"Keep on keeping on, and do it more effectively"

Family and friends,

     Yet another week has gone by too fast. It's completely insane to me how fast this transfer has gone by, the fastest of my mission by far. It's also been the best, busiest and most fun transfer of my mission as well. Life in the YSA is bomb. I just can't believe that this coming Sunday we'll be getting transfer calls. It doesn't feel real that the transfer is almost over.

     This week we had a really awesome Zone Conference. It's always refreshing to see President and Sister Wadsworth, the Assistants and the nearby zones. I really learned a lot by impressions from the spirit about commitments. I'm trying to deepen my commitment to my Savior in each moment by always remembering Him. Also, they showed us a segment from the most recent Mission President's Training Seminar about finding. It was all focused on finding and teaching those between their mid-teens and their mid-twenties. Elder Anderson shared a clip from some general authority trainings they were doing where they asked 300 general authorities to stand first if they were baptized after the age of 25, second between the ages of 9 and 25 and lastly 8 and younger. By far the majority were converts between the ages of 9-25. This and many other studies show that this age group is the most receptive to the restored gospel and are most likely to remain active and flourish in the church. I really enjoyed the training because it offered some cool insights about working in the YSA Ward. Also, I felt like our whole Zone was just staring us down because most companionships in our zone have been receiving self referrals for or just finding by their own efforts some really solid YSA aged individuals. I felt sorta bad but I'm not complaining. Like I said earlier, the YSA life is the bomb.

Investigator updates:

• Kelsey: She is doing so well. She's still reading the Book of Mormon like a champ and has read the past decade of General Conference addresses. We taught her 5/7 days of this past week, we're teaching her tonight and we're probably teaching her tomorrow too. She is just unbelievably excited for her baptism. Yesterday we finished off all the missionary lessons! His is the first time that I've taught an investigator from the first lesson all the way through. Most people I've taught in my mission I either started on the lessons and then got transferred of I got their right at the end of the lessons. It's been cool to be a part of the whole missionary process. Kelsey has some friends and coworkers that are former investigators and less active members and has been sharing the gospel with them. One was baptized when he was 8 but was never really active. He wants to know the Book of Mormon is true but says he struggles finding the real internet and sincere heart to know its true so she's been teaching him how to do it and sending him her favorite verses and chapters and bearing testimony to him. We had dinner on Friday with her, Meg and Joseph which was really awesome. As we left Kelsey and Meg told us that they decided to take a road trip to Rexburg on Saturday to see the temple and just explore I guess. So that's the second temple that Kelsey's visited! Last thing, quick funny story. So they were in Rexburg and they wanted to get some Chick-Fil-A so they put it into google maps and followed the directions and guess where it took them? Straight into the temple parking lot. I laughed so hard and said, "I've always known it, Chick-Fil-A really is the celestial restaurant!" It was one of the best moments of my mission.
• Tatum: Tatum has been coming to church for a couple weeks now and we finally got to have a lesson this week with her. She had a couple friends here in the YSA Ward but they all just left on missions so now she wants to meet with us and find out if she feels comfortable here because it's the truth or just because she was with her friends. She participates in church and is already so committed to following God. We're teaching her tonight and things seem to be going well.
• Milo: He's preparing to be baptized but we're not sure what date exactly because he has 56 siblings. 56 siblings isn't technically a problem, it's just a little complicated because he has so many because of polygamy. He grew up in a polygamist colony down by Chihuahua, Mexico. Good thing is he has no desire to ever practice polygamy and is currently living with his 2 nephews that both also have polygamous parents but are really active in the church now and one of them' an RM so he has lots of support! He's doing awesome and always comes to church.
• Ethan: He's actually a recent convert, he got baptized a couple months ago and he is such an inspiration to me. He is so faithful even in the face of so much opposition. His whole family was very opposed to him being baptized and they are always coming to him with new anti-Mormon topics. He always responds so well and says that when he was first baptized it always gave him a couple doubts that were soon washed away but since he's had so many concerns and questions answered he now doesn't get shaken at all. Even if he can't find an answer he recognizes that the spirit has testified to him of truth and so he knows that there is an answer out there somewhere and that sometimes it's okay to not know what it is. He's such an example of real faith. Even with so much opposition and still being pretty new to the church he's planning on serving a mission because he loves it all so much.

     This week has been filled with so many awesome lessons and miracles. The Lord blesses you as you get your heart right and serve Him for the right reasons. The gospel of Jesus Christ contains answers to every single question or concern out there. God has a plan for all of us and that plan is perfect. We just need to find out what He wants us to do and then do it. We are taught in Mosiah 3:19 that we are to yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. Think about what it means to yield. Basically that means that the Holy Ghost gets the right of way. Become more committed to live your life in line with God's will as you discover His will through the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.

Look to the Temple

Family and friends,

     This week was pretty good because it was all working towards going to the temple on Saturday. I don't know how I forgot to tell y'all last week that we were planning on going to the temple but it was great. I'll talk about that last.

Lesson/Investigator highlights:

• Greg: We started teaching an awesome less active member Greg this week. He joined the church just a couple years ago in Oregon and has been struggling to get in the habit of coming to church here in Bozeman. He's not sure how he feels about the YSA Ward because he's only ever gone to family wards before and feels more comfortable there. But he has such a sincere desire to come closer to the Savior and feel the spirit in his life again. He looks at himself with such a humble attitude and is so ready to improve! We taught him twice and both lessons went really well until the end of the second lesson because he brought up the church's stance on Homosexuals and went on a rant about how he doesn't believe in it so contention came and the spirit left. We just told him that we can't give him a perfect answer or convince him of anything so we encouraged him to just hold onto his testimony of the Savior and the church. Luckily it ended on a good note.
• Hondo: We taught Hondo again and he was really distracted during the whole lesson. Suddenly he just stood up and said he had to go so he left. The member that was with us went ahead and left as well so Elder Schneider and I stayed behind to talk about how the lesson went. While we were talking, Hondo showed back up and apologized for leaving so suddenly and told us about everything that's stressing him out right now so we were able to turn him to the Savior (he's Jewish) through prayer. He prayed and was feeling really good after! It was such an honest prayer.
• Kelsey: Kelsey is doing stellar like always! We taught her Thursday and now she's all the way to Helaman! Then we taught her again on Sunday and instead of reading more of the Book of Mormon she read all of the 2015 and 2016 October conferences! That was wild. We taught her about tithing and she accepted it willingly and then we started to teach about Fast offerings and she just said, "I don't even know what that is but I'll live it, I'm excited to." So golden. THEN Meg, our recent convert from Georgia, and another member from the YSA took Kelsey to the temple the same day we were there! The coolest thing was that while she was in the waiting room one of the desk workers came in his white suit and was talking to her and he said, "I just wanted to let you know that I see a lot of people come through here and sit in that waiting room and you can always tell who's comfortable and who's not and you're comfortable here. You belong here. And I cannot wait until the day I can let you past the front desk." As she told us this Sunday night she was of course in tears and just cannot wait at all for when she can go to the temple after her baptism!
• We also had a lesson with Meg this week and Kelsey came as well. We talked about missionary work and they are both just trying to spread the gospel! You can see how the gospel is changing their lives and they just want to share it with everyone! Many tears were shed in that lesson as well.

And the temple. So the Assistants do exchanges with all the Zone Leaders and the checked to see if any of us had someone we once taught getting sealed this transfer and it just so happens that the Sessions family from Powell were getting sealed on the 18th! So we went on exchanges with the Assistants in Billings on Friday. I went with Elder Hoschouer, my MTC companion, it's always good to be back with him! Then Saturday we went and got to go through a session with them and attend their sealing! And guess who else got to come? ELDER STONE! We spent 4.5 months together teaching the Sessions and least once a week and did lots of service for Brother Sessions when Sister Sessions got sent to the hospital. It was just a powerful day. It was amazing to see the fruits of something that started almost a year ago. Also, the missionary that reacted into and baptized Sister Sessions 8 years ago came as well! So I'm sure he was glad! It was just so good to be there again. It was a recharge that I've definitely been needing. I you are able to go to the temple, go. Don't make excuses, make time for it in your schedule. I haven't been able to attend the temple in ~19 months and will never take it for granted again. Go as often as possible. Time in the temple is never lost or wasted time.

Elder Garian Tippetts

garian.tippetts@myldsmail.net

Facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts

eldergariantippetts.blogspot.com

311 Michael Grove Unit B

Bozeman, MT 59718

I hate college... (not really...but sorta)

Dear Family and Friends,

I hate college. I love serving in the YSA Ward but today I decided that I have a strong dislike for college. Sorry this one will be short, I spent most of today trying to figure out things for college but only ended up frustrated. I don't like that I have to be getting ready to go back to school and be a normal human, I'm not ready for that. I'm really enjoying everything that's going on now and the whole less than 5 months things puts a real damper on life. I love my family and I love everything about normal life but I feel like there is just still so much left for me to do. The day will come but today is not that day. So I just don't like it when the real world starts creeping into my life. Sorry about that quick rant, I don't actually have the passionate dislike for college, but I really so have a passionate love for what I'm doing. Moral of the story, I'm doing well, just a little overwhelmed with college today.

Two quick Investigator highlights from the week:
Kelsey is still the bomb. I've never met an investigator like her. As of Thursday she's now up and through Alma chapter 3. She cooked all the way through it and then reread it all again before Sunday because she loved it so much. She especially loved Jacob 5, so that means that she's really learning by the spirit because I still have a hard time with that chapter sometimes. She came to FHE last week and we got her hooked up with a FamilySearch account and she's started doing research. She loved the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson on Thursday and again is just so excited to put her faith more fully in the Lord. Her favorite part is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ applies to her entire life, she's living it now and is planning on living it forever. Then Sunday one of her fellow-shippers picked her up for Stake Conference and she loved it. Just about every talk had to do with topics she's been wondering about. We met up for another lesson that evening and taught her the Word of Wisdom. She was real excited about it and was super focused on all the blessings that will come from living it. She said that she used to be a super heavy coffee drinker but after she started reading the Book of Mormon she felt like that was something she needed to stop because she had never seen her Mormon friends drink coffee so she's been off it for a month and is planning on never picking it up again! And then we'll see her again tonight at FHE and keep moving forward!
Milo is another awesome investigator. He's from a polygamist colony down in Mexico and his nephews (that are older than him because he has 55 older siblings) are here in the Ward. One is Max and he's one of our ward missionaries and the other is Tommy and he teaches Gospel Doctrine and is an RM. They live together and have been great examples to Milo. He started coming to church at the beginning of the year and decided now that it's time to meet with the missionaries. He started reading the Book of Mormon 2 weeks ago without Max or Tommy knowing and feels like he's finally found the truth after searching through a lot of churches up here. So we're working steadily with him. He's received answers that it's all true so we're working through the lessons with him, making sure he doesn't have any major questions or concerns and then waiting until President and then a general/area authority to come interview him. That's church protocol when your parents practice polygamy.

Overall the week has been good! Y'all are the best and I appreciate all the support!

Elder Garian Tippetts
garian.tippetts@myldsmail.net
Facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts
eldergariantippetts.blogspot.com
311 Michael Grove Unit B
Bozeman, MT 59718

Lessons and Lessons and Lessons

Family and friends,

     So we didn't actually have a crazy amount of lessons. But all the lessons we did have were super solid. We taught 7 lessons with a member present this week and 5 of them were in a member's home. We were really working on reaching our goals and the Lord provided. I've just been really humbled to be here and present for so many miracles, but there have also been some let downs that have tested my faith but we've persevered and grew lots because of it.

     First I'll tell you about Kelsey, she's the bomb. She just moved to Bozeman and a while ago a friend had given her a copy of the Book of Mormon but she never started reading it until about a month ago. She wanted to learn more about it so she referred herself to the Belgrade Elders and they met up with her. They realized she was a YSA so she passed her on to us and said that if we invited her to be baptized she would accept. So we met with her on Wednesday and she did! We're working with her to be baptized on the 4th of March. When we met with her for the first time she had read all the way through 1 Nephi and was just getting into 2 Nephi. When we met with her again on Saturday she'd started plowing through the Isaiah chapters and is past chapter 15 now! The past 2 weeks she hasn't made it to church because her car broke down but we've got a ride set up just in case for this week. She was so upset each week that she couldn't come. But she's coming to FHE tonight and is super excited to learn more about Family History work! She said that she's found what she's been looking for. She says she has a testimony that God exists and that he loves her but she says, "that doesn't quite do it for me, what do I need to do to show that I know he exists and that He loves me?!" So she's golden. HUGE tender mercy watching her conversion to Jesus Christ.

     This week we also met Philip which was really bittersweet. We met him and a bunch of his roommates and the majority of them weren't interested but as we left we invited them to all read Alma 32. Philip stopped us as we were headed out the door and opened the Book of Mormon to Alma 32 and asked us what it was all about, so we told him and he promised that he'd read it! 30 minutes later we get a text from him saying that he read it and loved it and so much of it stood out to him because he's always struggled knowing if God was really there and he felt like it helped him see how he could finally learn for himself. He asked us how soon we could meet so we set up an appointment for two days later and also gave him 2 Nephi 31 to read. He showed up and immediately just asked if we could sit down and start talking about what he read. Our Ward Mission Leader was there and the lesson went awesome! He had super powerful questions about what he was reading and you could tell that the spirit was teaching him things and helping him understand things we hadn't even mentioned. He said that in 2 Nephi 31 it taught about Christ getting baptized and that he wanted to do that as well eventually. So we put him on date to be baptized on March 11th! We were both unbelievably pumped after. Then the next day we get a text from him and says that he's way overwhelmed with the whole God idea and wants to pursue it on his own. We were pretty devastated for a while, and it still bugs me a little, but we learned a lot of lessons from it. As we knit-picked the lesson we taught we learned some things we could have improved on but that just got us more down on ourselves. So as we kept trying to figure it out and kept praying about it we felt like we had done what we could with what we had and had done it with honest intent to bring him closer to Christ. My testimony has been strengthened that this work doesn't happen on my timeline, if it did everyone we met would get baptized the next day. But the Lord lets events turn out in a way that will benefit both us and those we teach in the best possible way. It hurts, but when there's the most opposition there's also the most room for growth. So I have faith that the Lord will consecrate my efforts to both of our gain. Also, I realized that Philip didn't cut off all ties, he just wants to take a break and pursue things on his own. Since then I have never prayed harder for someone.

     Lots of other things happened this week, but overall I'm just so thankful that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are aware of my exact situation. So many things this week with MLC and Zone Training truly humbled and strengthened me. I have lots of room to grow and am so excited to meet the man my Father in Heaven is trying to help me become.

Elder Tippetts