The Best Two Years: Elder Alex Ditto: June 2018

Monday, June 25, 2018

The Beginning and the End

Hey everyone!

Today marks the beginning and end of an era. Transfer day is tomorrow and two of my best friends in the mission go home. I am sad to see them leave, but Elder Trottier will live practically right around the corner from me at college, and Elder Jacobson and I are life-long friends. I have learned a ton from both of them and have had so much fun working together in the office. It has been a team effort preparing for this mission change, and each one of us brought unique talents and abilities to the table. As a missionary you are always with your "colleague" (as we say here), and it is definitely one of the most unique things about serving a full-time mission. You learn so much about each other, and whether you like it or not, you need to work together! This makes for some funny stories and teaches you how to communicate effectively and incorporate two different styles and personalities. I feel privileged to have had so many different companions that have all been awesome and have helped me grow in so many ways.

The new comp... Elder Welling (he is from Finland)

On that note, Elder Welling is my new companion! We have known each other for practically our whole missions, and have been eager to serve together. Elder Welling and I will be serving as President's Assistants (AP's) in Romania. We will have a lot of great opportunities serve the mission including zone conferences, missionary trainings, exchanges, as well as some other administrative work. There will no longer be a companionship of office elders in Romania, so it will be my responsibility to ensure things run smoothly, as well as to unfold all information to Elder Welling about these things that I have been learning for the past four and a half months... it's a lot, but it's gonna be great!

Last pday sports in Bucuresti with this many elders 😢

The Mihai Bravu District. These are some pretty incredible missionaries!

I am just super pumped for this last transfer in Romania. I think all of the things that I have learned and experienced since day one have helped prepare me for this final chance to be a leader and to do my very best.

This has been and is still my motto...

D&C 107 99 Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

100 He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen.

Billiards on a nice preparation day afternoon.

Dani and I... this kid is impressive!

Here it goes!!!!

Love you all!!

Elder Ditto

Monday, June 18, 2018

Lost in the Work

Hey fam!

We are winding down to the last week of the transfer which is quite crazy. Elder Trottier is headed home and I will have one more transfer left... that means eight more weeks of awesomeness in Romania! This upcoming week we will be busy with all sorts of shenanigans including transfer boards, residency permit applications, last minute tweaks to our Romania Administration for Dummies handbooks, finishing cleaning out the mission storage room, planning travel for Mission Leadership Council- the list just goes on! I am confident that because of our preparation, the Lord will provide a way to have this mission move work.

Waiting for the summer rainstorm to pass

Summer storm in Bucharest... it lasted 10 minutes

This week wasn't too shabby. I'll talk about three cool happenings.

1. A big push in the mission and in the church as a whole in Romania has been family history work. I personally have not done too much family history work back at home. Whenever I tried to do it I got bored easily... probably because I was doing it wrong. In the church we believe that in order to return to the presence of God, we must make certain promises with God here in this life. For those who did not do this on earth, we do their ordinances in the temple including baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost in behalf of our ancestors. Because of the restored power of the priesthood, what is bound on earth is also bound in heaven and our loved ones on the other side have the opportunity to accept their ordinances.

For many years now, church leaders have urged us to engage in this work! It took a mission in Romania for me to understand the importance of and joy found in doing family history work. I think what really helped change my attitude was my understanding of the Romanian culture. I have said many times that I love Romanians for their emphasis put on the family unit. As a nation, Romanians are close to their own families, and are quick to help one another.

For a long time, it has been difficult for Romanians to do their family history work because there are no digitized records. In order to find names of your ancestors you have to actually go to the local archive or in many cases the local orthodox church and prove that you are related, etc. The church has recently been working out a deal to help digitize the archives which would be a HUGE deal. For right now, we are trying to follow the council of church leaders and do our best. The results have been wonderful!

We worked with two members this week to help them put in the names and information about their parents and grandparents into family search. We first met with Vio, the man who I baptized last year. My favorite part was writing in a description of each family member from Vio's perspective. It was so clear to me how much he values his relationships with his family members, and ultimately how important it is to ensure that those relationships last beyond the grave. I felt joy helping Vio do family history work.

We also helped a man named Gabi Marin. After twenty-five minutes of waiting for his computer to boot up, and another fifteen minutes as he slowly entered in the information on the computer, we were able to help him request ordinances for his grandparents. Again, as we helped Gabi do his family history work, I felt the spirit confirm to me that this is important and a real work.

Fratele Gabi working hard on family history work on his dinosaur.

Exchange with Elder Krieger!

2. Romania recently just received an assigned patriarch to give patriarchal blessings to the members in Romania. The man, Robert F. Orton was one of the first mission presidents in Romania, and also served in the second quorum of the seventy. I have had the opportunity to talk with him as well as observe how he interacts with the members. What really stuck with me is his optimism for the future. He stressed the importance of always living with a dream in mind... you wouldn't believe what his first dream was! He talked about how our prophet, Russell M. Nelson, has always lived life with a vision, and it is so evident in the way he leads and guides us today. I hope that we all have a vision to work towards in this life, and if you don't, make one!

3. On Fridays we have sport nights, where investigators and young adults come and play soccer and other sports all together. Before the activity, I felt inspired to call a former investigator named Ciprian. He originally found the church in Spain, and we had a lesson with him that was focused around baptism a couple of months ago. Since then we lost contact with him, but today he accepted the invitation to come to sports night. He absolutely loved it, and it made him remember the importance of drawing nearer to God. He was inspired to come to church that Sunday and also had a confirmation that what he was doing was what God wants. He told me thanks for never giving up on him. I responded, "Are you kidding me? Never!" I imagined how the Savior feels when we don't do our part. I know that he never gives up on us, and if we turn to him, he will "succor us according to our infirmities" because of His great love and atoning sacrifice.

Sora Gorzo... the master chef!

Ardei umpluti... mmmm

So many great experiences. I hope each and everyone of you will take time to learn from the many adventures that you have each and every day... that is what this life is all about!

With love,

Elder Ditto

Dani and us

George and I

Kunnai...incredible thai curry

Monday, June 11, 2018

T-minus 3 Weeks

Hey everyone!!

Well another week of craziness. Writing lately has been a struggle because I don't really know how to explain what is happening. All of the problems, tasks, goals, meetings, conversations, are really centered on three things right now:

1. Preparing for the move to Hungary.

2. Helping missionaries.

3. Teaching the Gospel.

These are all wonderful things, and I feel so blessed to take part in the Lord's work here in Romania in so many different aspects.

So I didn't mention this last email, but when we have the mission tour, Elder Trottier and I organized all of the travel, and that was why we were running frantically moving and picking-up missionaries. I remember walking into the chapel of the day of the conference and seeing so many friends and great missionaries. My first thought was, "Dang, that is pretty cool that we got everyone here after hours of planning and buying tickets!" I really enjoyed the spirit that was present as almost the whole mission was gathered in humility to receive council from a chosen servant of the Lord.

One box at a time!

In order to keep all of the important things that need to be done before the mission change, we made a timeline with all of the important tasks that need to be accomplished. For months now we have been preparing for the big month of June where all of the really madness happens. Our latest project that we undertook was moving all of the missionary resources and materials from the storage room in the basement below the office to the Panduri chapel attic.

So much stuff!

Sora Despain as well as the Leavitt family have spent a ton of time organizing and moving materials on their own, and we got to pitch in this Saturday when we filled our big van up TWICE full of Book of Mormons, pamphlets, water filters, business cards, the Book of Mormon in braille (actually 8 giant binders)- you name it. we moved it! After a full-day's worth of work, along with some other random assignments that we hand that day, we got the majority of the materials moved. Hurray!

Other things... we met with a woman from Germany about our residency permit process. It was good for me to review everything and to break down each step. We had already made a administrative notebook that talks about the process of obtaining a residency permit as well as how to conduct travel throughout Romania. Both of these things will really bless the lives of future missionaries, which is a cool thought! Fun food for thought- Imagine trying to get from Spokane, WA to La Push, WA. By car, pretty dang easy, just long! Now, what about by any other means of transportation? Probablyyy not possible. What about Craiova to Galati (Romania). That has no meaning to you guys, but these cities are prettyyy far away, yet you can totally get there by (yes car) but also by train!!! Though we say the infrastructure of Romania is pretty bad, you gotta hand it to the railway system- they can get you places (not necessarily fast, but they will get you there!).

Piata Vicotriei and a "positive" demonstration...

A very unique part of this calling in the office is the many ways we offer our service to other missionaries. We are constantly meeting missionaries from around the mission that come into Bucharest for many different reasons including doctor appts, exchanges, emergency transfers, etc. Elder Trottier pointed out how cool is is that we get to be so invested in helping others. He's right, we have one purpose here and that is to serve! I hope we always remember and learn from the various opportunities that we have had in our own lives to offer service to God's children. This is what life is all about!

Tudor and I

We have also had some good experiences in terms of teaching the gospel. We are teaching a man that is soo cool, and very smart. He is going to by moving away for school soon, but we have had the privilege to become friends and teach this man the gospel. Over the past couple of months, Tudor's faith, as well as mine have really grown as we have committed to live the teaching of Jesus Christ. We recently just taught him the Word of Wisdom, which was a pretty big deal. He committed to do his best to start living this commandment. I admire Tudor's drive to continually make changes in his life, and his personal drive to come closer to God.

I have a lot of more stories, but I will stop there.

Love you all!! Have a great last week of school, praying for you!

Elder Ditto

Monday, June 4, 2018

The Romanian Alps

Hello friends and fam!!!

Coming into the beginning of the week, we knew it was going to go by quite fast. We were right! Though the days seemed long, taking on many important tasks and ensuring that the Mission Conference went smoothly. We made several trips to the aeroport shuttling many missionaries and whatnot.

Mission Tour with Elder De Feo

I don't have too much time, but I thought I would share a little insight from mission conference. Elder De Feo was the visiting area authority and I was very impressed by his spiritual mindset throughout the day.

Elder De Feo is a native of Italy.

Could you imagine traveling to another country every single week for stake conference? Craziness! I feel lucky that I got to hear a special witness of the Lord bear witness of the importance of missionary work. Something profound that he spoke of, and something that has been highlighted a few times recently is the importance of the two greatest commandments. Do you know what they are?

Matthew 22
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Elder De Feo explained the importance of remembering and living the first commandment, before we act on the second.

In other words, when we have our own personal testimony that Jesus is the Savior, and that God is our loving Heavenly Father, we will have the desire and courage to help and minister to those around us.

Being a missionary is awesome. I am so thankful for the diversities of adventures and learning experiences that I have had on my mission. We had another unreal preparation day adventure today... totally rejuvenated for another week!!! We hiked to Moieciu de Sus, in the Carpathian Mountains.