"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

Meteetsee and the Miracles of Service

Family and friends,


This last week was super fun! I haven't actually been in our house

since last week. Monday to Wednesday last week I was in Cody with

Elder Hubbard on exchanges. It was a blast. Elder Hubbard is obsessed

with Diesel trucks and he works just like one, you can't stop him from

working. While we were together a guy showed up that used to live in

Meteetsee and wanted to go on some visits our there with the

missionaries so we spent all of Tuesday with him out in Meteetsee,

it's got maybe 350 people and is about 40 minutes away from Cody. We

taught a super awesome investigator and also a less active member.

People that live out in the country are so sincere, both lessons were

powerful. I learned so much from them because they have their

priorities in the right place, God and family at the top.

Elder Hubbard also took me to the Cody Mural building. It is such

a neat thing, if any of you go through Wyoming make sure you stop in

Cody to see the church museum and mural. They have a FamilySearch

computer that tells you about who your ancestors are and lots of other

cool facts. Turns out that Byron Sessions is my 8th cousin 3 times

removed! He was called by the church to help settle the basin because

of his experience irrigating. So the Big Horn Basin runs in my blood.

Yesterday we visited Byron Sessions' great-grandson, a less active

member that we visit regularly, and I told him that we're related and

we were both pretty excited about that.

We do service for this old guy (don't worry, he tells us to call

him old man or grumpy) named Ray every Friday and he's not a member.

We filled up his planter boxes with dirt, planted his garden and have

taken care of it as well as mowing and weed whacking his lawn every

week. He told us off the bat when we met him that he hates religion

and would have nothing to do with us talking about it with him. Every

once in a while over the past 2 months we drop a couple of hints but

he catches on and gets bristly. We hadn't brought up anything for a

while and then this past Friday while we were working at his house he

stopped us and said, "you know what boys? If I was even slightly

religious you'd have sold me a long time ago. You four are some of the

finest young man I've ever met and if half the members of your church

are as Christlike as you it would have to be the true church." I think

most of the members of this church are way better than me, so I agree

with him. It is the truth.

Here's two 'but if not...' miracles (Look up the talk "but if not"

from April 2004). One night we were trying people and praying for

miracles to happen but nothing was working out at all. As we kept

going and trying to follow promptings, even really awkward hard ones,

we got a text from a lady we met a couple weeks ago that was

interested but has a tough schedule. Now we've got an appointment

scheduled for tonight! Also, last night we were trying people with no

success again and decided that we should tract out this

apartment-complex-like-place. We knocked on 7 doors with one rude

answer and no other answers. We missed one of the Apartments and it

was out of the way now so we didn't want to walk all the way over to

it, but we did anyways. The guy answered and he said he grew up Mormon

but isn't sure if he's baptized but was super open to us coming back

tonight and teaching him, his girlfriend and his daughter!

Other than all of that we spent a lot of time this last week

coordinating stuff for the fair. We finished filling out all of our

volunteer time slots and got a bunch of hand outs and such cut out and

prepared. People have been donating water bottles and the works for us

to give out. The lady in charge of the whole fair really likes family

history works so this last week she also upgraded us to the really

nice brand new events center! It pays to be on the Lord's errand ;)

Oh yeah, last thing! The other half of the week (after exchanges)

I wasn't in our home because the Jeide's had a bunch of teenage

granddaughters visiting so we couldn't be there at the house for a

bit. So we moved into their camper trailer for the rest of the week! I

sleep on the couch, Elder Decker has the table, Elder Stone has a

mattress on the floor and Elder Decker sleeps in the one natural bed.

All four of us in a little trailer for 5 days has been awesome, we

really got to know each other better! Not many missionaries get to go

camping on their missions!

So that's my week. Lots of good things going on this week as well.

Please pray for us and the other missionaries that will be working the

family history booth at the fair. Pray that the spirit of Elijah will

be over the Park County Fair this week!

Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E

Powell, Wyoming 82435

Too many miracles that we don't know what to do with

Family and Friends,

This week has been awesome. Lots of good service and great lessons. We're working but we're still struggling getting those investigators and such to come to church. We finally got Kyle J to come to family history after church though and that went really well. He had a couple concerns but is back on date to be baptized. Kyle D is doing well but his schedule has just been so crazy so we haven't really been able to teach him more but he's still on board to get baptized, he asked us a question about tithing so we answered it and taught him about it real quick and he wholeheartedly committed to paying tithing after he's baptized!

Things with the Cheney's have gone well, but they still haven't come to church. Last Monday we went by to talk to them about why they didn't come to church but they ended up showing us around their property. They've got cows, chickens, ducks, dogs and horses. And...a coon! They have a pet coon! They caught it 3 years ago the day it was born and have raised it so it's tame. It was licking our fingers through the wire cage and I thought that was awesome. I didn't think it could get any better...but then we were about to leave and Brother Cheney asked if I wanted to hold it! I thought he was joking but they went ahead and pulled it out of the cage and I've never been so happy in my entire life. It likes to play so before they handed her (Missy) to me it jumped out of their arms and was hiding under the trailer. So we flushed her out and then I held her and it was a blast. She was teething my hand like a puppy would, but even lighter, and then she crawled up onto my shoulder and perched there like a parrot! I definitely have pictures you'll get to see!

Things keep getting better. We stopped by on Thursday for a lesson but they had to take care of a bunch of things outside so we helped them weed and they were really appreciative. As we were leaving they told us that since most of their cows have calved they're going to be branding! So on Saturday we went to go brand. Yup, I went to a branding. We had to push our dinner appointment back 30 minutes, which worked out well because Brother Cheney got home late. So we got everything set up and then helped them put a couple cows into the chutes and we watched them brand 2 cows. They were going to let us brand the next one but we were going to be late to our already late dinner appointment if we didn't leave then. Don't worry, I'll find a time to brand soon hopefully, they have 1 cow that got away and it still hasn't calved so the Cheney's said they'd call us so we can come brand the last two calves. Best thing ever.

Also Monday night we were having dinner after playing basketball with some of our investigators and less active's on preparation day. At dinner we asked the Bennetts if there was anyone they wanted us to visit and they mentioned the Cooleys. Sister Bennett said that the Cooleys daughter has never been to her primary class and she's never seen her at church. So we're driving to someone else's home down near the Cheney's and we see a guy with a giant propellor on his back and I was confused but kept driving for about a half mile. I mention it to Elder Stone and he says to turn back and check it out, then we realize it was the Cooley's house! So we turn around and the guy with the propellor isn't there anymore. He's flying. Literally flying. He had a paragliding wing and a giant propellor on his back and was up around 500 ft in the air. So we sit around and take pictures and waited for him to land and then went to talk to him and yes, it was Brother Cooley! We met him once before and he didn't seem too excited to see us then, but this time we really got to know him and he told us everything about his paramotor (that's what the whole contraption is called). We helped him set his stuff all up again and he showed us a take off and then did some cool aerial stunts for us. It was pretty bomb. Moral of the story, he wants us to come back and meet the rest of his family! It was such a cool miracle that we were told to go visit them and then we just happened upon him!

Last awesome miracle is Matt. He's a guy we've been trying to meet with for a while. We got an appointment with him but when we showed up he said it was a bad time and that we should come back over the next morning at 10. So we pushed back a small service project so we could teach his family the restoration. He's a single dad with 4 kids, two are younger than 8 and two are over. So we taught them the restoration, showed them the Joseph Smith's First Vision video and then we committed them to baptism! Matt and his two kids, Tayden and Weston, are going to get baptized! I was just so happy. We've gotten pretty close to those kids. They love it when we come over and they're super excited to tell us everything that's happened since we last stopped by. Having charity is such a real thing and it's the only way to get things accomplished. If you want to help someone change you just have to love them, love them and love them some more. God's work is a work of love.




Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

A baptism, part member families...and you guessed it...more service!

Family and Friends,

Remember a couple weeks ago when Carter got baptized? Well his 9 year old brother got baptized this Saturday! We're still working on the middle child, he's not sure he wants to get baptized anymore but we'll keep meeting with them all. The baptism was awesome though! There was a big turnout, including 3 non members! We stopped by one of our investigator's, Henry, right before the baptism and he came! His wife and son got baptized down in Houston 7ish years ago and so this was e second baptism he was ever at. It turns out that Cole's mom is Henry's cousin so that was a neat connection! The other non members was a girl from Cole's class at school and her mom. I talked with them quite a bit and it turns out that her husband is a less active member and his parents are active members in one of the wards we cover, so we'll talk with them to see what work can be done there.

Moral of the story, part member families are a missionary's best friend. Remember that miracle family I told you about last week, the Cheney's, where the dad basically taught the lesson and said an awesome prayer at the end? Well we had another crazy miracle lesson with them this week. We stopped by on Thursday and they let us right in and we started talking with them and kept building our friendship. They showed us pictures of a recent rafting trip their family went on and they tried to talk us into going with them so we had to explain that since we're missionaries we can't but they told us that after our missions we have to come back and go rafting with them! Anyways, that's besides the point. After talking with them for a couple minutes the Dad stops the conversation and says, "you know what Elders, you always tell us good stories, it's my turn this week." He proceeds to tell us about how they were camping a couple weeks ago and a little girl got lost in the woods while playing hide and seek (don't worry, she was only gone for maybe 20 minutes), so they put together search parties and we're looking for her. While he was put in the woods with only his small cell phone light he said he realized that he's been trying to find his way through the darkness with too little light for too long and that he feels God pushing him to accept more light into his life! So I guess you could say things are going well there. Sadly they weren't able to make it to church this week but we'll be visiting them tonight to see how things are going!

And...SERVICE!!! On Saturday I looked at our schedule ever since Elder Stone and I have been together and I tallied up more than 83 hours of service. That's a good amount. We did a lot of stuff for old man Ray. He's an old guy that lives in the other Elder's area. We helped him move lots of dirt in the past. This last week we planted his garden and mowed and weed whacked his lawn. He'll come up behind us and yell at us and tell us how horrible of a job we're doing, stare us down, then walk away win a toothless smile and laugh. He's funny. He gave us all nicknames too. Elder Hubbard (we were on exchanges) is boots, Elder Decker is Mud, Elder Fleming is Jock, Elder Stone is Hyper or Cutie (depending on his mood), and I'm Honcho.

On Thursday Elder Stone and I went to a part member families house, the Kiers, and did service for them. Elder Stone mowed their lawn while I tilled their garden with a shovel. Then Elder Stone, the Unbaptized boy and the less active dad weeded while I worked on taking a trump out with a wedge and hammer. It was good hard work and we were definitely exhausted and sweaty at the end. We really got some good fellowshipping in and got to know them a lot better. There will definitely be more open doors in the future because of this.

Finally, on Saturday we did even more service at 9 we went to a family that used to be less active but in the past year all of their kids have been baptized and they come to church almost every week. We went over there with the other Elders and 6 guys from 3rd Ward and fixed the soffit and facia on their house. We went around the house on ladders and caulked in he big gaps and then put some new wood lining in. We did the caulking and held the wood in place because we're not allowed to use nail/staple guns. Then at noon we went to the Parish's. They're a recent convert family that was baptized in November. We helped them load things into a U-Haul because they're moving to Georgia. I'll really miss them but they've been to church down there once already and really enjoyed it so they'll be in good hands. Around 2ish we went out to the Redd's again and sheet rocked! They're the ones that we did landscaping for a couple weeks ago. Between fixing a roof and sheet rocking I had a good day, I wish we had more opportunities to do service like that.

Last thing is Joe. His life seems to be going well now and we were able to teach him at the church this week! He even committed to baptism and said that he's finally ready to quit smoking and get married! Huge miracle!

Thanks for all your prayers! We appreciate it and see the effect on all our investigators. I love you all!



Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

Are we going to stop doing service? No.

Family and friends,
We keep doing spice, and lots of it. Before my mission I was never too big into service projects most of the time but on my mission I've had my testimony really strengthened on service. We feel happier as missionaries and see more miracles and blessings daily! We went over to a older guy in the other Elder's area and we helped him move a bunch of dirt around in his planters and tomorrow we're going back to finish tilling his garden tomorrow afternoon. We were supposed to go to his house on Friday but we had Zone Training that morning so we went over Thursday instead.
We also joined the other Elders to help a cool family rip out carpet and linoleum. It was fun because I haven't done that in a long time. We also went with them to help some members move. I also really love helping people move now because of my mission. It's fun to organize the things in the truck so it all fits, sort of exhilarating. Sorry if that sounds super lame. We were down under their house in the crawl space hauling a lot of things out, again pretty fun. It was nice and clean, I appreciated that because I don't do spiders.
Saturday we did some awesome service for the Jeides, the family we live with. We were climbing in trees and ripping out vines. My arms got pretty cut up, I've got scratches all over. Brother Jeide was using a chainsaw and cutting trees out pretty short and then we'd drag them out. We hauled a bunch of the dirt over to their home from the Lutheran church across the street. They're building a super nice church that's cost a pretty penny and apparently they have a super nice mural that an artist came and painted there. We know a couple people that go there so they're going to give us a tour sometime soon! Anyways, they have a bunch of leftover dirt because of the construction so they're basically letting anyone take rock or dirt if they want. So we went picking around the big piles until we found good dirt and then hauled it to some new planters that Sister Jeide built. It was a good time.
We had Zone Training this last week. I gave a discussion about humility and it was pretty good. Most of it was focused on getting rid of pride, pride is a fun subject. I always get asked to talk about pride, I guess I need a lot more humility. I feel like President Uchtdorf when, in his 2010 October talk to the priesthood, said, "Every mortal has at least a casual if not intimate relationship with the sin of pride. No one has avoided it; few overcome it. When I told my wife that this would be the topic of my talk, she smiled and said, “It is so good that you talk about things you know so much about.”"
Lastly we've seen some cool miracles as we exercise faith and trust that people can change and accept the gospel. There's a part member family that hasn't come to church in a long time. A member of the Ward council has been praying for their family for over a year and they recently went through some humbling experiences. We stopped by a couple weeks ago and they let us right in and we got to know each other really well. This last week we had a miracle lesson with them. We talked with them and then we shared a Mormon message and the dad just took over from there. He was just leading the discussion on humility and patience in trials and basically to whole time was bearing his testimony to his unbaptized kids! Then they told us that they should be able to make it to church this next week! At the end of the lesson the Dad said the prayer, he kneeling prayer, and it was probably the most humble and honest prayer I've heard on my mission.

I love you all! I appreciate all the prayers y'all are sending my way!

Elder Tippetts
607 Avenue E
Powell, Wyoming 82435

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

We're hitting the new transfers running

Family and friends,

Transfer calls came in yesterday and I'll be staying in Powell with Elder Stone for another transfer! I'm super excited because we have a lot of good work going for us. We have baptisms happening on the 11th and 25th of June and we've got one that's supposed to get baptized on the 28th of May but we'll probably be pushing that back to sometime in June as well.

The last district meeting of the transfer was really awesome. A lot of spiritual power was packed into it. Elder Sorensen gave his departing discussion and it was great. He talked about having a good attitude and charity during your mission so that you don't have any regrets when you get home. Elder Sorensen finished his mission this transfer and as of Saturday he is no longer a missionary, that's pretty weird. He was the first missionary that I've served around and been with on exchanges that has gone home. We had lunch with him on Friday before he drove up to Billings and it was a tough goodbye.

Two cool miracles from the week. (1) We were trying by Victor's house and he wasn't answering. When we turned around we saw a mother and her young kids walking across the street and Elder Stone, being the stud he is, ran after them and we started talking! They had just moved here from Billings and they told us that they don't have a church to go to around here so of course we invited them and told them that our church always accepts visitors and they seemed excited to come! It was also the oldest girl's 8th birthday so definitely another baptism. Sadly when we stopped by their house for our set appointment and their landlord said that they moved unexpectedly so hopefully we'll catch them around town sometime. (2) We went to the Parish family (recent converts) to re-teach some of the lessons but their friend Cheyanne was there and we ended up teaching him the whole Restoration. I know that before I was here, Elder Lankford and Elder Rose had talked with him a couple of times but he wasn't interested at all. At the end of the lesson he just started telling us that he felt so good and that he knew it was the spirit and that he knew everything we had told him was true! So we invited him to be baptized and even though he had just finished telling us how much he loved his church and getting baptized previously he didn't even hesitate to say yes!

We did some more service for Clarence this week. All four of us went over there and we spent a couple hours helping him irrigate his big garden. He hoed out all the roes and then tug the drain trenches. It was all fun and the whole time Clarence kept saying, "Good work boys! Stick with me and you'll be wearing diamonds the size of horse turds!" Instead we got pizza, but that's still pretty good! We also went out to the Redd's. They live out in the country and they're called as missionaries to teach the Addiction Recovery Program at the church here. We helped them move a bunch of railroad ties around to make terraces on the hill next to their house so it doesn't erode as much. We landscaped it and helped them move dirt around and make everything nice and level and even. I love service, it makes me feel so much more like a missionary!

Other than all that things are still going great here! I am unbelievably stoked for another 6 weeks in Powell! Since Elder Sorensen went home we have his companion, Elder Gutierrez, with us until Wednesday. I hope y'all have a great week!



Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

Mother's day

Family and Friends,

I can't believe Mother's Day has come and gone. It was definitely a relaxing day. I feel so refreshed and renewed after talking to my family. Both sacrament meetings, 1st and 3rd Wards, we're so good. We were able to take some flowers and other gifts to a couple of our investigators and they really appreciated it! During lunch I played pool with a 12 year old (we live with the Jeide's, they have a pool table, their grandson was here) and he beat me twice in a row so I felt sufficiently humbled for my skype call. While Elder Stone was talking with his family I was playing on the piano, 1st ward's mission leader sent us music for Shenandoah and asked me to learn to play and sing it. Needless to say I was having lots of fun. Then we had a correlation meeting with Bro Wisniewiski (Wiz-nih-ski), the 3rd Ward mission leader. He's such a great guy and really helps us get everything set up for the upcoming week.

This week was super great! We put 3 people on date! (Sorry...didn't mean to rhyme) First was Kyle J, he's the one that showed up to church last week with a friend that we then taught Monday night. He accepted everything we taught, even a baptismal date! As we finished talking about reading the Book of Mormon, before we even invited him to do anything with it, he said, "so I should probably get myself a copy and read a couple chapters each night, right?" RIGHT! Perfect answer! We met with him again on Wednesday and he came to all three hours of church again this week. He's doing well and we'll meet again this Wednesday.

Next person we put on date is Kyld D. He's the one we found while street contacting when we couldn't find a less active's address. We'd been having a hard time getting a hold of him but on Thursday we did some service in the morning at the thrift store and as we were leaving he was walking right by on the sidewalk! So we talked with him and scheduled an appointment for that night. It was getting a little stormy and last time we met with him we just sat on his open porch, so we were trying to think of some solutions. Kyle came out with his Book of Mormon, ready to talk, and Elder Stone, being the stud he is, asked Kyle if he just wanted to jump in his car and follow us to the church. So that's what we did, on the way to the church we got a hold of Bro Williams, the Elders Quorum president and he said he'd meet us there in 5 minutes. We followed up with him on his scripture reading while we waited for Bro Williams to show up and then we all went into the chapel and had a fantastic discussion on the sacrament and the atonement. Kyle accepted the invitation to be baptized and he said he thinks this will be a great step in his life. Then we taught him again on Saturday and in his prayer he thanked God for the good feelings he gets whenever we meet together! He showed up to church for 2/3 of sacrament meeting because he had to go to work, but he's a manager at his job so he said that he'll change his schedule up in 2 weeks so he can be there longer!

Last but definitely not least is Jessica. The missionaries have been trying to meet with her since the end of last summer but we haven't dropped her because she shows so much potential and it's not her fault she doesn't meet with us. We get appointments scheduled and then her kid has to go to the ER or crazy stuff like that. So we stopped by and Jessica and her friend were there and again Elder Stone asks them if they want to follow us to the church and they accept. So this time we call Bro Spomer, one of the Ward missionaries and he said he'd meet us in 5 minutes. So we showed them the whole church and they really liked it, especially all the things about families. Once again it was the chapel that did all the magic. We talked about the restoration and shared the first vision and started right into talking about baptism. For the first time since I met Jessica she didn't shut down the conversation the moment baptism was mentioned! She was even the one that came up with the date, so she's working for the 9th of July! And tomorrow we'll have another lesson and her friend will tell us if we would like to get baptized that same day as well.

Anyways, the Lord's work is real and He delivers on his promises. I'm so thankful to be a missionary and I'm so thankful for my mom and how she's helped prepare me to be here.



P.S. This upcoming Sunday we'll find out transfer news



Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

The elect!

Family and friends,

Dang this week was so refreshing. We were teaching lessons and following the spirit and all those other things that make missionary work the best thing ever. We also had exchanges this week, Elder Stone went to Burlington with Elder Sorenson and Elder Gutierrez came up here to Powell. Tuesday morning we switched and had lunch at El Tapatío, a Mexican place.

Do you remember Victor? I'll remind you of how we found him. It was almost 9 and we prayed to see if we needed to go contact a less active member we were planning on visiting and we felt we should go. No one answered and on our way back to the car we stopped by his house because he had a light on and he let us in. So we had 3 lessons with him this week at the church with different members each time. On Tuesday Elder Gutierrez and I took Victor on a tour of the church with Brother Gwynn, one of our ward missionaries. Victor just loved it all and kept telling us how beautiful the church was. We were talking to him about the restoration and told him that the LDS church isn't just another religion but it's Christ's original church and the only true and living one on the earth. He straight up agreed. STRAIGHT UP! There wasn't even an ounce of hesitation, he just immediately agreed! Then we went into the chapel and we were all bearing our testimonies to him and he told us that he felt so good and said this is something he could commit to. STRAIGHT UP! Not kidding at all. So what did we do? Committed him to it! Victor's getting baptized on the 28th of May!!! None of us could believe what just happened, it was a lesson that missionaries dream about.

Then on Friday we taught him again at the church. He showed up super confused and frustrated. He told us that he was really sorry but that he wasn't going to be able to do this any longer. We calmed him down until Brother Gilmore showed up. He was a miracle member for that lesson. Victor had some concerns about the church because of some stuff he'd been reading online and in the news about the church and BYU and Brother Gilmore just happened to have read those same article this past week and was able to shed new light on it for Victor. At the end of the lesson Victor was so apologetic and said that he came to the lesson feeling very negative but was leaving very positive. We taught him again the next day with Brother Gilliatt our ward mission leader. He's continuing to do well and in the lesson with Bro Gilliatt he accepted everything about the restoration and it all made perfect sense to him. Victor even came to church on Sunday even though a lot of hard things are happening in his life.

The last miracle I'll share is Kyle J, he's not the other Kyle I've mentioned, that's Kyle D. He just showed up to church yesterday with a member and stayed for all three hours and loved it! We'll be teaching him tonight and he was so excited to meet so he'll definitely get put on date.

I'm so excited for this upcoming week, lots of good things are happening here in Powell. Also, this upcoming week is Mother's Day so I'll get to skype home! Definitely stoked for that!





Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

It's official! I'm contagious

Family and friends,

So once upon a time today I found out I have Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. Nothing too serious but it means these next couple days can be a little uncomfortable. I got really sick on Friday and then Saturday and Sunday everything went away except for a sore throat and now today I'm getting the little sores on my hands and feet that characterize it. So Elder Childers (he's a practicing Doctor here in Powell that is also a medical coordinator for our mission) told me to have lots of chocolate milk, ice cream, Tylenol and cough drops this week. It is moderately contagious but only through saliva and mucous and other bodily fluids so we'll still be doing some teaching.

Anyways, on to the rest of the week. Last preparation was probably the best one ever! We went out to the George's dairy farm with the Zone Leaders. Bro George is a member of the bishopric here and all the rest of his family lives in Cody and it's their family dairy! We spent 3 hours out there and he gave us a really in depth tour. They forever disprove the idea that farmers are dumb, I never knew that taking care of a farm and dairy took so much work. He showed us how they milk the cows (it's all automated and pretty hi-tech) and how they feed the cows (the cows get a more balanced and regulated diet than any human probably does). They even showed us the breeding barn and walked us through the process of artificial insemination. Sorry if that weirds you out. The best part though was the baby cows. They all had their own individual giant do house (the igloo style ones) with a little wire fence around them. They were in there just hopping around and bellowing and having a good time. Then brother George showed us that if you stick your fingers in front of their face they'll just latch on and start sucking. It was a really weird sensation but all of us thought it was hilarious to see the baby cows put our hands in their mouths. They only have their bottom teeth half formed and no top teeth, so there's no danger of them biting off your hand.

We did A LOT of service this past week. Tuesday Morning we spent 2 hours sweeping some outdoor patios at The Manor, it's an assisted living place here in town. We didn't even get halfway through that stuff and there's more stuff to do after that. We were able to talk to some of the people living there, some of them are less active members. And the lady at the front desk (non-member) was so appreciative and we talked to her a bit about our beliefs about service and what it means to be on a mission, it was a great experience. We met an older guy that wanted some help moving some water heaters so we went back on Thursday and he wasn't home. We were walking back and his neighbor was outside so we offered some service and ended up trimming her hedges for a couple hours and she told us about her life and all the trees and other plants she has. We had to get going so we went back on Saturday and finished up and she had baked cookies for us! She was a great friend to find, not particularly interested in learning about the gospel but really kind. We also did more service at one of the thrift shops in Powell again! For any of you that don't know, my love for Thrift Shops is immense. We vacuumed some more, fixed another vacuum and steamed the wrinkles out of some clothes.

Last service we did was we found Clarence, the older guy with the water heaters, on Saturday. He already got those taken care of so we helped him clean out one of his tomato gardens. We were walking up and he was looking at us weird so we called out, "don't you recognize us without our ties on?" And he laughed and yelled back "Oh look! I thought it was them Mormon Boys!" He offered us a cool beer for our help too many times to count, we finally got him to settle on a cold water bottle. After cleaning out the garden he showed us his animal shed. He has a full body Elk Mount that took second place in the World Taxidermy Competition! He also had a giant trophy Moose head, a bunch of deer and my favorite thing he had was a wolf! It was really majestic and so realistic. I was expecting it to start snarling and eat my face off.

Anyways, last thing is an update on one of the miracles I shared last week. It just keeps getting better. This is about Kyle, he's the less active member we met by mixing up the address we were looking for. So we taught him and it was really awesome! We read out of the Book of Mormon and Brother Spomer kept testifying of how the gospel has changed his life since he started coming back to church in the past year. The spirit was super strong. But wait, there's more. He told us that his family stopped going to church when he was 6 or 7. SIX OR SEVEN. Do you see what we were excited about? So we nonchalantly asked him if he was ever baptized, or at least as nonchalantly as a missionary can ask at the prospect of a potential baptism. He said that he doesn't know if he's ever been baptized and that over the past couple of years he's been really wondering if he has been. We asked if he'd want to get baptized if he found out that he never was and he said, "Sure, I've always liked the Mormon religion." So we talked to the bishop of the Ward he used to live in over in Cody and got his records transferred over and he's not baptized! Moral of the story is we're super excited to keep working with him! The main hurdle we'll need to get over with him is that his work schedule won't currently allow him to come to church...prayers would be appreciated!



I love you all! Have a grand week!


Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

1. The Wyoming West Zone for this transfer

2. Us next to a bunch of cows

3. Me in a John Deere tractor

4. A baby cow sucking on my fingers! This cow was my favorite because it doesn't have ears.

Two miracles. Short but sweet.

Family and friends,

So much stuff ended up happening today so this will be pretty short. I just want to share two miracles from the week.

Elder Stone and I decided to work super hard to show our faith that there are people prepared to receive the gospel. One day we had some plans to go to an area we felt we needed to go to. Along the way we kept feeling like there were some other places we needed to stop at, so we kept putting off the original place by the park we were walking to. We've been working hard at sticking to the plans we make but we felt really strongly about each place we went so we were talking and decided that the place we were going was the right place but God needed us to get there a little late than we planned. We were getting a little discouraged because all of our promptings were not coming up with anything. We finally got to the place and skipped the first door because the second one had a light on. The second, third and fourth doors all answered but none were interested. Then we turned around to head back and someone had come out of the first door and was sitting on his porch, this is Sam. We end up having a great conversation with Sam about the Book of Mormon and he committed to read and accepted a specific return appointment!

Last one. We went to go contact a less active lady and I knew her address and I had tried by her house multiple times already, so I knew where I was going. When we got to her street I began to doubt that it was the right street, so I checked the address and sure enough it was the wrong street! So we went to the street that I now knew it was but couldn't find the house. So we went to a young couple that was sitting in a car nearby to ask if they knew where the lady lived. They didn't, but then we started talking with them about the Book of Mormon. It turns out the guy is a less active member and his records aren't here and the girl has been wanting to know more about Mormons for a while! So they committed to be reading the Book of Mormon and praying until our return appointment this week! Then I checked the lady's address again and it was the original street that we had gone to before I doubted. I know I didn't misread it. God moves in mysterious ways to get us to be with the right people!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E
Powell, Wyoming 82435

The work is hastening!

Family and friends,



First off, we moved! We're out of the cozy little apartment we were living in on Avenue B and now we're living with the Jeide's on Avenue E! My new address is at the bottom, so feel free to send anything :)

Anyways, the first week being with my cousin has seriously been the best thing ever! I love him so much. He's a super refreshing companion, meaning I always feel so full of energy with him around! We've been working super hard and are really seeing the Lord's hand in the work. I've really had my testimony strengthened that this is His work, gospel and church.

This week I'll sorta go through each day one at a time because it was that good. Tuesday night the Cody Elders came up and Elder Nuffer and Elder Lankford left, leaving Elder Loehr and I in Powell. That night we had a great lesson with a young less active couple where we applied Elder Holland's talk from conference to their desire to get sealed in the temple. It really answered lots of their questions and gave them the hope they need to push through tomorrows to get there. The rest of the night was cleaning and getting other logistics taken care of for transfers.

Transfer Wednesdays are usually a day where next to no missionary work is done and I'll be honest, I was looking forward to a bit of relaxation, but I really felt the need to get the transfer started that day so a Elder Loehr and I hit the pavement! We walked around and talked with people of the streets and contacted a bunch of investigators. We even got a new one! Then we drove down south of town contacting some more people. We had a really cool doorstep lesson with an investigator that we thought was dodging us, but literally everything that could have gone wrong in her life did, so we're glad we found her. While we talked she realized that all these hard things that were getting in the way of our appointments came from Satan trying to stop us from meeting. She's really starting to understand how this Gospel can bless her. We also talked with a lady we thought was a less active member, Aletha, and we found out that she's actually excommunicated. She was very open with her feelings again, like usual, and told us that she was scared to possibly convert again but is willing to try! She wouldn't stop thanking us for being persistent and never give up on her because we've been trying to teach her this whole transfer but it's never worked out. We told her that we don't give up on her because we know it's the right thing for her and that it's what God wants for her, she really liked that. We also talked with Joe, he's in his 20s and his Dad is a recently reactivated member. We read from Mosiah 24 with him about God making us strong and our burdens light and he started tearing up pretty bad, right there on his porch!

Late Wednesday night Elder Stone showed up and then Thursday we started working hard. Elder Stone is super good at talking to everyone and I couldn't tell you how many times since Thursday that we've pulled over and ran a couple people down! We didn't got any new investigators from it yet, but we've met some nice people and had good conversations. That night we met one of the coolest people from my entire mission so far. His name is Dennis, he's 70 years old and a philosophy/art professor at Northwest College. Every time we walk by his house we see his big truck out front. And when I say big mean BIG. The wheels are more than half as tall as me. But the real unique thing about the truck is the horns (don't worry, pictures will come). He has 90 real cattle horns coming out of the bed of his truck. That's not even the entire unique part yet because this is Wyoming, lots of people have cattle horns in the back of their trucks. Dennis has every inch of them covered in small pieces of mirrors. It's quite the bright and reflective sight! Anyways, we talked with him and he told us stories about his truck and cops pulling him over just to get pictures of it! He's had so many crazy experiences in his life, especially with that truck. Then he told us that he used to be a minister and wasn't looking for a new church, but he said we could come back and chat with him about religion during May when he's working on his lawn!

Saturday night we had a pretty cool miracle with a referral. We got Mark's name and address and went to contact him but it was a motel. The motel owner finally told us which one he lives in so we visited him. It turns out he's a less active member, we're trying to find his records now. He asked us for a blessing because of some bad lung problems he has. We talked with him about faith and then gave him a blessing. Before, he was really drowsy and sick looking. After, he was happy and smiling and healthy looking! He told us that he felt tingly all over and good inside. We gave him a Book of Mormon because he doesn't have a copy anymore and invited him to church, sadly he didn't show but that leads us on to our next miracle!

Sunday night it was 8:50 and we had planned on checking in on Mark because he wasn't at church but we both felt it was too late to see him that night. We prayed about it and felt strongly to visit him. He wasn't home, so we knocked on his neighbor's door that had a light on. Normally we don't knock around in motels because the owners get really mad, but we figured that God told us to go there so there had to be a reason. Well, his neighbor wasn't interested. So we started walking back to the car which was a block away. On the way we passed a house that only had a garage light on and we figured 'hey, it's 8:57, let's try it! What's e worst that can happen?' So we knocked on it and I had a scared moment thinking this was a bad idea because the place looked pretty run down on the outside. I said a silent prayer asking for protection and help and then the Victor came to the door. He brought us right in and sat us down and told us he's been wanting to talk with us for a while! When he was in prison a while ago he was reading the Book of Mormon and everyone there would persecute him for it, but he kept reading it because he thought it was the word of God. It turns out he grew up here and is best friends with some members that really helped him through some of the struggles of his life. So we taught a quick lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon and got a return appointment for Wednesday and the house of the member he knows! I am seriously so stoked for this transfer! Victor seems so prepared and I can't wait to talk with him more!

Anyways, you all have a great week! Pray to see how you can help God in this work and then act!



Elder Tippetts
607 Avenue E
Powell, Wyoming 82435

Easter

Family and Friends,
I hope you all had a great Easter! And I hope you were able to
remember what the season's real meaning is. Hint: it's not about
bunnies and eggs and chocolate ;)
Anyways, I'll start out with some of the fun stuff we did this
week. We had dinner with Brother Rosendahl, he's such a cool guy. Less
active for decades and then 3ish years ago he decided he wanted to
come back and then the next day the missionaries knocked on his door
and he's come ever since! He took us to a Barbecue place and I had
some of the best Barbecue chicken I've had in a while, except it was
pretty pink in some places and the next day my stomach felt pretty
messed up. But besides that it was good! We were looking through the
menu and I started laughing when I saw they had Rocky Mountain Oysters
for an appetizer and Brother Rosendahl couldn't believe I'd never had
any, he cut me some slack though because I'm a city kid. The waitress
came back and got our orders then asked if there was anything else we
wanted, Bro R and Elder Lankford looked at me and the waitress started
laughing and said "just get them," so I ordered some and.....THEY WERE
SUPER GOOD!!! So check that of my bucket list ;)
Then on Saturday Brother Cozzens fed us. He's been off his
mission for less than 5 or 6 years. He's one of the funniest people
I've met on my mission and he's always there to help us out when we
need a member to go with us or when missionary work isn't going how we
want it to. His wife couldn't come with us because of the Women's
session of conference, so he drove us a couple miles out of town to
start a fire in the middle of nowhere and roast hot dogs! It was super
simple but it was so nice. He was just telling us funny stories from
his mission the whole time and we were laughing hard. Then we drove
back through a rougher part of the country and climbed up some pretty
steep, bumpy hills in his truck. He brought his .22 rifle just in case
there were any coyotes around or big crows. He pulled over a couple of
times and got it out but didn't feel good about the shot. Don't worry,
we didn't touch or handle (as the missionary handbook says) any form
of firearm at all, it was all him! Needless to say, it was a great
dinner and a breath of fresh air.
This last week I went on an exchange with Elder Nuffer, he's the
biggest stud out there. He came up to Powell with me and Elder
Lankford went down to Cody with Elder Loehr. We had such a great time
together and got a lot of good things done. Sadly all of our set
appointments fell through with some of our more promising
investigators, but we still taught some! We also visited some less
active families that he knows because he used to serve in Powell. He
was so happy to see how some of them have progressed and some are
preparing to go to the temple to be sealed! So as for investigators we
found he helped us with Joe and Jessica. Joe was starting to dodge out
on us because of some medical problems but Elder Nuffer is so bold and
wouldn't let him back out. He helped Joe see that when problems come
up in our lives we need to turn to the Savior rather than turn away
from Him. We also talked to Jessica, the potential we finally got into
contact with last week! After talking with her for a little bit,
here's how the conversation went:
Elder Nuffer: "So are you actually interested in talking with us? Are
you really looking to change your life?"
Jessica: "Yes!"
Elder Nuffer: "Okay, so what do you know about baptism?"
Jessica: "Nor much."
Elder Nuffer: "When you see the things we teach you bless your life,
will you be baptized?"
Jessica: "Um, of course!"
Elder Nuffer: "We'll be having a baptismal service on the 30th of
April, will you meet with us regularly to prepare yourself to be
baptized on that day?"
Jessica: "Ya!"

And that's how we got our first person on date since I've been here!
Last story. On Saturday we were walking around on the south side
of town and we got an unexpected phone call from a member that lives
in Cowley. She told us that her grandmother has been in the Powell
Nursing home for a while, that ye were driving there right then and
that they wanted us to come give her a blessing before she passed
away. We got there and she was definitely in bad shape. The lady that
called us and her daughter were the only members there and the rest of
the people there couldn't stop thanking us for coming. They'd tried
getting their pastor to come, her pastor to come and any other pastor
they could find to come but none of them would. They were impressed
and thankful that our church can respond so quickly to any body that
asks for help, even people who aren't members of our church. So we
anointed and then blessed her. In the spirit of Easter, while our
hands were on her head I felt the spirit tell me so strongly that she
would live again. It was completely unmistakable. Then on Sunday
morning we got a text from the lady that asked us to come bless her
grandma letting us know that she had just passed away. I again felt
that spirit of comfort and this Easter, Christ's sacrifice took on a
whole new meaning to me. I know that we'll all live again and we all
have the opportunity to repent and change so we may live in God's
presence again. According to preach my gospel, "the purpose of the
gospel is to cleanse people of their sins so they can receive Savior's
mercy at the day of judgment." (Pg. 6) That's the glorious message
that accompanies he Easter season, that we can access mercy and be
saved by grace. I hope you were all able to feel your Savior's love
this week. Make sure you find someone to share that with this week!

Until next week! I love you all!


Elder Tippetts

Couple good lessons!

Family and Friends,

Not much happened this week. More lessons cancelled and plenty of
tracting. But we did have a couple of really good lessons this week!
So I'll tell y'all about those.
We finally talked with Travis, he's a less active member that the
bishop doesn't know. We tracted into him a couple weeks ago and kept
getting appointment after appointment cancel. We kept trying back
though because he has a non member wife and a couple of young kids, so
there was going to hopefully be some good part member family work to
do there. He let us in for about 15 minutes to talk with him and it
turns out his wife isn't really that interested. He says that he knows
he needs to come to church and that he knows it would help his wife be
interested, he just has a hard time coming alone. He says she always
has lots of questions about the church and he never knows how to
answer them, but she doesn't want to talk to us even though they both
recognize that we have those answers. It was a little frustrating,
obviously, but we were able to give him some materials and other
resources so he can start learning about the gospel again and then
hopefully be able to answer some of his wife's questions. He said
he'll think about coming to church and he was glad that we kept trying
to talk with him.
Saturday afternoon we took our ward mission leader, Bro Gilliatt
(who looks like Chris from The Strike by the way...), to a lesson with
a potential investigator we finally got a hold of. She wasn't there
when we got there for the appointment. A guy pulled up to the
neighbor's house to help them move, so we talked to him. They were
just finishing moving, so they didn't need help, but we talked with
him about prophets and it was really good! He was 17ish and had
graduated early and definitely has faith in Jesus Christ. He wasn't
against anything we taught, he actually really liked it all. We shared
with him the Easter video and gave him our number. I don't know if
he'll call back, that's usually the way things work. But while we were
talking with him I really pictured him in a year going through the
temple and then going on a mission. He was such a cool guy and easy to
talk to and I could see that he can make a big difference in a lot of
people's lives.
Last cool lesson was with Marva. She's an older lady and has
investigated the church for nearly 15 years. She comes to church most
weeks but hasn't been baptized because she doesn't agree with some of
the doctrine, but she feels like she's benefitted a lot personally
from learning about our church and attending it. She also has a couple
of mental problems that make it hard for her to comprehend what she
reads. So we started to just read the Book of Mormon with her from the
beginning this week. It was neat because she focuses a lot on
historical facts like how many sons Lehi had, what year they left
Jerusalem and what sea they sailed on to get to the Americas. We've
been trying to help her understand that those facts are less important
and at she needs to focus on principles instead, and it finally
clicked this time. So we helped her see principles in the first 2
chapters and the spirit was super strong. It really helps me learn the
gospel better talking with her because we need to teach so simply.

Elder Tippetts

Too many canceled appointments!

Family and friends,

Sometimes life is just tough and you have 2 days during the week
that are completely packed with scheduled lessons from after lunch
until it's time to turn in for the night and then one of those days
completely falls through and half of the other one does. It's tough,
but you deal with it. That's something I love that I've learned from
my mission, that faith is usually shown by how you react when things
don't go the way you planned. Even though that happened we used the
open time to get a lot of good accomplished. We got some good tracting
done and made lots of phone calls. We're trying to meet with more less
actives and part member families so we've been finding them and just
giving them phone calls. It seems a little scary because you've never
met them but when it comes down to it, what can they do to you over
the phone? Luckily we haven't had any of them be too hostile to us
yet! And we've found some good stuff to start working with!
We had a really cool appointment this week with Rebekah. She's 19
and graduated the same year as Elder Lankford and I, 2015. She's been
less active for a while and is going to the college here in town. Her
family used to live here and they all just moved away pretty much so
she's been feeling lonely and she's felt the need to turn towards the
church. She said she doesn't know that the church is true but she does
know the church, meaning that it's familiar to her. That it feels like
home. We were able to help her with a bunch of her concerns! She went
to institute the next day! She'll be out of town this weekend but
we'll get her to church next week. It really strengthened my testimony
of faith as well and I definitely felt some personal revelation that
comforted me. I realized that even though God doesn't always give us a
specific answer to all of our questions, He'll often tell us that
there is an answer and expect us to trust Him. There are so many
people I've met that through away precious doctrinal certainties for a
couple of unexplained curiosities. Doubt your doubts before you doubt
your faith.
Elder Nuffer and Elder Loehr (the Cody elders) are going to kill
us! They're the ones that I did the baptismal interview for last week,
then I did another one for them yesterday, they have another one
scheduled next week and I'm pretty sure there are a few more lined up
after that. Just kidding on the killing us part, it's definitely a
blessing and a privilege to do the interviews! It strengthens my
testimony on the importance of baptism and it inspires me to meet
these people that are making changes in their lives.
This last week was the first district meeting I've conducted and
it was pretty nerve racking, but I got through it! The spirit was
really strong there and many of the missionaries told me how great it
was. I'm pretty sure they were somewhat trying to make me feel better,
but I think it did go a lot better than I thought it did at first. We
have a zone conference tomorrow so I'm free of planning a district
meeting for this week! But I'm really excited to do another next week!

Elder Tippetts