Momma needs to repent!

I needed to make a trip to Durango to get my crowns put on my implants and why not make the trip while Elder Dittmer is serving in Mancos, just a 30 minute drive - on the way - to The Robison's house.

I compiled a large box of unshippable or heavy items and was waffling whether I would try to see him or not.  Well, that part was chosen for me.  

I drove up to their mobile home at 5pm intending to leave the boxes on his porch.  Well I didn't even have time to turn the car off.  They pulled up next to me!  You should have seen the look on Isaac's face!  He saw me (the car) before I saw him.  

I took a quick (terrible) shot and then got out of the car and gave him a hug.

I wish you could have seen the look of shock on his face. I think he was also scared because I shouldn't be there.  

Elder Luke, much more calm, said he didn't think it was a big deal to have visitors because he's had his friend stop by twice.  So they invited me in.  

Isaac was in so much shock he couldn't even eat PIZZA!

We sat at their kitchen table and talked life.  I was able to see their study room and how they have that set up, plus Isaac had his bed made :) !

All in all, it was great to see how he is living.  I always love to have an image of where family and friends are living.

 There was an amazing storm coming through on my drive.

Isaac looked like that for about 30 minutes!

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Thursday I watched Becca's kids at the church where the missionaries had their district meeting. I only waved to him in the hallway.  I mentioned to Elder Rumsey that Isaac was in the next room, and I guess he freaked out or something. (more later).  (Becca usually exercises there on Thursdays.)

Gus with his train.
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Friday, no joke, Becca was asked to take a friend to Mancos to pick up her car that was being fixed.  It was about a block from Isaac's trailer.  I stopped and gave them some medicine and picked up his sd card.

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On Monday, I stopped by to get the box he was supposed to have ready to send home, but it wasn't there.  So I drove to the library because it was after ten, and, yep they were there eyes fixed on their screens to utilize the best of their one hour they get.
Isaac heard my phone, the Nintendo sound I get when I receive a text. lol
He sent me an email to stop by later.

I talked with the librarian so she knew I wasn't a bad stalker, but a good stalker.  She said it was like The Pink Panther.

 M favorite sneaky photo!

When they left, I waited a little to follow, then went to their home, but they weren't there!  Ugh!  I waited about 20 minutes, killing time talking with my mom and writing him a note.  He eventually showed up but wouldn't talk with me.  He stayed behind his truck lol.  Elder Luke brought me his box.  What a good obedient boy!

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Epilogue:  Elder Rumsey was a tattle tale and Isaac got a call from his district leader.  I guess it wasn't a big deal, but Isaac must have felt bad because he repented and called President Adams.  It all turned out okay in the end.

This week went by really quick! And I have four weeks left!😮

So we have a new person being taught that we have an appointment with this Wednesday. She is a great lady, but impossible to catch! I had never met her last transfer and we tried by her house just about every week. Finally we caught her just yesterday, and talking to her, we found out that she wants to be baptized and is willing to do what it takes to get there! Her name is Raynal. She's a very nice lady. We were seriously considering forgetting about her since she never answers the door, but for some reason yesterday we knocked like four times and waited extra long and she eventually came out! She was sleeping and we woke her up, but she wasn't mad, luckily...😬

- basically a flash flood

- Elder Park. He's in Mancos!

- Elder Hancock. He was in Mancos last transfer with Elder Park.

- I took all the coins I found on the rez to Walmart and converted them into easier-to-handle paper money! I made about 20 dollars. The total amount of money I had in the jar was about 23 dollars, but it got taxed a little bit.

- Elder Ludlow! He's great, but I never got to really serve around him. He's one of the Utah zone's zone leaders.

We had some crazy stuff happen this week! The most memorable thing that happened was when we went out to Towaoc on the Ute reservation. 

Towaoc is part of the area that we cover. It's very much just like the Navajo reservation. There seems to be a lot more scary dogs here than anywhere I've served, too. 

We went to Towaoc on Sunday, and we parked at the rec center. When we started walking towards the part of our area that we intended to visit, a kid on a skateboard stopped us and asked us "what are you doing?" We told him we were doing missionary work. He was like "what's that?" And we told him about how we go visiting people and talking to them about Jesus Christ. We gave him a restoration pamphlet and we went on our way. As we were walking, though, this kid (he's 11 years old) stopped us again and asked us if he could walk with us. We told him he could, and we walked and talked with him while visiting a couple of people. Eventually, when we were out of people to see, he said he would like to go and see some of his relatives, so we followed him around for a bit visiting people. The whole time he was handing out our pamphlets and introducing us to all kinds of people all throughout the neighborhood (His name is Jovan, by the way)! Eventually we met another kid named Jarom. Jovan invited him to follow us and maybe go to the skate park afterwards, so we got another kid (9 years old) to walk and talk with. We found out that Jarom's parents were picked up by the cops and he has been staying with friends for a while. He was taking care of a house by himself, it was sad. Jarom and Jovan brought us around to meet a few more people, and one of the people that we met considered himself a member of the church but hasn't been baptized! We made a note to visit him again next time we came. Jarom and Jovan went to another house, picked up a kid who wanted to go skating with them named Devin (Dev is his nickname) and we walked with them all the way back to Jovan's house. We parted ways there and we gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon. This all lasted for about 3 hours. Next time we plan on going with him again and meeting more of his relatives in the neighborhood!

Gotta go! Thanks for reading my crazy story, haha.

Adios,

-Elder Dittmer

I've noticed so many changes since transfers happened! This district is so much closer together, and I think it's because we don't know each other all that well. Also, all of our Spanish speaking people we had as people being taught got sent to Cortez 1st ward, so we don't get to visit them very much anymore. Also the kid Jovan we walked with in Towaoc moved out, so we can't work with him anymore, dangit! 

A year ago when I was in Steamboat, Elder Benson was my district leader, and he was my district leader for 4 transfers. Now he is my district leader again! I'm honestly excited to be in his district again. It was really good last year.

The work is picking up ever so slowly. We got a new person being taught the other day over the phone, which never happens. Her name is Clara, she's a Ute native American. She taught us that the name Towaoc comes from the Ute language and it means 'Thank you'! 

Here's a list of all the ways to say thank you that I've learned on my mission:

Zuni - Elahkwa

Navajo - Ahéhee'

Hopi - Gūnter

Tewa - Kwukwai

Jicarilla Apache - Danzho

Yep, neat stuff. Thanks for reading my email!

Hey, my last transfer is here! I'm going to be with Elder White. I hear he's a good Elder. Adios to Elder Kelley! He's going home.

I went to Mancos on Sunday morning so that we could interview a man there who is ready for baptism. I taught him when I was in Mancos! He finally made the choice to be baptized and I got to be there for the baptism interview. He didn't remember me, but I remember him giving us dinner one time. It's great to see that with some people we teach, all they need is a little patience from us and they'll be ready!

The work has been slow here in Cortez 2nd ward, but I'm determined to make a change this next transfer. There are so many good people here, we just need to reach out to them with faith and things will start happening!

Elder Dittmer is still going strong with his sense of humor...

We had some crazy stuff happen this week! The most memorable thi g that happened was when we went out to Towaoc on the Ute reservation. 

Towaoc is part of the area that we cover. It's very much just like the Navajo reservation. There seems to be a lot more scary dogs here than anywhere I've served, too. 

We went to Towaoc on Sunday, and we parked at the rec center. When we started walking towards the part of our area that we intended to visit, a kid on a skateboard stopped us and asked us "what are you doing?" We told him we were doing missionary work. He was like "what's that?" And we told him about how we go visiting people and talking to them about Jesus Christ. We gave him a restoration pamphlet and we went on our way. As we were walking, though, this kid (he's 11 years old) stopped us again and asked us if he could walk with us. We told him he could, and we walked and talked with him while visiting a couple of people. Eventually, when we were out of people to see, he said he would like to go and see some of his relatives, so we followed him around for a bit visiting people. The whole time he was handing out our pamphlets and introducing us to all kinds of people all throughout the neighborhood (His name is Jovan, by the way)! Eventually we met another kid named Jarom. Jovan invited him to follow us and maybe go to the skate park afterwards, so we got another kid (9 years old) to walk and talk with. We found out that Jarom's parents were picked up by the cops and he has been staying with friends for a while. He was taking care of a house by himself, it was sad. Jarom and Jovan brought us around to meet a few more people, and one of the people that we met considered himself a member of the church but hasn't been baptized! We made a note to visit him again next time we came. Jarom and Jovan went to another house, picked up a kid who wanted to go skating with them named Devin (Dev is his nickname) and we walked with them all the way back to Jovan's house. We parted ways there and we gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon. This all lasted for about 3 hours. Next time we plan on going with him again and meeting more of his relatives in the neighborhood!

Gotta go! Thanks for reading my crazy story, haha.

Adios,

Wow, what a crazy week! We helped a family clean their 2 ponds that they own, and they were really gross! We also helped them stain some wooden tree house, and since I was at the bottom I got a ton of stain dripped on me from above. It didn't hit my jeans luckily, but it turned my shoes and shirt brown and took a while to scrub off of my glasses, haha! We sang a hymn for them as a district afterwards. It was a lot of fun!

I'm not sure I mentioned this before, but every week we go to a place called Hope's kitchen. They are part of another church and they serve food to the needy. We help them serve the food and clean up afterwards. It's a lot of fun talking with them about some of our doctrinal similarities.

We also do community connections each week, and I'm the pianist! I've learned the top hand for all the songs they play for them. Songs like 'yankie doodle' and 'zipadee doo da'. It used to be kind of awkward but doing it every week has made me get used to it and even enjoy it! I remember I went to community connections when I was serving in Mancos. It's good to see that they've kept that going for so long. 

As for the missionary work, not much progress is being made. We did an activity we call the 'referral activity' with a family, where we have them list all their non member friends, pick one by the spirit, and have them write a note with a gift attached to it. We deliver the gift to the family and hope that we'll get to talk with them. The gift can be anything that we hand out to people, like copies of the book of Mormon or maybe a DVD. Stuff like that! We delivered one of those gifts a few days ago. The dad said 'no thanks' to the gift, but when we said it was from this little girl we did the activity with and that it's to his daughter, he changed his mind! Even if we can't touch the parent's hearts with our message, we can still get them the scriptures that can! That was a neat experience.

That's about all the time I have today to write down. Thanks for reading my emails!

Elder Kelley

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Being off the rez is weird. I'm so busy all the time doing stuff with the rest of the district that lives here. I barely have time to read emails!