Apparently we're not Christians?

Family and Friends,
Don't worry, Mormons really are Christians, but I have never
heard more often that we are not than this week. So many people are
really bothered and disturbed by some of our beliefs and when we try
to explain them and show them plainly out of the bible they freak out
and walk away. Don't worry, it wasn't bashing at all, no contention
until they flip out. They would ask why we would believe what we do
and we would answer, 'well, it says it right here in the bible, so
that's why we believe it.' On Wednesday we had a couple people while
tracting and a referral we contacted tell us that it's ridiculous to
believe that Jesus Christ and Satan are brothers, it really bothers
them. It really strengthens my testimony when stuff like this happens
because it shows how Satan has taken simple, plain and precious truths
from the Gospel and twisted them to keep people from Christ's true
church. And this is Christ's true and living church.
We had a really good lesson with a less active family. We talked
about not procrastinating and how we need to sometimes just square our
shoulders to life and do whatever we need to. You could tell that by
the time we left the Holy Ghost had pricked their hearts and humbled
them quite a bit. Sadly, they weren't at church yesterday, but we'll
see them again tomorrow! After that lesson we met with one of our
progressing investigators and she told us about all the frustration
and anger that she feels when she reads the Book of Mormon. When I
heard that, my heart snapped in two. On my mission I have come to
love the Book of Mormon like I never thought I could, so it hurt to
hear from someone how they had a negative experience from reading it.
She said that she had never felt like she got anything out of reading
it, and she's almost all the way through 2 Nephi. So we reviewed some
of the things that are keeping her from baptism and shared 1 Nephi 3:7
with her. You could see the wheels turning in her head and we knew the
spirit had spoken to her. She said she really liked the verse and it
gave her hope and trust in God. We're reviewing the Word of Wisdom
with her again tomorrow and then we're going to start just reading
from the Book of Mormon with her multiple times a week so that we can
help her identify principles from the verses so she can apply it in
her life.
Friday we had zone training, pictures will be included. Elder
Hoschouer, Elder Schneider are in this zone as well! That means we're
only missing Elder Potter and then we'd have our entire room from the
MTC back together. But it was still super good. Most of the meeting
was focused on not focusing on ourselves. I really keep seeing over
and over is that your mission gets too hard when you're too hard on
yourself. A mission, and any other form of discipleship, is all about
forgetting yourself and serving others. That's the only way we can
really profit. Even if you serve perfect in every way possible, but
you do it grudgingly, you can gain no reward. This life is about
turning our will over to God and loving it.
Last crazy thing that happened this week was that yesterday I
gave my first baptismal interview! I was pretty nervous that it might
be some really intense and intimidating guy with a crazy past, instead
it was a 10 year old boy. During the interview I just kept thinking of
a statement from this past conference in Bradley Foster's talk, "Do we
recognize that our children are the largest group of investigators of
the Church? What must we do to bring about their lasting conversion?"
One of the reasons people fall away from the church later on in life
is a lack of righteous support. Obviously people have their free
agency and even if they have a perfect upbringing they can still
choose to go astray. But just because they have their own choices
doesn't mean that we can't help them understand that when they are
baptized they covenant, they make a literal and binding promise with
God, to follow him for the rest of their life. There isn't really away
to avoid answering to God for breaking that promise. This week
consider the covenants you have made and how you can be more true to
them. Also look for opportunities to strengthen other people's resolve
to keep their covenants. And of course, look for family members and
friends that still need to make covenants and prayerfully decide with
God's help what you can do to help them take the required steps.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Tippetts

Powell is the best!

Family and friends,

Powell is seriously the best! I love it here way too much. First
thing's first, my new address is 595 #2 Avenue B Powell, Wyoming
82435! My new companion is Elder Lankford. This is his 3rd transfer
and he is on fire! I love him and he is super bold and knows the
lessons well. We've been having lots of success so far at teaching
powerful lessons and finding new, solid investigators. It's been such
a testimony to me this past week about staying busy, we've barely had
any time to slow down and we've just kept going.
Something really cool from this last week: I spent all Wednesday
with Elder Hoschouer, my MTC companion! We made it to Billing Tuesday
night and I was talking with the Zone Leaders there. They said
something about Elder Hoschouer and I mentioned that he was my MTC
companion and I've seen him once since we parted ways. Right then and
there they rearranged the assignments for Elders staying in Billings
overnight and told me I'd be staying at Elder Hoschouer's apartment
because he's been serving in Billings! I walked in and he freaked out
and ran at me and picked me up and squeezed the life out of me. We
spent the whole night until bed time catching up and I'm sure the
other Elders there were a little annoyed, but hey, we haven't seen
each other in forever! The next morning the zone leaders told me that
I was going to be Elder Hoschouer's companion for the day! So we spent
all day together. Nothing was going on, we pretty much just ran
errands around town because it was transfer days. It gave us lots of
time to just talk and tell stories that have happened to us. Most of
the day was spent cleaning and packing up their apartment because they
were shutting down that area. After we finished getting everything
packed up we got a phone call telling us to put it back together
because some missionaries were going to use it for the next couple of
weeks before they officially shut it down. That was frustrating but it
just meant more time for us to talk!
We made it down to Powell Wednesday night and then got to work
the next day. We had some really awesome bold lessons with an
investigator named Vanessa and one named Paul, they'll definitely
accept baptism soon but they've been turning it down for a while. It
looks like they're picking up and progressing quick though. We also
had a part member family that we taught. The missionaries have tried
to get the kids baptized multiple times and it looks like this time
will go through. We've been meeting with some less active members that
haven't been interested in talking with us for a while now and they
look promising! Sunday night we went to the addiction recovery
program. We were the only ones there for a while but then people
showed up. It was really cool and really strengthened my testimony of
the atonement. We'll try to go each Sunday night and are trying to get
some of the investigators and less active members we're teaching to
come.
Last cool story. Yesterday we were tracting and there was this
one guy who wasn't interested at all, but he talked with us. Then he
told us about all of his neighbor's and what religions they are and
that they wouldn't be interested. We were knocking on one of his
neighbor's door and told them that one of their neighbor's said that
they'd be interested. Hopefully we'll be forgiven for lying because
she wanted to talk! We shared the restoration with her and it all made
sense to her. She said that baptism is definitely a possibility if she
finds out its true! We'll be heading back on Thursday to teach her and
give her an official baptismal date hopefully!

Love you all! Have a great week! I might send pictures tonight or I
might just send them next week.

Elder Tippetts

Bye to Sundance and Moorcroft

Family and friends,

Yup, after 7 1/2 months in the Northeastern part of Wyoming I'm
getting transferred...to the northWESTERN part of Wyoming! I'll be
serving in the 1st and 3rd Powell wards. I'll also be the District
Leader, that's freaking me out a bit. It's weird to think that this
transfer I'll be in almost the same position that Elder Hatton was
when I first met him. I think it was during his 6th transfer, around
the time that he hit 8months, that I became his companion. The only
difference is that I won't be with a brand new missionary. I'll be
with Elder Lankford, this'll be his 3rd transfer I believe so he just
finished training. I don't know who all the missionaries in my
district will be, but I believe there will be around 10 missionaries
including the Zone Leaders for the Wyoming West zone. The zone
includes the Cody, Lovell and Worland stakes as opposed to The Wyoming
East zone (where I am now) that is just the Gillette stake. The
district I'll be in is all the missionaries that are serving in the
Cody stake. We don't know exactly how transfers will happen yet, but
we'll find out soon hopefully!
This week was so awesome! It was the best last week in an area
that I could have asked for. Monday night we called 15 or so less
active members and invited them to the Moorcroft branch valentines
dinner for adults. We pretty much just went through the branch
directory and if there was someone we didn't think had been invited
yet and they had a number we gave them a call! We talked to pretty
much all of them but sadly none made it. On Wednesday we took around
10 invitations to less active members and some of our investigators,
sadly none of them came either. It was sad but we were still happy
because we had worked hard and for some of those people had to be
pretty persistent to get a hold of them. Thursday night came around
for the dinner and it was awesome! Dinner was very good and we had a
good turn out. The parents of a part member family we're working
showed up when they to,d us they wouldn't be able to make it, that was
great!
Also there's a family that recently started coming back to
church, the Hutchisons. They've gone back and forth between less
active and active for years and a few weeks ago they showed up to
church and brother Hutchison told president Jones that he wants to do
whatever he need to do so he can be right wi God and baptize his kids!
That was quite the miracle! The Hutchisons came to the dinner and we
sat by them and it was so much fun. We talked about so many things and
brother Hutchison likes me, even though I'm a city boy. The branch
mission leader and his wife were also sitting by us and they were
talking with the Hutchisons about their 2 year old horse that's
pregnant. I was only partially tuned in to the conversation, so I was
super confused. I completely missed the whole *horse* part, which was
a pretty big part. Some of the things I heard out of that context
were: "She's only two, I can't believe she's pregnant!", "Do you think
she'll make it?", "Ours wasn't quite that young, but almost, maybe
3?", "it was a complete accident.", "what do we even do with a baby
one? Do you know anyone that wants one?" When I asked to clarify that
it was, in deed, a horse they were talking about Brother Hutchison
almost died he was laughing so hard. Definitely a memorable night.
Tuesday morning Elder Bills and I were doing some family history
work training and studying the purpose of family history, especially
in missionary work. We learned a lot and were able to apply what we
learned that day! We met with Kellie finally, she's an investigator
that always has been busy whenever we have an appointment set up with
her. It was our first time actually talking with her and we taught her
the restoration. She really liked the idea but wasn't seeming too
interested all of a sudden. She told us that she had a question for
us, one that has bothered her since she was young about all churches.
She asked, "Pretty much all churches say that they're the only right
church, so are only members of your church going to be in heaven?" We
were able to teach her about the different glories of heaven and how
we do believe that if you don't receive the proper priesthood
ordinances through the right authority you can't be saved in the
celestial kingdom so we do proxy ordinance for those that didn't have
the opportunity to do it themselves so they have an equal chance at
salvation. She was glad to have an answer to a question she's had for
decades! She agreed that when she finds out that it's all true she'll
be baptized!
Also it's been super warm this week. Almost all the snow around
town was melted (until the big snow this morning). But last week there
was actually a day where we didn't wear our suits or sweaters while we
went tracting and we weren't cold at all! It was too grand.
There were lots of other cool things that happened as well but I
can't seem to put words to them right now. I'm super excited to see
how this next week goes! Remember that this gospel is so true and we
are so blessed to have the peace it brings in our lives!

Elder Tippetts

Love and exchanges!

Family and friends,

Don't worry, there isn't some sort of scandal going on, but there
was some love this week! On Tuesday we got to go to the Young
Ambassadors show Heartsongs: Songs of Love. It was a little strange
because they just sang love songs the whole time and there was kissing
in some of the dances, which is a big no no according to the
missionary handbook. But we were invited by the Zone Leaders to come,
who were told by President Wadsworth to bring the whole zone to it!
Apparently they just did a tour of Wyoming Colorado and Montana or
something like that and where ever they've been in our mission the
missionaries were all invited. When it was in Helena President
Wadsworth went and there was a member of the seventy there as well I
guess. It was really refreshing to hear some of my favorite songs
again though and we talked to some of the performers about the
missionary opportunities they've had because of the Young Ambassadors!
Going to the concert was like a nice nap that left me refreshed and
excited to get back to work!

This week we were also on exchanges from Monday until Thursday. I
was with Elder Bird, he's from Provo as well! It's pretty crazy
because he graduated a year before me and we never knew each other. We
know a lot of the same people though and he knows pretty much all the
same teachers from Provo High hat I do as well! It was really fun to
be with Elder Bird, we worked really hard and it was also refreshing.
The funny but sad thing about exchanges was that Elder Bird didn't
know we were going to the Young Ambassadors show and the Newcastle
elders weren't invited because they are too far away from Gillette, so
Elder Bills and Elder Blum didn't get to come.

Elder Bird and I went tracting a lot and I've never had so much
fun tracting, especially with literally nothing that came out of it.
We knocked on lots of doors over the 4 days we were together and had a
positive attitude the whole time! We may not have found anyone that
was interested, but we were able to talk with some people that had
negative views of the church and answer some questions that will
hopefully make them more receptive in the future. It's stuff like this
that reminds me throughout my mission that success doesn't come from
how many lessons you teach or new investigators you find or how many
baptisms you have, it comes from working hard and following the
spirit. Y'all should read the article "only two baptisms?" from the
February 2016 ensign, not just because the guy who wrote it is from
Montana, but because it's just an awesome article!

The other really awesome thing from this week is that we think we
found the miracle investigators that everyone in Sundance has been
praying for and fasting for! The last baptism they had in Sundance was
more than 5 or 6 years ago. Everyone here is hungry for growth and
they want to help but it just hasn't happened. I can't remember if I
mentioned this last week or the week before, but Elder Bills and I
tracted into this really nice young family. They were super nice and
readily agreed that we should come back and talk more. When we found
them we were just excited that they wanted to talk to us and we set an
appointment. The appointment was for this Tuesday afternoon and Elder
Bird and I went over to confirm that it would still work on Monday
night because we don't have a phone number for them yet. We went by
their house and he opened the door for us as we walked up and waved us
in. He offered us food and asked if we were still good to come over
the next day! We said we were and talked with him and his wife a
little more about the restoration. They asked why our church was
different from theirs and we just told them that the fullness of the
gospel was restored though prophets and scriptures along with the
priesthood authority of God and that if they read and pray about the
Book of Mormon that God would tell them that it's true. They were
super excited to find out and it made perfect sense to them! *insert
Billy Mays' voice* "BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE" The husband is really good
friends with a less active member apparently! They're a really nice
young couple and it doesn't seem like anything is really keeping them
from church, it's just early in the morning and he likes Sunday
football. We talked with them and they said they'd help out with this
new family we found! Everyone here is hoping that this will bring them
back into activity as well. Two young families would really help the
branch out a lot. We're super excited to move forward with all of
this!

Remember to read and pray! It's one of the best things to do to
keep your testimony strong and invite the spirit into your life! Look
for the principles taught in the stories and how the scripture
characters display Christlike attributes! Follow their example and the
world will be better off!

Love you all!

Elder Tippetts

Uhhhhhh...I don't know what to name this one...

Family and Friends,
This week has been pretty average mostly, so no super insanely
exciting thing to make a catchy subject line...sorry! But that being
said, this was an awesome week! Average, but average missionary life
is awesome! I like being a missionary.
This week we talked to Brother Glenn on Tuesday! He's the less
active member we found with the fu-man-chu mustache that fought in
Vietnam. We've tried going by his house so many times in the last few
weeks but he's never been home. We talked with him on Tuesday and got
mad at us a little because he said that a couple weeks ago he went to
church but no one was there, but he wasn't really mad because the
weather was bad. We were confused because we were pretty sure they had
never cancelled church here. It turns out he went to a different
church! But we got it all sorted out and we showed him where it is on
the map for sure. Sadly he wasn't there yesterday, he woke up and got
dressed but then fell asleep on his couch reading the newspaper. We
stopped by after church with President Booth and brother Glenn felt
really bad for missing church. He said he'll be here next week so
we're super excited!
Tuesday night and last night we had dinner up in Hulett, about 40
minutes N/NW of Sundance. It still blows my mind that people drive 40
minutes to go to church when I've pretty much always just had a 4ish
minute walk. It's really cool just how dedicated they are to making
sure they come each week! At the Tuesday dinner we had some
non-members there that we'll hopefully start teaching soon! They've
come to the branch Halloween and Christmas parties and their kids
participate in mutual and primary activities. They're super neat,
already pretty much live Latter Day Saint lives and love the members
around here. They asked us lots of questions about what it means to be
a missionary, how you become a missionary and just other logistical
stuff about missionaries. At our Sunday dinner we talked with the
people we were eating with about having the faith to formally invite
them to learn more about our church. Everyone in the branch has a
really good feeling about them!
On Wednesday we had random interviews with President Wadsworth!
It was super neat and such a highlight. Apparently he was just in
Gillette and for some reason our district leader decided to have
district meeting in Gillette this week. He needed to talk with some of
the Elders in the district about something and then decided that
because he was here he might as well talk with all of us! It was great
and definitely an answer to prayers. President and I talked with each
other about following the promptings of the spirit because that's
something I've been having some questions on lately, like on how to do
it better. He reminded me of something that Elder Bednar said during
the worldwide missionary broadcast. It was something along the lines
of 'thoughts to the mind, feelings to the heart, that is the essence
of revelation.' He helped me to see that whenever a thought to do
something good comes into my head, I can trust that it is revelation.
If we act on promptings with faith over and over, even if there
doesn't seem to be any positive production, the spirit will guide us
more and more and we'll find success in whatever we're doing! And
remember, success isn't measured by numbers of baptisms (or whatever
the equivalent might be in your life) but is rather measured by our
progressive levels of devotion, consecration and faith. Remember that
if you've been baptized you've convene tend to ALWAYS follow Christ
and keep his commandments and if you've received your endowment that
you're under covenant to be consecrated. The law of consecration has
not been done away with, we all need to live it. I challenge you all
to pray specifically to ask God how you might be keeping back part of
your heart, might, mind or strength from Him, promise Him you'll fix
it and then follow the promptings of the spirit to improve! Repent
daily and take the sacrament, I promise that your lives will improve
as you turn them over to the Lord!
I love you all and hope things are going well! We're just heading
off to clean and shop now. We're going on exchanges from tonight until
Wednesday and I'm excited for that. Also, tomorrow BYU Young
ambassadors is putting on a concert in Gillette and we get to go help
out with it! I'm definitely excited for that! I guess there are some
grand things that happened this week. Eh, I'm too lazy to go change
the subject line...

Bye!

Elder Tippetts

Another epic zone training!

Family and friends,

This week we did lots of service and had an amazing zone
training! I've learned so much this week and can't wait to keep on
keeping on!

First, the service. On Wednesday we did not have district meeting
because we have zone training scheduled is week, so we helped Mike and
Crystal work on moving more things to the Mathews house. We were there
for about 3 1/2 hours. We moved everything from TVs to dressers to
desks to beds, you know, the normal moving stuff! We helped them clean
out a car they were selling as well. While we were cleaning the house
and car they told us we could keep whatever change we found. I cam
away nearly $5.50 richer! They also had an Zelda GameCube that someone
had given them, they didn't want it anymore so they just offered it to
me! Don't worry, I've already sent it home and my parents are in
possession of it. It was great being with them, they're some of my
favorite people I've met, definitely a friendship that won't disappear
with transfers. This week there was also a game night and it was great
to see just how comfortable Mike was there, especially because crystal
left for a little bit to watch their kid. He was just fine playing
games with and talking with all the other members at the church!
Saturday morning we met at Brother Haskell's house (they're the
family we had lunch and a nerf war with on Christmas) to drive to the
other side of ranch he lives on to cut wood for a less active member
that lives on the neighboring ranch. Mike also came to that service
project! He said his choices were to either clean the church with the
Mathews or cut wood with us. It took about 30 minutest for driving on
bumpy ranch roads to get out to where we were going to cut wood. We
made it to the spot and starting cutting around 11 and didn't come
back until 3ish. We cut and split probably a little more than 4 cords
of wood. There were some trees that were hanging over the fences that
we got to pull down. Mike and I were on ropes a good distance from the
tree while Bro Williams, the branch mission leader, cut the trunk with
a chainsaw. There's a really satisfying feeling that comes from
pulling on a rope and watching a giant tree fall over. We did that
twice and there were plenty of other trees that were felled without to
use of ropes. We're not allowed to operate power tools of any sort so
Elder Bills and my job was to drag and stack logs. Quite the workout.
I'm still really sore from all the lumber that we moved. But we were
able to meet brother Goff, the less active member. And Mike was able
to really get to know a bunch of the members even better!

Now, Zone Training! The two biggest things we talked about were
becoming consecrated missionaries and repentance. Repentance is so
cool, I'm so great full for it! Repentance allows us to access the
mercy that Christ is waiting to give, and that mercy is what satisfies
the demands of justice. In Alma 36 verses 6 and 14 we learn how wicked
Alma and the Sons of Mosiah were, justice would demand that they were
murdered and destroyed as well. But then in Alma 27:17 it says :
"17 Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea,
he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of
his strength; and he fell again to the earth."
That doesn't sound like justice, or murder or destruction to me.
He had so much joy, but Justice says he shouldn't be able to have joy
because of what he did. But mercy satisfies justice and allows us to
change and have joy. In verse 18 it then tells us more about that joy.
"18 Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which
none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of
happiness."
So joy can only truly come by being penitent, which means that
you feel sorrow and regret for doing wrong. The proper form of sorrow,
godly sorrow, leads us to repent. When we repent, we are penitent.
When we are penitent, we repent. The more penitent we are, and the
more we repent, the more joy we can feel! Every time we repent we
become more Christlike. Christ was always happy and filled with joy.
Becoming Christlike includes becoming happier. If we truly repent
everyday then everyday we have a greater capacity to feel joy. Thus
everyday is better than the last and so on and so on into the
eternities. I invite you all to repent! I promise I will be doing the
same. Repentance isn't bad, it is so good and so sweet and evidence
that God really does love us so much.

Here's a funny quote that I think applies perfectly to repentance.

Week #25 in Sundance and #13 in Moorcroft

Family and friends,

It's really weird to me that at the end of this transfer I'll
have been out for 7 1/2 months, and all of that will have been spent
here in Sundance. Or at least all of it has been spent in the the
North East corner of Wyoming. Wyoming is so grand. I just keep falling
more and more in love with it! I'm really enjoying myself quite a lot.
The work is definitely starting to move forward, we progress every day
and it's so amazing to me to see how much the work has progressed
since we first got here. I'll start with the best part of the week.
We have an investigator on baptismal date! The investigator, Tom,
that I talked about last week. He's the one that we had a giant
breakthrough with Sunday night. Then on Thursday we had another lesson
with him that went super well. He was supposed to meet with us on
Wednesday but some things came up so that we had to wait until
Thursday. We got to the lesson and all of us were super nervous
because we knew that if this lesson didn't go well then we were goi to
drop him probably. We were pretty sure we had a real breakthrough, but
we'd thought that before and it hadn't really happened, so we were a
little apprehensive. We had studied so much specifically for him in
the days before so that we could answer his questions and so the
spirit could help us know what to say. We got there and he was really
tired after a long day and had forgotten about us coming over, but he
had read Alma 32 like we had asked him to! He told us that he'd been
feeling the seed grow inside of him and now he's really recognizing
it. Then he told us to forget all the concerns he had from our last
lesson and said he was just going to trust him from then on. So we
invited him to be baptized immediately and he agreed! We then taught
him about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and he accepted
them and said he'd live them! He had said that he wanted to finish off
his last half pack of cigarettes to get his monies worth, I asked him
how much was left, he told me and I pulled out my wallet and offered
to buy the rest off of him promising I wouldn't smoke them haha! He
laughed really hard and then said if it's that important to us to just
take them, so we did! It was the grandest experience. I'm so happy to
be staying here this transfer!!!

We had dinner at the Mathews' twice this week because we stopped
by to tell them that we weren't leaving on Sunday and they noticed
that we had two dinners still open for the week, so they said they'd
just take them both! The Mathews are one of the coolest families I've
ever met. Crystal and Mike, the ones that got married on Christmas
Eve, have recently moved in with them and before they always came when
we came over for dinner. They're really cool people and he's really
warmed up to us Mormons haha!

Anyways, not too much has changed besides that! It's been a
really good week! I hope y'all are doing well! Love you all!

Elder Tippetts

1-2. District pictures at the end of the transfer. I'm laughing in the
second one because literally a second before it was taken Elder Bird
accidentally kicked me in the face. We don't know how it happened, but
it did!

3. A picture with Jennifer and Dianna because we wanted one just
incase we got transferred, but we didn't. Jennifer (the one right next
to me that's not a missionary) is the one that got baptized my first
day in Moorcroft.

Transfers!

Family and friends,

Not much happened this week, it was pretty slow for a couple days.
But it's picking up again...right at the end of transfers...but that's
ok! Because Elder Bills and I will be staying!this will be our 3rd
transfer together in Sundance and Moorcroft Wyoming! I love it here.
The past two days have been really uplifting so I'll tell y'all mostly
about that. The other awesome part of the week was District meeting on
Wednesday. Last district meetings of the transfer are always
favorites.

This Wednesday we basically just had a testimony that lasted at
least 30-40ish minutes with the 6 of us. The spirit was so strong, I
really came away with so much more strength and energy. Some of the
biggest things I learned or had witnessed to me was that we need to
love everyone and understand that we will always be unworthy to God in
one way or another, we all have shortcomings that are not godly, but
God is okay with that! He helps us overcome them and slowly purge all
the ungodliness from ourselves. Also, the Book of Mormon is true. It
really is. I can promise that. It is a real record of real people that
had real problems and found real solutions by listening to prophets,
or real trials when they ignored them. It was truly translated by
Joseph Smith by the power of God. Also, obedience is so important for
everyone, especially missionaries. It's one of the biggest themes in
the Book of Mormon. When they follow God's commandments, they prosper.
When they don't, they don't. How often do we forget that? It really is
that simple. Follow God's commandments and be blessed! All of his
commandments. We can't be selectively obedient. In a lesson with one
of the members in Sundance we were comparing the commandments to
traffic laws. Selective obedience to traffic laws won't protect you in
a crash. If you always follow the speed limit but run stop signs,
you're probably not that safe. If you do everything except wear your
seatbelt then you're still not safe from outside conditions, the
weather or other drivers. If we follow every commandment we're not
guaranteed a perfect life, bad things still happen. But we're A LOT
more likely to get through them. It's not a perfect analogy, but it
answered lots of questions for me!

On Saturday we were contacting in Sundance with no success. We
knocked on a bunch of doors but the only person we talked to was an
investigator's husband that made it seem like they weren't interested
anymore. But we didn't let it get us down! We went on over to
Moorcroft and contacted people there! We talked to an investigator and
a different investigator's husband, both of them said that their
families were sick but at they're still interested. So we'll head back
next week to talk to them. We went traction and in 40 minutes knocked
on 23 doors. About half of them answered. Half the people that
answered slammed the doors in our faces, half the people that didn't
weren't interested and the rest were interested but we're really busy
at the time. It seems like at least 3 of them were super solid! One of
them said his dad was a bishop in the LDS church when he was young but
they just stopped going and haven't been back in forever. Another was
super nice and said he'll try to come to church sometime and set up an
appointment with us, his uncle is an active member in Gillette so
we'll let him know we're talking to his nephew! The last was a young
family that said they want to talk to us but they were getting in
their car when we talked to him. We found out that he works with one
of the members in the Moorcroft branch and he said that we could stop
by anytime and that he'll definitely be talking to Bro Cherry about
our church!

Sunday was when we got the call from our zone leaders telling us
our transfer information. We got the call during a lesson with
Jennifer and her mom, Dianna. Jennifer is the lady that was baptized
my first day in Moorcroft. When the phone rang we muted it but this
knife of fear went into my heart because I've been serving around here
for 6 months so we figured I'd probably be leaving. That's when I
realized I didn't want to leave. I realized how much I loved all the
people, I really wanted to stay. Our lesson with Jennifer and Dianna
went really well. The whole time I was thinking, "if I leave, what do
I want them to know that I know?" In a devotional by Elder Bednar I
recently read he started off by saying that it was very likely that he
would never address anyone from over that pulpit again, so he had some
important things to say. The lesson plus that devotional make me
realize that none of us know how long we'll be anywhere really.
Whether it's with someone, at a job, in a home or even just being
alive. We don't know when that could end, so we need to make sure we
say the most important things and we need to say them clearly and
concisely with true conviction.

Sunday night we also had a lesson with Tom, he's our investigator
that was given a lot of anti Mormon literature. We got over there and
for 40-60 minutes he laid into us about all the stuff he did last
time. After that things cooled off and really got better. The spirit
of contention was mostly gone and the Holy Ghost could be felt. As we
talked we all calmed down and really understood where we were all
coming from, what we all meant. It started going downhill and all of a
sudden we stopped and said, "Tom, that's not important, we're
misunderstanding each other again. Let us speak clearly. We believe
that the church of Jesus Christ is the only true church on the face of
the earth. Don't get us wrong, there are other good churches that
teach good things and do good things, but none of them have the 100%
true and full Gospel of Jesus Christ. None of them have the real, true
and only priesthood authority of God. All of this was restored through
the Prophet Joseph Smith. Would you like to find out if that is true?"
He stopped and did t say anything for a while and answered, "yes, yes
I would." From there everything went smoothly and we were able to help
him really see why we keep asking him to read the Book of Mormon and
why we're always disappointed when we find out that he hasn't. We have
another lesson set for Wednesday and hopefully things will work out.
Prayers will always be appreciated :)

Anyways, that was a pretty thick letter. I love you all and hope
you're doing well! Keep your testimonies burning. If you feel like you
don't have one or that it's dimming, read the Book of Mormon daily and
pray daily. I promise answers and strength will come. I know it.

Elder Tippetts

Christmas Week!

Family and friends,

     This week has been pretty fantastic. Obviously Christmas was a
highlight, getting to skype your family after not seeing them for
nearly 6 months is always a good thing. I really appreciated letters
that were sent, kind notes and candy haha! I have lots of candy now :)
and not much else happened this week.

     On Tuesday we had our Moorcroft Christmas party and that was a
huge success! We were at the church waiting for people to show up and
the first 3 groups of people were all less actives, and they were all
ones we had never met before as well! Throughout the night so many
different families kept showing up. The members did really good at
missionary work and had brought lots of non member or less active
friends and family! We went caroling and some of the less active
members came with us and they had a blast! President Jones drove
around with a giant flat bed trailer on the back of his truck and we
all sat on hay bale benches on the trailer! It was so much fun and it
really helped me get in the mood for Christmas! I got to sit on
Santa's lap again that night as well! My 3 picture with Santa this
year, I think that's the most I've ever gotten pretty much. It was
grand.

     On Wednesday we had another great district meeting! We acted out
the nativity and because our district is made up of only Elders I had
the privilege of being Mary! Haha it was grand and Elder Perez was
Joseph. We used wrapped up scarves as the baby and put it in a little
manger we found in the church. All of us were just switching off
different parts and it was quite the experience.

     Thursday was Christmas Eve...obviously. We had an appointment
with an investigator that is really hard to get a hold of so that was
awesome! After that we had A WEDDING! SURPRISE! It was quite the
surprise to us as well. We found out about it on Tuesday at the
Christmas party. It was a wedding for a less active member and her non
member boyfriend. It was a really great surprise and we were able to
go and support them! There will definitely be pictures coming. That
night we had dinner at President Booths house. He taught us how to
play marbles and then we acted out the nativity again with some of his
daughter's non member friends when they showed up unexpectedly. Don't
worry, I wasn't Mary this time.

     CHRISTMAS! It was a great day. We had lunch at the Haskells
house. Their daughter is super adorable and 3 times during lunch she
exclaimed "This is the best Christmas ever!" And when we asked her
why, each time she responded, "because the missionaries are here. We
never get to eat with the missionaries." That's a super rad family. We
had dinner at the Gerstner's house and played lots of fun Christmas
games and shared Christmas stories.

     And lastly Sunday was my birthday! Just in case you all didn't
know haha! Not saying you have to or anything...buuuuut...if people
were to coincidentally send me happy birthday email I wouldn't mind
even if they're a couple days late haha! Anyways, it was a good
birthday. We spoke in church and Elder Bills spoke first and spoke
from 9:20 to 9:24. There was a special musical number that went until
9:27 and then I had filled the rest of the time from 9:27 to 10:02. It
was really funny and on my way up a member stopped me and asked if I
had enough prepared. I just shrugged and laughed and went for it and I
apparently prepared enough. I joked around with Elder Bills about it
afterwards but I honestly really enjoy talking in church. Well...just
talking in general. And when people have to sit there and can't
interrupt you it's even better!

I love you all and hope your Christmases went grandly!

Elder Tippetts

It's Christmas!

Family and friends,

Wow. Christmas is seriously in four days. That's wacko. It doesn't
feel like it's been an entire year since last Christmas haha! You want
to know what else is crazy? This is the last email I will send as an
18 year old! Yup that's right, on Sunday I turn 19 and then on Monday
I'll email again. That's also wacko and weirds me out. It doesn't feel
like an entire year since my last birthday! I really hope you all have
such a great week this week. It's a great week to have a great week if
I may say so myself. Share the Christmas spirit. Sharing the video 'A
Savior Is Born' is a great way to spread that spirit! This time of the
year should be a time when we all focus on the Savior. We wouldn't
have this time of year without him, in fact we wouldn't have any time
at all without him. Anyways, I'll get to that a little more
momentarily!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were super grand days. We went to
Gillette on Monday for preparation day and got to be with the Gillette
elders, I love them all! We got a call from the assistants around 4ish
saying that we needed to leave Gillette immediately for Billings
otherwise we wouldn't make it, so we rounded everyone up and headed
out. By the time we left they already had more than 5 inches of snow
in Billings, so we knew we had a long drive ahead of us. There were a
couple really sketchy parts but we made it right around 9 and spent
the night in the mission home. Tuesday was our Christmas conference
for the East side zones of the mission; Billings, Billings East,
Bozeman, Wyoming West and Wyoming East. The other 7 zones met in
Helena on Thursday.

The first thing we did was teach every missionary there to sing
like a choir! I was so happy. We split up into parts and learned and
rehearsed 3 of the Christmas hymns to perform for the Mission
Presidency, their wives and the office missionaries during the bulk of
our program. Their was a lot of confusion sometimes and they asked me
to help clarify and fix things, which I was more than happy to do.
After clarifying some basic rhythmic motifs I heard, 'Amen Elder
Tippetts!' and when I looked to see who said that I saw Elder
Hoschouer! My MTC companion! He's been serving in Kalispell Montana up
until this transfer, apparently now he's in Billings. That means my
whole room from the MTC is on this half of the mission now! Elders
Schneider and Potter have both been in Bozeman their whole missions
and I've been in Wyoming East the whole time. Don't worry, I've got
lots of pictures of our happy reunion after the program and food.
Every missionary was invited to prepare a talk about missionary
work and the atonement and we were going to be randomly called to give
them. The program went like so; 2 talks, choir number, 2 talks,
special musical number, 2 talks, special musical number, 2 talks,
choir, 2 talks, special musical number, 2 talks, choir, 2 talks,
special musical number, 2 talks, choir. The second special musical
number was Elder Thomas and I singing a super rad arrangement of The
First Noel. One of the two missionaries in charge of all the music
found it for us. When we performed it went really well, even though we
were insanely nervous and both were shaking quite a bit. The spirit
was so strong the whole program. I learned so much about the Atonement
that I'll be able to apply into my missionary work now.
We all went into the cultural hall for food after the main meeting
and they had a few surprises for us. First, they showed us Elder
McGrath's restoration rap. Elder McGrath was an assistant when I first
came into the mission, but he finished his mission around Thanksgiving
same time as my first trainer, Elder Clark. He wrote it and with a
bunch of other missionaries and President Wadsworth they made a music
video with it. Is was the first time most of us were able to see it
because I believe that right now it is going through the process of
being approved by church headquarters to put the church seal on it to
make it an official church video! I've been told that it's been
approved by all the quorums of the seventy and the twelve, now they're
just waiting for the word from the first presidency! They also showed
us a big slideshow with pictures of all the missionaries that the
office missionaries got from all of our parents. It was hilarious.
While we were eating President Wadsworth ran screaming into the
room telling us that he just got off the phone with Santa and that he
was on his way but he couldn't remember how to make it to the Billings
Stake a Center! So of course we all had to sing Christmas songs like
jingle bells and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer at the top of our
lungs to guide him! All of a sudden an elf runs into the room (one of
the assistants) quickly followed by Santa (the other one) so we could
all get pictures with Santa! It was completely grand in every way. We
left billings at 4 and made it back to Gillette around 9 and stayed
the night at the Zone Leader's apartment. In the morning for our
exercises we woke up early and played basketball and intense dodgeball
and did a bunch of different workouts all over the stake center
cultural hall.

Last thing I'd like to mention is the concept of being a true
disciple and to be Christlike. I'd encourage you all to read the
article 'The Saviors Teachings on Discipleship' from the June 2015
Ensign, Elder Holland's talk 'The Cost-and Blessings-of Discipleship'
from April 2014 conference and chapter 24 from the Teachings of
President Ezra Taft Benson. Here's two super rad quotes from Ezra Taft
Benson, “I testify to you that there is no greater, more thrilling,
and more soul-ennobling challenge than to try to learn of Christ and
walk in His steps," and, "Walking in His way is the greatest
achievement of life." During his week where we celebrate the Savior's
birth I challenge you all to take a few minutes alone to examine how
devoted of a disciple you have been recently, find areas you'd like to
improve on, set goals for improvement, repent and then do it! I know
that we can change because of the atonement, it allows us to become as
he is more fully every day.

I love you all, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Elder Tippetts

Apparently I'm not serving in Montana and Wyoming?

Family and Friends,

Don't worry, I'm not getting transfered missions or anything.
Besides, the next transfer isn't until January. I just keep feeling
like I'm not in Wyoming, even Pugh everybody says I am, yesterday was
pretty much the only day this week that it got into the low 30s and
high 20s! He had multiple days in the mid 50s and high 40s so I feel
like there may have been some big mix up, because this isn't the
weather I was expecting haha! I'm really grateful for it though.
Pretty much all the snow has melted and gone and we only had one very
light dusting some morning this week. It looks like we'll be making up
for it though, today we're driving up to Billings for our Christmas
Conference! And there's a severe winter weather warning out! And we're
supposed to get 12 or more inches of snow! And we might get stuck
there because the interstate back might be shut down! All sarcasm
aside, I'm pretty excited. I love snow and have been missing it.
Last week we had some interviews with President Wadsworth. That's
always one of my favorite things. He loves us so much and there's no
way to avoid feeling it! We had some really funny conversations with
sister Wadsworth while we waited for our turn to talk to President
Wadsworth. Sister Breinholt, the Stake President's wife showed up and
brought us all Christmas packages from the stake! They had wool socks
and candy in them, good wool socks. Then yesterday the primary class
came and invited us in to give us more presents from the stake haha!
We got scarves and ties and gloves and socks and hand warmers! Also a
really cool Wyoming Flag lapel pin, but sadly we're not allowed to
wear lapel pins :-( Anyways, the Gillette stake is awesome!
To celebrate MY FIVE MONTH MARK on Tuesday we went tracting and
did 3 entire streets, super fast too! So many people were home and we
found a couple people that seemed super interested. Multiple people
told us to come back another time, but that they'd love to see the 'A
Savior is Born' video.

This week we also had our first district meeting of the transfer, on
week 3. The first week didn't happen because of transfers, like usual,
and the second week didn't happen because of Zone Training, and this
week won't happen because of the Christmas Conference. Like I said
before, the only person that changed in our district was Elder Hatton.
Now our District Leader is Elder Bird. Funny story, he went to Provo
high and graduated in 2014!!!!! How crazy is that? We about all the
classes he had and the people he knew. He knows quite a few people I
knew so it's pretty crazy that we never officially met or that I
didn't know he was out here. He's super funny and awesome. Sadly, I
asked and he did not have Mrs. Tippetts for middle school science.
On Saturday we had a really interesting discussion with one of
our investigators. We got to his house the same time he did after a
really long and frustrating day at work. Also, apparently earlier in
the week he met a pastor while he was working and told him he was
talking with Mormon missionaries. I'm guessing you can guess where
this is going. He pulled out all the anti Mormon literature he was
given, pamphlets and DVDs, and started firing off the questions. The
first bit we were there was a lot of him not being happy and raising
his voice. Multiple times Elder Bills and I both thought we should
leave, but we both felt we should just wait it out. After he vented
for a while we got around to having a decently civil conversation. He
kept telling us how he didn't have time to read the Book of Mormon and
pray about it, but he did get around to reading all the anti stuff.
Which was 10x longer than the portion we had asked him to read. We
helped him see how trying to learn that way was a little silly. We had
to be very patient and avoid a few topics that set him off again and
had to be very careful not to argue, because bible bashing and
contention are bad. In the end it turned out alright. He told us that
this doesn't mean he'll stop coming to church or meeting with us, it
just means that he's going to be a little more wary. We love him and I
know he's a great man. He just has lots of questions and different
opinions.

On another day of the week, I can't remember which, we had a cool
experience following promptings. We were driving to somewhere for a
backup appointment and I saw a lady sitting on her porch and I felt we
should go talk to her. We pulled over down the street a block or two
then walked back and tried talking to her. She wasn't interested and
when some guys in the house saw us talking to her they ran to the door
and told us to leave. So we quickly did, I was sort of disappointed
that it didn't work out the way we wanted it to. Elder Bills suggested
we knock on the neighbors house, but I didn't want to so I kept
walking. I stopped and thought that it was unfair of me to ignore one
of his ideas and just do mine, so we went and knocked there. Another
lady answered and she was very nice. She said that from time to time
she had met with different religions and said that she thinks God
always bring them into her life. She said she'd like to meet with us
and took a Book of Mormon and said she'd read it!

Y'all are grand, focus on bringing the Christmas spirit more
fully into your lives and then naturally it will start to spread.
Share the new Christmas videos that the church has produced.
Prayerfully think about your family and friends that you could
introduce to the gospel and the missionaries at this time of the year.
It's the best gift you can give, I promise.


Elder Tippetts

Sickness :(

Family and friends,

Preparation day last week was a great start to the week. We got
the regular stuff done and then all evening we went and helped out at
the senior center. On the last Monday of every month the do a pancake
dinner. We helped set up, eat, finish a puzzle and clean up! While
people were eating we sat down and got quite a few pieces placed in
there tine 1500 piece puzzle, it was quite the challenge and we
impressed a few of the ladies that were there eating!

On Tuesday we got into the week with me being sick. I woke up not
feeling well at all, and I never get sick. So I went back to bed. When
I got up I tried to just tough it out but didn't do that well. A
member in town came and helped elder bills give me a blessing. It was
really humbling to have to ask for help like that, and it helped. I
felt better immediately, not 100% better, but it was undeniable that I
felt better. Throughout the day I kept getting better as I rested and
got my strength back. We went out tracting that night even though it
was 10° and I didn't feel good. I know I was helped to do it, I didn't
feel like passing out or falling over and the cold didn't bother me!
More rest and more rest and taking it easy paired with working really
hard when it was time has really fixed me up. Now I just have a little
scratchiness in my throat still, a stuffy nose and my voice isn't 100%
back. But it's miles better than I was feeling before!
Not much happened Tuesday and Thursday because I was still a
little sick and we had LOTS of cancelled appointments. Friday was zone
training! It was so much fun and I learned so much! One of the Zone
Leader shared a story they heard at Mission Leadership Conference that
demonstrates what faith really is, here it is:

"A Dad was walking through his house, past his little daughter's
room, when he noticed she was on her knees praying. He was curious to
see what she was praying about so he stopped and listened. She said,
'please bless that none of the birds or animals will get hurt by the
traps.' He was devastated and worried, he had helped his son place
traps out that day, and they were good traps. He knew they were
definitely going to hurt some birds. He didn't want his daughter to
lose faith when they got hurt, so he talked with her the next morning
and said 'you know, sometimes God doesn't answer all our prayers the
way we want him to, it's not because he doesn't love us, it's because
his plan is better.' To which she responded 'No. I know that no birds
will get hurt' and walked off. He kept thinking about what to say to
protect her, the next morning he said, 'you know, sometimes bad things
happen to good people too because we need to grow. Maybe those birds
need some trials, or they need a little pain or something bad to
happen so they can appreciate life more.' She again responded, 'No. I
know that the birds won't get hurt' and left. All throughout the day
he kept trying to figure out how his daughter had gained such great
trust and faith in God for Him to answer her prayers. He couldn't
figure out why, so he asked her the next morning. She responded, 'I
know God won't let any birds get hurt because the second I finished
praying I went outside and kicked all those traps to pieces!' "
Moral of the story: GO KICK THOSE TRAPS TO PIECES! God expects us
to act. When we pray for something he usually doesn't just give it to
us if we can fix it ourselves, but he will help us and give us aid to
accomplish what we wanted help with! That's faith.
Friday night I also filled up my first journal! My whole mission
I've filled in an entire page every day (except for once, the night
before we flew to billings...I only did half a page...). I know that
having this record of my mission will bless me and my family for years
to come. If you've always wanted to have a journal, start! Kick those
traps! Pray for a desire to do it and then let nothing get in your
way. When you fail or mess up pray and apologize, then ask for help to
do better. We've been counseled by prophets and apostles to keep
journals, I know it's possible and there are so many blessings waiting
for all of us as we choose to heed their words!

The Christmas Devotional was awesome, recently Elder Bednar has
become one of my favorite people to study, he understands doctrine so
well and organizes everything in neat lists. I like lists. Also, y'all
should read the ensigns. I never did before and now I do while I eat
breakfast before study time. In the December 2015 ensign there's an
article compilation of some of Boyd K Packer's teachings, A Witness of
the Savior Jesus Christ, that he chose to put in an article before he
passed on. The last one really touched me and is really cool.
“After all the years that I have lived and taught and served,
after the millions of miles I have traveled around the world, with all
that I have experienced, there is one great truth that I would share.
That is my witness of the Savior Jesus Christ.

“Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon recorded the following after a sacred
experience:
“‘And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him,
this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he
lives!
"‘For we saw him’ (D&C 76:22–23).
“Their words are my words.”
“How privileged I have been throughout my life to be able to bear my
special witness that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. I testify in
all humility, but with absolute certainty, that He is the Only
Begotten of the Father. This is His Church; He presides over it and
directs this work. He is our Redeemer. I know He lives, and I know
Him. Of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”


I love you all. Catch the Christmas spirit, it's the best thing to spread!


Elder Tippetts

It's working! Missionary work is working!

Family and friends,

This week was pretty fantastic. I've been doing a couple of
things differently to get myself more involved and invested in
missionary work on every level. We've really seen the work start picks
up this week here in Sundance and Moorcroft. There are definitely many
things that the Lord is putting into motion in this part of his
vineyard and I feel privileged to witness them.
Last preparation day was fantastic because I found out that Elder
Thomas has a bunch of our approved music that I don't have so we
ripped everything off his CDs and put them on our flash drives. The
best part of it was he had a recording of one of my favorite choir
pieces, My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Thee! You should all take
some time to read 3 Nephi 22 and D&C 122, many of the lyrics come from
there. I'm so happy to have it now!

Wednesday was super rad! We went tracting and found a part member
family that no one knew about! They moved here in Spetember and he is
just ordained a teacher. His fiancé isn't a member and their kids are
too young to be baptized. We talked with them and he asked how old
they have to be to be baptized and she asked what the process would be
for her to get baptized! We set up an appointment and invited them to
church and got his information to request his records to be
transferred. When we left, we knocked on the neighbor's trailer and he
said he'd love to learn about our church but he's leaving to Canada
for the rest of the year, so we'll get back in contact with him then
haha! We also had our first lesson with the Tom, Alisha and their
daughter Hayley! We tracted into Hayley and she said her family used
to talk with the missionaries and that we should come back when her
parents were home. We did and they were interested again! We started
talking with them about the Restoration and then he started telling us
about his religious background and just started asking us questions
about our church! And they were good questions, the ones that aren't
unanswerable or unnecessary! He asked us what time church was, where
it was and promised to be there. It was grand.
Thanksgiving was definitely filling. We had a lunch at 1 with the
Gennings and some non member friends and family, and then another mean
at 3 at the Skeens' house! So much turkey. Plenty of leftovers too.
Sis Skeens bought chalkboard tablecloths and after dinner we decorated
them. Everyone else drew pictures and the usual things....I wrote out
a grand staff with half the music to one of my favorite barbershop
songs, Ebb Tide, from memory haha! I still find ways to enjoy
barbershop out here 😉

Friday we helped the part member family move from one trailer to
another in the same little park win the help of some of the Lawrence
boys. We got lots done and they were really grateful and were
impressed by the help we gave. After we stopped by the Lawrence's home
to meet Tyrell, he got home from his mission to Brazil on Thanksgiving
Day! He asked us to brief him on the work that's going on here and
wants to go with us on visits often, so we'll definitely use him a
lot. On Saturday we did our weekly planning because Thursday and
Friday were packed. We went around trying to contact a bunch of
investigators but no one was home. At the last one, before we headed
back to the church, we decided to knock on his neighbor's door before
we left. We found a really nice lady that hasn't lived here for long
and is looking for a church! We told her about the restoration and
offered to teach her more about it and she agreed.

This was probably the best Sunday of my mission yet! So many
awesome things. We were really excited for Tyrell's homecoming,
especially because investigators were coming! Before on my mission the
only investigators we've had come are pretty much Trent and Mikey
because they were getting baptized and they never had a problem with
coming to church, but this was going to be the first time we were
unsure about if we'd have someone show up. It didn't look like we were
going to have any luck and then 3 minutes before sacrament Tom and
Alisha pulled up! I was smiling so before the rest of church, and they
really enjoyed it. They had to leave after sacrament to go to work,
but here's the kicker. They were supposed to go to work way earlier
but decided to just not go because they decided church was more
important to them! Tom also told their boss that they were no longer
going to work on any Sundays! Sadly the part member family didn't show
up but we got to go teach them the first lesson later that day. They
hadn't come because she had fallen on Sarurday and was in pain, but it
looks like she's doing a lot better now.

I love you all! Thanks for the support! Look for opportunities
everyday to help prepare people to receive the restored gospel, your
local missionaries will be so thankful! And so will all of their
posterity!

Elder Tippetts

Another transfer down!

Family and Friends,

I can't believe my first full transfer after train is over, and I
trained the whole time! It's completely crazy! We got transfer calls
on Saturday instead of Sunday, which is pretty abnormal, because
transfers happened today instead of tomorrow due to Thanksgiving this
week. We both will be staying in Sundance and Moorcroft which means
Elder Bills will have me for his entire training period, so pray for
him haha! Just kidding, I think we're doing pretty good and we're
always improving. But prayers are always appreciated 😄😄😄

Last Monday not much happened, just a typical preparation day
with basketball and pod ball. The week got to a slow start on Tuesday
when I woke up and didn't feel too good. I had a headache and felt
super clogged so I fell back asleep and woke up fully rejuvenated and
ready to get on with the day! And it was a good day too. We were in
Moorcroft and found a new investigator, a new potential investigator
and contacted an investigator. The one we contacted was interested in
meeting again and we made an appointment, and they know some members
here and they'll be coming to the appointment hopefully! We've started
walking around a lot more instead of driving the car everywhere even
though it's getting super cold. We layer and then just head out and
rarely feel chilly. But anyways, the reason I mention that is because
it makes me feel like a real missionary! My whole life I've just
imagined missionaries walking around and now that we're doing it more
often I feel even more like a missionary! It just feels right to be
walking down dirt roads at night with a Book of Mormon in hand, it's a
good feeling.
Wednesday was our last district meeting of the transfer
😭😭😭😭😭 Transfer calls for the entire zone has left every single
missionary stay except Elder Hatton and Elder Kimball. So my district
is stain the same except Elder Hatton is leaving. It's going to be
really weird and sad to not have him around. He's the only district
leader I've known so far and he was my trainer for 3 months. After a
really great district meeting we made ELK BURGER SANDWICHES!!!! We had
a bunch of Elk Burger in our freezer in Sundance and Elder Perez has a
bunch of things he likes to mix into the burger so we brought the
burger and he made it taste magnificent! That night no one showed up
to the Moorcroft Family History Night so while we were waiting and
hoping for people to show up we talked with Brother Valdon and
President Jones about the Gospel and how important it is to belong to
God's true church and to be faithful in these days. We all shared
experiences of how we've seen the gospel bless lives and how we've
seen people struggle without the gospel. It strengthen my testimony of
how true this church is and how much it blesses my life and filled me
with fire and desire to share it with everyone.
On Thursday we had our first official investigator sit down
lesson of the transfer! It was with the new investigator we found on
Tuesday. The branch mission leader came with us and it was quite the
interesting experience. She didn't want to start out with a prayer and
has 3 very young rambunctious boys, so it was sometimes hard to listen
to the spirit and teach by it. But it still went well and she had lots
of questions and agreed to let us come back! We're super excited to
have a real investigator to teach!
Have you seen the Cokeville Miracle? If not, go watch it! The
Moorcroft branch had a movie night on Friday and watched it. We didn't
get to watch the movie but we went to the potluck before and the
fireside after. The Cokeville Miracle is a true story about a town in
Wyoming, Cokeville, with a population of less than 600. A mad man and
his wife took hostage the elementary school and brought all the
students and teachers into the smallest kindergarten room where he had
a large homemade bomb, ~160 people crammed in there I believe (don't
quote me on numbers haha). He demanded 2 million dollars ransom for
each child and wanted to start a new world. The kids and teachers
started to pray. The man left to use the restroom and unstrapped the
trigger from himself onto his wife. The lady accidentally jerked the
trigger and it went off. No one died except the mad and his wife. Many
of the kids, when interviewed later, told the same story of looking up
before it went off to see glowing men robed in white holding hands
around the bomb. When it went off they flew through the ceiling taking
the explosion with them. Years later as some many of the children
worked on family history work they found pictures of their ancestors
and identified them as the ones surrounding the bomb and the ones that
led or carried them out of the building. The Lead Bomb Investigator's
son is a member here in Moorcroft and he came here and talked with us
and bore testimony of the power of prayer and that angels exist. He
didn't hear anything about the angel stories until more than 3 years
after the event and had never been able to understand the evidence.
The bomb was large and had many things that were obviously tampered
with so that it wouldn't go off completely, and the explosion that did
go off should have leveled the building. When he learned about the
Angels he knew what he was missing. As they looked through evidence
photos again they found burned silhouettes of angels on the wall.
Hopefully you'll go watch it, I know that I will when I get home!
Also, I can't believe I forgot to mention this last week! After
praying about a place to go tracting last Sunday Elder Bills and I
both chose the same street. We went and knocked doors and found a less
active member, brother Glenn, that no one knew about. He joined the
church back in Vietnam and pretty much has never been to church ever
since. He agreed to have us come back again. We taught him and he
agreed to come to church. Sadly he didn't come even though we went by
on Saturday to remind him and he said he would.
Last thing I promise, sorry about the long letter. Last night we
had a perfect 'thy will, not mine be done' experience. We went to go
contact an investigator, parked on the block she lives on, and said a
prayer before we got out of the car. As we ended the prayer saying we
wanted God's will to happen and then looked up we saw her driving away
in her car! Immediately I was tempted to complain literally moments
after praying for God's will to happen. I realized I was being a
hypocrite and so we decided to contact people in the area and I
quickly realized that it was what we were supposed to do! We met
someone who wasn't interested but he was very nice and we now he had
felt something. He told us he has lots of Mormon friends. Hopefully in
the future that seed will be harvested by friends and family that will
be grateful for missionaries that sparked his interest. We also found
a less active we've been looking for and another less active couple
let us in! The husband really loves football and everyone has told us
it's impossible to get his attention during a game. He was watching
Sunday night football and turned it off to talk with us!!! The spirit
was definitely there and we even got a cupcake haha! So A+ for
everyone!

I love you all, pray for guidance and the spirit every day. It will happen.

Elder Tippetts