Teaching

Dear Family,

Well Monday, we did not have a lot done. We basically did nothing for our zone activity, and we were asked the day previous to drop off some primary papers for the kids that didn't attend.

 

Tuesday, we had a bad day we were dropped by everyone that we had set, and everyone that we found previous that week, we went by a spur of the moment kind of a thing and they weren't there. We met a Born Again guy who started to Bash on us, but was polite almost. We taught a brief lesson of the Book of Mormon to them and they said, "WE have a bible, we don't need your bible,” inside I was like Read 2 Nephi 29 and you won't be saying that. So we left and stopped by some potential that we had on our sheets and they left for Canada 2 months ago, and just got back so got in with them. We began to teach them The Restoration, we were there for 2 hours and we became "Counselors" for them, we sat and listened to their marriage problems, hence the 2 hours. We had dinner with the Bishop and his Family, and the kids were kids, they didn’t want to eat, they didn't want to sit, they didn't want to play, they just wanted to do what they wanted to do, and they tried all night to get their way. We found a lost Member we have a return appointment, and we may have a potential investigator out of it. Oh and our ward mates called about an investigator, the message was one of "Still has a desire, and will wait till things cool down." 

 

Wednesday, we met with a less active, we shared a scripture Alma 41:12-15. (Oh, if given the opportunity, find a speaker Called Hyrum W. Smith, and listen to his talks on self-worth, apostasy and prayer/mission.) We gave service at Bishops Store house, it is very different and you get to meet some very different people and their view on missionaries and the church. We have a scripture study class at the Church, and we had a member show up and study with the Class, he is a history teacher, and is into a lot of the Bible history. He went into the class and shared his conversion story, and about how he came to know that the book of Mormon was true. He shared some things of how he had the missionaries on over for years but never wanted to join. Then he had a dream that he would be asked to be baptized one last time and that was it. Our ward mission leader showed up and was introducing the new missionaries, and interrupted them and asked if he would like to be baptized, and how he was like in his head, "CRAP! THAT IS A SIGN FROM GOD" and accepted the invitation to be baptized.

 

Thursday, we biked all day and were trying to find more people, we tracted, we soap boxed, we placed cards & pamphlets. We had a lesson with a Less active recent Covert, he is 16 years old, and he doesn't talk or participate in the lessons, but we found out that when you bring up Pokemon Go that he WILL NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. So we have to tie everything to Pokemon. My personal favorite is HOW SIN IS LIKE A POKEBALL. This made us late for dinner. We met with some Eternagators, and we shared a scripture on Karma, then on how we need to be Chaste, upon thinking of that I don't know if Karma and Chasity are the best mix of teaching. They also asked about Garments and when is the right time to take them off, like for water sports and other things, but they seemed to get the message and said we could come back. They love to make missionaries feel super awkward in that lesson, (I taught them that lesson before and they gave me crap for it the first time.)

 

Friday, we were stuck inside for all of the day except for the 2 hours that we were out and about. We got to meet a less active that has avoided us for 2 weeks, and we invited him back to church. Weekly planning takes too much time, because we have to plan finding activities for every day because we don't have people to teach.

 

Saturday, WAS HAZZZZZY!!! It was so bad that at the end of the day they put out a warning that there are a lot of pollutants in the air, and not to go outside. If we knew at the beginning of the day that would have been better, but we were huffing and puffing it all day long trying to see people, and we got Heat Exhaustion really bad, even though I drank 2-3 gallons of water.

 

Sunday, I woke up to a Charlie Horse, and promise not to laugh at my pain, but as I had it I fell off of the bed and hit my head on the nightstand. By the time, I had it stretched out and climbed back in bed, no sooner than when my head hit the pillow the Alarm clock went off, and we had to be up to get ready for Church. We had meetings all day. I kid you not, if you think that there are no meetings that a missionary has to go to you are dead wrong. Sunday we had meetings from 10 to 6 and we didn't get a chance to cut out because bishop invited us to the meetings to have more priesthood there to pass training down to the Quorums and less actives. We did manage to get a lesson with a less active. We promptly found out that he will be gone for 2-3 weeks, and that he won't have time thereafter to meet for another 2-3 weeks, so we lose him for a transfer, sadness... But he is making progress, to come to church and read the book of Mormon, and we gave him some scriptures to read while he is gone so that shouldn't be a total loss.

 

Love,

 Ammon

Nutty

Well Monday was crazy; we were running around like mad missionaries, trying to get everything done P-day. We tried to get to the library to email sooner and it was hectic. Elder Jessee likes to spend an hour in the morning to clean the apartment; the other Elders in our district came over to do laundry, and started to help us get through it all. Oh, Elder Jessee is the district leader, it's awesome doing exchanges, we get to meet up with other missionaries at a non-disclosed places (i.e. our apartment) and to switch and try different things that we normally don't get to try in our regular companionship. Like one time we got to go park contacting, IT IS AWESOME, particularly with more people out and about, and I never thought that I would do/say this but (THANK YOU POKEMON GO), we get to meet people and we get to nerd out with them and then teach them the gospel. One exchange it was 110-115 degrees outside so we stayed inside to not DIE. I have kept track of my weight and found out that I drop 1/5 of a pound of water weight for every hot day that we fast, but by the next day I put it back on so don't worry about that.

 

Tuesday, we had District meeting, FUN STUFF, (editor’s note: this is sarcasm) I didn't know this but apparently if you have a district leader as a companion, you can't get out of doing training. The district leader seems to know where I live and sleep, so I am always asked to give some sort of training in District meeting. We had a lesson with a member present and it was okay. We have been teaching this guy that has been an Eternagator for years, and his record said that he had been taught all of the lessons. So we were going back through them and started teaching the lessons again and apparently the Elders thought that they were sly and taught him point by point but they didn't actually teach him the gospel. So we taught him the Plan of Salvation up to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and we told him to interrupt us and let us know if he had been taught this before or if it sounded familiar, alas he did not. Later that evening the member present that we had, had us on over for dinner, and we were going to have a lesson with his neighbor in his home, but they didn't show up. So we went on over there and knocked on their door and no one came to answer the door. So we had to go about our day, (as it turns out they have had food poisoning for the past 4 days, their phone's battery melted in the sun, and they got into a fight and the girlfriend dropped him hard in one punch to the face). We spent a total of half of our day with the members that day.

 

Wednesday, we visited a less active, and he has a condition that he can can't remain focused on the subject at hand. And we spent the time talking about the awfulness of the world, and about prostitutes in 3rd world countries, and the awful situation of their souls. We then pointed out that he should focus on getting his own soul out of its awful situation, but he seemed to press on without giving it any thought. We gave service at Bishops Storehouse and we got to meet some super solid members and some questionable people and their beliefs. We, after that visited a recent convert family and they were outside swimming in the little kiddy pool and the father of the family, we got to read the Book of Mormon with him to keep him on his goal of going to the temple and being sealed as a family. We had dinner at a member's home, they had their son and daughter from Las Vegas come down and visit, and their son is a chef and man-oh-man he made this lasagna that had everything that I dislike, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, (maybe sauerkraut?), anchovies, and some how made it taste REALLY GOOD. I got back up and had 2nds and 3rds, right after we had a Book of Mormon study class, and we had no one show up. The only people that showed up were all 4 of us missionaries and the other missionaries ride, so we got to read where the Sister missionaries ride was in the Book of Mormon, and it was good, it was the story of my name sake.

 

Thursday, was dead all the way till it was evening. We got to our dinner appointment and had dinner at "IN-N-OUT Burger." We then found out (because we didn't look at the calendar) that our dinner scheduled to go out on member present lessons, so we tried the potentials that we had planned and visited some families right after. Which by some miracle were his less active home teaching companion, and one of the families he has for home teaching. We found out that the member dropped off melons to everyone on his list, and he now has a new name "THE MELON MAN." One family thought that it was filled full of drugs, or it was a bomb, and they laughed when they found out it was him doing his home teaching.

 

Friday, we left the apartment for 2 hours out of our entire day, because we were weekly planning and discussing who was really a real investigator or not and who needed to be dropped for the moment, it wasn't fun, but we did it and got through it, and we had exchanges with the Zone leaders.

 

Saturday, me and our Zone leader had a really bad exchange. It was 110-115 degrees outside so we stayed inside to not DIE, and we were bored but then we started to Geek/nerd out on each other and we had a fun time with that. Early that morning we had to go and give our ward mates a blessing of comfort and counsel, they have been having a hard time in their new area because of all of the people that like to bash on us. We did get out of the apartment and we taught the Restoration in Spanish, so those years of Spanish paid off, the Spanish Elders now have a new investigator and we got to go and eat out at Panda Express so all was okay.

 

Sunday, we visited some people they said come back later. We have Church at 2:30 pm so our day is shot for proselyting. Oh yeah you remember that crazy guy that I talked about a couple of emails back. He should back up to church and was a lot more stable, he still was crazy, but whatever he is taking is having a good effect on him and he is not as angry or as argumentative with us in Gospel Principles. We got to have dinner with some members that fed us earlier in the week and then we visited with a less active who just got back from St. Louis.

 

This has been my week in a ‘NUT’shell,

Ammon

Newsie

Well Seth, that is a very admirable goal, I hope you achieve it.  Setting and making goals is all we do for daily and weekly planning, if you hit that goal, you will be set as a missionary.  You can talk to anyone on the mission and get their number and be able to meet up with them later.  Dating is a lot like missionary work, I could draw parallels all day so I will quit while I am ahead. AND KEEP IT UP!!!!!  Even if you are the only young man there.  As missionaries, even if we only have 1 investigator make it to church it is worthwhile. Think of all of the young men presidency and the members of the ward, even if you are the 1 young man that shows up and runs the whole show you make all of their day.

 

I hope the baby shower was fun, with all of the superheros, was it Marvel or DC universe?

It is going alright right now, Oh I just got a red flag alert of your Email address saying that you are trying to steal my information, here is what I sent dad.

 

It means that is something that I will do and apply, to make things better for my studies, and I will most likely start by applying it in Alma 32 or 34, to test it out, I will mark everything on FAITH and follow out the foot notes to get a better Idea or Belief of Faith. And I will endeavor to email sooner, but we are in a bike area so we don't really have control over what time to go and do things it is usually how they (the missionaries with the car) plan out their day and we follow, because we can't bike to any of the stores or Libraries so we have to catch a ride from them, today they came early to do their laundry so we got here earlier.

 

To tell you what happened last week I have to tell you about the week before, the Libraries internet went down the Friday the week before last and was down until Tuesday of last week, so we weren't able to email on Monday, but on Tuesday, and the library was packed so we had to keep it short and we still had to leave early, because our ride for dinner arrived early to pick us up to get ahead of traffic.

 

The Work has been going okay, we have lost a lot of our investigators and we have been out trying the list of potentials the are in our new area book, and I have come to dislike it when sister missionaries, put people down and their notes just say "not interested but likes us" we went through a sheet and they are were like that and we got no one. We have been trying to revitalize the work in our "new" area, but everyone only want to meet with the sisters because they were girls and they would talk for hours at a time and not even teach a gospel principle, not 1!, 

 

I will try to start back up Journaling, I will break my bad habit of not journaling and journal more for you guys

 

Oh and I haven't gotten the bag yet, if you sent it to the Mission office then it will be a while before it gets to me, but I can wait for a bit.  Oh, I got a back Rack thing like dad's, so I can now strap things down to my bike and not have to worry about getting sweat stains on my shirts, they are really hard to get out of clothes, but they eventually come out...right? :)

 

That is AWESOME that he is doing that, KEEP IT UP!  Satan will up his game like none other, teaching people about that is hard, and helping them to stay strong is even harder.  The best way that we have found is fasting for them and if they are solid enough, to have them fast too. I have found that when I personally fast, that I need the lord in my life, I recommend that you find and read the talk ‘Fasting with Power,’ by Shayne M. Bowen, and use it to make your fast better, stronger, and more in line with the Lord’s will. Oh, how has dad done with his goal to lose weight by the end of my mission?

 

Biking is Biking, I don't yet have Calves that are as hard as rocks, but I do have Quads that are hard as rocks.  Cooking is going well as far as I can tell. I have been trying to cook more and more, but the problem is finding time, because now on bikes we have to leave 15 -20 minutes earlier to make appointments on time. I haven't been able to make bread this past week because I we don't have yeast, so we had some very floury pancakes and German pancakes.  Please, send the biscuits and gravy recipe please

 

I am feeling pretty good right now, even though there hasn't been a lot of awesome/great things that have happened. I have been trying to be more thankful for everything that I pray for.  Some missionaries offered some helpful things to try that they do to stay focused on the Lord, and they have helped out a lot, in that regard I have been trying to apply it to everyday life as a missionary and it has helped.  I feel better and feel that I can do what is required of me, which is nice and helpful.

I put some pictures up on drop box.  Who knew that we had Adobes here in the Maple ward, I didn't till I stopped for water. Oh, the one right before the adobes I thought that dad would get a kick out of it, oh and don't look at the ones in front of that one, It's just proof that if you don't put sunscreen on for one day that you will burn, and that ants live in the desert

Alright, I got to go,

 

Love You all,

 

Ammon

FOOD

Well, to let you know, I have not moved far from the Maple Ward.  In fact, I and Elder Jessee and our ward mates swapped our areas into our new area, which is now in the Maple ward.  We lost our car to President Taylor, so we are now a bike area.  Great time to Change our area from a car area to a bike area in the middle of summer, but that’s okay I could stand to lose a couple of pounds of sweat. Oh, I have a request for something else you can send me, I need a biking bag.  The bag I came out with is great and still in one piece but it is very unwieldly on a bike, and I have those angels working overtime to keep me safe.  I have been given a backpack to use but it is coming apart and we have been asked to stop using them.

 

 (When asked if he could use a bike rack or panniers.)  I can do that, the bike will be a little heavy on one side but I could do that, plus it would make it to where I won't have sweat stains on my shirts anymore.  Oh, my shirts have been turning yellow, any advice on what to do to turn them back to TEMPLE WHITE?

 

Please send some recipes, bread (any and all), 7 layer dip, tacos, coco cola chicken, meatloaf, soups, chilies, Chinese chicken salad, French toast, and Dad's Mashed Potatoes.  I have found that I can cook something and have leftovers that will last all week rather than having to keep making new stuff all of the time that is only good for 1 meal and leaves you kinda hungry afterwards. A bread recipe would be appreciated, oh and have the kids learn how to cook.  There are a lot of things that if they learn there under moms tutelage that will save them lots of grief and PAIN down the road.

 

Mom, the people here don't understand how to give a missionary a haircut, everyone here does a fad-ish hairstyle.  My hair is the closest to the approved missionary haircut standards, plus I don't want to drop $20 for a haircut that I will have to get cut again in 2 weeks, that's $60 out of my MSF that's $90 for food, toiletries, and miscellaneous. Plus, my hairstyle only looks that bad because I am still trying to figure out how to cut it myself, but when I figure it out I will change the way that I will cut it and will cut it the correct way that is mission approved.

 

We had a Fast and testimony meeting, we had a guy walk in who was a Schizophrenic just got out of a mental institution, and was very angry and highly volatile.  He kept it under wraps for the meeting, but later in gospel principles was hateful to us all and left promptly there after, but when he left he was going down the line of missionaries squeezing their hands hard and when he got to me and tried, I felt sorry for him, all the time that dad was having us squeeze his hand pays off in the end.  He tried on me and all of the other missionaries got pained looks on their face when they shook his hand but all I can say about his hand shake was that it was almost firm, but to let him know that what he was doing was unacceptable I squeezed just a little harder and made his hand pop, but I personally think that the reason that they had pained looks was because When I shook his hand I felt something unclean and unwholesome about him and that it was their reaction to his state.

 

Thanks for helping me think outside of the box,

 

Love Ammon

Working

I LOVE YOU, THANK YOU MOM for the recipes!!!!!!!!!!

How was Seth's Mini mission, get him on here and tell me.  Yes, we do get mini missionaries here but we don't get them till a couple of weeks from now, so here’s hoping.  They call them dirty names here, I won't tell you what they call them, but how was it? 

(In response to Seth’s email about his mission and the spirit prompting him and the results of that.)  Having a mini missionary that is in tune with the spirit is a rare commodity in the mission field.  I wish you were here too Seth, but this is something that I have to do without you right now, but I will tell you what, when I get back we both will go on splits with the missionaries back home and do some missionary work. Oh, I heard you were serving in the Highland ward, how was that?  I was told that you talked a lot about me.  There are a lot of people that slam doors in your face but it is that much sweeter when someone opens their door and then their heart.

 

I don't really have to change my shirts much because we can plan to have Less Actives for the Heat of the day, or we have lunch at that time.  When I first got here I had blisters the size of my thumbnail on my feet, it’s a great training opportunity.  My feet before the mission were baby butt smooth, now they are like callused over.

 

You guys are SO lucky to play water sports, it kinda stinks that the ward is splitting up.  I will have Brayden and Sterling, but they will be on missions when I get back. Oh, I was given the privilege to stand in the Circle to confer the priesthood on some Less Actives that we have been working with. It was awesome, they both Cried and they both felt the spirit.  Shortly after being conferred on, one then turned around and gave the other less active the priesthood, it was amazing!

 

We are doing great work out here, and the past 5 weeks have FLOWN by and didn't wait for me to jump on.  We are more unified, I have discovered more and more what it means to do missionary work and it is something that I always need to improve on.

(In reply to my question about him and his companion being unified and how it’s similar to being married.)  Not you too!  :D Elder Chamberlain (Ammon’s trainer) was always saying that, it got on my nerves, because 1- he is not married and he was giving Marriage counsel, and 2- he was always trying to get me to talk more or shut up when we were trying to have a more unified companionship, but I will take your counsel, because you’re Mom and because you’re married and know what you are saying.  :D

Thanks Mom, I won't be able to email next week it being 4th of July, so I will email you as soon as possible that week.  :D

 

I got to go, But, I love you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you

I love you all!

 

Love from,

Ammon

Hot, Hot Hot!

I LIVE!!!

I am here, it got so HOT here that the Internet went out and we weren't able to email you.

 

10 minutes is all I have, that is before the milk in the car goes bad AGAIN ;D

So how is everyone, I am doing fine, I have been sweating off any extra fat that I have put on in the MTC, Oh I found out why everyone here is so skinny or fat, they come here to sweat it off or to get a tan.  Okay, funny story you know how white my skin is, well I gave some service to some members and wore a tee shirt.  Well, I got a Sunburn because my neck wasn't protected by my white shirt.  So I now know why missionaries give service in white shirts and ties instead of tee shirts. Oh, I was wondering if you could email me recipes for German Pancakes, pancakes, and other such things, so that I can make some food that is awesome and is not just plain Eggs, Toast, and Cereal. I got to go, but I will email as soon as I can next P day, I love you all, and Hope you guys have a great summer.

 

Love you all,

Ammon

The "Country Bumpkin"

We have a lot of time planned for tracting, because we don't have a lot of people right now.  We got dropped a lot this past week.  We had a guy, he was nice till he found out we were missionaries, then he SLAMMED THE DOOR.  The sad part is that he is an anti Mormon member that has refused to have his records removed, for purposes unknown to us, and we can't remove his records so we put him on the Do Not Contact list.  We DID HAVE AN INVESTIGATOR COME TO CHURCH, he has a testimony of the church and of the Book of Mormon, although there are some word of wisdom problems, we can work with that.  During Elders quorum we were learning about the scriptures, and the person giving the lesson stopped and said "I feel prompted to ask why we only use the King James Version of the Bible", (now some background, the investigator that came to church reads every version of the bible under the sun, moon, and stars) when the teacher said that, inside of myself I was like "YESSSS, WHOAAAAA!  Yeah, members acting on the promptings of the Holy Ghost, (the Church is true (said in a joking manner))" and then was like "Oh Crap, he is looking at us to answer the question, we are going to have to explain that to everyone."  It was still awesome, I have no problem having to explain to anyone what we believe if a member feels prompted to ask inspired questions and bear testimony on what we say and teach.

Oh this next bit is for Grandma and Grandpa, I met Ronald Grey, he's a twin, his brother's name was Donald, he said that he knew you both growing up and I quote "Use to tease the English girls on the school bus". 

Apparently, I am picking up an accent and mom you are going to be so proud of this, it's a southern accent.  When I talk to some of the people here, namely my companion and people at doors, I will say something and they can't understand what I am saying.  So I say it again for them and then they understand.  The follow up question is "Where are you guys from" and I say "Missouri", and some people out here think "Oh, a country bumpkin" and then proceed to try to talk fancy with their college education to get us to go away, and it's so funny that they try to talk science or math to me to try and make themselves feel smarter.  One time this college bumpkin tried to get us to leave using Calculus on his whiteboard.  I asked if I could help and he said "You wouldn't understand what is written on the board." I promptly said "Well, can I try?"  (At this point he didn't want us there, and was bashing us, so forgive me for what I do next.)  He said "Sure."  I then proceeded to fix his formula on the board, and gave him the correct answer.  I did this in 30 minutes, without the aid of his calculator, and said at the end as we went out the door "You were wrong in the beginning, and that screwed up the rest of your equation, just like some of the things that you have wrong in what you believe, when you want the right answers visit this website," and then handed him a Mormon.org card.  I am sorry but when people jump to conclusions about me and bash on my religion, the gloves are off. It's the way I feel some times, with some bashers. But I am trying to be better at saying that in a way that could not be angered or offended by them.

Love you,

Ammon