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
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