October 22, 2008

Hey everyone,

So it was almost everyone' s birthday in my family during the last week i hope you had fun. And i hope you enjoyed your presents.

This week has been good i caught a snake, painted some houses, and went on an exchange. Its been fun and exciting.

So the snake was way fun. Sis. Adeniyi (sister ni for short) called us and told us she needed help with getting a snake out of her garage so we went over. After 20 minutes searching around in the garage we found nothing except two mice. It was pretty freaky poking all these boxes and lifting tarps and everything with a 6 foot wooden pole mind you. Still it was scary cause you didn't know where it was and you just knew it was gonna bit you at any moment. So that was intense. So finally we spotted it. It was 10 feet long ok just 2 feet long and black so that was exciting. So after and hour of work we managed to trap it in a corner than built a wall around it with boxes and things then we spent another hour with a stick and bag trying to catch this dumb thing without injuring it. So i got a bag put it on a pole. Tied a rope through it so that when i pulled the rope it would sinch up the bag. Then Elder chang lifted it off the ground enough i swung the bag under it and success ha ha. Then we drove a couple miles and released it into the wild (I'll send home pictures of the release later) So that was that story.

Exchanges were fun i went to Derwood and Elder Mackey came to Olney. I was with Elder Burnette and Elder Chandler we had a blast. We first went to District Meeting and then ate at Cici's all you can eat pizza then we went and did service at one of their investigators homes. After service we had a lesson with her. Then we went and changed and only 3 hours after all you can ate had dinner at a less active members house. After that we went and had another dinner at a members house i couldn't believe they schedualed two dinner!!! I was so full i almsot threw up trying to choke down the second dinner but i couldn't offend them so i just had to eat. I will never do that again so gross eating that much food i don't even eat that much on thanksgiving. Well that was fun.

Bad news Otho is not getting baptised so frustrating but he will come around we will continue to work with him and bring him to baptism and more importantly to active membership. So please pray for him.

I love all of you so much and will talk to you next week.

October 15, 2008

Hey Family and friends,

Hey all I hope you are doing well and hope all is well for you. I heard Grandpas funeral went well and i'm happy you all are doing well with that.

So this week the biggest news is Otho is hopefully being baptized on the 26th so thats like aweek and a half away so thats sweet!! He had an awesome expirience reading one morning and since then he just seems to know its true. I am so happy he took the steps to find out if its true He will be such a great member.

Matt is doing well and has not missed a day of church since we met with him. I'm so excited for him he will be baptized in january sometime I am so impressed by him. He is the man.

We have been tracting a lot this week and its hard on the body but i see the need for it. We met a man named Kahn and i'm so excited to meet with him he seemed very intrested. SO tracting does pay off after a while.
Elder Chang made me Ramen Noodle with egg it was so weird. ha ha Those crazy asains have weird food ha ha. well thats it for this week i hope you all are doing good. keep writing me and if you havent' written me do it, do it now ha ha love you all bye.


Hey more coming in a minute

Sept. 24, 2008

So how is everyone. Thanks for all the letters i got this week they were great. Also thanks for the big card from the block party it looked like ya'll had a grand ole time i loved those parties so thanks for thinking of me.

Big news is our baptism is off. Just some things to work out so it was pushed back for a while but i'm confident Matt will be baptised eventually.

I went on an exchange with the District Leader. His name is Elder Burnette he is way cool. It was good to have an expirience of missionary work with another missionary we tracted and had an appointment. It was fun to have some change and we even found a new investigator i'm excited for that appointment she seemed intrested so i'll let youknow.

Transfers are next week so thats big i'll be getting a new companion maybe staying here but you never know. I love olney so i hope i do but we'll see. I love Elder brooks and have learned so much from him. I'm so grateful i was given such a hard working, obediant, strong missionary to start me off right. He is such a great guy i love him. Well Sorry short letter it will be bigger next well maybe not with transfers but i will the week after for sure. thanks all i love you bye.

PS. A note to the family. If you are family and havent writter me i expect a letter soon. I want to hear from ALL of you it doens't count for you if someone else writes me!!!

Grandpa

I would like to dedicate this email though to just the family all my friends will just have to do without ... send it to kyle tho. If you could read this to the family i would appreciate it.

Starford Churchill was an example of great patience, love, humor, strength, and power. My grandpa always will amaze me because of this great patient love for my sweet grandmother. He cared for her everyday with great care kindness and love. My sweet grandmother suffered from depression so my grandpa often suffered from her depression. He was the receiving end of critical remarks of how he wasn't doing things right or good enough. Yet he always went on. He got her whatever she wanted. I will always remember each night when he would get out the cribbage board and play with my grandma. It was their game and they loved to play it.

My grandpa also cared for me while my mom was at work. If it wasn't for my grandpa bringing me countless school assignments, lunches, and permission slips I probably would have failed elementry school. But my favorite memories of grandpa have to do with summer. Each morning he would come down stairs and lovingly rip my blankets off me to wake me up. Then I would come up stairs and he would make me the worlds best toad in the hole while I talked with grandma. Then we would all watch M.A.S.H. after that we would play cribbage. Then grandpa would usually help me with my chores. He even helped me build my award winning pinederby car.

My grandpa was one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. Everywhere we would go with my grandpa he would have people laughing. He always made me laugh. Half of my jokes I stole from him no man can or ever will deliver old man jokes better than him.

Now for strength, I know of very few people who recovered as well as he did from two broken hips. He would never give up. He always just kept going. He dealt with parkinson's disease, but that didn't deter him either. He would get up and every morning go walking with tonka. Those two had a grand ole time. He was always playing with and pampering tonka. He will be so happy to see him again.

Power, I refer to as priesthood power. He lived worthy of this divine power and was a great example of this to me. One night when grandma was having a siesure I remember him yelling for us. My mom and I ran upstairs and looked in the room. He said call 911 then rolled over placed his hands on her head and commanded her by the authority of the priesthood and in the name of Jesus Christ to stop and the second he said it she was still. It was amazing, few men have such great unshakable faith as he did to perform that great act.

Most importantly to me my grandpa was the first member of my family to join the church. He converted before his parents. He paved the way for my family so that I could be born into this great and marvelous truth. I will be eternally grateful to him for joining the one true and living church of God.

Starford Leroy Churchill, my hero, my pioneer, but most impotantly my grandpa.

I'm glad you all are doing well with this I wish I could attend the funeral I would have liked to sing or something, but I know it will go ok without me. But know I would like to be there to carry his casket and lay him next to grandma. They are so happy together know and I'm so happy for them.

I love you all and miss you. -Elder Medina

Note from Mom

So I have not had anything new really to put on the blog, I will have to pry some pictures out of Ammon, he did send some of his apt. He was not in any of them though. Perhaps I will still put them on, after all it was fun for me to see how he is living...what he is living with and where and all. So keep an eye on the blog, I will try to do these pictures of the apartment this week. Ammon will have to learn to put himself in these pictures. It would have been more fun to the see the kitchen if he was at the sink doing some dishes, I think that would be great fun to see him doing dishes! So not really much else to add, except I know that my boy is doing great, he is loving from what I can tell, every second of his mission. Sure there are things he doesn't like doing as much as he likes other things, but his head and heart are in the right place and he knows that ALL the work must be done and his attitude is good about it. I will ask him for more pictures today in my weekly email to him. All of you take care and enjoy the updates.

September 9, 2008

So this week was so awesome we had a "tropical storm" it rained for 6 hours straight actually longer but thats ok. I was tracting in it for 5 so fun!! I couldn't belive how soacked i was ha ha well i actually could i mean i was in the rain i'm not stupid but still i was very wet, even my socks were soaking i had a 1/2 pool of water in the bottom of my shoe when i took it off ... waterproof my eye ha ha.

We have been contuning working with Matt it is going so well! We took him to a FHE at the presidents house we were in charge of the game. He had a great time so it was good. Matt is so elect i'm so excited for the 27.

Otho is coming along alright we have some things to work out with him so his date might be pushed back but we will see how it goes.

We met a new family yesterday at dinner. The mom is named Chesley and she is so cool. She said everything Sis. Darrington and you have taught me just makes sense. She is so cool i love when members step up and find people it makes missionary work so great!

We had a guy from our ward spend the night with us and a whole day he just got called to Vegas spanish speaking and is so excited it was nice to have him come out he was so excited it just helps us even more.

Well i'm out but i love all you guys and keep writing thanks for all you do. Talk to you next week.

-Elder A. Churchill Medina

September 3, 2008

Hey fam and friends,

Thanks to alll those who sent me letters, if i have not replied to you letter I'm sorry. I will get to it soon. If you haven't writen me you probably should.

So this might be short cause my computer reset right when i finished this letter before so frustrating.

So Matt is doing well. We went to the visitors center yesterday with him and did a tour of the VC leading up to when Christ comes to America (3Nephi:11) Than we watched the Testemants it was so good cause i had not seen it for a long long time and i've only ever seen it once so it was good to see again. Kohor was really funny and how they portrayed the Gadianton Robbers was funny too but i really really liked the movie.

SO Monday we played Cricket it was so fun. We had the Rajapakse family (parents of the recent convert Indy) come and teach us how to play since they are from Sri Lanka and love the sport. I'm such a good Cricket player. And by so good i mean really terrible ha ha. But it was fun.
Otho is coming along well and i'm getting really excited for our baptisms. Well its short but sorry i'll write bigger next week love you all -Elder Medina

August 27, 2008

Hey everybody,

So thanks for the letters to all who have written me I appreciate it. College starts pretty soon back there in Utah so for those about to rock i salute you. Ha ha. BYU football is about to start I'm not gonna lie I really wish i could watch but i'll be able to watch general confrence so who needs football ha ha.

So the big news of the week is that we have two baptism dates! One on the 21 of september and one on the 27 of september with Matt Demmitt and Otho Stuart Yay!!! I'm so excited their lives have already been blessed for their efforts and it will become even greater for them as they enter into the church that is ordained by God.

We have been tracting a lot and teaching we tract about 4-5 hours a day I've learned so much from it and my legs are getting really strong too. One thing i have learned is that what seperates our church from all the others is that we have the priesthood of God. We have the power to use that. As talked about in Jacob 4:6 (i think) we can command in the name of Christ and the very tees obey us. I love knowing we have the power of God on our side and i've seen the miracles that have come because of the power and will of God.

Alright continuing my favorite scripture i read this week is D&C 6:34,36 its really good so look it up. Like right now, Why aren't you looking it up seriously stop reading and look up the dang scripture ha ha just kidding. So 70 is coming to do a zone conference pretty exciting don't know who yet but it should be good.

I'm lov'in the weather out here we have had a really mild summer and its great for tracting. Oh i finally figured out the key to tracting ideas i know i wrote i wasn't loving it and if anyone had suggestions to email me but i figured it out thanks to preach my gospel i realized i could pray for an attitude change and i would receive it so I did and i love tracting now i mean i'd rather be teaching but its good to be able to talk to people and try to find those elect individuals who will hear God's word and know its truth. well I don't have much to say this week but yeah i'll talk to you all next week see ya

August 20, 2008

Hey fam and friends,

So Kris, my mini PMG is the envy of the whole district they were so jealous good job! I love it i use it all the time and everywhere now.

Thanks to all those who sent me letters i loved them if you haven't i'd love to get one from you :)

So two most fun thing i did this week. I chased a pack of 5 deer only two had antlers it was so fun also i played football in my sunday best for the first time in a game of road football (mom don't glare like that my suit and such is insured). It was me and elder brooks against 5 kids ... we won ha ha yay us. WE killed em too it wasn't even close ha ha it was fun. So two most prominent investigators of the week ...

Otho he is so cool he is black super humble and so ready for the gospel he is a member refferel who just moved here from phenox and was plopped in our lap. He has a few things to work out but he will be baptise (faith talking) he is so ready for the peace and happiness this message brings and i know he has the faith, sincerity, and real intent required.

K second is Matt he is so great. He has got an answer just hasn't quite realized it yet. We are working with him weekly though and he is getting very close i love him. We will be giving him a date next time probably so i'll keep you posted on him pray for him to get an answer.

Two coolest expiriences this week we meet with two muslim guys who requested a visit we called and set up an appointment and it turns out these to guys are high ranking muslims. So i pretty much met with a muslim General Authority it was way cool we gave him a Book of Mormon and he was so greatful. We met in an office and they gave us water food, offered to buy us lunch, it was amazing. It was a really neat expirience to meet with two men i felt way underqualified to be establishing such and interfaith relationship and answering such deep questions. Also we met with a man named tony his son just was put in jail and he is going through a rough time he is the greatest man ever though. He is so humble and so nice to us. He said everytime we come over (never come over at a planned time) it is always the time he needs us. Last time he just told us all his stress and different stories he has only told his wife he was so stressed cause of his son. His son is an awesome man who is very honest. Tony was so greatful for our visit we gave him a blessing and he was so touched and comforted by it. He said we were the reason he smiled for the first time all day. Such a great man going through so much trial. I hope he will except our message.

Well i'm out till next week love you all, Elder Ammon Churchill Medina

A Chat with Elder Ammon Medina

This entry is an entry from one day that I sent Ammon a note and just mentioned in it how awesome I thought he was, I am the mom and a bit biased, but really he is I think. Here is his reply, I wanted to share it with everyone (he didn't know I was going to) because it made me cry, again probably because I am the mom. It just shows to me how much he has grown and what he has gained so far from his mission and his service. His head and heart are in the right spot. Oh, it starts out with what he needs some specific prayers on, I asked him what HE needed as I felt I was just praying for general things.

Here is what I wrote:
"give me something specific to pray about for you, I feel like I am just offering a general prayer in your behalf and want to be more specific. YOU sound like you are flying high and loving every minute, your blessings are coming to light, you are doing well and blessing others around you. You are an amazing person, I always knew it."

His Reply:
"You can pray for me to be more focused. The truth is i'm not an amazing person. I have many inadaquacies (including spelling ha ha) i have many short comings. I am weak and frail. The only reason i'm having succes is through the atonement and turning to the Lord. Through our Savoir Jesus Christ all my short comings are long enough all my inadequacies are adequate, through my God i am strong and unwavering. I am a simple person but through my Redeemer great things can come about through me i'm merely a tool that has many weak points that the Lord knows how to use."

See wasn't that worth sharing?

August 13, 2008

Hey family and friends,

Thanks Bartholomews for the package I Loved it! Thank you Jenn for letter it is by far the most creative one i've recieved ... it took me 1minute and 28 seconds to put the pages together. :)
Olney is going good i love it out here. They weather has been a bit better the last week. Upper 80's instead of 90's so nice! I played cricket for the first time there is a recent convert in our ward named Indi and she is from Sri Lanka and her family loves playing so we played with them it was so fun. I'm really not good at it at all but its fun to play.
So we had the most amazing day yesterday the Lord was guiding us everywhere. We got 7 new investigators! Elder Brooks and I were shocked the Lord had prepared these people for us it was so great. I'm really excited to teach them. So Monday we cut up a tree it was so fun i love service out here. There is a family in our ward and they are remodeling and the wife got up in the attic and wired up the can lights in her kitchen. Then we she was getting out of the attic she slipped fell through the ceiling and fell 9 feet to straight concrete ... she broke her leg and was in the hospital a week. During this time a huge storm came and broke a big limb off their tree ha ha they are kinda struggling. Anyway it was good to cut up their tree.
K yesterday while we were tracting we say a 4 point deer!! I was so blown we were walking down this huge driveway and all of the sudden we see it and it looks at us and bounds away it was so great. I've also seen a coyote and a thousand squirrels and bunnies. Its exciting everytime.
OH! So there is this less active in our ward named Jerry and he is the most amazing man. He used to work on mines and lilitary anti-personell wepons, then he decided he didn't like that went back to school and studied medicine taught at NYU and then started working again and invented the vaccine for whooping cough! He is so brilliant he has two or three majors a phd and all sorts of amazing and he was so humble about it all.
So the latest on Matt we are working with him and he is committed to keeping the law of chastity, and the Word of Wisdom, he is so great and so humble he says he hasn't received an answer to his prayer to know if the BOM is true but feels at peace with everything more than he ever has before. He said he just knows everything will work out in his life and feels at peace with it all. I call that faith but you know. We will be issuing a baptism date soon.
We are teaching a recovering alcoholic named kathy and she is so great. She is so humble. She is truly searching for the truth. I hope she will have the faith to find it. I love this work and the chance i have to help people change their lives i'm so grateful i have been given the chance to stand by and watch as the spirit converts people. I hope i can find more people to hear the word, people who are humble enough to recognize truth and feel the spirit of God.
I love you all talk to you next week
-Elder Ammon Medina

August 6, 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

thank you to those who sent me letters I'm trying to write back but have very little letter time to do so, so i'll get to all of you in time.
This week was pretty much the same old same old. We tracted a lot! six hours yesterday. Its been pretty hot out here upper 90's and high humidity but its been ok. So we are teaching a lot more so thats really good.
Oh so a ward member gave us this stuff that turns your pee blue and Elder Brooks, Indi ( a recent convert), and a couple other ward members and i drank it. It was so funny. I took a picture ha ha. My pee was blue so weird!
Anyways, we are teaching 3 people consistently now and two we just picked up recently. K the first is Matt he is 19 and dating a member of our ward who just got back from BYU-I she is 19 and living with her parents. He is such a good investagtor he was at church sunday he is keeping all his commitments and we are extending a date to him tomorrow! I'm so excited! The girl he is dating is named Amber and her parents are the same way he wasn't a member and he investigated the church because of her and became a member and is such a strong member he is president of the High Priest Quorum.
K next is Kathy. We tracted into Kathy and she wanted to talk. We came back the next day with a member and taught a great first. The spirit was so strong she told us she is a recovering alcoholic and is lost and is looking for the truth. We asked her how she felt and she said she felt really good about our message she even believes Joseph Smith could have seen Heavenly Father she is so perfect we came at the perfect time in her life. I'm sure not by accident.
Thirdly is Yolanda. (yes she is black)
We tracted into her too. She wasn't all that intrested at the door but we kinda pushed her and she set up an appointment. We came back with a member named Erik Bloom ( just turned in his papers) and we asked her why she was intrested in meeting with us she said she always has admired the courage of missionaries to knock on doors and get rejected. She told us she met with some before and that she is looking for a church for her family. We taught the resoration and she was almost in tears it was so cool. She felt the spirit so strong. We are going back next week. I know she will be baptised. The only thing is she is moving to virginia and sadly we wont' be able to meet with her anymore. She was so good tho she honestly committed herself to read the book of mormon. and to come to church. She even prayed at the end and it was the best prayer i've ever heard from an investigotar she just sounded mormon Ha ha.
Well I love all you guys see you next week ps I'm very frustrated with the uneffectivness of tracting if anyone has suggestions please let me know. I know its neccesary and i will keep knocking just curious for suggestions. k bye

July 30, 2008

Hey fam and friends,

So this week was great I love this work more and more as each day goes by. I'm having a lot of great expiriences that strengthen my faith. Mike Leavitt gave a talk at the visitors center and his main theme was faith. He related it to molocules. He told stories that build up his faith and each time some experience happens that strengthens his faith it was a molocule of faith it was such a great talk i think he should write a book on that theme. Any way the point of that was to say that each and everyday i'm gaining molocules of faith. Saturday was one of the most depressing days of my life. Every appointment we had dogged us or fell through, we had a visitors trip planned for that night and it got canceled, little by little i became more and more depressed about the day. Anyway after dinner we decided to take our bikes out and bike to a guy we tracted into he is black and his name is Tony Hayes. His son just was put into jail and he is having a very hard time. When we got there because of the time he is going through his brother was there and his best friend so we biked up to the house and they treated us like family. They were so intrested in what we had to say, who i was, and really treated us like family. They really brightened my day. This man knew that Heavenly Father had given him all the things he had. He know the reason he is well off was because of God, and even through the trials he is suffering and all the bad in his life he only sees how great his Heavenly Father has been to him and aknowledges it. It make me see how good i had it and lifted me up because i felt so a part of their family. I like black people alot more than white out here. There is something about them maybe humility they are just nicer and kinder than white people.
So sunday was really good i love sundays we get up at 5:30 and go to meetings and church then we have my favorite meeting Ward mission corilation ( I don't know how to spell that ha ha) Bro. Walsman is my favorite person ever he is so dedicated to his calling. We were planning follow up meetings for the ward mission plan we issued and he was setting up follow ups for this day and his wife said,"thats your birhtday dan ... if you care." He just looked at her and was like i don't care. Than looked at us and said, "Commitment" i laughed so hard but he honestly can be described in that one word commitment. He is the perfect example of magnifying your calling i wish more members were like him.
So we got a kinda new investigator this week named Annie she was taught in this area before by the sisters but the elders took over the area and were kind of apostate missionaries so they didn't do anything anyway Sister Hodson saw us at the visitors center and told us to visit her and we did it was a great experience she knows its true i just know she does she will progress and get baptised.
We are also teaching a 19 year old named matt he is cool and i'm hopefull he will be baptised he is so sincere in his desire to find the truth that i'm pretty confident he will come to the knowledge of the truth.
Well i'm off thanks for all the letters i know this church is true. I know it was restored through Joseph Smith. Most importantly I know without a shadow of a doubt that the book of Mormon is the most true book in the world. I know the fulness of the gospel is contained in its pages i love you all bye.
-Elder Ammon Medina

July 23, 2008

Hey fam, and Friends,
Send me letters I want more ha ha. Thanks to all those who did send me letters.
Olney is picking up a bit. We have probably the worlds best ward mission leader. He gives everything he has to this calling despite the fact he has three kids and the oldest is 5 and
mentally handicap. He is a big part of the success we are beginning to see.
We are teaching a woman named Christy she has 5 kids all girls they are 10-6-4-2-1 wow! She is a good mom the house is crazy can you imagine 5 girls in one house! its amazing to me. Well she is keeping up with her reading so thats good. She is coming to church with us the first sunday she can sadly that isn't until august 17th!! She is going on vacation i just hope her family is not anti. As long as she reads she will be ok cause the lord will bless her.
Next is Matt he is 19 and is intrested in our church because he has seen how it blesses the life of his girlfriend who is in our ward. He is a good guy and went to church sunday so thats exciting. We will continue to teach him and i'm sure he will do great. I am very hopefull that he will be baptised.
Next is a lady who is about sixty, but honestly looks 45 she is way cool. She is somewhat seventh day adventast. But not so much. Her dad died recently and prayed to know where he was. She told us this right after we taught the plan of salvation. So she prayed us there. She is keeping her commiments she will take a while but i think she will be baptised it just might be a bit.
Despite these investigators we are still tracting alot cuase we don't have much of a teaching pool. we tracted six and a half hours monday and despite the distance and time as long as you stay focused on the work, Christ, and scriptures you have the spritit with you and keeps the spirit with you. The lord watches out for you as you do these things by giving us water people to talk to and lightening our steps so its good. I love my Heavenly Father and know the Book of Mormon is true everything we ever needed is in that book so use it!
I love you all
elder medina

First Letter From Olney Area

Hey Fam, July 9, 2008

Hey i'm here yeah, its been so great so far. We landed then went to the temple and reported to God what we were doing, that we got in safe and we told him what our mission goals were it was very exciting and spiritual.
Then we went back to the mission home and everyone took a nap. After that we ate dinner, it was so good and so filling we had brisket and mashed potatoes, and corn and green beans and rolls with home made strawberry jam. I loved it!
After that we did some training, then some more training then we played a game of around the world ping pong! I loved it I miss playing ping pong. After that we did some more training during training we met with the mission president. President Mansell is the coolest President in the whole world. He is funny and kind and serious about the work. So we did a little role playing then ate dessert it was tasty. Then had a testimony meeting it was so cool! The spirit was so strong I loved it.
In the moring we went to the temple visitors center and we had a meeting where I said goodbye to Elder Hall. Who was a great companion he always made me laugh so that was nice. My trainer has been out four months and his name is Elder Brooke he is so awesome. After that we went through the temple. It is so tall! It is the prettiest celestial room ever, I'm pretty sure the Best temple in the nation! After that we got my luggage and went to our apartment. Its a nice place I liked it and then we went to the library to write this email. I'm excited to get to work we only have 3 families and they aren't really intrested so pray that we will meet people. I can't wait to find new people our goal is to get a baptism by the end of the transfer we will do it!
Personal Insight of the week. Bear your testimony often. I finally realized by bearing your testimony often strengthens your testimony every time you bear witness of the truthfulness of this gospel you recieve a witness of the truth. SO STRENGTHEN your testimony and bear your testimony at every chance you get.
Love you all! bye.

Meet my Companion

After arriving in DC and doing a temple session it was back to the mission home in Potomac, Maryland. Ammon's first companion is Elder Brooks, he has been out for nearly 5 months now and is Ammon's trainer. Ammon says he is awesome and has learned a lot from him. They are in Olney Maryland, if you look at the map at the very bottom of this blog you can Olney at the top part of his mission (in the gray area) Olney is about as far North as you can go and stay in his mission area. Ammon says it is a tough area, but they have a great Ward Mission Leader who works hard and is getting them some great contacts. I think we are pretty much caught up, a rudementary sort of way, I will add new things each week if nothing more than Ammon's weekly letter home. Keep watching for new pictures and more information. Feel free to email me if you want to ask any questions or want me to pass something on to Ammon. He of course would love to hear from you. Look for his Mission Address here on the Blog.

Getting to DC

Well after the MTC it was off to Washington DC, the group left on July 7th at 8:30 p.m. they were to report to the travel office at the MTC and from there they all headed to the Salt Lake Airport. Once settled in it was wait for take off, gratefully they were allowed a call home and I got to talk to my boy for about 20 minutes and then it was time for him to board his plane. They arrived in New York and had to wait there for 2 hours before their plane to Washington DC was ready to bord. Here is a picture of one of the missionaries (Elder Saddeh) in his group boarding the plane they took to Washington DC. They were excited to arrive!

Once there they immediately went the Temple, the Washington DC Temple of course, Included here is a picture Ammon took of the Temple. It is a beauty!

The Beginning

I started this blog and was a little ahead of myself, I admit I didn't know what I was doing, I am certainly no expert yet, but have figured out a few things so I am backing up a bit to start from the beginning. The Call, Washington DC North Mission! Ammon was kind of hoping for a spanish speaking mission, but after he read where HIS mission was to be, it was all HIS, he was extremely excited and very happy in fact to be speaking English. He was excited to in his words, "hit the ground running". He entered the MTC on June 18, 2008.

It was definately a day of mixed emotion for Mom, as you all know he was my right hand man from the day he was born at 8 lbs. 14 oz. and 21.5" long until the day he left at 6'6" and 245 lbs. Takes a lot of love to grow them that big! He loved the MTC and his companion there, his name was Elder Hall from Idaho, Elder Medina and Elder Hall got along very well and made the most of their MTC time. They studied hard and worked hard and went to DC together and parted on July 8th for their separate areas.

First time ever on blogging, don't quite understand it so be patient and I hope it will look descent. Going to try and keep things posted here each Sunday on what is up with Ammon, I will put his weekly letter here and I will add some pictures as I get them from him. Hopefully this way you can all share his mission with me and enjoy his pictures and letters and what he is up to and how he is doing.