On Returning to My Blog

As the great modern philosopher George Takei would say, "Oh, Myyy."

Here I am, back in the blogosphere. It feels kinda weird, but somehow feels like the right thing to do right now. The mission was a great opportunity for me to keep up a blog. I wasn't able to stay in touch with a lot of people, and it also meant a lot for me to be able to share all the incredible experiences I had in Arizona. I'm really grateful that so many of you gave me lots of positive feedback, and even that you simply took the time to read it.

As you may have noticed, my blogs became less and less frequent. I suppose I just got really caught up in what I was doing, and couldn't really find the time to write a full blog each week or even each month.

Then I came home. What's it like coming home from a Mormon mission, you ask? I suggest watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Yep, that's pretty much it.

Anyway, for a while I didn't really think that I had anything interesting to say. I'm still not sure if I do. However, the idea of starting this back up again has been nagging at me over the past few weeks. I've surprised myself with this sudden desire to write my thoughts before an internet audience again, considering how many stupid blogs I've seen posted on Facebook over these last few months. But blog I must! I shall go over some reasons why I feel the sudden need to do this thing again.

1) I'm really bad at carrying on interesting conversations.

Let's face it: I can do better at keeping in touch with people. However, when I do, I run out of things to say quickly. It's not that I don't care or that I'm not doing anything with my life. I feel like I can express myself more when I have time to think about what I'm saying. Hopefully this blog can be a springboard to more meaningful talks with the people I care about.

2) I want to get better at analyzing films.

I'm hoping to write regular and well thought-out reviews of the movies I see. I've been writing several one-sentence reviews on Facebook, but I want to get more in depth and share with all of you how I really feel. And while we're on the subject of Facebook.

3) I need to spend less time on Facebook.

I will never be one to talk about the evils of Facebook. I refuse to accept that it is inherently evil. That said, I need to cut back the time I spend on mindless Buzzfeed articles and write about something that has substance.

4) I want to improve my writing skills.

I really like writing, but I haven't taken any kind of English class in a long time. Unfortunately, my grammar and punctuation have taken quite a hit. I'm sure that there are some mistakes in this very blog, and that's why I need to spend more time practicing.

5) I need to balance out the stupid blogs.

Need I say more?

I hope that this will be interesting to whomever is bored enough to check this out. Hopefully we can end up a little smarter with our discussions, become a little more loving, and have a little more fun. As Abraham Lincoln once said:

75 Degrees in January :)

 

You read that right. 75 degrees. I might never go back.

So, here I am, officially 3/4 of the way through my mission. I suppose that if I wanted it to be, this could be the trunkiest 6 months. But I am doing everything I can to stay focused and enjoy the time that I have left. I really am enjoying myself. Last night my companions and I got home really late after a long Sunday...we usually go to 7 or 8 hours of church, and run around to different appointments afterward. I was completely out of it, but I couldn't help telling myself how much I love this gig :)

I am in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I have two awesome Polynesian companions and we have a blast with each other. I get lots of chances to overcome my natural nervousness in meeting and talking with people and I get to share the gospel that means so much to me. Even when people are slamming the door or throwing oranges at us while we're riding our bikes, it's just so much fun. I just love this work.

There's been a lot of fun stuff happening out here in AJ. I still get the chance to hike every now and then. There's lots of different trails around here. I'm getting used to the winter visitors. I had a dinner with a bunch of older folks from Canada last night and it was surprisingly really fun. Although one unfortunate thing is that whenever I hang around Canadians my accent comes out...I didn't even know I had an accent. At least I still pronounce "bag" correctly. Elder Fuiava has let it slip that I have a YouTube account. More often these days I walk into houses and people want to talk to me about my videos...it's fun, but some of those old ones are pretty dumb.

As far as the people we're teaching, we're having a lot of success. It seems like people are coming out of nowhere, wanting to come closer to God and learn more about the gospel. It seems as if we've found more people in the last few weeks than in the last few months. I also got the neat opportunity to go to a baptism for somebody who I taught about a year ago. Her name is Amber, and her family is a lot of fun. I got to teach her a lot with Elder Hernandez, and the memories of teaching her are some of the most powerful that I've had. I was so happy for her. I suppose that's why I'm loving this so much. I come to love people so much who were strangers to me just a little while ago.

Thanks everyone for your letters and postcards, especially around Christmastime. I love you all!

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." - 2 Timothy 1:7

Title: You wanted a blog post...

So my mom informs me that my friends like my blog and that I need to write another one. I have like 5 minutes to write this one. Here it goes...

- November is here, and that means that the snowbirds are back. I see more and more North Dakota license plates every day and I'd like to think that my driving is better than the average snowbird.

- The weather is awesome...still in the 80s

- Quails are awesome. Pigeons are gross.

- I have another Polynesian companion. His name is Elder Fuiava and he's from Samoa. I traded him two ties for a lava lava.

- I look really good in that lava lava

- I love talking to people about the gospel! We've talked about 2012 and aliens a lot.

- I'm voting for a Mormon for President. Me.

- Alma 44:4

- Jesus is our Savior :)

Love,

Ammon!

Title: In the Desert on a Horse with No Name

Well, I've been ridiculously bad at writing these blog posts. I hope that what I do write is interesting enough for the people who read!

Let's see, where did I last leave off? Probably with Elder Kawano? Okay, so after the whole appendix fiasco, I got better. Getting to drive a car has been really nice, and I don't think I've done too many things that would make my mom uncomfortable with that. Elder Kawano got transferred to Scottsdale, and so I got an American companion for the first time in 6 months. Elder Francis from Portland, Oregon, came to my area, and we had a great transfer together. In our time in the Mesa Central Stake we saw a ton of miracles. Many people came out of nowhere who wanted to learn about the gospel, and it was exciting to see them and learn from them. Everything seemed to go incredibly fast, and we always had somebody new to teach or to help out.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. I finally got transferred out of Mesa! (That sounds like being in Mesa was a bad thing, but I just had been in the same area of town for a year or so...longer than most missionaries!) I went way out to the eastern border of the mission to a town called Apache Junction. This place is awesome! It's everything you think of when you think of Arizona. The sunsets are unreal, there's cacti everywhere, and lots of desert wildlife. I have a black light that I use to hunt for scorpions. (If anybody wants one, just write me and I'll send one to you :) People here are really nice. Not quite as nice as North Dakotans, but those folks are pretty hard to beat.

My new companion is another foreigner! Elder Moala is from Aukland, New Zealand. He loves to play rugby, and has a dream of one day playing for the All Blacks. He's also about a foot taller than me. This guy is huge. I guess he's Tongan, so what can you expect? We're both new to the area, so we're having to work extra hard. But it's been so much fun. God has blessed us very much. One of the great people who we get to work with is named Lee. He's an incredibly nice guy. He cooked us a humongous Texas BBQ the other night, and it was amazing. Anyway, Lee's a great example of sacrifice. He wants to get baptized, and in order to do that, he needs to live the word of wisdom, which is the health code that members of the church follow. We don't drink coffee, which has been something that Lee has wanted to stop doing for a while. He's tried lots of times, and has't been able to. But last week, he tried one more time and just gave it all up. He still hasn't had any coffee, and he's struggled a bit from withdrawals, but has pressed through. It helps me realize how important sacrifice is and how all of us have something that we can give up that'll make us a little stronger and will help us get a little closer to God.

So that's pretty much what's cooking right now. This whole mission thing was a really good idea. I was excited as I'm sure many of you were, at the news that the minumum age of missionaries has dropped. I for one, have loved my mission, and it's been the best thing for me. I hope that the additional groups of men and women who decide to go on missions are as blessed as I've been.

Peace out!

Ammon

Elder Moala and Elder Miller

Title: The Miller Diet: How to Lose 20 Pounds (And Your Appendix) In Two Weeks

Well, the month of June was interesting for several reasons. First off, I was transferred to a new area with a new companion named Elder Kawano. He's from a city called Miyazaki in southern Japan. Things started off great! Fun area, fun companion, and all the wasabi a man could dream of. I had a blast for the first half of the week, when, on the night of June 1st, I went to bed with a stomachache. I didn't think anything of it until I woke up an hour later and the pain had intensified. I usually just try to sleep off any pain that I have, but this just felt awful. Finally, at about 2:30 in the morning, I called the zone leaders and the mission president, and we decided that I needed to go to the ER.

When I arrived, everyone started asking me the same questions over and over, and started looking really confused. They drew blood, and eventually told me they had no idea what was wrong with me. They gave me some morphine and sent me home, speculating that I might have acid reflux. I spent the next couple days in bed, trying to get some rest. After about three days, the pain became manageable, and I got back out to work. I found that I had no appetite and got dehydrated really easily. That week I lost about 10 pounds. All the while the pain persisted, and I had a lot of trouble standing for long periods of time.

That Saturday, the pain increased again, and on Tuesday morning I went to the doctor. I was going crazy, just wanting to know what was wrong with me. After doing some poking around, the doctor told me that it was probably my appendix, and sent me to get a CT scan. After drinking about a gallon of some really, really disgusting liquid that the nurses gave me, I got the scan done and, lo and behold: I had appendicitis!

The first thing that went through my mind was overwhelming relief. I was so happy to actually know what was wrong with me! They sent me to the ER, which was about two blocks away. We had gotten dropped off and didn't have a car, so we had to walk over to the hospital. When they checked me in to the ER, one of the nurses that helped me out was someone that I had the opportunity to teach several months ago. Her name was Megan, and she walked me through everything that was wrong with me. Apparently they would not operate on the appendix that day, as my appendix had burst several days earlier and there was a huge risk of infection. Basically, I had walked around with a burst appendix for a week (I have to admit, that made me feel pretty manly). Fortunately, my body had walled off the infection in an abscess. They doctors would drain that out for a few days and then operate. The exact same thing had happened to Megan, so she was able to let me know what I was in for. The next day I got the drain put in me.
(Here's where we get the fun, juicy details. If you get sick easily, stop reading)
Basically it was this tube that came out of my stomach that went into a little water ballon-looking thing. I got to watch the pus come out of me every day and that was pretty close. When I went to surgery about five days later I was pretty calm, because things had gone pretty well so far. What they had hoped would be a quick labroscopic surgery ended up being an open appendectomy. They found that there really wasn't much of the appendix left. There was a hole in my colon where the appendix used to be, and so they cut off part of the colon and reattached it to the other intestine. The first thing I remember after the surgery was pain. Crazy pain. If you want to know what it felt like, read Breaking Dawn.
The doctors gave me a little button that I could press every six minutes when I wanted more pain meds. I pressed it a lot. It was certainly the most under the influence I've ever been in my life. Also, there were other tubes and things stuck in very uncomfortable places. But all the while, things were still pretty good. I'd like to think of myself as a positive person, and I determined to keep that attitude during this whole thing. I think the thing that helped me the most was keeping a sense of humor throughout the whole thing. It actually became really entertaining...I had a great time with the nurses and everybody who came to visit me. I can honestly say that being in the hospital was one of the most fun experiences of my whole mission.
Things are going well now. The recovery has been going quickly, and I'm finally back to work. I can't lift anything above 20 pounds for another month, and then I'll be totally back to normal. Plus I got a car, which isn't half bad :)
I've pondered a lot upon what I was supposed to have learned from this experience. I don't know if I can sum it up in anything profound, or if I even should. But I am certainly grateful for the experience that I had. After all, is that what life is all about? We gain experience that forms our character, and then we act upon what we have learned. My belief and faith in God has been solidified, and my love for life is stronger than ever. Life is so awesome! I love being a missionary. It's great to be back to work!
Thank you all SO MUCH for your thoughts and prayers for me during this time. I felt those thoughts and prayers, and they have helped me heal quickly and keep a positive attitude. I love you all!
- Elder Miller