"...Not Be Room Enough to Receive It."

Well, I am now 21, so that means less than people who are not LDS (but at the same time more, because I've got more reason to say no). I do, however, now have the right to a landscape-style driver's license, be the adult supervising my sister who just got her driver's license, and get a concealed carry permit.  I was so busy on my birthday I didn't even have a spare moment to open my package from home until around 4 PM. THAT is a good birthday in the mission.

So you know how the Lord says when you pay your tithing, He opens the windows of heaven and pours you out more blessings than you have room to receive? And you know how people say that a mission is like tithing on your life? Well let me tell you, that ain't a false statement, and the Lord don't lie. I have felt so blessed this past week. Honestly, I don't know what to do with all these blessings. I feel like it's just one miracle after another.

So at church last week, a less-active member, N, decided to attend, and an awesome member came with her to the Gospel Principles class. She said she has an 8-year-old, M, that she wants to be baptized. That's awesome! She has already started coming back to activity, and the bishop feels that her child is ready for baptism!

The Assistants are in the area just adjacent to ours. We are actually in the same apartment complex. They were talking to people in a park in their area, and they came across G, a less-active member who lives in our ward boundaries! We set up an appointment with him, which ended up getting rescheduled to the day we had exchanges scheduled with the Assistants, so it worked out perfectly transition-wise. He understands pretty much all of the doctrines (he served a full-time mission), but he hasn't read the scriptures in a while, so his scriptural knowledge is lacking a bit. We are going to be meeting with him again this week!

We met with E again (our media self-referral), and we had a great lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel. He told us that it has answered some questions he's had for a while. He came to church, and before it started, we had a lesson with him and our awesome ward mission leader (who just got off his mission a few months ago). He told us that he felt that there was something more than just this life, that there was something before, and we happened to have planned to teach him about the pre-mortal existence that day! Totally incredible! He stayed for all 3 hours of church, and loved it!

We and over half of our zone had an awesome service opportunity this week. The town of Security has a contaminated water supply, and so Care & Share (a non-profit organization) put together a project to hand out water bottle to the residents. They got in contact with our JustServe missionaries, and we committed to 6 volunteers. That morning, we got a text from the missionaries going there, saying they needed 4 more volunteers ASAP. We quickly mobilized our district of 6, and we helped out. It was in a Catholic Church parking lot (#Inter-FaithForTheWin), and most of the volunteers (not including Care&Share employees) were us Mormon Missionaries. There ended up being news reporters there, so we are famous now. I was directing traffic, so I wasn't in any of the shots, but my companion got some air-time. We are going to be doing the same thing this week, but we might have almost all of our zone this time (because they need more volunteers than last time).

Mormon Channel just put out a wonderful new Mormon Message about living with mental illness, particularly MDD (Major Depressive Disorder, or "Depression"). It can be a very serious thing, that can affect a major part of who you are. But I testify that the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient. It is an Infinite Atonement. Christ knows EXACTLY what you are going through, and EXACTLY how to help you. You don't have to live in the darkness. MDD is a very real and serious thing, but there is help. It is possible to feel joy again, to feel hope again, to feel peace again, to feel the Spirit again. God loves each and every one of His children, and has prepared a way for each of them to achieve ultimate happiness. We can be healed. That is the promise of the Resurrection. All physical and mental illnesses WILL be healed because of Jesus Christ. I know that He stands supreme, and He has conquered the grave, and I so testify in His Holy Name, amen. 

Until next week, today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one who can be more youer than you. (Dr. Seuss)

-- 

The Lord's Soldier,

                      Elder Jacob C. Tibbitts

Wendy's set it up too perfectly to for us to not put an Angel Moroni on that.

Handing out them waters of life, Mormon-style.

Satan's Got a Prison Riot on his Hands!!!

We spent every evening this week until Friday with a third missionary. We dropped him off at the airport at 5 AM on Friday. Luckily the airport is just 5-10 minutes away from our apartment.

So last week I didn't have a good chance to explain my new area. Let me tell you about a few people here:

I already mentioned T, our golden investigator, and S, who we saw at church this week! We did find out that T drinks a cup of coffee every day, but when we told him that he can't be baptized if he's drinking coffee, he quit immediately. Apparently he didn't realize that was part of the Word of Wisdom.

Then there's E. She is an investigator who is looking for a church that holds all the correct doctrines and practices what it teaches. She currently is not convinced that this is the right one, but she is very open to finding out for sure, which is all we ask, anyway.

Secondly, we've got K, a recent convert. He is pretty awesome, and we are working on helping him receive the Aaronic Priesthood right now. He will be moving pretty soon, though.

Let me tell you about D, a less-active member of our ward. He has always had a testimony of the Church, though he hasn't always followed the commandments. We wants more than anything to be sealed to his wife, who he introduced to the Gospel (she was baptized almost 2 years ago). The biggest obstacle he needs to overcome is smoking. We missionaries have a Stop Smoking Program that will make you a non-smoker in only 7 days, guaranteed, provided you follow all 15 steps every day for seven days to the tee. Sounds crazy? Well it works. We told him about this, and he told us he'd think about it. He called us a few days later and said he wants to do the program. We set up an appointment for Wednesday. He asked us at church to drop by that night. Right after the opening prayer at his house, he walked out of the room, then came back with his pack of cigarettes and his lighters, and handed them to us. We then gave him a priesthood blessing of healing and strength. This morning we went shopping with him for the materials the program needs, then we presented the program to him right after. He said that after the priesthood blessing, the NEED has started to go away, and any cigarettes he's had since then have been out of habit. We pulled out the pack he gave us, and put it in his hand. Then we asked him to crush the pack. This he did without hesitation. He is fully committed to this program. In about 8 days, he will be an official non-smoker. Take that, SATAN!! Looks like somebody just lost another prisoner. You know how we do, busting people out of the jail of sin like it's a hobby. Elder P and I feel like we are on top of the world right now! We are going to start freeing people from smoking left and right! Nothing can stop us now! We are on a roll!

Let me tell you something about yourself that you may not understand or fully comprehend yet. It is a truth written across the universe, and it is one of my favorite doctrines. You are a child of God. Now we've heard that many times before, but let me elaborate. YOU are child of an Eternal God. That means you will one day be one yourself, if you allow it. You have dormant within you the spark of divinity. Who decides if it is ignited? YOU! In 8 days, our less-active member will have put Satan in his place. Dwayne will show that he is an eternal being, not just in the sense that he is immortal, but that he is eternal, as in eternal life. NOTHING can stop us, nothing, but ourselves. I cannot stress this enough. You are stronger than whatever is out there. Satan would have us believe that we are powerless, but let me remind you that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Brothers and sisters, it's time to take the chains off and let He who holds the keys of death and hell to unlock our cage. Funny thing is He (Jesus Christ) already has... All we have to do is stop believing Satan's lies and walk out of prison. Jesus Christ is there to pull us out. I know that through the power of Christ, we can overcome all. He is the Great Savior and Redeemer of the World, the Author of our salvation. And I say that in His Holy Name, the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Until next week, unlock the divinity within.

-- 

The Lord's Soldier,

                      Elder Jacob C. Tibbitts

The cigarettes and lighters D gave us.

Elder P and I holding the chains of iniquity.

The crushed addiction in a bag (sorry I don't have a better picture. I just took this in the library, so I thought it might not be best to have cigarettes out in full view, being the Lords' anointed and whatnot). I mean crushed literally.

The new companion!

Fountain of Blessings

I have had an incredible first week here in Fountain. I am in the 18th Ward, and we've seen a lot of blessing coming. I wish I could spend some more time on this e-mail, but our time is limited today.

First, let me talk about S (one of the S's we are working with). She is a less-active member who called the bishop recently and asked to meet with the missionaries. Elder P and I prayed about a date for her to be ready to go to the temple, and we decided on July 23rd. We told her our desire, and she said it took her breath away. She has been thinking about that date for a while, and she had no clue why, until now. She accepted the commitment to be worthy to hold a temple recommend and go to the temple by that date!

Then we have T, our golden investigator. We have no more commitments to leave him, except maybe to read Jesus the Christ. The only reason he has not been baptized yet is because he is on parole, but will soon be getting off. He is already an active member, he just hasn't been baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost yet.

We've barely had a spare moment this entire week, and it feels absolutely incredible.

Right now we are in a trio with another missionary who will be going home this week on Friday, but he is working at the mission office for most of the day until it closes, and then going to our evening appointments with us. We'll be dropping him off at the airport at 5 AM on Friday, so that should be fun.

Sometimes you wonder why the Lord puts you in a specific situation. You might think that you were growing in such incredible ways, and contributing so much, and now you are being plucked out of that situation and placed in another. I testify that our Heavenly Father has a PERFECT plan for each of us, and He knows EXACTLY what we need. When we learn to accept that and say, as Nephi in 1 Nephi 11:17, " I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.", then we are one step closer to realizing our divine potential, and becoming truly consecrated disciples of Jesus Christ. I know that God is in control, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Until next week, remember: All the water in the world, no matter how it tries, can never sink the smallest ship unless it gets inside. And all the evil in the world, even the darkest kind of sin, can never hurt or harm you, unless you let it in. (I'm writing this in the middle of a torrential downpour outside.)

-- 

The Lord's Soldier,

                      Elder Jacob C. Tibbitts

Come to the Fountain

Well, it looks like I'm getting transferred again. I am leaving Castle Rock and heading to Fountain tomorrow. I will be in the Colorado Springs 18th Ward. My new address will be 4270 Sanders View, Apt. #303, Colorado Springs, CO 80916.

Unfortunately all of our current investigators were out of town this week, so we didn't get to see them, though we kept in contact through text. We had two meetings this week, and I felt spiritually uplifted after them.

Also, we got to go to the temple this week and do baptisms for the dead! It is always incredible to feel the power of the temple as you step through those hallowed doors. I felt the Spirit very strongly there.

Sorry there isn't that much this week to report on. Don't worry, I'll have plenty to report next week in my new area.

Brothers and Sisters, today is the anniversary of D-Day. It is a part of human history that will never be forgotten. Many, many lives were lost that day. President Dwight D. Eisenhower said that "we will accept nothing less than full victory", when speaking of the operation. The battle was hard, and long, and gruesome, but still the Allied Forces accomplished their goal, though the death toll was much higher than anyone expected. The complications and obstacles that were placed in front of them made the task seem almost insurmountable. Nevertheless, they knew what they were fighting for, and they didn't stop until they had won. We wage a similar war against Satan everyday. He wishes for us to be dragged down to the gulf of endless misery and woe like him. In this day, we cannot afford to be fence-sitters. We cannot give up. We cannot surrender. We have a reason for fighting. We must defend our homes and our very souls. There is too much at stake to give up. I promise that if you persevere and hold fast to the truths you know, an eternal reward awaits you in the world to come. Not only that, you can start reaping the rewards right now. Just don't give up. I know all things are possible through Christ who strengthens us, and I say these things in His name, amen.

Until next week, stick to your task 'til it sticks to you.

-- 

The Lord's Soldier,

                      Elder Jacob C. Tibbitts

The Denver Temple

The Plum Creek Ward Priests Quorum

Here is a picture of my zone, which is now the size of a large district. :)