Monday we hoped to meet with Pres. Tulley of the Toh-la-kai Branch but weren’t able to connect with him. We emailed him outlining our plans to meet with parents and kids to kick it off. Ted made several calls to young adults in the stake inviting them to the New Testament Institute class we are starting.
In the afternoon we visited the homes of a couple of young adults that live in our area. One was asleep. Her father told us he’d give her a flyer we’d prepared. At the second stop an elderly lady answered the door and let us in. She had no idea who the young man was that we were looking for, so he must have moved. She had just moved here from Florida. Her son was recently hired as Assistant Pastor at a Christian community church in Gallup. We gave her a Proclamation on the Family with our names and phone number on it. She said her son would call us. He didn’t.
Tuesday we had an interesting experience when we went to teach one of our students. She had not been able to make the first two seminary classes so we told her we’d teach her at home so she could stay up with the class. She lives with her grandma. Her grandma was doing some beadwork on the sofa. I expected her to leave, but she stayed. As we taught about the Purpose of Life, we asked Kyree a question. As she thought about it, her grandma asked if she could answer and gave us the answer. She paid close attention while we were teaching about coming to earth, why we are here, and what happens when we die. At the end she said she had really learned a lot. She said she had not been sure about some of the things and appreciated the chance to hear about it. We asked if she would like us to come over and share with her more of the gospel teachings. She was very grateful for that so we are going next Monday. She is a member of the church but she hasn’t been very active for several years. She is really a sweet lady and we look forward to spending more time with her.
Wednesday we worked at home some more. When we went to the post office we ran the girl who had been asleep when we visited on Monday. We invited her to institute. We decided to try the café at the Trading Post. While we were waiting for our food we visited with the owner. He had fallen and his shoulder was in a sling. A year ago he fell off a roof and had some brain damage. The doctors told him not to fall again or he might not recover. We told him we were starting seminary and invited his boys to participate. He told us they were involved in another church so they wouldn’t be interested.
We received a text message late in the afternoon from Pres. Tulley in Toh-la-kai asking us to meet him at 6:00 PM at the church. That was a surprise. Our meeting went pretty well. He is a seminary graduate and he feels it is important. He’s a little fed up with some of the attitudes in his people relating to education. They are given money for college, but they have a 94% dropout rate. He is the COO for the Navajo Nation and is in charge of all construction. We are going to have a meeting next Wednesday to kick off seminary. We need to visit the branch Sunday to make the announcement, but we are planning to do that anyway. His clerk came and showed us the room he had set up for seminary.
On the way home we stopped at Sizzler to eat even though it was quite late. (They give missionaries ½ price on their meals.) While we were eating a lady came over and asked if we were missionaries for the Mormon Church. They were less active members. She and her husband were on their way to Albuquerque to see doctors. Her husband has a tumor in his chest and they were very concerned. She wondered if we would be able to find someone to give him a blessing before he left town. They were leaving straight from the restaurant so there wasn’t time to locate anyone to help. After we were all finished eating, we went out to their car and Ted gave the man a Priesthood blessing. We told them we would give their names and phone number to the missionaries who would be able to help them.
Thursday I studied some and worked on my lesson for seminary. The weather is turning cold, so I made some soup from our meager supplies. In the afternoon we went to the volley ball games for some of our students. It was really quite fun. The girls are really good. One girl is a freshman on junior varsity and varsity. Her sister is a senior and was the captain of the team for the night. During one of the games the rain began to come down in such force that it was really noisy on the roof of the gymnasium. We could see it pouring outside—very worrisome considering we would have to go out in it shortly.
We had to leave the varsity game early to drive to the stake center for a meeting with the stake president and the bishops and branch presidents. The stake president presented their vision. (They were called a month ago and had put together a plan for what they wanted to do.) The vision statement was an amazing one. After that they introduced a missionary training program for the young adults in the stake. I was totally blown away by the comprehensiveness of what they are doing for their young people. They have a program to prepare the young people to be ready to serve when they want to go. After that presentation, Ted introduced us and told about the institute program starting. This should work well with the other program and also assist the returned missionaries to stay involved in learning and studying the gospel. We asked for the help of the leaders in announcing our program in their wards and branches and gave them flyers to put in their bulletins. There was such a strong spirit in the meeting it was incredible. The youth and the church will really be blessed by the work of this presidency.
Friday I made a chart for my seminary students showing the Beatitudes as the Constitution of a Christian Life. I was very impressed with a quote from Pres. Lee on the subject and wanted to share it.
Saturday in seminary we talked about the Sermon on the Mount and the miracles of Christ. I learned a lot in studying and preparing, so I hope I was able to help them get something from it. After seminary we dashed passed some kids walking home. There had been hard frost on our windows so I was concerned about them and offered them a ride. They declined, indicating they just lived through the block from us. The two girls were wearing hoodies, unzipped. The two boys were in T-shirts. The church is only about a ¼ mile from our cottage, but it still chilled me through watching them.
We hurried and changed to jeans then drove to Crownpoint to meet with one of the other couples who had a truck to visit some Pueblo ruins at Chaco Canyon. To get to the ruins we had to drive 20 miles on rough dirt roads. There was no way we would have been able to make it in our car. The loop we drove on to see the ruins was paved. We guessed they kept the access road unpaved to dissuade visitors. The ruins were fascinating and we were able to walk through many parts of them.
On the drive home we admired the scenery of the area. It is really remarkable. The mountains are red rock, usually in a mesa formation. The valley we live in starts about where the road from Crownpoint intersects Interstate 40. The mountains begin there and continue all along the valley. It is beautiful.
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| Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon |
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| Doorways In Rooms |
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| Pueblo del Arroyo at Chaco Canyon |
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