Dadgum the past 2+ weeks have been weird. I really don't have anything inspirational or crazy to say this week, but I thought I might as well send an email out and tell you all about some of the fun things I was able to do during this strange time between being done with the MTC and leaving for the mission field. Wow, that was a long sentence.
So here are some of my favorite things I was able to do:
Turning 20
- I am now 20 year's old. Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!
Brownies and ice cream with the family!!
Poppi and I started my birthday off with an early morning fishing trip. We didn't catch anything but we had fun together and it was beautiful.
Grandparents House is the BEST!
- Visited my grandparents in Oregon. We went fishing, celebrated my birthday, played lots of pickleball, biked, went crabbing (caught over 20 crab), played with farm animals, skated, and MORE! It was such a fun week and was a good way to spend my 2nd to last week!
Poppi and me!
Ami and me at the Oregon Coast!
Crabbing with my grandparents was a first time experience for me.
We had a crab feast that night!
Chloe loves anything living but did not like the two times she was pinched by the crabs.
We had a crab feast that night!
Nate and I had fun going go-carting down my grandparent's back property.
Behind my grandparent's property there is a small farm. We had fun checking on the animals each day.
The boys and I had so much fun playing pickle ball with Poppi!
Breaking a World Record
- World's fastest cuber: 7 second 2x2 solving (harder than it seems). Okay maybe this isn't the world record but I was pretty dang stoked when I did it that fast. Just ask Kade or my fam๐
Professional Photographer
- Took family pics of my aunt and uncle's fam. So fun!! The pics turned out great!
It's been so fun spending time with the Andersen's over the past several months.
Run
- Went on some rainy runs
Lots of great runs with Nate, my dad, and a few friends over the past few months.
Fish Sauce for Dinner
- Chloe fed me fish sauce and I threw up. One night Chloe (my little sister) decided it would be fun to make Kade, Nate, and I randomly pick from the assortment of nasty or yummy foods that she had behind her back. It ended up not being very fun but it was funny.
Biking
- E-bike ride. Super fun and way fast
- Mountain biking! I got in a ton of super fun rides in. I rode at: Alsea Falls in Oregon, some more local Oregon trails, Rocky Top, Roslyn (we went twice and once we had to ride in the dark and the other time we had to bike in the snow), Wildcat, and the pump track. So dope.
Biking with Abe Seal, James, Kade, and myself at Roslyn, WA.
Kade
Biking with cousin Tommy, Nate, myself, and Cooper in Oregon.
Loading up bikes in the dark.
Abe, Kade, and Nate biking.
The Griffiths and I debuted this old bike with my "killer" outfit.
Biking at Alsea Falls with my Uncle Seth and Aunti Caroline, and cousin Tommy and Nate and Coop.
Missionaries Aren't Allowed to Swim๐
- Played at the coast (I didn’t get to get in the water ๐ but I took fun pics of everyone)
Nate skim boarding in Newport, Oregon.
Cooper shredding the water!
Chloe loves the water...even when it is freezing!!
Ami, my mom, and Chloe at the Oregon Coast.
NFL
- Playing football and throwing passes with Kade, Abe and Nate.
Missionaries and Mutual?!
- I took all my siblings on a little one-on-one "date" before I left! They were all awesome. I am going to miss my siblings a lot๐ข
Chloe and I went to Starbuck for a treat and then walked my friend's dogs.
Chef Tyler
- Made hamburgers, sushi (shout out to Danette for teaching me how to roll sushi), grilled chicken and pineapple, and cookies! So fun.
- If I were to make a restaurant, would you come eat at it? Please email back your answer.
Kade and I helped make sushi! Kade's mom is an amazing chef!
Sk8-ing
- Skate park with bros. It's always sad when I go to the skatepark with my brothers because I haven't really been skating for 11+ weeks now, so I never really feel like I am doing anything good haha. But it's rad seeing Nate and Coop shred at the park.
I Voted
- Everyone go vote and turn in your ballots. It is important to vote. And if you don't vote, then you can't complain...
I voted!!
Goodbyes
Love this family!!
It was hard saying "goodbye" to Kade.
Brother and Sister Parrish mean so much to me! For several years, I have done yard work at their home, brought them the sacrament, and just enjoyed long talks. I will miss them!
I can't wait to get out to Utah this next week! My next post you get from me, I will hopefully be safely in Utah (or maybe Wyoming) serving God's children! I can not express to you how excited and how nervous I am! I hate waiting and I hate the time before something big happens. So I just want to fast forward and already be there. I also hate saying goodbye, because it always feels weird. I had to say "bye" to one of my best friend's Kade today which was super weird. Anyways, I love you all and thank you for reading my emails and supporting me! And I LOVE IT when I get an email (or a voice recording) from any of you guys! You are the best!!
My mom was updating our pictures on the wall and it was fun to think back on how I have changed over the years.
- White and Black by Young Chap. I have to do a shoutout for my little bro Nate. He has been going off with his rapping and music making recently. This song even features Kyle and myself. Which is sick.
We did it. I survived nine weeks of the online MTC and you survived nine weeks worth of boring emails from home. It was a team effort.
We did it!!
Seriously tho, I cannot believe that I "graduated" from the MTC. It went by really fast looking back, and I am so grateful for my experience with it. I went into it with a pretty negative attitude towards it, but really came out enjoying it. I want to say "thank you" to all of the fellow missionaries in my district, my two great teachers, and the many other awesome people who were able to come in and help co-teach throughout it. Most of all, I want to thank my family. I want to thank them for making this all possible. My siblings and parents would all take their fair share of turns bringing me down food and other treats to help keep me awake and engaged. HUGE shoutout to Momma Ditto for making some seriously yummy foods too. My family really made it all possible and did a great job at adjusting to my weird Online MTC schedule.
I learned so much in the past 9+ weeks and am SO ready to finally get out and serve people! SLC here I come.
I also had the opportunity to give a farewell talk* in my home ward* this past Sunday.
It had been 28 weeks since my family has gone to church. We have been doing home church each week but now get to attend in-person twice a month in my family ward.
I was glad I was able to take my mask off to speak. This is a picture of live recording as others could join in watching sacrament meeting in this method since we are limited to only having 50 people in attendance at church right now.
Here is a audio recording of the talk, though I do recommend reading it rather than listening to it, to get a more fluent and smooth deliverance๐
Me climbing Mt Adams
I made it to the top!!!
Highlights of this week:
- Biking with my favorite disabled friend, who sadly, is getting less and less disabled every day. I am sad I will miss Kade's recovery from his next surgery. He really is healing so fast and it's been so cool to see one of my best friend's get back to doing the things he loves.
So fun spending time together with my friend, Kade.
- Fishing. Caught some small bass, but am still on the look out for the big poppa that lurks deep
I caught a bass!!
- Runs with Nate and Dad (no pics )
- Mom cooking up some "yummy" brussel sprouts
I ate two of them!!
ALSO: Exciting news. I just got my temple* date! I will be going through the Jordan River temple on Nov. 2nd. I am very excited but also not really sure what to expect. If you have any suggestions on how I can better prepare, I would love to hear them!
This will be the last email you will be receiving from my for a few weeks. I fly from Yakima to Seattle to Salt Lake. My first flight is around 5am on the 27th. Don't miss me too much till then! And feel free to send me emails (tyler.ditto@missionary.org) anytime!! I would love to talk to all of you!
For all of you wondering what I will be filling my time with for the next 2+ weeks, here are a few things that I plan to do:
- Spend time with my grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins in Oregon
- Celebrate turning 20 years old... #oldman
- Hang out with the fam
- Fish
- Study Japanese and pray that I don't lose too much of my "skills"
Turn the volume up. BOOM this one is too good. I have always loved this song and I really liked it this week. Although I do wish that they would have sung louder in the recording. I feel like it's always just a little too quiet.
I have heard many people hate on this song. I just want to clear things up. This song goes way hard no matter who you are or what kind of mood you are in. I don't really know if this is a Christmas song, but it better not be because if you know me, you know that I am quite against Christmas songs outside of the Christmas holiday. So I guess I personally do not consider this a Christmas song. Shoutout to my dad for knowing like all of the words (even the ones in some other language).
*Words that may be new:
- Farewell talk: usually before a missionary leaves to serve a mission, they are given the opportunity to speak in front of the local church congregation and say some final words before they leave for their 18-24 month mission!
- Ward: The name we use to distinguish church congregations from each other based on geographical location
- Temple: The temple is a place where we learn a little more about Heavenly Father's plan for us, and make sacred covenants to help us become better disciples of Jesus Christ.
Much Love,
Elder Ditto
ใพใใญใฟใชใใ！
(To address my title: for the first few weeks of the MTC, I thought that my companion's first name was Bryon III. After some much needed clarification, I was told that this was not really true at all. Though it is included in his name, that is not actually his first name. Anyways, I had to say bye to him this week and I am so excited for him to do great things in West Virginia on his reassignment.)
I wanted to start off this email apologizing for last week's email title. I have gotten some "backlash" regarding the choice of wording, and also some confusion that comes along with that. Just to clarify: I was not called to speak Spanish. I am still learning Japanese and will continue to study that even in my temporary reassignment. And yes I still sorta speak English. Anyways, sorry for the clickbait title...I just saw the perfect opportunity and had to seize it๐
It is SO crazy to think that this next week is my LAST week in the MTC! Excited to finish strong!
This past week Elder Lowe and I were able to teach some great lessons, and I love the different people we have taught. I really feel like I am starting to understand Japanese well, but the hardest part is trying to formulate sentences with the same passion and depth that I would in English. This will continue to be a battle for who knows how long, so I'm getting used to it, haha.
Here are some quick highlights from this past week:
- Helping Coop and Nate build another fun quarter pipe to add to the slowly growing home-skatepark
Skating with my bros
- Penny boarding, scootering, and skateboard shesh's with my bro's
Nate with his new sweet board
- Watching General Conference with my family! I absolutely loved this October's General Conference and am excited to continue to re-listen to and study the messages that were shared.
Watching General Conference with Chloe and eating treats with my chopsticks
- My district has discovered and enjoyed the new zoom update that allows for some more video effects, etc. (This is just one example of how being locked up in the basement can make even the simple things funny and entertaining).
Simple entertainment via zoom
- All the boys went golfing while the girls watched the Women's Session of General Conference. Sadly this just reaffirmed that old men are "good" at golfing. I’ll get you next time dad.
Big C= Cooper, N8= Nathan, ใใใใผ= Me, Ni hao= Dad
- Getting in some much needed practice with the recorder. Just you wait - one day I will be playing in front of all my fans. And yes Belle, maybe I will even play "Despacito." ๐ Also, speaking of recorders...Elder Scow in my district shared a great parable about how playing the recorder is like the gospel. I, sadly, don't remember exactly how it went, but I can assure you it was great.
Serenading my family on the recorder
Overall this was a great week! I am super excited for my last week in the MTC, and I really am going to miss it.
ALSO I do have a quick FAVOR to ask of all of you! I will be done with the MTC this Friday or Saturday (I can't remember which day we actually end), and I won't be leaving for Salt Lake City until the week of Oct. 27th (I still don't have my flight plans yet so I don't know exactly when I am leaving yet). So I have got about 2.5 weeks with no scheduled classes. SO if you guys (especially you missionaries on this email list) have any suggestions or tips on how to keep busy and keep studying the language while I have this strange in-between time before I officially leave, I would LOVE to hear them.
Quote of the week: (by M. Russell Ballard)
- "Prayer combined with action leads to miracles." This quote was taken from Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk in this past General Conference. I have been thinking a lot about prayer and how important it is and how I can better my prayers. My goal and challenge for all of you is to make your prayers more personal and genuine. I know that as we do this and act upon the things that we desire, we will be blessed and feel God's love for us.
Song(s) of the week:
- Intro by The xx. My brothers and I would jam out to this song "back in the day," and Alex sent it to me earlier this week. I felt like it was only right to add it into this week's email.
- Give Said the Little Stream. This song is getting a shoutout because my siblings and I spent a whole morning trying to think of what the name was of this song, and the only hint we had was that "it reminds me of string cheese." Don't ask why. It just does.
- Use This Gospel by Kanye West. This album is crazy. Especially as a missionary. I attached the live version, even though I still think the original is the best. Gotta love the car alarm song๐
