Family and friends,
I guess I'll get to the most exciting thing first. Transfers are this week! On Sunday
we got the call from the Assistants and it looks like my time in
Bozeman is up...but guess where I'm going? MISSOULA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It breaks my heart to leave the YSA but I am so excited to go back to
Zoo Town. So many people that serve in Missoula go back but I never
bought I'd be a repeat, especially for my last transfer. I'm going to be
serving in the Missoula 4h Ward with Elder Kole Smith, another
companion from Vegas. It'll be fun serving with him and it sounds like
some of my favorite Elders are still in Missoula. I could think of a
more perfect place to finish my mission. Trust me, we'll be working
hard. I know a bunch of people in the 4th Ward because of all my
exchanges with the Zone Leaders before so I'm excited. Sorry I've said
excited so many times in this paragraph, I'm just really excited. This
means Bozeman will be my shortest area with 3 transfers and I'll have
been in Missoula for 5 combined.
Now I'll get on to this week. This was a great week to end on. Monday
we went on a hike with the YSA for FHE and lots of the members brought
they're friends that aren't members so we got to meet a bunch of new
people! It was a really pretty hike called "drinking horse mountain" I
believe. I think I'm a little out of shape because I was out of breath
and the next day my thighs were killing me. It was sad because it wasn't
even that long or hard of a hike and it wore me out.
Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Pett again. We went to go
teach Hondo because Elder Pett taught Hondo when he was in the YSA last
year. Elder Pett says it's insane how much progress he's made since last
year. Hondo used to be on the verge of bashing with us and his main
concern was that he couldn't accept Jesus Christ as the Savior. The past
two weeks we've had a couple powerful lessons that were guided by the
spirit and his heart was definitely softening. At the end of our lesson
this Tuesday with a Elder Pett we watched the #BecauseOfHim video and
you could just see the spirit working on him. After the video he said,
"my perspective on the Savior changed. He seemed more real. It's more
understandable." It seemed like a spiritual overload so we just had a
prayer and moved on after giving him another assignment to read and pray
about.
Wednesday after District Meeting Elder Rich and I went on exchanges until a Friday
afternoon. He's also from my transfer group and just such a hard
working missionary. We did so much contacting it was crazy. We had a
lesson with Kelsey which was super good. She continues to be just a
spiritually in tune as usual. It was great because we haven't been able
to have a lesson with her in a couple weeks because she's been out of
town so much. So it was nice to see her again and see that she's still
doing awesome. Thursday
was when we had lots of success finding. We found a bunch of new
investigators. We also had an awesome dinner with a member of the
bishopric in the YSA that lives in First Ward with the first Ward
elders. It was a blast for sure.
Friday
I got a Elder Ison back and that night we had a great last lesson with
Milo. We talked more about enduring to the end again because Milo never
wants to turn away from what he's come to know. He's such an inspiration
to me. Saturday
we had his baptism and it was amazing. There were lots of members from
the YSA there and lots of Milo's non-member family as well. The spirit
was so strong, the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost were the most
powerful I've heard at a baptism. Milo was just smiling so big as he got
into the font and then after his baptism both him and Tommy, his
nephew/our ward mission leader that baptized him, were crying. It was
such a tender moment as all who were there have seen Milo go through a
mighty change of heart. In Max's talk he said that the greatest miracle
of all to see is a heart changing.
The rest of Friday
I was on exchanges with Elder Madsen and he is the funniest. He has the
best laugh ever. We biked for 4 hours and it was the hottest day of the
week. We also had so lots of success contacting people. A cool miracle
was that we knocked on the door of a member we didn't know and his
roommate answered. His roommate just moved here and is also a member but
hasn't been to church yet because he didn't know where it was. It was
cool because we just got his records in the Ward a couple weeks ago but
it the wrong address. We tried to find him because bishop asked us to
and then we just ran into him! That night we also had dinner and a
lesson with Milo about the Holy Ghost to get him pumped up for church
the next day!
Sunday
was a great last Sunday in the YSA. There were awesome talks and
lessons. Also, there were like 16 random YSAs from BYU-I that were
visiting a friend in the Bozeman Stake for the long weekend.
Sorry this one is pretty long. It's been a great week and I love you
all! I'll update my address just in case y'all feel like writing me a
letter my last transfer :)
Elder Garian Tippetts
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