The Semester is Winding Down

Family and friends,

     Obviously this week was Transfers and I'm truly bummed to lose Elder Schneider. These past two transfers have been a blast. I really grew a lot and learned a lot about myself and my personal desires. Definitely more maturing came. Now I'm with Elder Ison and I'm loving it! We're getting along well which I guessed would happen. I've served around him before and was excited for him to be here with me! Also over transfers I got to see so many missionaries in a while. The one I was most excited to see was without a doubt Elder Skouson. It's been 6 months since I've seen him and in all likelihood I'll never see him again in the mission because he got transferred to the far edge of the mission on the other side of Montana. I legit almost cried it was so good to see him. He pulled into the parking lot and I ran over and practically tackled him as he got out of the car. Elder Schneider said it looked like a scene from a romance movie. What can I say? I love that guy! Just not in that way...anyways! It was just good to see him and catch up on how he's been.

     Elder Schneider's last night here was a grueling game of Ultimate frisbee with the Ward for FHE and an awesome lesson with Petyr, an investigator, afterwards. He is a SUPER deep thinker. SUPER. It's a testimony to me of how God prepares His children, that the Holy Ghost will give light and teach truth to anyone that tries to follow Christ. He wants Prophets to exist and wonder why God seemed to stop speaking. He wonders why we live the gospel and keep the commandments and has come to the conclusion that it is to become pure and holy like God is, to attain unto some form of Godhood. He has tried to figure out how God saves those who don't know the true gospel in this life and figured that there must be different degrees of salvation and a chance for His children to accept it after this life if they didn't have the chance in this life. Those are just his simple questions, it would take a while to write out the rest of them. We're just turning all his questions towards the basics of the gospel and the need to find out if our teachings are true.

     On Wednesday we were going to go meet with a girl, Destiny, that Elder Schneider and I had tracted into at 8:55 last week. We tried for days and all the day of to try to find a guy to come with us because we couldn't be alone with her. It was to no avail. We tried so many people, pretty much every active guy in the Ward and were about to start asking inactive guys. Then I remembered there's a kid in 2nd Ward that is about to graduate high school and he has his mission call to Lima, Peru. We got his number from the 2nd Ward elders and Braden was able to come with us! When we got to her house there was a kind note on the door that expressed how here and her husband (apparently she wasn't YSA...) were not interested at this point in their lives. It was a bummer, but nothing we're not used to. I was worried it would be a bad experience for Braden but when we turned around and looked at him he just shrugged and said, "well, who's next?" So we went and tried some former investigators and less active members with him. He asked us what weird things people do when they see us and we told him about the classic drive by "hail Satan," he didn't believe that actually happens. We felt a prompting to knock on this random door with him so we did and it turned out to be a frat (I don't know how we didn't notice that, there were some weird statues out front and huge Greek letters...). The second the door opened and they saw who we were a guy way in the back of the room yelled, "hail Satan!" One of his friends actually hit him in the head and told him to show us some respect and we had a quality conversation with two of them that led to a politely declined invitation to learn more about the restored gospel. When we got back in his car we laughed hard. Making memories :)

     Last cool thing I'll share this week is that on Tuesday Milo drove all the way down to Salt Lake City to be interviewed by Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy! Milo loved the experience! He even saw President Uchtdorf in the halls! He didn't get to talk to him but he said that when he saw President Uchtdorf the spirit just washed over him and could feel a powerful presence. Pretty neat! So we're just waiting on word from the first presidency now and then Milo will talk to a President Wadsworth one more time and then he'll get baptized!

     Please keep all these people and us in your prayers! Also, don't forget to do as President Hinckley taught, to pray that you can act and help the missionaries in your own area succeed!

Elder Garian Tippetts

Transfers yet again!

Family and friends,

     Another great week. Great because of the fact that we're missionaries and the Lord's hand is in His work. It was a struggle again this week because we had so much we wanted to get done but time and time again things kept coming up that we couldn't put off so we didn't accomplish everything we wanted to but hopefully we accomplished everything the Lord wanted us to. So I guess we did accomplish everything we want to, because I want to do what He wants me to do!

     We got transfer news on Saturday because Transfers will be on Tuesday this week rather than Wednesday. I'm staying here in the Bozeman YSA and I'll be getting Elder Ison as my new companion! He was one of my Zone Leaders back in Missoula so I'm super excited to be with him, he's a great missionary. Elder Schneider is leaving and going down to Cody Wyoming and I'm actually pretty jealous of him. My first choice would be to stay here for the rest of my mission but if I had to leave and could pick where I went I would definitely go to Cody because I love the Wyoming West Zone so much. It looks like this transfer will be awesome though! I'm stoked beyond belief!

     I'm not going to make this email very long because I haven't sent pictures in forever so I'll send a bunch this week. Just keep Tatum and Milo in your prayers. Tatum showed up to FHE last week and over a game of ping pong I was able to follow up with her on how her Book of Mormon reading and prayers are going. She's still diligent with it all, we're just hoping she's ready to start having lessons again. Milo is getting interviewed by Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy tomorrow! He's driving all the way down to Salt Lake for it! Then we just wait for word and approval from the First Presidency before our Mission President will talk with him one last time and then he's good to be baptized whenever!

1. Elder Hoschouer and I saying bye to our Vehicle Coordinator, Elder Baird.

2. Selfie from my first MLC.

3-6. Temple!

7-10. Pictures of our Zone my first transfer here in Bozeman.

11-12. Our District my first transfer here in Bozeman.

13. Selfie wi Elder Cronin.

14. Elder Schneider and Elder Rich.

15. Kelsey!

16. Carson!

17, 19. Basketball, our yellow team one!

18. Cool Montana sign here.

20. A member from one of Elder Schneider's previous areas took us to Wasabi here in Bozeman, it's one of those Japanese Hibachi grills.

Elder Garian Tippetts

Frat Houses...

Family and friends,

     This has been an amazing week. Even when things don't go perfectly as planned it's still great. The longer I've been on my mission and the closer I get to finishing I am grow in my gratitude to my Savior for my call to serve as one of His full time representatives and my assignment to labor in the Montana Billings Mission. It's a privilege to be persecuted and to struggle for Christ's sake.

     There was one pretty crazy thing that happened this week but other than that things were pretty calm. So last transfer the Sister Missionaries got a self-referral from Church Headquarters named Canton. They went over and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he was super excited to meet! They talked to him a little bit before they realized he's YSA age so they passed him off to us and told him some guy missionaries would contact him, he was still down to meet. We call him and the number is disconnected so we go by his place, he answers the door, we tell him our

Church is on the corner of South 5th and Grant and set up an appointment to meet with him. He doesn't keep this appointment, doesn't answer texts or calls and doesn't come to church. So we keep trying but can't make any contact. Keep in mind, this all happened last transfer so for the past ~6 weeks we've been trying to get a hold of him with no luck. Then this past week we give him a call, he answers the phone but hangs up when we tell him we're the missionaries. We text him to see if he's still interested in learning more because the phone call was cutting in and out a little. He responds that he already joined us and is confused as to why we're trying to contact him about learning more. He says for the past six weeks he's been learning about the history channel and at the end of the week he was planning on becoming a full fledged member! Now we're really confused. We tell him we're the full time missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that our church building is at 1316 S Grant to which he responds that he's been going to the building at 1321 S Grant and thought it was also the Church.............guess what's across the street at 1321? A college fraternity house. So we tried to clarify and he hasn't really responded since. Ladies and gentleman, this is the story of the time we got a baptism for a frat house. I don't think they baptize people but same idea. We were a little embarrassed when we told our ward mission leader and he just laughed his head off. This is just one example of something that didn't quite go the way we planned but you learn and move on.

Also on Tuesday we did service at the Community Cafe with our ward. It's a really cool restaurant. It's the only 'pick your own price' restaurant in Montana. They serve a different meal each night and you can literally pay anything, the suggested price is $5 but if you only have a nickel or if you want to pay $100 they'll feed you! They have a lot of homeless people come through that don't have much else to eat. I got to pull out my Chick-Fil-A skills! They assigned me and my companion to do dishes...it's the only place where we could stay together for sure the whole night. It wasn't actually that bad, I had a blast. Speaking of Chick-Fil-A, Meg and Kelsey went down to Utah for conference and watched some of the sessions at the conference center and even went to my home for breakfast and the Sunday morning session with my family! But on their way back we get a phone call around 5 on Monday saying that they're just pulling into a CFA in Idaho on their way home. So my companion and I got to order some and we made a drop off in town when they got back. I think this makes the 4th time I've had Chick-Fil-A on my mission with the only one in boundaries being up in Kalispell and I've never had any from their. #blessings #membermissionarywork

     We had 2 solid lessons this week with 2 different new investigators we found last week! We got members to come to both! One was with Suzanne and the other was with JT. Suzanne had heard lots of bad things about Mormons and what we believe but let us teach her and at the end of the visit she said she learned that we really do love Jesus Christ and that our church is focused on Him! She's excited to learn more and we'll be teaching her again this week! JT is super solid too, he's really curious about religions. He's kept all the commitments we've given him and apologized for ONLY reading the first 7 chapters and all the introductory material in the past week. JT, don't worry, you're doing fine!

     We've been doing lots and lots and lots of finding this week. We usually just walk around the streets surrounding campus and look for apartments that college students probably live in. We're always on the look out for big apartment buildings. Another big sign for wether a college student lives there or not is if they drive a Subaru Outback, have lots of bumper/window stickers or have a license plate from a different state. With all the time we're putting in we aren't seeing too much success but we are seeing progress. I think one of the biggest blessings I see when we do some good finding and don't slow down even when we don't see fruit is the change in me. The gospel doesn't make sense according to the world because it teaches that we take more responsibility upon ourselves and forget about ourselves and then our burdens are lightened. The world teaches to only care about ourselves but that only brings the heavy load of narcissism, loneliness and pride. We need to take Christ's yoke upon us because His burden is light. We do so by facing all trials in life with a spirit of meekness and lowliness of heart. With that attitude we can endure faithfully in submission to the Father's will and His will is only to make us better, even if the refining comes by fire.

     Even though not much happened this week I learned a lot about myself and my Savior. I was getting frustrated a little bit at the beginning of the week but humbled myself to submit to His timetable. I know that if I'm honestly trying my best to be worth of and to follow the spirit then He will hasten His work in His own time. It's a comfort to me know that if I give my heart, might, mind and strength to him completely then He will move His work forward regardless of my weaknesses. God's will and plan is for all of His children to make it back to Him and truly the only thing that ever interrupts His plan is each of our individual wills. God's plan is about repentance, it's about change, it's about Joy. In short, it's about Jesus Christ, He who is the Giver of all good gifts. Press forward and trust that His grace sufficient.

Elder Garian Tippetts

garian.tippetts@myldsmail.net

Facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts

eldergariantippetts.blogspot.com

311 Michael Grove Unit B

Bozeman, MT 59718

🎶Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice🎶

Dear Family and Friends,

     Everything is still going great here, especially with General Conference. I was literally just so stoked for this conference and it definitely didn't disappoint. These past few transfers I've come to appreciate more and more what a blessing it is to have the knowledge that there are living prophets on the earth today. We had a bunch of errand and places we bounced around between Saturday and Sunday and it was so weird just seeing people going about their normal lives while such an amazing event was happening. I was yelling at people at the top of my lungs, "DON'T YOU KNOW THERE ARE PROPHETS SPEAKING!?!?!?" But alas, my sly companion locked the windows so I didn't make a fool of us. This weekend I especially felt the need to go tell people that God hasn't left us alone to kick against the pricks and try to understand scripture and His will all alone. There is so much hope in knowing that He's speaking today, that He hasn't changed.

Here's a couple quick moments from the week:

• Last Monday we had our lesson with Tatum and she really enjoyed it and the spirit was strong but at the end of the lesson she sorta dropped us. She's a very independent person and until about a year ago she wasn't actively religious at all. The past year has led her to try to find the truth and seek God's will with an honest and open heart. The good thing is that for now she hasn't dropped the Book of Mormon or the Church, just us. She said she feels like we've given her what she needs for now and she'll continue to read and pray everyday and to come to church when she can but she doesn't want to meet as regularly with us. She's afraid having too much will falsely influence her own opinions so she's taking a couple steps back to examine where she wants to go from now. I really admire her personal maturity in taking charge of her own life. The day before this lesson happened I fasted to better understand my situation in this area and with our investigators and I just felt peace that things are working out. With this lesson there was of course the potential to be completely bummed out but I just felt peace.
• Wednesday night we had dinner with our recent convert, Kelsey, out at her place in Belgrade. One of our Ward missionaries, Max, came with us and we got an awesome meal and the opportunity to meet all of Kelsey's roommates! All three of them were so nice. During dinner we brought up the church and they were all so curious and had never really known much about Mormons besides: Polygamy, coffee and the Book of Mormon. So we got to explain all that and answer a couple questions! We left them all with copies of the Book of Mormon and they said they'll definitely read. Kelsey was so excited to see some of her best friends open up to us and consider our message. They said they're definitely going to have us back over again because that means Kelsey has to cook a family meal again. Both College students and missionaries appreciate home cooked meals more than ever before.
• Milo is rocking life! He is doing so well. He's been reading the scriptures more consistently and is loving the lessons. We taught him the night before his interview and talked about the atonement of Jesus Christ and it's significance in our lives. He said he didn't feel nervous at all for the interview because he's becoming more confident in his testimony. The interview went well and now we're waiting to here from the first presidency for what the next step is. Most likely Milo will drive down to Salt Lake to meet with a member of the Seventy. He watched all of Sunday Conference and gave the honest response that some of it was boring. But he said he watched it anyways and a couple of the talks were super interesting to him and helped him find more courage to continue pressing forward.
• Do y'all remember Natnael? I think I mentioned him a couple weeks ago. He's the one that came here from Africa and after we met with him and he ate up the message of living prophets he talked to a lady that was very anti-Mormon. We haven't been able to get a hold of him since that happened about a month ago. We felt to go stop by his apartment on Saturday and he was home and let us right in. He had been filled with so much anti so we went through the process of cleaning up so much garbage. From secret handshakes and clothing to coffee and continuing revelation. His big focus was that he was told we look to many other sources for salvation other than Jesus Christ. We assured him, with special emphasis after Saturday Conference, that "salvation comes in and through the atonement blood of Jesus Christ and in no other way" (Bruce R. McConkie's final testimony in conference). As we just continually testified of the Savior's saving power he listened more and more. He won't cut ties with those the other church because of some obligations but we helped him understand his need to get our side of the story. He even agreed to come the Sunday Afternoon session of conference! He came and enjoyed it! Hopefully things will continue to progress there now. He says he hopes he becomes convinced of our message, he loves the idea of living Prophets.

     Thanks again for all the support. We'd appreciate prayers in our behalf as well as Tatum, Milo and Natnael. Don't forget to pray for your own missionary efforts to, never stop praying for opportunities to share the gospel yourself. Missionary work always works best when members are the source from which new investigators are found.

Elder Garian Tippetts

garian.tippetts@myldsmail.net

Facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts

eldergariantippetts.blogspot.com

311 Michael Grove Unit B

Bozeman, MT 59718