This has been a great Christmas so far! I got a new camera so I can take higher quality pictures 

For those of you who don't know, missionaries still proselyte on Christmas day, so I'm looking forward to visiting members and talking about the birth of Christ.

Elder Oftedahl got really sick for a couple of days, so we had to stay home for a bit. I had a lot of time on my hands to read and to do some random stuff. Most of that time was spent reading and eating food. It was sort of boring, but I learned a lot of stuff from the bible dictionary!

We also have an investigator who accepted to be baptized on January 27th! Her name is Shelly Nez, and when we invited her to be baptized, she asked if her 7 year old daughter could be baptized as well. We were able to explain to her that we can't baptize her daughter until she turns 8, but that we were really excited to hear how excited she is to have her daughter baptized as well. That was quite the miracle. 

Remember that Christmas is all about Jesus Christ's birth! One of my favorite scriptures that I read recently is in Helaman 14:2-8. This is when Samuel the Lamanite preaches to the Nephites about the coming of Christ and that this event will happen in five years. There's a great song about this that is one of my favorites. I can't remember the title of it for some reason, but it goes like this:

"Said Samuel, within five years a night will be as day,

And baby Jesus will be born in a land far, far away,

Hosanna, hosanna! Oh let us gladly sing,

How blessed that our Lord was born, let earth receive her King!"

I love that song a lot, and the way it describes Jesus Christ as the King of the earth is amazing to me. Remember Christ's birth! That's the best way to celebrate Christmas!

I took a picture of our Christmas tree that Elder and Sister Buetler gave us a couple days ago, and the other picture is of my paper Christmas tree with paper ornaments drenching it so that you can't even tell that there is a tree there in the first place.

 

This tree is completely covered in notes from people and family in the Eagle Crest 1st ward.

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We had a wonderful Skype video with Isaac for about 45 minutes.  He looks great, seemed really happy and lots of laughing. 

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Photos from a member in Kayenta:

Christmas Devotional.  Isaac is on the 5th bench back on the left side.

Elder Dittmer and Elder Oftedahl are holding #lighttheworld cards.

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There was a baptism for one of our investigators on the 16th! Her name is Janice Black, and we had been teaching her for months. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of it (yet!). Hopefully one of the members will be able to send us a photo at some point. Janice actually fell in the font with all of her clothing still on before the baptism, so all of her clothing got completely soaked. The members were making jokes about how she was baptized without the proper authority. 

There was another baptism on the 16th for an 8-year-old named Jalena. She was very excited and gave people lots of hugs.

We also set up for a party at the fire department. It was for someone named Jonah, who had just passed training and is now a police officer.

Yesterday we were told by Bishop Holiday that we would be singing with missionaries at the Nash Center here in Kayenta in front of the whole community, and with such short notice, only us, Elder and Sister Beutler, and Elder and Sister Johnson (Senior couple From Monument Valley) are able to come. Apparently Bishop Holiday knew about it all week and forgot to tell us. I'm extremely nervous, and it starts at 3pm today. that's in 45 minutes! Sister Beutler has been preparing a lot for it (A little too much, in my opinion) and is even bringing bells to sing "Jingle Bells". Not only that, but I've had a sore throat all day. On the plus side, this will be quite the experience to write about in my journal.

Me and Elder Oftedahl were also asked to participate in a play during sacrament meeting this Sunday. That one I'm more excited about because I was given time to prepare. I will be playing as one of the Wise men and Elder Oftedahl will be playing as Peter.

Unfortunately, I have no photos today. I lost the battery charger for the whole week and just found it yesterday. Hopefully I'll be able to take more photos for Christmas next week!

Ya'at'eh! This week has been pretty good, but the past few days have been quite slow. One of the mission rules is that we can't enter into someone's house without a third male over 18 years old, and I've been in a trio visiting women pretty much the whole time. It's been a little rough trying to get into lessons without a third male. Hopefully we can get the ward more involved.

Me and Elder Oftedahl are getting along really well. Something I've noticed about him is that he pluralizes almost everything, which makes sense because the natives here do that all the time.

When we were about to get out of the truck to knock on a potential investigator's house, we saw this zombie dog that was super gross. It had weird gums that drooped a lot and the drool was bloody. Elder Oftedahl was tempted to end it's misery with the truck, but he was afraid that it would ruin the truck. Instead, we avoided it and went to someone else's home instead. It was that bad!

We helped somebody move a super-heavy water tank from one truck to another because the one truck had a flat tire. It took a while, and it was really difficult, but eventually we managed to get it over to the other truck. We met with them afterwards and shared Light the World with them. 

I've been reading some interesting Bible stories in 2nd Kings. There's one about the prophet making an axe-head float in the water, which is really interesting and is a good story to explain what a prophet has the power to do. It's in 2nd Kings 4:4-7. I recommend reading it!

I was able to hang up a picture of a snowman on our laundry room door. The only other people who can see this is Elder and Sister Aylworth.

I took a couple of pictures of Elder Oftedahl. He really likes the Tacoma.

Thanks for reading!

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Other tidbits:

Me and Elder Oftedahl helped this lady named Ann Harvey vacuum her car out

We have been trying to meet with Tina, but so far haven't been able to yet. I only have one companion now! That's why it's been tough to meet with Tina. Hopefully Brother Gibson will be able to make it to our next appointment.

Yes, K-town is pretty cold now.

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Here's the change: I'm going to stay in Kayenta, Elder Stead is going to Holbrook, and Elder Barajas is going to Tuba City. I'm getting an Elder from Tuba City named Elder Oftedahl.  I've served with him on exchanges before, so we sort of know each other. I'm pretty nervous about this transfer, but I'm sure it will be a good learning experience finally serving as a duo rather than a trio of Elders.

As for stuff that has happened over the past week; the Christmas devotional was announced on Sunday and it was supposed to be shown in the church, but nobody was there when we showed up, so we decided to go to a member's house to watch it instead. We actually went to three different member's homes until we finally found a member who was home to let us in. I was the driver for that whole experience. We missed most of the Christmas devotional, but the talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf was a good one! 

The Monument Valley area is being shut down to missionaries for at least a transfer because they were having a hard time finding a home to live in. Their trailer got infested with bed bugs and the CO2 detector kept going off, so they got moved to the teacher housing at the school for a couple of weeks. Then, they got kicked out for unknown reasons and had been staying in the church for a while. That's probably the most logical reason that Monument Valley is being shut down.

I didn't get any pictures again. Sorry about that...

We have an investigator named Janice who is getting baptized on December 16th. We believe that she has a slight learning disability, but she is doing really well with reading the scriptures and coming to church. Hopefully she does well when she does the baptismal interview!

Overall, it was a pretty good week. Thank you for reading my email!

To Allison: ...One of the members here is buying us Burger King today.
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By now, I am sure you have heard about the terrible shooting at Aztec High School in Aztec, New Mexico. To alleviate any concerns President Adams asked me to let you know that your missionaries are all safe and accounted for.  Please remember all the family's involved in this tragic event in your prayers.  

Sister Wadsworth

I received a couple photos from Isaac's Thanksgiving from Sister Beutler.

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 A blurb from his letter to me this week:

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Email from 11-27

Light the World is starting up again just like last year, and all the missionaries are super excited about it! It's turning out to be a really good way to get in and talk to people about the Christmas season. I've already seen the video countless times, and it isn't even December yet.

There is an investigator that we finally were able to meet and have a lesson with named Shelly. All the other times we tried to contact her, a babysitter answered the door, so we were excited to finally catch her at home. We had a really spiritually lesson about the restoration with her, and she talked with us about a lot of things going on in her life.

I'm out of time for today. Thanks for reading my short email!

We did some crazy stuff this past week.

It was cleaning day last Saturday, which means we take as much time as we need to make our home spotless! Unfortunately our toilet is garbage, so we can't use it anymore. We tried to make it work for about half an hour, but nothing was happening. Now we use the bathroom at the church. :)

We were driving to one of our investigator's homes (his name is Wallace) and there was a cop talking to a lady at his house. When they walked up to the door and tried to open it, someone was resisting them behind the door, and I'm not sure who that was. The cop waved us away, so we didn't get to go to our appointment at his house that day. It was weird.

A few days ago, we noticed that our tire pressure is really low, so we decided we would go and fill them up at the gas station. It was about 8pm, so it was pretty dark. In order to use the tire pump, we had to go into the gas station, talk to the person at the front desk, and have her press a button. So we went and did that. When we walked out, a family glonies (A Navajo word for people who are drunk and on the streets) came up to us and started asking us questions. They followed us all the way to our truck and talked to us for a straight 15 minutes about religion and stuff. They also talked garbage about how Kayenta is a bad place, or something like that. We didn't get any air in our tires that day, because we took too long talking to these glonies.

We got another investigator with a baptismal date! His name is Keanu, and his family is LDS. He's pretty much just a teenager doing what he thinks is best for him. Also he has a moustache.

Overall, I had a great time last week. I learned a lot, and I'm able to talk to people more openly than I was originally.

Thanks for the support!

In case you're wondering, that picture with the scissors and the orange is a piece of modern art we made while we were home.

Not very much happened this past week, but I still had a great time.

One thing that happened is that a random stop sign appeared on the front doors of the church. it was huge! I actually have a picture of Elder Barajas holding the sign. We had a few people text us asking what the stop sign was for. It was pretty funny, though.

We chopped wood for a man named Wallace Begay. He had recently fallen off his front single step and injured his Knee really badly, so he can't walk for a long time. We had been trying to meet with him for a really long time, and the only other time I met him myself, he was drunk. Now  that we chopped wood for him, he seems a lot more open to us. Service is truly a blessing!

We were tracting a brand new neighborhood in the NEW New NHA (Navajo Housing Authority) and we met this lady who was kind of drunk. She answered the door and instantly said something along the lines of "What are you doing? It's so late! Why aren't you home?" It was about 6:30pm. She let us into her home and we attempted to teach her a lesson, but she kept interrupting us with questions and comments about how God made the universe. When we were done with our lesson, she thanked us graciously for the prayers we offered, and while we were going out the door she said to us "GO HOME." It was weird. Also there was apparently someone running around with a crowbar in that neighborhood at about the time we talked to her. Weirdness!

I got these great mystery flavored Oreos that taste like fruity pebbles. They are so good! If you ever see some mystery Oreos at the store, those are probably what I tried. They are delicious!

That's basically my whole week. It was pretty great. Anyway, thanks for reading my Email!

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Tuba City Zone Conference

I had a great time this past week! 

Something wonderful that has happened is that T.Z. and S.Z. are getting baptized this coming Saturday. We have been looking forward to this for a while now. She is very ready and seems to understand everything we teach her. 

Last night and this morning we watched 'The Testaments' and made fun of a few parts, like the number 2 pencil in Jacob's hand at one part. It was fun.

I'm going to have an interview with Sister Adams today around 5pm, and I'm kind of nervous. Hopefully it goes well!

It was my first time having mutton stew a few days ago! It was delicious. Elder Barajas was eating it and he got a chunk of lamb fat, and he attempted successfully to spit it out into a napkin and put the napkin into his bag, and Rita (the investigator we were eating with) was looking at him the whole time! It was hilarious. Also, there was apparently a lamb head in the hallway that I didn't notice with its head facing downwards so you could see the chopped stuff. Elder Barajas  saw it and he was super grossed out! 

Elder Barajas showed me a scripture in 2nd kings. It's in chapter 2 verses 23-24. 

We went to a Halloween party with the Cly family here in Kayenta. We couldn't stay too long, but we got to play a little soccer and get candy bags full of candies! I'm committed to a healthier diet, and part of that diet is having only 1 piece of candy per day, tops. We have a lot of candy, and Elder Stead and Elder Barajas are eating it all pretty quickly. I worry for their lives.

Anyway, glad to be hearing from those of you who are sending me emails! 

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Photo from Sister Adams on Facebook.  They're holding #lighttheworld cards.

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Excerpt from a personal letter from Isaac.  Nov 9, 2017.

A letter to the family received on November 2, 2017

I had a great time this past week. We got A new Elder named Elder Barajas! He's great. He's also part Navajo.

A few days ago we were helping someone move in named Holly. She was moving from one end of the neighborhood to the other. At one point, Elder Stead said something along the lines of 'Let's run over there instead of taking the truck'. I have no idea why we agreed to that. We ended up running for a long time, and by the time we got back from the new house to the truck I was basically dead. It was fun, though!

One of the people with a baptismal date that I'm teaching named Tina Zonnie has been learning on her own the things that we plan to teach her, so every time we go over there to teach it's more like a review than a lesson. She's great.

Anyway, I'm out of email time. Sorry I don't have any pictures, I'll try to take more next Monday.

-Elder Dittmer

Can you spot him? He's between his companions.

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Yeah, training is going great so far. Elder Barajas is progressing really well. Also, I don't have to memorize too many lines, but there are a couple that every missionary should memorize.

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And today, we got the sweetest letter from Isaac's mission president.

Sorry, gotta make it short!

We had a baptism on Saturday! His name is Keith Gonnie. He has a very nice family. We're planning on getting Keith to baptize his daughter, Kalci.

Also, there was a hayride on Wednesday that was just completely packed. We had over 100 people come, and a lot of them were less active people and non-members. It was great!

Well, no time to write, but here are a few pictures!

To answer your questions, I am quite happy with the mission right now. Sadly, Elder Rainey is leaving us, but we get to have a brand new Elder come in for me and Elder Stead to train. I still don't know who.

Here's a miracle: Baptism! Brother Gonnie! Yay! On your Birthday!
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I have been doing some sleuthing and found some photos.  I think they're from this baptism and hike.

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I received my first random text!   It was from Sister Buetler, one of the Senior missionaries living in the adjacent apartments.

 Isaac, Elder Rainey, and Elder Stead.

I received these wonderful photos from Elder Rainey's mom (whom also received them from Sister Buetler, so I ended up getting a few twice).  It is his birthday this Friday so some members had a party for him.  He is being transferred to Blanding, Utah, so Isaac and Mitchell will be parting ways.  He was a wonderful trainer.