This week has gone by pretty quickly.

We got transfer news on Saturday. Elder Briscoe is leaving to Chinle, and I'm staying in Zuni. My new companion will be Elder Simonsen, and all I know about him is his name. I have a had a new companion on every transfer day, maybe this one will stick for at least two!

Elder and Sister Poulsen (the senior missionaries) invited me over for a birthday dinner yesterday, and they invited a member who we hadn't seen for a while and were wondering what happened with her. But she came! We were very happy to see her and she even got me a birthday card. Hopefully she will start coming back to church now. 

I was helping an investigator chop some wood on Friday morning, and I had the phone in my pocket. We shared a message with the investigator and left, but when I looked at my phone, I found that I had butt-dialed a lot of people, including the zone leaders, the district leader, and I even pocket dialed the assistants to President Adams! The assistants texted us back saying that they heard a chainsaw in the background and wanted to know if we were okay and that we survived the 'Texas chainsaw massacre'. That was pretty funny.

On Wednesday, while we were doing family history, we had a member named Brother Clawson with us who was struggling. He was having a really hard time on the computer and had no idea what any of the buttons did. He had been messing around with the computer for a while and getting really frustrated, and he even called the family history technician people in Salt Lake to ask them for help. He had the phone on speaker so I could hear Brother Clawson asking weird questions and the technicians trying to make sense of what he needed to get done on family history. I thought that was pretty funny at first, but it made me realize that the older generation of people aren't as tech-savvy as the newer generation of people in the world. They have to learn how to use technology as older adults, they didn't grow up with technology surrounding them. I count myself lucky enough to be able to teach the older generation how to use technology and how many benefits using it can have. It was funny watching Brother Clawson thrusting his finger aggressively at the screen of his smart-phone like he was trying to murder it.

His companion, Elder Briscoe, is on the far right.

I have had a great time this past week! Me and Elder Briscoe had to do this thing called a "car fast" which is where we don't drive for a full day. That was yesterday. We have bikes, so we were riding those around the neighborhood while being chased by vicious dogs. It was fun! I was entirely worn out by the end of the day, but I was glad to get the exercise.

I went to a member of the stake presidency's home. His name is President Sutanto, and he fed us some really interesting food. I got to try crab for the first time, and I actually liked it a lot, although the meat is really difficult to get out of the crab arm. He also fed us shrimp, mexican rice and some Californian sushi. 

The family that had the home that I blessed a while back has been really progressing in the Gospel, and they have had other family members come over to listen to our discussions. I think they opened up to us after finding out that our blessing worked, and they took that as a sign that the LDS church could be the correct church to join. Also they fed us "rez bread" and some cinnamon rolls. 

We also helped someone named Janice set up a trampoline. We aren't allowed to jump on the trampoline, so we mostly just stared at it after it was done being set up. 

I took a picture of the bread that the Zuni people make on certain days as part of their religion. It is shaped the way it is because when they bake it it rests on the wall of the oven.

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Did you know that here in Zuni almost everyone makes and/or sells jewelry? Members will often wear turquoise necklaces, watches, earrings and rings, and some of the jewelry they wear is gigantic! I've seen necklaces with so many pieces of turquoise that you would probably weigh an extra 5 pounds while wearing it. I often try to relate to this because I have had experience from you (Grandpa and Grandma Thomson) about polishing stones. The main difference is that they buy their stones rather than find them. 

The Zuni people are different from the Navajo people because the Zuni's don't have a belief in Jesus Christ in their religion, and they do a lot of idol worshiping. There is a hill here called Greasy Hill and the Zuni people will plant these things called prayer sticks in that hill. Apparently, if we were to hike up that hill we would get shot at. 

Another difference is the ovens that they have all over the place. They bake bread as part of their religion on certain days, and they will either sell it, eat it, or give it away. 

No email for the masses today, just to Mom and Dad ...

Dear Mom,

I just got a Valentine's Day package from the Teacher's quorum and I love it! They got me some Oreos, some Jalapeno Cheetos, and they even wrote me letters and stuff. 

Happy birthday to Allison! And Happy Valentine's Day! 

With mucho love,

Elder Dittmer  

The Alphasmart Keyboard is AMAZING!!

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Hey, dad! I heard you were going to Minnesota. That's exciting! Elder Briscoe's previous companion was from Maple Grove, Minnesota. I never really got to talk to him, but by the way Elder Briscoe talks about him, he sounds pretty nice.

I still often find myself thinking about random music from home. I kinda miss The Shins and The Eels, but the music I have now is totally fine too :)

I still haven't been the designated driver so far, and the thought of driving around all day kinda scares me, but I think that would help me learn how to drive if I was given that privilege. 

A while back, me and Elder Briscoe ran into a man named Troy who seemed nice and listened to us while he hauled wood. We went to his house again a couple of days ago and he screamed at us to get out and never come back. It turns out he was pretty mean and probably wasn't even listening to us when we were talking to him the first time we met him. I know it's his choice not to listen to us, but it made me sad to see someone so upset about our religion. I was glad to be able to visit someone else to forget about the experience afterwards.

Love you and miss you lots! Happy Valentine's day!

-Elder Dittmer

This week has honestly been quite slow for me. We caught some kind of bad cough with a sore throat and we actually stayed in a couple of days because of how bad it was. I'm still sick, but I can tell that I am recovering. 

It turns out that a lot of the city also has the same sickness, and it has even hit the entire branch presidency here, as well as many of the members. I was waiting for the day when I would finally catch something, so I wasn't very surprised when it happened. Over the past week we have had a hard time sharing messages with people because of the sickness as well. The way I look at it is that I'm lucky to have caught the disease so that I can build my immune system to prevent me from catching this contagion again. 

We went to a baptism out in Ramah on Saturday! I think I forgot to mention that there aren't missionaries in Ramah right now so we go to Ramah every Wednesday with the ward mission leader. Anyway, the baptism was for two young sisters who are 14 and 16 named Madeline and Leslie. I had never once taught a lesson with them, but I certainly got to see how converted they were and how excited they were for the baptism. Also, there was food. 

The first picture is of the baptism, and the second picture is of a Plateau that is in Zuni that Elder Briscoe climbed a while back.

Thanks for supporting me!

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Dibeh means sheep in navajo.

di-BEH!

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The yummiest thing I probably ate is butterscotch pudding. I love that stuff. also cookies from the baptism 

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I (JoAnne) spent the week in Durango, Colorado this week visiting a friend and met three sets of missionaries from Isaac's mission.  I saw this, which made me laugh:

"My mom met Elder Redding

She was in Durango. I'm a little weirded out right now. Heh!"

Our dear friends, The Robisons, were wonderful and had the idea to send Isaac a box for FHE, so we collaborated and got him a fun Valentines box sent.  They even sang him a song on the voice recorder and their oldest two bore their testimonies.  

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Isaac sent this photo to Jacob, saying this is what he's built with Legos he's found.  I'm glad to see his personality is  alive and well.