Baptism Day

After church today there was a baptism of Darian and Ammon Roan and Alex Arnold......Elder Wilson and Elder Gledhill performed the baptisms. Great family! Great baptisms! Played the piano for the service. Surprise today - Virginia Gregg (from Walla Walla) was at our sacrament meeting. It was so good to see her! We cooked dinner for the Elders and Patricia Charley stopped by and ate with us as well........

Shots of people after church today........

Just catching some shots of our ward members after church. Everyone talked today about us leaving.........We both shared our testimonies - it is difficult to be leaving so much and so many that we love!

Amber Nazhoni Running Bear

Little Amber was blessed today in church by her father. Grandparents from Salt Lake here to be with the family.

Window Rock Ward Trip to the Temple in Snowflake

Exciting day!!!! Under Elder Hafen's direction - we had 31 people go to the temple today! The most ever I think for one day and everyone loved it. We hope to make this a monthly happening....Went to Trappers Restaurant in Taylor for lunch afterwards - everyone loved the banana cream pie!

Senior Couple Zone Meeting

Had our Senior Couple Zone Meeting in Polacca (Hopi Land) with President and Sister Jones. What a wonderful conference. President & Sister Jones are awesome and everyone loves them! We learned so much. Just a few shots of some of the other couples. What great people. We who are leaving all had a turn to share our testimonies with everyone and it was great. The heartache of leaving soon is becoming too much of a reality! Took Elder & Sister Cain with us and it was a good day.

Career Workshop September

Great workshop - variety of people and terrific day of leaning!

Farewell Dinner

John and Rebekah Lynch invited us, the young Elders, Elder & Sister Cain, and the Gillespies to a dinner in our honor. Shaunibah the young woman that I teach piano is their granddaughter.....They are in their 80's and just outstanding people. He had two restaurants in Salt Lake at one time and she has been a teacher, superintendent........and the list goes on and on. They have a beautiful home with so many wonderful Native American things..............She cooked a "Navajo Dinner". Although she had asked Elder Hafen before what he wanted to eat...and he just said "I'm not too fond of mutton"..............the dinner was wonderful. She had a beef roast that was delicious, Navajo corn (which is a little tougher and not as sweet), squash, whole wheat fry bread, vegetables, beans, blue corn mush and watermelon for dessert. She is a wonderful cook! Shaunibah played some piano selections for us and was so thrilled to have people hear her. She has done well this year and it has been rewarding to teach her. She slipped out while we were talking and came back with a box for me........it is a beautiful necklace, ring and bracelet in black onyx and silver. I was so touched. We are going to miss this family!

Relief Society Meeting

For Relief Society Meeting, they had about people at one home canning peaches (which they got from Colorado)....and then these people met at the church doing quilt blocks and working on a quilt. Great women!

Navajo Nation Fair Parade

Since posting all of the pictures last year for the Fair - this is just one shot of the parade this year. We had a dear friend Karen visiting and had a wonderful few days showing her the things we love here and visiting the Fair. Again there were thousands of Navajo's here - it is a sight that you can't imagine unless you see it. We had a missionary booth at Nakai Hall and got about 200 referrals from that.

Sept 6th..........Anniversary - Holiday -

We took Elder Wilson, Elder Mears and Daniel Laughing with us and went to Chaco Canyon.....also invited the Cain's and they drove their own vehicle. Packed a lunch and made a day of it. This place is fantastic - ruins up close and personal!! This culture began in the mid 800's and lasted about 300 years with incredible architectural features. Multiple storied buildings with hundred of rooms. Pueblo Bonito had about 600 rooms......just a few shots of the day............to make you all want to go and see!

CTR Anniversary Rings........

We bought rings for our 53rd anniversary - a Navajo woman in Gallup made them for us - A different CTR ring...........

Hopi Corn Fields

As you can tell this was a long and beautiful day................we are so grateful for this experience and for Shirley and her family loving us and allowing us to share with them............

As we left you see below the road all the Hopi corn fields...........they plant only blue corn (shorter stocks) because is needs no water. They are great gardeners also planting, melons, etc.......Each man is assigned a plot of ground in the fields to plant and care for. There is never a weed in their gardens.....beautiful sight........

Mary & Willie Numkena

Shirley's parents and her daughter.....Mary is almost 95 and Willie is 93. Shirley cares for them 24 x 7 except for weekends when her daughter comes sometimes to let her get a break. We were so happy she could come so that we could go with Shirley. Mary gave Elder Hafen a beaded key ring with real horse hair on the ends, me the tissue holder and a photo of the necklaces Shirley made..........We took them baked goods, corn flake brittle (which everyone here loves) and some melons. They were happy.........

Gifts and Treasures

Shirley took us to a crafters wonderful store in one of the villages and she bought Elder Hafen the bolo tie with the Sun on it (she is from the Sun clan which is the most royal of all) and bought me two pictures.

Our Own "Kachina Doll"

We'd told Shirley we wanted to buy a real live Kachina.............(you guessed they are terribly expensive!) As we were driving along the road Shirley spotted a couple of vendor stands and said "Stop, stop!" And so this was our find..............Shirley is quite the shopper....she had him down in price to where we could afford to buy our own "Butterfly Maiden" Kachina....we love it!