A White Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

I hope everyone had a good Christmas...but even more important...got to spend some extra time thinking about Jesus Christ.

Basically, our Christmas was like the best ever and also the worst. It felt so weird cuz it barely felt like Christmas (especially leading up to it), but it also was the best possible Christmas probably. Five of our friends we are teaching chose to be BAPTIZED and CONFIRMED a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It's also sick cuz none of them are "children of record" or anything. Their whole families are not members of the church but their parents are supportive and some of their sibs and parents want to get baptized too, but have some other things to work out first. Pretty legit. What a cool way to spend Christmas. 

Jovani, Moses and fam getting baptized

Nick, Bean, Titus and fam at their baptism 

So as missionaries would say...we had a "White Christmas." Even though it didn't even snow...well it did...but not till the 26th of December (which is pretty funny and lame)

 Christmas Day chat with mom and dad.

A gift from Young Chap

Here are some things that happened this week......

- We had a few super WARM days (like literally in the 50s)

- One of the friends we are teaching relapsed :(

- There was lots of thunder and lightning on Christmas Eve!

- I had my first kiss on my mission...a dog kissed me lol

- Our friend Robert Comstock came to church! This is actually pretty crazy cuz he is pretty dang old and not in the best health. AND he sang a solo, Mary Did You Know? in front of the whole congregation 

Also...sad news. Our friend Sister Palmer died this last week. She was pretty sick and then we got a call from someone we are teaching and they told us:/ she is a really good friend of the guy who relapsed too. Which doesn't help his spirits and his motivation to bounce back from that hard setback. Pray for them, please!!

Selfie for baptism 

 We spent a lot of time sorting these toiletry gifts for the missionaries. Shoutout to the people who donated!

Song of the Week:

- Mary Did You Know? by Robert Comstock! What a beast. He like couldn't even see the words, but he wrote them app out by hand in a big green marker and brought the papers to try to help him out

Scripture of the Week:

- 1 John 4:19 (The New Testament). "We love him because he first loved us". I know that Jesus Christ loves us. He loves me and loves you. 

- Luke 2 (The New Testament). This chapter is wayyy good! Christmas story! 

Members helping out our friend Friday! 

Sincerely, 

Elder Ditto 

VIP Chinese Oprah House

Merry Christmas!! I am excited for the next weekend to get to talk even more about Jesus Christ. It is definitely a blessing for us missionaries haha. 

I kinda forgot about what kind of stuff happened this week, but here are the things I wrote down and can remember:

- We got almost a foot of snow. Got dumped on Tuesday night to Wednesday morning 

Lots of snow!

- It took us 40 minutes to dig out our car 

car stuck 

- Got to drift occasionally (on accident of course)

- Transfers! Me and Elder Nogueira are staying together for another 7 weeks! 

- Old Chinese lady sang some Oprah songs to me in the middle of dinner. It was really weird. Weird eye contact too

- I cut Elder Nogueira's hair #fadedup

Snake! Medusa 

-Fair share of frustrating missionaries, members and peeps we are teaching... like lots of experiences lol. Some worse than others...

- Got 2 more rolls of film back 

Antibus baptism film 

Song of the Week:

- Jingle Bells. Or Rudolph the Red Noses Raindeer. I have not listened to enough Christmas music this year haha. So I might try to go hard this week. 

Scripture of the Week:

- Proverbs 3:5-6 (Old Testament)

One last time...Here is my address: 

Elder Tyler Ditto 

Utah Salt Lake Mission

3487 S 1300 E

West Entrance

Salt Lake City, UT 84106

Sincerely, 

Elder Ditto 

It Finally Snowed!!

Yooo! First off - it snowed this week. Which is so sick. I love the snow and am hyped for hopefully more snow to come :) 

Snow!!

Highlights of the week:

- got to play basketball with Antibus and his cousin on peeday with some other Elders too. It was super fun!

Film picture- Rubiks

- Nine people we are teaching will be baptized in the next month!! 

- We got a call from ZEID POOPOO. Like bro what... I don't how he got our number again lol. I haven't talked to him in like eight months lol

Elder G² and Elder Heywood 

- Antibus got a job but wouldn't take it cuz it made him work Sunday

film. me n Elder Moffett 

- I found out I am not getting transferred! I'll be here for 6 months! Pretty sick. I am excited to see all the great things that happen here!

 District B District Council 

- I got another roll of film developed. If you wanna see it then let me know 

lol a kid we are teaching passed out and got a pic with him posted up with a BoM and a pamphlet 

Song of the Week:

- Sia Christmas Album. Shout out to Elder Ross

Scripture of the Week:

- Matthew 11 (The New Testament). This chapter is so good! Take time to read it this week:) 

Someone we are teaching got us a gift 

This is my address: (hint: it never changes)

Elder Tyler Ditto 

Utah Salt Lake Mission

3487 S 1300 E

West Entrance

Salt Lake City, UT 84106

Snowy love, 

Elder Ditto 

Getting Mooned and Then Baptized

Hey hey hey! This week was good but honestly I don't remember much that happened lol. BUT Antibus got baptized! Which is super hype. I am seriously so hyped for him and amazed too haha. 

When Elder Wright and me met him like four months ago, you would have NEVER expected that this guy would get baptized. Like out of 100 people he would for sure be the last one haha. We met him and he was super cross faded and could barely talk. Now he is following God's Commandments and is a baptized member of Jesus Christ's Church! I'll never forget this amazing process that I have been able to be a part of. 

We had Zone Conference this week! Elder Pearson, who is the Area president came to it and he and his wife gave some good Christmas centered talks. Also Kenneth Cope (who apparently is famous for church music...but I had no idea who he was lol) came and performed a 1.5 hour presentation. It was super long but also pretty good. I love music. 

Posted up with poop #TowersOnMain

Oh also a homeless guy mooned us yesterday, so that's pretty gnarcrop. 

Me and Moses

Ooo and we saw this guy with the craziest Christmas Suit. I'll attach a pic. In like 5 minutes of when we were in the Lowe's parking lot, we saw so many veryyyy interesting people... very very weird. Salt lake is weird 

I gave Antibus a tie and Elder Nogueira gave him a white shirt. Antibus was pretty hyped for it  lemme know if you wanna see the video. 

Moochies 

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!! Find some time every day to do these challenges....

Light the World: 
https://assets.ldscdn.org/e6/64/e664112947f511ecb760eeeeac1ede292116c7c8/light_the_world.pdf?download=true

Song of the Week:

- Carol of the Bells by Pentatonix 

Scripture of the Week:
- Alma 19:13 (The Book of Mormon). A little prophesy for Christ's birth! #Christmas

13 For as sure as thou livest, behold, I have ^aseen my Redeemer; and he shall come forth, and be ^bborn of a ^cwoman, and he shall redeem all mankind who believe on his name. Now, when he had said these words, his heart was swollen within him, and he sunk again with joy; and the queen also sunk down, being overpowered by the Spirit.

Temple pictures from last week

Here is my address if you want it :)

Elder Tyler Ditto 
Utah Salt Lake Mission
3487 S 1300 E
West Entrance
Salt Lake City, UT 84106

LOVE, 
Elder Ditto

We Met Falafel Phil!!!

Woahhh Tuesday letter from Elder Ditto... getting crazy. I have been up since 4:30am this morning....Today we went to the Bountiful Temple! It was awesome. A temple is an amazing place where we make some special promises and covenants with our Heavenly Father. It really was a great experience and I felt God's love for me. I hope next time we go it doesn't have to be quite so early tho haha 

Early morning Bountiful temple 

Okay here are some funny stories from this week:

- I broke a bike chain and got a metal sliver in my hand... this metal piece is still in my finger, so if you have any tips to get those out then let me know. Hopefully, I don't get tetanus.

Poop

- We lost our car fob, so we had to interrupt sacrament meeting so we could go find it and then the alarm beeper thing started going off and we couldn't figure out how to stop it...still don't really know how I got it to stop, but we found our fob and now we are all good #thankseldernogueira 

Elder Quorum with Antibus 

- I got to teach in Spanish again! I'm definitely not good at Spanish and always get it mixed up with Japanese vocab or grammar. But it's fun and causes me to really think! 

Lazer dog

- Walked into a wing place and this guy (looks like falafel phil) and he yells "IT'S CLOSED!!!" and "THEY HAVE NO WORKERS!" Then he starts praying and the worker/owner walks away during the middle of the prayer after the prayer ended he just hyped the restaurant up and said "goodbye." Bro, it was so weird. And especially weird cuz the Falafel Phil guy doesn't even work there hahaha. He was just some random dude. Pray for Falafel Phil

The McRib is back 

Other notable-ish events:

- I "got to" ride a bike again this week

- had exchanges almost every day (5/7 days... no thanksgiving and no Sunday)

- Ate Thanksgiving with a nice part-member family. They hooked us up with an extra plate of food too 

- Currently, we are teaching over 60 people... way too many lol. We have been trying to "stop teaching" people like crazy. It's amazing how many people we get to meet who show real interest in changing and following Jesus Christ and then flake on us 

- I saw lots of blessings this week from being bold and persistent with people we met, members of the church, people we are teaching, missionaries, etc. 

PLEASE pray for Antibus this week!! He is a beast. 

Antibus learns more about prophets

Antibus!!! Learns the Word of Wisdom 

Quote of the Week:

- "Those cookies were bussin bussin... Well...not bussin bussin. But bussin." - Jovanni 

Song of the Week:

- Clarity by Zedd

Scripture of the Week:

- Alma Ch. 11 (The Book of Mormon)

In case any of you are DYING to send me a letter or some Christmas cheer, here you go:

Elder Tyler Ditto 

Utah Salt Lake Mission

3487 S 1300 E

West Entrance

Salt Lake City, UT 84106

Love you all,

Elder Ditto