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