Too many miracles that we don't know what to do with

Family and Friends,

This week has been awesome. Lots of good service and great lessons. We're working but we're still struggling getting those investigators and such to come to church. We finally got Kyle J to come to family history after church though and that went really well. He had a couple concerns but is back on date to be baptized. Kyle D is doing well but his schedule has just been so crazy so we haven't really been able to teach him more but he's still on board to get baptized, he asked us a question about tithing so we answered it and taught him about it real quick and he wholeheartedly committed to paying tithing after he's baptized!

Things with the Cheney's have gone well, but they still haven't come to church. Last Monday we went by to talk to them about why they didn't come to church but they ended up showing us around their property. They've got cows, chickens, ducks, dogs and horses. And...a coon! They have a pet coon! They caught it 3 years ago the day it was born and have raised it so it's tame. It was licking our fingers through the wire cage and I thought that was awesome. I didn't think it could get any better...but then we were about to leave and Brother Cheney asked if I wanted to hold it! I thought he was joking but they went ahead and pulled it out of the cage and I've never been so happy in my entire life. It likes to play so before they handed her (Missy) to me it jumped out of their arms and was hiding under the trailer. So we flushed her out and then I held her and it was a blast. She was teething my hand like a puppy would, but even lighter, and then she crawled up onto my shoulder and perched there like a parrot! I definitely have pictures you'll get to see!

Things keep getting better. We stopped by on Thursday for a lesson but they had to take care of a bunch of things outside so we helped them weed and they were really appreciative. As we were leaving they told us that since most of their cows have calved they're going to be branding! So on Saturday we went to go brand. Yup, I went to a branding. We had to push our dinner appointment back 30 minutes, which worked out well because Brother Cheney got home late. So we got everything set up and then helped them put a couple cows into the chutes and we watched them brand 2 cows. They were going to let us brand the next one but we were going to be late to our already late dinner appointment if we didn't leave then. Don't worry, I'll find a time to brand soon hopefully, they have 1 cow that got away and it still hasn't calved so the Cheney's said they'd call us so we can come brand the last two calves. Best thing ever.

Also Monday night we were having dinner after playing basketball with some of our investigators and less active's on preparation day. At dinner we asked the Bennetts if there was anyone they wanted us to visit and they mentioned the Cooleys. Sister Bennett said that the Cooleys daughter has never been to her primary class and she's never seen her at church. So we're driving to someone else's home down near the Cheney's and we see a guy with a giant propellor on his back and I was confused but kept driving for about a half mile. I mention it to Elder Stone and he says to turn back and check it out, then we realize it was the Cooley's house! So we turn around and the guy with the propellor isn't there anymore. He's flying. Literally flying. He had a paragliding wing and a giant propellor on his back and was up around 500 ft in the air. So we sit around and take pictures and waited for him to land and then went to talk to him and yes, it was Brother Cooley! We met him once before and he didn't seem too excited to see us then, but this time we really got to know him and he told us everything about his paramotor (that's what the whole contraption is called). We helped him set his stuff all up again and he showed us a take off and then did some cool aerial stunts for us. It was pretty bomb. Moral of the story, he wants us to come back and meet the rest of his family! It was such a cool miracle that we were told to go visit them and then we just happened upon him!

Last awesome miracle is Matt. He's a guy we've been trying to meet with for a while. We got an appointment with him but when we showed up he said it was a bad time and that we should come back over the next morning at 10. So we pushed back a small service project so we could teach his family the restoration. He's a single dad with 4 kids, two are younger than 8 and two are over. So we taught them the restoration, showed them the Joseph Smith's First Vision video and then we committed them to baptism! Matt and his two kids, Tayden and Weston, are going to get baptized! I was just so happy. We've gotten pretty close to those kids. They love it when we come over and they're super excited to tell us everything that's happened since we last stopped by. Having charity is such a real thing and it's the only way to get things accomplished. If you want to help someone change you just have to love them, love them and love them some more. God's work is a work of love.




Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

A baptism, part member families...and you guessed it...more service!

Family and Friends,

Remember a couple weeks ago when Carter got baptized? Well his 9 year old brother got baptized this Saturday! We're still working on the middle child, he's not sure he wants to get baptized anymore but we'll keep meeting with them all. The baptism was awesome though! There was a big turnout, including 3 non members! We stopped by one of our investigator's, Henry, right before the baptism and he came! His wife and son got baptized down in Houston 7ish years ago and so this was e second baptism he was ever at. It turns out that Cole's mom is Henry's cousin so that was a neat connection! The other non members was a girl from Cole's class at school and her mom. I talked with them quite a bit and it turns out that her husband is a less active member and his parents are active members in one of the wards we cover, so we'll talk with them to see what work can be done there.

Moral of the story, part member families are a missionary's best friend. Remember that miracle family I told you about last week, the Cheney's, where the dad basically taught the lesson and said an awesome prayer at the end? Well we had another crazy miracle lesson with them this week. We stopped by on Thursday and they let us right in and we started talking with them and kept building our friendship. They showed us pictures of a recent rafting trip their family went on and they tried to talk us into going with them so we had to explain that since we're missionaries we can't but they told us that after our missions we have to come back and go rafting with them! Anyways, that's besides the point. After talking with them for a couple minutes the Dad stops the conversation and says, "you know what Elders, you always tell us good stories, it's my turn this week." He proceeds to tell us about how they were camping a couple weeks ago and a little girl got lost in the woods while playing hide and seek (don't worry, she was only gone for maybe 20 minutes), so they put together search parties and we're looking for her. While he was put in the woods with only his small cell phone light he said he realized that he's been trying to find his way through the darkness with too little light for too long and that he feels God pushing him to accept more light into his life! So I guess you could say things are going well there. Sadly they weren't able to make it to church this week but we'll be visiting them tonight to see how things are going!

And...SERVICE!!! On Saturday I looked at our schedule ever since Elder Stone and I have been together and I tallied up more than 83 hours of service. That's a good amount. We did a lot of stuff for old man Ray. He's an old guy that lives in the other Elder's area. We helped him move lots of dirt in the past. This last week we planted his garden and mowed and weed whacked his lawn. He'll come up behind us and yell at us and tell us how horrible of a job we're doing, stare us down, then walk away win a toothless smile and laugh. He's funny. He gave us all nicknames too. Elder Hubbard (we were on exchanges) is boots, Elder Decker is Mud, Elder Fleming is Jock, Elder Stone is Hyper or Cutie (depending on his mood), and I'm Honcho.

On Thursday Elder Stone and I went to a part member families house, the Kiers, and did service for them. Elder Stone mowed their lawn while I tilled their garden with a shovel. Then Elder Stone, the Unbaptized boy and the less active dad weeded while I worked on taking a trump out with a wedge and hammer. It was good hard work and we were definitely exhausted and sweaty at the end. We really got some good fellowshipping in and got to know them a lot better. There will definitely be more open doors in the future because of this.

Finally, on Saturday we did even more service at 9 we went to a family that used to be less active but in the past year all of their kids have been baptized and they come to church almost every week. We went over there with the other Elders and 6 guys from 3rd Ward and fixed the soffit and facia on their house. We went around the house on ladders and caulked in he big gaps and then put some new wood lining in. We did the caulking and held the wood in place because we're not allowed to use nail/staple guns. Then at noon we went to the Parish's. They're a recent convert family that was baptized in November. We helped them load things into a U-Haul because they're moving to Georgia. I'll really miss them but they've been to church down there once already and really enjoyed it so they'll be in good hands. Around 2ish we went out to the Redd's again and sheet rocked! They're the ones that we did landscaping for a couple weeks ago. Between fixing a roof and sheet rocking I had a good day, I wish we had more opportunities to do service like that.

Last thing is Joe. His life seems to be going well now and we were able to teach him at the church this week! He even committed to baptism and said that he's finally ready to quit smoking and get married! Huge miracle!

Thanks for all your prayers! We appreciate it and see the effect on all our investigators. I love you all!



Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435