I got my first random photo text!!!  Someone was driving home to Utah from Texas.  

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Monday

When Me and Elder Luke were emailing at the library, a man across from us was whispering creepily about the LDS church, and I think he was kind of crazy. I think he was on anti-Mormon websites or something.

We get free blizzards from Dairy Queen on Mondays! We also get a free lunch meal with it. I feel so spoiled. I played piano for a bit and played a little basketball.

When Prep-day hours were over, we helped out a family named the Martins do some yard work for a couple hours, then we had dinner with them. They had elk lasagna, and it was SUPER good.

Tuesday

We ran into a couple of rude people today. Obviously they didn't want to have us anywhere near their property. Some members invited us over for dinner today, and they made mashed potatoes and gravy, and it was super delicious! While me and Elder Luke were leaving the church building today, we ran into a guy that had served in Mancos on his mission 17 years ago and came back to reminisce about his first area on his mission.

Wednesday

We got to visit an investigator named Cathy and we read the scriptures with her. She seems to be content where she is, but she is very friendly and willing to talk to us. We also got to see an investigator named Gordon, and the lesson we had with him was really good. We taught him about what happens after we die and how we can live eternally happy by keeping the commandments. Previously he hasn't shown any desire to be baptized, but we had a really spiritual lesson today and we could tell that he knew it was true. We just need to go at his pace, and not ours. Elder Luke's bike chain broke today, so the whole ride back home he had to hold on to my bag while I pulled him along beside me. I'm sure we got a few funny looks from the people passing by. 

Thursday

We had zone conference today! We learned all about using our phones as tools for fulfilling our purpose. We also got some neat book-marks to hand out to people that have study options on the back of it to help people learn more about the Book of Mormon.

Friday

A family named the Fellows just moved in to Mancos, and we found out that she and her family were being visited by the Zone leader missionaries before they moved to Mancos. We visited them today in the evening and they are super friendly and open to learning more about the LDS church! We also visited a man named Wayne today. He doesn't come to church because he has a ranch with a bunch of cows, and he has to take constant care of them. He'll come to church, someday.

Saturday

We were able to visit a man named Robert today, and he told us he would fix Elder Luke's broken bike chain in the evening if we came by. While walking back to our truck from our meeting with Robert, some members stopped us and asked us for help moving a big ventilator out of his minivan. We hopped in and rode all the way back to Robert's neighbor's house! We helped him move the vent, and then went on our way walking back to the truck. On our way back to the truck, a lady called for us. We went over to her and she wanted a blessing, so we went up a flight of stairs into her apartment and while we were up there another lady asked us if we could help the first lady get some groceries for their apartment at a local grocery store. After giving the first lady (We found out she was named Adalib, and she is Venezuelan) a blessing, we walked with her over to the grocery store they wanted us to go to and we helped her carry some groceries back to their apartment. She was super nice, and she gave us a piece of sesame seed candy which was really good. The lady at the front desk of the grocery store asked us if she was doing okay, and we weren't sure what she meant, but apparently Adalib had cancer!  Afterwards, we said our goodbyes and were finally able to make it back to our truck. That was a great experience! We later brought the broken bike chain and the bike back to Robert's home and we got it fixed, so now we can bike again.

Sunday

Adalib was at sacrament meeting today, which was a good surprise. After sacrament meeting we taught the Gospel Principles class, and I'd say it was pretty good. We read from chapter 9 about prophets. After church we visited a man named Jeremy, and he is showing a lot of interest in the Book of Mormon. Other than that, we weren't really able to see anyone. 

That's my week! I think I'm going to start typing my emails like this, I really enjoy it. 

Don't forget to send me a friend request on Facebook! I haven't posted much yet, but I plan on posting uplifting messages at least once a week.

Sorry there aren't any pictures again. These computers aren't very nice to me.

Thanks for your support! 

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I have yet to chop wood in Mancos. The service we have done so far has been different. We helped a member dig a trench, we helped another member move a ventilator, and we even went grocery shopping with a Venezuelan woman named Adalib! I mentioned her in my email to everyone.

I'm not allowed to get Strava, sadly. I would be racking up a ton of miles on that app, though!

There's this really nice restaurant called Millwood and it serves large portions no matter what you get, so I have yet to try any of their desserts. They feed us for free, and it is super delicious and very fancy! 

I promise I'm taking lots of photos!

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Elder Luke in their study.

This week was kinda slow, but I still had fun biking all over the place! Me and elder Luke biked about 20 miles a couple of the days last week. 

We visited mostly members because we had a hard time finding investigators who weren't busy. 

We got new phones! I have a Samsung j7, and it is going to be an amazing tool for missionary work. We have already used a video about baptism to show to a boy named Zach who just turned 8. 

I'm out of time, but thanks for all of your support! 

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Yeah, I've been biking almost 20 miles every day! I'm probably going to be buff like dad by the time I get home.

 I have been super tired because of all the biking, so I just write in my journal and go to bed around 9:30.

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My bike will do for now because I fixed the brakes on it. I tract pretty much as often as I did on the rez,  in fact Mancos is just as tiny as the other places I have served in! The people here aren't very receptive a lot of the time, though. They go to the 'cowboy church' where they can apparently wear their cowboy gear instead of dressing up nicely.

Here I am in Mancos, Colorado! It's so far been pretty fun here, although I think riding bikes is going to kill me someday. 

About the missionary work in Mancos: I came in on a sour note. Elder Luke and his last companion lost four investigators within a week, and one more while I have been with Elder Luke. One of the investigators we lost was lost because he DIED. That happened.

We bike at least 10 miles per day. Me and Elder Luke biked around 16 miles on Saturday just riding back to our house. On Sunday we rode like 12 miles just to knock on one person's house, and they weren't home. I'm honestly enjoying all the biking, but sometimes it seems a little ridiculous.

The members here are mostly old people, and they are super nice. There's a member named Brother Ashkroft who makes jokes about how old he is. He says that he wishes he was 80 again, and that 80 isn't even old. He's pretty funny.

Sorry I won't be able to send pictures today, the library computers here in Mancos sometimes don't work very well with cameras and stuff like that, according to Elder Luke. I promise I took pictures, though!

Thanks for everything!

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Elder Luke is a great companion. We bike between 10-20 miles a day unless the weather is bad. We have a 2017 Toyota Tacoma here, which is super nice. The max amount of miles we can drive on it per month is 1700 right now, and people are spread out here in Mancos, so we ride bikes a lot. I get super tired pretty much every day. It brings back memories of being on the mountain biking team.

To be honest, I really do miss the rez. But that doesn't mean that I don't like Mancos! The rez is a completely different experience, and I was really enjoying it. There is probably one Navajo person in Mancos, and he is not interested. 

I ride a mountain bike that's so crappy the brakes don't work even a little! We are going to get it fixed soon, but for now I have to try to go really slow down hills. 

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There's this thing where missionaries email a lady somewhere in the world and she makes the missionaries a card that they can hand out with pictures of their choice and their information. I'm going to do that soon, but not this week because the photos aren't uploading.

I gotta go, the library computers actually time you for an hour and sign you off at the hour mark, and it says 1:30 (1 miute 30 seconds) and I don't want to lose this email. This really puts me on my toes when I'm emailing! 

I'm getting transferred to Mancos, Colorado, and my companion will be Elder Luke! I realized that I have always had a new companion every transfer. That's a thing.

Not much happened this week. We didn't even get to visit hardly anyone because they were either gone or didn't want to see us. We saw people over in Ramah, though! We had dinner with some members named the Rivers (The 'i' makes the 'eye' sound in their name) and they invited us over on Monday to get some haircuts, which we are doing right after we do our emails. My hair is getting super curly, so I'm excited for that.

Hey, I will have technically served in all four states of my mission when I get to Colorado because I went on exchanges to Monument Valley while I was in Kayenta! That was fast.

In my studies, I am reading in Isaiah and I'm trying my best to understand what he is talking about. I found a good scripture in chapter 26 verse 4 that says "Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for the Lord JEHOVA is everlasting strength". That one is self explanatory and easy to understand as well.

I got a picture of me eating some Olive oil Mayonnaise. It's the healthy alternative (It's actually pudding)!

The third picture is some neat graffiti that we found in Zuni.

I got some batman stamps from the person at the post office. He was holding on to them, but said we could have them! Elder Simonsen got Wonder Woman stamps.

Well, thanks for reading my email. Sorry there isn't more!

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Hi, Dad!

Honestly, not much is happening in Zuni. People are often not home or just don't want to talk to us. We were able to give a lesson to some investigators named Elton and Sammie, and they gave us a sour Kool-Aid Popsicle  that was surprisingly good, as well as a bottle of water for each of us and a rice-crispy treat that they made for us. We also chopped some wood for about an hour on Tuesday for a member named Sister Vicenti. That was fun. Oh, I should show you a picture of the grip tape on my axe! Thanks for the grip tape, by the way.

I've been trying to read the Old testament, and I'm on Isaiah right now, which isn't the easiest thing to read. I really like the story of the floating ax-head in the river. The Prophet Elijah makes an axe-head float by tossing a stick in the river where the head fell in.  I think that's a good example of the priesthood in action!

Okay, well not much is happening other than putting a lot of miles on our truck. Zuni life is a little boring sometimes because the only places to go are Subway and Jewelry shops. People are often not home because of this, so we always put double or triple back-up plans on our planner so that we don't run out of people to see and get all bored.

With love,

Elder Dittmer

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Aerial of Mancos.  Pronounced Main - cus.  

Not on a reservation this transfer, so not sure where he's living.

This week was great! Especially with the holidays coming all at once, that was fun.

For Easter, we did an Easter egg hunt at the church, and we had a lot of less-active people come! We also had an investigator come, and they all had a lot of fun searching for the Easter eggs we hid in a barren field by the church. 

General conference was very surprising! I liked when they announced the Layton, Utah temple and everyone laughed, even the Prophet! The changes with home teaching were a surprise, too. 

I forgot to take pictures, sorry about that. Thanks for all your help, though!

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Yeah, happy Easters! I hid the Easter eggs instead of finding them this year, which is a total turn-around for me.

Zuni is fun, and we cover Ramah once a week also! The church here is super tiny and we get about 20-30 people to sacrament on average. We haven't had an investigator come to church in Zuni for over a month now. We get lots of less-active people to church, though!