June 29, 2009 Hello From South Dakota- Almost Minnesota!

Hello Everyone,
Transfer calls came this week and I'm getting shipped out of Rapid City! I'm going all they way across the state and a few state borders to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota! Pretty nuts. I don't know too much about it, but it will be hot and humid for sure. It is somewhat close to Fargo, to give you a point of reference. I'm going to be serving with Elder Badten, who has been out for one transfer less than me, so another young companionship. It'll be good though, I'm excited.
Also, President Cannon is going home today, and President Layton will be coming in. So hopefully I'll get to see him before I leave for Minnesota tomorrow. Once I get my new address I'll email, but you can always send letters to my current address regardless where I'm at, because its the office's address and they'll forward it.
But other than that things are going well. Our baptisms got moved to July, they weren't quite ready, but it'll be good. This week I got to go on some exchanges with some of the elders in my district, so that was a lot of fun. I got to spend some time in Sturgis, South Dakota, where they have the bike rallies each year. The missionaries who serve in Spearfish cover Sturgis and they aren't allowed to leave their apartment to proselyte for the whole week that the bike rally is going on, pretty nuts.
But it was neat being up there, really beautiful. There is a member up there that owns an animal sanctuary. He takes most animals that have been abused, mistreated, or that are unwanted. Also he takes animals from zoo's that are mistreating them or doing illegal activities. We helped him do a tour because he had a big crowd coming through and needed help making sure people didn't wander off or little kids get their hands bitten. It was awesome. Got to see all sorts of animals, a lot of which you see in zoo's, but a lot closer. We go to watch them feed these two twin baby brown bears, it was really neat. Also, they have a section which is all big cats, so it had bengal tigers, siberian tigers, a huge barberry lion(they're the ones whose mane extends down their torso) named Hercules, leopards, jaguars, panthers, mountain lions, and some smaller cats too. It was awesome! Coolest though was a white siberian tiger they had, beautiful cat. Neat thing...I learned that the white coloring is a genetic thing and not a species thing. So a bengal tiger is usually orange, but can be white, and same with a siberian. The reason there are less white ones is because their coloring doesn't help much in the ways of disguise in the jungles...anyways, back to missionary work.
Things are going great and I'm excited for my new area. Thanks for the emails from those who sent them this week, they were much appreciated and enjoyed. I'm loving my time out here and all the experiences and growth I'm seeing. I'm grateful to be a member of Christ's church and to help others partake of the fruit of the tree of life and feel of that overwhelming joy(Lehi's dream is an amazing story!).
I hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fitt