Birthday Bonanza

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARI!!!!,

 

Well, I got the birthday package you sent, the day after the last p day. AND I BUSTED A GUT LAUGHING ABOUT “TRAP-A-CRAP”, I SERIOUSLY THOUGHT ABOUT CALLING THE MISSION NURSE BECAUSE I HURT SO MUCH, and I heard a funny JOKE: Meanwhile back at the outhouse, things started piling up..... I busted a gut laughing even harder. The day I got the box (I was busy prepping a lesson for a Less Active member to try and help him want to pay tithing,) and to celebrate We POUNDED the Beef Jerky, Oreos, and Nutella, and later fell into a food coma/sugar crash that lasted till about midafternoon the next day. 

 

 I haven't heard or seen any sewing machines here because the people here all are getting lawn citations meaning that they "HAVE TO CUT THEIR GRASS!"  We live in the desert, what grass? There are a few weeds they could pull and the lawn is once again desert. The new ward is awesome.  We have TONS of less Active people that we visit, and we get to teach them correct principles that they mis-learned and they get to come back to church when we do that so that Feels GOOD!  We stopped by an investigator that we needed to set up an appointment with, we met him outside fixing his truck, and he said "HOLD ON LET ME GO GET MY SON SO YOU CAN HELP ANWSER OUR QUESTIONS!" We answered their questions, which centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they asked to have a prayer with us, because we also taught them about prayer. SO thus far AWESOME!!!!  

 

No, we are instructed to keep or language as professional as possible and to avoid nicknames like the plague. (This is an answer to a previously asked question if he and his companion call each other by first names or Elder ____________ all the time.)

 

Mom, when would you like to talk to me on mother's day coming up here soon, a specific time would be best so that we can plan accordingly

 

From,

Ammon

Whistle While You Work

April 18^th, 2016

 

Dear Family,

 

I have been well.  I have yet to receive the birthday package that you guys sent, but I did get the Dog whistle, it has been super helpful.  A dog was barking madly and I hit the button and he got quiet and I was able to finish talking before the guy said no thanks, but still, it WORKS!

 

Oh mom, DO NOT FOR ANY REASON COME OUT TO CALIFORNIA, because if you do, you will KILL EVERYBODY.  One day out of the three months I have been out here, I decided to count up all of the sewing machines on the lawns of the people that we VISITED, and I only counted Singers mom, so don't be angry, but I counted up to 34 singer sewing machines, that day, for the people we visited and no one else.  The sewing machines are not in the best of shape, one was so dilapidated that it was a half pile of rust and machine. If you count up the others that weren't Singers you are at 42, but they are Kenmore so not as big a deal :)  If you count the sewing tables/cabinets that the machines are in, well you lose count after a while (1-2 hours).  I would talk to them about their machines, it was how we were able to come back and visit.  A vintage sewing machine is like the gospel, it is the same yesterday today and forever, so don't throw it out in the lawn to decorate, keep it in your house and use it.  They are like the Atonement, if you use it you can make incredible things and fix rips and tears in the soul of our bodies.

 

The area I am in is still in the desert and there are a lot of houses, and the apartment where I am at now is the exact same as the one in Mojave river, but we have a couch now so YEAH, AWESOME.  When I find out more I will tell you in my next letter.  I am serving in the Maple ward in Hesperia B, if you look at the map for the stakes out here it’s the one that looks like a chicken.  Our new ward has been great.  So far this last sacrament meeting was awesome a returned missionary gave a talk on Grace.

 

Elder Heydorn is the new Ward mission Leader here and he is awesome, I had already met him in the temple so there is a +.  The Ward Council here is stone Quiet. I had to strain my ears to listen and I didn't know that the meeting started till about the end.  :D

 

Yeah, The Long Night of Apostasy is one of the most visited chapters in my collection out here and I understand not understanding the chapter Early in the morning, because there are a LOT of people out here who don't believe that the apostasy ever happened.  I use it to explain it to them, because they want logic more than the Spirit in the Restoration lesson, but after sharing that they usually are confused; so right now I would only use it if you have been a member for a long time. 

 

We have been teaching less active members of the Maple ward, in the as we have termed “The Less Active Bachelor's Club,” not a lot of investigators here.  We are going to have to drop an investigator because he hasn't been keeping any of the commitments that have been left with him.  So we are going to have to find more people.  :D  We have done lots of service, about 10 hours. 

 

I have kept up on my journal keeping, I try to write in it every night before I go to bed but there are sometimes when it's 9:30 pm and you finish planning for tomorrow, and you are barely making it through planning and you drag yourself to bed, and don't even bother to get changed for bed because you are too tired to care.  I have been working on my pride and on being humble.

 

Spiritually, I’m a lot farther along now than the MTC, I can now go right on in to testifying of the gospel.

 

Dad, what were the questions to ask to see if someone has a problem with the church, they were about Joseph smith, prophets, modern revelations, and things like that?

 

 

From,

Ammon

Car Restoration

April 4^th, 2016

Dear Family, and friends,

I am doing well, I hope you all got to see General Conference, I would first like to ask what was your favorite talk given and why, and what was something that the spirit taught you?  For me when listening to the talks, I learned more about the family, and its importance, and how we (the missionaries) need to teach this more to our investigators, so that they gain a more solid understanding of what we believe.

 

This past week has been slow we were only able to meet with 2 people and they were more of a follow up, making sure that they were keeping the commitments, and one of them probably dropped us.  We don't know, we are going to go back and see if he did, if not, GREAT we continue on and teach him, if so we get to do some more finding in the area. We were running low on miles in the last day of the month, we had about 20 miles and it is a 6 mile round trip to go anywhere in our area and get back to the apartment, and we are the unofficial designated drivers for the missionaries that don't have a car and only have 5 minutes to bike 3 miles up the mesa, hence why we’re low on miles but we felt good doing it.  We aren't having much success in our area but we get to help them out with their area and they get to have greater success. We stopped by an investigator family that we found 2 months ago, the reason why we didn't get to teach them is that their house flooded and they are doing the rework and they are barely getting it done, because the insurance doesn't want to pay for it, so they told to come back later, but they are still interested in meeting with us, Fingers crossed, :D. Oh... something that I have noticed out here if you get people talking about their car they will talk for hours about restoring it. We tie in the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it is like a car that has been restored to its former glory, and it is AWESOME when we get a return appointment to go visit them or another way to get people talking is asking about food in particular Cake (in our area if there is a birthday party in the park) and we make the comparison that the plan of Salvation is like the making of a cake.

 

Love you all

Ammon