👵Grandma Mullets👵

 I hope you all had an awesome week and an AMAZING Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving in SLC:

Wow this year's Turkey Day was way different than normal... Every year i get way stoked for the annual turkey bowl and getting to pull out my cleats that I don't get to wear that often. Then after a long game of football and sometimes some ultimate frisbee after, we would head back home to all the fam and start to get ready for the big feast. Then we would eat and hang out with family for the rest of the day.

This year's Thanksgiving went a little something like this: 

Woke up and got ready for the day. Then we did some of our studies and left to pick up the food that was provided by the mission (since we aren't allowed to eat with people due to covid right now), and headed to a church building for district council. Then we ate the food from Golden Corral (it was actually pretty good) and had some really interesting conversations.... my district is pretty interesting. I mostly just sat there and listened to whatever they were talking about. 

Video calling Mom and Dad on thanksgiving 

After the dinner I got to call my family and that was awesome. Then that afternoon/evening we just did a little more studying and went out and walked our English area (which is only 6 blocks by 6 blocks) because no members would meet with us since it's thanksgiving and they want to hang out with their family (weird...right).

Overall thanksgiving was pretty good.

Living in a car: 🛵

Since we are over a language area and there are not many Japanese members right near us, we get to travel quite a bit to visit Japanese referrals (people who want to hear a message of hope and their friend or family tells us about them) or members of the dai ichi ward. It's pretty fun getting to go far but also kinda annoying because we have to spend so much time in the car. We usually spend that time sending texts to people we want to visit or people who we are just trying to get into contact in general. We also listen to a lot of music so the music I have can get old fast. 

Kobeeeeeeeeee. Hopefully I will go there one day 

Some of the places we visited the past week or so include: Lehi, Holladay, Draper, Temple Square area, Bountiful, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Little Cottonwood Canyon, West Jordan, Murray, Sandy, and more. We even had a member ask us to visit one of their friends who wanted the Japanese missionaries to come to their house, but they live in Las Vegas.... So we had to tell them that was a little too far sadly haha. I definitely feel blessed to get to see all around Utah when most missionaries aren't allowed to do so.

pday basketball 

Granny Mullet:

We visited the Suzuki's and they are way cool. They all live together as an extended fam in one house so that's cool. Plus Sister Suzuki has like the gnarliest mullet ever. It was seriously the definition of mullet. I wish I got a pic. And she's a white, American grandma, so just try to imagine that. Imagine your gma with just the nappiest mullet ever. Side note: grannie and ami - I am glad you dont have a mullet like that, but it would be pretty insane. ‍♀️‍♂️

Becoming a Hair Stylist:

I cut Elder Leon's and Elder Seachriest's hair this week and that was pretty cool. 

Fading up Elder Leon

I'm actually pretty proud of both of the cuts too. Elder Seachriest's was super easy because it was way short and Elder Leon's wasn't too bad either. I faded him up a bit too. I have now cut a real good amount of people hair, so I'm basically a hair dresser or barber or whatever it's called. Call me if you ever have any cosmetic questions‍♂️‍♀️

Elder Leon got covid:

Well we thought he did... turns out he just had some...well...lets just say bad times in the bathroom. Poor guy. Tuesday afternoon he started to not feel good, and was experiencing some issues in the baño, so we decided to call the mission nurse to make sure he didn't have covid or anything. She told him to go on this diet to help see if maybe that would fix the problem. He started to feel better that night and by Wednesday he said he felt back to normal so that's good. We think it was just one of the breakfast sandwiches that the hotel gives us for breakfast that sits out all morning basically, that gave him the issue‍♂️... Moral of the story: don't eat old and warm freezer breakfast sandwiches! 

Praying With My Dawg:

Visiting the Abe's. They are such a fun family and have so many dogs that they treat like kids. It's crazy 

We also visited the Christman's this week and shared a message with them about Christ's love. After the message, we said a prayer and they have some crazy dogs. During the whole lesson they were jumping, fighting, and biting. Anyways, while we were praying, the extra crazy dog was jumping on my and biting my crotch. My dawg later moved up to my ears and then by the end of the prayer the dog was hitching a piggie-back ride. 

Selfie with MTC teacher Sister Peterson! 

Oh and also on Sunday, we were visiting some people in Draper, and drove by my MTC teacher walking her grandmas dog! It was crazy seeing sister Peterson in person. We got to talk for a bit, and it was super cool seeing her. 

I want to say thank you for all the support, love, and prayers that have been sent my way. You guys are all the best, and I am grateful for each of you. I'm so proud of all of my fellow missionary friends, and for the people at home rooting for us missionaries. Love you all!

TEAM JESUS!

Scripture of the Week:

- Mosiah 4:27 (The Book of Mormon)

27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and ^aorder; for it is not requisite that a man should run ^bfaster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

I read this scripture during personal study the other day and i really love the message behind it and the different parts that are included in it. It's such a good reminder that Christ and Heavenly Father are on our side and will continue to help us grow and become better people. I also liked how it talks about doing things in order and how being organized is how God works. I liked this because I am a pretty organized person and have noticed that there are so many good things that go along with being organized. Such a good scripture, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Song of the Week:

Glorious by David Archuleta OR the One Voice Children's Choir that does it. 

This song is so so so good. Seriously amazing. And I was listening to it on the way to a church building on Thanksgiving (which honestly was a super super tough day) and hadn't really thought too much of the words before. But this time they really hit hard. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, so just go ahead and give it another listen or your first listen and let me know what you think. I know God loves each and every one of you.

Stay stoked,

Elder Ditto

Here is the address for where to send mail and packages, since some people have been asking:

Elder Tyler Ditto

Utah Salt Lake Mission

3487 S 1300 E, West Entrance

Salt Lake City, UT   84106

🐸Live Frogs For Sale!🐸

¡Hola mi familia!

 Raking leaves and cleaning up the Sanchez's backyard. I love the Sanchez fam!

One thing that I may have mentioned before is how many cops and car accidents there are where I'm at. Anyways, this week we saw one that topped them all (so far). A huge semi truck crossed 4 lanes of traffic and then plowed itself into a group of pretty big trees and dug itself into the ground. It looked crazy. We didn't actually see it happen - only the after math. But by the looks of how far it got into the ditch and the trees it crushed, I can only assume it was going super dang fast. We said a quick prayer for the driver and hopefully they are okay and nobody else was injured. There were so many tow trucks and police cars there. They even had a few bobcats and crane type machines. Oh, also we saw a car accident where the car had flipped over and rolled a few times on the way home from church on Sunday. Utah drivers are insane. Sorry idk how many of you care about that but it was pretty insane so I had to share.

To start off this week's email I want to say how thankful I am for each of you. I think about all of you guys all the time and love you all. 

Okay back to stories that actually involve me:

Teaching Kotatsu:

I promised last week that I would talk a bit about our friend Kotatsu. Kotatsu is from Fukuoka Japan and came to the US for college. He has come to church quite a few times now with his friend and we started meeting with him last week. We were able to meet with him after church yesterday and talked a bit about God and how much He loves us. It was a super awesome lesson and I love getting to teach (mostly listen haha) Japanese lessons. Even though my Japanese skill level is like unto poop, I have felt the spirit and I have even been able to say a few things during the lessons. He's so awesome. We also are hoping to play some ping pong with him this week, so that is dope. Although he did say that he played in lots of tournaments back in Japan so he might whip my butt. Pray for my table tennis skills to increase this week😀

Live Frogs for sale. I didn't think I would find anything weird like this until I actually got to Japan but I guess the local Chinese market has some good stuff too!

Kevin's Trap House:

Okay so a few months ago Elder Leon and Elder Seachriest got a referral (When someone meets someone else and they say they want to have missionaries come visit them, talk, read the scriptures together, or have the missionaries share a message) for this guy named Kevin. Anyways, they had been trying to get a hold of him and visit him for the past many months but hadn't even met him until like our 8th time trying with me. Sadly, we caught him at a bad time and he was working on some of his cars. He said he is super busy but we should try to stop by again so we could talk. Since then we have tried 15+ more times and have yet to talk with him. But it's always fun because every time we knock on his door we never know who will answer. One time we had a good talk with one of his buddies who just barely moved to SLC from Guam to get away from drugs and going to jail. He was rad and we gave him our number but haven't heard back from him yet either. There are also always at least five cars in his driveway and tons of random people there. We are convinced he runs a trap house. We keep praying for Kevin and his friends and hope that soon we can actually talk to him and become friends. Pray for my man Kev.

Trying natto for the first time.

Natto

This week I ate 納豆 (natto = fermented soybeans). Basically everyone in Japan loves it. I did not. It was a super weird experience just because of the weird stringy-ness and smelly-ness and also taste thereof. Hopefully I start to like them though.

Honestly this week has been a pretty hard week. Probably the hardest one yet. It's hard living with people that you didn't pick to, it's hard living a different lifestyle, it's hard always being positive, it's hard not being able to speak the language I am trying to learn etc. I could go on and on haha. One thing that has helped me when I feel sad, frustrated, miss my family and friends, or anything else is praying and reading the scriptures. It helps me feel Jesus Christ's love for me and I can always find something in The Book of Mormon that helps me. 

Life is hard. But life is good.🤙

Speaking of life being hard... this week the modern day prophet and President of the church, President Nelson, shared this amazing video about Gratitude. If you haven't watched it yet (regardless of what you believe in or what faith you are), then WATCH IT! The video was seriously so awesome. He said so many things that have helped me feel comfort and peace as I have been implementing that into my life. He's such a smart guy too, so it's always cool to hear from him. I could really feel God's love for me as he was speaking in the short video.

Here is the link for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlcILxGmVrI 

Scripture of the week:

2 Nephi 4:21

21 He hath filled me with his ^alove, even unto the ^bconsuming of my flesh.

I love how Christ loves us so much and we can feel his love as we study more about him and pray.

私は私の救い主イエス・キリストが大好きです。

I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I have felt his love for me all throughout my life, and especially while I have been serving a mission for The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that out Heavenly Father sent his son, Jesus Christ, to live on this earth and minister to his brothers and sisters. Life is so much better because of Him!

イエス•キリストを愛しています！

Song(s) of the week:

- Whole Wide World by Mindy Gledhill. 

Such a great song.  I love listening to songs that I have never really thought about in a spiritual sense or in relation to God. There always seem to be a way to relate them to our lives.

- Thankful by Josh Groban. 

Thanksgiving is this week so get stoked to really be thinking about what you are thankful for!

Much Love,

Elda D

If Troy Bolton Were A Missionary

What a time to be alive!

Exchanges with Elder Eastwood! Such a great missionary!

Being a missionary can be super frustrating especially right now during these "weird" times. This past week COVID has gotten "really bad" here in Utah. The governor made some announcements about more restrictions that really limit the amount of people we can see and talk to. Even though I really wish that these restrictions could just go away and we could teach more people in person, I also have been working on finding joy in the journey. Learning from my mistakes and from hard times and relying on my Savior Jesus Christ more fully. 

Elder Leon gets really cold and has to double things up sometimes.

Last pday we got to play a lot of basketball so that was super sick. Elder Leon sadly does not like sports so it was just me and Elder Seachriest at first. We played one-on-one.  Elder Seachriest and I kinda sauced up. Then we convinced Elder Leon to play a game of P-I-G and that was rad too. Then we went over to this other church building and played against some other Elders in our district. That was also fun. One of the Elders is massive and committed to play football after his mission so that was funny and fun seeing him play ball.

This week there were so many little snow storms and it was so epic. I'm getting psyched for the big ones that will hopefully come soon and dump some pow⛷

This week we visited one of our favorite Dai Ichi members, Sister Sanchez. We always have a good talk and come away with some funny quotes. She is also super good at mixing in Japanese and English, haha. This time she talked about how the shinto religion and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are similar. It was really interesting getting her "inside views" since she lived in Japan for basically her whole life and didn't join the church until she was older. Anways, it was just fun talking about how everyone is just trying to come closer to God and learn more about him.

Elder Leon and Seachriest's shopping list 

Weird experience of the week:

We were on our way to district council (a meeting once a week with some missionaries that are in a similar geographical area), and we looked over and saw this old guy getting up from one knee and an old lady super excited and jumping up and down and then they kissed - side note: this was super weird because the guy had a mask on - anyways it was weird... so ya we saw a proposal this week. Gnar.

Weekly planning whiteboard

日本人の子供たち:

(Japanese kids)

We visited the Stanley fam and they have four young kids. The dad is American and the wife is Japanese (typical dai ichi ward fam). Anyways, their kids are like super good at speaking Japanese and are so funny too. During our whole visit there they kept bringing me different plastic foods and would ask me what i wanted to eat. This was all done in Japanese which was so funny and they even drew me some pictures too haha. I get a mixture of sadness and excitement when being around them because I love talking to them but I am also sad because the five year old is better at Japanese than I am, haha. I love the Stanley's and we are hoping to film a video with Brother Stanley because he is an artist and way good at painting and drawing. 

All in all this week has been pretty normal. Nothing too crazy has happened. I've really enjoyed visiting members of the dai ichi ward and the other church congregations we are over. Oh we also taught a lesson to this Japanese college student attending LDS business college (now called Ensign College I think) and that was sweet. But I will save that story for next week probably because we plan to have another lesson with him soon and are gonna play ping pong. He's super dope. If you guys could keep Kotatsu in your prayers, that would be awesome :)

Scripture of the week:

3 Nephi 12: 14-16 (The Book of Mormon)

14 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the light of this people. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

15 Behold, do men light a ^acandle and put it under a bushel? Nay, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light to all that are in the house;

16 Therefore let your ^alight so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and ^bglorify your Father who is in heaven.

- I love how this scripture talks about how we can share our "light" with others and be great examples to our friends and family. I love talking about our Savior Jesus Christ and about what brings me so much joy. 

Song of the week:

"I can only imagine" by Mercy Me

- I love this song and my companions and me have been jamming out to it this past week. Definitely some good messages in it too.

You guys are the best! Thanks for all the prayers and emails this past week. 

Love you all,

- Elder Ditto

The Breakfast of Champions - Sausage Skin Fruit and Tea

First off I want to apologize for my picture I included last week that was non-legible and blurry. 

I also didn't talk much about my experience at the temple last week. So here are a few things that I thought I should add in:

-The temple is truly the house of God and I really felt that when I was on the temple grounds and inside of it. If you ever have the time or ability to go to the temple then DO IT! Even if you are not a member. It's a beautiful place. 

I was able to go to the Jordan River Temple.

-My dad gave me this awesome book called "Preparing to enter into the holy temple" and that book is amazing! Highly recommend it.

Back in June when my hair was long!

-I went through the temple with three other missionaries that day and they are all super nice. Also, Alex and my dad were able to come with me and it was so awesome seeing them too. 

It had been several months since I had seen Alex so this was extra awesome to see him at the temple.

Dad, me, and Alex

Saying Goodbye to my family:

Family picture at Pacific City beach in Oregon in June.

On the morning of the 27th, my family and I left around 3:30am and drove to the Yakima airport. It was really sad saying goodbye to everyone... but I know that what I am doing is the right thing and that the two years will go by fast. 

I then had a 40 minute flight to Seattle and while on that flight I talked to this nice lady the whole time. Turns out she knows the Locke's pretty well so that was funny. Then after we landed I helped this lady carry all of her bags to get gate and we talked about her life and what I was doing wearing a suit at 6 am in the morning. She didn't speak very good English so I even talked to her in a little Spanish, haha. That was fun. Then I walked all the way over to my gate and read the whole missionary handbook twice because I wad so bored. I even studied some Japanese too. I also ate some McDonald's which was pretty yummy. Then I flew to Utah and that flight wasn't very crazy. I just read the scriptures and looked at the sick Washington and Oregon mountains for one last time. Then I landed and so many people said "hi" to me in Utah and there were tons of members of the church. It was weird. Then I met up with some other missionaries and did lots of training for the rest of that day and most of the next day. 

Here are a few more updates on my life currently:

- I gave a blessing to this lady that said she needed some help and guidance in her life and that was super cool. She is the mom of the boy, Keenan, that we baptised last week. I love their family. 

- My comps drink so much soda it's crazy. I'm still on that water diet, though. All they bought last week on pday was soda and Taki's haha. One day Elder Seachriest drank 7 Dr peppers... woah

 

mugicha (barley tea)

- Me and my companions drank 麦茶 (mugicha (barley tea)). Shootout to Elder Scow for sending it to me before he left for DC. Mugicha is a barley tea that is super common to drink in Japan, and it's one of the only tea's that we are allowed to drink. Everyone says that you eventually end up liking It but I guess if might take me a little. It was not very good but I am hoping it will make me more fluent.

Yummy Japanese sausage skin candy 

- I love visiting the Japanese members of the Dai ichi ward! They are so kind and fun to talk to. One member gave us these really interesting Japanese candies that basically taste like you take the fruit out of the fruit and then put it in a sausage skin hahah. Sounds gross but it's actually good. 

- Sunday was elder Leon's birthday so we did a little celebrating

New Kanji!!

- This week some of my studying has included learning some new kanji! It's been super fun, interesting, and hard

-IT SNOWED ON SUNDAY! Yayy I am excited to shovel people driveways. We went up to Bountiful and Roy area and it was so cool. We even got to stop at the temple up there and I took a killer pic on my camera...BUT I guess you will have to wait to see that when my mission President hopefully approves the app to transfer pics from my camera to my phone. I'm psyched for the snow.

We helped start a new branch!

A few days ago we got this call saying that the Granite Stake is creating a new branch. I also gave a talk in the new branch (small church congregation) that is completely full of elderly people, haha. It was super cool and the whole point of the branch is to try to keep the people at high risk for covid separate. Also, during the elderly branch we attended, this old guy named Brother Ashcraft was leading the music and the mic was still on the whole time. So it was basically a solo by this 80 year old guy. It was so epic. I love Brother Ashcraft.

Weird selfie and weird glasses (Seachriest is in the back and Leon is driving)

One thing that I have really been focusing and seeking to do better is doing better at finding new ways and better ways to teach others and find new people to teach. So if you have any suggestions or fun ways you think Elder Seachriest, Elder Leon, and myself could try, then I would love to hear! I really want to make some videos to share with others. 

Okay, well this email is getting long enough so I will cut it here. Thank you so much for every one that reads these emails! It means so much and I hope some of my experiences here in Utah are able to help you all out too. I love you all and you guys means a lot to me! Keep up the good work everyone! Oh and just a heads up: the mission i am in right now has a few weird rules that i don't understand and one of those is that basically if you want to contact me then email is the best way and basically the only allowed way. So if you want to send me a message then email is the way!! I would love to hear from you guys. tyler.ditto@missionary.org

Scripture of the week:

Helaman 7:7-9 - 

7 Oh, that I could have had my days in the days when my father Nephi first came out of the land of Jerusalem, that I could have ^ajoyed with him in the promised land; then were his people easy to be entreated, ^bfirm to keep the commandments of God, and slow to be led to do iniquity; and they were quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord—

8 Yea, if my days could have been in those days, then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren.

9 But behold, I am consigned that these are my days, and that my soul shall be filled with ^asorrow because of this the wickedness of my brethren.

This scripture is found in the Book of Mormon. It's when Nephi is thinking about how he wishes he was alive during his father's time or a "better time" because then he could have lived a better life and it would have been easier. This is very applicable to me right now and many people at this time. 

I have found that just like when Nephi realized that this is the time he is supposed to be here and that he is here for a reason, I have found the same. I have been able to teach and serve many people already while here in Utah. Even though I wish there were less restrictions on how and when I can serve, it has still been so, so uplifting. Serving others makes me happy and I promise it will make you happy too😊

Song(s) of the week:

Called to Serve by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. Such a good song. You should also listen to the Japanese version. It's even better. Also super applicable haha.

Down to the River to Pray by The Lower Lights. I have always loved this song. Mom loves it too, so shout out to her for showing it to me and always jamming out to it. 

Love,

Elder Ditto

ディットー長老

Studio C Welcomes Me To The Field

What's up everyone!!! This email is being sent from my beautiful living area in Salt Lake City Utah! Also it's being sent from my loaner Samsung phone that is garbage so it takes forever to type. So get ready for my email quality to go downhill until I get to Japan, hopefully. 

I woke up at 2:30 am to get ready to leave for the airport.

Big hug from dad

Farewell momma and dad

Hug with Chloe

Hug with Cooper

Tearful hug goodbye with Nathan.

3 am goodbyes at the Yakima airport.

See you in 21 months!

I made it to Salt Lake City!!!

These are all the missionaries that arrived the same day as I did at the SLC mission.  There are currently 300 missionaries serving in this mission and only 90 of them were actually called to this mission originally.

I made it!!

Haha...jokes on you. I live in a hotel. It's called the Staybridge Suites in Midvale Utah.  There are three hotel rooms that the missionaries live in at this hotel.  I know...weird. But it's not that bad. In fact there are some perks to it. We get free breakfast most days (breakfast sandwiches and fruit) and get some other things like towels and TP. So that's sick. BUT we don't have an oven or a working dishwasher. And we have no cleaning supplies so it was kinda dirty when I got here but I helped clean it up quite a bit. Oh and we only have two beds so that is weird that the church didn't think about that. But luckily Elder Seachriest misses Japan so he chose to sleep on the ground.  We have two burners, a microwave, refrigerator, and a blender.  Any ideas on what I can cook?

My companions:

The Trio

Elder Seachriest is from Puyallup WA, served Tokyo South, Japan for 13 months and is going home in like five weeks. He likes not eating sometimes for some reason and is really good at Japanese. I have learned a lot from him. 

Elder Leon is from Eugene OR and has been in SLC for like 4 months. He is also called to Tokyo South and is super excited to leave and get to Japan haha. He is technically training me but so is Elder Seachriest. 

Elder Leon in our hotel room.

We saw the guy Adam from Studio C on my first day out in Utah. That was crazy!

One of my companions just "fasts" all the time. He like never eats and it doesn't even phase him. He said one time he went for like four months without really eating anything. Weird. Sometimes we just skip some meals. I miss eating three full meals a day. So pray for me that I will be healthy and have money. 

We made tacos one night!

We don't have any music rules so that us cool but we have lots of other kinda stupid rules. So we listen to a lot of "Baby Metal" and Kanye. If you don't know what Baby Metal is then you should listen to it. It's kind of weird and very interesting. I don't like it but my companions do so I suffer through. Sometimes it's not that bad. Also, if you have any good songs downloaded that I should listen to then you should send them to me please. Please. tyler.ditto@missionary.org

We had two baptisms this week! We were late to our own baptism because we went to get Legos for the boy getting baptized but then the other set of Elders were being dumb and not telling us if they had them and we were a little late. It was sweet having two baptisms this week though. 

Prepping the baptismal font

Baptism of eight year old boy

A really special day!

I love teaching and serving people a lot. It's so much fun and just awesome.  We are assigned over the Japanese branch and three English wards in Holladay.  Due to COVID we are not allowed to eat at members homes right now.

I went to the Jordan River temple today and that was really awesome. I was also able to go out to lunch with Alex and dad so that was awesome. 

It was so wonderful to be with Alex and my dad a the temple

Big daddy hug!

Due to all the COVID restrictions I was only able to have two people with me at the temple.  My mom gave her spot up for Alex to be able to come with me.  I was able to FaceTime my mom at the temple and during lunch.  After lunch my dad and Alex dropped me off with one last goodbye hug. 

I got to talk to Alysee too!

I will attach a picture of the notes I took on my flight from Washington to Utah. Please read them. There are some funny things I saw and it was also a good time. But you might need a urim and thummin to translate it. Best of luck.

Super bad quality picture of my notes I took while flying from Yakima to SLC.

Speaking Japanese is fun. I can't wait to get to Japan but it's also sweet serving in Utah. 

Song of the week: 

"Hey Mama" by Kanye West. This song is really good and reminds me of home. I miss my mommy too.

Love, 

Elder Ditto