Hi Mom,
It was good to hear from you...you're the only one who emailed me this week (so far at least)! Haha, but thats alright. Its good to hear things worked out with the van. So is it being repaired or are you gonna try something different? Man I bet you're having a blast with the kiddos, and I'm sure Cam and Julie are relieved to have some help. Their rat babies sound pretty dang cute. I bet Virginia is really pretty this time of the year too!
So is Grandma Louise still planning on moving into the basement? Or is that what she just did when she arrived with Kenny? Is the basement all finished up?
Man I bet that was a really neat stake conference, too bad you didn't get to see all of it. It would be neat to hear from some of those speakers. Elder Ballard seems to have a lot of speaking assignments. About 2 months ago I got a missionary newsletter from President Bangerter and it had an extra sheet that told about 2 missionaries who died (from asphyxiation by a carbon monoxide leak in their apartment, while they were asleep) while serving in Romania I believe (one of which left from our old stake). It was way sad to see because the Elder who died was one of the first kids who befriended me when I just got to Lone Peak. He was awesome. But Elder Ballard talked at their funeral and made a lot of really good remarks. It seems like he does a lot of speaking around the Utah Valley Area.
But the talk who quote reminded me of that a little, thanks for the insight and spiritual boost! Its tough for missionaries to really live the law of sacrifice while we're out here, because there isn't much to sacrifice. We're here and everything is our duty and calling, so it isn't a sacrifice to get up on time or follow all the rules, that's what we're expected (and covenanted) to do. The sacrifice was already when we came out. But we were told the way we can live the law of sacrifice is through a broken heart and contrite spirit continually. But like always, that can be tough and is a life long process of being able to be continually humble and teachable.
In Sacrament meeting our high councilor related a story of a missionary who had the assignment in a central american mission to drive his mission president and wife as well as Elder Spencer W. Kimball (when he was still in the Q of 12) around the mission for a mission tour. Well they were driving on a narrow mountain pass and Elder Kimball tapped the elder on the shoulder and told him to stop the car. The elder looked for a place to pull over but couldn't find one. Elder Kimball a little louder told him to stop the car. The elder looked a little hard and tried to figure out how to do that but still drove on because he couldn't find a logical place to stop. Finally Elder Kimball told him to stop the car right now! The elder slammed on the brakes and a few seconds later a semi came driving down the other side of the road and over turned and tipped, following all over the other lane. Had they kept driving they would've been involved in a very bad wreck.
Well afterwards conversation picked up on why Elder Kimball had the inspiration and the rest didn't. The missionary was living a clean, worthy life and the mission president and his wife were as well, and seemed to be entitled to guidance of that sort. Elder Kimball told them they all received the prompting, but he was the only one who heard it. Making the point that we need to get in the habit of actually trying listen for the Spirit at all times. He's constantly speaking to us but most of the time we have our ears closed unfortunately, at least a lot of us do.
Anyway, I'm just kind of rambling now, but thanks for all that you do mom! I'm excited for the package. I'll see if I have a good birthday...it might be kind of lame because theres a possibility of President Layton closing down Watertown for missionary service so we'd be doing a lot of packing and cleaning and moving stuff out of the apartment next monday. Haha, we'll see.
Anyway, I hope you have a good time in Virginny! Tell Cam and Julie and the babies I say hi and I love them!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Sunday, May 23, 2010
April 13, 2010
Hi Ashby,
I love you too sweetie. It sounds like you had a fun trip eating cookies, making peacock's, playing playing playing, having club and tea parties and getting all wet in the ocean! I hope you gave mommy and daddy a big love and told them thank you for bringing you on such a fun trip! I love you and miss you Ashby, be good for the parents!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Dear Gentry,
Elder Fitt Speaking. How are you doing? I'm doing good on my mission. We're working with a nice guy right now who is excited to learn about our church, pretty cool huh? He might get baptized within the next month, we'll see! Ya the Jelly Belly factory is pretty need huh? I remember going there when I was around your age.
So it sounded like you had a fun time hunting with Dad. You're a dang good shot too it sounds like. The squirrel didn't even know he had it coming. That must've been a big lizard to get at 30 yards, or you have really good eyes. Cool beans, I wish I could've gone hunting with you guys too! But I'm out fishing for people out here...so similar...but really different.
Well I'm glad you had a good spring break. Now its time to buckle down and work hard at school so you'll make mom happy (and yourself happy) and you can enjoy your summer to the fullest! I love you bro!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Hi Mom!
It sounds like you all had a pretty eventful trip to California! You should've taken some pictures of the scenery...though that might've made me trunky looking at them, haha. It was too bad to hear about the van, hopefully thing's will work out.
Man I didn't know Julie hurt her shoulder a while back, hopefully the surgery goes went well! Anything else exciting happening?
I'm doing pretty good. I'm healthy and happy and striving to do a little better every day. You might like to hear this: I was on exchange this weekend and at the other Elder's apartment I was looking for something to eat and I was horrified at what I saw. Basically the only food one of the Elders had was comprized of potatoe chips, pop tarts, candy, Lucky Charms, Little Debby treats and whole milk......scary! Luckily I found some carrots and an orange that had been neglected in the fridge and made a good meal of that and a loaf of bread I bought. But geez...I'm glad you taught me to eat healthy, I've really tried to do that out here. The biggest problem is its more expensive...oh well, my health is worth it.
Anyway, thanks for the advice and stories, they help! Some things are looking up in the area and hopefully we'll be able to do some good. Thanks for sending the package...I'm looking forward to it. I've got a lot of lasts coming up, and/or recently just had: last General Conference, last B-day, and last phone call home! Its crazy, but exciting and I hope I can make the most of it. Thanks for all that you do mom! The church is true!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Hello Everyone,
I hope you all had a good week. I'm emailing a day late because we weren't able to email yesterday. I had been in Huron, SD on exchange for the weekend, and we had a district P-day in Brookings, SD for most of the day so we by the time we did that and exchanged back and got home to Watertown there wasn't much time to do all the emails. Anyway, things are going good!
We had zone conference on Friday and it was awesome, as always. The focus was on the Atonement and that is always worth learning more about. It was good to be able to learn more and feel of the strong spirit the Layton's bring with them. After that I went with the district leader back to his area in Huron and worked with him for the weekend. It was a lot of fun. He's a spanish speaking elder so we visited some spanish speaking people. I mainly played with the kids but I got to help out one to learn english a bit. I'm suprised that I still remember as much spanish I do from taking it in high school, but it certainly helped out this weekend.
We also had an amazing lesson with one of their investigators. After teaching about the gospel we taught about the priesthood and its removal and restoration and she said we hit her with a ton of bricks. She was the first person I've ever taught that has so fully grasped the concept we were teaching. It took her aback and remarked how she never thought that that was even a possibility. For the next 30 minutes of talking and asking questions she was still shocked at the doctrine and thought it very interesting. Almost as we were about to leave she made the observation that now that we had gave her this knowledge she "only had 2 choices left." She didn't say what they were but we believed her to mean to accept the fulness of Christ's gospel or reject it. So hopefully she'll choose the former and get baptized soon!
Anyway, the work is going slow still here in Watertown but that isn't a problem...it just means we have a lot of time to find more people to teach! James isn't progressing the best but is still interested in learning. We think he might have gotten some negative vibes from people at home or at his church. He just needs to read and pray, its so simple...yet remarkably hard for a lot of people.
Anyway, thats about it for now. Today is dang hot and we've been sweating a lot. I can't wait for it too cool off again. Its 80 degrees! Man...hopefully I can acclamte quickly..not fun. But ya, the church is true! Thanks everyone for your support, have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fitt
I love you too sweetie. It sounds like you had a fun trip eating cookies, making peacock's, playing playing playing, having club and tea parties and getting all wet in the ocean! I hope you gave mommy and daddy a big love and told them thank you for bringing you on such a fun trip! I love you and miss you Ashby, be good for the parents!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Dear Gentry,
Elder Fitt Speaking. How are you doing? I'm doing good on my mission. We're working with a nice guy right now who is excited to learn about our church, pretty cool huh? He might get baptized within the next month, we'll see! Ya the Jelly Belly factory is pretty need huh? I remember going there when I was around your age.
So it sounded like you had a fun time hunting with Dad. You're a dang good shot too it sounds like. The squirrel didn't even know he had it coming. That must've been a big lizard to get at 30 yards, or you have really good eyes. Cool beans, I wish I could've gone hunting with you guys too! But I'm out fishing for people out here...so similar...but really different.
Well I'm glad you had a good spring break. Now its time to buckle down and work hard at school so you'll make mom happy (and yourself happy) and you can enjoy your summer to the fullest! I love you bro!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Hi Mom!
It sounds like you all had a pretty eventful trip to California! You should've taken some pictures of the scenery...though that might've made me trunky looking at them, haha. It was too bad to hear about the van, hopefully thing's will work out.
Man I didn't know Julie hurt her shoulder a while back, hopefully the surgery goes went well! Anything else exciting happening?
I'm doing pretty good. I'm healthy and happy and striving to do a little better every day. You might like to hear this: I was on exchange this weekend and at the other Elder's apartment I was looking for something to eat and I was horrified at what I saw. Basically the only food one of the Elders had was comprized of potatoe chips, pop tarts, candy, Lucky Charms, Little Debby treats and whole milk......scary! Luckily I found some carrots and an orange that had been neglected in the fridge and made a good meal of that and a loaf of bread I bought. But geez...I'm glad you taught me to eat healthy, I've really tried to do that out here. The biggest problem is its more expensive...oh well, my health is worth it.
Anyway, thanks for the advice and stories, they help! Some things are looking up in the area and hopefully we'll be able to do some good. Thanks for sending the package...I'm looking forward to it. I've got a lot of lasts coming up, and/or recently just had: last General Conference, last B-day, and last phone call home! Its crazy, but exciting and I hope I can make the most of it. Thanks for all that you do mom! The church is true!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Hello Everyone,
I hope you all had a good week. I'm emailing a day late because we weren't able to email yesterday. I had been in Huron, SD on exchange for the weekend, and we had a district P-day in Brookings, SD for most of the day so we by the time we did that and exchanged back and got home to Watertown there wasn't much time to do all the emails. Anyway, things are going good!
We had zone conference on Friday and it was awesome, as always. The focus was on the Atonement and that is always worth learning more about. It was good to be able to learn more and feel of the strong spirit the Layton's bring with them. After that I went with the district leader back to his area in Huron and worked with him for the weekend. It was a lot of fun. He's a spanish speaking elder so we visited some spanish speaking people. I mainly played with the kids but I got to help out one to learn english a bit. I'm suprised that I still remember as much spanish I do from taking it in high school, but it certainly helped out this weekend.
We also had an amazing lesson with one of their investigators. After teaching about the gospel we taught about the priesthood and its removal and restoration and she said we hit her with a ton of bricks. She was the first person I've ever taught that has so fully grasped the concept we were teaching. It took her aback and remarked how she never thought that that was even a possibility. For the next 30 minutes of talking and asking questions she was still shocked at the doctrine and thought it very interesting. Almost as we were about to leave she made the observation that now that we had gave her this knowledge she "only had 2 choices left." She didn't say what they were but we believed her to mean to accept the fulness of Christ's gospel or reject it. So hopefully she'll choose the former and get baptized soon!
Anyway, the work is going slow still here in Watertown but that isn't a problem...it just means we have a lot of time to find more people to teach! James isn't progressing the best but is still interested in learning. We think he might have gotten some negative vibes from people at home or at his church. He just needs to read and pray, its so simple...yet remarkably hard for a lot of people.
Anyway, thats about it for now. Today is dang hot and we've been sweating a lot. I can't wait for it too cool off again. Its 80 degrees! Man...hopefully I can acclamte quickly..not fun. But ya, the church is true! Thanks everyone for your support, have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Sunday, April 11, 2010
April 5, 2010
Hello Everyone,
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter sunday! And I hope you had the opportunity to watch all the sessions of conference. They were great! It was a very spirtually innervating conference. Its neat how there is always a theme in the conferences, this one seem to focus a lot on each aspect of the family especially in strengthening it spiritually. There was a lot of warning in this conference whether they said it out front or eluded to it in the talks, but they seemed to have a sense of urgency about them. This life is the time for us to prepare to meet God, and if we don't prepare swiftly we may loose our ability to prepare.
We had a decent week though. It was a little slow but we did get to have some good appointments with people. We're still struggling to find new people to teach and are about to get into our plan to visit all the members in the branch. We did have a great lesson with James last week and we committed him for baptism on the 24th of April! We may have to move it back because that weekend is Stake Conference. The biggest problem was he didn't make it to conference, so hopefully when he had attended his church that morning for their meetings he didn't get any negative messages about our church, and hopefully he just got caught up in the Easter festivities.
Other than that we're doing good. I'm really enjoying the spring weather, its been beautiful here. In the 60's mainly with a nice breeze and almost all the snow is gone. Except for 2 big piles in town. On is probably about 30 feet high and 150 feet in circumference. Its a ton of snow mixed with dirt that they've piled from the course of the winter, and it will probably take another few months to melt.
Other than that things are going good. Not too much to report this week besides being harassed by a drunk. We were teaching a lesson to one of our investigators on his door step and the drunk guy comes up and apparently our investigator knew him and backed up and went inside after a few seconds. They guy tried to talk with us for about Jesus while dropping the F bomb right and left. I tried to leave as quick as possible because I've dealt with enough of these guys before but my companion talked to him a bit, trying to be courteous. I know we're supposed to love one another...but in situations like that you don't care about common courtesy, you tell the guy you have to go and you get the heck out of Dodge, because you have no idea what he is trying to do or wants to do with you. Luckily, our investigator had called the cops so in a few minutes a trooper pulled up and got the guy in his car. He knew the drunk by name...so I'm guessing he has a long history in the area. But that isn't too exciting news because it happened a lot in Rapid...OBEY the word of wisdom! Thats all I have to say, alcohol, drugs, tobacky, baddd stuff.
Anyway, I think I'll end on that beautiful note. The church is true! I testify we are being led by a prophet of God and that as we follow the counsel we have been so richly blessed with this week we will find pure joy and peace in our lives.
Love,
Elder Fitt
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter sunday! And I hope you had the opportunity to watch all the sessions of conference. They were great! It was a very spirtually innervating conference. Its neat how there is always a theme in the conferences, this one seem to focus a lot on each aspect of the family especially in strengthening it spiritually. There was a lot of warning in this conference whether they said it out front or eluded to it in the talks, but they seemed to have a sense of urgency about them. This life is the time for us to prepare to meet God, and if we don't prepare swiftly we may loose our ability to prepare.
We had a decent week though. It was a little slow but we did get to have some good appointments with people. We're still struggling to find new people to teach and are about to get into our plan to visit all the members in the branch. We did have a great lesson with James last week and we committed him for baptism on the 24th of April! We may have to move it back because that weekend is Stake Conference. The biggest problem was he didn't make it to conference, so hopefully when he had attended his church that morning for their meetings he didn't get any negative messages about our church, and hopefully he just got caught up in the Easter festivities.
Other than that we're doing good. I'm really enjoying the spring weather, its been beautiful here. In the 60's mainly with a nice breeze and almost all the snow is gone. Except for 2 big piles in town. On is probably about 30 feet high and 150 feet in circumference. Its a ton of snow mixed with dirt that they've piled from the course of the winter, and it will probably take another few months to melt.
Other than that things are going good. Not too much to report this week besides being harassed by a drunk. We were teaching a lesson to one of our investigators on his door step and the drunk guy comes up and apparently our investigator knew him and backed up and went inside after a few seconds. They guy tried to talk with us for about Jesus while dropping the F bomb right and left. I tried to leave as quick as possible because I've dealt with enough of these guys before but my companion talked to him a bit, trying to be courteous. I know we're supposed to love one another...but in situations like that you don't care about common courtesy, you tell the guy you have to go and you get the heck out of Dodge, because you have no idea what he is trying to do or wants to do with you. Luckily, our investigator had called the cops so in a few minutes a trooper pulled up and got the guy in his car. He knew the drunk by name...so I'm guessing he has a long history in the area. But that isn't too exciting news because it happened a lot in Rapid...OBEY the word of wisdom! Thats all I have to say, alcohol, drugs, tobacky, baddd stuff.
Anyway, I think I'll end on that beautiful note. The church is true! I testify we are being led by a prophet of God and that as we follow the counsel we have been so richly blessed with this week we will find pure joy and peace in our lives.
Love,
Elder Fitt
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Hello from Sunny South Dakota!
Hello Everyone,
We had a pretty good week this week! Transfers were pretty crazy though. The vehicle that was transporting my new companion ran quite a bit late, so I got a fun opportunity to spend some time working in the zone leaders area of Brookings, SD with them. My companion didn't get to Brookings until about 10 pm and they were supposed to be there about 6 hours earlier, but it was good spending time with a bunch of Elders and not feel so isolated.
Well Elder Jones and I have been working to find some new investigators, and we actually were able to get one this past week. His name is James and seems like he could be pretty promising providing his minister doesn't find out that we're visiting with him and feed him some anti material. Hopefully that won't happen. But other than that tracting hasn't been too effective, so we're working with our Branch mission leader to get into every member's home in the branch to share a missionary lesson with them. Hopefully we can get that accomplished but it will be a difficult feat because the branch boundaries spread about 60 miles each direction from Watertown. So it'll be a lot of driving.
We also were able to go home teaching with a member and got to see a lot of the outlying towns in the area. This faithful member's route takes about 5 hours for him to drive to all his appointments... and thats without even visiting the families. Luckily we only did half of it, but man, no one is allowed to complain about their hometeaching route after hearing that! And, almost all of the families are less-active too. But he gets it done every month- what a stud!
Other than that we're enjoying the wonderful spring weather with the sun shining and the temperature which has been in the 50's. Hopefully it'll stay around for a while.
I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve and the challenges that come with it. What a blessing it is to have trials and to learn from them and overcome them with the help of the Savior. I am grateful for the gospel in my life and know it to be true!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fitt
We had a pretty good week this week! Transfers were pretty crazy though. The vehicle that was transporting my new companion ran quite a bit late, so I got a fun opportunity to spend some time working in the zone leaders area of Brookings, SD with them. My companion didn't get to Brookings until about 10 pm and they were supposed to be there about 6 hours earlier, but it was good spending time with a bunch of Elders and not feel so isolated.
Well Elder Jones and I have been working to find some new investigators, and we actually were able to get one this past week. His name is James and seems like he could be pretty promising providing his minister doesn't find out that we're visiting with him and feed him some anti material. Hopefully that won't happen. But other than that tracting hasn't been too effective, so we're working with our Branch mission leader to get into every member's home in the branch to share a missionary lesson with them. Hopefully we can get that accomplished but it will be a difficult feat because the branch boundaries spread about 60 miles each direction from Watertown. So it'll be a lot of driving.
We also were able to go home teaching with a member and got to see a lot of the outlying towns in the area. This faithful member's route takes about 5 hours for him to drive to all his appointments... and thats without even visiting the families. Luckily we only did half of it, but man, no one is allowed to complain about their hometeaching route after hearing that! And, almost all of the families are less-active too. But he gets it done every month- what a stud!
Other than that we're enjoying the wonderful spring weather with the sun shining and the temperature which has been in the 50's. Hopefully it'll stay around for a while.
I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve and the challenges that come with it. What a blessing it is to have trials and to learn from them and overcome them with the help of the Savior. I am grateful for the gospel in my life and know it to be true!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Monday, March 15, 2010
Hello from Watertown
Hello Everyone,
So we had transfer calls this weekend and my companion, Elder Wilson, is going to be leaving me. He's headed off to Dickinson, ND and I'll be getting Elder Jones. Elder Jones was in my district in the MTC so it'll be neat getting to serve with him. We actually had the same room in the residence halls at the MTC, we should get along well.
The work here is going well, though this week was kind of slow like we predicted. Most all of our callbacks from tracting were on spring break last week so it was hard to contact anyone, but hopefully this week will be better. We have been getting some new people to visit and are starting to work with some part member and less active families which is a lot of fun, they're awesome. Its just hard to get them to come to church!
Other than that I don't have too much to report on this week. We're buzzing around today for Elder Wilson so he can say his goodbyes so I'll try to write more next week and share some stories of what is happening. The church is true!
Love,
Elder Fitt
So we had transfer calls this weekend and my companion, Elder Wilson, is going to be leaving me. He's headed off to Dickinson, ND and I'll be getting Elder Jones. Elder Jones was in my district in the MTC so it'll be neat getting to serve with him. We actually had the same room in the residence halls at the MTC, we should get along well.
The work here is going well, though this week was kind of slow like we predicted. Most all of our callbacks from tracting were on spring break last week so it was hard to contact anyone, but hopefully this week will be better. We have been getting some new people to visit and are starting to work with some part member and less active families which is a lot of fun, they're awesome. Its just hard to get them to come to church!
Other than that I don't have too much to report on this week. We're buzzing around today for Elder Wilson so he can say his goodbyes so I'll try to write more next week and share some stories of what is happening. The church is true!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Hello From Rainy! South Dakota
Hello Everyone,
Its been raining here, YA! I'm way stoked about that, its washing away all the dirt and snow from the winter and cleaning up the place...though I bet we'll get more snow...it is the Dakotas. But I'm doing good. I'm emailing today because we had our P-day moved this week to tuesday from monday because of the district meeting we had today in Brookings, SD, which is 45 miles away.
So I wish I had more time to email now but we got to get heading soon. The work here is progressing and we're starting to get some investigators in our teaching pool which is way exciting.
It was great to hear about Cam & Julie's new baby!! Third grandbaby- way cool, I bet you're excited to go visit them.
I'm really grateful for the wonderful emails you write me. They really give me a boost each week. I love hearing about the family too, they're growing up too fast those fetchers. Oh well. I wish I had more time to write tonight. We had our p-day moved from yesterday to today for just this week because we were having a district meeting in Brookings, SD and it worked better for everyone to work yesterday and have P-day today. But we don't have much time left in the library tonight.
But I just want to tell you how much I love you and appreciate you all. Thinking about it, I'd say one of the most important attributes parents should have is that they help you to feel the love that your Heavenly Parents have for you. You always do that for me. I have always know that you love me and I think I took that for granted for a long time. Being out here has really shown me how incredibly blessed I am to have the family that I have, who cares about each other and isn't always arguing and fighting and backstabbing each other. Thank you so much, you're the best!
I want to testify that this Church is true. At District Meeting today I gave a training on how we can continually improve as missionaries (and it applies for non-missionaries) as well. I got a lot of my ideas from a talk called "The Fourth Missionary" by Elder Corbridge of the 70 when he was a mission president. Its way awesome. But one of the principles that is so crucial to our growth in the gospel is that we follow the common saying "What would Jesus do?" But really thinking about that and applying it in our lives will bring tremendous blessings. At every choice of right or wrong...just think that in your head and I bet 9 times out of 10 you'll pick the right choice. I'd like to write more but we need to head.
I hope you all have a good week!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Its been raining here, YA! I'm way stoked about that, its washing away all the dirt and snow from the winter and cleaning up the place...though I bet we'll get more snow...it is the Dakotas. But I'm doing good. I'm emailing today because we had our P-day moved this week to tuesday from monday because of the district meeting we had today in Brookings, SD, which is 45 miles away.
So I wish I had more time to email now but we got to get heading soon. The work here is progressing and we're starting to get some investigators in our teaching pool which is way exciting.
It was great to hear about Cam & Julie's new baby!! Third grandbaby- way cool, I bet you're excited to go visit them.
I'm really grateful for the wonderful emails you write me. They really give me a boost each week. I love hearing about the family too, they're growing up too fast those fetchers. Oh well. I wish I had more time to write tonight. We had our p-day moved from yesterday to today for just this week because we were having a district meeting in Brookings, SD and it worked better for everyone to work yesterday and have P-day today. But we don't have much time left in the library tonight.
But I just want to tell you how much I love you and appreciate you all. Thinking about it, I'd say one of the most important attributes parents should have is that they help you to feel the love that your Heavenly Parents have for you. You always do that for me. I have always know that you love me and I think I took that for granted for a long time. Being out here has really shown me how incredibly blessed I am to have the family that I have, who cares about each other and isn't always arguing and fighting and backstabbing each other. Thank you so much, you're the best!
I want to testify that this Church is true. At District Meeting today I gave a training on how we can continually improve as missionaries (and it applies for non-missionaries) as well. I got a lot of my ideas from a talk called "The Fourth Missionary" by Elder Corbridge of the 70 when he was a mission president. Its way awesome. But one of the principles that is so crucial to our growth in the gospel is that we follow the common saying "What would Jesus do?" But really thinking about that and applying it in our lives will bring tremendous blessings. At every choice of right or wrong...just think that in your head and I bet 9 times out of 10 you'll pick the right choice. I'd like to write more but we need to head.
I hope you all have a good week!
Love,
Elder Fitt
Monday, March 1, 2010
It's March in South Dakota (and everywhere else too!)
Hello Everyone,
We had a pretty awesome week in Watertown, I hope you all had good weeks. First off we're healthy so we've been able to work, what a blessing that is! We've been able to work a lot with less-actives and members and have been having a lot of success. Its exciting to meet with these people and try to get them back and active in the church. Its a blessing to be a missionary because the less-active members seem to allow missionaries into their homes a lot more than members of their branch because we don't know them and don't have and prior opinions of them. So it allows us to get into places where the members can't.
Next we were able to do a lot of finding this week and we got a lot of people who said we can come back and have a lesson with them so we're way excited about that. I've been praying hard that they their hearts will be open to the promptings of the Spirit and actually let us inside their homes when we visit them again.
Also, its been warming up here!!! Its been 30+ degrees for the past few days and boy has it been nice. Some of the snow is melting and the sun is warm, boy am I ready for spring. Though I am grateful for the cold...because generally it means the summers are as dang hot. You can always put on more layers...but can't keep taking them off, especially as a missionary. Those missionaries in Mexico and South America and such are studs dealing with that heat.
Yesterday we had stake general priesthood meeting and the stake president shared a neat story about his brother and his brother's wife. They were in a laundromat, around 11pm, washing their clothing and all of the sudden two men ran in with guns pointed at them. They ordered the couple to get on the floor and put their hands behind their back. There had been reports of two men doing armed robberies followed by other atrocious and despicable acts. Well one of the men very briefly put his gun on the floor to check the wife's purse and the brother felt the Spirit whisper to him "you need to act now or else you will soon lose the ability to act." So he grabbed the gun that the man set down and had a gun battle with the other man, killing him, while the unarmed one ran out the door. The stake president told us this story to illustrate the point that the Priesthood is the power and authority to act and that as members and missionaries we have that ability. We are not in a position where we are unable to act. What a blessing it is to be able to help those around us and bring them closer to the Savior. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to act out here in the name of the Savior to help bring souls to safety. I testify that this work is true! Hopefully I'll be able to get as worn out as my shoes are at the moment...the tread has been gone for the past several months!
Well I don't have any crazy personal stories that has happened this week, but just the continuing conviction that Christ is leading this work and the Spirit is constantly directing us and whispering what we should do. It is such a blessing to have that guidance, because I know I couldn't do any of this without it. I am also grateful for a companion who listens to the Spirit and takes over when it stops whispering to me and starts whispering to him. It is so important to be worthy of that Spirit and I try harder every day to qualify for it more and more.
I hope you all are doing well and are reading and praying and asking Heavenly Father for opportunies to share the gospel. This church is true and it brings such joy to my soul.
Love,
Elder Fitt
We had a pretty awesome week in Watertown, I hope you all had good weeks. First off we're healthy so we've been able to work, what a blessing that is! We've been able to work a lot with less-actives and members and have been having a lot of success. Its exciting to meet with these people and try to get them back and active in the church. Its a blessing to be a missionary because the less-active members seem to allow missionaries into their homes a lot more than members of their branch because we don't know them and don't have and prior opinions of them. So it allows us to get into places where the members can't.
Next we were able to do a lot of finding this week and we got a lot of people who said we can come back and have a lesson with them so we're way excited about that. I've been praying hard that they their hearts will be open to the promptings of the Spirit and actually let us inside their homes when we visit them again.
Also, its been warming up here!!! Its been 30+ degrees for the past few days and boy has it been nice. Some of the snow is melting and the sun is warm, boy am I ready for spring. Though I am grateful for the cold...because generally it means the summers are as dang hot. You can always put on more layers...but can't keep taking them off, especially as a missionary. Those missionaries in Mexico and South America and such are studs dealing with that heat.
Yesterday we had stake general priesthood meeting and the stake president shared a neat story about his brother and his brother's wife. They were in a laundromat, around 11pm, washing their clothing and all of the sudden two men ran in with guns pointed at them. They ordered the couple to get on the floor and put their hands behind their back. There had been reports of two men doing armed robberies followed by other atrocious and despicable acts. Well one of the men very briefly put his gun on the floor to check the wife's purse and the brother felt the Spirit whisper to him "you need to act now or else you will soon lose the ability to act." So he grabbed the gun that the man set down and had a gun battle with the other man, killing him, while the unarmed one ran out the door. The stake president told us this story to illustrate the point that the Priesthood is the power and authority to act and that as members and missionaries we have that ability. We are not in a position where we are unable to act. What a blessing it is to be able to help those around us and bring them closer to the Savior. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to act out here in the name of the Savior to help bring souls to safety. I testify that this work is true! Hopefully I'll be able to get as worn out as my shoes are at the moment...the tread has been gone for the past several months!
Well I don't have any crazy personal stories that has happened this week, but just the continuing conviction that Christ is leading this work and the Spirit is constantly directing us and whispering what we should do. It is such a blessing to have that guidance, because I know I couldn't do any of this without it. I am also grateful for a companion who listens to the Spirit and takes over when it stops whispering to me and starts whispering to him. It is so important to be worthy of that Spirit and I try harder every day to qualify for it more and more.
I hope you all are doing well and are reading and praying and asking Heavenly Father for opportunies to share the gospel. This church is true and it brings such joy to my soul.
Love,
Elder Fitt
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