Armor (Of the Lord?)

December   26^th, 2016

Dear Family,

To describe my past week I would have to say that it was short. There was not to terrible much that we could do, due to the rain we got. I find it funny that I have been praying for rain and when we finally get it, it pours for 3 days. We couldn't really leave the apartment because of all the mud and stuff, because to get anywhere in the area we have to take dirt paths, so when it rains it turns to mud and when we get to the house we are covered head to toe with mud. So we usually walk, but that was not so much the case here, we wanted to walk but our rain gear was soaked in the first hour. We were already having chattering teeth by then so we decided to go back to the apartment and get warm (no one was home or letting us in.) We stayed there till it started to clear up and we got cabin fever so we made armor out of cardboard. We had some sushi. I had a tablespoon of wasabi it was awesome. I was a fire breathing dragon outside but when I got back to the apartment I had to use the bathroom, and I turned into a rocket ship from the wasabi. We had some lessons with some less active families and we got invited back on over for breakfast the next day (today). That is the sum of my week.

Love you all,

Ammon

Working His Magic

Suck it Up Buttercup

Dear Family,

 

To quote Hagrid "you're a wizard, Dad!" I hope that the party goes well for everyone in attendance. Please send me some photos of Ian's and Mackinzee's wedding. If the sister missionaries are allergic to anything, I share this motto that has been going through the zone here "SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP" I am just kidding. No, I haven't gotten my Christmas package yet. It will probably get it the week of Christmas. Yeah, Nicole told me about going on over to help Ambria with her  Personal Progress. We may or may not get snow, most likely it will not. Sadness (not really it gets down to 26 degrees when the sun drops and snow would make it harder to bike home.) It is going pretty well with Elder Conder, we have been talking about how we could better understand each other when we say idioms from where we are from. Transfers were today and we are still together and will be together until January 30th, so we’re good. No, you didn't tell me that Josh is getting married on the 14th of January, please send me pictures. I hope that Ari and Sam do well on their exams and that they make it safely. I hope the tree looks amazing and that the quilt comes out amazing.

 

Love you all,

Ammon

Opening an Area

No new investigators, we have basically been having to "open" the area, we basically threw out our area book because all of the people, notes, and records are really, really, really, REALLY BAD. We have started out "new" in our area, We have been doing more contacting, I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting on the restoration.  We have been going through the area book and pulled out everyone that had almost okay notes and are starting to visit/find them, Pencil lead for marking scriptures, ties yes, and chocolate bars, and other things.

Elder Conder has not been able to teach any investigators, because we don't have any right now, so we have been teaching less actives. Training is difficult and it is really frustrating when they still have the mentality that "I worry about me and you worry about you" but we have slowly been getting that out of his system. We have been keeping our apartment clean, I have officially, unofficially taken the position of Desert Office Elder (I am not a real office elder) if there is an apartment that needs to be cleaned then the housing inspectors call us up to come help clean apartments.  I haven't really been writing in my journal, it is like 11 by the time I finish planning and past bed time, and we have to be up at 6. It is very cold it has been getting down to high 20's but it climbs back up to the 50's. And yes there is a surprising lack of Green in the mission, I have only seen green on the mission for 3 days out of my entire mission thus far.

Love you mom

Addict

That's great that Uncle Nathan won the trophy, who took what place in the Shoot-Out. It’s great that Melissa and her family showed up. Yes, this year has been flying by I can't remember what life was like before the mission it seems kinda distant and far away kinda like a day dream or something like that. Thomas IS HOME?!!! The "kilt" is called a Lava-lava and all of the missionaries (the Elders) out here have been trying to get one. All of us have agreed that we will wear them to p-day activity. Thanksgiving was awesome we went to an elderly couple’s home and they stuffed us like nothing else. They had their grandson and his fiancé there and they basically talked about some dumb things that they did on their missions. I have several ideas for if anyone tries to prank me :)

 

For Christmas, I would like Long John Garments top and bottom (2-3) the kind that goes down to the ankles. Cookies, all kinds. 2 white shirts with a 16 and 1/2 size neck line. Socks (wool blend is preferred for winter.) A sweater. Could I please get Dads Hot Chocolate recipe, the people out here have no idea what real hot chocolate is like. I think I now know what a crack addict feels like when they don't have crack because it is the same for me but with hot chocolate. The hot chocolate that members out here make is just watered sugar water with little flavoring. Please, save me from this lack of real chocolate!!!!

 

Love you all,

Ammon

Winterizing & The Missionary Moving Club Redu

Well this past week has been very stressful, me and my greenie have been going through the area book, and all of the people that were "investigators" just were places were the missionaries would go to hangout, so we have been having to drop people and find more people, and we haven't been able to get my greenie any solid people that we could teach the restoration too, so we have been looking for the past week for people and haven't really found any one, but we are building our relationship with the ward. we have been putting the miles on our bikes and we have been winterizing a lot of peoples swamp coolers, I can probably do it in my sleep now with the number of times I have done it. And not a lot has happened, but a cool thing that happened was we got called by a member of the ward to help some of his friends who were moving up from LA to the high desert, we were there for 3 hours and we unloaded 3 u-huals and we had some of the elders qourum help us, no for the news of a not as great scale, we helped them move into the ward next to ours, but that is okay the missionaries there haven't had a person investigating for the past 3 years, so not so bad. and that is our week in a nut shell, i got to go and get groceries.

I love you all,

from,

Ammon

Reenacting the Best 2 Years

Hello, I am still alive, California is still crazy, and people are still people.

Well, for the past week I can only describe my week as crazy, I have been in a trio companionship for the past week and a half, and it was an awesome time, I basically had to stay with some Elders that live with the Zone Leaders, so we had 5 Elders in 1 apartment, we had a fun time doing stuff, and one of the Elders I was with got Dear Johned, and it was his first break up, and he had no idea how to handle it and what made it worse for him is that she wrote a letter to him, and then wrote an email to him saying and I qoute "Oh, yeah, this is everything that I forgot in my letter" and he got the email before the letter, so for 2 days he could not function at all and basically we went to sonic and bought 7-10 milk shakes each(59 total, we had a ton of coupons and a member gave us a 50 % discount during at happy hour) and we pounded them till he felt better, and he was on such a sugar high that we decided to reenact the best 2 years.

After that we covered both of our wards, mainly theirs because they were low on miles, we are given a set number of miles for that month, and they were really low, so we covered their ward until the miles reset.  I went down the hill for the last  2 days, and was Spanish for those days till I got my Greenie, and we had to go up the hill that night, and we had to fit 3  greenies luggage in a Chevy Cruz and go up the hill with 4 elders in the Cruz as well, needless to say after some 3D tetris we managed to fit everything and everyone.  We got  up here and it was like 7 at night when we got up the hill.  The roads were so bad (it was election day) that we left at 5:30 and didn't get back till 7 pm and we had to greenie shop, and we have been busy ever since.  We got to go and learn an area. Oh, and an Elder that was Spanish that died that transfer, Left his GPS and his comp didn't want it so I got a free GPS, and it has saved our butts so many times already, we put every ward member's address and every investigators and potential in it, and we were able to go and see if people still had a pulse and still lived there. We have a new ward mission leader,  our old one wanted us to get 20 lessons a week, in an area that we could only get 2 lessons a week , and he didn't even give us the time of day, but our new one has been more then helpful.  He gave us a split calendar and an updated ward list (ours was out of date, and we asked for one when I first got here) and he his been keeping a growing list of people that past missionaries taught that we could go visit so we should be on the up and up and that is all of what has happened in the past week.

love you all,

from,

Ammon