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.

So, I don't really have much time today, so I'll make it short!

Elder Rainey was nearly eaten by a dog the other day. It is my personal opinion that angels were holding that dog back 

Elder Stead got bit in the shoe by a tiny dog. It was an angry tiny dog. It was pretty harmless, though.

I got about 10 referrals from a member named Chloe Zonnie, and one of them is a bootlegger that most people call skinny boots. Apparently she's well known throughout Kayenta. We went and visited her yesterday, but they didn't want our message. I'm pretty sure there was a deal going on when we showed up.

I'm also excited for a baptism this week on Saturday! Their name is Keith Gonnie, and he's just a great guy who wants to be baptized.

We got a bunk bed randomly, so we set it up, and I'm on the bottom bunk.

Pictures!

I have asked him almost every letter how the members are treating him.  I finally got an answer!

"Members are nice and stuff"

Kayenta has been so great this past week! I've done lots of service hours, which is great! For Sister Smallcanyon (an old Sister in the ward) I cleaned out tons of old fashioned junk from the side of her house. She gave us some Subway sandwiches and a flat army-style basketball. I threw away some really old journals, which seemed kind of wrong, but she said she didn't want them, so I won't complain.

We were visiting a less active member's house, when someone else named Rolanderson opened the door. Apparently, he had been praying that very day for someone like us to show up, which was such a blessing. He is a recovering alcohol addict and has been free of alcohol for about 10 months, but that day he had been considering drinking again. I'm so glad we showed up when we did. Spiritual promptings are the best!

We decided to stop and talk to this random person on the side of a tennis court. He was totally drunk off his rockers! When we greeted him, he just sat there and stared at us for like 30 seconds and then said something along the lines of 'Do you drink?' He was totally out of it, so we decided to tell him about how the Book of Mormon would help him. He took it and said he would read it, so we said our goodbyes, but he asked if he could follow us, which we can't just say 'no' to. So then we had him following us for a bit, and it was super awkward!! eventually he turned in another direction and we were able to get back to the truck on time for an appointment.
Yeah, that was a weird experience.

Overall, It was a great week! I don't have time to say anything else, sadly. Thanks for reading!


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Photos from their trip to the Monticello Temple on Monday Oct 9th

I found this photo on Isaac's email.  I'm a sneaky stalker mom.

Conference Weekend

Ya'at'eeh! (that means hi)

I had a pretty dry week, but I still enjoyed it!

Elder Rainey is a district leader, so he has a lot of paperwork compared to what I need to do. Elder Stead is great in the kitchen, but we don't normally have time to make anything unless it's a P-day. He made us a good smoothie with pears, protein, some milk and a banana. It was actually really good.

There's this investigator named Clifford Yellowhair who moved to Salt Lake City before I started serving here in Kayenta. He had stopped smoking and doing alcohol so that he could be baptized before he moved. Then he suddenly moved, and when someone prepared for baptism moves they have to go through the lessons again. So the missionaries in Salt Lake got together with Clifford and did all the lessons and even did the baptismal interview with him. He had been completely ready for baptism when he was prompted to move back to Kayenta, so he packed up his stuff and moved right on back. Now, he has to go through all the lessons again! We planned on meeting with him yesterday, but it fell through. We saw him at General Conference on Saturday briefly, but I haven't been able to properly introduce myself. That's basically the story of Clifford Yellowhair.

Yeah, not too much happened this week. I was able to play a card game called Love Letters yesterday. That was fun. I also played a bit of Uno.

I read some really interesting stuff in D&C section 101. I recommend reading that!

I have lots of nature photos for some reason. Hopefully you can view them!

Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention that the truck we have is the Toyota Tacoma 2017. It's white.

That's about it, I guess. Thanks for reading my Email!

 

Additional info:

I watched General Conference at church :)

I liked Elder Holland's talk at General Conference. It was powerful, as always!

I used the jump rope a little, but Elder Rainey uses it a lot more than me.

The Frisbee is great! thanks, I was very surprised by that :P

I was hesitant to post Isaac's personal letters to our family, but they have added more to the mission picture.   These are from Sept and Oct 2017.

He really enjoys wax seals.