The Challenge and the Russian Accent

The work is still going forward. It’s been a little slow these past few weeks but the pace is about to pick back up. We have really been focusing on finding new people and working with the members a ton. We are doing both a month long fast with the members (This means that each of the members are fasting for one day, not that he is fasting for one month. Whew.)  and doing a game night the end of September. I feel really comfortable here and I know the ward well. There are always new challenges and things that come up but I am liking it here. We are definitely working on managing our time better. There are a lot of good things that we can do as missionaries but there are also a lot of better things that we can do as well. The key comes when you pray to decide what is good and what is better. It’s tricky but we are learning. 

Spiritual: We had a lesson with the man who pulled us over on bikes this past week. We went over and showed him a Mormon message. For some reason the Spirit was so powerful. We were talking about if he should even believe in a God. What good that would be for him. He had the idea that if religion didn't exist then the world would be a much better place. I saw just how confused we can get without the help of the Holy Ghost in our life. It’s so easy to get off of the beaten path and onto strange and forsaken roads without the influence of the Spirit. We were talking about his purpose of life and he was telling us how there is no real purpose and how God doesn't love him and all of these just heart breaking thing. I was able to bear my testimony that God is real and that all he has to do to find out is just to try. Take the challenge in Alma 32 and have an experiment. We challenged him to do that. I know that this is the truth. I am not the brightest kid ever but I know by more power than a logically reasoned argument that this church is true and that God lives and loves us. I am so grateful for the Spirit bearing witness to me over and over and over again that this is true and that this work is the work of salvation. I know it and I love it. 

Funny: We had dinner with a super cool family this week. The Morgun family is so much fun! He is from the Ukraine and has a super thick accent. He is a volunteer teacher at the DLI and is super funny. He was telling us his conversion story and leading up to telling us about how he joined the military. He put it very simply. I pray and I feel good. So I do it. (read in a Russian accent) I like that family. He was also telling us about how on his mission in New Zealand some of the assistants would carry an ax in the trunk and he asked why and they told him while swinging the ax manically "would you like to take first discussion?" It made me laugh to hear that story told by that thick of Russian accent. It made me happy.

Where I am at: It’s so amazing how the Lord answers prayers. We need to have the faith to hold out and be patient when they don’t get answered right then. We also sometimes need the awareness to realize that sometimes our prayers get answered little by little and we don’t realize it. There have been a lot of small miracles this week and we have really noticed how the Lord is still here. I love the small miracles. The investigators are still going well. We have a lot of good plans for the people we are teaching and we are excited for their progression. The new greenie in our apartment is awesome! It’s fun to have a little green fire here. It’s also really fun to be serving around Elder Hamilton. Things are great! Love you all! 

Ammon is Noah Hamilton's zone leader in Monterrey. He says that Noah has a great trainer and is doing really well. Ammon and Noah went to school in Murray together. 

We also asked him about the earthquake in his area on Sunday. This was his experience with it: The earthquake was so crazy that I slept right through it. Didn't even know it was an earthquake. I was actually a little disappointed. We didn't find out that one had hit till much later. haha
 

It's Awesome, and Apparently Green

This week was really fun to be in Monterey. The huge massive car show was going on and it was so fun to watch all of the really nice cars go by. It was fun to see. I have been having a great time here. I feel like I am getting better at doing rather than just absorbing the information and things that we need to do. I like it a ton. I have really felt a lot of growth being here. This week was a little slow for our area because we had a ton of meetings and we were with Elder Green-Bey and working in his area. It’s been fun but a little annoying at times.

Spiritual: I would like to brag about Dhani and how awesome he is doing, but I feel like I should share about the power and the blatant AWESOMENESS that we have here as members of the church. We had stake conference and Elder Nelson of the 70 came to speak to us. He told us a story about how one of his fellow authorities was giving a tour of the Ogden temple to a couple of visiting officials from china and he was telling them about the first vision. One of them asked him after the story "Do you mean to say that Jesus Christ and God the Father actually appeared on the earth?" The 70 answered "Yes. That’s exactly what we are telling people." The Chinese official said "That is so awesome! We have to tell everyone about that!" He responded "We're trying!" How interesting that a professional man would be so amazed that Jesus and Heavenly Father actually appeared to someone here on earth! We have the acute knowledge that the heavens are open to anyone who will ask. We have the chance to receive revelations from a loving God himself! This is so incredible, wonderful, beautiful, and invigorating. I love this gospel and the things that it teaches. There is no other gospel that teaches about such divine potential and such a remarkable heritage. I love this message that we share. This is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. This is His Church. He lives. He is constantly aware of our thoughts and our actions. I love Him. This is my witness and my testimony. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Funny: We were teaching an investigator who was former Hindu and he happened to be not in his right frame of mind. He was consuming some not good substances so he was a little weird and a little ranty. He started to tell us about what he believed. It was crazy because he completely believed in Jesus Christ. The problem came because he just added him on to the list of Gods that he had. Sigh. My favorite comment that he made during one of his rants was "Oh, I also believe that Jesus was green." To any of you that are considering going on a mission. Please make it a point to take a little bit of theatrical training so when an investigator says something absolutely crazy you can keep a straight face. My companions unfortunately did not have that same training and we were doing a little bit of repair work before we could move on. 

Where I am at: The car show has been really fun to be around. Our favorite game to play as a companionship in the car is "Count the Ferrari's." We like that game. It’s been cool to look at them. Elder Green-Bey is training and the rest of the zone has gone through a lot of transitions. Transfers are always a lot of fun. Things are going well. We don’t have anyone lined up to be baptized just yet, but there will be some on here soon. This is going to be a really fun transfer. I am so excited. I love the feeling of a new adventure. A new start to the way I approach the work. I love you all!

Elder Ammon Black

Cheesy Mission Story

It’s been a good week. This was a slower week than most. It was still fun to be a missionary. I love talking to people all the time. My Spanish is being forced to get better. It was cool. We were on exchanges and my companion at the time didn't speak Spanish at all. So I was talking to someone else and when I finished he came and grabbed me. I was a little worried till I saw one of the members in the Spanish branch standing there. I went up and said hi and started speaking to the lady. He waited till the lady was getting annoyed and a little angry then he stepped in and by the end the lady was thanking me for the book. It was awesome. 

Spiritual: This week we were riding our bikes outside of a trailer park around the Fort Ord housing community. We were heading out around 9:00 and so the other elders were coming to pick us up down the road. We were turning on to Coe Ave. and all of the sudden we noticed a car behind us that had a hand waving salutations behind us. Generally this would be an over excited member who would be vacationing and loves to see missionaries and would pull us over and say hi, or it’s a member from our ward who loves the missionaries. So this car waves at us and we in reply give a wave and bike on. This is strange though because the car passes us and pulls over ahead. Instantly we know something is about to happen. We rolled up to the window and start talking to the guy driving. This is going to sound like a cheesy mission story but he actually said "I have a few questions and I was wondering if I could talk to you guys for a minute." I was really happy because I love cheesy mission stories. We told him to pull over into a nearby parking lot. At that same time the phone rang and Elder Barney answered and started explaining to the other missionaries where we were. I rolled over to him and told him to drop it because we had a live one! It was good as well! We met him in the parking lot and he had a lot of questions that made us consider if he wanted to bible bash us or if he was truly interested. He was about 23 and had a kind face. He programmed computers for a living and was a website designer. Smart guy. We pulled up at told him that it took a lot of courage to flag down a couple of strange guys in white shirts on bikes. He said it was no big deal and we started talking for a while about some of the normal questions about Mormons. What the missionary purpose was, where the church came from and other trivial matters. Then things got deep. He started telling us about his deeply rooted concerns about the God and how he was going through a period of self-doubt and was trying to get over it. It felt so good to explain to him that he was a son of God and that God was his father. After we were finished talking we asked him if that helped him. He said it had and he was grateful for the help. The spirit was there and it was cool to see his Constance change to one of peace during the conversation. We set up a return appointment and sent him on his way. Oh it felt so wonderful to explain to him that he was in fact a child of God. The concept that Heavenly Father will parent all of his kids differently because we are all different and the way we parent here on earth can relate so well to the way that our Father in Heaven parents us on a much grander scale. I love my Father and I am so happy to share His gospel. We are children of a Heavenly Father who loves us and teaches us every day. His love never ends. 

Funny:

We exercised faith like unto Abinadi on the beach. 

Where I am at: Super amazing to see Dhani bless the sacrament on Sunday. Oh that made my heart happy. That makes me want to have more people join the church. It made me so happy for him. The work is still rolling and things are going well here. The big thing here in Monterey is the fact that one of the largest car shows in the world is going on here. It’s called the Concourse de Elegance. It’s huge! Some 28 MILLION DOLLAR cars are going to be rolling through my area. Wow. It’s fun. I am happy and content. I like where I am and things are going well. 

I love you all!

Of Converts and Cats

This week was a good solid week. It was a little crazy because we were covering three wards and doing lots of driving around. It’s been fun being in a Trio again because the other elder that stays with us is without companion. The good news for this week is that he found a companion and is now healthy and back in the normal swing of things. And we are back on bikes. :) I like that though. It makes it easier to contact and work.

Spiritual: We are still having close contact with Dhani where we take him to dinners and FHE and other things like that. One of the nights though we went contacting. Dhani showed up in his shirt and tie looking all spiffy like and we said a prayer and went out to face the masses in the grocery outlet parking lot. Wow. What an incredible sight it is to see someone who was questioning the existence of God just a month prior turn around and bear a powerful testimony about how he found out that God is real and that this is the true church. We contacted a man by the name of Antonio and he was obviously not super happy to talk to us. We kept persevering and finally he opened up to us. His mom passed away a little while ago and he was still struggling with that. Dhani bore his testimony to him of the power and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It was incredible. The spirit that he brought with his sincerity and faith brought not only me to tear up but it brought Antonio all the way to tears. It was exhilarating to see such conversion. That got me so fired up to go out and bring more people to Christ. There is not a single person who could not benefit by becoming converted. True conversion is literally something to write home about. This is a true change of heart. That made me get excited to help bring more people unto Christ and it also caused me to think that fear is something that is learned. When we are young we have no reservations about going up to people and talking to them and sometimes we say some weird stuff. We should remember that fear is the opposite of faith and every time we fear, we are hindering our faith. I know that this is true and I am not afraid.   "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." D&C 6:36

Funny: Because we were covering three wards, I got the chance to go see Tommy again. This was a street contact that we had and has come to church and is learning more. A truly great guy, just is a little different. We went over and were going to sit in his front porch. We were making some small talk "How has your week been?" "Good." "Cool! What happened?" "My cat died." "Sorry to hear that!" "How is your sister?" "Good." The conversation went like that. It was a little crowded with stuff and there weren't a ton of good places to sit. Elder Green-Bey was making his way over to sit down on a chair that had a cardboard box on it. He picked up the box and all sorts of ants ran out from it. It was like the children of Israel running from the plagues. It was a lot of ants. We asked them if there was any other place we could sit down and talk. He said yes so we moved into the back yard. We met there and were talking for a little bit and he was telling us about his poor cat who passed. Casually he mentioned that the service would be taking place tomorrow when they would bury the kitty. Elder Green-Bey paused then asked him if the cat was in the box on the porch. Yep. Dead cat. In a box. On the porch. We were very glad that we didn't sit down on the porch. That poor kitty. He said the closing prayer for us. He prayed and said "I know that you are protecting me and helping me, but you couldn't protect my poor cat. I know that he is in a better place though and being watched over." The plan of salvation has really started to take hold in his heart. Whatever it takes to help him understand that we have life after death. Whatever it takes. 

Where I am at: The work is going well here in Seaside. The Hipol family took a church tour this past week and liked it. They are coming pretty close. Having a mini missionary with Elder Green-Bey has made me realize how accustom to missionary life I really am. I love it. It’s the best work I could ever do. It’s so crazy to see kids going back to school and to remember what that felt like and how thankful I am to be where I am. I still have a lot to work on but the nice thing is that I can work on weaknesses. I love this time. Things are great. I love you all!