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.
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 famπ
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 Swimπ
- Played at the coast (I didn’t get to get in the water π 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 lotπ’
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.
