"Mudville USA"

Actually the mud is SO much better now.........but these shots in Sawmill show still what some people are battling..............it has been unreal!

Elder & Sister Hafen's "Wheels" for the week end....

Bishop Willie's truck that provided us "wheels" for the week end. As we visited the Sawmill Branch one of the members of the presidency there told us people would just think we were a couple of "old Navajos" driving along.............ha ha!

The Highlight of this feeding.........

The joy of the chores this time is the arrival of a new baby colt - just 7 days old.........Elder Hafen has fallen in love with the baby................the mare lets him right in with both of them and so he's had a lot of fun with that..............

Elder Hafen's Chores at Bishop Willie's..............

Elder Hafen loves doing the chores for Bishop Willie (who is at Indian Week at BYU with his daughter Shelby who is going there) Elder Hafen loves the diversity and he loves the animals............This horse in particular reminds him of his horse when he was a young man which he named "King".............he spent many hours on him then and now when he's feeding Bishop Willie's horse he takes extra minutes to pet and love this one.............

Ganado Baptism

Another baptism..........just got home from Zone Conference and had a few minutes to get my music and go play at the baptism. Such a sweet baptism - Ariyan Guy is eleven years old and was so excited. The speakers were so good and it was a happy night!

Surprise at Conference.........

I had emailed Karen (McKinney) Lipscomb before going to the conference and she sent me Shirley Ann Numkena (Smith)'s telephone and told that she was now living in Tuba City and would like to see me.............so I called her when we arrived and she came to see me and ate lunch and spent the hour visiting...............what a delight! Shirley came on the Indian Placement Program to Spring City and lived with Karen while we went to Junior High and 2 years of high school. She is Hopi and I have such fond memories of being in school with her. I was so excited to see her. We visited the hour and set up a time the end of May or first of June to go over to see her and have her take us around the reservation there and see some dancing, etc. We are excited to see her again. She is widowed and came back to take care of her 94 year old mother and father..............

Zone Conference in Tuba City..........

Missionary zone conference in Tuba City where the theme of the conference was "The Divine Companionship"..........It was such a wonderful and spiritual conference. President Beck had a testimony meeting where people shared their experiences of reading the Book of Mormon in 60 days (the amount of days it took Joseph Smith to translate it).......and Elder Hafen was the first to stand. We have come to love the Book of Mormon in new ways and depths as we serve here amongst the children of Lehi! Pictures of the young Elders singing to the Senior Couples who prepared the lunch for the conference. We all bring potluck when we do that and it is fun to see what everyone brings..........

DISASTER STRIKES................

This has been a few day of "high adventure" for Elder & Sister Hafen...........On Wednesday as Elder Hafen was driving to get a hair cut and coming back up the hill afterwards.........the light in the car came ON................he was in the midst of traffic, so had to wait until he could pull over and as he checked under the Rav - there was NO oil filter there and apparently NO oil!!! (We had just had the car serviced on Friday in Tse Bonito...............and they had only screwed the filter on with their hands and consequently as Elder Hafen pulled out..............we have a nice oil trail and the filter was sitting in the parking lot!!!!!!!!!! Good grief!! As they come and take the car down they put on a filter and more oil and try to drive it - but apparently with the unfriendly noises there - the possibility is pretty great that we need a new engine!! We are just so grateful that it happened close to home not while we were out in the desert somewhere..........and that no one was injured.........So they kept it last night........... We suddenly felt pretty isolated knowing that we have NO wheels........... They do have insurance with Hartford and they have been good about everything.

We will get a rental from Gallup (but they can't have one until possibly Saturday - if not Monday) And they will be towing the Rav to Gallup to the Toyota Dealer who will get to it the week after next............so we won't know the damage all the way.

Then..................I was letting a Navajo friend use my credit card to make a purchase on the Internet and it kept denying the card.............and so she called to place the order and the woman there told her to call her credit card company.....................Which I did and discovered that someone in Minnesota had made a $1067.00 charge on the 23rd...........which my company denied..........and so now I get to wait for another card to come in the mail! Fortunately Bank of America is on top of those charges - I was so grateful........

So what's next??????????????? Wait for another episode and we'll fill you in!

Ganado Baptisms continued........

At 3:00 pm Elder & Sister Monik had a convert baptized. Monik's are the Senior Couple serving in Ganado.........The man is Ambrose Shepherd - the interesting part is he has been a lead council member for many years, served in the military and now is a double amputee because of diabetes.....so it was a challenge for him to get into the water. He does have artificial legs and did really well..............everyone was kind of holding their breath. He had lots of family there and after his baptism he wanted to give remarks to his family.............it was so touching and silently powerful! He talked about his conversion and what it meant in his life. He has been investigating the church for a long time and then he expressed his desire that his family would all accept (at the same time acknowledging that they all had their own choices to make)..........Monik's were so happy - they have taught him for a long time and they will be leaving to go home to Idaho in about 2 weeks.............Beautiful day!

Another Baptism Day for Ganado...........

Elder Reed and Elder Murdock had a great baptism at 11:00 am today...........Tommy Jones, and his son Mike Jones.............and another little boy Anthony Vasquez Jr. Again...when Ganado has baptisms I am asked to play the piano, they just don't have anyone in their little church Branch who plays..........so double blessings! This was a great baptism. Anthony gave a little talk at the end of the baptism - it was neat............

Relief Society Birthday Dinner........03/17/2010

One way to remember my birthday always is that the Relief Society (the Women's Organization in the church) celebrates the beginning of their organization on that day............so the party went on...........168 years for RS this year................(fortunately, not quite that many for ME!) We had over 50 women to the event where they served roast beef dinner and had a nice program.....fun to be together! Nice evening!

March Career Workshop...........

Nice workshop with just three people this month - Travis Begay, Leann Stevens and Regina Antonio.....Great people to work with - effective workshop!

03-13-2010

The day continued with 6 more baptisms...............Naomi with her family - Rosita Segay from Sawmill Branch.......She lives way out there in White Clay - she walked 5 miles to a place out of the mud so that someone could drive to pick her up. (Lesson in dedication and commitment!)
And then four of the children of Julie Billy (the grandmother whose daughter died leaving her with 6 children to raise)..........Darius Williams, Marcell Wilson, Darnell Williams, and Kamille Wilson. What a day!!

Afternoon Baptisms 03-13-2010

Naomi Yazzie was baptized............Her mother is a member and her father is not - there are 9 children in this family all together. Naomi is 9 years old. Darling girl.

Day Of Blessings.............

This was a day of happiness................I played for a baptism from Ganado - Ernest Tabaha (the father) and Ernestine Tabaha (his 16-year-old daughter)............Neat baptism........

Navajo Tradition.........

We found a fly in our house - the first insect we have seen of any kind for months and months. Johanna was here and she said................let me tell you of Navajo tradition........her mother had heard the thunder about 2 weeks ago and she said that is the wake up call for all the hibernating insects and animals............she said it also the end of the winter ceremonies - even the radio stations stop playing the ya-ba-shay music at the same time............She said if there is ever thunder throughout the winter the hibernating animals wake and stretch and then go back to sleep........she said even the people will do the same thing - just stretch at the time they hear it.

She just said goodbye to her brother who is in the special forces with the armed services.....he is over a little group of younger men who he calls "his boys".............who are now being sent to Africa (where they claim that Bin Laden is at this time) to seek him out............he has been on several of these kind of assignments or tours of duty in many dangerous places. Several of "his boys" have died in his arms..............they had a ceremony for him for protection while he is gone......the Navajo are VERY patriotic.............

Another woman Ruby Chee was in the office last week - her grand-nephew was killed and the funeral here was huge.......he was in the marines. The President of the Navajo Nation - Joe Shirley spoke and the rest was all huge military with all of his commanding officers, etc conducting, speaking, etc.......she said it was just too many people for them and that they didn't even get a chance to grieve in their own way.......

Kim and Mackenzie brought us an "Ant Works" (like an ant farm) when they came down. It is a little plastic holder with a blue gel type material in it............we had to order the ants on the Internet and they came in a vial and padded envelope from Hurricane, UT..........you just pour them into the container and they begin to work..............they just tunnel through that gel and carry little round crystals up to the top - it has been fascinating to watch..........everyone is checking by to see the progress of the tunnels.............quite an adventure. Elder Hafen has loved it!! Funniest thing - Johanna told us that her foster family when she was on the Indian Placement Program used to send ants by the mail............we asked her where they lived and she said "Hurricane, UT"............can you believe it?

Dog Pack......

This was one of the largest packs of dogs that we have seen here on the reservation - we counted "18" and I am sure there were more that we did not see...............pretty amazing!! I was kind of happy we were in the car............There have actually been some packs that have attacked and killed horses this year during the bad winter........sad...........

Sawmill Branch

We drove up to Sawmill to put the job listings on the church bulletin board.....they have just had the new little steeple put on their new building................it is tiny but pretty and in a nice setting. They still had snow here......

Baptism Pictures...

Corrina standing with our new Relief Society President - Sister Gillespie. She is doing a really good job and her husband is playing the organ in church every other Sunday now - they are great people.......we are thankful they are here.

Corrina Plumber Haskie's Baptism......

Corrina was married two weeks ago - (pictures in previous blog) her son Weston had his 5th birthday last week (pictures in previous blog) and now today she was baptized by Elder White. She had an incredible fear of the water and had never been in a swimming pool or water over her head........it was incredible her faith to have the courage to go under the water....in fact Elder Hafen had a sleeve wet almost to the elbow to help keep her under long enough to have her immersed.............she is SO happy to be baptized.......they are going to be a great addition to the church here on the reservation.

Just a shot of the MUD here...........

I failed to get pictures of some of the "really muddy" vehicles that we saw........but this is the Elders truck when they came home from a couple of appointments out in the "boon docks" of the reservation................Just to give you an idea......