6/05/09
This is our Zone Conference which was held in Polacca (which is in the middle of the Hopi Reservation) We had our two Elders ride with us so we could save them gas and miles on their truck. If you enlarge the photos you can read the explanation on each. The sisters in the Polacca ward provided our lunch...........it was quite amazing to me, we had more Senior Couple Missionaries than we did young elders.........I think the Arizona Phoenix has the most couples serving than any mission in church - on the Rez. The couple are the Brown's who have come from Tooele, Utah........they are going to proselyting. Nice couple.......so now we have three trailers here...Our little "blue house", the Elders trailer in the middle and then the Browns on the other end. They gave a "clean truck" award to the Elders who kept the cleanest truck (which is next to impossible here)...........Had great motivational talks - with two couples sharing their testimonies as they were going home. But others are coming to replace them.

We are loving the work..............loving the people.............loving each other.................and loving YOU! Thanks again for your prayers and support.

At Window Rock there was a mother photographing her daughter in honor or her 8th grade graduation (which is a big thing here). They have a big celebration in honor or pre school graduation, kindergarten graduation, 8th grade graduation and then high school graduation...................They are way into "education"...........

I asked if I could photograph her as well and they were really gracious about letting me do it. All girls wear the ceremonial mocassins that go up the leg to the knee.....always a lot of jewelry!! and the dress is a "rug dress"............most often a relative weaves the dress beginning with shearing the sheep, carding and making the wool into yarn and then weaving the dress............they are expensive to buy.

We visited "Window Rock" on
Memorial Day.....
There is a large memorial to the famous
"Code Talkers"..............they had a flame
lit behind the wreath - it was beautiful.
We will go another time to hikie
up to the window.

These are the two young Elders that live in the trailer next to ours.....
Elder Wilson is from Yakima, Washington and Elder Mizelle on the right
is from North Carolina..........we are almost feeling like they are our sons
by now............we have them to dinner often, they come and report to us
almost every night............we have really enjoyed them a lot. They are
really hard working and dedicated to their work. As they go "tracting"
they just park at the end of a dirt road and start walking until they find
a trailer or house to stop at............the homes are SO spread out here.
At night when you go out and look around you will just see little lights
dotting the whole landscape and it amazes you how many people do
live out there. They are sitting in our living room.....

We have two little girls that visit us every time their Mother has a meeting of any kind at the church. Their mother is Sister Chun....her husband is the principal of a school here. They are from Hawaii.............These little girls are a light to our life and remind us of our grandchildren.............come for treats and bring giggles and joy! We love to see them peeking in our window to see if we are home.

Life on the "Rez"

This is really what the Reservation is called here.................so we are enjoying "The Rez"........and becoming quite adapted to the Native American life style........... "Ya-ta-eh".............

This has been a busy week. We are still trying to get managing this office under our belt. We had a busy and fun week. Our ward mission leader Brother Tully (Tooley) has challenged us to learn a few Navajo words and to use them when we are out with people..........It was the morning after that challenge in our Wednesday night meeting......Elder Hafen and I greeted two people coming into the office "Ya ta eh".............and it was just amazing to us to see their countenance change and warm to us.............then they proceeded to tell us another word or two. They were probably in their 40's and neither had ever used a computer............so we looked for jobs in our books and then I went online and filled out 2 applications for each of them.............we visited quite a bit while we were doing all of this and by the time they left - we felt close to them.........His name was Tery Manyfarms and her last name was Bia........anyway, when she went up the steps, she turned around and came back and gave me a hug - thanking me many times for the help we had given them!!! This is rewarding work...........

Had a young man come in who had gone to Arizona State last year - he was a member of our church and had served a mission in Peru, so he speaks Spanish, English and Navajo........he is just home for summer. He is majoring in acting.....has made some films for the Sundance film festival
and also acted for some. He wanted to do any kind of work for summer............But it was just so interesting that right after he was in the Branch President of the Crystal Branch called. President Luis and he is making a film and needed some men for xtras and also some other crew members and was excited to talk to the young man when I mentioned him............I called the young man..............Stanley Silentwalker and he was so excited. Will find out this week if they connected and he got a job........

This is what a "real" missionary does...

Every morning before we open the office "Elder Hafen" sweeps the steps to the basement.......and does the vacuming. In fact, we both cleaned the office this past week (looked like it needed it pretty desperately)..........You can see the computers where people work on the one wall there............We love this little "hole in the wall".....................