HAPPY FAMILY DAY!!!!

HAPPY FAMILY DAY!!!!

So yesterday was Family Day here in Canada. So today is our P-Day.

Yes. It  basically is Springtime here in Toronto now. Two Sundays ago we had a HUGE snow storm, then a week later, the weather was SUPER good and it's been that way since.

Good luck with your big group project, Mom. And yes, I remember the brick wall that the car "shifted" into. I don't want to talk about it. ;) GO SEE FANTASTIC BEASTS!!!! Y'all a bunch of muggles.

WIMPS!!!! Sushi is NOT worth it unless it is All-You-Can-Eat. Last Monday, we were going to go with some Elders to Sushi, but not do All-You-Can-Eat, but then we got there and we were like "not worth it, let's go all you can eat." So we did. That sounds AWESOME about the exhibit. I'm excited to come and see it!! Good luck with all the sports and stuff.

This last week was pretty different. A lot of different missionary work. Administrative stuff and what not.

Monday was fun. We played lots of sports, then we met with the Padron Family, and let me tell you, I haven't had a Family Dinner like that since I was with you all. The whole dinner was bickering and fighting (with love). The parents are VERY similar to you two, Mom and Dad, and the they have two boys, ages 17 and 15 and two girls who are 12 and 6 (and older kids who weren't there). The majority of the dinner was the boys fighting a saying mean things to the dad, and the dad saying mean things back to them and making fun of them. And the mom defending her kids. To get any words in, you had to be the loudest voice. It was great. We had a great FHE with them were I played the piano while we sang songs, then the dad gave a huge talk about how his family was going to do lots more Missionary Work, so it went really well.

Tuesday was average. We had dinner with a great member couple from El Savlador. We got our FIRST student at our English Classes!! He's a young man named Nicholas, from Chile.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was a lot of fun. I got to see some missionaries that I hadn't seen for a while there. I played for a Musical Number (typical). All in all, it was decent. Later on Wednesday, we had dinner with a sweet Argentinian family. They invited us over next week for Mate. So I'm pretty excited.

Thursday, we did lots of service. We had dinner with a sweet Peruvian family, who's going to take us to Niagara Falls in a couple of weeks. They're awesome. Later Thursday, I gave a Baptismal Interview to a man from Ghana, named Philip. He's pretty awesome. That night, we exchanged with the Zone Leaders, so I stayed the night with Elder Jeremy Scofield, from Sandy, Utah; and the APs.

Friday, we had exchanges all day. We taught a lot of good lessons, all Indian people. That's basically all that the English Elders teach here in Brampton. Later Friday night, we got a new microwave for our basement, then we got pizza, then we exchanged back.

Saturday was a great day. We got SIX new students at our English Classes. A French Family from Quebec, Canada. Later that day, we went to Mississauga, one of my old areas, to give another Baptismal Interview. The investigator's name is Mina. He's from Egypt and is SO sweet. He's gunna get baptized. After the interview, I got to swing by one of my good friends that I helped baptized. He's leaving for the Dominican Republic (which is where he's from) this Friday and will be there for a couple of months. So, not knowing if I'll ever see him again, I had to swing by and say goodbye. It was so sweet. Luckily, he was home and we got to chill and talk about life for a little bit. He's so awesome. He's an 18 year old Dominican, who speaks very little English. I love him to death. After that, Philip (mentioned above), had his baptism. I came and played the piano for it. And we got all the left over food afterwards. So that was good!!

Sunday, we had a wonderful Sabbath Day. One of our investigators came to church and the meetings were very nice. We later had a wonderful lunch with a sweet Peruvian Family (different from the one mentioned above). We later drove around, met with some investigators, knocked some doors, and met some really nice people. So it was a nice day, all in all.

So, like I said yesterday was Family Day in Canada (which is why my P-Day is today) and it was fun. We had a fun Ward activity where we played soccer and volleyball and ate pizza. A few non-members were there (including this less-accountable man named Victor, at first I though he was drunk, then we realized he's just not all there, like at all). So it was fun. Later, last night, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for my first time. It was good, but not a place for missionaries. Missionaries, who are not supposed to watch TV, shouldn't go to a restaurant that is famous for having tons of TVs all around you. Especially because I'm a pretty big sports fan and they had some good games playing last night. The food was decent, the service was crummy, I wasn't terribly impressed. It wasn't no Cheesecake Factory. Later, last night we were visiting with a member family from Mexico and the father (who served his mission in Guadalajara, Mexico) was telling us all these stories about his mission. One of his sons just came to Canada (from Veracruz, Mexico; finishing up his studies) and it was so fun last night. Mexican Spanish is so fun, and full of slang. One point last night, I think the family started talking about me (in Mexican Spanish), and I got like none of it. There was so much slang. I felt left out. BUT, they gave us Mexican sweets, and I'm eating one right now. It's Tamarindo with Chili. It's so good.

So that was my week. Life is good though. Lovin' the mission. Lovin' Life.

One thing that I've been thinking about lately, and enjoying, is music; especially the music of the church. I told my companion last Sunday that my favorite thing about church (apart from the Sacrament) is singing the Hymns. There's just an incredible Spirit that comes with them. One of my friends in another mission told a story where she was in a house full of hoarded items and the family was playing videos games and basically going crazy, and not paying attention to the lesson; so she stood up, turned off the TV, and started singing. She said the whole family paid attention to her and quieted down. The Hymns bring the Spirit so strongly. People always say, "Hum Your Favorite Hymn" or "Memorize a Hymn." And let me tell you, it works. What better than to fill you mind and your life with pure, beautiful music about our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that he lives and we have the great opportunity to sing praises to him whenever we want to. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Getting a hair cut today, so I'll send you some Before/After pictures.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!
tomorrow.
To celebrate though, I'm wearing a pink tie. So that's fun. GO TO FANTASTIC BEASTS!!!! It's the one movie that makes me want to come home the most. When I was in Toronto, there were signs and billboards of it EVERYWHERE!!! It killed me.
Playing at weddings is pretty fun. Is it going to be at the church?? I learned, after I did this at a wedding, that it's against Church Handbook to play the Wedding March in the chapel during a wedding. Whoops!! It sounded pretty sweet though. Send her my congratulations.
Good work on the basketball teams guys!!! Keep winning!!! Good luck with Lacrosse Micah. And keep killing it with skating Sophie. Just remember, the better you get, the more opposition you'll get. That's how you know you're really good. :) And good luck with clogging Savannah. 'Tis a strange dance. Sounds like life is pretty busy, and that's good.
Life's been pretty busy here too.
Monday we had a pretty good P-Day. Played some sports, then later that night we were able to teach one of our investigators, Jorge. He is from Colombia, which is awesome!!! He definitely needs some more time and Jesus until he's ready for baptism.
Tuesday we met with Romeo (and Juliet, haha, just kidding). But he's SUPER ready to be baptized. He's a solid investigator from El Salvador. He just needs to wait for his family to get back from El Salvador, in March, to get baptized. No problems there. Later on Tuesday, we taught a crazy, old Ecuadorian couple. The husband is a member, but he doesn't remember and his wife is pretty Catholic. The lesson was just basically him asking us pointless questions about the church, then the couple fighting about how the Catholic church is good/bad. The lessons are pretty rough, but good Spanish practice!! :)
Also, on Tuesday, we got a Terrible Freezing Rain storm. It was SO bad. Good thing my companion is a good driver. We honestly had to drive a lot that day, so it was pretty funny. We didn't crash. Sadly, the freezing rain made it so that we had no students at our English Classes, so that wasn't funny. :|
Wednesday was a lot of service, service stuff, and cleaning.
Thursday I made a cheesecake...again. It was decent, people like it. I also bought the full Bible Videos set for $5.00 at the temple's Distribution Center. They're so good, so I'm pretty excited about that. Later on Thursday, we went to Downtown Brampton at 8:00 PM to walk around and stick up fliers. It was SO COLD and SO FUN!!! I honestly love the biting, freezing cold. So that was great. There was basically no one out walking around, because it was so cold. The Tim Horton's hot chocolate afterwards was good too. :)
Friday was a fun day. We had District Meeting, where we played a getting to know you game and did missionary stuff and ate Cheesecake. It was all very fun.
So basically our ward here is super awesome and we get dinner just about everyday. But last Friday, no one had signed up for dinner; so we decided to make it a night and go get some All You Can Eat Sushi. Bad decision....
It was all fun and games and deliciousness until we ordered round two. We were finishing up round one when round two came, and we both realized after we finished round one that we had no desire to eat anything anymore. And in front of us was a pretty big plate of sushi. And if we didn't eat the sushi, it would have cost us like 10 extra dollars. So we cried, then I thought "Hey, I've thrown up before eating sushi, I could probably do it again and then eat the rest of this to save us $10.00.” So I went to the bathroom, but I didn't thrown up. It was probably for the best.
After the bathroom though, I ate a little bit more, and so did my companion. Luckily, our waitress was a saint and didn't charge us for the extra sushi. So we had dessert and went home. :)
We had gotten a pretty big snow storm that day, so we decided to go this member's house and shovel her driveway. After shoveling, she invited us in for soup and hot chocolate. I told her that we had already eaten a huge dinner but we'll take the Hot Chocolate. But she insisted on giving us at least a little soup. So she gave us this nasty alphabet soup, and it was more than a little, and huge mugs of Hot Chocolate. It was awful. But we ate it all. After leaving that house, I could have EASILY thrown up, but I held myself together. So morals of the story, watch how much you order, and never trust the members in the Chinguacousy Park Ward to not feed you.
Saturday was boring. No one came to English Classes again. We did however have a wonderful dinner with the Ortigoza family. The husband is from Venezuela and the wife is from Bogota, Colombia. She was serving in the neighboring mission to Dad around the same time he served, so that's cool. Their adorable Hispanic grandkids were there, and they made me want kids...5 months. ;)
Sunday we got hit with a HUGE snow storm. It was AWESOME!!!! Sadly, because of it, not very many people came to church. We did have one investigator there, so that was good. We shoveled a lot on Sunday and had a nice dinner with a Uruguatian/El Salvadorean family.  Later Sunday night we went to a Fireside where our Mission President, President Shields and his wife talked about how to find true happiness. They did very well. Also, they had a group of Disney Cruise Ship singers come and sing a few spiritual songs. They were SO GOOD!!! Obviously. A few of them were LDS (one couple was fresh out of BYU) so that was really cool. It was really fun to see all the people I know in the different wards in the Stake (because I've served half my mission in this Stake). A lot of them thought that I had went home, because I was gone for so long in Leamington. It was sweet reunions.
One thing I've come to realize, through the Fireside last night, and through Gordon B. Hinckley's third lesson in his book; is that true happiness can be found through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We live in a world where famous, rich artists are put on screens, magazines, books, etc. and we are told that that is happiness: Money, sex, drugs, fancy clothes, etc. But when you take away the fancy clothes (not literally), the makeup, the money, the editing, the glamour; these people live pretty depressing lives. It would surprise you how many comedians are depressed and how many celebrities have committed suicide. They are not happy. They do not have the Gospel (most of them). If you really want to find true happiness in life, follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ, achieve great things, reach for the stars, and live life to the fullest. "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." (2 Nephi 2:25). Life is meant to have happiness. So go be happy. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Ammon in glasses

Enjoy the pic!!

I found these glasses in our basement. They're not real, but I like them. :}

Craziness!!

Craziness!!

All the festivities sound pretty fun. Intense Super Bowl. I'm still pretty ticked off that Olivia won't put off her wedding for me. :| I guess that's life though. I don't know what I need to do to register either, but I'll look into it as well.
So this week was pretty nutsy stuff.
Monday was P-Day, like usual. But it wasn't the usual. We 2 hours up to London, where we went to get some Smoke's Poutine with the District. It was super fun. The guy running the cash register was like, "You guys are so nice to each other, hugging each other and what not. My mother doesn't even treat me like that." And when I bought my Poutine, I asked him if he has any Smoke's T-Shirts in XL. He said they only have it in Large, but he let me try it on. When I tried it on, he said "Oh yeah, that looks good on you. Because it looks so good, I'll throw in the T-Shirt and a drink for FREE!!!" So I got a free Smoke's Shirt. I love Smokes. I love Poutine. I love Canada.
Later that day, we played sports, ate a Cheesecake I made, and then drove and hour and a half to Mississauga. At Mississauga, we surprised one of my New Converts, Jhereoui, and it was SO good. He was totally surprised and happy to see me and we chilled and talked for a little bit. He's doing so good. We then went back to my old house in Mississauga and spent the night their with Elder Valliere, my son, and my good friend Elder Stephens.
The next day, Tuesday, we had transfers. I saw Abigail there, a long with a lot of missionaries I hadn't seen in a while. Then I got my new companion, Elder Jonah Hansen. He's from Riverton, Utah. He's tall. And Blonde. With glasses. He's decently new in the missionaries. We get along great...for now. ;) He's a lot of fun. We got back to the basement, where we live, and it was pretty dirty. Really dirty. And cluttered. So we decided to take a lot of time and clean it.
The next few days consisted of me getting to know the Ward Members and Leaders. And cleaning the basement and the car, which was as dirty. 
The Ward here is super great. It's the biggest Spanish Ward I've ever been in (at least, with the most active Spanish Members). There's tons of Spanglish in this ward because lots of them were born in Canada and their English is better than their Spanish. So that's fun.
We were super blessed last Friday to find 3 new people to teach. One we found out later was already a member, so that was a little disappointing. It was funny though because he kept saying, "Just because I'm meeting with you, doesn't me I'm going to say I'm Mormon. I just want to learn some about your church." Then we later find out, he IS a Mormon. So that was funny.
Saturday, we had a fun Zone Council. We have a lot of great missionaries in our zone. The meeting was kind of unorganized, but we finally were told that we could start implementing the new Missionary rules and schedule. So that's good. This is my first 10-hour long P-Day!!!
Sunday was a great day. We had 3 investigators come to church and they all seemed like they loved it. I got to know more of the members and enjoy a Spanish Sacrament Meeting again. It's been too long. Later that day, we broke the fast with a wonderful Nicaraguan family, the mother being an investigator.
One thing we've been doing a lot this week is cleaning. If you didn't catch it before. Although not many  think about it, living a physically clean life really helps you feel the Spirit more. Male missionaries are a rare type, because many of them can live in the absolute worst living conditions, but they somehow can still get out, look decent, and go teach people about the Gospel. One thing I've found, though, is that having a clean house, car, body, etc. not only makes you feel a lot better, it invites the Spirit into your life. So you'll be happy to know, Mom, that one thing I definitely have learned on my mission is how to clean, many different things. It is a stellar habit to have, and it will bless anyone's life physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. So if you’re living in a dump, or you look like one, CLEAN UP!!! Cleanliness is truly next to Godliness. I love you and hope you all have a wonderful week.