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