Family and friends
Good week! Sorry this is late this week. I feel pretty dead right now,
just finished an hour long game of pod ball and a couple grueling
rounds of lightning basketball. We've been in Gillette today so far
for preparation day and now we're in Sheridan to stay the night and
tomorrow we're driving to Worland Wyoming for Zone Leader Training.
The two Wyoming zones (Wyoming east and west) are meeting there for a
big conference. I'm excited! So we spent most of today in Gillette
with some other elders and sisters in our zone. It was fun! One of our
Zone Leaders used to play college football and it was no fun getting
hit by him. Pod ball is basically an insane game of dodgeball. He can
throw hard haha.
This was my first full proselyting week with Elder Bills and it was
awesome! He's getting a hold of things and we're loving being
together. We've been working together well and really focusing on
teaching as a companionship in unity! When you teach with a companion
well miracles happen. I love it.
On Tuesday I became a real member of the Montana Billings Mission. Now
I truly fit in with the people of Wyoming. I RAN OVER A RACOON ON
TUESDAY! That seriously makes me so happy. I feel like I belong here
now haha! Tuesday we also taught a lesson to Jennifer. She's the
baptism we got to go to in Moorcroft! We taught her and her mother
with the branch mission leader there and it was one of the most
spiritually uplifting lessons I've ever been a part of. She is so
confident in her testimony and it was so inspiring to see her simple
and pure love for the gospel.
Wednesday was pretty rad as well! We had our first district meeting of
the transfer with our new companions. Our district is now Elder
Hatton, Perez and me with our companions Elder Thomas (from American
Fork), Elder Angle (from somewhere in California) and my companion
Elder Bills. I love this district so much. It's probably my favorite
yet! The three of us that were here before are all training new
missionaries so it's a really young district! It's grand. I led a
really fun Roleplay on finding people's needs. It was cool and caught
the new missionaries off guard but they got better at it pretty fast
so it worked out! That night I was invited by someone in Moorcroft to
attend church with them! Hopefully next week I'll be going to a
Christian church somewhere in Moorcroft, the guy said he'd come to
ours if we went with him! I'm super excited!
We had interviews with a member of the mission presidency in Gillette
on Friday. While we were up there we had lunch at McDonalds and saw
Brother Erickson! The Ward mission leader from Newcastle! We were
there with Elder Hatton and his companion so it was fun seeing him. We
also met a sketchy man named Mark. He was pretty sketchy and if we go
back then we'll bring our branch mission leader who's a cop. Haha it's
alright because one of his neighbors was super interested!
On Saturday we spent 7 hours helping a family in Moorcroft move and we
were there the whole time and not too many other people showed up. My
back was pretty tweaked until today when Elder Kimball popped my back!
It feels awesome! They were all hilarious while we were helping out
though. A bunch of them were totally redneck it was awesome! They just
talked about hunting the entire time! Sunday was also amazing! We went
on visits with President booth and we found a family who's daughter is
dating a member from Moorcroft and we're going to start teaching them
soon!
I love you all!
Elder Tippetts
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Monday, October 26, 2015
Training Week 1
Family and Friends,
This week has been quite the ride and it looks like there's no letting up in the future! I'm super excited to keep moving forward. To start this off, quick little funny things. For the days that came before we received our transfer calls everybody was guessing what was going to happen with them. Not a single person said I was getting transferred, everyone said Elder Hatton was leaving. We thought it was really funny especially when I was the one that was moving on and he was staying. I don't know if you all think that's funny but we did haha!
So we had breakfast to start out Monday at Dallas' house again. He makes good pancakes and I miss them. He also guessed the popular transfer outcome. He was blown away when he wasn't correct. Over breakfast he showed us lots of stuff from back before he joined the church. He used to be a part of the Knights of Columbus and he showed us pictures of him in his uniform and brought his sword out for us to see! Sadly I didn't think to get a picture wielding it :( Then I got to pack on preparation day and that's no fun too.
We had quite the delightful surprise on Tuesday! We had a baptism! Elder Hatton's the District Leader so he did the baptismal interview for the other Elders in our district for a lady in the Moorcroft Branch. Elder Hatton had to hold onto all the paperwork so we had to take it to the baptism. I was officially assigned to Moorcroft by then so I got to meet lots of the members and the branch president and mission leader and the woman who got baptised! She's so cool. I got to be a witness for the baptism and participate in giving the Holy Ghost, they asked me to because I was going to be in Moorcroft now. It was a really powerful experience and I was able to see how much the baptism meant to her and her family and her friends. The spirit there was so strong and inspiring!
Wednesday was a normal day for the first half and then we drove to Upton to meet with President Booth, the Sundance branch president to talk about the work in Sundance. We spent the rest of the night in Moorcroft waiting for our new companions (Elder Hatton and I both are training, I don't remember if I mentioned that last week). Elder Hatton helped me as we walked around Moorcroft getting to know the area and meeting some members and investigators. It was really fun! It was really late though and there aren't many street lamps in Moorcroft and lots of people had Halloween decorations up that weren't well lit so it was pretty creepy haha. We had a couple of close encounters with some big dogs for the first time on my mission, but nothing to sketchy! So don't worry. Mostly really big dogs that barked a lot and we couldn't see their fences and the gates they were behind so we thought we were in big trouble but we were fine.
The Zone Leaders pulled in with our new companions around 10:45PM and we got everything moved around and drove home. We got to the Sundance apartment around 11:30 and got to bed real quick after a decently long transfer day. My new missionary is Elder Bills. He's such a stud. He's from Aurora, Utah down by Richfield. I'd never heard of it but it's even smaller than Sundance being 1000 people instead of 1200! He graduated back in 2014 and just turned 19. He's in the Army reserves and did his basic in South Carolina. He wrestled and ran cross country in high school. He's taking a 2 year leave from service to serve a mission. I love him so much and he's a hard worker! When he got here we had a good discussion on the importance of exact obedience and the blessings that come because of it and are loving being together. He understands how to work and is okay with tracting quite a bit, which I love! Because tracting is the bomb!
We went to church this Sunday here in Sundance and were asked to speak on Thursday. It was a great way to start off our stay here and the members here really liked having us speak. They love having missionaries so much and have missed having us by often. They're all excited to work and are ready to get to it! We got 4 referrals from a less active member that's been coming back into full activity! We've been tracting and lots of people in town know the members. It's a pretty small town so what else would you expect? There are lots of churches here in this tiny town though. Like a lot. There's a big sign when you come into town that says "The churches of Sundance welcome you!" and it has 15-20 churches on there with their addresses and phone numbers! There are a lot of religious people here and most are very friendly to us. We've done quite a bit of service already. 8 hours since we moved in. We helped out brother Millard again clearing away some stuff out by his house, chopping some wood for some less active members and a little bit of help painting some non-members home! I really love it here so much. God is so good and there are so many blessings he's just waiting to give us!
Last thing and then we've got to go meet some members at Subway! Our new address is
106 Edna P.O. box 1500
Sundance, WY 82728
I'd love to hear from any of you and I've never had a po box before so we asked the post office lady and she said to make sure you put both the street address and po box number on everything so that it definitely makes it here!
I love you all! Look everywhere for missionary opportunities! Pray and you'll find them!
Elder Tippetts
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Good week! Now my head is spinning a bit...
Family and friends,
Like I said, it's been a good week and now my head is spinning at
least a little bit. Lots of exciting things have happened! I'll start
off with the one that was probably most exciting and causes my head to
spin the most. I'm being transferred about 40-50 minutes northeast to
cover the Sundance branch and the Moorcroft branch. I'll most
definitely be sad to leave Elder Hatton and Newcastle, but I'm
excited. The part that makes my head spin at least a little bit is
that I'm training. I'm going to meet a new missionary Wednesday night
and then for probably at least the next transfer I'm responsible for
making sure he understands what missionary work is and how to do it
even when I'm not always entirely sure I understand it. But just about
everyone tells me you never do really fully understand how to do it,
you just study plan and prepare as much as possible and then let the
spirit take you from there! I'm having a crutch, my fantastic
companion, taken away and am now going to have to wholly rely on the
spirit and Christ's atonement to get us through this. I'm going to
learn and grow a lot and it won't always be easy, but if a mission was
easy I wouldn't have wanted to come out. I'm excited for this pretty
big change, I'm excited for an uncomfortable stretch. Prayers would be
much appreciated haha!
Now on to some more awesome things from this week! We had a baptism on
Saturday! I had my first baptism my first week out here but this was
my first baptism that I was a part of finding and teaching the person
the whole way through. We went and read the Book of Mormon with him on
Tuesday and then brought his jumpsuit over to try it on on Friday. On
Saturday everything went well and he was super happy and prepared and
excited! The baptism went off with no mishaps or anything like that.
The talks were fantastic and I've never been as happy as when Mikey
came out of the font and said "I feel clean" he had the biggest smile
on his face. There really is such an infinite amount of worth in every
soul and I'm feeling the joy! I'll send pictures of us with Mikey and
his step dad Mike later if I remember haha!
On Thursday we had a pretty unique experience. We ran into some
missionaries from the Rapid City South Dakota mission! Don't worry
they weren't breaking rules. Normally you're not allowed to leave your
mission boundaries for any reason but there's a member that goes to
their Ward that lives just outside of Newcastle. He goes to their Ward
because of some allergy issues. So they have permission to come here
to have dinner with him when it's his turn to feed the missionaries.
Besides that, the really unique and awesome thing about it is that one
of the missionaries, Elder Hunt, played soccer in high school with
Elder Hatton down in southern Utah and they were close friends. And
his companion, Elder White, was in the same MTC district as Elder
Jesse Carter! I was so happy when I found out so we took a picture
together and I sent it his way today! It's not everyday you get to
talk with missionaries from a different mission haha!
I attended another alcoholic party this week! But don't worry,that's
not why my head is spinning. On Thursdays we help out at the senior
center at lunch time serving food. This last Friday they asked us to
come help with a banquet they were holding at the senior center. We
helped prepare the banquet hall and helped serve food before the
auction. They had a live bar and once again I think it's funny that I
haven't really been around alcohol ever but now that I'm on my mission
I've been to two alcoholic parties haha!
On Saturday we went out to the Stewart's ranch again to help build the
log house. We only worked until 1:30 this week though because we had
to get back in time to shower, get dressed, fill up the baptismal font
and make copies of the program! But all went well!
Lastly we're still working with our golden investigator Trent. He
really is the definition of golden. He's so prepared and can't wait to
get baptized, he reads the scriptures and came to church before we
were even able to start teaching him, he has told us that he believes
what we teach him is true. He recognizes the spirit and says he really
wants to live in the celestial kingdom with his family. His faith is
so inspiring to me and I'll be sad to not be teaching him anymore, but
I'll definitely be looking for more Trents! Alma 16 says the Lord is
continually pouring his spirit out upon the land and preparing the
hearts of the children of men. When you show faith as a missionary and
deal with all the hard parts involved in missionary work, you are led
to the people God has prepared to be taught by you!
I love you all! Pray for opportunities to share the gospel! Always be
missionary minded!
Elder Tippetts
Monday, October 5, 2015
!!!
Family and Friends,
This week was one filled with miracles! There were so many opportunities we had to grow and I learned so much about myself and how I can improve to serve the Lord better! I hope your week was just as fantastic!
I started out the week with an awesome exchange with Elder Eyslee again! On Monday we went to a thrift shop around lunch time and I found 3 completely rad ties for 4-5 dollars each! If you know me and my ties, you know I'm very happy right now. We had a great day and ended up doing an exchange within an exchange with the zone leaders because one of them was sick and they had a lesson they had to go to. Tuesday was also great! I was studying some more old conference talks! President Uchtdorf's and Elder Bednar's first conference talks as apostles! You can find them in October 2004, it was an idea I had to look them up in preparation for this new conference and I was not disappointed! It was really cool to see how much they've grown! I also looked up a the earliest talk by President Packer that's in Gospel Library, all the way back in April 1971. There's a cool video that the church posted on Facebook today that was so cool! It was a compilation of the first presidency and living apostles and their concluding testimonies at each of their first conferences as apostles! It was really touching, they are all men of God! I know it! Then Tuesday night we went tracting and we had a great discussion about showing faith while we were walking around and we found 2 new investigators for his area!
Wednesday night was a new experience for me! I had my first investigator that had his baptismal interview! Mikey is getting baptized on Saturday and I can't wait! He's such a stud and he's very prepared and ready. He says he's excited and nervous for Saturday. Excited because his heart tells him it's right, and nervous because it's a new experience. We've got everything all set up and are excited!
Friday was a great opener to a weekend of conference! We had zone training and I learned a lot about what it means to consecrate yourself fully as a missionary. I had some questions answered that I'd been wondering about for a while that really helped me. We did an activity off of page 152 in PMG that talks about goals for the end of your mission. As I've put in perspective what I want to have happened by the end of my mission, what I want to happen at the end of my mission and what I want to happen after my mission I've seen what I need to do now to reach those goals! Goals are amazing. To any of you that are on missions or preparing to go or want to go, the 2nd personal study activity on page 152 will help you a lot. And it's totally fine to change or adjust your goals as you start or continue to serve!
Conference was so insanely uplifting for me! One of the biggest reasons why was because I set some goals! Goals help with everything. I decided that I wanted to take notes on spiritual impressions rather than exact quotes, I wanted to write down all challenges/commitments/invitations that were given and I wanted to say a quick prayer of thanks after every talk. You may ask how I did wi my goals. I failed. But that's okay! Not all goals are meant to be achieved 100% and even though I didn't meet any of those goals 100% I got a lot more out of conference that was personal and meaningful and constructive than I would have if I had not set goals for myself! I would encourage you all to set goals in the future for General Conferences and all other aspects of your lives. My favorite talk for Satuday was probably by Niell F. Marriot! She spoke powerful,y and you could feel her experiences that led her family to their firm motto "It will all work out." On Sunday my favorite talk was probably a stereotypical crowd favorite that many people will love for years to come. It was Devin G. Durrant's on ponderizing! It was really cool to listen to him talk at conference after I've known his daughter and met him a few times! His invitation to ponderize a scripture every week is a powerful one that can sustain and uplift all of us in times of trial or doubt. During times when trials and doubt are lacking, ponderizing can give us the strength we need to withstand them later in life. I strongly encourage you all to throughly study and apply his words. You will feel so many blessings in your life. If it seems like a daunting task to do it every week, don't think about that! Just do it one week, and then tell yourself you'll do it one more week, and then one more week, and one more! Time will fly by, life will be more fruitful and enjoyable and you'll understand what it means to endure to the end! I also loved the talks of all of the first presidency members like usual. I loved that they all focused around simple things like obedience, courage and faith. Especially that they emphasized how simple it all really is! This gospel is a simple one, but it is profound and holds eternal consequences! I hope you all study and pray about the personal revelations you have received and will receive because of this wonderful weekend!
I love you all. Go ponderize!
Elder Tippetts
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Service service service and marching band
Family and Friends,
Good week! I had one and I hope you did too! It's been a weird
week though haha! Not a bad weird, a pretty refreshing weird! We only
had Tuesday and Sunday as full days of proselytizing. Monday was
preparation day, Wednesday was district meeting and exchanges with the
zone leaders. Thursday was weekly planning and some random non member
lady called us to help her move. We helped her most of Thursday and
Friday. Friday was Newcastle's homecoming so there was a parade and
the football game and then all day Saturday we were out on a Ranch
building a log house! Sunday was a normal Sunday except we went around
helping lots of people with their home teaching and helped teach
mission prep.
My exchange on Wednesday was fantastic! I love exchanges because
I feel like I just learn so much and it's really refreshing to see
missionary work from another missionaries perspective. Especially
Elder Mason. He's definitely the most hard working missionary I know.
When I spent the day in Gillette we had every second of the day
planned with multiple back ups and people from the Ward to come with
us on our visits. He's such a great teacher and I learned a lot about
the need to simplify and intensify. Pure testimony and doctrine is
what converts people. That's what the spirit confirms to people in
their hearts
The homecoming parade was cool! We don't really do those in Provo
so it was a new experience for me. I saw lots of the youth from the
Ward and cheered and yelled their names haha! Then we saw them at the
homecoming football game and they told us that all of their friends
were wondering why the missionaries were saying hi to them haha! Now a
lot more people know who the missionaries are! Hahaha! That night we
went to the homecoming football game because in a small town no one is
home the night of homecoming. Sadly Newcastle lost by one point. But
it was great and we were introduced to a lot of different people by
the members we were sitting with!
The lady that we helped move wasn't a member. The guy from Uhaul
(who also isn't a member) gave her our number. I guess some previous
missionaries gave our number to him so that if anyone needs help
loading and moving then he just has them call us! We get calls every
once in a while from people we don't know that just need help moving.
It's really great and fun to help out that way! This lady literally
had nothing packed though haha. She had us move some heavy things and
then she left and we brought the Ward Mission Leader over and just
started stuffing everything we could find in boxes. That's what she
told us to do and I've never seen a house get so clean so fast haha!
Saturday we went to the Stewart's ranch. It's brother Stewart's
ranch but his son (another brother Stewart) is building a log house
for him and his wife. They've been working on it for a while but
haven't had much help. So at one time or another 8-12 of us were out
there helping. I was a part of the group that spent 10 hours rotating
through using draw knives to strip the bark off of logs. And then we'd
either carry the logs to the house to be fitted or they'd come pick it
up with the backhoe. All in all it was an extremely hot and tiring
day. I'm surprised I barely got sunburnt at all! We got a lot done and
are going back on the 10th to help out again! Now my fingers are just
super sore and stiff still from gripping a draw knife for that long!
That's all that happened this week, lots of service. Oh ya! The
marching bands! There was one in the homecoming parade and it was
great to see a band march down the asphalt! And when I was on my
exchange with Elder Mason we were walking down a street and I heard a
familiar sounding metronome and drumline, I mentioned it to him and we
drove over to the high school and it was pretty nostalgic to see a
good 60-70 person sized marching band out on football field cleaning
pictures and music!
Keep being great people and make sure you're allowing others to feel
Christ's love through you!
Elder Tippetts
Pulled pork cinnamon rolls and my first party with alcohol!
Family and Friends,
I think I'm abandoning writing my letters spaces out by day now.
I think it made me just write super long letter, I'll try to write
more about highlights instead of everyday stuff. I think that will
make my letters more meaningful. But who knows, maybe I won't like
this and I'll switch back in a couple of weeks haha! And don't worry
about the heading, I've still never tasted alcohol
Two quick things from last week that I didn't put in my quick
letter last week! We were tracting once and a guy answered the door
and he was really nice but told us he was already Christian and like
usual we asked him which christian denomination he belongs to and he
told us Baptist. Then from the back of the house we hear a harsh voice
yell 'We're not baptist! What are you talki about!?' To which he
responds, 'We're not Baptist!? Then what are we!?' Haha it was really
funny and I thought y'all would enjoy that! Also if you remember from
a couple of weeks ago I met a kid over Facebook and his name was
Cooper. We were finally able to meet with him again and teach him
more! He agreed to get baptized if he found out for himself if the
priesthood authority that's required for baptism is found in our
church!
Now this week:
I started off this week with exchanges again! I was with Elder
Eyslee from Chico, California. He is super cool and it was so easy to
work by the spirit with him! There were several situations where we
were in the right place but for the wrong event, meaning an
appointment or something cancelled and we were able to meet someone
with that time instead! We also went to contact a referral for a lady
named Barbra but she wasn't very interested...but her son was! His
name is tony and we sat down with him and gave him most of the first
lesson and he also agreed to baptism! Then we went to a lesson with
Trent. I think I've mentioned him before, his younger brother, Slade,
was baptized by the missionaries before us and Trent wanted to be
taught the lessons but because of his work schedule he couldn't. We
got to meet with him on Tuesday with Slade and Bro Wilkes, Trent also
agreed to be baptized! Now we've got those three and Mikey all working
towards baptism! Speaking of Mikey, he's a stud. He'll be baptized on
the 10th of October.
We met brother Palmer again this week but he still hasn't been
able to make it out to church because he's been on call for work every
Sunday. But when we went to his house he had found a little kitten
under his trailer house and is taking care of it! It was adorable!
I'll attach a picture at the end!
We spent sometime up in Sundance this past week. Good news is
that the Sundance are should be getting their own set of missionaries
soon so then we'll just be covering Newcastle! It'll make things a lot
more convenient for everyone! We had dinner with Bro Gennings up
there. He's awesome and used to be a musician. He has a room in his
house with 2 walls that are completely covered in super nice guitars!
He played some songs for us and it was awesome! We helped Bro Millard
do some cleaning up around his farm as well. He had a giant trailer
full of scrap and we took it to the back of his property and he has a
giant trash pile. It was so much funny just taking trash and throwing
it as far as we could haha!
While we were in Sundance I met my first bible basher too! I
think that's an important milestone for a new missionary haha! His
name was David and he was really nice, but with people like him you
can tell that they aren't really interested in learning more at all.
He had lots of questions and wouldn't really accept any of our
answers, but he wasn't contentious about it. I think a lot of his
questions were mostly him trying to get us to doubt ourselves, but I
left with a stronger testimony. I realized that even if I didn't have
answers to all his questions, that doesn't diminish the fact that the
spirit of the Lord has told me this church and the Book of Mormon and
our prophets are all true.
Now to my header. We had dinner with the Branch mission leader
and his family in Sundance on Saturday. Sister Skeens made us pulled
pork cinnamon rolls! Elder Hatton was wary about trying them but I was
so excited! It was probably my favorite meal I've had so far. It's
basically just brown sugar and cinnamon pulled pork wrapped up in
cinnamon roll dough and then baked! If you think it sounds iffy,
google it or look it up on Pinterest (I think that's where she said
she found it) and then try it! You won't regret it!
Now the party with alcohol! Last night was a birthday party for
our landlord's wife, sister Carr. She's the young women's president
but lots of her extended family aren't members. I've been around
random drunk people here and there throughout town but I've never been
that close to alcohol haha! It wasn't anything serious though so don't
worry, someone just brought a small jar of homemade cherry moonshine
haha. No one was drunk but I just think it's funny that I'm from Provo
so I'm pretty sheltered still, but now that I'm on my mission I can
officially say I've been to a party where there's been alcohol haha!
Thank you all for your support! I love you all! If you have any
critiques on my formatting please feel free to inform me haha! Until
next week!
Elder Tippetts
I think I'm abandoning writing my letters spaces out by day now.
I think it made me just write super long letter, I'll try to write
more about highlights instead of everyday stuff. I think that will
make my letters more meaningful. But who knows, maybe I won't like
this and I'll switch back in a couple of weeks haha! And don't worry
about the heading, I've still never tasted alcohol
Two quick things from last week that I didn't put in my quick
letter last week! We were tracting once and a guy answered the door
and he was really nice but told us he was already Christian and like
usual we asked him which christian denomination he belongs to and he
told us Baptist. Then from the back of the house we hear a harsh voice
yell 'We're not baptist! What are you talki about!?' To which he
responds, 'We're not Baptist!? Then what are we!?' Haha it was really
funny and I thought y'all would enjoy that! Also if you remember from
a couple of weeks ago I met a kid over Facebook and his name was
Cooper. We were finally able to meet with him again and teach him
more! He agreed to get baptized if he found out for himself if the
priesthood authority that's required for baptism is found in our
church!
Now this week:
I started off this week with exchanges again! I was with Elder
Eyslee from Chico, California. He is super cool and it was so easy to
work by the spirit with him! There were several situations where we
were in the right place but for the wrong event, meaning an
appointment or something cancelled and we were able to meet someone
with that time instead! We also went to contact a referral for a lady
named Barbra but she wasn't very interested...but her son was! His
name is tony and we sat down with him and gave him most of the first
lesson and he also agreed to baptism! Then we went to a lesson with
Trent. I think I've mentioned him before, his younger brother, Slade,
was baptized by the missionaries before us and Trent wanted to be
taught the lessons but because of his work schedule he couldn't. We
got to meet with him on Tuesday with Slade and Bro Wilkes, Trent also
agreed to be baptized! Now we've got those three and Mikey all working
towards baptism! Speaking of Mikey, he's a stud. He'll be baptized on
the 10th of October.
We met brother Palmer again this week but he still hasn't been
able to make it out to church because he's been on call for work every
Sunday. But when we went to his house he had found a little kitten
under his trailer house and is taking care of it! It was adorable!
I'll attach a picture at the end!
We spent sometime up in Sundance this past week. Good news is
that the Sundance are should be getting their own set of missionaries
soon so then we'll just be covering Newcastle! It'll make things a lot
more convenient for everyone! We had dinner with Bro Gennings up
there. He's awesome and used to be a musician. He has a room in his
house with 2 walls that are completely covered in super nice guitars!
He played some songs for us and it was awesome! We helped Bro Millard
do some cleaning up around his farm as well. He had a giant trailer
full of scrap and we took it to the back of his property and he has a
giant trash pile. It was so much funny just taking trash and throwing
it as far as we could haha!
While we were in Sundance I met my first bible basher too! I
think that's an important milestone for a new missionary haha! His
name was David and he was really nice, but with people like him you
can tell that they aren't really interested in learning more at all.
He had lots of questions and wouldn't really accept any of our
answers, but he wasn't contentious about it. I think a lot of his
questions were mostly him trying to get us to doubt ourselves, but I
left with a stronger testimony. I realized that even if I didn't have
answers to all his questions, that doesn't diminish the fact that the
spirit of the Lord has told me this church and the Book of Mormon and
our prophets are all true.
Now to my header. We had dinner with the Branch mission leader
and his family in Sundance on Saturday. Sister Skeens made us pulled
pork cinnamon rolls! Elder Hatton was wary about trying them but I was
so excited! It was probably my favorite meal I've had so far. It's
basically just brown sugar and cinnamon pulled pork wrapped up in
cinnamon roll dough and then baked! If you think it sounds iffy,
google it or look it up on Pinterest (I think that's where she said
she found it) and then try it! You won't regret it!
Now the party with alcohol! Last night was a birthday party for
our landlord's wife, sister Carr. She's the young women's president
but lots of her extended family aren't members. I've been around
random drunk people here and there throughout town but I've never been
that close to alcohol haha! It wasn't anything serious though so don't
worry, someone just brought a small jar of homemade cherry moonshine
haha. No one was drunk but I just think it's funny that I'm from Provo
so I'm pretty sheltered still, but now that I'm on my mission I can
officially say I've been to a party where there's been alcohol haha!
Thank you all for your support! I love you all! If you have any
critiques on my formatting please feel free to inform me haha! Until
next week!
Elder Tippetts
Monday, September 14, 2015
Late Weekly Letter
Sorry everyone! I totally forgot to finish and send this earlier. It's
late so I'm going to finish it real quick so it won't be as long or as
in depth as normal, I'll maybe rehash on some things next week!
Honestly not much happened this week, so there are two important
things I want to mention! One is how I'm a complete music nerd and
there are people here that appreciate it! And the other is about
agency and attitude!
There are two members here in Newcastle that have degrees in music
education! One teaches 7th-12th grade band and choir in Upton and the
other teaches piano lessons out of her home! We had breakfast at the
Wilkes the other day and both of them were there so I had a very
refreshing conversation about music theory classes and some of our
favorite pieces of choral literature! Hahaha man I miss talking about
that stuff with people that appreciate it! We talked about chords and
non chord tones and favorite composers and styles, it was all around
one of the most refreshing conversations I've had in a while!
Completely grand in every way possible! Haha sorry for all the
exclamation points. I use them a lot, I'm tired and it's a very
exciting topic to me!
The other thing is about agency. It is such a miracle and blessing
that I think so many people take for granted. Please take the time to
study 2 Nephi chapter 2 and think about what agency really is and why
you're thankful for it. It all comes down to making choices between
eternal life and eternal death haha! It's really a very bold but
simple truth. There are really only two influences in this world. Good
and bad or Christ and Satan. When you make decisions on how you use
your time and even what attitude you're going to have, make sure you
stop and think which direction you want to be heading and how your
current decisions will affect that! When you think about it it should
become pretty obvious which to choose, because I don't think any of us
really truly desire eternal death and pain haha! I know I don't!
There's an awesome quote I'll attach from Elder Holland, keep moving
forward and remember that the journey of a thousand miles can be in a
good or bad direction. If you're heading in a bad direction turn
around and start your thousand in the other direction today! The
atonement makes that possible!
late so I'm going to finish it real quick so it won't be as long or as
in depth as normal, I'll maybe rehash on some things next week!
Honestly not much happened this week, so there are two important
things I want to mention! One is how I'm a complete music nerd and
there are people here that appreciate it! And the other is about
agency and attitude!
There are two members here in Newcastle that have degrees in music
education! One teaches 7th-12th grade band and choir in Upton and the
other teaches piano lessons out of her home! We had breakfast at the
Wilkes the other day and both of them were there so I had a very
refreshing conversation about music theory classes and some of our
favorite pieces of choral literature! Hahaha man I miss talking about
that stuff with people that appreciate it! We talked about chords and
non chord tones and favorite composers and styles, it was all around
one of the most refreshing conversations I've had in a while!
Completely grand in every way possible! Haha sorry for all the
exclamation points. I use them a lot, I'm tired and it's a very
exciting topic to me!
The other thing is about agency. It is such a miracle and blessing
that I think so many people take for granted. Please take the time to
study 2 Nephi chapter 2 and think about what agency really is and why
you're thankful for it. It all comes down to making choices between
eternal life and eternal death haha! It's really a very bold but
simple truth. There are really only two influences in this world. Good
and bad or Christ and Satan. When you make decisions on how you use
your time and even what attitude you're going to have, make sure you
stop and think which direction you want to be heading and how your
current decisions will affect that! When you think about it it should
become pretty obvious which to choose, because I don't think any of us
really truly desire eternal death and pain haha! I know I don't!
There's an awesome quote I'll attach from Elder Holland, keep moving
forward and remember that the journey of a thousand miles can be in a
good or bad direction. If you're heading in a bad direction turn
around and start your thousand in the other direction today! The
atonement makes that possible!
Elder Tippetts
Monday, September 7, 2015
We tracted into a VIKING!!!
No joke. We totally tracted into a Viking. It's probably been the
funniest/awesomest experience I've had yet! But I'm going to make you
wait to hear it until the end of my letter because it happened Sunday
night. But no cheating, don't read the end first haha! Elder Hatton
and I are doing awesome out here! I love missionary work!
Monday
Not much happened last preparation day. We bought a lot of food. A
lot of food haha! We decided to go to family dollar for the first time
and everything was so cheap haha! We filled our pantries for way less
than we usually do! Elder Hatton and I are pretty content haha!
Tuesday
We went to Upton on Tuesday because normally we go on Wednesday
but we don't haven't had much success so we decided to try a different
day and it worked! We stopped by the house of someone who used to meet
with the elders but they've moved and the person that lives there now
wasn't interested. Even though she wasn't interested we had a really
good gospel conversation about the importance of Christ and she asked
us to go visit one of her friends that's going through a hard time! A
non member that wasn't meeting with us gave us a referral! It's really
awesome that she realizes that Christ is so important that she's fine
with us sharing a message about Christ with her friend haha! We also
had an awesome revelatory experience! We were planning on tracting a
specific street that we picked from a map before we went, but the
street doesn't actually exist...so we looked at a map and elder Hatton
said 'how about East st?' And that was the exact street I had just
looked at and was about to suggest we go there! So we went there and
met some great people and found two people that could be super solid
investigators!
When we got back to Newcastle we had a lesson with Miles. I don't
think I've told you much about him before, he's a 14 year old boy with
3 younger siblings all over the age of 8 and they live with their mom,
a less active member. She won't let them get baptized yet but she lets
us meet with him each week. In the past all of the family members
except miles evacuate the area whenever we show up and they deny any
invitations to come listen. This week 2 of the kids came in and read
from the Book of Mormon with us! It was really cool and they reall
like us!
Wednesday
This morning we woke up and did our studies then went to help
Dallas cut some branches off his tree. It was a little sketchy because
they were pretty big branches and he had to stand right underneath
them to reach them with the chainsaw, so we stood off like 20-30 feet
with a rope tied to the branch and had to pull it away from him when
it started to fall haha! Also, on Wednesdays we get a free meal at
Howdy's, a locally owned fast food place. And it has good food!
Awesome burgers!
We went and visited Brother Palmer in Upton with his old home
teacher. Bro Palmer has been less active for a long time and decided
this last week that he's officially coming back to church! I've only
known him the way he is now but he used to be really bitter towards
the church because of some really negative experiences. It's so cool
talking with him about what's changed over the past 10 years! It has
so much to do with him reading the Book of Mormon every day. I know
that it's so true and it changes lives.
Thursday
This morning we went running for the first time! Elder Hatton was
a 2A State Champ x-country runner his junior year but none of his
companions before would go running with him and we just randomly
decided to run today! It was a mistake...haha just kidding it was good
for us! Even though he hasn't run in over a year he's in a lot better
shape than me so I was dying, but we plan on running more consistently
and it will help a lot!
We drove to Sundance today to do some work up there and on the
drive we listened to 'How to Write an Anti-Mormon Book' by Hugh
Nibley. It was hilarious and really cool as he just proved wrong all
the accusations that were made and disproved the validity of the rest.
I know from the spirit that this church is true but it was cool to see
him explain it logically too. But don't let anything like that be the
basis of your testimony! It's all about getting your own answer from
God.
Friday
Speaking of the Book of Mormon on Friday we studied how to use it
to answer any objection anyone has about the church. It all comes down
to one fact, that it's true. That's why Joseph smith said it's the
keystone of our religion. Without it everything falls apart, and I
mean everything. So when anyone has any concern it all comes down to
is it true or not? Because if it's true then the concern doesn't
really matter or change anything anymore.
We went tracting in a part of Sundance that for 18 houses in a row
no one answered. It was a little hard because it was so hot but we
know that we were guided there and that means there's a reason we were
there, even if we never find out what that reason was. The next street
we found 2 new investigators! So maybe a reason for before was that
these two people wouldn't have been home or ready to talk to us if we
had come by earlier!
We went and contacted the referral we got from Upton with
President Booth, the branch president for Sundance. We knocked on the
door we though we were looking for after nearly 20 minutes of looking
and driving and Gona (Joana) didn't answer. But the guy she moved in
with did. He's an alcoholic that suffers from severe vertigo. He was
nice and said that Gona is staying there and we'd have to come back a
different time to find her. We offered him a priesthood blessing for
his vertigo and he declined but agreed to pray with us. He came over
and grabbed our hands and so we held hands in a circle and prayed. A
different experience for me! And he goes to one of the churches in
town that when the person is praying it's okay for you to say things
too. Definitely a new and interesting experience haha! It was really
cool though, he really wanted God's help to get over his problems!
After that president Booth took us to an Upton high school football
game! It's really different than a Provo one. They didn't have big
bleachers like Provo, their pep band was only like maybe 8 people big!
Upton's team is combined with Sundance's and their mascot is the
bulldog too, so that's awesome! The band teacher is in our Ward in
Newcastle and she offered to let Elder Hatton and I come play with
their pep band whenever we want to! We can met lots of people at the
game and can meet more that way!
Saturday
Well we got pulled over in Saturday...just kidding sort of. We
were pulled off to the side of the road and a cop came and told us it
was private property so we had to leave. But he was really nice and
made sure we knew he wasn't sending us off only because we're LDS
haha! It was sketchy at first because he pulled up a way off and was
looking at us and he ran our plates but then he came and talked with
us and it was all chill haha!
The branch mission leader is awesome. Brother Skeens and his wife
made dinner for us and some other members on Saturday! We got there
right at the end of the Nebraska BYU game! Sister Skeens was freaking
out and screaming she was so happy about that last pass haha! Go
Cougars! They're cool and love the gospel and want to share it with
everyone!!
Sunday
Almost to the Viking! Sorry it's been a long letter haha, lots of
stuff happened this week! We went 'inspired tracting' yesterday.
Basically we say a prayed and drive around until one of us chooses a
house to go to! It was really fun and the spirit led us to an awesome
house with a lady that has the potential to be super solid! She was
really nice and very interested in what we said! We also tracted her
neighbors' houses and met Lee. He's an Army vet from Vietnam and Worl
War II is what he said. He's had really negative experiences with
Christians before and said nothing gives him joy in life but watching
politicians make fools of themselves on TV. We listened to some of his
stories and he agreed that we could come back and teach him some of
our own stories about Jesus! When we left he thanked us a lot and said
that we really brightened his day!
Now the Viking. We went inspired tracting again with the last 15
minutes of the night. Elder Hatton and I both see this one house and
immediately feel the need to go knock there! We go and knock and a
very strong looking man with curly red hair, a big beard and a
mustache that curls on the ends answers the door! Here's how the
conversation went.
"Hi"
"How are you doing tonight"
"Good"
"Awesome, well we'd love to share a message with you about Jesus
Christ. We believe that baptism is really important. Will you follow
the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the
priesthood of God?"
"No, I think I'm fine. Thanks for asking though!"
"That's all fine, do you have a specific religion or church you belong to?"
"I tend to lean toward the Norse religion. I believe that if I live an
honorable life and die nobly in battle then I will be taken up to the
golden gates of Valhalla in the arms of Odin himself."
"Oh, well we haven't heard that one before! Why is that important to you?"
"I live by a pretty strict code of noble morals."
"Great! Well we'd love to come by another time and share a message
with you about Jesus Christ and why that's so important to us!"
"Sure! That'd be awesome!"
Normally you don't just give a baptismal invitation with nothing else
backing it up basically but before this house we decided we should. It
was a very unique door haha! His name was Cody and I can't wait to go
talk with him again! It was definitely the most unique experience I've
had and it was awesome! I loved it. It was hilarious but there were
also some cool spiritual aspects of it too. I loved when he basically
bore his testimony to us why it's important to live by a code of
morals and standards that you personally strongly believe in!
Once again, sorry for the long letter! Hopefully I'll send the email
myself out to you all next week myself! I love you all! Continue
moving forward!
Elder Tippetts
Not much happened last preparation day. We bought a lot of food. A
lot of food haha! We decided to go to family dollar for the first time
and everything was so cheap haha! We filled our pantries for way less
than we usually do! Elder Hatton and I are pretty content haha!
Tuesday
We went to Upton on Tuesday because normally we go on Wednesday
but we don't haven't had much success so we decided to try a different
day and it worked! We stopped by the house of someone who used to meet
with the elders but they've moved and the person that lives there now
wasn't interested. Even though she wasn't interested we had a really
good gospel conversation about the importance of Christ and she asked
us to go visit one of her friends that's going through a hard time! A
non member that wasn't meeting with us gave us a referral! It's really
awesome that she realizes that Christ is so important that she's fine
with us sharing a message about Christ with her friend haha! We also
had an awesome revelatory experience! We were planning on tracting a
specific street that we picked from a map before we went, but the
street doesn't actually exist...so we looked at a map and elder Hatton
said 'how about East st?' And that was the exact street I had just
looked at and was about to suggest we go there! So we went there and
met some great people and found two people that could be super solid
investigators!
When we got back to Newcastle we had a lesson with Miles. I don't
think I've told you much about him before, he's a 14 year old boy with
3 younger siblings all over the age of 8 and they live with their mom,
a less active member. She won't let them get baptized yet but she lets
us meet with him each week. In the past all of the family members
except miles evacuate the area whenever we show up and they deny any
invitations to come listen. This week 2 of the kids came in and read
from the Book of Mormon with us! It was really cool and they reall
like us!
Wednesday
This morning we woke up and did our studies then went to help
Dallas cut some branches off his tree. It was a little sketchy because
they were pretty big branches and he had to stand right underneath
them to reach them with the chainsaw, so we stood off like 20-30 feet
with a rope tied to the branch and had to pull it away from him when
it started to fall haha! Also, on Wednesdays we get a free meal at
Howdy's, a locally owned fast food place. And it has good food!
Awesome burgers!
We went and visited Brother Palmer in Upton with his old home
teacher. Bro Palmer has been less active for a long time and decided
this last week that he's officially coming back to church! I've only
known him the way he is now but he used to be really bitter towards
the church because of some really negative experiences. It's so cool
talking with him about what's changed over the past 10 years! It has
so much to do with him reading the Book of Mormon every day. I know
that it's so true and it changes lives.
Thursday
This morning we went running for the first time! Elder Hatton was
a 2A State Champ x-country runner his junior year but none of his
companions before would go running with him and we just randomly
decided to run today! It was a mistake...haha just kidding it was good
for us! Even though he hasn't run in over a year he's in a lot better
shape than me so I was dying, but we plan on running more consistently
and it will help a lot!
We drove to Sundance today to do some work up there and on the
drive we listened to 'How to Write an Anti-Mormon Book' by Hugh
Nibley. It was hilarious and really cool as he just proved wrong all
the accusations that were made and disproved the validity of the rest.
I know from the spirit that this church is true but it was cool to see
him explain it logically too. But don't let anything like that be the
basis of your testimony! It's all about getting your own answer from
God.
Friday
Speaking of the Book of Mormon on Friday we studied how to use it
to answer any objection anyone has about the church. It all comes down
to one fact, that it's true. That's why Joseph smith said it's the
keystone of our religion. Without it everything falls apart, and I
mean everything. So when anyone has any concern it all comes down to
is it true or not? Because if it's true then the concern doesn't
really matter or change anything anymore.
We went tracting in a part of Sundance that for 18 houses in a row
no one answered. It was a little hard because it was so hot but we
know that we were guided there and that means there's a reason we were
there, even if we never find out what that reason was. The next street
we found 2 new investigators! So maybe a reason for before was that
these two people wouldn't have been home or ready to talk to us if we
had come by earlier!
We went and contacted the referral we got from Upton with
President Booth, the branch president for Sundance. We knocked on the
door we though we were looking for after nearly 20 minutes of looking
and driving and Gona (Joana) didn't answer. But the guy she moved in
with did. He's an alcoholic that suffers from severe vertigo. He was
nice and said that Gona is staying there and we'd have to come back a
different time to find her. We offered him a priesthood blessing for
his vertigo and he declined but agreed to pray with us. He came over
and grabbed our hands and so we held hands in a circle and prayed. A
different experience for me! And he goes to one of the churches in
town that when the person is praying it's okay for you to say things
too. Definitely a new and interesting experience haha! It was really
cool though, he really wanted God's help to get over his problems!
After that president Booth took us to an Upton high school football
game! It's really different than a Provo one. They didn't have big
bleachers like Provo, their pep band was only like maybe 8 people big!
Upton's team is combined with Sundance's and their mascot is the
bulldog too, so that's awesome! The band teacher is in our Ward in
Newcastle and she offered to let Elder Hatton and I come play with
their pep band whenever we want to! We can met lots of people at the
game and can meet more that way!
Saturday
Well we got pulled over in Saturday...just kidding sort of. We
were pulled off to the side of the road and a cop came and told us it
was private property so we had to leave. But he was really nice and
made sure we knew he wasn't sending us off only because we're LDS
haha! It was sketchy at first because he pulled up a way off and was
looking at us and he ran our plates but then he came and talked with
us and it was all chill haha!
The branch mission leader is awesome. Brother Skeens and his wife
made dinner for us and some other members on Saturday! We got there
right at the end of the Nebraska BYU game! Sister Skeens was freaking
out and screaming she was so happy about that last pass haha! Go
Cougars! They're cool and love the gospel and want to share it with
everyone!!
Sunday
Almost to the Viking! Sorry it's been a long letter haha, lots of
stuff happened this week! We went 'inspired tracting' yesterday.
Basically we say a prayed and drive around until one of us chooses a
house to go to! It was really fun and the spirit led us to an awesome
house with a lady that has the potential to be super solid! She was
really nice and very interested in what we said! We also tracted her
neighbors' houses and met Lee. He's an Army vet from Vietnam and Worl
War II is what he said. He's had really negative experiences with
Christians before and said nothing gives him joy in life but watching
politicians make fools of themselves on TV. We listened to some of his
stories and he agreed that we could come back and teach him some of
our own stories about Jesus! When we left he thanked us a lot and said
that we really brightened his day!
Now the Viking. We went inspired tracting again with the last 15
minutes of the night. Elder Hatton and I both see this one house and
immediately feel the need to go knock there! We go and knock and a
very strong looking man with curly red hair, a big beard and a
mustache that curls on the ends answers the door! Here's how the
conversation went.
"Hi"
"How are you doing tonight"
"Good"
"Awesome, well we'd love to share a message with you about Jesus
Christ. We believe that baptism is really important. Will you follow
the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the
priesthood of God?"
"No, I think I'm fine. Thanks for asking though!"
"That's all fine, do you have a specific religion or church you belong to?"
"I tend to lean toward the Norse religion. I believe that if I live an
honorable life and die nobly in battle then I will be taken up to the
golden gates of Valhalla in the arms of Odin himself."
"Oh, well we haven't heard that one before! Why is that important to you?"
"I live by a pretty strict code of noble morals."
"Great! Well we'd love to come by another time and share a message
with you about Jesus Christ and why that's so important to us!"
"Sure! That'd be awesome!"
Normally you don't just give a baptismal invitation with nothing else
backing it up basically but before this house we decided we should. It
was a very unique door haha! His name was Cody and I can't wait to go
talk with him again! It was definitely the most unique experience I've
had and it was awesome! I loved it. It was hilarious but there were
also some cool spiritual aspects of it too. I loved when he basically
bore his testimony to us why it's important to live by a code of
morals and standards that you personally strongly believe in!
Once again, sorry for the long letter! Hopefully I'll send the email
myself out to you all next week myself! I love you all! Continue
moving forward!
Elder Tippetts
Monday, August 31, 2015
Transfers and more exchanges!
Family and Friends,
This week has been amazing!
Monday
It all started out with a super solid preparation day! We went up to Gillette and met up with a bunch of the Elders from our zone. We did some shopping at Walmart there because the biggest store in Newcastle is a small Shopko. All of us then went to a nearby park and proceeded to play ulitmate frisbee and football for 3 hours. It was definitely some good cardio haha! I then left Gillette with a new companion, I was on exchanges once again but now with Elder Perez! He's definitely one of my favorite missionaries that I've ever met. He lived in Mexico city until he was 15 or 16 and then moved to Texas. He is hilarious and also a complete genius!
Tuesday
Studies today were fantastic! Elder Perez really knows how to study and to keep track of information. He loves learning and reading and he knows the Book of Mormon and Bible very well. Before I felt like I wasn't getting as much out of my studying as I could but I talked to him about it and he was able to give me a lot of pointers and help me understand more. Ever since then I've done a lot better at reading and studying! He also introduced me to a lot of different devotionals and talks that he transferred over to my USB drive so that I can listen to them in our truck. My favorite one that I've listened to so far is "Israel, Israel, God is Calling" by Elder Holland. It's a CES devotional from 2012 and if you want to get fired up I suggest you go watch it or listen to it or read it, or all three! It is so powerful!
Wednesday
We had a really awesome district meeting. Elder Burnham has been serving in the Gillette 1st ward and he just went home on Saturday. He was a great example to me and it was a very special last district meeting for him. We read in Alma about the title of liberty and then we tore up someone's old white shirts and all made our own title of liberty! It was a really cool activity! We made a big one that all of us added to for Elder Burnham to take home with him. Later that night we had another lesson with Mikey. He's really progressing and has lots of good questions and wants to continue learning more! We found out that he is on a special olympics team! He competes on a bowling team and is a power lifter as well! He showed us all of the medals and trophies that he's earned, and let me tell you there were a lot haha!
Thursday
We went to an appointment that ended up falling through, it was with someone that Elder Perez and I tracted into. When we were there before he had a little puppy with him, when we went again I saw a different puppy in the yard and walked on in thinking nothing about it. I got in and turned around to see Elder Hatton shutting me in the yard with the gate. I pointed out the 'very vicious' dog and told Elder Hatton to come on. Then I turn around and there are two considerably larger dogs running at me from behind the house. I froze. I don't think I've ever feared physically more than I did right then. Luckily these dogs were friendly and in their case the loud parking and gnashing of teeth really did mean they just wanted to play. They kept bringing branches over to us to throw for them so we stayed for a bit with them because no one was home. We had a good laugh later to say the least haha!
Friday
We had dinner with Dallas and his family. All 8 of his grandkids were there and they are crazy! They were running in and out of the rooms and house having half conversations with us and then leaving again before we could finish answer haha! But we did have a really good dinner and Dallas told us about how much he loves the temple. Dallas is the one that was baptized just under 2 years ago and washed our feet my first week here. He got to go through the temple and receive his endowments last Saturday!
Saturday
This morning was really hot. We went to a less active member's house and helped him and his wife and daughter and grandson stain the entire outside of his house. Needless to say it was quite a bit of work and we were at it for nearly 4 hours. But it was all worth it because in the end they bought us Pizza Hut! Just kidding, Pizza Hut isn't the best blessing that comes from service haha! We had a big ward dutch oven dinner Saturday night! The food was really good and then after we had a missionary presentation. Elder Hatton and I led a Q&A session about ourselves and missionary work. We're working on getting to know the members even better so we can work with them more! Then we passed out restoration pamphlets and did a big roleplay to help the members see that what we teach isn't big and complex, but that in most cases they already know it!
Sunday
Sunday is once again one of my favorite days of the week. Sacrament meeting was on Sabbath Day observance again! It's a hot topic right now and I'd encourage you to all pray and ask God how you can do better in your observance of the Sabbath. This week we also talked about fasting with the Sabbath. All of you should look up and study President Eyring's talk "Is Not This the Fast That I Have Chosen?" from this last conference. There are so many great blessings to be had if we actually fast. One of the speakers talked about your average noon to 3 fast. God still recognizes it but you don't get anywhere near the blessing you would if you properly fast for 2 meals with accompanied prayer! I also invite you all to do a self assessment and ask yourself and God how you are doing at observing the law of the fast. If you find a way to improve, do it! If you don't, keep looking and asking! I promise there are always ways for us to improve and the get better if you earnestly look and really intend to change!
Last thing. Transfer calls came in! And the verdict is..........Elder Hatton and I will be staying in Newcastle for now! I can't believe that I've finished my first transfer! I can't wait to continue serving here in Newcastle, I love it here so much.
I love you all! I'll write next week! :)
Elder Tippetts
This week has been amazing!
Monday
It all started out with a super solid preparation day! We went up to Gillette and met up with a bunch of the Elders from our zone. We did some shopping at Walmart there because the biggest store in Newcastle is a small Shopko. All of us then went to a nearby park and proceeded to play ulitmate frisbee and football for 3 hours. It was definitely some good cardio haha! I then left Gillette with a new companion, I was on exchanges once again but now with Elder Perez! He's definitely one of my favorite missionaries that I've ever met. He lived in Mexico city until he was 15 or 16 and then moved to Texas. He is hilarious and also a complete genius!
Tuesday
Studies today were fantastic! Elder Perez really knows how to study and to keep track of information. He loves learning and reading and he knows the Book of Mormon and Bible very well. Before I felt like I wasn't getting as much out of my studying as I could but I talked to him about it and he was able to give me a lot of pointers and help me understand more. Ever since then I've done a lot better at reading and studying! He also introduced me to a lot of different devotionals and talks that he transferred over to my USB drive so that I can listen to them in our truck. My favorite one that I've listened to so far is "Israel, Israel, God is Calling" by Elder Holland. It's a CES devotional from 2012 and if you want to get fired up I suggest you go watch it or listen to it or read it, or all three! It is so powerful!
Wednesday
We had a really awesome district meeting. Elder Burnham has been serving in the Gillette 1st ward and he just went home on Saturday. He was a great example to me and it was a very special last district meeting for him. We read in Alma about the title of liberty and then we tore up someone's old white shirts and all made our own title of liberty! It was a really cool activity! We made a big one that all of us added to for Elder Burnham to take home with him. Later that night we had another lesson with Mikey. He's really progressing and has lots of good questions and wants to continue learning more! We found out that he is on a special olympics team! He competes on a bowling team and is a power lifter as well! He showed us all of the medals and trophies that he's earned, and let me tell you there were a lot haha!
Thursday
We went to an appointment that ended up falling through, it was with someone that Elder Perez and I tracted into. When we were there before he had a little puppy with him, when we went again I saw a different puppy in the yard and walked on in thinking nothing about it. I got in and turned around to see Elder Hatton shutting me in the yard with the gate. I pointed out the 'very vicious' dog and told Elder Hatton to come on. Then I turn around and there are two considerably larger dogs running at me from behind the house. I froze. I don't think I've ever feared physically more than I did right then. Luckily these dogs were friendly and in their case the loud parking and gnashing of teeth really did mean they just wanted to play. They kept bringing branches over to us to throw for them so we stayed for a bit with them because no one was home. We had a good laugh later to say the least haha!
Friday
We had dinner with Dallas and his family. All 8 of his grandkids were there and they are crazy! They were running in and out of the rooms and house having half conversations with us and then leaving again before we could finish answer haha! But we did have a really good dinner and Dallas told us about how much he loves the temple. Dallas is the one that was baptized just under 2 years ago and washed our feet my first week here. He got to go through the temple and receive his endowments last Saturday!
Saturday
This morning was really hot. We went to a less active member's house and helped him and his wife and daughter and grandson stain the entire outside of his house. Needless to say it was quite a bit of work and we were at it for nearly 4 hours. But it was all worth it because in the end they bought us Pizza Hut! Just kidding, Pizza Hut isn't the best blessing that comes from service haha! We had a big ward dutch oven dinner Saturday night! The food was really good and then after we had a missionary presentation. Elder Hatton and I led a Q&A session about ourselves and missionary work. We're working on getting to know the members even better so we can work with them more! Then we passed out restoration pamphlets and did a big roleplay to help the members see that what we teach isn't big and complex, but that in most cases they already know it!
Sunday
Sunday is once again one of my favorite days of the week. Sacrament meeting was on Sabbath Day observance again! It's a hot topic right now and I'd encourage you to all pray and ask God how you can do better in your observance of the Sabbath. This week we also talked about fasting with the Sabbath. All of you should look up and study President Eyring's talk "Is Not This the Fast That I Have Chosen?" from this last conference. There are so many great blessings to be had if we actually fast. One of the speakers talked about your average noon to 3 fast. God still recognizes it but you don't get anywhere near the blessing you would if you properly fast for 2 meals with accompanied prayer! I also invite you all to do a self assessment and ask yourself and God how you are doing at observing the law of the fast. If you find a way to improve, do it! If you don't, keep looking and asking! I promise there are always ways for us to improve and the get better if you earnestly look and really intend to change!
Last thing. Transfer calls came in! And the verdict is..........Elder Hatton and I will be staying in Newcastle for now! I can't believe that I've finished my first transfer! I can't wait to continue serving here in Newcastle, I love it here so much.
I love you all! I'll write next week! :)
Elder Tippetts
Monday, August 24, 2015
August 24th - Mission tour and more exchanges!
Family and friends,
Man this has been the best week ever! Like seriously best week of the
mission so far! Monday was just a normal preparation day so I won't
really get into it but the rest of the week was pretty awesome! And
apparently it looks like I'm not sending this out individually this
week haha, sorry!
Tuesday
We had dinner with the Clarks, they're a super solid family. Bro Clark
is the one that gave the really amazing talk about families last week!
Sister Clark is working with a friend that she thinks might need some
help from the missionaries, we're gonna keep working with her and show
her how to work with us to get that done. We taught a lesson to
Christene tonight finally! An RM from the Ward, Ramiee, that's
visiting home here while she's off track at BYU-I went with us to the
lesson and it turns out they were really good friends in high school
and played soccer together! It was a perfect example of how important
and successful member missionary work can be! When we were driving
home from the appointment we stopped by a gas station and they had
coonskin caps so we bought matching ones, regrettably we didn't get a
picture though, sorry...
Wednesday
We were walking down Main Street and Elder Clark wanted to go look at
some jerseys he saw in a wedding shop, we went in there and ended up
having a really good conversation about God and I came away with a
really good looking tie at a really good price! We taught Mikey
tonight and put him on date to be baptized! He's so awesome and I
can't wait to continue watching him progress, his parents are members
and he's really ready. He said, 'lots of other churches have tried to
make me join them and be baptized, but something in my heart is
pushing me to be baptized in this church.' Look at that! A
missionaries dream! Mikey is the one that we found at Pizza Hut.
Thursday
We drove into billings at 3 this morning to get here by 7:30. We have
MISSION TOUR today! A member of the 70, Elder Martino, came and spoke
to us in a mission conference! It was so powerful! I got to is the EFY
medley in a small missionary choir, the spirit was so strong and it
made me miss singing so much! Elder Martino and President Wadsworth
talked A LOT about member missionary work. At the end Elder Martino
taught us super in depth about the Atonement. My testimony was
strengthened so much and I know that our brother, Jesus Christ, chose
to suffer and sacrifice himself because of how much he loves us,
because there was no other way. I got to see my MTC roommates (except
for my companion....he's in the most northwest area and I'm in the
most southeast) Elder Potter and Schneider! Then I said goodbye to
Elder Clark, I'm going to miss him a lot. He's one of the funniest
people I know!
Friday
Today I went on Exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder
Partridge. He's super cool and I learned so much about missionary work
from him! He put someone on date on their porch with me, he's such a
good missionary! We talked a lot about what we learned from Mission
Tour and how we can apply it. He also taught me so much about the
sacredness and power of the priesthood.
Saturday
We met up with Elder Hatton and Mason in Moorcroft to switch back.
Elder Hatton and I stopped at Subway on the way home and had a really
good talk about what we've learned over the past few days and about
all the things we need to do to be better here. We're so excited to
work! When we got home we basically planned for the rest of the day
because we've been gone so not much has been happening, we know what
we're going to be doing now and can't wait to put it into practice!
Sunday
I sang in sacrament meeting today with Elder Hatton! We sang I Love To
See The Temple, it was super powerful and the spirit really testified
to me of the importance of temples! The teacher for the Sunday school
class we usually go to didn't show up and so we ended up teaching the
class last minute! And it went pretty well! We watched tv today! Just
kidding...we got the closest missionaries get to watching tv today! We
had an hour long marathon of preach my gospel district DVDs! We popped
popcorn and learned about planning and area books haha! It was a good
relaxing Sunday! We tracted for 3 hours and got so much done! Man it
was a great week
Also, right now I'm on exchanges again! I'm with Elder Perez! He's so
awesome! I'll tell you more about it next week! I love you all so
much! Thanks for the support!
Elder Tippetts
Man this has been the best week ever! Like seriously best week of the
mission so far! Monday was just a normal preparation day so I won't
really get into it but the rest of the week was pretty awesome! And
apparently it looks like I'm not sending this out individually this
week haha, sorry!
Tuesday
We had dinner with the Clarks, they're a super solid family. Bro Clark
is the one that gave the really amazing talk about families last week!
Sister Clark is working with a friend that she thinks might need some
help from the missionaries, we're gonna keep working with her and show
her how to work with us to get that done. We taught a lesson to
Christene tonight finally! An RM from the Ward, Ramiee, that's
visiting home here while she's off track at BYU-I went with us to the
lesson and it turns out they were really good friends in high school
and played soccer together! It was a perfect example of how important
and successful member missionary work can be! When we were driving
home from the appointment we stopped by a gas station and they had
coonskin caps so we bought matching ones, regrettably we didn't get a
picture though, sorry...
Wednesday
We were walking down Main Street and Elder Clark wanted to go look at
some jerseys he saw in a wedding shop, we went in there and ended up
having a really good conversation about God and I came away with a
really good looking tie at a really good price! We taught Mikey
tonight and put him on date to be baptized! He's so awesome and I
can't wait to continue watching him progress, his parents are members
and he's really ready. He said, 'lots of other churches have tried to
make me join them and be baptized, but something in my heart is
pushing me to be baptized in this church.' Look at that! A
missionaries dream! Mikey is the one that we found at Pizza Hut.
Thursday
We drove into billings at 3 this morning to get here by 7:30. We have
MISSION TOUR today! A member of the 70, Elder Martino, came and spoke
to us in a mission conference! It was so powerful! I got to is the EFY
medley in a small missionary choir, the spirit was so strong and it
made me miss singing so much! Elder Martino and President Wadsworth
talked A LOT about member missionary work. At the end Elder Martino
taught us super in depth about the Atonement. My testimony was
strengthened so much and I know that our brother, Jesus Christ, chose
to suffer and sacrifice himself because of how much he loves us,
because there was no other way. I got to see my MTC roommates (except
for my companion....he's in the most northwest area and I'm in the
most southeast) Elder Potter and Schneider! Then I said goodbye to
Elder Clark, I'm going to miss him a lot. He's one of the funniest
people I know!
Friday
Today I went on Exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder
Partridge. He's super cool and I learned so much about missionary work
from him! He put someone on date on their porch with me, he's such a
good missionary! We talked a lot about what we learned from Mission
Tour and how we can apply it. He also taught me so much about the
sacredness and power of the priesthood.
Saturday
We met up with Elder Hatton and Mason in Moorcroft to switch back.
Elder Hatton and I stopped at Subway on the way home and had a really
good talk about what we've learned over the past few days and about
all the things we need to do to be better here. We're so excited to
work! When we got home we basically planned for the rest of the day
because we've been gone so not much has been happening, we know what
we're going to be doing now and can't wait to put it into practice!
Sunday
I sang in sacrament meeting today with Elder Hatton! We sang I Love To
See The Temple, it was super powerful and the spirit really testified
to me of the importance of temples! The teacher for the Sunday school
class we usually go to didn't show up and so we ended up teaching the
class last minute! And it went pretty well! We watched tv today! Just
kidding...we got the closest missionaries get to watching tv today! We
had an hour long marathon of preach my gospel district DVDs! We popped
popcorn and learned about planning and area books haha! It was a good
relaxing Sunday! We tracted for 3 hours and got so much done! Man it
was a great week
Also, right now I'm on exchanges again! I'm with Elder Perez! He's so
awesome! I'll tell you more about it next week! I love you all so
much! Thanks for the support!
Elder Tippetts
Monday, August 17, 2015
August 17th - Devil's Tower, Exchanges, and Transfers
Family and Friends,
Hola! It's been another great week. I think I'm going to start to try to organize my emails a bit more by day instead of just a couple of big things that happen. Then I'll maybe not miss out on stuff that happened throughout the week. Also, next week I'm going to start sending out this weekly email myself instead of having my parents do it. They're going to send me a list of everyone they send it to right now and I'll make sure it gets sent. If you know anyone that wants to get my emails feel free to send me their emails, have them email me or contact my parents. Well...here we go!
Monday:
We drove from Newcastle to Moorcroft, where we have our District Meetings, it's about 40 minutes away. There we met up with Elder Johnson and Elder Burnham and the DeGraw family. We drove to Devil's Tower! It's the first declared National Monument in America. It's the only land mass in the entire state of Wyoming that's classified as a mountain haha! So that's just a little different than living on the Wasatch front. It was super fun and we got some cool pictures! When we were done we went on exchanges, leaving Elder Clark with Elder Burnham and taking Elder Johnson with us back down to Newcastle.
Tuesday:
Today was fun! We spent a lot of time today proselyting on Facebook. While you're on Facebook messenger there isn't much to do while you wait for people to respond, so I've started practicing piano. I took piano lessons forever ago and definitely don't consider myself skilled on it. But I've been spending a lot of down time learning, very slowly, the hymns! On Facebook I met a girl named Courtnie. At first it was a little awkward talking to her and I wanted to stop because there's a point where you don't think you're going to get much further, but I kept going and I felt I needed to talk to her, eventually she mentioned that she's actually Mormon! She's been inactive for quite a while and was a convert baptism just over a year ago. The ward council has been trying to get in touch with her for a while but they haven't been able to, hopefully now we'll be able to find time to meet with her and help her come back to church. We also taught a lesson to Mikey, about a week ago we were having dinner with his parents and he was there and out of the blue he says "you're mormons, right? I've been thinking about joining your church for a while and I think I want to get baptized." WHAT?! That was our reaction, that's a missionaries dream! He's been going to church for 8-11 years he says, both of his parents are members and he's just never been baptized or met with missionaries. We're now teaching him and he's doing great! We also taught Cooper, he's the Senior from Newcastle High that I met over Facebook. He has so much faith in Christ and actively participates in the Lutheran Church. We're not entirely sure yet if he's wanting to possible join the church but he has a lot of questions and wants to learn more about Mormonism. We hope that the spirit works on him over time!
Wednesday:
Less happened today because we spent most of the day at District Meeting. I was able to contact Connor's brother through Facebook because Connor hasn't been answering me, so hopefully we'll be able to meet with them soon. Elder Clark really likes to skateboard and was sponsored before his mission and he definitely uses that skill to his advantage out here. There's a group of kids that are always out skating and we'll usually stop and talk with them and sometimes Elder Clark borrows a board and skates with them. We were skating with one of them and his mom came out and we talked with her about what a mission is and what we do as missionaries and she seemed very accepting and was very nice.
Thursday:
This morning we went and got wood. Bro Erickson and Bro Moody came and picked us up and we drove out to a wood pile in the forest nearby. The two of them chopped of logs with chainsaws and the 3 of us stacked them into the trailer. 3-4 hours of lifting big logs later I had a pretty nice burn on my neck and was sufficiently sore haha! We had dinner with them and got to know Bro Moody better. He's the older one with the chainsaw in the pictures I'll send. He's been a member for most of his life and didn't really have religious beliefs as a child. Then he joined the church and he told us about when he was called to be a member of the seventy! We was a seventy for a couple of months but then he was called into the Bishopric in his home ward. He's super cool and knows so much about the Gospel! After dinner we drove about an hour to a different part of our area, Sundance, where they have another department. We took a wrong turn and almost ended up in South Dakota haha! So we stopped at the state sign and took pictures and Elder Clark accidentally found a well hidden Geocache and he's never even heard of Geocaching before haha!
Friday:
Not much happened today. We were able to get hold of an investigator that they haven't seen since before I got here and we set up an appointment that will work.We also stayed in Sundance and all day and met some of the members. Sundance is a small branch.
Saturday:
Today was slow starting because Elder Clark was pretty sick again. We spent a lot of time practicing tracting in our apartment and studying. We met a kid that works at the gas station, he's a mormon and he has a bunch of tattoos and piercings. He was super nice and he's an Art major at a college nearby. He said that next time we were in Sundance we should stop by and say hi!
Sunday:
Sundays are always great! The topic for sacrament was about strengthening families. Families are so important, take the time to pray for each other. Have family scripture study and prayer, study the Family Proclamation together. Have regular FHE. All of that really helps build the most sacred institution that God has established. We taught primary as well! The 3 of us pretended that we lived back when Christ was alive and told the stories of some of his miracles as if we were there! It was so much fun but the kids were a tough crowd haha! They wouldn't believe that I was 2018 years old!!! Hahaha it was a great time! Also Elder Clark said goodbye to a lot of people because he's getting mid-transferred on Thursday. So as of Thursday it's going to be just Elder Hatton and I! Then on the 30th we'll find out if either of us get transferred as well. Bro Willadson, the recent convert with the really awesome motorcycle, got in a pretty big crash on Saturday. He's doing really well and had a blessing, he said he's never felt the spirit as strongly as he did during the blessing, not even when he was baptized in December! Priesthood blessings have very real power. We got to visit him in the Hospital and I've never seen someone with an attitude as positive as his! Ever since he joined the church he goes to the church almost every single day to clean it. No one really asks him to, it's just a way he tries to help out. He was in the Hospital and didn't complain at all, he just asked us to stop by the church and make sure the diapers are taken out and that nothing was too dirty. He's a trooper.
Hopefully this wasn't too long, I'll get a hold of the whole emailing thing sooner or later!
Elder Tippetts
This morning we went and got wood. Bro Erickson and Bro Moody came and picked us up and we drove out to a wood pile in the forest nearby. The two of them chopped of logs with chainsaws and the 3 of us stacked them into the trailer. 3-4 hours of lifting big logs later I had a pretty nice burn on my neck and was sufficiently sore haha! We had dinner with them and got to know Bro Moody better. He's the older one with the chainsaw in the pictures I'll send. He's been a member for most of his life and didn't really have religious beliefs as a child. Then he joined the church and he told us about when he was called to be a member of the seventy! We was a seventy for a couple of months but then he was called into the Bishopric in his home ward. He's super cool and knows so much about the Gospel! After dinner we drove about an hour to a different part of our area, Sundance, where they have another department. We took a wrong turn and almost ended up in South Dakota haha! So we stopped at the state sign and took pictures and Elder Clark accidentally found a well hidden Geocache and he's never even heard of Geocaching before haha!
Friday:
Not much happened today. We were able to get hold of an investigator that they haven't seen since before I got here and we set up an appointment that will work.We also stayed in Sundance and all day and met some of the members. Sundance is a small branch.
Saturday:
Today was slow starting because Elder Clark was pretty sick again. We spent a lot of time practicing tracting in our apartment and studying. We met a kid that works at the gas station, he's a mormon and he has a bunch of tattoos and piercings. He was super nice and he's an Art major at a college nearby. He said that next time we were in Sundance we should stop by and say hi!
Sunday:
Sundays are always great! The topic for sacrament was about strengthening families. Families are so important, take the time to pray for each other. Have family scripture study and prayer, study the Family Proclamation together. Have regular FHE. All of that really helps build the most sacred institution that God has established. We taught primary as well! The 3 of us pretended that we lived back when Christ was alive and told the stories of some of his miracles as if we were there! It was so much fun but the kids were a tough crowd haha! They wouldn't believe that I was 2018 years old!!! Hahaha it was a great time! Also Elder Clark said goodbye to a lot of people because he's getting mid-transferred on Thursday. So as of Thursday it's going to be just Elder Hatton and I! Then on the 30th we'll find out if either of us get transferred as well. Bro Willadson, the recent convert with the really awesome motorcycle, got in a pretty big crash on Saturday. He's doing really well and had a blessing, he said he's never felt the spirit as strongly as he did during the blessing, not even when he was baptized in December! Priesthood blessings have very real power. We got to visit him in the Hospital and I've never seen someone with an attitude as positive as his! Ever since he joined the church he goes to the church almost every single day to clean it. No one really asks him to, it's just a way he tries to help out. He was in the Hospital and didn't complain at all, he just asked us to stop by the church and make sure the diapers are taken out and that nothing was too dirty. He's a trooper.
Hopefully this wasn't too long, I'll get a hold of the whole emailing thing sooner or later!
Elder Tippetts
Monday, August 10, 2015
August 10th - More than a month!
Family and friends,
Wow! Saturday was officially one month since I left on my mission!
It's crazy to think that much time has already gone by! I've got 23
months to go! But don't worry, I'm not counting down, I'm counting up!
I think there is so much potential and so much the Lord has in store
for me and I know that as I'm obedient and work hard I'll keep
learning and growing the whole time! I know that even if times get
hard I have access to an infinite amount of strength through the
atonement!
This week has been different than others, it's really interesting.
Like I said last week, we've either baptized all of our investigators,
dropped them because they weren't progressing for too long or they
moved away. So we don't have a really big teaching pool. Because of
that we're obviously workin in finding new investigators. Tracting is
the #1 place to go in general to find people, but that's getting hard
because Newcastle is so small and Elder Clark has been here for almost
3 months now and has knocked on most doors at least 2-3 times already.
It's not uncommon for people to answer the door and say 'Weren't you
here like 2 weeks ago? I already took your pamphlet and watched your
video, I'm still not interested.' So obviously we keep doing it and
hope people change their minds, and we do see that happen, but thanks
to technology we have other ways of contacting people! When you get to
a new area you go through and friend as many people as live in that
town as possible basically. And then we are supposed to post 2-3 times
a week so that people see good things on their timeline and get the
gospel out there and more available. Then we just message random
people. Yup! We'll go through our friends list and just start
messaging people! Then some people respond and we get to know them and
teach gospel principles and try to find a time when we can teach them
in person. It's great because most people seem to be a lot more open
online. I found a kid from the high school that we're going to teach
tomorrow night, his name is Cooper and he's a senior I think. I think
it's a miracle we were able to meet him because as I was talking with
him he said basically if we had knocked on his door his parents would
just send the Mormons packing and he never would get the opportunity
to talk to us. But now we're going to teach him because of Facebook!
We wouldn't have been able to meet him through a door! He has so many
questions about Mormons and already has a strong belief and faith in
Jesus Christ! I shared a pamphlet with him through Facebook messenger
and he read it and asked lots of questions about it and really liked
it! I'm super excited to see where this goes!
One more thing about Facebook! I got my privacy setting fixed so you
should all be able to see all my posts, go press the follow button if
you want them to show up on your timeline everything I post! You can
go to my page just by typing in facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts!
Another cool thing is I'm learning Jujitsu haha! On Wednesday the 5th
for mutual one of the young men learns jujitsu so he brought his
teacher and one of his friends that does it too! So we showed up
because a lot of the young men that were there were less active. So we
talked with them and learned some jujitsu! Then at the end we were
talking to the two teachers and found out both of them used to be
active members as well! One of them had been preparing to go on a
mission with his best friend but then they both ended up not going.
And guess what! His best friend from back then is in our ward and a
strong member again! So we're going to start working with him and his
friend to help bring him back! It's so cool how wherever you are you
can find people to help come closer to Christ! I've got a challenge
for you all along with that! Pray everyday for missionary
opportunities and to see everyone like God sees them! Then, wherever
you go, always look for people that you can help. You don't have to
teach a lesson from Preach My Gospel, you don't have to baptize them,
but you could say something that brightens their day and let's them
see God's love a little more. It's small actions like those that will
help people's hearts be softened and make them more accepting to the
gospel in the future. You may not see the immediate effects but try to
trust God that he'll use you as an instrument in his hands.
I hope you all have a great week!
Elder Tippetts
here like 2 weeks ago? I already took your pamphlet and watched your
video, I'm still not interested.' So obviously we keep doing it and
hope people change their minds, and we do see that happen, but thanks
to technology we have other ways of contacting people! When you get to
a new area you go through and friend as many people as live in that
town as possible basically. And then we are supposed to post 2-3 times
a week so that people see good things on their timeline and get the
gospel out there and more available. Then we just message random
people. Yup! We'll go through our friends list and just start
messaging people! Then some people respond and we get to know them and
teach gospel principles and try to find a time when we can teach them
in person. It's great because most people seem to be a lot more open
online. I found a kid from the high school that we're going to teach
tomorrow night, his name is Cooper and he's a senior I think. I think
it's a miracle we were able to meet him because as I was talking with
him he said basically if we had knocked on his door his parents would
just send the Mormons packing and he never would get the opportunity
to talk to us. But now we're going to teach him because of Facebook!
We wouldn't have been able to meet him through a door! He has so many
questions about Mormons and already has a strong belief and faith in
Jesus Christ! I shared a pamphlet with him through Facebook messenger
and he read it and asked lots of questions about it and really liked
it! I'm super excited to see where this goes!
One more thing about Facebook! I got my privacy setting fixed so you
should all be able to see all my posts, go press the follow button if
you want them to show up on your timeline everything I post! You can
go to my page just by typing in facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts!
Another cool thing is I'm learning Jujitsu haha! On Wednesday the 5th
for mutual one of the young men learns jujitsu so he brought his
teacher and one of his friends that does it too! So we showed up
because a lot of the young men that were there were less active. So we
talked with them and learned some jujitsu! Then at the end we were
talking to the two teachers and found out both of them used to be
active members as well! One of them had been preparing to go on a
mission with his best friend but then they both ended up not going.
And guess what! His best friend from back then is in our ward and a
strong member again! So we're going to start working with him and his
friend to help bring him back! It's so cool how wherever you are you
can find people to help come closer to Christ! I've got a challenge
for you all along with that! Pray everyday for missionary
opportunities and to see everyone like God sees them! Then, wherever
you go, always look for people that you can help. You don't have to
teach a lesson from Preach My Gospel, you don't have to baptize them,
but you could say something that brightens their day and let's them
see God's love a little more. It's small actions like those that will
help people's hearts be softened and make them more accepting to the
gospel in the future. You may not see the immediate effects but try to
trust God that he'll use you as an instrument in his hands.
I hope you all have a great week!
Elder Tippetts
First photos from Wyoming
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| Brother Willardson's Harley |
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| Funny sign |
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| Roasting Marshmallows at Dallas' house |
August 3 Sorry...this one's pretty long!
Family and friends,
This week has been pretty awesome! Crazy, sad, happy, hot. So many different emotions and temperatures haha! I'll get the sad stuff out of the way really quick. Remember last week how I was super excited about the convert baptism that was happening? He ended up canceling due to some second thoughts about it. It was really sad but I guess it's just not the time for him and we're just praying that the right time comes soon, the work just keeps moving forward! The other bad thing was a little less sad, but maybe a bit harder. When I got to Montana I got hit with what I thought was really bad allergies, they didn't go away for a while and my companions ended up getting sick too. So we ended up having a couple of really long days with really stuffed noses and really bad coughs. But we still got quite a bit of work done! We just had to go to the bathroom to blow our noses a lot haha! But don't worry! Even when hard things happen, the Lord provides amazing things to make up for it! It's up to us to look for the silver lining in all things and to 'press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men' (2 Nephi 31:20) I know that trusting in God and having hope through the Atonement softens all sorrows and lifts all burdens!
I'll explain a bit more about Newcastle. It's a small town in east Wyoming. The population sign out front says ~3500 people live here. It's a really cool town! We also take in the nearby towns of Upton and Sundance, which are even smaller than Newcastle. We have a church building and it's beautiful but small, the chapel is about half the size of our chapel in my home ward. It's amazing to see even in a small town that God loves everyone so much. There are so many amazing and righteous members here that are so cool! So many people are so nice! On Sunday I got up and bore my testimony how God loves all of his children so much. Even though I don't know most of these people I have been working in seeing them like our Heavenly Father does. As I've prayed for help with that I've seen some pretty immediate results and have a strong desire to help everyone here to the best of my abilities! Man, I just love it here so much! Another thing about Newcastle, for just more than the past week they've had a big fair going on! It's so great. They have a bunch of rodeo events from a horse trailer relays to mud bogging to truck pulls to steer wrestling! Sadly we weren't there the day the chased greased pigs, that would have been really entertaining to see! It's so fun to watch and it's been a great way for us to get out in the public and meet people!
Something else cool that's been happening over the last week is Sturgis! In case you don't know, it's the biggest motorcycle rally and I think it's held up in North Dakota. It's a really horrible place, very immoral and just a bunch of not good things happen there. We're not particularly close to Sturgis at all but we're on the route to get there! We see HUNDREDS of people driving motorcycles through town on their way to Sturgis EVERY day! I've never really been one for motorcycles but it's quite the sight! There are so many sick bikes and we've met a couple of the bikers and it's just really cool haha! Bro Willardson in the ward is a convert of ~8 months and used to go to Sturgis when he was younger. He has a limited edition Harley Davidson from their 110th anniversary I think. It's so nice and we got to sit on it! Haha it was cool!
Facebook. We are an iPad and Facebook mission. It's so amazing how technology can be utilized in missionary work now! You can find me on Facebook under Elder Garian Tippetts, just make sure it's not my normal Facebook account! My parents will be disabling my 'civilian' account soon. If you go to my page click the follow button. I'm not allowed to be Facebook friends with anyone outside of the immediate area I'm serving but you are allowed to 'follow' me and then you'll get whatever I post on your feed. Also, my address is 351 East Wentworth Newcastle, WY 82701. So feel free to send letters! I love hearing from my friends and family! Hopefully I'll respond as soon as possible haha!
Last thing. We came to a roadblock in the work, basically that all of the investigators that Newcastle has had over the last couple of weeks have all been baptized or moved out of town and are meeting with other missionaries. Sounds like a good problem to have right? So we didn't really have any one to teach so we've been tracting a lot and teaching less active members a lot. Now we're trying to get more new investigators in different ways, because tracting isn't always the most efficient way, but it still is necessary. We found 2 new investigators yesterday and met with a lady that's interested in our church! Now we're trying to do a lot more member missionary work in addition to tracting. We're going to start meeting with members in the ward as often as possible and show them the great blessings that come from missionary work. The idea is that when they see that missionary work isn't actually as scary as it seems people will feel more comfortable and even excited to invite their friends and family to meet with us. It seems like people are a lot more accepting of their friends inviting them than a couple of missionaries knocking on their doors. So we're going to be coordinating a lot more of our efforts through the Bishop and ward mission leader (our ward mission leader, bro. Erickson, sings barbershop and plays the piano. I love him SO much!) and the ward council! I can't wait to see what miracles the Lord has in store for us! All of you should invite the missionaries into your homes and invite friends and family over to hear their message. Members are so very important in this work! I know all of you can receive so many blessings from helping out in this great work that our God has for us!
Elder Tippetts
Facebook. We are an iPad and Facebook mission. It's so amazing how technology can be utilized in missionary work now! You can find me on Facebook under Elder Garian Tippetts, just make sure it's not my normal Facebook account! My parents will be disabling my 'civilian' account soon. If you go to my page click the follow button. I'm not allowed to be Facebook friends with anyone outside of the immediate area I'm serving but you are allowed to 'follow' me and then you'll get whatever I post on your feed. Also, my address is 351 East Wentworth Newcastle, WY 82701. So feel free to send letters! I love hearing from my friends and family! Hopefully I'll respond as soon as possible haha!
Last thing. We came to a roadblock in the work, basically that all of the investigators that Newcastle has had over the last couple of weeks have all been baptized or moved out of town and are meeting with other missionaries. Sounds like a good problem to have right? So we didn't really have any one to teach so we've been tracting a lot and teaching less active members a lot. Now we're trying to get more new investigators in different ways, because tracting isn't always the most efficient way, but it still is necessary. We found 2 new investigators yesterday and met with a lady that's interested in our church! Now we're trying to do a lot more member missionary work in addition to tracting. We're going to start meeting with members in the ward as often as possible and show them the great blessings that come from missionary work. The idea is that when they see that missionary work isn't actually as scary as it seems people will feel more comfortable and even excited to invite their friends and family to meet with us. It seems like people are a lot more accepting of their friends inviting them than a couple of missionaries knocking on their doors. So we're going to be coordinating a lot more of our efforts through the Bishop and ward mission leader (our ward mission leader, bro. Erickson, sings barbershop and plays the piano. I love him SO much!) and the ward council! I can't wait to see what miracles the Lord has in store for us! All of you should invite the missionaries into your homes and invite friends and family over to hear their message. Members are so very important in this work! I know all of you can receive so many blessings from helping out in this great work that our God has for us!
Elder Tippetts
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
July 27...Welcome to the mission field!
Family and friends,
We flew into Montana Billings on Tuesday and we stayed at the mission
home all Tuesday and most of Wednesday for orientation and such.
Wednesday morning we went to the Billings Temple and it is by far the
most beautiful temple I have ever seen. Everything inside is so
gorgeous and the surrounding are is gorgeous and the grounds are
gorgeous. I seriously love this temple SO much!!!!! Then after lunch
we got assigned to our areas! They pulled out a big spinner like Wheel
of Fortune with all the different areas of the mission on it. At first
I just laughed like 'haha nice one, there's no way that's how they're
picking where we go!' And then the first sister goes up and spins it
and lands on Missoula and President Wadsworth says congratulations
you're going to Missoula! I thought 'there's no way this is actually
how they're doing it...' The next sister goes up and BOOM it happens
again!!!!! I'm freaking out now haha because a wooden spinner is
deciding the next at least 6 weeks of my life! But then the next
sister goes up and hers doesn't work for three spins. So I promise
that President Wadsworth did pray about them and have them prepared
before haha! They just like to joke around a bit and see if they can
get the spinner to land on the right place! Man that was stressful! Wednesday
We flew into Montana Billings on Tuesday and we stayed at the mission
home all Tuesday and most of Wednesday for orientation and such.
Wednesday morning we went to the Billings Temple and it is by far the
most beautiful temple I have ever seen. Everything inside is so
gorgeous and the surrounding are is gorgeous and the grounds are
gorgeous. I seriously love this temple SO much!!!!! Then after lunch
we got assigned to our areas! They pulled out a big spinner like Wheel
of Fortune with all the different areas of the mission on it. At first
I just laughed like 'haha nice one, there's no way that's how they're
picking where we go!' And then the first sister goes up and spins it
and lands on Missoula and President Wadsworth says congratulations
you're going to Missoula! I thought 'there's no way this is actually
how they're doing it...' The next sister goes up and BOOM it happens
again!!!!! I'm freaking out now haha because a wooden spinner is
deciding the next at least 6 weeks of my life! But then the next
sister goes up and hers doesn't work for three spins. So I promise
that President Wadsworth did pray about them and have them prepared
before haha! They just like to joke around a bit and see if they can
get the spinner to land on the right place! Man that was stressful! Wednesday
night we drove all the way from
Billings to Gillette Wyoming, about 6 hours..
The next morning we drove another 2
hours to my first area! NEWCASTLE AND SUNDANCE WYOMING!!!!! I love this place so
much! It's approximately a
9 hour drive from home, we're almost directly
on the border of South Dakota
and just right across from Rapid City
basically. This area is great!
I have two companions! We're in a trio here in Newcastle right now!
Elder Clark is my trainer, he's from Ephraim and Eagle Mountain Utah!
He's seriously the funniest person I have ever met and he's been so
good to me and I've learned a lot! He's been out for ~20 months so I'm
glad I get someone with lots of experience! My other companion is
Elder Hatton from right next to Parowan Utah! He's so solid and looks
like a cross between Dave Franco and Zac Efron haha! He plays
saxophone and took 1st in state x-country 3 years ago I think. He's
been out for like 8 months and he's so confident! He's our district
leader so I'm learning a lot from him too!
Now about that subject header...we slept in our apartment for the
first time Thursday night. The next morning Elder Clark (who's been
I have two companions! We're in a trio here in Newcastle right now!
Elder Clark is my trainer, he's from Ephraim and Eagle Mountain Utah!
He's seriously the funniest person I have ever met and he's been so
good to me and I've learned a lot! He's been out for ~20 months so I'm
glad I get someone with lots of experience! My other companion is
Elder Hatton from right next to Parowan Utah! He's so solid and looks
like a cross between Dave Franco and Zac Efron haha! He plays
saxophone and took 1st in state x-country 3 years ago I think. He's
been out for like 8 months and he's so confident! He's our district
leader so I'm learning a lot from him too!
Now about that subject header...we slept in our apartment for the
first time Thursday night. The next morning Elder Clark (who's been
in Newcastle for the last transfer or
two) told us about Dallas. Dallas
is a convert and he is such a stud. He's an old man with a really
strong catholic background. He said that Dallas cooks the best
pancakes ever and that when new missionaries come into the area he
loves too cook breakfast for them as soon as possible! But along with
that, he washes their feet. He said that it happens to all the new
is a convert and he is such a stud. He's an old man with a really
strong catholic background. He said that Dallas cooks the best
pancakes ever and that when new missionaries come into the area he
loves too cook breakfast for them as soon as possible! But along with
that, he washes their feet. He said that it happens to all the new
Missionaries so I guess I have to! So
we went to breakfast and let me tell
you they were amazing pancakes! Then he
pulls out a bucket of warm water,
a washcloth, lotion, and tells us to
take off a sock and shoe. We did and he
washed our feet and then put lotion on
them. Who knew your feet could feel
like a million bucks!? While he did it he told us why he does it. Washing
like a million bucks!? While he did it he told us why he does it. Washing
someone's feet is an extreme sign of respect
and he loves the story of Christ
washing his apostle's feet. It says
that he loves us and that we are always
welcome in his house no matter what. He
cares about the missionaries so
much and I can't wait to get to know
him better!
Also… baptism! Yes, after two days of being in the field I had my
first baptism! Her name is Kendall and she's 11, she comes from a part
member less-active family. I think she's so great and I'm glad I was
able to be here to see her baptism! This Saturday we have another
investigator with a baptismal date as well! He's probably in his 30's
at least and his name is Lance. The missionaries have been working
with him for a while and he is such a spiritual giant! We've met so
him twice since I've been here and I just love his so much! He's had
some really cool experiences with the Holy Ghost that are pretty
miraculous!
Last thing I promise! I went tracting for the first time! Knocking on
doors was a bit scary but my companions are really confident and
showed me how to do it! During the 1 hour that we tracted 1 street we
found 2 new investigators that we have return appointments with! We
also met a Lutheran pastor that has a bunch of Mormon friends and
loves that we love Jesus too, but he wasn't interested in talking. One
of the doors I knocked on was answered by a shirtless old man that
just said 'not interested' and then just looked at me for a second and
it was my first time with someone like that and my companions didn't
say anything so I just was like 'ummmmmm...ok, thanks?' And then he
shut the door and my companions started laughing so hard! We laugh
about that pretty often haha! I can't wait to try again! Also we got yelled
Also… baptism! Yes, after two days of being in the field I had my
first baptism! Her name is Kendall and she's 11, she comes from a part
member less-active family. I think she's so great and I'm glad I was
able to be here to see her baptism! This Saturday we have another
investigator with a baptismal date as well! He's probably in his 30's
at least and his name is Lance. The missionaries have been working
with him for a while and he is such a spiritual giant! We've met so
him twice since I've been here and I just love his so much! He's had
some really cool experiences with the Holy Ghost that are pretty
miraculous!
Last thing I promise! I went tracting for the first time! Knocking on
doors was a bit scary but my companions are really confident and
showed me how to do it! During the 1 hour that we tracted 1 street we
found 2 new investigators that we have return appointments with! We
also met a Lutheran pastor that has a bunch of Mormon friends and
loves that we love Jesus too, but he wasn't interested in talking. One
of the doors I knocked on was answered by a shirtless old man that
just said 'not interested' and then just looked at me for a second and
it was my first time with someone like that and my companions didn't
say anything so I just was like 'ummmmmm...ok, thanks?' And then he
shut the door and my companions started laughing so hard! We laugh
about that pretty often haha! I can't wait to try again! Also we got yelled
at by some punk teenager 'CHURCH
FREAKS!' But then we ended
up talking to him anyways and he was really nice, he just doesn't like
church so it's all chill.
Sorry for the long email! I promise to try to keepfuture emails shorter,
up talking to him anyways and he was really nice, he just doesn't like
church so it's all chill.
Sorry for the long email! I promise to try to keepfuture emails shorter,
just so much happened this week! The
church is true! Pray and read
the scriptures! It's the best thing you
can do!
Elder Tippetts :)
Elder Tippetts :)
Monday, August 3, 2015
Last Day at the MTC! July 20
Dear Family and Friends,
Today is my last day in the MTC and that is so crazy to me! I have seriously learned so much over the past 12 days and I almost don't want to leave but I know they need me in Montana more than I'm needed here! Like I said last week, prayer is so important. NEVER take it for granted. Prayer causes miracles and lets us feel God's love. Over the past week I've seen that even more and besides that, I've seen how powerful reading the Book of Mormon can be when you pray for help while reading and listen to the Spirit. Any and ALL questions can be answered when you read the Book of Mormon with the spirit. Another thing I've learned is how powerful the sacrament really is. It's so easy to take for granted because you do it every single week, but every single week it can cause and seal so many miraculous changes. Repentance isn't just stopping bad behavior, it's improving good behavior as well and also just changing and turning towards God in general. When you pray and ask God how you can change, he will tell you. When you take God's advice and change and then you take the sacrament feel so much better and full and whole. Then you're able to make other changes and keep on moving forward always praying, repenting and taking the sacrament! It's amazing and I'm so thankful that God has given us such a simple way to change :)
This week has also had some really hard things happen. Two Elder's in our district decided to go home. It had nothing to do with worthiness, and neither were sent home. They both felt that that was where they were needed more. It was hard on both of their companions and the district as a whole. They were both so amazing and were such a light and example to us all. I can't wait to see them later because I know that the Lord still has a work to do with them whether that's them coming back in a couple of weeks or if it's later in their lives. It didn't make me doubt my willingness to serve at all though, it made me more concrete in my decision actually. I can't wait to serve the Lord with all my heart might mind and strength because I know and Satan knows that God has two less powerful missionaries out there. It's time for missionaries and members to pick up the slack. Our God is marching on, don't get left behind
I'm don't have much left to say and I don't have any more time so I'll say hi to y'all again next week from Montana! Keep praying for missionaries!
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