To Dad:  I gotta make this email quick. The Brems are rushing me because we are headed to Gallup and they are waiting on me! Elder Rogers is driving because he really wanted to. I kinda wish I was driving because I was originally the driver but that's okay. Hope you're prepared for a video call tomorrow! I am getting together with the Bartons, a senior couple somewhere in Chinle or something like that. Bye Padre!

To Mom:  I'm very excited for the call tomorrow! I am getting together with another missionary senior couple named the Bartons. They will help me get my call through, I think. I haven't talked to them yet. I am getting rushed to email because the Brems need to get out to Gallup and we are using their computers. I'll see if I still have some email time later today. We can split up email time, according to our district leader so that's good. Bye-o!

Allison showing him a Homer Simpson sticker she got for Christmas.

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Yá'át'ééh Keshmish! When New Year's day hits, I will have served for the entire year of 2018! I am so glad that I chose to serve a mission. It has had it's rough patches, but these experiences have helped me grow so much. 8 more months and I'll be home!

Well, my past week wasn't all that exciting. Elder Rogers and I had a hard time finding things to do because of the weather and everyone was gone. Things haven't really picked up too much, but they have a little. It is best to count your blessings than dwell on any shortcomings.

We did, however, have a lesson with Edison and Lola, plus their family and relatives a couple days ago. They started talking about who was and wasn't baptized after we shared our message. Hopefully we can help them get to that point!

Anyways, I am glad to have the time to email once again. I missed last week because I got really busy with the other missionaries in my district.

Hagoónee!

This is the gas station by the church/trailer.

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Dear dad,

Oh man, if I could have stayed on that video chat forever I totally would have!  I am hanging out with the other missionaries in Window Rock/Saint Michael's for the holidays. So far we have just played basketball and gone shopping. I am hoping to play some card games at some point. Have you ever played that card game Scrimish? I think it was you and the family who sent it to me. Well, that game is really fun! It turns out that each character deck in that game is a single player, so right now I have it as a 2 player game. You can add different characters as you buy different decks! Pretty neat.

(Come, Follow Me) In the new manuals, I have really only studied it with the branch for Sunday school yesterday. That's about the extent of my studies of it so far. I like the pictures in it! We will have to wait and see if President Yazzie wants us to teach it in Sunday school, but I suspect that the teacher will be Sister Joseph, a member out in Jeddito who can't make it to church all the time. Hagoónee shicheii!

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Dear mom,

Hello! Yeah, I guess we are a bit grounded right now, but I don't remember if I told you that we aren't supposed to proselytize on big holidays anymore! Today we are going in to the Window Rock missionary trailers and staying over there all the way into tomorrow.

I really loved your Christmas presents.  I love the new watches! I don't know if they were both from you, but thank you! The green watch is the best!

I wish I could have talked with you guys forever on Christmas. I think that's 3 out of 3 times that you have cried after I bore my testimony in a video call! I really miss you guys, especially right now. I will stay strong and endure to the end of my mission, though. I know that serving a mission was the right choice. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to handle the outside world when I first came out, but now I am totally fine with talking to strangers and adapting to different environments.

I love and miss you! Please keep sending pictures, I love them so much!

-Elder Dittmer

Hello! Transfer news has come and gone once again, but this time Elder Asher will be leaving Steamboat! He is going to Cameron, Arizona with Elder Daffer. My new companion will be Elder Rogers. He is coming from Farmington 4th ward, and I am 92% sure that he hasn't served on any reservations before, so I get to teach him about the wonders of serving on the rez!

We went out to an appointment yesterday and taught the Jackson's from down the road a bit. Sister Jackson had read the pamphlet that we gave her last week and even read the first chapter in the Book of Mormon! While we were teaching her and her husband about the Plan of Salvation, we showed them a picture of Jesus Christ suffering at the garden of Gethsemane and sister Jackson told us that this picture really makes her emotional because of all the things that he suffered. Wow, she really understands the atonement and the Plan of Salvation! I haven't run into a person like this in forever! We are hoping to see her and her husband at church this coming Sunday. Sacrament meeting will only be an hour and she wanted to start off slowly, so I am hoping to be able to greet them there! 

A few days ago elder Asher and I went out to Ganado and grabbed a bunch of toys to hand out to kids in Steamboat. We are going to organize the toys this week and start handing them out to families, so I'm excited for that.

Hope everyone has a merry Christmas! Hagoóneeh,

-Elder Dittmer

-the cat that got me

-Raymond and Ricardo

-Elder Asher carrying an unnecessary amount of chairs

 Elder Adams

Pixie stix overdose!

I ran out of email time really quick today, sorry about that. But one thing that happened to me last week on Monday evening is I got scratched up by a cat! It looks bad, but it doesn't hurt. I sent a picture of it. I also got a couple pictures at the Window Rock. Elder Asher is holding an old fashioned projector that missionaries used to carry around. 'Til next time!

Senior Missionaries serving in Ganado helping clean up the cat wounds.

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Genevieve is getting help from the Steamboat branch and the Red Cross, so hopefully that can put her back on her feet.

Elder Uchtdorf was amazing! I got to stand right behind him in the picture. He made some jokes as he was walking in. They were pretty funny, but I can't remember what they were. He gave an amazing talk. I don't have any notes with me and I can't specifically remember what he shared with us, but I do remember that he felt he needed to talk to us about prayer. I'll get my notes next time and tell you about it.

It was great seeing old companions! I hadn't seen Elder Simonsen since I was companions with him my 2nd transfer in Zuni.

Good to hear you are enjoying your studies of the Book of Mormon. Something I found recently is that Coriantumr (the king in the book of Ether who was the sole survivor after that huge war) is mentioned in the book of Omni. It's one of those 1-chapter books in or next to Omni. 

Jolene Ackerman (mission presidents wife):  What a blessed day in the New Mexico Farmington Mission. We were blessed to have an ALL mission conference. Elder and Sister Uchtdorf, President Lynn G Robbins (our area president) and Elder and Sister Larkin (area 70) were our guests. To say it was incredible doesn’t do it justice! To learn at the feet of an apostle of the Lord. To have all our missionaries in one room was POWERFUL! The missionaries were on their best behavior. You can be proud of them, I know I was! ❤️ (Getting 230 missionaries ready for a photo was a MIRACLE in itself! (They were ready for the visitors to get in the photo).

Elder Asher and I experienced a miracle a couple days ago. The whole story was 100% spiritually guided, and I am amazed at the infinite wisdom of God. The whole story starts about a month ago. 

It was raining, and we had just visited with a member up the street from the chapter house in Steamboat and were driving back down the hill when we noticed someone in the chapter house's backyard working on putting down a garden. We decided to go and help her. She told us her name was Sherry and that she really appreciated our help. She gave us the address to her house, and we found out that it was in a neighborhood of Steamboat that we hadn't been to yet. We promised her we would visit sometime and went on our way.

About a week or two following our meeting with Sherry, we decided we would find this neighborhood and try to find her along with some other people who might want to hear our message. We drove over there, hopped out of our truck and tried the closest house to us. They weren't interested, so we moved on to the next house and tried the door, but nobody answered. As we were walking to the final house in the row, somebody came out of a nearby junky trailer and told us that the people in the house we were headed to were not home. Didn't know the old trailer was still in use, but after this man called to us, we decided to go and try the trailer. He was already back indoors, so we knocked on the door, were invited in by an old woman named Genevieve, and we shared a message with her and answered some of her questions. She wad happy to have met us, and wanted us to come by again. We also went around a bit more of the neighborhood and met Lola and Edison. We shared a message with them and they gave us a plate of food to take with us. This would be the first of many times that they provide a meal for us and give us food to take home. 

 Saturday (two days ago), was the worldwide day of service, so we decided we would call Sister Hildreth, who wasn't feeling well the last time we went over. When we went over there, we found out she was sick and she wanted a blessing, but neither of us had our bags with us so we had to drive back to our trailer and grab our bags. When we got back, we gave her and Quinton (he was there too) a blessing, helped them get some wood inside and went on our way. On our way back to the trailer, Elder Asher pointed out that we hadn't visited Lola and Edison for about a week, so we made a split-second decision to go and visit them. They invited us in, but our visit was only 10 minutes, which for Lola and Edison, is especially unusual because they really like to talk. They had to leave to a dinner in Ganado. They asked us to come by later in the day, so we left their home and started driving out of the neighborhood. As we were leaving, we noticed an unusual amount of smoke coming out of Genevieve's old trailer, but we almost just left anyway because her house is old and unkempt, so we thought that might be normal. We were then prompted that we need to go check on her, so we went and knocked on her door. When we did, we heard coughing as Genevieve came to answer the door. When she opened the door, a large amount of smoke came following her from behind! She was thankful that we had knocked on her door and woken her up before the smoke became unbearable. We didn't see any flames when we glanced inside, but something was definitely starting on fire in there. We only found a small water basin for washing hands, so we threw that on the wall next to the stove, where we had just noticed a bit of flame appearing. We got outside because the smoke was becoming overwhelmingly thick. I went around the back and grabbed her phone and a few reachable chairs through the small window. Elder Asher punched a hole in the screen mesh in the window and grabbed a bunch of blankets and a pillow. Many people started gathering around and trying to help, but none of us really knew what to do without any hose or fire extinguisher nearby. When Genevieve started panicking, someone finally called the fire department, but by the time they got to the trailer, the whole thing was engulfed in flames. Jeremy was the first firefighter to arrive on the scene, and he put it out pretty good before the bigger fire trucks arrived. President John arrived in his firetruck and did an impressive job squeezing the truck through the gate. When the fire was put out, Genevieve's house was completely gone. She was both laughing and crying about what happened. She was taken to the hospital and is now staying in Flagstaff for the time being. The last thing we heard about her is that her family is in contact with American Red Cross and will receive help from them. I think things can only go uphill for her at this point. 

I know that this experience was guided by the hand of the Lord. I am amazed at the greatness of our Heavenly Father and at his infinite wisdom of the future and the past. I am very thankful that He guided us to her trailer at just the right time. 

Sincerely, 

-Elder Dittmer

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(Photos from Elder Asher's Mom)

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I asked if he'd like to go to a new area for transfers coming up: I really like the area of Steamboat, actually. I get along with Elder Asher, too, so I wouldn't mind staying with him if it comes to that. 

Monday

Elder Asher and I finally had time to email on the Steamboat computer today, so that was exciting! After emailing, we drove out to Ganado to catch a ride with the Ganado missionaries, who took us to the field to play softball again. After that, we helped the guy who owned the field chop wood for a bit. We visited Sister Hildreth back in Steamboat after we were done, and we met Quinton there, the voice actor for some characters in "Finding Nemo" the Navajo translated version! They call him Navajo Nemo. He is very talkative and loves being around missionaries.

Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving! I haven't eaten so much in my LIFE! We went to a Thanksgiving feast at 10 in the morning to start off our free day. Then we got together with the Ganado Elders and went to another Thanksgiving feast with Roselyn in Beshbito (that's where she is from; it's a Steamboat area) around 1pm, then went to ANOTHER Thanksgiving dinner at the fire station here in Steamboat right afterwards. I was still full before we went to the 2nd feast! After the fire station we went and played softball again at the same baseball field, then went to Ganado and had another Thanksgiving feast. The member who fed us over there was Brother Wilson, and we played some fun games with cards and paper over there. We did that until we had to run to Steamboat before it got too late.

Friday

We did our weekly planning this morning, then spent a while printing stuff on the computer to give to President Yazzie. We gave the printed stuff to him, then went on to visit Lola and Edison, who we helped stuff a full sized Christmas tree into their tiny Dodge Avenger car. We later visited a returning member who hasn't been to church in a while named Nora, and she told us she would come to church this Sunday. After that, we helped chop wood for Grace again, then had to go back to the computer to print a billion other things for President Yazzie. We turned in after that. Not really the most exciting day, really. I did, however, receive news that I was to play the piano for a special Christmas-themed musical number with my district during our next zone conference. I started practicing "Away in a Manger" for that.

Saturday

I had almost as much food today as I did on Thanksgiving! In the morning, we decided we would go across the street from the church to visit some people in the NHA housing. We ran into Raymond, it's always good to see him around. After seeing him, we went and knocked on Sister Lincoln's door to ask her if she still needed any wood chopped, but when the door opened we were surprised to see another Thanksgiving meal that hadn't been touched yet along with a bunch of her family members. Sister Lincoln invited us to come in, and after a short prayer we had yet another Thanksgiving meal quite by accident. Sister Lincoln's tiny dog was locked up in another room, and it would scream instead of bark. It was kinda funny, her dog's scream sounded just like the Wilhelm scream that you often hear in movies. After stuffing ourselves, we went to a birthday party at the fire station for Jeremy and Jewel's son Jacob, who turned 5 yesterday. We tried to eat very little, because we had gotten a text previously from Roselyn asking us to come by and eat some enchiladas. The kindness of the people in Steamboat amazes me! We went over to Roselyn's home after eating more food at the party, and luckily we talked her into letting us chop her wood so that we could digest a little bit before eating. After chopping for around 45 minutes, we were invited inside to try their enchiladas, which tasted super good. They were made from leftover turkey! We had to leave that place quickly so that we could have time to visit Sister Joseph, who had asked us to come to her house out in Jeddito because she was sick and wanted a blessing from us. Well, we got fed manudo at her house. Actually, only Elder Asher ate some. He was handed a bowl before he could say anything, but I got the chance to ask for a to-go bowl so I could eat it later. After visiting her, we went back to Sister Lincoln's home to share Light the World with her, and she gave us a full pie to take home.

Sunday

Since Sister Joseph was gone and President Yazzie was the only member of the presidency who showed up at church, Elder Asher and I had to give the lesson and I passed the sacrament. We taught about Jeremiah's life and how rough it was. Despite serious threats to his life and lots of persecution and imprisonment, he stayed firm in the faith and continued to testify boldly. He is a great example of loyalty to and faith in God. Nora came to church, and it turns out that she and Gean (active member) are good friends! Hopefully we will see Nora next week. After church, we got on the computer with President Yazzie to purchase some teacher manuals online, but when the printer booted up it started printing endless amounts of papers with unusual symbols only lining the top of the page. I tried everything to get it to stop printing, but it just kept going until the entire paper cartridge was empty. I even turned it off and on again! But it didn't work, so I made an 'out of order' sign and put it on the printer. If anyone I am emailing has any ideas on how to fix this, let me know! The Steamboat branch only has one printer, so we need it fixed.

That's about it for my week. If you're wondering where Tuesday and Wednesday went, I was just too lazy to write about them and those days were pretty boring, anyway. But here's some pictures from my week!

-Elder White and Elder Asher. Elder White stacked up a bunch of Gatorade bottles really high! 

-This cat is gonna get wet lol

-My strawberry plant is growing really good! 

-I set up my new Christmas tree. Thanks to my family for sending that to me! 

-Jamie (someone we recently met) took this picture of me and sent it to me to show my mom. Here ya go!

Have a good week! Until next Monday, 

Elder Dittmer

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Yes, I chop wood a lot! I don't think it builds my muscles up too much, though. I think my accent is pretty much the same, too, but I'm not sure. Maybe I'm getting a rezzy cowboy accent without knowing it.

I can't open duolingo anymore!  the app that prevents us from downloading anything was updated and they accidentally blocked Duolingo! So I haven't been able to get on it, either. Hopefully that gets fixed soon. 

Yep, I have definitely learned a lot from serving my mission. It has really helped put into perspective the way I should be living my life. I understand way more than I did back home about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how eternally important it is to keep the commandments and live a righteous life. I am thankful to be on the Lord's errand! 

I chop wood all the time because literally everyone here using a wood-burning stove and likes to be extremely warm all the time. Like sometimes I walk into a house and it feels like 80 degrees in there.

Also, my companion and I are becoming well known for being helpful wood choppers, so we get a lot of calls asking for help.