Edification

Dear Family and Friends,

     Things have been super awesome this week! I'm really just loving life and working hard. Elder Schneider is such a stud, I seriously feel so blessed to be his companion. This area is so awesome too, everyone in the YSA is awesome and missionary minded. The work here is hastening.

     Lots of good things happened this week. On Wednesday our Bishop was signed up to feed us dinner but he lives ~30 minutes outside of Bozeman so he signs up on the days that he has work and then has meetings at the church so he can use the hour break he has to eat dinner with us! So he took us out to a Chinese buffet. And I love Chinese buffets. They're by far one of my favorites. So that was a plus indeed. Bishop Smith is such a great, honest, kind and spiritual man. I've learned a lot from him so far about compassion and reverence. You can't help but feel the spirit around him.

     We had Zone Conference this past week on Tuesday. It was all the way over in Helena with the Butte and Helena Zones as well. So we had to get together with all the missionaries in the Zone and coordinate a carpool caravan with all the elders fit amongst the smallest amount of vehicles possible to conserve miles and the sister's following us. It was a fun road trip with 5 of us crammed in our truck rocking out to youth music, the lower lights and MoTab. The meeting was amazing, I really left uplifted. The Assistants weren't able to make it to this training so the Helena Zone Leaders did their assignments for them, another reason why I'm thankful we weren't hosting it in Bozeman. We learned lots about recognizing the Spirit and becoming better teachers. Also, the Helena Zone Leaders asked if I would do the special musical number but I said I wanted to give someone else a chance because I've done it for 3 of the last 4 Zone Conferences and this most recent MLC. And the musical number was awesome that happened! I like singing and all, but I don't like to do it every time because then I feel like I'm showing off.

     Tuesday night was institute and it was so amazing having Brother Bishop back. He's such a great teacher. I don't think we did a shabby job when we taught, it just definitely wasn't Brother Bishop status. Every time I hear him teach and usually just anytime I speak to him my mind is blown. Sometimes he goes pretty deep into things but I especially love it when he talks about the simple and basic principles of the gospel. He lays them out so clearly and they are brought to a new light and level of understanding. Kelsey loved institute and Brother Bishop was super impressed by how well she participated in class! Also, yesterday we had a meeting with all the missionaries in our Zone at President Repscher's home, our Stake President. He's a really young guy but he knows so much about the gospel too. He reviewed the Stake and Zone goals we have and taught us how to more efficiently reach them. Then he just said, "okay Elders and Sisters, ask me any question! Any question at all about the gospel!" It takes a lot of confidence to make a statement like that and he has the knowledge to back it. A simple question was asked about preparing investigators for baptism and then aiming for the temple and a powerful 20 minute discussion and scripture chase ensued. Again, mind blown.

     The only Investigator I really feel to tell y'all more about is Milo. He's the one with 56 siblings. We had a lesson on tithing with him on Wednesday and he accepted the commandment just like everything else we've taught but in the process the concern came up that he wasn't sure whether or not President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God or not. We realized that we had taught him about the need for living Prophets and that there was one but that we hadn't spent too much time on it and we hadn't checked for understanding. Because he grew up with a polygamist background in a church that had broken off of the True Church he was really unsure about that. He was taught growing up that somewhere in the process of the original church stopping polygamy they no longer held the priesthood and a man led their colony with the proper priesthood. Then that man died and he always thought we were just living in apostasy again. So that can throw a wrench into things, you can't really get baptized if you don't believe in the prophet of the church your getting baptized (or at least you can't if that church is true ). So we assigned him a talk by President Monson to read, "Dare to Stand Alone", because Milo really wants to be firm in his faith so he can be a good example to others. So until our lesson on Saturday we kept praying so hard for him to come to know for himself that President Monson is the Lord's living prophet on the earth today. We get to the lesson on Saturday and start with the normal introductory stuff and followed up with him on his commitment to watch that talk and pray about it (and we had texted him a reminder to do so earlier that day #dailycontact). He said he did it and prayed and got an answer. Milo bore such a powerful testimony that brought the spirit into the room in a way I haven't felt in a long time. Possibly ever. Tears were flowing everywhere (except for me but I'll get to that later). Milo is so confident in his decision to be baptized and follow Jesus Christ. He loves the church and everything it has to offer. He's found the peace that comes from the realization that God hasn't left us alone but has given us lifelines to stay linked with him. So Milo is getting interviewed this Friday by our mission president to get the process of having someone else come interview him, usually a seventy.

     About the not crying thing. There have been very few occasions when I've cried feeling the spirit. And when I do it's usually a single solitary tear. This has always bothered me. I've always seen so many people that get emotional when they're feeling the spirit and I've thought many times that something was wrong with me because I wasn't feeling the spirit the way they were. Sometimes strong emotions are a product of the spirit but that's not the way it works with everyone. A missionary shared this with us a couple days ago in another meeting we had and it stood out to me. "President Howard W. Hunter offered this counsel: “Let me offer a word of caution. … I think if we are not careful … , we may begin to try to counterfeit the true influence of the Spirit of the Lord by unworthy and manipulative means. I get concerned when it appears that strong emotion or free-flowing tears are equated with the presence of the Spirit. Certainly the Spirit of the Lord can bring strong emotional feelings, including tears, but that outward manifestation ought not to be confused with the presence of the Spirit itself” (The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, 184). The Spirit of the Lord always edifies." (PMG pg. 99). I've read this a bunch before but it really made sense to me recently. "The spirit of the Lord always edifies." To edify mean to instruct or improve or to build up. When we need to recognize the spirit ask yourself if God is building you up, if He's instructing or improving you. That's what the spirit ALWAYS does. When Prophets say ALWAYS they mean ALWAYS. Over this past week I've been able to recognize the spirit more in my life as I've thought about this. I'd encourage you all to think about this in preparation for General Conference. Think about your struggles, weaknesses, trials or anything and I promise that the Lord will build you up, instruct you and improve you through the mouths of his chosen servants.

Elder Garian Tippetts

garian.tippetts@myldsmail.net

Facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts

eldergariantippetts.blogspot.com

311 Michael Grove Unit B

Bozeman, MT 59718

Kelsey's Baptism!

Family and friends,

     Yet another fantastic week. We made it through Spring Break busily and productively! This week was full of miracles, especially miracles in my own personal progression. I've learned a lot of things that the Spirit has impressed heavily on my soul and helped me improve lots on! So I'm happy and continually pressing forward!

     Probably the most exciting thing y'all want to hear about is the baptism! Kelsey got baptized and it was pretty awesome! The week leading up to her baptism we had her interview on Tuesday, a lesson on Wednesday, watched the Joseph Smith movie with her and some members on Thursday, and then taught another lesson Friday night! The Friday night one was super awesome because she had 3 friends that were going to BYU Provo that drove up and one friend that came from Hamilton. It was fun to meet some of her friends and 3 of them were return missionaries. Adam is the one from Hamilton and he got home less than a month ago and is the one that originally gave her a Book of Mormon ~2 years ago when he left on his mission. It was cool meeting the man that put it all in motion and he was even the one to baptize and confirm her! Her final pre-baptism lesson was awesome and spiritually packed. Then Saturday we met up with her friends, Mom, Sister and some members of the YSA and Kelsey made crepes for us! So we all got to spend some time together and then we were off to fill the font and set up for the baptism. We had over 50 people at the baptism! That's huge! Especially when our YSA Ward averages 65 people at sacrament meeting each week! So there were lots of people there, it was awesome to see everyone's support! Everything went smoothly until they got into the font, there's something wrong with the font apparently because the baptism was at 2 and we'd been filling it up since 11 that morning so we don't know how a decent amount of water drained down to 1.5 feet. I had even taken of my shoes, socks, rolled up my pants and sleeves and climbed in there before the baptism to make sure there weren't any leaks around the plug. Alas, it still drained so we had to deal with it. It took 3 goes to get her all the way under. But what counts is that she made it! In the end it all worked out! And finally Sunday she was confirmed and is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

     It's been a blast of a week! We did exchanges with all the elders in our Zone. It was fun being around each of them and working in different areas. It's always fun to be in someone else's area and meet so many new people. It was weird talking with families again though. Other than that I'll be sure to send pictures next week! Have a great week!

Elder Garian Tippetts

Today's Elder Schneider's Birthday!

Family and friends,

     The week has been amazing like normal! I love the YSA Ward so much! Things have been going well. This week will be an interesting one, it will definitely stretch our faith for sure. So since its Spring Break almost everyone from our Ward and teaching pool is out of town, so please send a couple extra prayers our way this week! We're still going to be productive and we'll take advantage of this week to go on exchanges with every Elder in our Zone and work in their family wards! We're super excited and still have some cool things lined up for this week! Also, a member Elder Schneider knows here took us out to the Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse today for his birthday. It was super good! It's like Tepenyaki/Kobe/Hibachi and all those other places like it.

     We taught institute this last week and it was fun but it's definitely a relief to not have to anymore. There are so many solid members here in our Ward so we're always really nervous to teach, especially because Brother Bishop, the institute director, is one of the most spiritual and knowledgeable men I've met. So we always have big shoes to fill. That's why I'm thankful that the enabling part of grace is able to make up for our inadequacies. Both weeks we went in super nervous and left very humbled and grateful that the spirit is the real teacher. If it were just up to me we would have flopped on our faces.

     Also this week we were fixin' to teach Hondo a lesson but a guy named Nathan walked into the institute. He asked if he could ask us a few questions, we told him that we had an appointment with Hondo but Hondo insisted we talk with him, so we obliged. Turns out he's from the Montana Bible College at the Grace Bible Church here, they're notorious for strongly disliking Mormons. The school gives extra credit to their students if they Bible bash with Mormons. So he had an assignment from school to come 'Interview' some Mormons and we happened to be the ones he ran into. We talked with him and we're very intent on not bashing so we didn't. He said he'd only take a few minutes so we answered some of his questions it turned out to be a 45ish minute discussion. We made sure it wasn't contentious and made sure he knows we don't believe we're saved by works. At the end he accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, our testimonies and let us pray with him! So it ended well. We had less time to teach Hondo, so that was a bummer, but Hondo said he felt like he learned a lot from us just watching us talk with Nathan so I guess things turned out alright.

     Kelsey is still doing bomb like always and is getting baptized THIS SATURDAY!!!!! We're doing her baptismal interview tomorrow and couldn't be more excited. This week we had FHE with her on Monday as well as finished setting up her baptismal program, Tuesday she came to institute, Wednesday we went over the baptismal interview questions and then Thursday we read the Book of Mormon with her before she left out of town on Friday. She went home to Hamilton over the weekend for a friend's Homecoming talk, he's the one that'll confirm her this coming Sunday! Keep praying for her and for us this week, the week before a baptism usually holds a couple curveballs but we're staying on top of it!

     The church is so true and the gospel holds every good answer to every real question. Keep striving. Recognize the Lord's hand in your life and humble yourselves in the face of all the mercy he shows us. The Lord is so good, never stop loving him.

1-2. Our District my first transfer w/Elder Bly.

3. The Standard of truth we made with scriptures/quotes that help us remember our purpose.

4-5. Our Zone my first transfer w/Elder Bly.

6. Our District my last transfer in ZOO-TOWN

7. We take Zone pictures a little too seriously...

8. And then a little less seriously...

9. And then not seriously at all...

Transfers

Family and friends,

This week was interesting for sure. It's been a super good week though. Main news is Transfers! Elder Schneider and I are staying and I couldn't be happier! Things here are the best. Nothing too radical happened this week but it's been a good week. I was mostly out of commission on Wednesday because I had the worst head cold I've ever had so I bought a whole bunch of Vicks scented tissues and looked like a druggie because I was sniffing them so much. Anyways, life is good! I love you all! I've got so many pictures to send over the next few weeks so here's a bunch.

1. Old Eaf riding a buffalo

2. Another old guy riding an elk

3-5. Pictures from the hospital

6-7. Pond Hockey back in Seeley Lake

8. Combined preparation day back in Missoula with the Stevensville Zone

9. A cool thrift shop in Missoula

10-11. Saying goodbye to some cool kids, Peter and Dan, in Clinton. They're the best. Then Kimber came and cried on me.

"Keep on keeping on, and do it more effectively"

Family and friends,

     Yet another week has gone by too fast. It's completely insane to me how fast this transfer has gone by, the fastest of my mission by far. It's also been the best, busiest and most fun transfer of my mission as well. Life in the YSA is bomb. I just can't believe that this coming Sunday we'll be getting transfer calls. It doesn't feel real that the transfer is almost over.

     This week we had a really awesome Zone Conference. It's always refreshing to see President and Sister Wadsworth, the Assistants and the nearby zones. I really learned a lot by impressions from the spirit about commitments. I'm trying to deepen my commitment to my Savior in each moment by always remembering Him. Also, they showed us a segment from the most recent Mission President's Training Seminar about finding. It was all focused on finding and teaching those between their mid-teens and their mid-twenties. Elder Anderson shared a clip from some general authority trainings they were doing where they asked 300 general authorities to stand first if they were baptized after the age of 25, second between the ages of 9 and 25 and lastly 8 and younger. By far the majority were converts between the ages of 9-25. This and many other studies show that this age group is the most receptive to the restored gospel and are most likely to remain active and flourish in the church. I really enjoyed the training because it offered some cool insights about working in the YSA Ward. Also, I felt like our whole Zone was just staring us down because most companionships in our zone have been receiving self referrals for or just finding by their own efforts some really solid YSA aged individuals. I felt sorta bad but I'm not complaining. Like I said earlier, the YSA life is the bomb.

Investigator updates:

• Kelsey: She is doing so well. She's still reading the Book of Mormon like a champ and has read the past decade of General Conference addresses. We taught her 5/7 days of this past week, we're teaching her tonight and we're probably teaching her tomorrow too. She is just unbelievably excited for her baptism. Yesterday we finished off all the missionary lessons! His is the first time that I've taught an investigator from the first lesson all the way through. Most people I've taught in my mission I either started on the lessons and then got transferred of I got their right at the end of the lessons. It's been cool to be a part of the whole missionary process. Kelsey has some friends and coworkers that are former investigators and less active members and has been sharing the gospel with them. One was baptized when he was 8 but was never really active. He wants to know the Book of Mormon is true but says he struggles finding the real internet and sincere heart to know its true so she's been teaching him how to do it and sending him her favorite verses and chapters and bearing testimony to him. We had dinner on Friday with her, Meg and Joseph which was really awesome. As we left Kelsey and Meg told us that they decided to take a road trip to Rexburg on Saturday to see the temple and just explore I guess. So that's the second temple that Kelsey's visited! Last thing, quick funny story. So they were in Rexburg and they wanted to get some Chick-Fil-A so they put it into google maps and followed the directions and guess where it took them? Straight into the temple parking lot. I laughed so hard and said, "I've always known it, Chick-Fil-A really is the celestial restaurant!" It was one of the best moments of my mission.
• Tatum: Tatum has been coming to church for a couple weeks now and we finally got to have a lesson this week with her. She had a couple friends here in the YSA Ward but they all just left on missions so now she wants to meet with us and find out if she feels comfortable here because it's the truth or just because she was with her friends. She participates in church and is already so committed to following God. We're teaching her tonight and things seem to be going well.
• Milo: He's preparing to be baptized but we're not sure what date exactly because he has 56 siblings. 56 siblings isn't technically a problem, it's just a little complicated because he has so many because of polygamy. He grew up in a polygamist colony down by Chihuahua, Mexico. Good thing is he has no desire to ever practice polygamy and is currently living with his 2 nephews that both also have polygamous parents but are really active in the church now and one of them' an RM so he has lots of support! He's doing awesome and always comes to church.
• Ethan: He's actually a recent convert, he got baptized a couple months ago and he is such an inspiration to me. He is so faithful even in the face of so much opposition. His whole family was very opposed to him being baptized and they are always coming to him with new anti-Mormon topics. He always responds so well and says that when he was first baptized it always gave him a couple doubts that were soon washed away but since he's had so many concerns and questions answered he now doesn't get shaken at all. Even if he can't find an answer he recognizes that the spirit has testified to him of truth and so he knows that there is an answer out there somewhere and that sometimes it's okay to not know what it is. He's such an example of real faith. Even with so much opposition and still being pretty new to the church he's planning on serving a mission because he loves it all so much.

     This week has been filled with so many awesome lessons and miracles. The Lord blesses you as you get your heart right and serve Him for the right reasons. The gospel of Jesus Christ contains answers to every single question or concern out there. God has a plan for all of us and that plan is perfect. We just need to find out what He wants us to do and then do it. We are taught in Mosiah 3:19 that we are to yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. Think about what it means to yield. Basically that means that the Holy Ghost gets the right of way. Become more committed to live your life in line with God's will as you discover His will through the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.

Look to the Temple

Family and friends,

     This week was pretty good because it was all working towards going to the temple on Saturday. I don't know how I forgot to tell y'all last week that we were planning on going to the temple but it was great. I'll talk about that last.

Lesson/Investigator highlights:

• Greg: We started teaching an awesome less active member Greg this week. He joined the church just a couple years ago in Oregon and has been struggling to get in the habit of coming to church here in Bozeman. He's not sure how he feels about the YSA Ward because he's only ever gone to family wards before and feels more comfortable there. But he has such a sincere desire to come closer to the Savior and feel the spirit in his life again. He looks at himself with such a humble attitude and is so ready to improve! We taught him twice and both lessons went really well until the end of the second lesson because he brought up the church's stance on Homosexuals and went on a rant about how he doesn't believe in it so contention came and the spirit left. We just told him that we can't give him a perfect answer or convince him of anything so we encouraged him to just hold onto his testimony of the Savior and the church. Luckily it ended on a good note.
• Hondo: We taught Hondo again and he was really distracted during the whole lesson. Suddenly he just stood up and said he had to go so he left. The member that was with us went ahead and left as well so Elder Schneider and I stayed behind to talk about how the lesson went. While we were talking, Hondo showed back up and apologized for leaving so suddenly and told us about everything that's stressing him out right now so we were able to turn him to the Savior (he's Jewish) through prayer. He prayed and was feeling really good after! It was such an honest prayer.
• Kelsey: Kelsey is doing stellar like always! We taught her Thursday and now she's all the way to Helaman! Then we taught her again on Sunday and instead of reading more of the Book of Mormon she read all of the 2015 and 2016 October conferences! That was wild. We taught her about tithing and she accepted it willingly and then we started to teach about Fast offerings and she just said, "I don't even know what that is but I'll live it, I'm excited to." So golden. THEN Meg, our recent convert from Georgia, and another member from the YSA took Kelsey to the temple the same day we were there! The coolest thing was that while she was in the waiting room one of the desk workers came in his white suit and was talking to her and he said, "I just wanted to let you know that I see a lot of people come through here and sit in that waiting room and you can always tell who's comfortable and who's not and you're comfortable here. You belong here. And I cannot wait until the day I can let you past the front desk." As she told us this Sunday night she was of course in tears and just cannot wait at all for when she can go to the temple after her baptism!
• We also had a lesson with Meg this week and Kelsey came as well. We talked about missionary work and they are both just trying to spread the gospel! You can see how the gospel is changing their lives and they just want to share it with everyone! Many tears were shed in that lesson as well.

And the temple. So the Assistants do exchanges with all the Zone Leaders and the checked to see if any of us had someone we once taught getting sealed this transfer and it just so happens that the Sessions family from Powell were getting sealed on the 18th! So we went on exchanges with the Assistants in Billings on Friday. I went with Elder Hoschouer, my MTC companion, it's always good to be back with him! Then Saturday we went and got to go through a session with them and attend their sealing! And guess who else got to come? ELDER STONE! We spent 4.5 months together teaching the Sessions and least once a week and did lots of service for Brother Sessions when Sister Sessions got sent to the hospital. It was just a powerful day. It was amazing to see the fruits of something that started almost a year ago. Also, the missionary that reacted into and baptized Sister Sessions 8 years ago came as well! So I'm sure he was glad! It was just so good to be there again. It was a recharge that I've definitely been needing. I you are able to go to the temple, go. Don't make excuses, make time for it in your schedule. I haven't been able to attend the temple in ~19 months and will never take it for granted again. Go as often as possible. Time in the temple is never lost or wasted time.

Elder Garian Tippetts

garian.tippetts@myldsmail.net

Facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts

eldergariantippetts.blogspot.com

311 Michael Grove Unit B

Bozeman, MT 59718

I hate college... (not really...but sorta)

Dear Family and Friends,

I hate college. I love serving in the YSA Ward but today I decided that I have a strong dislike for college. Sorry this one will be short, I spent most of today trying to figure out things for college but only ended up frustrated. I don't like that I have to be getting ready to go back to school and be a normal human, I'm not ready for that. I'm really enjoying everything that's going on now and the whole less than 5 months things puts a real damper on life. I love my family and I love everything about normal life but I feel like there is just still so much left for me to do. The day will come but today is not that day. So I just don't like it when the real world starts creeping into my life. Sorry about that quick rant, I don't actually have the passionate dislike for college, but I really so have a passionate love for what I'm doing. Moral of the story, I'm doing well, just a little overwhelmed with college today.

Two quick Investigator highlights from the week:
Kelsey is still the bomb. I've never met an investigator like her. As of Thursday she's now up and through Alma chapter 3. She cooked all the way through it and then reread it all again before Sunday because she loved it so much. She especially loved Jacob 5, so that means that she's really learning by the spirit because I still have a hard time with that chapter sometimes. She came to FHE last week and we got her hooked up with a FamilySearch account and she's started doing research. She loved the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson on Thursday and again is just so excited to put her faith more fully in the Lord. Her favorite part is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ applies to her entire life, she's living it now and is planning on living it forever. Then Sunday one of her fellow-shippers picked her up for Stake Conference and she loved it. Just about every talk had to do with topics she's been wondering about. We met up for another lesson that evening and taught her the Word of Wisdom. She was real excited about it and was super focused on all the blessings that will come from living it. She said that she used to be a super heavy coffee drinker but after she started reading the Book of Mormon she felt like that was something she needed to stop because she had never seen her Mormon friends drink coffee so she's been off it for a month and is planning on never picking it up again! And then we'll see her again tonight at FHE and keep moving forward!
Milo is another awesome investigator. He's from a polygamist colony down in Mexico and his nephews (that are older than him because he has 55 older siblings) are here in the Ward. One is Max and he's one of our ward missionaries and the other is Tommy and he teaches Gospel Doctrine and is an RM. They live together and have been great examples to Milo. He started coming to church at the beginning of the year and decided now that it's time to meet with the missionaries. He started reading the Book of Mormon 2 weeks ago without Max or Tommy knowing and feels like he's finally found the truth after searching through a lot of churches up here. So we're working steadily with him. He's received answers that it's all true so we're working through the lessons with him, making sure he doesn't have any major questions or concerns and then waiting until President and then a general/area authority to come interview him. That's church protocol when your parents practice polygamy.

Overall the week has been good! Y'all are the best and I appreciate all the support!

Elder Garian Tippetts
garian.tippetts@myldsmail.net
Facebook.com/ElderGarianTippetts
eldergariantippetts.blogspot.com
311 Michael Grove Unit B
Bozeman, MT 59718

Lessons and Lessons and Lessons

Family and friends,

     So we didn't actually have a crazy amount of lessons. But all the lessons we did have were super solid. We taught 7 lessons with a member present this week and 5 of them were in a member's home. We were really working on reaching our goals and the Lord provided. I've just been really humbled to be here and present for so many miracles, but there have also been some let downs that have tested my faith but we've persevered and grew lots because of it.

     First I'll tell you about Kelsey, she's the bomb. She just moved to Bozeman and a while ago a friend had given her a copy of the Book of Mormon but she never started reading it until about a month ago. She wanted to learn more about it so she referred herself to the Belgrade Elders and they met up with her. They realized she was a YSA so she passed her on to us and said that if we invited her to be baptized she would accept. So we met with her on Wednesday and she did! We're working with her to be baptized on the 4th of March. When we met with her for the first time she had read all the way through 1 Nephi and was just getting into 2 Nephi. When we met with her again on Saturday she'd started plowing through the Isaiah chapters and is past chapter 15 now! The past 2 weeks she hasn't made it to church because her car broke down but we've got a ride set up just in case for this week. She was so upset each week that she couldn't come. But she's coming to FHE tonight and is super excited to learn more about Family History work! She said that she's found what she's been looking for. She says she has a testimony that God exists and that he loves her but she says, "that doesn't quite do it for me, what do I need to do to show that I know he exists and that He loves me?!" So she's golden. HUGE tender mercy watching her conversion to Jesus Christ.

     This week we also met Philip which was really bittersweet. We met him and a bunch of his roommates and the majority of them weren't interested but as we left we invited them to all read Alma 32. Philip stopped us as we were headed out the door and opened the Book of Mormon to Alma 32 and asked us what it was all about, so we told him and he promised that he'd read it! 30 minutes later we get a text from him saying that he read it and loved it and so much of it stood out to him because he's always struggled knowing if God was really there and he felt like it helped him see how he could finally learn for himself. He asked us how soon we could meet so we set up an appointment for two days later and also gave him 2 Nephi 31 to read. He showed up and immediately just asked if we could sit down and start talking about what he read. Our Ward Mission Leader was there and the lesson went awesome! He had super powerful questions about what he was reading and you could tell that the spirit was teaching him things and helping him understand things we hadn't even mentioned. He said that in 2 Nephi 31 it taught about Christ getting baptized and that he wanted to do that as well eventually. So we put him on date to be baptized on March 11th! We were both unbelievably pumped after. Then the next day we get a text from him and says that he's way overwhelmed with the whole God idea and wants to pursue it on his own. We were pretty devastated for a while, and it still bugs me a little, but we learned a lot of lessons from it. As we knit-picked the lesson we taught we learned some things we could have improved on but that just got us more down on ourselves. So as we kept trying to figure it out and kept praying about it we felt like we had done what we could with what we had and had done it with honest intent to bring him closer to Christ. My testimony has been strengthened that this work doesn't happen on my timeline, if it did everyone we met would get baptized the next day. But the Lord lets events turn out in a way that will benefit both us and those we teach in the best possible way. It hurts, but when there's the most opposition there's also the most room for growth. So I have faith that the Lord will consecrate my efforts to both of our gain. Also, I realized that Philip didn't cut off all ties, he just wants to take a break and pursue things on his own. Since then I have never prayed harder for someone.

     Lots of other things happened this week, but overall I'm just so thankful that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are aware of my exact situation. So many things this week with MLC and Zone Training truly humbled and strengthened me. I have lots of room to grow and am so excited to meet the man my Father in Heaven is trying to help me become.

Elder Tippetts

Meteetsee and the Miracles of Service

Family and friends,


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

we were both pretty excited about that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

with him. It is the truth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

success again and decided that we should tract out this

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

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

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

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

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

tonight and teaching him, his girlfriend and his daughter!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

camping on their missions!

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

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

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

be over the Park County Fair this week!

Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E

Powell, Wyoming 82435

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

Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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




Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

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

Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435

Are we going to stop doing service? No.

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

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

Elder Tippetts
607 Avenue E
Powell, Wyoming 82435

More service!

Family and Friends,

     I can't believe another week has gone by. We're officially a week into the new transfer and I'm so excited to keep moving forward. The work is good. God is good.

     Elder Fleming is Elder Hobbs' replacement here in Powell as one of our Zone Leaders. It's great to be around him. He's from my transfer group and I've never served around him before. He's hilarious, from Salem Utah and has a full ride scholarship to play football for ASU.

     Once again we've been doing so much service in the mornings. For Clarence this week we moved a whole bunch of garage doors again and then we got back to garden work. Elder Fleming and I had a big strap that we tied around his tractor and some trees and then Clarence would rip the trees out of the ground. The wood gave a very satisfying snapping noise every time. Then the two of us went over to the nearby Lutheran church and, with their permission, pulled big rocks out of the dirt piles that are there because of construction. We loaded them in his tractor's bucket and took 5 big loads of giant rocks back to his house. The biggest was easily the size of my torso but twice as thick. Elder Stone and Elder Decker worked on hoeing the garden some more.

     We helped a less active family build some stairs and a railway for a deck. He said that I looked like a real construction worker and seemed to know what I was doing. I contribute that to my Dad and all the times he's had me help him build decks and also when we built my eagle project. We also helped another semi-active lady mow her lawn and dig some holes for flowers. Then we went and mowed one of our investigator's lawn and edged it and all that good jazz.

     The last interesting thing we did was laying sod! That was on Tuesday, the day before Elder Hobbs headed down to Burlington. He was really happy that he didn't miss it because back home his family has a sod farm. He showed us all the ins and outs and nuances of sod laying. The whole time I was making up dumb sod jokes, and for some reason they all seemed to be Lord of the Rings themed. Q: What white-wizard grows grass for a living? A: Sod-omon. Q: If Legolas was a sod farmer, what would his favorite weapon be? A: The lawn-bow. I know, they're pretty great, right?

     One last highlight for the week. Kyle J is doing awesome! Mostly. We taught 2 awesome lessons to him this week, one at the church and one at the Wisniewski's home. When he showed up to our lesson on Wednesday, before we even started or had a prayer or anything, he said, "Elders, I'm ready for my baptism, I just wish we could do it sooner." He loves the gospel and has been working hard for the 11th of June. I guess there is a little downside to the story, but nothing to bring you down. Kyle got a little offended over the weekend so he didn't come to church. We stopped by his home after church with Brother Wisniewski and were able to talk him through things and he was doing better by the time we finished talking. We have scheduled to do family history work with him this week and then teach him again more. But he texted us again and said he might want to wait on his baptismal date, so please pray for him. He's such a sincere guy and we love him so much.

Have a great week!

Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E

Powell, Wyoming 82435

We're hitting the new transfers running

Family and friends,

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

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

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

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

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



Elder Tippetts

607 Avenue E



Powell, Wyoming 82435