Spirit to Spirit..........

Tonight as I sat counting my blessings - I looked at this picture.............and my heart is full as I look at my little Navajo sister Nellie.................realizing that we speak only a few words that we both understand - HOWEVER...................there is no barrier with our spirits and I feel a closeness to her as we share our days together. The gospel of Jesus Christ is such a miraculous thing.......and can bridge so many chasms.............I am so thankful for all the blessings that are mine and YOU are some of the dearest!

Sorry about missing the pictures.

Some days I wonder if I'll ever get this perfected..............This was a hurry today - so please excuse the spelling errors and here are the two pictures that do not show up!!!

Love to everyone - Hagoonee (Goodbye)......................

We appreciate your love and support more than words can tell.

More Baptisms.......

Two more baptisms........One Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 and the other Thursday evening. One if from our ward and the other from Ganado Branch.........the children were sweet and it was fun to be involved. Sister Hafen played the piano for both baptisms. Konaa Tallman was the little boy from our ward............his mother is the one Elder Hafen is teaching Temple Preparation classes to. She is Indian from Alaska and married a Navajo. They are separated and she lives here in St. Michaels..............

Our Peaceful Drive Home from Fort Defiance.....

WOW what a day!!!!!!!!!!!! We have loved it from beginning to end. The day was sunny and beautiful (in fact so sunny that we got some sunburn without realizing it)............The beauty that surrounds us here is unbelievable............And the spirit of the people touches our hearts every time we are with them.

Our Final Stop for the Day...............Natural Bridge

This is tucked away in the hills by Fort Defiance - you cannot even tell it is there until you are right upon it................We got permission from some people living there to go through their property to get into it.............Elder Mizelle found a water snake that he had fun with.......

Nellie's Watering Hole!!!

This was fun.................right out in the middle of a clearing in the middle of no where........there is this pump where we pumped water for Nellie to take back to her house..............what a fun experience and COLD water!

Next Stop...............Flute Rock...........

This was a most "interesting drive"............pretty sheer drop off and road became rock.......Elder Hafen locked the car into 4 wheel drive and we made it most of the way up before we had to get out to walk.............what a fantastic view................ In driving I had Mikalya on my lap, Nellie, Elder Wilson and Jeremy buckled in the back seat and Elder Mizelle and Daniel in the back sitting without seats!! Yahoo!!!

A quick stop for directions...........can't use your GPS here!!!!

Another stop for directions from relatives..................the Grandpa here is 95 years old.........fun to see this place.................

Next Stop............Nellie's 2nd Summer Camp.....

What a beautiful drive through the mountains (however - the roads were TERRIBLE) - Elder Hafen did a terrificf job driving all day................Nellie's relatives were at her 2nd summer camp having a picnic. They had been out rounding up cattle to take back to sell. They had a nephew who had drowned and they were taking the cattle to pay for the funeral expense for him. What a delightful family - we had watermelon with them and visited and let Nellie visit............before we left that spot. As we looked at the neat family under that beautiful spreading tree......we were filled again with gratitude to be on the Navajo Nation with such great people...........

Nellie Begay's Summer Camp............#1

Nellie has several summer camps - she owns a LOT of property up the mountain............I am sure she can't realize what that means to her..............of coursde the government (Navajo) has been trying to buy it from her............She would take her sheep when she had big herds and let them graze the summer at one of these camps................What beautiful creations of the earth......we felt such a wonderful calm and peace - wish that everyone could have been with us.............(as we do each thing that we see and each things that we experience.)

Let's Go Nellie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Picked up Daniel Laughing (our interpreter) he had his Nephew staying.........then off to Nellis's at Sawmill.............beautiful place - she had her grandchildren Mikayla and Jeremy - so we just all loaded in the Rav4 and off we went.................

Our Excursion.................06-19-09

We planned a preparation day with the Elders and Daniel Laughing to go to Sawmill to Nellie Begay's (recent convert) and take her to her summer camps.............so she could check them out.

We began our day at "Thatsaburger" in Fort Defiance..............This restaurant feeds the missionaries FREE.................SO the Elders said "Let Us Take You Out for Breakfast on our way......." (Ha ha - of course, if it's free!!!) Great little restaurant and fun to be on our way......

Our First Career Workshop............6-16-09

Red Letter Day......................we finished "OUR FIRST CAREER WORKSHOP"...........this is a four hour workshop that helps prepare people for employment and gives lots of practice skills in job related areas................We had 9 people come............Richard Whitewater (neat man) from Many Farms, Phillip Notah (we asked him about his name and he said his great-grandfather went someplace where they were speaking English where they asked him a question and he answered "No Talk" - they thought he said Notah and wrote it that way - he liked it and kept that for his name.....................Lynda Yazzie, Margaret Yazzie, Ed, Kimberly Yazza, others..............fun day. We saw such improvement isn their skills by the end of the day.............Kimberly Yazza was a young girl who had just received her certification as a diesel mechanic...............We always serve lunch after the workshop (Subway sandwiches)...........We were relieved and LOVED doing the workshop. We do those once a month on the 3rd Tuesday............

Workout schedule...............

The days we don't go to the gym, we try to walk out 2 mile route.......it is up hills, etc so it is a pretty good work out..............(And then of course, somedays we have to walk around the cows, sheep, or dogs.............) this open range stuff is very interesting!

Our Workout Schedule...............

We go the Wellness Center 3 times a week.............nice gym with nice equipment........there are a lot of Navajo people who really take this seriously - we feel kind of like wimps some days!!! But we're hanging in there anyway. We wear our missionary tags even when we work out and always get some fun conversations when we do............

Greetings - Ya-ah-te

Just some notes from the Navajo Nation this afternoon.............This has been a BUSY week and we have loved it all........

Elder Hafen is right into things here.............(thanks to Elder Barlow from the MTC who gave him the bolo tie before we left for Arizona...............) Thank you Elder & Sister Barlow...........Love the tie.......

Sister Hafen sends her greetings as well...............the time at the office is getting easier - just busy. We often feel like we have gone back to work - except we love the rewards. Thursday we had President Brown (who owns the Navajo Inn & Denny's) call and needed 3 housekeepers......so we began going through files to find people for those positions.......he wanted us to screen them before sending them up to him. We found several. That afternoon there was a woman came in who just moved back to the Rez from Phoenix and was looking for work. She heard us talking and said "I'll take Anything!!" As one young man came back into the office from his interview for the housekeeping - he said "Wow......I wish I could have qualified for an accounting position - they have that open as well............." Well.........this woman just about came off her chair........she had experience - SO we hurried and got her application, cover letter, resume, etc all together...............and she went up. She came back SO excited - we are all hoping so that she gets it. Should know next week. Anyway- I told her to go home and pray about it!!

She looked at me and smiled and said........"I'll go home and get my cedar bag and my feathers..." So I said - "Great, I'll pray and you get your cedar bag and feathers"...........that combination should work!!!! Also had a young woman in who had just got her BA in Environmental Science and she was applying for a Navajo Nation Goverment Job...............those applications are HUGE....so we worked on her paperwork as well - she wanted to get it in by 5:00 that day!!! (Seems like everyone comes in about 1/2 hour before they need things done and away we go!!! Thursday is the day we get all the newspaper listings and the job listings from the Navajo Nation and Indian Health Services and prepare them to send to all of the surrounding areas - it is a big job! Another beautiful young girl from the ward who is going to school but getting summer work needed the same thing done and wanted me to proof read all of that...........In the mean time we had a woman come in from Lukachukai branch who was getting Bells Palsy on her face and she wanted Elder Hafen to give her a blessing and needed to talk.......so we did that! Another woman came in to have me help her get on the computer to find information on (get this) "Global Warming".............her husband was doing a report for English 101............needless to say - there is never a dull moment in the office.............We had 21 people again on Thursday.

Trip to the Hubble Trading Post with the Browns 6-13-09

This trading post is still in operation.......and has been going for over a hundred years. We went through the visitors center and toured the grounds...........it was so WINDY..........thought we may blow away. This is located by Ganado and so it is about 25 minutes away from us. Thought it would be interesting to see.

Trip to Gallup...........

We go weekly to Gallup (about 1/2 hour) to Walmart......................which is quite an experience in itself. It is BUSY!!! We also go to Butlers Office Supply for the office and then we go to the water store........they supply us with water free. We buy the big containers and one for our fridge and the others to refill it. Stephanie who works there is so darling with us.......love her! Pictures of our ride home and home again to Arizona.................

Baptism Day..........06-13-09

Two girls from Ganado were baptised today. They are sisters and were beautiful. Fifteen minutes before the baptism Elder Hafen was asked to give a talk and about 10 minutes before I was asked to play the piano (that's just the way it works here!!!)

Kari and Tara Wilson.

Ooops..............hope you can make sense out of the picture mix ups..........

Again we had a baptism of two girls from Ganado...........

Sawmill Trip - 06/14/09

Elder Hafen's Visit from the tooth fairy...........

6-08-09

Elder Hafen developed a whopping tooth ache while here and since we are not Navajo we couldn't get in to get it looked at..........fortunately we had a card from the Parkes who were here before we came about a good dentist in Blanding--------------we had called on Saturday and they called us back early Monday morning and told us to be there by 3:15............so off we went......LONG drive. Elder Brent Johansen (turned out to be from Elder Hafen's home town) - he and his wife were wonderful with us. His father had been our typing and shorthand teacher in high school..............gave us a wonderful missionary discount and after deliberation we decided it was best to extract the tooth...............so here we are!!!

As Trip to Sawmill..............Up the Mountains

A visit to Sawmill to visit Nellie Begay (who was recently baptized). This was such a fantastic experience. We went with the Elders and Daniel Laughing (to intrepret) and drove up the mountain. This is such a beautiful place - among the trees - houses and dwellings are SO spread out and far between. Nellie is just so sweet! As we go to these houses and trailers, we just are reminded constantly of how truly blessed we are, and yet as we visit them in their most humble circumstances, we feel that often they are more content and peaceful than we are with ALL we have! We are learning lessons daily from these wonderful people. Nellie had fry bread started, so immediately as we went to her house she started preparing...........

It reminded me of my Mom doing bread in our old coal stove........Nellie had a stove that she burned wood in - she'd stoke the fire and then put out a heavy cast iron skillet and put in the lard until it was popping and pinch off a roll sized dough ball and they form a fist with both hands almost and just spin the bread and turn it until it is like making a pizza......and then into the hot oil......or lard.........it bubbles up immediately (from the baking powder in the mix) and they wait just until the right moment and then flip it over............when it is done on both sides - they drain it on paper towels. We put salt on ours at Nellie's and yummy!!! They were delicious. Elder Hafen just took a half (to be polite)..............but finished that pretty quickly and asked for MORE!

Nellie is a weaver also - we may have her do a rug for us............

Flea Market Day......

Flea Markets are the big thing here.................they have them every week end in every little town..........you can find about "anything" that you are looking for and many things that you aren't!!!!!!!!!!!! However, this is one of the best places to find nice jewelry and things at the best prices...........I am going to try to get some things in the next couple of months. I am going to take a Navajo (Daniel Laughing) with me when I shop because he knows what is real and can help me not get ripped off!!!