8/22/16

Hey Mom!

So first off let me know how the family is. It's been really hard out here thinking about things back home but it is what I have to do. So yeah tell me everything.

Now as far as my email home this week I have to first say WOOO! I finished my first transfer (6 weeks in the field) today!!! That means I only have 16 left haha but who's counting!? So some interesting news, Elder Donovan is getting called to be a zone leader in Colorado so he will be leaving Rawlins which is really sad! The good news is Elder Prescott is going to be staying and finishing my training, so that will be sweet! We actually are going to be the chain gang for the high school football team here and will do it in our missionary clothes with pass along cards, so this is going to be super fun!!!

So I'm going to summarize how the last two weeks have been because I didn't really get to email last week because of something really cool. We were able to take Fole to the temple with us on Monday for the open house. Anyone, no matter who you are, can go and walk through and see what's inside, and we were super lucky to have Trent who's a stud take us there. The whole time he was giving us advice for our mission and he's actually a musician and lets us play his uke and guitar whenever we go over. Fole is a big tough Islander started crying in the temple because of how strong the spirit was there. Before we walking in I remember he was so nervous and was like, "My heart is going to pop out. I think I'm going to die." It was a super cool experience.

We've picked up a couple new investigators, two kids our age and then a firefighter. We've been working right now with about 6 investigators and a couple of different families that are having trouble staying active. Oh duh, I totally forgot, so we had our first baptism!! His name is Dezman. Elder Prescott was teaching him in Saratoga, but we taught like 3 lessons to him and were able to get to know him. It was a real eye opener watching his face as he came out of the water. It was such a powerful experience seeing the light of Christ enter his body.

Also, so Fole is pretty much living with us as a mini mission and he calls us his "oose" or "uuse" I'm not sure how to spell it, but it means brothers. He's also teaching me how to speak Samoan, so I'm getting my wish to learn the language.

All in all, time is moving by really fast and it's crazy. I really hope I can hear from all of you!

-Elder Litster

Fort Collins Temple Open House

Fort Collins, CO Temple

Elders

8/15/16

Sorry mom I don't have a lot of time to write today we are going to the Temple with a recent convert. Here are some pictures though from zone meeting.

Zone Conference

Zone Conference 2

Elder Riley

8/8/16

Dear Family and friends,

So this week has been pretty interesting, I'm not going to lie.  Having Elder Prescott has been pretty cool.  So Monday we go to go explore Rawlins and found some pawn shows and thrift stores, so we will definitely be going back to those places. We also found a music store that has ukulele's in there, so Elder Prescott and I got to play with those for a while. For dinner we met with Grant Rothenburger (an investigator), and then watched the Joseph Smith Restoration movie. I was way powerful and he really enjoyed it.

Tuesday was killer! We had 6 lessons which is my most in a day so far, so I am feeling very blessed. We got to teach 3 investigators and 3 inactives and all the lessons went really well. My favorite lesson was with Josh (who's the guy that used to be a pastor). We talked about the plan of salvation but really focused on being forgiven through Jesus Christ. And than I got the inspiration to have him skip in the Book of Mormon to Alma, and to read about the change Alma the Younger went through. I gave him background on it and he seemed to really like it, so I'm hopeful he remembers to read it.

Wednesday we did a bunch of service at the old Pen museum and that's where we got these sweet pictures. We also had to drive out to Saratoga to meet with some of Elder Prescott's investigators. One of them is already on date to be baptized, which is cool! He's a super nice guy. His name is Dezman and he is actually getting married in two weeks. We taught him about the importance of keeping the commandments and it went really well.

Most of Thursday and Friday was service, so there isn't a lot to share other than we helped 5 families move in or out haha.

So I figured I'd share about the lesson I led with Hope and Mel on Saturday. At one point Hope started crying as I spoke, and Elder Prescott and Donovan both said I did a really good job. But I shared with her the message about Jesus Christ and what he experienced in Gethsemane and on the Cross. How He never stopped showing love for us, and that He sacrificed himself for each one of us individually. When I asked her what she would say to Christ if He appeared to her, she just started crying and shared how much love she would show Him.

Sunday we went to 7 hours of church since we cover 4 wards now haha. We were so tired. We also got another lesson in with Dezman which was cool, he gets baptized on the 19th! At the end of the day we were driving home and we passed by three black guys that looked like they were in their 20s. They saw us and threw gang signs at us. I felt prompted to turn the truck around (I was driving), and the other Elder's were like "What the heck? What are you doing?!" And I was like, "relax..." So I pulled up next to them and got out and shook their hands and talked with them for almost half an hour about what they thought of missionaries. They said they respected me. That was way cool because at first they were trying to threaten me and intimidate me. But it helps having two companions over 6'4" haha. We got their number and are going to play bball tomorrow for P day.

That's all I can think of for this week so if you want to know more or have questions or want to share pictures by all means please do :)

Love Elder Litster

Exploring on the way to Rawlins

Exploring on the way to Rawlins 2

Exploring on the way to Rawlins 3

Exploring on the way to Rawlins 4

Having service fun

Having service fun 2

Having service fun 3

With Mission Pres.

8/1/16

Dear family and Friends:  

Roller Coaster 

That is exactly how this week has gone haha it's been pretty hard not gonna lie, I kind of procrastinated on this email so it's gonna be a little bit shorter due to time (Sorry/you’re welcome). Elder Binngem (however you spell his name) is going home today, it's freaking crazy we got really close really fast and now his mission is done! So Elder Prescott is going to be joining me and Elder Donovan, which is going to be so cool! He has a ton of weights that he's bringing so I'm pumped about that haha. Three heads are better than two,  Am I right?? Anyways, now we have to cover Rawlins and Saratoga which are about 30 minutes apart and both cities have a good amount of investigators so this will be interesting. 

Update on the work. We are actually teaching a former pastor named Josh who was introduced to us by his friend who is already reading the Book of Mormon and says that's it's really making him look at things differently and he is such a nice guy. Also literally he can quote like the whole Bible so it's fun teaching him but also learning things in the process. We also have a new investigator named Annette, and she is the sweetest thing ever! She and her husband are an older couple from the south and they really want to learn more about the church and when I bore my testimony to her she started to cry and the spirit was super strong so I'm happy and excited for what's in store for her. 

We dealt with a lot of canceled meetings this week which is why it was a little hard because I was so excited for each one.  But its okay I'm learning to stay positive. 

One last new investigator is Grant Rothenberger. His wife is a member and they want their son baptized so we will see what he will do, because the son wants Grant to be the one to do it once he turns 8. This guy Grant is super cool.  He is a full on hunter and has so many mounts of deer and even a couple bears and has a big Mastiff that weighs more than I do! He also has a bunch of blood hounds too.

Side note, I've never actually met so many polys (Tongans) before.  There are 4 in our zone and a recent convert named Folie who really wants to do a mini mission with us, so we are trying to get that figured out haha.

So that's about it for this week, I hope you all are having wonderful weeks and I would love to hear from you all.  It really would mean a lot and also pictures are like therapy for missionaries so I would love those too haha. 

I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Litster

7/25/16

Dear family and friends,

So this email probably won't be as long but I'll keep it detailed.

So for my first P day I went hiking in the snowy mountains with Elder Prescott and Elder Bingham. It was super fun but the air killed me and we got up to 10,000 feet which was pretty crazy. While we were at the top it started to get really windy and we even saw some lightning. Once that happened we decided to get down as fast as possible which wasn't easy because there was still a ton of snow and it's in the middle of the freaking summer!! Any ways right when we got to the truck it started raining so we were very fortunate haha. When we got back to the other missionaries’ house we went to go email and play basketball and in a game of 21 I made six 3 pointers in a row! Satchel would be proud!

Tuesday was overall an amazing day. We started off with our normal studies and then met with an elderly gentleman by the name of Arnold and this guy served in WW2! He is 95 years old! After that we had lunch and then took a quick visit with Tammy Lynch who we have been meeting with and she has been struggling finding time for church and God because she has two special needs children. So we shared with her a message about how if we prioritize Heavenly Father than in return he will bless us and help us out. I hope she can try to remember that till the next time we meet. After that we went tracting for a while. No one really wanted to talk until we said, “one more door” and met with a young couple that accepted a Book of Mormon and said they would read it! We will follow up with them soon. After dinner we went to the church to have wifi so that we could update our iPads. While we were there a man walked up to us and said that his brother in law wanted to be baptized..... Talk about blessings! I know for a fact that only happened because Elder Donovan and I took the time to look for people to help and then God gave us a wonderful opportunity to help bless some people's lives. 

Wednesday we had a zone meeting a couple hours away so a lot didn't happen in the morning besides driving. When the meeting was over we decided to do an exchange because Elder Donovan wanted to stay an extra day because this was an area he had served in previously. So I went back to Rawlins with a zone leader, Elder Riley. He was super cool and only has a month left! When we got back home we were asked to visit some families that literally lived in the middle of nowhere and I have some pictures that will show you how bad it was haha. After the visits we went to this park and talked with a couple of kids. Well actually they were our age and we played basket ball for a bit and then shared a message with them. One of them then asked for a Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong. I left with a huge smile on my face.

Thursday was a difficult day because we had a bunch of canceled meetings that we were looking forward to but it's all good because days like this happen so I just need to stay positive. Something I have really learned is recognizing God’s hand in everything I do. It really helps me feel better knowing that things happen for a reason, and even if it's hard God will provide a way. 

Friday was a pretty good day overall. We taught 3 different lessons and then had a dinner appointment. We first met with the Allens and got to hear them bear their own testimonies, which was really cool. Both of them said they would be at church on Sunday! We then met with David the man who came up to us wanting us to baptize his brother in law so that was good. We were able to plan what to go over with Ron (brother in law) when we meet on Saturday. We did a ton of contacting throughout the day as well with all our referrals, and set up a bunch of appointments for next week. We had dinner with the Arnold's; they have 6 kids and 4 are a set of quadruplets! Never seen that before haha but they are super cool and probably my favorite family. We then ended the day with a guy name Shelby Liaff. He was great. He has lots of questions and wants to learn more. The mom is an inactive member but the family as a whole wants to grow closer to God and the younger brother who is 7 wants to get baptized when he turns 8. Oh so today also marks 1 month down! Haha I feel like I just left yesterday!

Saturday has been the craziest day by far! Holy cow! So first off we met a lady who is inactive and she's actually from LA so that was cool talking with someone from so close to home. She told us her story and we could tell she needed to meet with us again, so we scheduled some appointments with her and it made her really happy. Then after that almost all of our other appointments fell through and it honestly sucked because we had 6 lessons planned and we were so pumped for a full busy day. So I was getting really discouraged and then at the end of the day we had one last appointment with a guy named David who was inactive and his wife and brother in law. We taught them the restoration and we all were able to feel the spirit so strong and then at the end I asked Ron and Cara if they would be baptized and they said yes!!!! So we have the date set for August 13th! I am so excited for them they are going to have amazing blessings because of this choice they made! God is good and he tests us daily so all we have to do is stay humble and motivated and it will all work out in the end!

Prayers are amazing! Yesterday my companion and I were looking for a family that wanted us to teach them and when we went out to find them we had the address but still after an hour couldn't find the dang house. I was getting so annoyed and then we said a prayer and then sat there for five minutes. We tried a different road and found the house that was way in the back and technically a part of this other road. We would never have found it if we had stayed on the road we were told. Yes prayers can fix anything!

Oh I also bought a guitar haha oops.

Elder Litster