and he came to all three hours of church again this week. He's doing well and we'll meet again this Wednesday.

Next person we put on date is Kyld D. He's the one we found while street contacting when we couldn't find a less active's address. We'd been having a hard time getting a hold of him but on Thursday we did some service in the morning at the thrift store and as we were leaving he was walking right by on the sidewalk! So we talked with him and scheduled an appointment for that night. It was getting a little stormy and last time we met with him we just sat on his open porch, so we were trying to think of some solutions. Kyle came out with his Book of Mormon, ready to talk, and Elder Stone, being the stud he is, asked Kyle if he just wanted to jump in his car and follow us to the church. So that's what we did, on the way to the church we got a hold of Bro Williams, the Elders Quorum president and he said he'd meet us there in 5 minutes. We followed up with him on his scripture reading while we waited for Bro Williams to show up and then we all went into the chapel and had a fantastic discussion on the sacrament and the atonement. Kyle accepted the invitation to be baptized and he said he thinks this will be a great step in his life. Then we taught him again on Saturday and in his prayer he thanked God for the good feelings he gets whenever we meet together! He showed up to church for 2/3 of sacrament meeting because he had to go to work, but he's a manager at his job so he said that he'll change his schedule up in 2 weeks so he can be there longer!

Last but definitely not least is Jessica. The missionaries have been trying to meet with her since the end of last summer but we haven't dropped her because she shows so much potential and it's not her fault she doesn't meet with us. We get appointments scheduled and then her kid has to go to the ER or crazy stuff like that. So we stopped by and Jessica and her friend were there and again Elder Stone asks them if they want to follow us to the church and they accept. So this time we call Bro Spomer, one of the Ward missionaries and he said he'd meet us in 5 minutes. So we showed them the whole church and they really liked it, especially all the things about families. Once again it was the chapel that did all the magic. We talked about the restoration and shared the first vision and started right into talking about baptism. For the first time since I met Jessica she didn't shut down the conversation the moment baptism was mentioned! She was even the one that came up with the date, so she's working for the 9th of July! And tomorrow we'll have another lesson and her friend will tell us if we would like to get baptized that same day as well.

Anyways, the Lord's work is real and He delivers on his promises. I'm so thankful to be a missionary and I'm so thankful for my mom and how she's helped prepare me to be here.



P.S. This upcoming Sunday we'll find out transfer news



Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

The elect!

Family and friends,

Dang this week was so refreshing. We were teaching lessons and following the spirit and all those other things that make missionary work the best thing ever. We also had exchanges this week, Elder Stone went to Burlington with Elder Sorenson and Elder Gutierrez came up here to Powell. Tuesday morning we switched and had lunch at El Tapatío, a Mexican place.

Do you remember Victor? I'll remind you of how we found him. It was almost 9 and we prayed to see if we needed to go contact a less active member we were planning on visiting and we felt we should go. No one answered and on our way back to the car we stopped by his house because he had a light on and he let us in. So we had 3 lessons with him this week at the church with different members each time. On Tuesday Elder Gutierrez and I took Victor on a tour of the church with Brother Gwynn, one of our ward missionaries. Victor just loved it all and kept telling us how beautiful the church was. We were talking to him about the restoration and told him that the LDS church isn't just another religion but it's Christ's original church and the only true and living one on the earth. He straight up agreed. STRAIGHT UP! There wasn't even an ounce of hesitation, he just immediately agreed! Then we went into the chapel and we were all bearing our testimonies to him and he told us that he felt so good and said this is something he could commit to. STRAIGHT UP! Not kidding at all. So what did we do? Committed him to it! Victor's getting baptized on the 28th of May!!! None of us could believe what just happened, it was a lesson that missionaries dream about.

Then on Friday we taught him again at the church. He showed up super confused and frustrated. He told us that he was really sorry but that he wasn't going to be able to do this any longer. We calmed him down until Brother Gilmore showed up. He was a miracle member for that lesson. Victor had some concerns about the church because of some stuff he'd been reading online and in the news about the church and BYU and Brother Gilmore just happened to have read those same article this past week and was able to shed new light on it for Victor. At the end of the lesson Victor was so apologetic and said that he came to the lesson feeling very negative but was leaving very positive. We taught him again the next day with Brother Gilliatt our ward mission leader. He's continuing to do well and in the lesson with Bro Gilliatt he accepted everything about the restoration and it all made perfect sense to him. Victor even came to church on Sunday even though a lot of hard things are happening in his life.

The last miracle I'll share is Kyle J, he's not the other Kyle I've mentioned, that's Kyle D. He just showed up to church yesterday with a member and stayed for all three hours and loved it! We'll be teaching him tonight and he was so excited to meet so he'll definitely get put on date.

I'm so excited for this upcoming week, lots of good things are happening here in Powell. Also, this upcoming week is Mother's Day so I'll get to skype home! Definitely stoked for that!





Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435