Letters

Dear Family,

First Happy Birthday Kyler, and I want to thank everyone that has written to me, it is wonderful to hear from you guys. I hope you guys have had an Happy Easter, It has been a very good week this past week, we found 4 new investigators, in an area that we can only find about 1 month, but instead WE FOUND 4. All because of this Easter, I would encourage you if you haven't seen the #Hallelujah video, that you do it is very good and is more spiritual then the last #Becauseofhim which was more inspirational then anything. It is hard to believe that Dean is 3 YEARS old, what happened I thought I still had to wait another 2 years before he could start to grow older.  Soon I will just be the far estranged cousin that they haven't seen in 2 years that is SUPER OLD and smells funny. It was just like yesterday that I was playing the Duh-Wabah game with them, and now when I get back they won't want to play that anymore.

Dear Dad, could you send me my Patriarchal blessing in my birthday package. And I thought of something that could help you prepare us for missions and life, you could have 1 on 1 time with every kid and in that time you study the scriptures together, but focus on the lessons in Preach my gospel, it doesn't need to be long maybe 10 minutes...or longer if you are in a deep spiritual moment. I think that if you do this then we will be more prepared for what life has to throw at us. And this has to be like on your mission when you told the Elders about if they wanted to find success then they had to quit their sinning, now I am not saying your sinning I am saying That you have to do this with the same determination as you had on your mission. And visit the Temple as often as you can as a family

Dear Ambria,

That is awesome that you are doing Track and field, and your Coach is right, daily exercise is necessary for staying in shape for the season. I have found out personally that daily exercise is necessary because we only have ONE mortal body, and if you don't take care of it now, the rest of mortality will stink As a personal example, I fell behind in our daily morning workouts, and I now have 20 lbs that I need to drop (Thank you MTC) because I wouldn't work out, don't learn this the hard way, running with another 20 lbs sucks. Stay in shape and take care of yourself, or you could do as J. Golden Kimbell directs " you want to know the secret to living a long healthy life... get an incurable disease, you'll take better care of yourself."  Now, I am not saying get an incurable disease I am saying BE HEALTHY. I miss you too, and think about you guys often myself.... ugh.. look at that you made me cry :), I need to work on not being so trunkie about home.

Dear Josh,

I have been good, the past week has been an blessing to me and to the families we have visited, its good to hear from you.  Hey have you talked to Tom recently. I wasn't able to find him until he had his grandparent send him my information,

Dear Seth,

THAT IS AWESOME THAT YOU GOT TO BAPTIZE SOMEONE!!!!!! It is different, I haven't baptized someone out here....YET... but I do plan too, hopefully sometime here in the near future. It's wonderful that you are doing sports, I give the same advice to you as I did Ambria. I have found out personally that daily exercise is necessary because we only have ONE mortal body, and if you don't take care of it now the rest of mortality will stink, as a personal example I fell behind in our daily morning workouts, and I now have 20 lbs that I need to drop (Thank you MTC) because I wouldn't work out, don't learn this the hard way, running with another 20 lbs sucks.  Stay in shape and take care of yourself, or you could do as J. Golden Kimbell directs " you want to know the secret to living a long healthy life... get an incurable disease, you'll take better care of yourself" now I am not saying get an incurable disease I am saying BE HEALTHY.  If you find my stuff don't be to torn up about throwing it in the closet or in a tote (NOT totes as in totally but as in a storage container :) and Being an engineer is fun as long as it is something that you enjoy.  Mr. Hall was the same way with me, he would let me in the shop to do things because I was trustworthy, and I agree Big surf is not real Scouting.  If you are picking up Andy for church I would encourage you to KEEP DOING IT. I have tried myself and failed but like missionary work maybe I planted the seed, and you are the one called to collect the harvest, be a example, be light unto the world( Andy), and be that missionary that DAD helps you to be, be that missionary that MOM wants you to be, but be the missionary that the LORD know you are.

Dear Kyler,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!  I have struggled with coming to know that, I thank you for sending me that It was needed for me to hear, and I will try to follow the rules in EXACT obedience  Thank you for sharing that testimony with me. I met someone that was on your Mission, Jared James and he is a lot like you, and is terribly funny but is now leaving to join the army or Marines.

Dear Abigail,

I hope the Easter you had was like the Lego movie, and "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME" I miss the Pies and rolls that you guys make, I have to try and make them out here and they are mere shadow of what is made at home. I ran into a dog like that out here, it jumped and cleared 3 ft fence and tried to nip at my heels, but once I started to pet it it calmed down and rolled over for me to get its belly the owner didn't like that. We played Volleyball out here once, it was fun, but don't get the Polynesians going because they then think that it then becomes a contact sport.  It is awesome that you got a phone, although it is nice and shiny and not scratched up, don't spend all of your time on it, go out and talk to people face to face, try to use it only in emergencies or when you need to call Family.

Dear Mom,

I hope that the living room is prepped and painted and is beautiful to you, I want you to know that I love you, so much and I thank you for all of the rough times that you were there for me. Oh and if you could send me a whistle called the Dog Dazer or something along those lines (send the slim pocket one if there is one) that would be awesome.

I love you all never doubt it.

Ammon

This next part is to Andy, please give it to him when you pick him up for Church (SETH), and only this Last part not the whole of the letter that I have written.

Dear Andy,

How have you been? I was told that you were going to Church, and I was wondering if you could keep me in the loop of how things are going at home, I didn't get to hear about you or how the Wrestling team was doing..... You remember some of the times when you were paired up with me, I thank you for your patience with me, it was because of you that I had a good time there, you treated me like a brother.  Please continue to be that brother to the team and please be that brother to Seth, I can't be there with him but you can, and a mission is hard and rough and it hurts to be away from your brothers (You are included in that) but you guys are and always will be my brothers. When Seth is cleared from his concussion, try to teach him some wrestling moves, and try not to break him, he won't like it if he has to wait another year to play sports.

 

 From

 Ammon

Not Quitting the Day Job

Dear Family,

  Well the past week has been something of a different experience, I for the first time in my life had to cut my own hair. I will try to send you pictures. I had to buy a razor, IT'S ELECTRIC (said in a song that is not approved by the mission), and a hair clipper kit, it is expensive, we had to leave the zone activity early so that I could cut my hair, if you get the pictures don't laugh, I had no idea what I was doing so I had to eyeball is the whole way. Mom, you should teach Seth how to cut his own hair for his mission... Elder Chamberlain then gave me the basic run down on how to cut ones hair, and I partially fixed it so it would meet mission standards. 

We later went tracting that day and we ran into a family that we get to teach today, they live right across from some members, the mom is 9 weeks pregnant, and they have questions on what we believe and why, we plan to share the PLAN OF SALVATION with them as a place to start. We set up an appointment to go visit them, and they have Eiffel towers EVERYWHERE in their house. They then talked about their mother in law who is "a hard core Christian and puts Mormons to shame," if only she knew what we taught she wouldn't have said that, but we get to teach them on that matter. Elders have told me it was "DEEP", and they commented on my haircut. And we got to meet with Richard again so we read 2 Nephi 3 with him, and we clarified up some points of who was talking and to whom they were talking too (grammar Nazi of a companion). We taught Word of Wisdom to a less active, and I was able to take the lead in the lesson finally because Elder Chamberlain can give the entire lesson by himself if needs be but this time he shoved me under the bus and let me do all of the talking.  The lesson went from an in and out of 45 minutes to a hour and a half, I still need to work on my delivery. 

We started a day by doing service at the Lord's table it's a place the homeless go to get food to eat, instead of us serving drinks like last time, they stuck us back in the kitchen to wash dishes, one of the ladies there wanted to take pictures of us doing the dishes, another lady said that we would make our wives very happy some day (yes, wife points!)  We met up with a less active family and we taught them the gospel as best we could due to the husbands beliefs. We visited more less actives, one we found was a guy that just finished biking cross country from Florida to California and he did it in just under 2 months. We found a potential investigator and setup a return appointment. All right time for embarrassing moments at dinner, at dinner I was a straight up Klutz I was knocking over glasses burning my fingers on pans, and such. Later out tracting I met for the first time on my mission an atheist, who had some interesting views on the world and life in general. We also did service later at squash 4 friends, and we had to leave early to go teach Arnold Tostado the blind guy, the lesson could have been better. 

We went and visited former's and found one, we caught him on the 1 day that he was home and set up a return appointment. We visited another potential and we weren't able to teach her but we did render service and round up her dogs that were out in the street.  We had dinner for Saint Patrick's day at the Raumas. They are a nice family, and they invited Malvuea Thomas to dinner and we on the spot winged a lesson for him, because we were pulled aside and the members told us to don't even bother with them (the members,) just administer to his needs, so the lesson was winged but it was still good, and Malvuea has been meeting with the other missionaries and he shared his story of how the devil is coming after him to get him away from god. We didn't have missionary correlation that day because we were so busy teaching Malvuea.  My week has been nothing but crazy, and one thing that people say out here that bothers me to no end is "cray-cray" just say crazy it's one extra letter. Here come some photos. 

The self-made man of a haircut

YOU IDIOT, YOU TURNED OFF THE FLASHLIGHT

Dear Family,

  Well since last Thursday we spent 2 hours of weekly planning, on changing the "white"board to fit our new layout that we were given by our zone leaders. We visited Reuben, he is the son of a former investigator, he seemed interested and we got a return appointment for Friday of next week. We tracted some more and met a crazy guy that was just messing with us and was trying to pull our chain. We tried a house on Muanoa Loa and the guy said he wasn't in the mood for us to teach him because he said that he would be very rude and may say some offensive things. IT THEN STARTED TO RAIN!!!!!!! We then ran off to Richard an investigator that we found here when I first got here and he is progressing, he is a southern Baptist, who said " I am caught between two churches yours and mine" inside we were like YES!!! The spirit is working on him, now to just get him to get to church with us instead of the southern Baptist church. We then read 1 Nephi 22 and got him into 2 Nephi, and got him a large print Book of Mormon. We then had dinner at subway, don't worry I am eating fresh sandwiches, Sisters Cass and Sephen were there and we taught the cycle of faith (Read Elder Bednar's talk, 'Seek learning by Faith.') We then set up for a funeral for a person in the ward, and visited a less active after that and did How To Begin Teaching with them.

   Saturday, we woke up at 5:30 pm to go get our clothes at the zone leaders house, and to get changed and pick up Elder's Brown and Wedel for the mission conference, Elder Bednar came and was supposed to give a talk to us, but he instead opened it up to a QA session with him. We got to ask questions, express concerns, and I will tell you this NEVER have I felt so rebuked and yet loved at the same time, and wanting more.  He told us not to write a dictation, follow the Holy Ghost and to GET OUT OF THE WAY for the holy ghost to teach. He encouraged us to ALWAYS read our Books of Mormon (sorry, had to change that last bit, not the correct saying(my companion loves the best 2 years.))  He told us a story on why and I quote "YOU IDIOT, YOU TURNED OFF THE FLASHLIGHT", and told us to stop playing as the Mormon culture "Guess What Is In My Head." Elder Bednar then continued and he told us he was prophesying about the church in Africa and then pointed out the only African there (Elder Ogbonna,) not knowing, Elder Ogbonna or any of his background and continued to teach and prophesy.  He then left an Apostolic blessing on us, as he was leaving we were given the opportunity to shake his hand, and I tell you this NOT ONE PERSON DIDN'T SHAKE HIS HAND. So when we went up and shook his hand, I could have died right then and there and would have been fine with it, because I got to shake hands with an apostle of the lord.

   Sunday, we had ward council and we talked about how we as a ward could help us with missionary work. Later in the day, the main thing that we got to teach is Elder Bednar's stories, in particular the Flashlight, little kids love it because they can see it and understand it, and they are willing to actually do it.

I thank you all and hope that you are all blessed, as much as you bless me,

From your son in the field,

Ammon

Temple Tears, Gandalf Style

Dear Family,

  Whoever is praying and fasting for me, thank you I needed it, and I hope you are blessed for your faith.

  We went to the park to play basketball with the new elders in Santa Fe, it was whitewashed. I was so psyched that I forgot my p-day shoes at the apartment and I had to play in my proselyting shoes. It wasn't as fun as playing in my p-day shoes but it was better than cleaning the apartment again. We had dinner at the Noel's at 6 pm but it wasn't served until 7 pm and we didn't get to leave until 8:30 pm, which is something that we are working on, cutting dinners down to 1 hour instead of 2 - 1/2 hours. We then received a text asking if we could help a member move, we then dropped our dirty laundry off with Elder's Low and Infanger. We found Elder Infanger in the Hot Tub, because his back was hurting and he said he got permission from President Hobbs, but that seems kinda out of character for him, but then again I don't know and probably shouldn't jump to conclusions before I weigh all of the evidence. Later in the apartment I received a talk from Elder Chamberlain entitled "Who Cares".

   We had district meeting, and in it I was actually paying attention to what was being said. They were talking about how we should approach studies and how we need to go find people and invite them to church. And our district weekly actual left a lot to be desired only 8 % were making it to church out of our 17. And we set the goal to hit our district standard of excellence. We were told that we make or break the mission in the first 4 hours of your day. We met with a less Active, Bro Hickman, who told us the story of his marriage and how they worked it out, he then told us that as we serve missions that he has seen his sons, and the blessings that they have received that they wouldn't have other wise if they hadn't gone on a mission. He then wished us the best of luck that he could wish for us at that time, it was really needed that day, he then told us that as a member he loves us as people and as missionaries.

   We went and tracted some more and we tracked into a guy named Arnold who has recently gone blind due to a shotgun to his face, he was interested, and told us to come back tomorrow. We then found another Spanish family for the Spanish sister, we have already passed off 3 families to them and this family seemed super solid to us, so fingers crossed. We then went to help the member move... out of a storage unit, we were asking people while tracting if they wanted to come to church (our ward mates used this technique and got 3 potential families from it in 1 day) and we got 1 person who said yes and she said that she liked Mormons but that she was super busy so we would have to catch her whenever we could if we were to teach her. There was a JW pamphlet left on her fence next to our card, she threw away the pamphlet and kept our card (Do people throw our cards away?), we plan to see her in the near future, for dinner. We had breakfast at the members home and we taught about Prayer and Moroni. There was a moth flying around terrorizing the family and I garbed it out of the air in mid flight and they were really amazed by that because I caught it. Later outside I released it and said "watch I'll summon the eagles Gandalf style" we got a good laugh out of it.

  We did service and taught less actives out of Elder Bednars talks.

 We weekly planned and rearranged the study room, we had a lesson with Richard an investigator on the gospel of Jesus Christ and we got a member there and he extended the commitment to come to church but was then promptly rejected because Richard is a southern Baptist. Bro Casino then bought us dinner, when we got back I had 15 minutes to pack for exchanges.

   We tracted, we taught, and we walked. We talked and had a good time.  We shared talks, our opinions, our feelings on Elder Bednar's talks and what we felt from them, and we bore our testimony on them and on what was taught.

Ward Counsel was today and it was great we actually had the auxiliaries interested in who we were teaching and how THEY could help, it was awesome we need more meetings like that. We got Arnold his tapes of the Book of Mormon and in testimony meeting we had 2 investigators (1 was one that had dropped us and only came because he felt loved here instead of the ward he's in at Apple Valley) go up and bear their testimonies and SING over the pulpit, and one didn't want us to teach him so the other missionaries have to teach him now.  Elder Chamberlain said "that it is similar to being dumped by your girlfriend and she goes out with your best friend." We later got dropped by more investigators and we are really tired of it, why don't we do what J. golden Kimbell said " BURN IT ALL UP AND DO BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD" I mean the summer should do most of it for us, but when we would die we would have to do it then, so we procrastinated instead of saved.

   We did service for a member here who served in Holland, and we were shoveling compost, and he commented that he could tell I was dutch because I was able to shovel and dig, he then asked jokingly that if I ever worked on a dyke. 

   We went to the temple here in Redlands, and it was awesome. We got there early so we did initiatories, and there were so many elders there that we had to go do sealing, and it was very emotional.  I am not a crier but I cried, it was touching, and it was hard not to cry. We later went into the Celestial room and I thought I was out of tears but apparently not, I cried some more.

I love you all,

from a servant of the lord,

Elder Van Engelenhoven

Elder Ammon Van Engelenhoven and Elder Chamberlain

After the Temple with Elder Ogbonna