Happy 4th of July

Well family, hope yall had a good 4th of July. Mine was good. All of the missionaries in our zone (like 20 or so) helped with an annual Missoula pancake breakfast. there were tons of people there and I flipped hash browns for like 2 hours (the guy said hopefully no one sprains their wrist, I thought he was being stupid but my arm is actually kinda sore from flippin all those hash browns haha) Then after the breakfast our zone went on a hike. before the hike we wrote down problems and things weighing us down on a piece of paper then after that they said we had to write it on rocks haha good thing i didnt write too many things down ;) but we had to hike our rocks up with us and then at the top we talked about the atonement and got rid of our rocks by throwing them down the hill. It was awesome I am so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. I have been studying it more in my personal studies and it has been pretty great. I love it more and more each day. Then we had lunch with our zone and played some games at the institute building. then we went over to some less active peoples house for dinner, the grandparents are active and they are the ones who invited us, then their kids and grand kids are mostly all less active members. They were all just doin their own things so we mostly just talked to the grandparents and Elder Horsley and I played badminton. then we watched some fireworks that they had, they were mostly the little ones and we had to leave at quarter to 11 before they shot off the big ones ha so that was a bummer but it was still fun. I love merica. this week Tamara has been out of town so we have just been texting her, but she seems to be doin alright, hopefully we can meet with her as soon as she gets back. This week we also put someone on date for the end of the month. His name is Lee Snell. We met him because some Sisters in another area were given a referral to visit a Less active brother in a rehab facility and we were doing a lesson together and when we met this less active dude then he brought his friend along Lee, so we have been teaching both Michael and Lee. its great. They are awesome and they know a lot of people in this rehab place, so hopefully we can start teaching more of them too. 

We taught Stephan the russian guy yesterday since he wasnt there on Tuesday when we had a lesson, I felt like we really needed to visit him last night when we got there he said he was praying for us to come and we showed up. So it was awesome. It was kinda weird though cause he was talking about the bible the whole time and didnt want to really talk about what we had to say haha and it is hard when I dont know what he is saying when he quotes the Bible haha but he is a super nice dude and he might be able to give us referrals to other Russian people as well, so it should be awesome.

then we taught another Stephan and his wife Pasha and they have three kids and they are super awesome. They are Pentecostal and they have a lot of the same views as us but they dont believe in the restoration and stuff and they only want to read the book of Mormon if God tells them to, So hopefully they recognize His answer and read. But they invited us to come back to dinner sometime and she said she was going to make borscht so i am super excited about that. 

Some more less active people this week, it is sad to see people who had callings and been through the temple not even know if there is a God and arent willing to ask if there is one, it is sad. But yeah that is basically what my week consisted of. It was a pretty good week. 

We went to the Bishops house last night to talk about some people and he was talking about core solid members that are willing to do missionary work. 

I hope all of you (my family) are on that list for your Bishop in each of your wards..if not get on that. 

AND it looks like only mom and Sharlene reported back..sooo I invite you again to extend an invitation and then tell me how it went. even if they say no its alright just tell me what you did to invite someone I know you will see the fruits of your labors.

I love you all thanks for all you do

no pictures this week sorry, next week  I will send some ha

Have a great week! 

love Elder David Witt 

Missionary Challenge for YOU

Alrighty fam, I will email ya'll a good list of things I did this week and last week haha sorry about the lame  email last week.

But..

To start off my eyes hurt all the time because one I am tired and two I am not sure if it is snowing or if there is pollen in the air, so that plus tired = burning eyes haha 

anyway, oh yeah before I keep goin Happy Anniversary to mom and dad, thanks for all you do! hopefully you had a good day. 

Well last week I pulled out some Kontik that I brought over from Ukraine and I slammed with Elder Anthony. (dont worry I am still sending some home) I have one other one in case I ever train I can show him how to really start his mission haha there was one bad day last week, Elder Anthony was sick, I got my English name tags and I got a call that I was getting mid transferred..so that was awful. We also had zone training and that was good, we did practices and such and talked about some finding ideas/games so that was good, then Elder Anthony and I went to Superior (in Frenchtown boundaries) and we stayed at the Updikes house, they were super nice and they know Lem and Gina Harsh and their family. She has traveled all over because she has helped with different organizations and benefits and such and I totally wanna do that when I get home. While in Superior we taught a guy named Michael who is married to Katie who is a member and they want to both go to BYUI and get married in the temple, so we began teaching him. Katie went to Vista Elementary, what a small world. 

Then I said goodbye to Elder Anthony and Elder Jones (another missionary that came over from Ukraine, we were in the same district) And moved in with my new companion Elder Horsley. He has been ouot for about 6 months, he is 22 and is from American Fork. I love practicing patience and charity. He is a good missionary though and wants to work hard. \

The very first night I got to Missoula we were going over to some peoples houses that the bishop wanted us to check up on and kak raz, it was the Yorgasons, how cool is that haha they are a good family. It was cool to be able to meet them the first night and connect, it just shows that there is a reason for everything and there is a plan for each of us. 

We have taught 2 Russian families, one who they are married and have 3 boys, she has lived here for 22 years and he has lived here for 7 and they are both Pentecostal. They were supper nice and have heard things about the church and stuff so they had questions but who knows how interested they are. We are gonna follow up though and see if they still want  to meet with us. Then this other guy who lives by himself, who knows not very much English at all...ha, we were able to talk to him, he knows the Bible really well, I think he just enjoys someone to talk to that actually can understand most of the things he is saying. haha but we have another meeting with him and we will see how things go. we went to visit another russian family but they didnt answer, when we were leaving someone pulled into their driveway, and we find out that he is house sitting for these Russians, but he took a book of Mormon and told us his address number and would schedule so hopefully something good comes from that! 

russian doors

I gave a talk on gratitude the first sunday I was in my new ward haha but it went well it was good, I have most of it written out if any of yall wanna read it. 

For this week we have been visiting tons of part member and less active people as well as finding, nothing too exciting but we are still lookin. 

Also this week we didnt have the car, so we were on bike, at first I was like heck no I am not riding bikes at all anywhere but they are actually pretty nice haha, it just sucks though cause all of our area is uphill from our house LOL talk about a quad work out. riding in the pouring rain was nice too...Oh yeah we also went to Michales baptism, he continued to be taught and was super prepared so he got baptized on Saturday and we got to go to it so that was really neat. 

There is a recent convert (derrick baptized in October) who just turned in his papers and who came to a lesson with us and it fell through so he just came tracting with us haha it was awesome, he is so awesome and you can tell that he really loves serving people and wants them to know about Christ and His restored church.

We made signs for like come to church with arrows and stuff and my sign was honk if you love Jesus, we didnt get to stand out side for very long cause it was raining but we got a few honks haha so that was fun (not as embarrassing as feeling like a Jehovah's Witness in the park in Ukraine)  

We helped with  a yard sale fundraiser and taught the lesson for the 17 year olds. We taught how scripture study can help us learn more about the Priesthood, turns out there were just three people who showed up to our class and they were all girls.....yeah haha  but it was really good for me because I got to study more about the Priesthood and what it means and what it means for me.  I am really grateful for the Priesthood and how it has blessed my life and our family and so many other peoples lives. It is awesome. 

thank you for the birthday wishes and packages it was great! We went out to dinner with Bishop Thomas and his family at Famous Daves and our investigator Tamara was our waitress, she is awesome. was on date but had some word of wisdom issues but she knows she needs to stop and really wants this for herself, so we will continue to work with her.

thanks for the ring its sweet

Our Bishop and Stake President are really involved in missionary work. It is awesome and so helpful and they lead by example, so I decided to give you all a commitment this week haha ;) so if you are reading this I am extending the commitment to you, invite someone to do something, whether it is meet with the missionaries, come to church, read the Book of Mormon, pray, anything just extend an invitation to someone then report back to me on how it went. Member missionaries is where it is at, that is how we will help people make covenants with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

I love you all 

Thanks for all you do

Happy 4th of July,

We are truly blessed to live in this country with so many opportunities, rights, freedoms and protection. 

God bless America. 

love you

love, Elder David Witt

its a small world

Well once again I am gonna need to rush this and plus this computer is be dumb  so i promise next weeks email will be better 

but i got transferred and yeah elder  Anthony was awesome so it was rough to leave

elder anthony and I

 he is hilarious 

I also met John Yorgason..Dolly Piatts son, lol why didnt she say he lived here haha such a small world 

I will give more deets and such

the Updikes, Branch President in Superior they are so nice and they know the Harsh family 

met some russian ppl and taught them 

yeah sorry for the crappy email but thanks for the birthday wishes 

love you all 

have a good week

love Elder David Witt

Russians in Montana

hello family

it was a nice week here in Montana. We went on splits this week I was with Elder Jones, an Elder that came from my mission, and we were planning on visiting a Russian family, but it didnt work out and we weren't able to meet with them so hopefully I can go with him again and talk to that family. And then yesterday we were eating at a members house and they said there were some Russians in frenchtown so we went to their house and were like hey were heard there are russians that live around here and the little girl who answered the door was like we are the russians haha their parents werent home so we will have to go back to their house as well. But I am excited to teach them, and also nervous since my russian is awful haha then when we were coming back from the split then we were trying to get a hold of April of of our investigators and she hadnt answered our calls or texts or anything so we called a member and asked her to call then April finally texted back and said she was busy and such but we were still able to set up a lesson with her and it was great because we were able to figure out why she doesnt really want to get baptized and that is because she was previously baptized in another church so we will talk with her about authority and the restoration and such, so it should be really good. and plus we need to talk to her less active husband and get him goin and I think that will help too. We were able to talk to some other less actives and a recent convert and we are getting them more interested in coming to church and being better people and such. We are also working with someone who has been less active for about 60 years and he has decided to give up drinking and coffee and stuff and is coming to church and gonna get the Priesthood soon it is wonderful and his wife who has been against the church and hasnt sat in when the missionaries were over has been sitting in and it seems like she really likes us, so hopefully we can start teaching her as well. But yeah we are really getting to know everyone in Frenchtown haha this week went by quick but it was good. 

this is a less active dude who has tons of old cars it is awesome. this particular one is over 100 years old, it still runs and all of the parts are original. it was awesome to see haha 

I have been talking to nadia and Olea in Lugansk and things are getting awful, it is so sad to hear what is going on over there but for some reason it is happening and there is a plan. I wish I could be over there but then again I am glad I am safe in America. 

love you all 

and Happy Fathers Day to dad and all the other dads love you thanks for all you do

have a good week (and have fun in cali mom dad and marc.......haha love you)

love Elder David Witt   

the Lord is Bound when we do what He says

I love Montana haha 

just a llama by our house

Well the story with the horse, we wanted to talk to someone who was on a list of part member families (even though the list hasnt been updated and they are both members now but anyway) We drive and drive way far up this mountain and we finally get there and someone answers the door and we find out that he is house sitting and isnt interested in hearing us, so we asked if he needed help and he said yes the horses have gotten out so will you help me catch them haha so we drove back down the road and we saw the horses so he told us to get out and wait by them while he went and asked the forest service for help (since the horses were behind the fence on their land) so we waited by the horses and fed them grass and stuff then they ran off haha so when the guy came back the horses were gone, well thankfully the daughter in law of these people found out and came and called for the horses and they came back and she took them back to the house, so not the service or the day we planned but hey it was eventful haha 

but anyway this week was good Elder Carlos A Godoy from the 70 came and spoke to us at mission tour. this is the second time i have heard him speak and he is so funny. We talked about how in the Book of Mormon they were called to serve in different areas and sometimes the people hated them and sometimes they had great success but no matter what they trusted in the Lord and he helped them with their missionary work then he related that to us.Our mission President talked about how we are emissaries  of Jesus Christ, so we are not only representative but as well as agents, so we work for him and whatever we promise is like a promise from him, so it is really cool that we have been trusted to do that, that we can make promises to people that if they keep commitments and follow the commandments then we can give them specific blessings (as directed by the Spirit)  that absolutely will happen. because when the Lord is bound he has to do what he says. He HAS to. 

This week we were able to do some service for 2 people, we pulled weeds (not the funnest but hey) and helped cut down some trees for the guy who was out of town that we thought was a PM family, he was so nice and funny. We visited Ida an investigator who got pneumonia so is now at a care center, she is doing a lot better and looks pretty healthy, we were able to meet with Less actives and part member families too so it was a good week. We put April on date for the end of the month, she has been taught by missionaries for a long time and said she would pick a date but is still moving at her own pace, so it is a good step forward. It was great to see most of the people we had met with come to church and see their happy faces. 

but yeah i cant believe it is summer and a year ago I was graduating and opening my call! time flies  

love you and hope you have a good week

-Love

Elder David Witt 

Charity

Another good week. i got a new companion Elder Anthony from Ohio. I guess they needed Elder Beck somewhere else since we were both only there for about 2 weeks. Elder Anthony is like 26 and graduated the same year as Sharlene. ha but he is cool he has been out a year, reminds me of Elder Claypool quite a bit. 

We found some less actives and let me tell you some of those people are so funny when they see missionaries haha one guy was like I havent been to church in many moons and wasnt interested in meeting with us or having home teachers or anything like that haha  it was more of a you had to be there but it was funny. We found some more part member families but nothing really came out of that, we did get a part member family that had been taught a while ago and we are going to start teaching again so we have high hopes for them that should be fun. 

A while ago in Kiev I was studying about charity and then we had a district meeting where we talked about it and charity is awesome. I love the verses in Moroni 7 "Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope and again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."

I read that and was like oh shoot we can be puffed up be envious think or speak no evil all those things and it was cool to just try to let those things go so we can love all people no matter who they are or where we are. as we have charity that pure love for other people it makes us happier. 

We had a meeting last night with ward missionaries and how to use social media and it is cool to see these members step up, but it would be even better if the whole stake stepped up, if all the members of the church shared there testimony. You dont have to be weird or pushy just like simple stuff I know God loves us. It is hard to share with friends sometimes but the reward that will come from it will be great. So I am excited to work with the members more and be able to teach their friends and such.

In other news Elder Claypool emailed me and after we left Sanya went downhill with a whole bunch of stuff, it was sad to see but he is gonna follow up with him this week so we will see how that goes, thankfully through the atonement we can try over again when we have messed up. 

But yeah love you guys hope you have a good week

Love 
Elder David Witt

Hello America

Well, hello America. and hello Big Sky Country 

good old sunsets in big sky country 

It is definitely bitter sweet. In the short 5 months that I was there (in Ukraine) I learned to really love the culture, places and people. I  hope I get to go back and visit some of those places some day. But it is good to be in America. On the first full day back we went to Cafe Rio for lunch and it was delicious as always. I loved it haha There are so many things we take for granted here and we dont realize how blessed we are in this country.

  such a beautiful temple 

Good to see my MTC buddies one last time

We live with members who have had missionaries live with them before. They are really nice people. They have 4 boys and two still live at home a 17 year old and a 14 year old. They are a fun and really nice family. Even though our area, Frenchtown, is really small and has had missionaries there for 35 years and you could probably tract every house in a transfer, we have still been able to have success so that has been fun.

 We have met with a lot of less active and part member families and have found some new people tracting who seem to have a ton of potential. It is weird here because members give a lot of referrals and we eat at members houses every night. If there was a night that wasn't filled the members are like oh no we have to feed the missionaries! ha so it is cool I guess that the members want us in their homes. Just if you ever feed the missionaries though, make them something besides pasta, even though it is always good that is what everyone feeds us haha 

It was good to meet the members yesterday and be able to understand what was going on and what people were saying to me haha so that has been nice. 

My comp Elder Beck is pretty cool too he is from Cedar City Utah and has been here for about 14 months. 

It was good to talk to you all on mothers day. That was fun. I dont know if you guys watched that video the church put out called "It was Mom" it is a pretty sweet video. So again Happy Mothers day mom Love you! 

another video I really like that the church just put out is the Because of Him video, it is awesome that we can have it on our ipads and take it around and show people, its great. 

It is funny to see some of the missionaries here talk about getting transferred and then I just think well at least you will get to see them again sometime in the near future haha 

It will be good to talk to people from the Donetsk mission though and see how they are all doing in different parts of the U.S. 

For those of you who didnt know or a refresher for my fam I was serving in Donestsk, we got evacuated to the Kiev Mission and we were there for about a month, then we got a call from President Klebingat saying that all of the Donetsk missionaries will be getting reassignments and we would find out in 2-12 days when and where we were going. We got that call on a Tuesday then Wednesday morning we got a text saying we were leaving Friday early early in the morning so we needed to be at the mission office on Thursday no later than 3pm. So we had to buy some souvenirs and get all of  our stuff packed. So we did that then we all got together President Klebingat gave a farewell speech and stuff then read off our names and said where we were going. there were 5 other missionaries that got called to the Montana Billings mission. Then we got on planes the next day at like 3am and went to our missions. 

awesome people from Ecuador

 It isn't every day you have a Mission President who is in the 70 (they are both awesome) 

It has been a crazy  month but I am glad to be here in Montana and I know that the Lord has a plan for every single one of us and it is all up to Him and as we trust in Him then we will find happiness and success. President Mecham and his wife seem really nice so it should be a good 17 months. 

Love you and hope you have a good week.

Love Elder David Witt 

PS hopefully all of that made sense haha and had all the important deets, my mailing address is 

Elder David Witt

18435 Buckskin Ln

Frenchtown, MT 

59834