end goal = Eternal Families

A quick and good week here in Missoula. Last Monday Derrick the recent convert who went tracting with us, opened his call and is going to Hungry! How cool. I got a little jealous knowing that he was serving in Europe right next to Ukraine. Speaking of Ukraine, I got some awful news from Nadia and Olea that sister Lubov, from Lugansk, was at church, she said the prayer in sacrament then later on a bomb blew up and shrapnel went into her head and chest and killed her... How awful and miserable. It makes my heart hurt. I miss Ukraine and mourn for the people still there suffering. It is so so sad, I wish I could still be there.
But we know from the dedicatory prayer for missionary work in Ukraine, that temples will cover the land no matter what the land is called.

Some other sad news, our investigator Lee got off date. He told us that he talked to his family about joining the church and they said that he was turning his back on them and his Native American ancestry. It's like I wish your family knew that this Book is about your ancestors!! But we helped him understand that he needs to read the Book of Mormon and get a solid testimony then he will know that he can trust in the Lord and be an example and missionary for his family.

When we went to. Hillside manor then this other lady, Marie, (the first time she said she was 98 then she said she was 92 but she is nice and still walking around) came to our lesson with Mike and Lee, Tamie wasn't there but we were able to meet with her yesterday so it was good. We had sacrament there yesterday and some other people heard we were doing that they are like oh where is it? So a few other people who aren't members showed up to sacrament it was cool! Hillside is poppin haha

We found a ton of new people this week it was sweet.

We finally met a Russian referral that we got from our Stake President, we had been trying and trying to meet with her and we finally talked to her and she said she would take a Book of Mormon and read and pray about it.

 Then we found another girl who has friends who are members and on missions but hasn't been to church or met with the missionaries, she said she doesn't know if she can make it to the meeting we scheduled but hopefully it works out.

Then last week we talked to this guy, Eric, who gave us some water and said we could come back so we did and talked about the Book of Mormon he said he had a dream missionaries came to his house. He had some concerns about more scripture but he is solid so hopefully we can teach his whole family, it's exciting how awesome he is.

 Our Russian speaking investigator, Stephan, for some reason has been super hard to understand lately, it's frustrating, I just need to keep sharing things that will help him feel the Spirit, but he said he left his house then felt like he should go back home and after he got home we pulled up. So it was really cool. We were able to have the Spirit there as we read from the Book of Mormon and talked about service in King Benjamin's address and watched the video of the boys who put their silver dollar into the guys boots instead of hiding them, by President Hinckley.

the Nuke..a delicious sandwich from the Staggering Ox (Marcus has probably seen it on google maps..creep haha)

So something else cool happened, this lady from North Dakota moved here and she wanted to repay the missionaries since the ones there helped her move, so she referred herself. Long story short she said she wasn't interested in hearing the lessons but she wanted to feed us, so she did and we shared the Restoration and her and her daughters said they would read and pray about the Book of Mormon as well. So it was awesome.

We had zone conference this week and it was really good. We talked about how we, as well as our investigators need to always have the end goal in mind..Eternal Families. That is, or ought to be, our end goal, eternal life with our families. How great of a blessing is that, that through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ our families can be together FOREVER! It's awesome. I'm grateful for this knowledge.
On that note we went to Cafe rio this week, and I had a pork burrito, with BEANS! Ha it was alright, I'm know you're proud of me Mel ;) haha
Love you all hope you have a good week!

Love
Старейшина Витт

Free lemonade to beat the toasty summer heat

It was a toasty week this week, It started off on a good foot because one of the sisters in our ward was getting transferred so this guy moved his baptism to this past Saturday to last Monday so she could be there before getting transferred. they are a good little family the mom has become reactivated and the daughter should be getting baptized in a few months. and the coolest part is that he was baptized in the river. It was awesome. one comment that was made was what a beautiful chapel that God has created. It was really pretty where we were by the river. the Spirit was so strong, it was exciting and good to see. 

Every time we go to Hillside  Manor, the rehab place, we teach more and more people it is awesome i am not sure if I already have told you thins but a few weeks ago the Sisters from another area were told by a member in their ward to to go visit this less active guy who was this ladies brother, but since he was in our area we went with them. When we got there we taught him and his friend came, Lee Snell, and then this last time Lee was with his friend Tamie outside so we invited her to come in and listen to the lessons as well and so she did. It's like a gold mine here it is awesome. Then yesterday we were able to have a mini sacrament meeting there with them, the Spirit was so strong and Tamie said she wants to get baptized at the beginning of next month. So it is exciting.

A while ago when I was on exchanges here in Missoula I went to lunch with this less active lady who only wants to meet with us is because her daughter is on a mission and she wants to understand more of what her daughter is doing. this lady was baptized when she was 8 but then her parents got divorced so they stopped going to church. She remembers primary songs and that's about it. She said when missionaries have gone over there in the past they sang songs or shared a scripture but we felt like we should share the message of the Restoration so we did and that was the first time that she had heard that. So it was awesome and she said she was going to start reading the Book of Mormon again so hopefully she does! 

We taught Stephan this week and we wanted to read King Benjamin's address with him because we thought they would relate since he used to be an ex preacher. But he was talking way too much and for some reason it was just super hard to understand him. so we didn't get very far and towards the end we were finally able to read like 10 verses from it, and he said he would finish the first part of it before next time, so hopefully he does. 

we finally got to teach Amber, someone the missionaries who had tracted into a while ago but they/we haven't been able to get back to her because she has been busy or sick or something else came up so we were finally able to teach her the Restoration. She said it was really weird ha but she said that she would learn more and read and pray about the Book of Mormon, so thats all we can ask! pretty cool. 

elder horsley and I made a lemonade stand haha it has been way hot so it was a good idea. we were in an alright place by the church and across the street from a pool, so we thought more people would come but only a few members showed up and some kids haha oh yeah I guess a couple less active people showed up, but they weren't in our ward, we invited them to go to church so hopefully they went!  oh yeah so obviously we couldnt sell the lemonade so our sign said FREE lemonade ha and this lady stops traffic rolls down her window and says "are you making any money with your free lemonade sign? it is hard to make money when your sign says free" haha it was like well yeah we arent having a lemonade stand to make money haha people are so funny.

We built some character and got some blisters from raking up tons of pine needles for a less active lady and riding our bikes all over. they're gnarly. its been toasty and most of the people we have found we havent been able to meet with again, so that blows we try and try but no cigar, so hopefully this week we can find them or find new people. It is so funny when people come to the door and you can see them and they can see you and they yell to their spouse or parent and then they walk away and try to hide thinking/ pretending we couldnt see them haha ah man too good

love you all hope you have a great week! 

love always 

Elder David Witt 

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