Hermana Mary DeWitt: Mission Tour, Moving Day, and Meeting Marco (Polo!)

Sorry I wasn't able to send a full email last week; we had Mission Tour with Elder Clayton, which meant we had extra devotionals and meetings every day last week! They were super amazing and it was a great experience overall, but we had to move our P-day to Friday and both Hermana Becker and I were really exhausted, so I'll have to catch everyone up on two weeks! (Hopefully this email won't be too long, though!)

We had transfers and our new District is really great! Elder Anderson and Elder Budvarson are here in Laramie with us, and Elder Natividad and Elder Petersen are in Saratoga, which is about an hour away from Laramie, which is sad because that means we don't get to see them much besides weekly District Council.

Hermana Becker and I got to finish helping Hermana Hazelett paint her baby room, which was super fun! We did the blue accent wall and it turned out really cute! We're super excited for the Hazelett's because they're going to be such great parents.

We also finally got to meet with Alberto! Brynli Bleak (who served her mission in Chile) came with us and we talked with him about the Book of Mormon (we gave him a copy) and we invited him to read the introduction and pray about it and he said he would and that we could meet again the next Friday! We were so excited, but a few days later, we got a message from him saying that he and his family had to quarantine for two weeks because his daughter had been exposed to someone with the CoronaVirus at Pre-School, so we can't meet with him! Hopefully next week (the two-week mark) we'll be able to start meeting with him again!

The weather here in Laramie has been absolutely beautiful these last couple of weeks, so we've been walking around trailer parks (only during the day, of course) and talking to people who are outside, since we're still not able to tract/knock on doors without a name and address. We've given a few people our card and number since they had some service opportunities for us, so that'll be fun!

Monday the 17th was the first day of the Mission Tour! Elder Weatherford T. Clayton of the Seventy came and wanted to have a very personal experience with our mission, so we had devotionals every morning in-person with a different area of the mission (with the rest of the mission on Zoom) and asked 2 companionships from the Laramie Zone to have Companionship Study with him on Tuesday the 18th...and we got a call from the Zone Leaders asking Hermana Becker and me to be one of them! We were pretty nervous, but it was such an amazing experience! At the end, he and Sis. Clayton told us how the Lord was pleased with our efforts and that they were grateful for the Spirit we bring and it was just such a blessing to hear that from a General Authority of the Lord!

On Thursday (the last day of the Mission Tour) we drove down to Cheyenne to attend the devotional in-person! It was super exciting to finally "bump elbows" with Elder and Sis. Clayton (because we still can't shake hands) and Sis. Clayton gave each of the missionaries a Hershey's Hug because she couldn't give us a real hug, so I thought that was super cute!

After the devotional, Elder Clayton asked us to all kneel while he offered the closing prayer and WOW that Spirit was SO strong during that prayer! I'm really grateful for all the spiritual experiences I've had so far on my mission.

Also, we found out we had to move! Hermana Becker and I had been living in an apartment that was originally the STL's apartment (it had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms to accommodate exchanges) and since the mission is allowing 24-hour exchanges now, we had to switch apartments with the current STL's so they could have room to do exchanges! We packed up all of our stuff on our Friday P-day (which was why I sent that short email and wasn't really able to include many details) but yeah our new address is

1565 W Jefferson St. Apt. 204, Laramie, WY 82070-7163

So if you have any letters, send them to this address! If you've already sent something, don't worry because the STL's are living in the Garfield St. apartment, so they'll give me any letters or packages they find with my name on it.

On Saturday, we actually moved to the Jefferson St. apartment (with the great help of Elder Anderson and Elder Budvarson) and it's been pretty great so far! In the Garfield St. apartment, we had some crazy neighbors that didn't like each other very much, so it was nice to move away from all of that!

On Sunday night, we had a Family History Activity and Connie Coca came with her daughter Stephanie! They were so excited to get their family tree all set up and we could tell they were being filled with the Spirit of Elijah! On Monday, we went over to help Connie with her flowers and she asked us some questions about the temple and how families were sealed, which was amazing! We told her about proxy work and the priesthood and it was a really great conversation!

A few weeks ago, we had received a referral from some elders in Texas telling us about this man named Marco who was moving to Laramie; he had told them he really wanted to go to church, so they told him they would find the missionaries in Laramie! He speaks both Spanish and English, but he said he would like to go to the Spanish Branch, so they contacted us! We called Marco several times and got a couple from our branch to give him a ride, and he came on Sunday! We were so excited to finally meet him and everyone in the branch made him feel so welcome and it was really great! We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read the Introduction and that we would talk more about it sometime this week!...then he called us and asked if we were single...told us he was divorced...that our hair was "long and pretty"...and that he wanted to take us to dinner to "get to know each other a little better"...he also said he'd read the introduction and that he wanted to read more, so we think he's genuinely interested in the gospel, but he just says some things to us that come off as very creepy, so we're going to be very cautious and make sure nothing bad happens (we're going to tell him we can't go to dinner with him unless some other members of our branch are there with us!) Hopefully, he wasn't hitting on us and is just an awkward 60-something-year-old man who doesn't know what sounds creepy.

I'm in Alma in the Book of Mormon right now and I just finished reading the story of Ammon and the people of King Lamoni!

"And thus the work of the Lord did commence among the Lamanites; thus the Lord did begin to pour out His Spirit upon them; and we see that His arm is extended to all people who will repent and believe on His name." --Alma 19:36

I love how the scriptures frequently reference the Lord's arms/hands being extended toward us - He wants to bless us and make us spiritually stronger and happier, but He can't do that until we reach out and receive His arms of mercy. What can you do to receive His arms of mercy? Think about that, and then do it! I promise that the Lord will bless you as you put forth the effort to come closer to Him.

I love you all and have a great week!!!