Restart, Refresh, Repent

Well this is a new experience, getting to email from my iPad! 

Like I said in my last email home, we had an all mission meeting this past week. Elder W. Craig Zwick from the 70 came and spoke to us. He got there and wanted to shake everyone's hand so everyone in the mission went through and said hi and shook his hand. It is always a pleasure to do that, you could feel his authority and power because of his calling. The meeting was  centered around our iPads, but he talked about other stuff as well which was pretty sweet. He talked about change and having a pure heart.  He kept saying we have to be willing to change. Someone else in a mother meeting reviewing this meeting said change isn't a choice in the gospel. It is so true, we are always learning and changing and trying to grow and become more like our Savior. Elder Zwick was saying how the training and habits we develop with our iPads now should prepare us not only while we use them on the mission but for the rest of our lives. We need to learn how to use self mastery and not get sucked in to always using technology(or always being on our IPad or whatever it is), we should never be its slave. It really is cool that we are using our iPads to help train us for the rest of our lives, so we can use them appropriately. Another things that was mentioned and has become our slogan "restart, refresh, repent" all of us can apply this. We used this slogan because all missionaries regardless if they had an iPad or not will get one and we will all restart our use using the iPad, in hopes they will be used more effectively.

This scripture was shared during the meeting  "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." 2 Corinthians 3:3. We talked about writing our promises and covenants on the fleshy tables of our hearts because if we do it this way rather on stone it will be in our hearts, we can more easily Aline with them and they will shape us to who we need to be. I wish I could describe the Spirit that was there. With so many missionaries and a general authority, there was a great power. Especially when he bore his testimony and gave his special witness of our Savior. It was a great meeting. 

Afterwards the MLC stayed and we set up our new iPads, then the next day we had another meeting with the MLC going over using our iPads and such, that lasted all day, then we had our zone council meeting with the district leaders and sister training leader and talked about what we talked about in our meeting the day before. 

We took Elder Barney, 1 of the 6 from Ukraine, with us for the day and his companion went with the missionaries in the other ward. It was fun to speak the little Russian we remember haha then on Saturday we had our zone interviews with President Holmes, he is in he mission Presidency, he and his wife are so nice and funny. He was telling us how President Mecham called him to be his counselor and he said that President Mecham saw him at the temple and felt impressed that he was the one. President Mecham is awesome, super inspired. Then afterwards we had to take the Eureka missionaries who live right by the Canadian boarder, home since they don't have a car. So this week was a lot of driving then meetings then more driving and meetings. It was a really good week though, very uplifting and motivating. 

Yesterday we spoke in YSA the Branch President took forever telling a story then Elder auburn ham took some time so I literally had 5 minutes haha I summarized what I was going to share about the tree of life. I quoted Elder Klebingat about accepting trials, surprises and setbacks and compared it to the mists of darkness and how we need to keep pressing forward. I talked about how we have partaken of the delicious fruit and we have to beckon to others just as Lehi did to come partake, we can't be good examples all the time, more often times then not we need to act, or beckon to our friends and family to partake. I told the story of саня (sanya) from Ukraine and how he read the Book of Mormon and started to change his life he knew the gospel made him happy, so he carried his copy of the Book of Mormon around all the time and was always telling his friends to meet with us and listen to us. We need to be like саня. 

This past week we finally met with a family who moved here a while ago the dad is a returning member his wife and step daughter are not members. They showed up to church a few weeks ago and we taught them the restoration on Tuesday. The spirit was super strong and they are so prepared, when we invited them to be baptized and they both said yes that would be wonderful! It was so great! 

This week was long and wonderful. Love you all and hope you have a great week! 

С любовью,  

Старейшина Дэвид Витт 

Salvation is not cheap

well this week kinda flew by

We had FHE with the Boyce's, an awesome family in the ward, we had dinner then a lesson. Irene and Zamuel and Zirene were there. It was fun and a good lesson. We taught the Restoration and used cups to depict the apostasy and restoration, it was a good connection and I think everyone enjoyed it. It is always tricky to teach kids and have them stay focused and engaged, but it turned out. 

The Luis family is doing well, we taught them the plan of salvation, they werent at church unfortunately but we have an appointment set up with them again. 

Ryan the 9 year old whose dad is a member is doing great, he is so smart and has tons of scriptures memorized, he should be getting baptized in a couple weeks. We watched the restoration video last night, it was pretty powerful, gotta love the Spirit testifying of the truthfulness of that spring morning. 

We went down to Lakeside and visited some people down there, hopefully we can go once a week and try to get more things rollin there. 

It is always a bummer when our 7 and 8 o' clock appointments fall through since it is a little too dark and late to go tracting, but we just look of pm families or sometimes tract anyway ha.

Sundays are always a good day, I love them. Bro Wehrli our WML was tellin us a story about something that happened at work and to make a long story short he quoted I stand all amazed and the lady he was talking to was calm and peaceful. I am grateful for that song and for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is so real, not only the redeeming power but the enabling power. Which reminds me of a quote by Elder Holland of something that I read this week, he said "Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?..... I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.Salvation never was easy" so true. 

this week should be good with an all mission meeting about our iPads. 

 not looking for daylight savings, but hey it means spring is comin! 

hope yall have a great week, love ya

Love Elder David Witt 

Because of Him

Flathead in lakeside, super pretty here.

Another great week here in the MBM. So Glacier last week was so pretty! I love the outdoors so much and the beautiful creations our Heavenly Father has made for us to enjoy! I cant wait to come back here and explore more. 

Afterwards we went to dinner with Quindee and Ben's families. It was good to talk to Quindee's mom a little more, she grew up in Townsend so we talked about that for a bit. Her heart is softening little by little. Also Ben and Matt's parents live in cottonwood heights and they brought up caffeine free dr pepper for me (available at your local utah smiths) it is so good! haha it was so nice of them! 

before dinner we got there a little early. we could have waited in our car or at the church since it was near by but we decided to knock on a few doors, the second house we knocked on Dan opened the door and let us in. We shared the Because of Him video and he said he doesnt want to join the church since another missionary was rude to him, but he said we could stop by if we are in town. Cool how the Lord provides for people who work hard even though it isnt the easy or convenient path, He is always preparing people we just need to know where to go. 

later in the week we taught Quindee a new member lesson at the church then she stayed since the member who was on her lesson had to leave and she was such a huge help for our lesson with another YSA girl. She bore testimony of the atonement and the book of Mormon. she is so solid! what a blessing and tender mercy to be part of her conversion. 

We were super busy that night and we finally met with our Bishop. I havent been able to sit down and talk with him since I have been here so it was nice to do that! great when the ward council, the ward and the missionaries are on the same page! 

We have been working with a part member family for a couple weeks and the member mom is becoming active and wants her 2 daughters to be baptized. she we have started teaching them and some excting things look great in the future. 

We finally got to see the Oldens again (Zamuel and Zirene) it has been over a month since we have seen them and havent been able to teach the new member lessons. They are doing well and are a good little family. Zamuel is a little wild so we try to tell him to be quite during the lesson and such but we dont know how to help him stay focused and not be so wild haha 

There wasnt a lesson prepared in Elders quorum so i was like we can talk about Elder Klebingats talk! haha so i taught the lesson since I have been adding my own ideas to each of the 6 points and have been picking apart that talk for that last little while. I love it so much. Such a great talk it went well. 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/approaching-the-throne-of-god-with-confidence?lang=eng

Twas another good week. Elder Burnham found my USB this morning, it was outside in the driveway...so my prayers have been answered. :) and it still works thankfully!! There are so many miracles and stories of miracles small and big. We just need to look for them and we will be able to see the hand of the Lord EVERY day in our lives. 

love you and hope you have a good week!

Love Elder David Witt 

Glacier National Park

This week was busy. And I get to email you today since yesterday was Presidents Day! 

I lost my USB with ALL of my pictures on them, so besides the iPad pics you'll have to wait for the others, until I find my usb..hopefully soon. 

We had MLT (Mission Leadership Training -- our zone and the Missoula zone) and MLC (Mission Leadership Council) this week so we did lots of driving and sat in lots of meetings. They were both great. We talked aobut work and just doing it. I loved Sister Mecham's discussion on how work is an eternal principle, the atonement was work and that is eternal. the work will never really end. She also talked about 7 B's that can be related to everyone BE converted, a self starter, united, obedient, a producer, and joyful. It was hard to focus on all of what was talked about because we were given the assignment to prepare something for the other half of this training for our zone only a couple days in advanced. But with prayer and inspiration we were able to come up with some good ideas.

One idea was having the members in our zone read their patriarchal blessings. When we did that there was a distinct different Spirit in the room as to when they first entered the room. It reminded me of the reality and power of patriarchal blessings. We then talked about eternal perspectives and the promises we have been given and the little things we do now, are super important because "decisions determine destiny" It was a powerful discussion. 

I was pretty tired from driving and the meeting the day before so i was really tired at MLC, but it was good. It will be weird when President Mecham leaves.(not that i am worried about getting another mission president)  He has done so much for this mission he is making sure things continue to move upwards. 

Glacier National Park, SO beautiful! 

Elder Burnham and myself  

 the water is so clear and blue! 

i love the rockies!

We drove through Missoula and had dinner and such. We had some time so I wanted to visit the Yorgason family. too bad they werent there!! what a bummer, just the two younger boys it was good to see them though. maybe next time. 

It was also interesting this past week, we were at the hospital giving this lady a blessing and we run into Tammy from Missoula! turns out she is having a rough time and wants to meet with us again. We met with her a couple days later and put her on date AGAIN, but unfortunately she isnt in our ward. We will have to hand her over to the missionaries in 3rd ward. hopefully she can progress even more this time! 

We did some service at a Lutheran Church, they did a thing to raise money so they had a lunch, we helped clean up afterwards and it was good to talk to them and see what the inside of other churches felt like. It felt kinda like NPA so that was kinda weird haha but they were super nice people and were thankful for our help. 

lots of our 7 and 8 pm appointments have seemed to cancel so that was really fun! finding in the dark is always good haha hopefully we can get some solid appointments in the evening for this upcoming week. we are also going to be doing a lot of finding this week. so that should be good. 

hope yall had a great valentines day and hope you have a great week! 

Love Elder David Witt  

Welcome to the fold Quindee

This week was a crazy week but it was a good week!

it rained quite a bit, rare for February in Montana.  

Transfers went well we drove to Helena and back and to Missoula and back all in one week so it has been a lot of driving. and We have to do the same thing again this coming week haha it should be good. 

Quindee's baptism went really well. Not sure why she didnt have the YSA speak but she had Elder Buntrock and I speak. He spoke on Baptism and I spoke on the Holy Ghost. It was pretty intense with her family there, we wanted to impress them and testify so they could feel the power of the Holy Ghost. Both of us were super nervous, but it turned out great. We went to dinner with her family afterwards so it was good to talk to them. Her mom still wasnt super happy about her getting baptized, but hey she showed up so it was a step in the right direction! Quindee is super solid though and is going to go far. plus her family owns the Flathead lake lodge, and some other stuff up here so that is pretty awesome.  

We had a stake Priesthood meeting that we were invited to attend last night. IT was great. They talked about using lds.org more and as priesthood holders whether Aaronic or Melchizedek we have the responsibility to lift and inspire those around us. President Clark the stake president, is super awesome and super funny. He was telling us about him taking care of ducklings and how they almost drowned so his mom put them in the oven to warm them up then they got better He talked about  how he needed to pay more attention to them and take care of them better, just like we need to do with those around us. He told it better than I did..but hopefully you get the jist of it. Also brother Wehrli our WML spoke and he was super diligent in writing in his journal..which i am going to do more of. significant or insignificant I feel like I am learning more and doing more now than I have before on my mission so I should start writing it all down. 

We have some good goals and things that we are going to do as a companionship and for our zone so it should be sweet! It was crazy how fast the last 7 weeks went by! It's a good time. 

я вас люблю!
с любовью ,

Cтарейшина Witt

Lets slam some kontik

This week was way good! 

We did a lot of finding this week and we drove to Eureka to pick up a missionary who ended his mission then drove to Missoula and back to Kalispell, so it was a lot of driving, however we stopped at cafe rio in Missoula and it was SO GOOD! i ate chips and salsa there so i could take my burrito home to eat it the next day and savor it haha and a member paid for us so we got hooked up!

Transfer info came, I am staying in Kalispell and Elder Buntorck is getting transferred, it was sad since we thought we were staying together another transfer. He is going to Missoula and Elder Burnham the Zl in Missoula is coming up here. 

We were a little late going to a YSA activity and some people who were there were telling us to hurry then when we walked in they all started cheering for us haha the YSA loves us. It is so fun serving with them. Speaking of YSA Quindee is getting baptized tomrrow night! she was going to do it in flathead lake but it would be too cold, plus a font is available..so we are doing it at the churhc tomorrow! super exciting! 

Speaking about being excited and baptisms Sherry got baptized! it was SO cool! there were tons of people from the lakeside branch who showed up and her non member daughter and her inactive son were there, they both felt the Spirit. they are in our ward so hopefully we can start working with them!! anyway Sherry's baptsim was so awesome. a member gave a really great talk on baptism then Elder Buntrock gave one on the Holy Ghost, and we watched the restoration it was super Spiritual! and Sherry was so happy! Then the confirmation was super awesome as well! It was a great weekend! 

This week should be great too! 

oh yeah i just remembered my worm came out this week haha so hopefully my stomach feels better now haha 

oh yeah since elder buntorck is going home, we slammed some kontik! it was good! not as good as i remembered but regardless still delicious.

love you all and hope you have a good week! 

Love Elder David Witt 

Exciting Baptisms coming soon

the weeks are flying by and they have all been so good. 

We taught Quindee again this week and when we finished the lesson we said, well Quindee that is all of the lessons haha and she asked, Do I have to pick a date right now? haha so she did and she is getting baptized next week! Super exciting! She is way solid.

We went on exchanges this week, I stayed in our area and Elder Buntrock went to first ward area. All of the appointments we had fell through or they didnt answer their doors haha so I did quite a bit of finding with the missionary I was with. It is crazy how much finding we do in second ward area, but we have so much more work going on in Lakeside branch and YSA, hey it's all the same work though. Like we are teaching a bunch of YSA people, no one super solid (except Quindee of course) but it is still exciting, lots of teaching appointments.

Sherry is one of our investigators in Lakeside who is super prepared. She was going to get baptized years ago but couldn't overcome some things and this time around she is ready to give those up and be baptized. We taught her a couple times this week and she is doing well! the members in Lakeside are super missionary minded and awesome fellow-shippers. We are going to finish up the lessons today and then have her baptismal interview on Thursday then her baptism on Saturday. it is pretty exciting!! she is awesome!

So we taught Vlad this week on skype. He speaks English very well, so it was mostly in English but some things were said in Russian so it was fun to practice. I have forgotten so much it is kinda frustrating, but that's alright I'll just study it in college. Back to Vlad though I am not quite sure where to go with him because the city he lives in is about a day and a half journey to the nearest church... maybe he will move or something so he can be closer to a church ha

We had sushi for lunch the other day and I am not a huge sushi fan but it was really good this time, we also had euros..the pita tacos with lamb meet..just tryin new foods and liking them ha its been good. 

We have also been making family mission plans with the members we eat dinner with just goals they have to help the work progress, whether it be with non members, less active or active members. we help them set "SMART" goals and then taker a picture of it so we can follow up. It seems to be working pretty well and tons more members are doing work, its cool.

We also had interviews with President this week, he is going around the mission and doing interviews. He is so awesome and so inspiring and such a great example. You can truly tell that he loves the Lord and the missionaries and this work. He is awesome.

Transfers are coming up but I think we both might be staying, but then again you never know. I guess we will find out next week.

Love you and hope you have a good week!

Love Elder David Witt 

they have an outdoor hockey rink in town, it was pretty cool.