Addiction Recovery Program

We had two weeks of the Addiction Recovery Program where NO ONE came!! We were a little discouraged, however, we realize that we have to build the program from scratch and need to get people to trust us more...............
BUT.............last Thursday was a HUGE success!!! We had 7 people - The Elders came and brought a husband and wife they are teaching who are not yet members of the church teaching and then we had another young man and the Elders............One of the problems was alcohol for the one man - he had started drinking when he was 12 - his cousins tied him down and poured it down his throat - (can you believe?) and some other addictions.............It all went so well - the woman just began to cry in the sharing portion of the meeting and said how thankful she was that she had come to the meeting.............they both shared, tears were shed and a wonderful spirit filled the room. We are so grateful to be able to work with these humble, teachable people.
As we left we gazed at our beautiful sky here and said once again "Thank You Heavenly Father for letting us serve here at this time in our lives............."

Employment Resource Services -

We are busy in the Employment Office - usually it turns out to be about 9 hour days there. There are so many people looking for employment and wanting to get more education. It is a rewarding and frustrating work at the same time. We did have a great 2 weeks - we helped place quite a few jobs............Lee R Belone (the attorney) was hired by the church to help with acquiring land, etc. Monique Louis was hired at the Navajo Nation Inn as an accountant, Jaunita White as a housekeeper at the Inn as well. Shannon Slinkey was hired as a front desk person at Days Inn, Rachid (from India) was hired as an electrician - he just finished his schooling., and an ironworker young man with a little family of 4 moved to begin a job in Ohio was week. Hooray for work!!! They were all so grateful and so excited to work.

We had meetings with a new couple coming to Kayenta Employment Office where we helped train them. They are going to be great.

The photo is "Ethan" - he was Elder Hafen's helper one afternoon while his aunt and cousin looked for work for about 2 hours............he finally just ended up at President Boone's desk working alongside Elder Hafen.........darling little boy and he quickly attached himself as a side-kick for Elder Hafen........

Window Rock News.............

Happy 4th of July to everyone!! It is a pretty big thing here and we enjoyed watching all the people and happenings in the little valley............We are so grateful to live in this free land and to be able to worship, work and pray as we desire. We are enjoying the beautiful creations that surround us here in the Navajo Nation - beauty everywhere and in such a different way. We love the way the Navajo feel about everything of the earth - they feel they are related to everything - flowers, trees, animals, insects, Mother Earth, Father Sky.............and have such a wonderful reverence for everything that surrounds us...........We are so thankful to be here and to be learning so much from their culture......

I am still playing the piano quite a bit at church................There are really only two people in the ward here who play piano. And they have stake callings which requires them to travel often....so when they go, they ask me to help. One of them plays for Relief Society (women's organization) and the other for Sacrament Meeting and Primary (the children's organization)....so I get to see all aspects. They only play piano here, but there is an organ in the chapel - so the other evening we went over and I plugged that in and played for a while.............maybe one of these Sundays when I am asked to play I'll surprise everyone and play the organ...........the tone isn't the best - but it works..............

We had a picnic at the church last night - it was a fun BBQ...........with the traditional burgers and hot dogs (a few people brought their own steaks to cook) and then potluck for other things. Of course - they always make "fry bread"............there were several of the young women, one older sister and some smaller girls and the Elders in the kitchen making fry bread............one of the men brought the beans for Navajo Tacos................fun time............and so fun to visit and get to know all the people better.

There was a rodeo for 3 nights here, carnival rides, flea market was much bigger for Friday and Saturday.....and last night fireworks. We got in the car and took the Elders with us to go to a hill to look down on the fair grounds to enjoy the show!! It was not anything huge - but fun to end the day in a traditional way!

Just took a picture of Elder Hafen last week before church - the picture was taken about 8:55....church begins at 9:00...................so you can see by the parking lot that people DON'T arrive too early here...........ha ha!! This is a pretty laid back culture and the people really just enjoy the journey...............and believe it or not...........WE are learning to do that too.