In the Field

Dear family,

   I would like to say that I love you all, and that I am doing well here. My address is  6541 Woodruff Place, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91701  I can't remember the last day that I sent to you guys so i will start on the 19th.

1-19-16

   I woke up all sore, all over, because we played basketball and Beep the previous day. Elder Chamberlain had us do a killer workout on our abs. I have never been so happy to take a cold shower. It was district meeting today and it was basically everyone talked about teaching repentance and baptizing converts. It rained after the meeting (the great and terrible day of EL NINO) that was not so great and terrible and was rather short lived. We went to visit Steve and instead of finding Steve we found a family living there instead. We tracted and found no one, we then had dinner with the Mcbrides, and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1-20-16

   We had a missionary Broadcast to day it was properly enlightening, I particularly liked David A. Bednar's Q and A section. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a less active named Rowland, and then we tracted the rest of the time until we met with Christain and Jenna, we had a member there and it was awesome. We latter met with Ryan and he was with his sister because his sister was having complications with her baby, he asked us to pray for his sister and the baby.

1-21-16

    Today we started off by giving service to a farm that grow squash for free and for anyone. We moved soil media, and their version of what dirt should be (its more sand than it is dirt). And people have the craziest idea's and misconceptions of Missouri, and during this interrogation of the kid from Missouri, I slipped into a southern accent, and they said because of my Military like conduct (Do I act like I have a military like conduct, and if so have you ever noticed that about my character?) that the true patriots of the USA come from the Mid-west not the south. They also that the people from Missouri are a bunch of inbred hicks and hill billy's. (Don't worry I proved them wrong, FAMILY HISTORY). We were fed lunch there, the soda they gave us was 3-4 years out of date. We later went tracting and we ran into the president of the gun club, and of course the Missourian in me came out and we had a wonderfully awesome conversation about guns. He then offered to take me shooting with him because I wasn't afraid of guns, we had to explain to him that as missionaries we aren't allowed to handle guns so he said to visit him after the mission and go shooting. We then helped him by moving the shelves for him so that they are closer to the door for him to grab his stuff and be gone in a moments notice. We latter went to Wendy's and had dinner. It was okay, I don't think that I will be able to eat there more than 2 times a month for myself, because of the way that I have budgeted my money:) We then taught a Less active and we went over and were late by A LOT to mission Correspondence with the ward.

1-22-16

   Well we wanted to contact more people so we decided that we need to better clean the Apartment and our desks (and just so that you all know, my stuff was all neatly folded stacked and put away so you can stop the looks of disbelief.) We then had dinner with the Powells and raced off to our next appointment and we got our new investigator to commit to Baptism. By the end of the day it was so late and we were so tired because we were weekly planing that our brains were like the inside of a 1/2 lbs Reeces peanut butter cup, mush, and the best thing to go with mush as a brain is guess what... Sleep deprivation.

1-23-16

   We helped a widow move some mattress and we talked to a guy who was bible bashing on GOD and the weakness of man. (He should take a look in the mirror) because he was a preacher but never went to church. We taught a lesson to more less actives and we tracted more. We then had dinner ribs, potatoes, broccoli,( which I will have you know tasted better if you put BBQ sauce on it) and carrots.

1-24-16

   I studied in Isaiah and I agree with Nephi that Isaiah did speak plainly, to the understanding of the jew, but thanks to the foot notes I understood. Christian and Jenna didn't make it to church.

I love you all, and don't you forget it.

    Yours in the service of the Lord,

       Elder Ammon Van Engelenhoven

Greenie

Dear Family,
  1-11-16
      We left today at 6:15 am from Utah. (Hooray, no crazy people!) [Ammon is referencing a man on his flight out to Utah that refused to put his seat up until he was threatened with the Marshall and his name put on the no-fly list.]  I arrived in Rancho Cucamonga at about 5:00 pm.  On our layover we met a Sister Parish who was kind enough to buy us lunch, she just came from a funeral for a close family member, but she displayed the true character of Christ. When we blessed the food, we asked the lord to bless her for what she did for us.  Elder Low and I are with a senior set of missionaries, Brother and Sister Hess (they’re in charge of the cars and for medical inquires, so if we have an accident we call them first). I partly miss the members of my district in the MTC, It's like me missing you guys, but I never knew I had them as a part of my family.

1-12-16
    WE GOT MY BIKE!!!! It cost 459$ and I had to call the Bank in Fulton to clear my card so that I could use it here in California. My MTC companions are all being split up today, but we are all serving in the same zone, the HIGH dessert. My new companion is Elder Chamberlain, he is like an Apostle, but he isn't one (yet), so he is more like a pocket apostle until he is set apart.

1-13-16
    We were given some people to visit by the bishop. All of our appointments fell through so we had no one to meet with us, but we did find a new potential Investigator named Richard Nathan, he is a person of senior age, and we committed him to read the Book of Mormon and to come back and teach with him again. We also plan to tract everyone down who dropped us and teach them. Elder Chamberlain is taking the time to teach me how to be a proper missionary of the lord.

1-14-16
The day started out rough, we were late out the door for our morning run, we ran to Elder Infanger and Elder Low's apartment, we had to be back in our apartment in 2 minutes. They live half a mile away or there about. We left the apartment at 12, we found another potential investigator Steve who is a marine, we found him when we were tracting (and were about to give up in that Area). We met with Omar who is of the Muslim faith and wanted to know more about god. We tried to teach the restoration but he started drinking when the lesson started. We later had dinner with the Mayo family, they’re a family of 6 and are very nice people. We than had Missionary Counsel with the Deputy Ward mission leader.

1-15-16
  We went and worked at a food bank today and then went to teach Omar, but again he was partly drunk and was smoking (not in our faces, he was kind enough to blow away from us) it was hard to have the spirit of the lord with us there, but I did use all the things that Dad taught about Muslims and Asia and Palestine and that area, to help teach him. For dinner that night the other elders gave us the pizza that they couldn't eat. Companionship inventory only lasted about 30 minutes instead of the full 2 hours.

1-16-16
    We taught Richard today, he had questions on the godhead, (I made Jared proud of me and was able to use the bible (Richard likes the bible) Luke 10:21-24), and he was like "I never saw that in there."

1-17-16
    I met the ward today they were friendly to us, I had to go up and talk for 5 minutes and bear my testimony, and I did it. We met with some investigators Jenna and Christian (they are planning on getting married, we offered to have bishop marry them on the baptism date, but they are thinking it over).

1-18-16
    It’s P day and it is awesome, we bought our food, then played basketball for 3 hours (Elder Chamberlain was a forward on the basketball team, so it was fun) then we played "savage ball" or as known to Seth as "Beep". I lasted about an hour before I got out, and they said and I quote "Elder Van you are a beast" and “you’re an athlete at these games". An elder did bend his toenail up and it was bleeding. We left at about 5 pm to get ready and showered for our dinner appointment. We had dinner with the Kaysers, they are a couple of the senior descent, and they served a mission in Scotland, doing what grandma and grandpa did, Brother Kayser was a Mechanical Equipment Technician. And dad you will love this next bit they have the exact same car as you, a Lincoln Town-car, except theirs is white. We went out proselyting and set up an appointment with some potential investigators. Elder Chamberlain went to bed not feeling well, but he was fine the next morning. I love and miss you all, (pictures help), and even though I thought that I wouldn't miss you guys this much, I was wrong, I miss you all in all your entirety, and when you see the missionaries in the neighborhood, please invite them in, because (pardon my French) it sucks when you can't meet with anyone in the neighborhood.

P days are on Monday's now, because we are in the field and the reason that this letter is so late is because of Martin Luther King Jr day and because of the power outage at the library.

And there is a misconception that Californian's are rich, I am here to tell you that, that is the exception not the norm.

I love you all, and don't you forget it!! Adieu my family, Adieu

  Sincerely yours in the service of the lord,
      Elder Ammon Van Engelenhoven

1st Email Home

Dear family,

    1-4-16, So today we gave a blessing of comfort to the elders Hribar and to Elder Millet, Elders' Bagley and Higinsbotham gave the blessings. we taught our TRC today and we taught Stephan Bush as our investigator, he is/was a Jew, and he wanted to meet with us because of a friend of his in New York. The lesson mainly consisted of him wanting to know "who was Christ, how was Christ perfect, and how do we become perfect as Christ" and many such questions. He is currently studying finance. As a district we taught a Gold tag investigator named Brandan Royce, he is a lacrosse player here at BYU, and is currently studying Sports Med, he has had no background in any churches, and it was as if he was a book that we could write the answers in, he committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

    1-5-16

So nothing happened this day other than us teaching our Progressing investigator the restoration, he seemed to be interested, and we FINALLY GOT TO BED AT 10:30 instead of staying up till 11:00 or 12:00 doing Companionship Inventory (we have already been given the talk by all of our neighbors, and Elder's Hibar and Millet left at 3:00 in the Morning.

    1-6-16

So today we were teaching Stephan and he was asking questions about the Holy Ghost and the witness of the 3 and 8 testimonies. He read all of the way up to 1 Nephi AND WE DIDN"T ASK HIM TO!!!!!  He was asking questions about how could he know of the truth of it all, but not through feeling but through fact( he may not be a practicing Jew but he has the same mentality), so we invited him to continue to read the Book of Mormon and to pray. But the overall feeling of the meeting with him was not very good, like the spirit was with us but not with him, and as a district we taught Brandan the Restoration, and the discussion took a turn that would have made it hard for everyone else to relate to personally, if it had not been for the fact that Dad went through Cancer the discussion would have ended there, But because of that experience I was able to relate to him and I told him how I felt an increase of love and how I would pray, and how I knew it would be alright because I felt the love of Christ in my life, and upon him hearing that he payed more attention to the lesson, not that he wasn't paying attention it was just that we now had all of his attention from that point and on. HE CLOSED THE MEETING WITH A PRAYER!!!!!! and in the prayer he asked for Dad and his dad to be okay. And I told him I would pray for his dad.

    1-7-16

Not  a lot happened today we spent all day in "infield training"(Flipping Burger's) it wasn't even stuff that we didn't already know, because it was taught in class, and the stuff they tried to teach you need to actually BE IN THE FIELD.

Your son in the service of the lord,

    Elder Van Engelenhoven

P.S. Tell Seth that I'm having a hard time sleeping, and if he wants to use my Bows and equipment, he can.  I love you all.

 

 From left to right:we have me, Elder Erickson, Elder McBride, Elder Low, Elder Higinbotham, Elder Solomon, Elder Milad, and Elder Bagley. --Elder Higinbotham, Elder Low, Elder Solomon and I are all going to Rancho Cucamonga, California.

From left to right:we have Elder Wilson (who can do a very convincing Russian accent as said a Russian missionary), me, Elder Handson( who is very knowledgeable of the scriptures), Elder Millet (who is Scottish with accent) and the person in between Elder Erickson and Higinbotham is Elder Hribar who is awesome in every definition because of the fact that he can be very serious and lovable at the same time. and You know everyone else. And they were our trainers here in the EMPTY SEA (get it because it sounds like MTC, heeey). And they only gave us hugs since day one

    Your son in the service of the lord,

         Elder Van Engelenhoven