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