A Very Merry Christmas from Elder Fitt

Merry Christmas!
I hope everyone is doing well and that you all have fun plans for Christmas. We are spending the afternoon with the Branch President's family here, it'll be pretty fun. Other than that though, Christmas is pretty slow for a missionary since no one will let you in(or so I've heard).
Anyway, this week was pretty good. We got to teach Debby Trap again, this time about the Plan of Salvation. It was a good lesson and we enjoy visiting with her and her family. Now only if we could get her to church...(she lives out of town on the weekends on her ranch). Oh well.
On Tuesday we had Zone Conference. It was way good like always. At the end of it each companionship was assigned to give a short training on one person or aspect of the Nativity and how we can apply it to missionary work. It was awesome. We got to train on the innkeeper. And though he isn't directly mentioned in the Bible, we did our best. We touched on President Monson's address from the Christmas Devotional about how we need to make room for Christ in our lives.
We got to teach Cal some more, and Angelo as well. We read with both of them from the Book of Mormon. Hopefully it will strengthen their desire to read and pray about its truthfulness.
One of the zone leader's, Elder Wallace, came to Pierre for an exchange for a few days. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from him. He's from Boise, Idaho and is a hard worker.
We got to visit Rachel, our less-active lady, this week and read with her some more out of the Book of Mormon. But what was awesome is we got her to pray at the end of our visit!! I was so excited, when we first met her she told us flat out she wouldn't pray with us, and now she is, its great! The Lord sure does know what he's doing.
So we finally got in contact with Markata again, turns out she was in jail for 11 days this time...that would explain a lot. Anyway, we're helping her move this coming week, but she's staying in town so we'll still be able to visit her. Hopefully we can get her back on track!
Well this is kind of a shorter letter, but its time to get going. I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that you will remember Christ in this season of giving. I heard a powerful talk yesterday at church talking about the greatest gift ever given, our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave his Father everything He has, his will. So I'd like to remind everyone that the only gift we can give to our Father in heaven is our will, everything else he already has and owns, but our will is our own and cannot be taken away. So as we submit our will to Him, I know he will bless us and lead us down the path to supreme happiness and joy. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fitt

Prep Day Email 12/5/08

Hello Everyone!
Dang its cold. Saturday night a big storm chased us from the west as we drove home to Pierre from Rapid City, and hit all day Sunday. Raw temperature was around -14 degrees with 30-50 mph winds...we didn't leave the apartment, and church was cancelled. It was pretty cold.
But the week was alright though. We got to visit some people, but not as much as we would have liked...lots of appointments fell through and Markata is still missing. We did get to visit some less-active members and help them out, which is really exciting. Its great seeing them progress back towards the gospel when they're so far off the straight and narrow.
We had our Branch Christmas party this week and we were able to get some non-members that attend our Branch volleyball nights to come, as well as some less-actives, it was good.
We did a lot of traveling this week. We received a referral to deliver and visit with a lady in St. Francis, a small town on the Rosebud Indian Reservation near the border of Nebraska, about 140 miles away from PIerre. So we traveled down there, and guess what...she dogged us, but we still dropped the video off. Elder Nelson had a leadership meeting to attend because he's district leader, so we traveled to Rapid City after going to St. Francis, another 150+ miles. On the way as we drove through Kadoka(you may recognize that name...that was where we got stuck in the hotel for three days because of a storm last month) the weather got really bad, almost to the point where I felt like I should turn off. But thankfully I was able to follow a train of cars out of the storm and then it cleared up. I did not want to be snowed in again in a hotel!!! Anyway, spent the next day in Rapid while Elder Nelson was in Gilette, WY for his meeting. I got to serve with
Elder Callor and Elder Moss. It was a good experience because they're both really good at tracting and I learned a lot from them. The next day we drove home because my eyes were acting up again and I had to go to the doctor to get some medication for them which I don't even think helped at all, but oh well.
And now its Monday and we're out of miles. Yeah, each set of missionaries gets a certain amount of miles alotted to them each month, and we have already used 1000 of our 1100, for the month because of all the traveling. So, we are going to have to walk everywhere we go now in the cold, its going to be fun...kinda, but its alright, the Lord will provide!
One of the great blessings of missionary work that I have noticed really strongly this week is that the Lord is always there to help you. As long as you're willing and are trying to do His will, He will help you accomplish your goal. I know this is true and am so thankful for it. And I know that as we put our faith in Christ, that we will be able to work miracles in the lives of those around us. Never doubt that! This gospel is true! I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fitt

Elder Fitt's Response

Hi Mom,
Man, my heart sunk when I read your email. But then was lifted back up again when you told me of the spiritual strength the family had. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and I'm sure he needed Jen and that she was ready to go. I was glad to hear that Troy is dealing with it really well, I hope it pushes him into the church, I'm sure Jen would really love that.
We are so blessed with this fullness of the Gospel that we know what is waiting for us in the next life and that we can look forward to it with joy instead of fear. I think that's one of the amazing things about the church, that it is one of peace and joy, fear doesn't(or shouldn't) exist. And it is because of our Heavenly Father's love for us that we can trust in Him and acknowledge his hand in all things.
Well I love you mom so much, I hope you made it safely back to Utah, tell the family I love them!

Love,
Elder Fitt

Letter to Elder Fitt

Hi There Elder Fitt,

I'm writing this at Grandma Ann's table in EDH on Sunday morning. Its been a very different week and I've been thinking for several days how to write this letter to you.

I guess I'll just tell you from the top. Last Monday Bradd and Ann were supposed to drive out to UT for Thanksgiving. I got a call from Julia in the middle of the day telling me that they weren't coming. Jen Gilbert had called Troy at work that morning complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath. He told her to hang up and call the paramedics and that he would be right home. When he got there, the paramedics were loading her into the back of the ambulance. They told Troy she'd had a seizure. One of the paramedics stayed at Jen's house with their week old baby, Jake Taylor, while everyone else went to the hospital. Grandma Ann went down to Jen's house to watch the baby while Bradd went to the hospital to be with Troy. A short while after arriving at the hospital Jen was pronounced dead. It was certainly a shock to everyone and it has been a difficult week for all. The autopsy showed that Jen died of a very rare condition called SCAD- Sudden
Coronary Artieral Dissection. Basically what happens is a small tear develops in the lining of the coronary artery. Blood leaks into the lining and creates a blockage that prevents proper blood flow, so although the method is different, the result is the same as a heart attack. This is a very rare condition and happens mostly to women between the ages of 35-40 who are pregnant or post partum. It is rarely diagnosed before death and there is not much that can be done about it. We all feel that Jen was prepared and ready to go and that it was God's will for her. The funeral was on Saturday.

Although it has been a very sad week, it has been filled with spiritual experiences. The outpouring of love and support from ward members both in EDH and in Jen's ward has been amazing. Troy has been literally overwhelmed by the the goodness of church members. He even wanted a blessing when Bradd and Kurt received them and it has been a great source of strength and peace for him. He is really stepping up to the plate and thinking about what is necessary to take care of the girls and the baby. The funeral was a beautiful, moving, spiritual experience. Many thoughts of Jen, of love, of family were shared. I had the honor of helping to dress Jennifer's body at the mortuary. There were about 6 of us there to assist. Before we began, we gathered in a circle and offered a prayer. Will, the spirit was so strong in the room I thought I wouldn't be able to breathe. It was a powerful physical force and it was amazing to experience. I know that Heavenly Father is
aware of Jen and her children and of our family and that He is watching over all of us and that no matter how difficult our challenges may seem, it will all work together for our good.

We all love Jen and we will miss her bright presence in our lives very much. But we are confident that she is still aware of Troy and their children and that she is watching them. Inspite of this tragedy we are sure their lives will be blessed. We are so grateful for the comfort of the gospel which teaches us that God watches over all of His children and loves each one. We trust in His wisdom and look forward in faith towards that perfect day.

Love
Mom

FYI

Hi All,

If you could please keep Elder Fitt in your prayers this week, he has been having a lot of trouble with his eyes. We think alllergies might be leading to infections. He was at the doctor again on Saturday and must go back on Monday. He has been in a lot of pain and can't wear his contacts, or see to drive or do his other duties very well.

Love to all,

Gina

December 8, 2008

Hello Everyone!
Man time is flying by. I hope everyone is doing well and that you all were able to attend the Christmas Devotional with your non-member friends! It was awesome, none of our investigators showed up(darn it!) but a less-active came, Ivan Gravatt, the guy with crazy sweet stories. So that was good.
So we got a new investigator this week. Her name is Deby Trap, middle-aged women with a few children. Her husband lives and works on their Ranch in Midland, a ways out of town, so her and the kids live in Pierre during the week for school then go to the ranch on the weekends. We taught her about the Restoration and we brought up how there is prophets today on the earth and she was all jokingly "well the better getter to work then" ...ya, I think they're getting to work lady, haha. But she is really nice and hopefully we when we teacher her next the Spirit will really touch her heart.
We went up to the rez this week, Eagle Butte(In the Cheyenne River Reservation if anyone wants to look it up) because Elder Daly had to do the baptismal interviews for the Waters' family who is getting baptized on Saturday. It was a good trip, but the weather got pretty bad so we had to stay up there for the night, sleeping in the church. Man those floors are uncomfortable! It was good though.
We got to visit a less-active lady, Rachel, for a while. I think I have talked a little about her before, how she is living a lifestyle contrary to church standards and doesn't want to stop because its too much fun. Anywho, we got to read with her from the Book of Mormon...last time we visited she refused to read from it. It was great. When we left we assigned her to read some chapters and she said she would! She's changing and not even realizing it. She really is a nice girl, but I don't think she knows it. Its awesome seeing the Lord work in others lives.
Saw Markata this week too and taught her about prayer...then our next appointment she was missing again, and wasn't home all week. Might be in jail again, oh boy. Crazy people out here, that's for sure, but I hope she's alright, I can tell she really wants to change.
So ya, transfer calls were this week. Elder Daly is being shipped off to Rapid City to be a zone leader, and Elder Nelson will be my new companion, the Elder Nelson from Eagle Butte, who I have served with on exchanges a couple times...kinda crazy. What's crazier is his companion, Elder Schoppmann, has served his whole mission so far in Eagle Butte, for 9 months, and now he'll be training a new missionary there, which usually lasts for 2 transfers or 3 months...so he will have served in one area for a whole year, pretty crazy...but he loves it.
Anyway, I hope everyone is doing great. Sorry for not writing back to everyone who has written me letters, I'll get better at that. And since I'm not leaving Pierre my address will be the same:
Elder William Fitt
819 E. Broadway Ave. #B2
Pierre, SD 57501
Alrighty then, have a great week everyone, I love you all!
Love,
Elder Fitt

A PICTURE!!!

No time to write, i'llwrite a letter to everyone this week. I'll upload a picture of my district though.

shown from left to right are : Elder Nelson and Elder Schoppman(missionaries from the rez) Elder Gillette and Sister Gillette(rez senior missionaries) Sister and Elder Moulton then Elder Daly and Elder Fitt.

love ya bye

12/1/08 update

Hello Everyone!

Well its been a different week, that's for sure. We did a whole bunch of service. Helped a less-active member with some work who is renovating his home. We cleaned out old insulation in the walls, pretty nasty stuff. Then later in the week we helped Pauletta Carpenter, a member's non-member mom, paint her living room. Kinda nasty since it was a messy room where junk had piled up over the years and we had to clean it all out to get to the walls. But her friend, Rex, said he would pay us 20 dollars each if we helped her...which we said we didn't want so they instead took us out to a steakhouse and made us order the biggest prime rib they had there...oh dang. Man it was good!

We also helped out president Olson a lot this week. Helped him shingle the roof of his shed, frame the front part and sheet it. I'll attach some pictures of that so you can see. It was fun stuff and we got a few dinners/lunches out of it.

One cool thing this week. We were looking through some old investigator's who had dropped the missionaries 3-4 years ago. So we tried to visit some, and the last one, lived in an apartment that is always locked, so we just called her instead. And guess what...she answered, and not only did she answer, but she was excited to hear from us! I was shocked, and kinda didn't know what to say at first, I half-expected her to not even live at the place anymore. Anyway, we're going to see her this week and hopefully it would be good. She was a very far progressed investigator who had read the whole Book of Mormon and knew the church was true, but was having some difficulties with her marriage and kinda stopped investigating.

We saw Markata again and read 1 Nephi 2 with her, we're trying to get her into reading the Book of Mormon, it'll be a strength to her as she tries to stop drinking. We also saw Angelo this week and read with him in 3 Nephi 16. He loved it and commented on how he thought he could literally feel Jesus in the room, telling us what was written in the scriptures. He is way awesome, and we invited him and his family out to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, which he said he'll come to. Ok, everyone, invite your friends, non-members and less-actives around you to it! It is probably one of the most non-threatening things you could bring them to, in my opinion. The Christmas story with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing...what would be better to help get someone interested in our church. So I would challenge each and everyone one of you to bring at least one non-member friend to the Christmas Devotional. Its on Sunday the 7th. Times vary according to
time zone...

Thanksgiving was crazy! We had 3 people invite us over to eat with them...man I was stuffed. I thought I was gonna die if I ate one more bite. But we got a ton of leftovers, so I'm happy. We went to a part-member's home for one of the appointments, and his wife's father was there(an old native gentleman) and he proceeded to talk our ears off for a while. It was interesting. He talked about how the white man stole the country and that its our fault that the natives are so lazy now and how he's going to go visit Obama personally once he gets into office to have him fix the reservations. Ya, crazy guy. But he was nice to us to its all good.

Oh ya, yesterday at church, it was awkward. Kinda glad our investigator didn't show, even though they would've not thought anything about it. But one of the speakers blasted a country song from the Pulpit, the "I'm proud to be an American" song, then proceeded to give a talk on every major war in American history. I know she tried her best to give a good talk, but being in the missionary mindset...none of it seemed quite appropriate for Sacrament meeting, I was squirming in my seat. Oh well, the Church is still True and we need to love and appreciate people where they're at. I know we're all growing and learning together!

Well I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Fitt

3 Months out! (minus 3 days)

Hello Everyone!
Its already been 3 months, well in 3 days it will be. Pretty crazy how fast time flies. I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week! Its going to hurt though..we have 4 families that want us over for dinner, my stomach is going to explode.
So this week was good. We got to help out Scott Olson a little more on his shed. Since we finished the truss's last weekend, we got to put them up on Monday, so we built the basic skeleton of the roof, it was pretty crazy. And it was getting dark when we were finishing, we're just lucky it stayed up!
Funny story, we tracted into a lady who had Alzheimer's...needless to say she had about 3 different conversations programmed into her mind that all led into each other so it was pretty funny. She was a sweet old lady though, and it we left after being there a while and hearing about 10 times how she could "never steer a vehicle, I wonder why that is?"
We got to teach Angelo twice this week, on faith and Alma 32, which was really good. He enjoyed it a lot...now we just gotta get him to church and stuff. But he's really busy at work and takes as many shifts as we can, so he's seldom free on sundays : /
We taught Cal some more. We read with him in 3 Nephi 11 and explained a lot of about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and answered a lot of his questions. But he doesn't want to leave the Methodist church. And he told us he was going to ask his preacher if Jesus really did come to the Americas...oh boy. But we're going to invite him out to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, hopefully he'll be able to feel the Spirit strongly there.
On Tuesday we had district meeting, which was great. And afterward Elder Nelson who is serving in Eagle Butte, stayed down here on exchange. We had a good end of the week together and its always fun having a new companion for a while.
Ya so we visited the Gravatz again, the guy with the crazy stories. Apparently he used to be a Catholic Monk when he was younger...a Catholic monk who lived in an episcopal church(church of england i believe) that has been around since before Christ and has a crown in the backroom with golden snakes adorning it in the shape of 666. Heh. Hes a cool guy.
We also got a new investigator, his name is Austin and I guess he's been taught before by other missionaries but just moved to Pierre recently. So we started out with the Restoration to review. He's awesome and knows the importance of prayer and committed to reading from the Book of Mormon more, hes in Enos at the moment!
On Saturday we exchanged back in Eagle Butte, 2 hour drive away from Pierre, and attended a baptism there of a mother and daughter Elder Nelson and Schoppmann had been teaching. It was a nice service.
I don't remember if I told you all last week, but the family that I helped teach when I was up on the rez in Eagle Butte, the family of 6, they committed to baptism on December 6th! And the oldest son, Wyman, wants to go to the temple as soon as possible. Its so cool, they're an awesome family and I'm really excited.
So we hadn't been able to find Markata for a while, but apparently she was in jail for a while for some reason...we were worried about her. But she's fine, which is good. We talked to her and found out she isn't smoking any more! Which is awesome, and she's trying to stop drinking, which is way good.
We're trying to find new people to teach but everyone out here is still pretty comfortable with where they're at. Its hard trying to show people being complacent is not a good thing! The Gospel often times requires you to be uncomfortable to you can grow from the experience, and progress and have a better understanding of your Heavenly Father's love for you! I have really gained a testimony of this on my mission so far. It constantly requires you to go out of your comfort zone and though it is hard sometimes, the Lord blesses you for doing so and you are able to make a difference in someone's life.
Well I hope everyone is doing great and that you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Elder Fitt

Elder Fitt's News 11/17/08

Hello Everyone!
Sorry for the sloppy email last week, I didn't have much time to write it. The library at Rapid City where we were at had a 30 minute time limit on the computers and other people were waiting in line, oh well.
But we made it back to Pierre safe and sound, which is good. We almost hit a deer though. It was about a foot from the wheel well on my side when we swerved away, it was pretty scary seeings how we were going about 75 and the deer was running full speed. It just sprinted right out in front of us, gutsy beast.
We saw Markata that evening. And it was sad because I guess she had a bad day and spent most of it drinking. But she told us that she had only had 1 cigarette in the past 6 days, so she's improving on that part of the W. of W., just not the alcohol part. But we weren't able to see her at the rest of the week and her apartment lights are always off...so we think she might be in jail or something, which isn't good.
We saw Cal Nelson later in the week, the older Methodist gentleman, and taught him about the Plan of Salvation. He thought it was pretty neat and was intrigued about the 3 kingdoms of glory concept of our church. We recommitted him to reading parts of the Book of Mormon and he said he'd really try this time, which is awesome.
But most of our appointments fell through this week which is really discouraging. We never go to teach Buckley, and the other investigators we planned to see where never home. We did get to see some less-active members..which is always fun.
One family, the Gravatz, is always interesting. He's a native(though he looks white) and was raised on a reservation. He always tells us crazy stories of his life, and this week we got to hear how on a trip to Paulsen Montana he went hunting in a forest with 3,000 foot tall trees and shot an elk that had 8,000, yes, 8,000 pounds of meat on it. I wish I could have seen that elk! Freakin huge!
He also talked about his run in with an archangel that had 11 foot tall wings and it would wrap its wings around people and turn them into a pillar of salt. So ya, interesting stuff.
We got to help out Scott Olson some more on his shed. We helped him build trusses for the roof, and that was really fun. I always end of learning a lot working on his projects, and its fun doing some good ol' manual labor; he feeds us too!
But the week in a whole was kinda depressing as of missionary work. Its hard to stay positive when people don't keep commitments and flake on us, everyone flakes on us out here! But I'm trying to stay positive. I know that the Lord can help us through our trials and if just exercise our faith, we can make it through any challenge, any pain, any heartache that befalls us. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that our Father in Heaven loves us so much that he provided a way for us to return to live with him.
I hope you all have a great week. I'd encourage you all to seek for missionary opportunities in your lives. Ask your Father in Heaven to help you in this endeavor. Support your local missionaries, I know they're trying to do their best, but a lot of times they can feel forsaken by the members, and that should never be the case. MEMBERS ARE KEY TO MISSIONARY WORK. So please, help bring others unto Christ, it is the most important work we can do on this work, according to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and I know the Lord will help you if you try.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fitt

Elder Fitts cRaZY week...

Hello Everyone!
Well I've had a quite interesting week. And I don't have my journal with me so I know I'll leave some stuff out. The week started out good. We finally were able to get a hold of Angelo again and we got to teach him. We decided to just review the Plan of Salvation, but it was awesome because he remembered most of it (we had him put all the pieces to the puzzle together which outline the plan). He's a great guy and loves having us over, but is just really busy with work. Hopefully we'll be able to see him more often.
I don't remember if I told everyone last week, but Ramone dropped us, which was lame. We did get a new investigator though. His name is Jace, a native in his 20's. We taught him the restoration and it was good stuff. I'm rushed on time today so I bet I'm leaving stuff out.
We also saw Markata and committed her to follow the Word of Wisdom, which was awesome! She has problems with smoking, drinking and coffee, but she said she is willing to stop all of them, and we'll help her along the way, so its good stuff.
Well like I said last week, Elder Daly and I were going to go to Rapid for a day and a night so he could go to some District/Zone leader council meeting or something. And we left Wednesday night for it. Well...a big storm was rolling in that night and we were told to just try to beat it. Ya, that didn't happen. About halfway to Rapid the road conditions were too poor. Winds around 50 mph blowing snow like crazy, maybe 30 feet of visibility. So we had to stop off in the a little town called Kadoka. ANd I only have 2 mins left. Sooo, to make a long story short. We were stuck in Kadoka for THREE DAYS, IT was terrible. The interstate didn't open for that long. So we finally drove to Rapid on saturday. And have since been hanging out with the Zone Leaders and going on exchanges with them. Its been awesome and I got to watch my first baptism out on the mission.
I haven't been home for like 5 days though so I haven't been able to write to anyone. Sorry! Well I gotta go, I'll write more next week. These Rapid City computers have a 30 min time limit. Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Elder Fitt

Nov 3 2008 Email

Hello everyone!
How was your Halloween? Mine was pretty dull...missionaries have to go back to their apartments once it starts getting dark, unless they have an appointment, which we didn't. So it was a boring night, and no little kids trick or treated us! Of course...I don't remember having the nerve when I was 8 to trick or treat an apartment building.
Daylight savings time ended...that extra hour of sleep sure felt good, especially since I haven't been doing too well recently...well ever since I got out here I guess. I haven't told you all because I didn't want my mom to freak out, heh. We were told in the MTC to not report any illness until it was under control.
Anyway, ever since I got out here, about twice a week my eyes would get really red and veiny, and burn like the dickens. At first I just thought it was my contacts irritating them, or something else. And it always went away the following day. But this week it got really bad. For three days my eyes were totally bloodshot, burned like crazy, and felt like I had a handful of sand in my eyes day and night...and let me tell you, it did not feel very pleasant at all, not at all.
I tell you all this because I learned something from the illness. Before this week, I relied on myself to get better. And that seemed to work alright...but it kept coming back. Well this week I just couldn't handle it, and I asked the Lord to help me. And no, he didn't immediately heal my eyes and I was cured, instead he kinda said to me, "You dummy, you have a companion who is here to support you, you have your mission president and his wife. Have them help you, that's their job." So, I did that, and after trying a few medications that didn't work, Sister Cannon told me I needed to go to a doctor, which I did. The doctor was great and prescribed me a heavy duty zirtec like drug called xyzol, as well as some antibiotic eyedrops to muscle out the infection.
Well it worked and my eyes are back to normal, to which I am very grateful. I tell you all this because it was a humbling experience for me and a learning experience. We aren't here in life to make it through by ourselves, we are here to help others and in turn get help from them. Man is not a solitary creature and though I sometimes try to be...my Father in Heaven reminds me that I need to rely on others sometimes. Also, it gave me a lot of gratitude for the the rapid advances in science and medicine that have occurred since the coming forth of the gospel. The Lord will provide for us, but we must first put forth an effort ourselves before he'll act. He could just as easily told the infection to go away and I would have been fine, but he wanted me to learn and grow, I needed that trial of my faith, to stretch and humble me, to allow my testimony to grow.
Anyway, as to what happened this week. Well we taught Markata some more and soft-committed her to baptism, which means we asked her that once she finds the things we teach her to be true, will she be baptized, and she said yes. Which is great, she is progressing well but she needs to come to church again, she wasn't able to this week..and also read the Book of Mormon.
We haven't been able to get a hold of Judd at all, which is a bummer, or Christina for that matter. Grr...sometime soon.
Buckley contacted us which was really good, we had no idea what happened to him. Apparently he moved out of his mom's house and got his own place in Pierre so we can teach him more often now. We taught him about the restoration and he said he would read the Book of Mormon, and he committed to baptism! So next time we'll see him we'll bring a baptismal calender and plot out the steps necessary to get him ready for baptism, which is really exciting.
Not much else happened besides that teaching wise. A lot of our appointments fell through this week and we didn't get any callbacks from our tracting efforts. We did get to help out Scott Olson again in his yard. We worked more on his shed. We put supports and flooring for the second story, it was fun and another good learning experience. Its fun working there because he knows a lot and kind of teaches us a little bit as we go along, which is neat. This week he's putting up trusses(sp?) and we'll be helping out with that.
Elder Daly is leaving for Rapid City on wednesday for a district/zone leader conference, and Elder Maynes, a zone leader, will be coming out the next day to stay with me for a few days. I'll be in charge I'm told..which is going to be a new thing for me, so hopefully I'll do alright. Then Elder Maynes will go up to Eagle Butte, the indian reservation I served on for an exchange, and Elder Schoppman will come to Pierre for a few days and we'll be together until zone conference on the 11th. So its going to be an interesting week coming up.
Well I wish all the best for you. I know that the Lord will provide for us as long as we are doing our part, and by doing the small and simple things he asks of us, great things will come to pass!

Love,
Elder Fitt

Letter from Elder Fitt !!!

10.10.08

Family!

I thought you might like getting a letter, even though my handwriting is atrocious! So ya, Pierre is pronounced pier, which took a little getting used to. My area is rather large and it goes into so of Nebraska, but there are only 4 sets of missionaries in it. Two sets of elders and two sets of senior missionaries. The other elders in the district are serving on the indian reservation. The members rarely feed us. We do have a family which feeds us every Tuesday. Then we average one more meal a week every other week so the pickins are slim.
Well Mom had a lot of questions so I'll try to answer them all. So in a normal day we get up at 6:30 (hopefully) do a little bit of exerciseing (sit ups, push ups, jump rope, stretches). Then we eat breakfast, have personal study for an hour, then companion study for an hour. So we're finished with all that by 10am. For the rest of the day we either tract, work on re-activation, or teach investigators. We do a lot of service because tracting isn't too efficient here. Most of the day people are either gone at work or can't get together. I'm eating decently and taking my multivitamins every day! (Ithink I've only missed one day so far) Most of the members out here are strong, but don't help too much with missionary work. They're great people though!
One person I really enjoy is an ol' codger named Stan Olson. His family and his deceased brother's family make up like a third of the branch. Crazy huh? Well he's retired and he basiclly just puts around all day doing service for everyone in the community. He's way cool and I've learned a lot from him. I have helped him with various service projects.
More about my companion . . . well, he's jolly. We get along pretty well, but there are those annoyances that exist, like he sings ALL the time in the car and it drives me crazy, but I need to learn not to get bugged by it. He is cool though.
The weather is starting to drop in temperature, usually getting into the 30s at night and capping around 60 in the day. My coat seems pleanty warm. Good choice Mom! I do have access to other cold weather accessories.
It was great to hear about Gentry and AShby's antics. I miss them so much. I loved Gbob's pictures. I laughed for a good minute or two at the one of why we shouldn't do drugs. It was awesome.
I'm sending a picture of my MTC group in the letter. Maybe you can scan it and put it on the blog. I'll try to email a few pictures on Monday as well. Its sure to be better than nothing.
Well, I better close this up. I love you guys so much. I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve, learn and grow. I've already learned so much its almost been overwhelming. I have gone through some of the highs and lows of a mission already. I have learned how to pray earnestly and have grown so much closer to my Father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ. I love this work and though it is hard and is really trying at times, I know the Lord will provide. Well, keep safe, don't move out of the new house before I get back!

Have a great week!
Love
Elder Fitt

2 Month Mark!

Hello Everyone!

How's it going? Ya so as of today I've been in the mission field for 2 months, crazy huh!? I think so! The time has flown by. The saying out here goes "the days go by slow(sometimes) but the weeks go by fast, and months fly by." And its too true.
Anyway, we had an alright week. We got to do a lot of service helping out Scott Olson and other relatives in the Olson family. We helped pour and shape a driveway, which was a new experience for me and was pretty fun. Did a lot of landscaping and backfilling behind a shed that President Olson built, so we moved a lot of dirt. We also helped him build a retaining wall, which is always fun...lugging 80 lbs cement blocks around again always leave you sore, but satisfied. And it is getting a lot colder here. This morning it was 20 degrees or so, but we've had some nasty winds for the past week which chill to the bone, and it isn't even very cold out yet. But I haven't started wearing my jacket yet...that could be my problem.
A lot of this week was spent trying to find people to teach because many of our appointments fell through again. We got a new investigator this week, Christina. She was sorta skeptical about our message, but warmed up to it and when we gave her a Book of Mormon she said, "Oh I always wanted one of those, I wanted to see what is in it." So that's was exciting, hopefully she'll have a desire to learn more at our next appointment.
We ran into some stoners when we were looking for previous investigators...it was pretty funny, but I don't think we'll go back anytime soon.
Another funny story, we were tracting and a guy started talking to us for a while. He said he had talked to missionaries before, and didn't want to hear our message, but wanted to chat for a while. And about halfway through talking to us he stops and says to me, "You know what? You look like Donny Osmond..a young Donny Osmond." Now I don't think so..but he couldn't get it out of his mind and found it very amusing, he even made his wife come look at me to show her. It was funny, but a little awkward at the same time.
We also got to visit a less-active member in the hospital. She's about 2 months along in a pregnancy but was having trouble with it and we comforted her a bit and gave her a priesthood blessing, which is was a neat experience. The next day, however, we visited her and it turns out the doctors had to remove the baby. They said it had no chance of living and if it stayed, she probably wouldn't be able to recover, and could die from some internal bleeding she was having. Needless to say, it was heartbreaking talking to her the next day, and seeing her in such despair about losing her child, but she already has two little kids and it seemed to strengthen her love for them and increase her desire to be a better mom, which is good.
We taught Gloria some more, but she doesn't seem too interested in baptism. Ramon blew us off again, doh! We got to run into Buckley this week, and comfort him through a tough time he is having in the home. His mother is kicking him out of the house and he has no where to go. So we showed him the dvd "Finding Faith in Christ." And he said that helped a bit. I hope he's alright, he hasn't contacted us since he got kicked out.
Another interesting tracting experience. We knocked on this old fella's door, who said he was really busy but WANTED to talk to us, so invited us to come back at 7pm. Now, that is a very unusual occurrence in the mission field, and usually when it happens, the person is a minister of some sort for his religion and wants to mess with you. But, it turns out he was just a nice old guy who said he wanted to talk to us because he felt he should, and everyone should at least give us a chance. He let us teach him about the Restoration, and he didn't disagree with anything, and we committed him to read some in the Book of Mormon, and he said he would like that. But then he told us we wouldn't convert him because he's been a Methodist for 72 years, but we told him we weren't here for that...we just wanted him to pray. So he said he would, it was a great experience, he is a great guy. BTW, we did teach Markata this week and she soft-committed to baptism, meaning she said she'll be baptized when she finds what we teach to be true. Also, we didn't run into Judd at all, which was a bummer!
Then on Sunday, we had the primary program, which is always fun. None of our investigator's showed up but President and Sister Cannon came to teach in a combined Relief Society and Priesthood meeting, which was awesome. They are such great people and feel like a pair of grandparents to me. I have a great love for them and it is always a great experience being with them.
Well, it was a good week. Spiritual thought...hmmm, Have faith! We were listening to "Lectures on Faith" and like we've been taught all our lives, faith is foremost. But listening to the lectures is wonderful, they expound on the necessity of faith, and remind us that it is by faith that everything in the universe is made possible. Man I wanna keep writing about some of the stuff I've learned out here..but I can't explain what the people said...so just go listen to lecture series by Truman G. Madsen about the Prophet Joseph...and you won't be disappointed. Or read the talk about the Atonement by Cleon Skousen. Phew...its all good stuff and I'm learning a lot. Here's another point, learn learn learn!!! You're never to old to learn, and as we teach in the discussions...the reason we came to earth in the first place was to obtain the things that God had that we didn't have in the preexistence, namely a body and knowledge (experience). We have a body, so now we need to get as much knowledge as possible. Anyway, I've talked long enough. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. The church is true!

Love,
Elder Fitt

Week Five/area ONE

Well, its been an interesting week. First off, anyone who had written me in the past week or before that...you've all been written, so expect letters some time soon, they got sent out today.
Alrighty, well last time I wrote I told you all I was serving on an Indian Reservation temporarily. Well, I went back home to Pierre last Wednesday, after we had a district meeting, which is where all the missionaries in our district get together and teach each other (we're supposed to do them every week, but since the 2 places where missionaries are in the district are 2.5 hours apart, we only do them once a month). It was good stuff.
When we got back to Pierre Elder Daly and I visited Markata, a callback (someone they met tracting earlier that week), and she was home..remarkably, and let us in. We taught her about the restoration and she was extremely focused on every word, and she would stare whoever was speaking straight in the eye, it was intense. After the lesson we asked her if she would offer the prayer. She did, and she just broke down, and expressed how she had been having a hard time, and praying earlier for some help. And how she had forgotten that we were coming over and how greatful she was that we came and helped her learn more, and that she wanted to learn whatever he (the Lord) wanted her to learn from us. It was awesome. We gpt to visit her later in the week and show her the video on the Restoration and she said it was really helpful in explaining more what we had taught, so she is excited to learn more.
We got to do some service for a member in the branch, Scott Olson again. He is making a shed, I don't remember if I have talked about this already, and we helped him build the retaining wall around it, which took a while and was pretty tiring..toting around 80 lbs cement blocks is quite a work out, but it was good stuff. Service is always awesome.
So this week had some disappointment as a lot of our investigator's didn't show for their appointments, like Ramone. And the lady named Kara is no longer an investigator, her father said he wouldn't allow her to be taught anymore, so that's lame.
But we did get a new investigator, Buckley. He's a native who has led a pretty sad life. Him and his sisters were forced to be adopted, because their mother was too drunk all the time to take care of them. So they got placed with a family who abused them physically on a weekly basis. I won't go into detail on what he talked about but all I can say is that it broke my heart. And because of it he has become a very timid person, and he says that he is afraid of people. But he is way nice and what's awesome is that he trusts us implicitly. He wants to learn and grow, and wants some friends, he's a pretty lonely guy. We got to teach him about the Plan of Salvation and he thought it was good stuff and we invited him to church but he wasn't able to make it for some reason we haven't found out yet.
We got to help a memeber in the ward move as well, which is always good, service is good stuff. The highlight of the week was definitely Sunday. We had two investigator's show up, Markata, with her 2 five-year-old children, and Judd, a tracting contact.
Markata enjoyed it, but her kids were giving her trouble so she had to leave during Sunday school, but she said she wants to come back next week and she'll find a babysitter.
Judd is interesting. We actually tracted into his fiancee(I can't put accents in) earlier and were trying to contact her one day and instead he answered the door and wanted to hear what we were about. He told us how him and his fiancee(Rian) had sobered up recently, gotten off of drugs, got their own apartment and two jobs and how they're getting married soon and how greatful he was for all of it. He said he hadn't really ever been to church but now he feels like he needs to go. So we got him and I sat with him during Sacrament meeting, he had a ton of questions, but did his best, even sang during the hymns and everything. It was good stuff. He attended sunday school too, and I kinda smacked my head when the teacher said, "Today we're learning aboutn the 10 lost tribes of Israel." DOH! But he still enjoyed it and even answered some questions, correctly!, even though he has never really been to church before . He was like..."its all common sense, we just read about it.." he was a neat guy. Just a sidenote...on the mission, bringing investigator's to church is way stressful...you're praying and hoping that nothing too extreme will be taught and NO FALSE DOCTRINE will be taught...its scary some things members say and you got to hurry and try to correct it to the class, or to the investigator personally so he doesn't get a wrong impression. Needless to say, a little false doctrine was preached..but no damage was done.
Next week he said he was going to bring his fiancee to church with him and stay for all 3 hours instead of just the first 2, which is awesome.

Well that's about it for now, keep sending letters and emails, they're always welcome. I love you all and thank you for your support. One thing I've learned out here is to be grateful for what you have...there are people out here who have had some crazy lives and live in such disarray it is crazy to even think about...so be thankful for what you have and tell your Heavenly Father. We have been told one of the biggest sins of this generation is that of ingratitude...I know I am guilty of it at times, but thats why we have the atonement and repentance. I love this gospel and this opportunity I have to serve, it is way awesome. Soo...get out and serve!(And feed the missionaries in your area, they appreciate soo much...I know I do, now if only the members here will feed us more than once a week....)

Love,
Elder Fitt

Week Four/area One

Hi Everyone!
Phew, its been a long week. Sorry I didn't email yesterday, but it was Colombus day(and Native American Day) s othe libraries were closed and we couldn't email.
So where to start, its been a crazy week.
The first half of the week went by fast. We did a lot of tracting and ran into some interesting characters, like a 100 year old woman who "likes to sleep." She was pretty funny. Then we ran into a old methodist man who's best friend is mormon, so we talked to him for a while and he asked us questions. He was really nice and I enjoyed talking with him a lot.
We taught a lady named Kara that we tracted into a week or 2 ago. She's a little cooky, and probably in her late 20's. Seems like she's had a traumatic life. But it was great teaching her about the Restoration and when we told her about the Book of Mormon and how Christ visited the Nephites she was all "I didn't know that happened...well that makes sense." So she was really receptive to what we taught her and she said to come back next week and teach her more.
We got to do some service for a member of the ward, Scott Olson, who is the 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency. He is a great guy. He's building a shed in his back yard as well as a 20-step set of stairs to his front door. So we helped him set up the framework for the stairs so he could pour cement into on Thursday(we helped him on Wednesday). I think he said he needed about 17 yards of cement for the shed and the stairs.
But on thursday we had tri-zone zone conference! It was awesome. We drove to Rapid City for it with Elder and Sister Moulton, a senior couple from Provo, Utah, who are really funny. They took us to Wall Drug, in Wall, SD which is "world famous" for its free ice water. It was funny.
Well at the tri-zone we got to hear from Elder Jones from the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy, and he was awesome. He was way enthusiastic and taught us so much about teaching with the Spirit. It was way good. I also ran into an Elder Scott Henry, who is from Cameron Park, CA. I knew him a little from stake activities back in the day so we chatted for a while and it was neat talking with him. He goes home in few months I believe.
After zone conference, I got sent on an exchange with Elder Nelson from Layton, UT, up to Eagle Butte, and Indian reservation for 6 days. Its a long exchange and I go back to Pierre tomorrow, but its been awesome. For those of you who haven't been on a reservation, just imagine a small town of a couple thousand, full of drunks, trailers, and small houses. Its a pretty little town but its out in the boondocks. Oh also, a lot of rules don't apply on the rez(reservation). Like you don't need a driver's license or insurance on your car, etc. It's crazy.
Every morning on the rez we do service for 2 hours picking up trash because all of the natives are either asleep, wasted or at work. So you can really visit anyone, except for the few white people here in the mornings. Its been pretty bitter cold up here because its been kinda stormy, so picking up trash in 30 degree weather w/out a coat(Because I forgot it in Pierre) wasn't too fun, but it was good being able to serve.

Geez, there's too much to talk about and this letter is getting longer and longer by the minute.
Next...we've been teaching a recently reactivated family's children, 2 of which have been baptized and one that we're working on now, Xania, who is almost 8 years old. The family is the Norris's and they're a funny family. They have a little 3 or 4 year old girl named Isis, but everyone calls her Grandma. She is probably the cutest little girl(excluding Ashby) that I have ever seen in my life. I wish I had a picture. She's adorable, and calls everyone mom except for here dad, who she calls gog. She'll go around and pull on your shirt saying, " Mom mom mom mom" and then point to something, its so funny. So I'm officially a mom now, haha.
Well we've been fed a lot on the rez which has been really nice and the members out here are really nice. Its a small branch.
Well we've been able to teach alot of people out here and there's 2-3 baptisms scheduled soonish, which is great.
Now to the climax of the week. A family(The Waters) of 6, a mom, and 5 kids, ages ranging between 13 and 23, moved up to Eagle Butte in may, from Modesto. They're natives and are an extremely close family. Well one of the sons plays football and it just so happens that the Branch President out here is the coach of the team. So he was able to get the family to come to General Conference, well the mom said she'd go. And that morning she told he kids, "I'm going to church, and you guys can come if you want." And they all came! And then this week they all came again! They have a great love for each other and for Heavenly Father.
Well anyway, President Inu(a polynesian guy with a native wife) invited us over, as well as the Waters family to have lunch after church. He made the best seafood I have ever had. There was pounds upon pounds of shrimp there, fish, crab, lobster, squid, octopus, mussels, you name it he had it. Oh it was delicious and I'm still craving it. But after lunch we got to teach the family the restoration. They all listened really well and participated a lot, sharing experiences where God has blessed them in their lives and how they have grown closer to him as a family.
I could write 2 more pages of our lesson, but I don't have time. Anyway, we committed them to reading the Book of Mormon and all of them said they would, pretty enthusiastically as well. They're so awesome and I'm said that I have to go back to Pierre because I can see them being baptized really soon, that'd be 6 baptisms! Anyway, it was an amazing experience teaching them and feeling the Spirit.
I've made this long enough, but I'd like to thank my Heavenly Father for this opportunity I have to serve His children. I have learned and grown so much and this work is great. We listened to a talk, called the Mortal Christ, by Jack R. Christensen(or something like that). The talk was amazing and I'd recommend listening to it, but one thing that he emphasized that really hit me hard was he said, most sincerely, something in the effect of this. "I came to the realization that I don't want to be the causine of Christ's suffering in Gethsemane." Meaning, his relationship with Christ had become so personal, so full of love and trust, that he himself couldn't bear the thought of causing the Savior pain and sorrow as he atoned for us. So with that he said he determined to no longer add to the drops of blood for the Savior to suffer for us. He had a change of heart and did not want to sin anymore.
I thought it was so powerful and it really made me think about my relationship with Christ, how I do love him so much and am thankful for his Atonement, how he suffered for me personally, as well as everyone else. How he knows me and can help me in my struggles as well as you. He his my Savior and I love him, and am so greatful for my Father in Heaven for allowing his son to be the Redeemer of mankind.
Again, I love this work and my call to serve. I hope all you are helping the missionaries where you live further the work of the Lord.
I love you all hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Fitt

P.S. Because of the exchange, I haven't been able to get to people's letters that have been sent within the last week or so, but once I get back to Pierre I'll get right on it!

Week Three/Area One

Hello Everyone!
This week has been great! First off, General Conference was amazing to say the least. There were so many good talks, and though it is hard to pick a favorite, one would have to be President Uchdorf's talk on hope. It was so powerful and had so much stuff in it. President Uchdorf is such a stud, heh, he has some really great talks. But you were all there(I hope) so I won't talk anymore about it.
This week went pretty fast, probably because we kept ourselves busy. But, basically all of our lessons fell through this week, which was disappointing. Either the people weren't there, or they found something else to keep them busy, or they had to go to work 'unexpectedly. Oh well. All of our callbacks fell through as well, which you get from tracting, except one!!! It was our first callback since I've been here that hasn't fallen through, and we've had at least 15. The guy's name is Ramon(accent above the 'o'). He grew up on the Indian reservation, or the 'rez'. He's a nice guy, and not a native, or doesn't look native. We taught him the first half of the Restoration and then he had to go. But as he was walking us out he told us he felt the love we brought, and just felt good about what we were teaching. So he seems pretty golden to me. He's had a hard life and I think we're teaching him exactly what he needs to hear.
The rest of the week was full of tracting, and visiting less-active members of the church, in efforts to get them to come to General Conference. We invited probably about the six or so that were home or let us in, but none of them showed to any session of Conference.
We had the opportunity to visit with a less-active family, the Freestone's. They're a couple probably in their 30's with 2 little girls. Brother Freestone has been a member all his life, but I'm not sure if his wife is. Anyway, they were really great people, extremely nice and hospitable. They said they believed the church and call but the wife said, "I'm not a church going person." So they just don't go to church. Hopefully somewhere down the line we can instill in them a desire to go to church. Their little girls go sometimes because they like going, maybe that will help spark a desire in their soul to attend as well.
We taught Angelo the Plan of Salvation this week, and he loved it. He believes everything we teach him which is awesome, and said it was great actually knowing about the Plan and how much our Father in Heaven loves us. We didn't talk about baptism this week, it didn't feel right. Hopefully this coming week he'll be ready to accept a baptismal committment.
Well not much else has happened this weel. We've basically had to start from scratch since I got here, in a difficult area, because most everybody is already content with their own religion and aren't willing to learn more about our church. But we're working hard and trying our best to get inside people's house and spread the good word of the Lord!
I love you all and am grateful for your support. Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder Fitt

P.S.
I'm not sure if the correct address was given out to everyone to mail letters to. So I'll relist it:

Elder William Fitt
819 E. Broadway Avenue #B2
Pierre, SD 57501

Sorry for the trouble...the mission president gave out an incorrect address the first time around...silly mission president.

Week 2 in the mission field (9/29/08)

Hello Everyone,
First off, thanks for the emails and support, its great! Well this week went pretty well. We ran into an interesting character earlier this week. His name is Joe and he called us up and asked us for "just one interview." So we met him at Burger King, because he was out roaming the streets. He seemed not all there, and Elder Daly wasn't so sure if Joe is accountable. Anyway, we answered all his questions and bore our testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and why we go to church. It was a good experience, I hope we see him more often because he said he was just really lonely and wanted someone to talk to.
We haven't gotten any member referrals yet since I've been here, and when I arrived in the mission field there was only 1 progressing investigator...so we've been out finding people as much as we can. We've been tracting, trying to reactivate less-active members, contacting previous investigator's etc. And have had about 10 callback appointments fall through. So it has been a frustrating week in finding new people to teach. We did get the opportunity to teach some less active members some lessons and invite them out to church, but nobody made it.
The only lessons we taught to a investigator was to a lady named Gloria. She's probably in her 60's and seems to be getting a little senile. She has been receiving the lessons from the missionaries for several months now I believe. But she asked a question that led us straight into lesson 3, or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a good lesson and we focused on the importance of priesthood authority and the necessity of being baptized by it, because that is one of her main struggles. We tried to commit her to baptism afterward but she said she didn't want to rush anything and that she'll think about it. Oh well.
Our other investigator, Angelo, missed his appointments this week because of work but hopefully we can talk with him today. He seems close to baptism, so hopefully we'll be able to teach with the Spirit today and help his testimony grow.
Sunday was nice. It had been 2 weeks since I had partaken of the Sacrament, since last week was District Conference. And when you're on your mission, at least for me, the Sacrament is a pick-me-up even more so than off the mission. It was a good meeting and afterward I had the opportunity to participate in a blessing of the sick for an elderly lady. Her and her husband are a senior missionary couple from Ohio who were on their way to Salt Lake City for a family history mission. The day they left the Sister broke her arm, and then on Sunday she was feeling sick as well so I had to the opportunity to take part in that and it was pretty neat. It so great to help others and serve, its definitely one of the best parts of the mission.
Well this is a shorter email because nothing too exciting happened. Ooh except last Monday there was a CRAZY lightning storm. It was awesome, lightning was striking about every 6 seconds on average, it was intense, and lasted for about 45 minutes. It was pretty sweet.
So on that note, I'll close with my testimony of service. I know that as we try our hardest to look for others in need, the Lord will bless us, and as we help them through their struggles our capacity to love will increase and provoke in us a desire to serve everyone! Our church is a church of action, so we need to get out there and serve, serve, serve. I know the Lord will bless our lives and those who we help. In Preach My Gospel it gives a list of Christlike Attributes that everyone needs to develop. I'd urge you all to work on the attribute of Charity, which is the pure love of Christ. Serving others is a great way to do so and I know that as we try to increase our Charity we will draw closer to Christ and He will help us and strengthen us in our lives. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Fitt

P.S.
I'm not sure who knows, but I'm only allowed to email back my immediate family. So anyone who emails me who doesn't fall into that category and would like me to write back, give me your mailing address, I'd be more than happy to write : )

Week One/Area One

Hello everyone!
Its been a crazy week. Last Wednesday we took a plane to Rapid City, South Dakota. The flight was only an hour and 15 minutes long, and somehow I managed to get a seat next to a member of the church, it was cool. As we flew to SD, he pointed out a bunch of the trails and landmarks that some of the handcart companies took. They sure trekked through some pretty desolate areas.
Well when we arrived the mission president, President Cannon, picked us up with one of his AP's, and 2 of the office elders. So we went to the mission home, and had a really good lunch and spent the rest of the day learning about the mission rules, bearing our testimonies, getting interviews and napping. That evening we were assigned our areas after we had a little spiritual pow-wow. As you know, I was assigned to the Pierre District. Pierre is the capitol of South Dakota, only because it is in the middle of the state. It is definitely not a large city at all. Its population is 15,000...so its smaller that good ol' EDH. The Missouri River, I believe, runs through the middle of it, its a cool river.
Anyway, on Thursday we jumped in the transfer train (a big ol' van with a trailer) and started our journey to our respective cities. Pierre is only 2 hours away from Rapid City so I had the quickest drive of the lot. Some of the elders had 14 hour+ drives, and the elder's who were driving the transfer train were going to be driving around for 3 days! The mission is huge. Well I arrived in Pierre and met my trainer, Elder Daly. He's from Mesa, Arizona and is a cool guy. He's been teaching me well. We visited some people that day and did a little bit of tracting. The people here are very nice for the most part, and are willing to talk for a bit even if they don't let you in. We visited a Native American guy named Angelo Horse, and after answering some of his questions from a previous lesson, Elder Daly committed him to baptism...but Angelo was unsure of some things so we committed him to setting a date for baptism next time we came, and he agreed to that. So that's pretty exciting.
The rest of the week we tracted and visited the less active members, or part member families in the area. There are a ton of them. One family that stands out is a member, named Candy, and her non-member mother, Pauletta. Apparently the missionaries have been visiting Pauletta for several months now, but its hard to get lessons in because she doesn't like formal lessons, so you gotta squeeze them in when you can. But she feeds us a lot and well, so we're willing to visit whenever we can. They are a crazy family though, they live in a trailer. Like half the town lives in trailers it seems, it was a pretty big culture shock to me, and I'm still getting used to it.
But the people are friendly, though most of them are really kooky. Oh, apparently Big Mike Andrus served here and he was the AP. He was a trainer for Elder Johanssen, who picked me up (is that worded weird?)! So it was cool talking about that for a while. And Evan Fox, who lived in the Cameron Park area in California served in this mission as well. He just went home though about a week before I got here. Pretty crazy.
Well this letter is already too long...but I'm gonna write more...so if you're getting bored feel free to stop reading, it won't hurt my feelings.
The rest of the week we tracted and visited LA's (less actives) but didn't get much teaching in, we were unlucky. Saturday however, was District Conference. All the branches in the Pierre District (we're in the Pierre Branch) come to Pierre for a 2 day meeting, like Stake Conference. But its a little more important in a way, because the person who you get your temple recommend interview from is the Mission President, President Cannon. And District Conference only happens every 6 months.
So there was dinner that night then an adult session. We got to help out with the preparation and had a chance to visit with the members. The members out here are awesome, they're so strong in their faith. Some of them had to drive over 3 hours to get here. Pretty committed! I had the opportunity of bearing my testimony at the start of the meeting, which was good stuff. Two elders who are serving in the Eagle Butte Indian Reservation, which is up north, came down for the conference and stayed with us at the apartment. They're cool fellas: Elder Schoppman, a hick from Arizona, and Elder Nelson, a pretty cool guy from Utah (Provo area somewhere). They got assigned to be traveling Elders, and we're their back up. That means if anyone anywhere in the district has someone for them to teach, they'll come...which means they could end up driving 7 hours for one teaching appointment! Its pretty crazy.
On Sunday we had the last bit of district conference, with the general session. Afterwards there was a potluck, which was really tasty, and we got to take home the leftovers...about 20 pounds of food, it was awesome. Later that night we went to Candy's place again and had dinner there and tried to sneak in a lesson, but Pauletta wasn't in the mood and hadn't read what we asked her to.
Well that takes me to Monday, today. I think I wrote too much and the only person who read this far was my mom...haha.
I'd just like to close the letter with my testimony that I know that this gospel is true. I know our Heavenly Father loves us and cares for us and through our families we are greatly blessed. Jesus Christ is our Savior and by our faith in Him we can be cleansed from our sins and have the opportunity to live with our families forever in God's presence. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God, I've grown so close to it since I've been out here. I challenge all of you who are reading this to start reading the Book of Mormon again if you aren't already, to pray about it, and to finish it by the end of the year. I know that if you do our Father in Heaven will bless you with a knowledge of its truthfulness through the Holy Ghost and you will have a greater love for it. I read the whole book while I was in the MTC and had an amazing experience and I want all of you to have that experience as well. I know we have a living prophet on the earth today, who leads and guides us. I don't remember where...it may have been a talk a by a general authority, but it said that the words of the prophet are more important than the scriptures. FOLLOW the prophet, please, and I know that if you do he'll help you have a happier, more successful life. I love this church, I love the people out here in South Dakota and I am so grateful to be out here on this mission, serving the Lord and His children.

Love,
Elder Fitt

P.S.
The other day I was reading in Alma during the war chapters that involved Captain Moroni. If you get a chance, read his epistle to Pahoran, and then Pahoran's response back and the actions that follow. The faith and love these two brethren have are amazing and they are wonderful examples of dedication, long-suffering, kindness and faithfulness that we all can learn from.

P.P.S.
Dang...I wrote a lot. By the way, I have an hour for writing and reading emails, so if it is easier for some of you to write emails, then go for it, but I won't respond as quickly to them. But letters are still preferred since they are more exciting and more fun to read, given that they come in intervals and not just on preparation day.

P.P.P.S. My mom says if you want to send her your email letters, she'll print and mail them to me.

An email from the Mission Presidents Wife:

Elder Fitt will be serving in Pierre South Dakota His companion is Kevin Daly. Pierre is the capital of South Dakota. He will receive good training in Pierre.

721 East Wells Apt B2
Pierre South Dakota 57501

Love,
Sister Cannon

Week Three/MTC

Here's Elder Fitt's final email/letter from the MTC... now the real work begins! YAY for William! Let's all be a BIG, loving family of support and WRITE him lots and lots of letters that are uplifting and geared towards working hard and being an obedient missionary!!! He'll appreciate it more than we know.... or at least I know some of you know how it is to get mail on the mission. It makes the hard times not so hard when one knows that there's so many people out there praying for you and those that you're looking to share the Gospel with.


Hi all!
This email is going to be really short.

We didn't get a p-day this week since we leave tomorrow so I'm squeezing this in during my laundry time. Anyway, this last week has been great, been learning a lot and I'm feeling pretty comfortable in teaching the first few lessons.

We leave tomorrow morning at about 6 am for the Salt Lake airport to be shipped off to our various locations. We spend all the rest of Wednesday at the mission home with the mission president I believe, or his wife and they prep us for the next 2 years. Thursday we'll be shipped out to our area. So that's it for now, I'll be sure to write more in my next email and tell more about what has happened.

Reminder, if you missed it...I'm leaving the MTC, so if you've been writing me letters, my address will be changing soon, and you can use the mission home address I gave some of you a while back.

I'd like to ask everyone to please send me written letters, not emails. I only have 1/2 hour on the computer on my day. If I spend all my time reading letters, I won't have any time left to write to you all. Beside which, I really appreciate receiving the mail. I can re-read the written letters during my spare time and they really help to boost morale.

Anyway, thanks for all the support and all the packages and goodies, have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder Fitt

Week Two/MTC

Hi Everyone!,
Thanks for all your letters and packages and what not, they've been awesome.

Well to get into everything, this week has had its ups and downs. It started off pretty lame because I got this nasty virus that was going around the MTC and have had a really bad cold/chills/aches and occasional fevers for about 4 days. But I got some medication a few days ago and I'm feeling a lot better, thankfully. It is difficult to concentrate when you're sick.

Well lets see, lots has been happening, between studying, teaching, learning and loving- its been a rush. I've had a lot of awesome experiences though. One was with a man who I telephone from the referral center. I was doing confirmation calls (making sure they received what they ordered from the church). He had asked for a bible and when I talked to him he said he did and that he loved it and was reading it every day and night. He was so excited to read about the gospel and he wanted to know more, so I gave him the necessary info and got to bear my testimony to him, it was a neat experience.

What else...we had a elder from our district go home because of some issues before the mission, it was sad but necessary. So every, keep yourself worthy all the time!

We had a fireside on Sunday and had some random district president in the MTC talk to us, it was good, but the best part of that evening was probably the hymns. We get to sing hymns about 30 minutes before firesides and devotionals to get the spirit flowing, heh. We got to sing "Bring the World His Truth"(Army of Helaman), it was awesome. Then that followed with "How Firm a Foundation", all verses. What a powerful hymn, especially the last verse. Then afterwards we got to watch the church movie "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration." Its one of the movies they show at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It is such a powerful movie and testimony of this man and I am so grateful for him, his example and his dedication to the Lord.

Well we're studying Lesson 2 at the moment, or the Plan of Salvation, and it is really fun to teach and study. Its a real privilege to do so. And yesterday we had the opporunity to practice teaching it to a member who volunteered at the TRC. She was awesome and really did a good job playing the investigator's part. I felt the spirit so strong as we got to center our lesson around the Savior and His atonement. It is such a powerful message of comfort and joy and it was awesome being help to help this lady with her needs even though we were teaching to a character she was playing. I love missionary work.

I know this has been a long letter, but I have one last experience to share that is really dear to my heart. Last night we had the great opportunity to hear from President Uchdorf and his sweet wife. At first I was excited but not ecstatic, because I don't know him all that well yet. But Sister Uchdorf was really funny and cute and has a pretty thick accent. She told us to have courage and "not be spiritual weaklings!" But President Uchdorf's talk was the single most powerful talk I have ever listened to in my life. I wish I had a video of it so you could all watch it. Look for it if you can, maybe the MTC posts videos of the devotionals.

Anyway, he talked about a whole range of topics ranging from humility, to diligence, to managing our time, to our purpose and everything. There was so much in it I only was able to take notes on about half of what he saying, it was all so good. Anyway, some of the gems he said was "don't speak with eloquence of the mouth, speak with eloquence of the heart" and "knowing something by heart is not the same as knowing something with your heart." He focused a lot on teaching by the Spirit and teaching to people's needs, because that is the mission of Preach My Gospel. Theres a lot more really good quotes and I have them all in my journal so you can read it later, but I want to end with my favorite quote. I want to preface this by saying, I know we're told not to tell cast our pearls before swine...(not saying any of you are swine), but this moment is one of the most special moments of my life, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Well anyway, he was talking about the power of our calling and the authority of it. Then he talked about how this same power that we have Jesus himself gave to His twelve apostles when he was on the earth. The President Uchdorf made a most powerful connection and told us that we are literally "the extended arm of the quorum of the twelve." Right at the moment I felt like I was lifted up in the air by the Spirit, I felt like I was floating above my seat. It brought tears to my eyes and I knew that what he was telling me was true.
I have a new found love for this great man and I know that he is a prophet of the Lord. I know the Brethren and President Monson are all prophets and they do have a very special witness of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Treasure their words and their counsel. It comes straight from God. I love this work. I love being a missionary. I am so grateful for this calling.

Anyway, I have 30 seconds until I get kicked off.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Love,
Elder Fitt

Week One/MTC

Hello All!

I don't know whose email addresses were correct when I sent this so email me back the family's correct email addresses.
Anyways, how is every one? I sent you a letter today so it looks like you'll be getting this first. So, my first week of the MTC was great, I went over some general stuff in the letter so I'll go into more details right now.
Awesome experiences...well there were a lot. My district is really cool and we had a chance to do a District Fast for a sister in our district who was wanting to go home. We sang a lot of hymns together then all got a turn to tell the sister why we loved her and why we needed to stay (there are 12 of us in the district). I felt the Spirit really stong. It was awesome. It was also cool because I didn't feel hungry at all. And later that day we had some gym time and I probably ran about 2 miles, and I wasn't even thirsty after it. It's amazing how the Lord will bless you when you are doing the right thing.
We had a great speaker at Sunday's fireside who is the missionary services director, Robert Swenson I think, or something like that. He spoke with a lot of power and conviction and got me excited for the work.
Probably one of the coolest experiences was the day we were fasting, we had an opportunity to team teach our teacher, Bro. Vallett, the first discussion, with 6 of us elders. Our goal was to find his needs and help him with them. And by the end of the lesson, he was blown away and laughed as he told us we helped him with a need he didn't even realize he had. Then right afterwards he told us to go outside and bear our testimonies to someone outside.
Elder Whisler and I found this solo elder and went to bear our testimony to him. He was an Elder who was called to serve at the MTC and I guess had special needs. Anyway, after we bore our testimonies, and were walking away, he called to us in his really soft voice and asked if he could bear his testimony as well. And he bore the sweetest, most simple testimony I have ever heard, and he shed a few tears too. But I felt the spirit so strong and was so grateful for the experience, because I knew that we brightened his day and he brightened ours, it was awesome.
A lot more cool stuff happened but there's so much that I can't remember it all. We listened to a really cool talk Elder Holland gave at the MTC in 2000, were he basically pored out his heart to the missionaries and got the most riled up I've ever seen him, he was shaking the podium and hitting it, he was yelling and he was crying, and it was because he kept saying, "My mission meant EVERYTHING to me." It was an awesome talk, and was really inspiring.
Anyway, its about time for me to go, I just wanted to tell you all I love you and hope you are reading your scriptures and are praying everyday! Keep it up!

Love,
Elder Fitt

P.S.
Feel free to starting forwarding these emails to everyone else, and feel free to write me as well!

PPS My mailing address is:
Elder William Fitt
MTC Mailbox #120
SD-RAPI 0917
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

I can receive mail at this address until I leave for SD on the 17th of September.

...Farewell Elder Fitt...

...adios...ciao....au revoir... tschüs...пока....tot ziens...Family & Friends at Elder Fitt's missionary farewell!!!

The beginning of a new adventure!

Welcome to Elder William Fitt's Forum!!! YAY! This blog is going to be a posting of his weekly letters and random pictures... so we can come look, read, and enjoy the work and spirit of an amazing missionary!

Elder Fitts mailing address for the time being, this can change with transfers, as some of his areas could be up to 17 hours away by car from the Mission home...

So let's give will LOTS of support when he gets out to the field and send him some letters!

Elder William Fitt
C/O the South Dakota Rapid City Mission
2525 West Main Street, Suite 311
Rapid City, SD 57702-2443