Week Ending November 10, 2012

Sunday we went off Daylight Savings Time so we got an extra hour of sleep. At church I was surprised and pleased to see our grandma and her entire family. Her father had passed away Tuesday. Her father was one of the last Code Talkers from the world war. He was 90 years old. Many people feel the Code Talkers were responsible for saving many lives during the war because the Japanese were not able to break their code. They were not recognized after the war until 1968 when the details of their service were declassified.

After Sunday School we met with Pres. Pine to discuss what we could do to help the branch more. He asked us to teach a temple prep class. He gave us a list of about 5 individuals and families that he would like us to meet with. I think we will be kept quite busy doing the things he would like done.

Monday it felt good to get up when it was light and go for our walk. Back at our apartment we cleaned and did wash. We studied a bit and did a few odd jobs. In the early evening we went to a community meeting about the post office. It is being reduced to 4 hours of open window in order to conserve funds. This is happening at rural post offices across the country. At least they are keeping it open so we can get our mail here. I felt badly for the lady who runs the post office. She is having her hours cut in half and she needs to support 4 children.

Tuesday we spent most of the day studying and preparing for classes. At institute we had three students. Afterward, two students stayed and we played games for a while and had a good time.

Wednesday morning we took a trip to Canyon de Chelly, pronounced de-Shay. We stopped at the Hubbell Trading Post, the oldest open trading post in the country, and bought a couple of souvenirs. It was an interesting place. We watched part of a video on the Code Talkers which I bought. One of the interesting things I learned was that the alphabet was coded using animal names: A=ant, B=bear, etc. Then the Navajo word for the animal was used in the code, so the decoder had to translate the Navajo to English then take the first letter of the word for the coded message. The word for bear is “Shoosh”. It suddenly became clear to me why the Wingate High Bears kept cheering “Shoosh” at their games.

Wagon at the Hubbell Trading Post

At Canyon de Chelly we took the north rim drive first. We stopped at a couple of overlooks and the scenery was amazing. There are actually Navajos living at the bottom of the canyon right now. The ruins in the cliffs were also very interesting. At every overlook there were vendors selling their wares. I bought a beautiful turquoise necklace at the first stop. We also bought a stone with two cocopellis on it. The cocopellis are gods of the rain and the harvest. The ones we have on our stone are playing flutes calling for rain. All the artists have a story to tell. It was interesting visiting with them.

Canyon de Chelly

On the south rim we stopped at several overlooks. Most of the overlooks required a walk to the viewing site so we got lots of exercise. At the end we went back to the White House trail. This was a walk into the canyon to see some ruins and petroglyphs in the cliff walls. The walk down was not too bad. The trail got to be fairly narrow at some points, but it was safe enough if we were careful. It was amazing the way the wind and water has shaped and etched the mountains and left beautiful designs. It looks like sand dunes set in stone in several places. At the bottom there was a Navajo home with the area fenced off so visitors would not bother the people. We walked over to the ruins and took several pictures. They were amazing. It is called White House because the upper level is covered in white plaster. At the bottom looking up it was amazing how far up it was.

Part of trail to White House Ruins

White House Ruins

As we started back up several young men and women came running out of the tunnel at the end of the trail. They were a wrestling team from the Chinle High School doing some training exercise. They had run down the trail and then turned around and ran back up. They all passed us before we reached the top, some sooner than others. Some of the girls that came past us near the end were saying how their legs were really painful and wondering how the first ones had run the entire way. I couldn’t believe they had run either direction. I felt fairly safe coming down, but I would never have attempted running. Going back up was unthinkable. I’m afraid if I had stopped to rest I wouldn’t have been able to start up again. Some of the steps up were fairly high and I wasn’t at all sure I was going to make it. The drive home was uneventful. We were both tired, and my legs were sore and weak.

Sunset over Canyon de Chelly

Thursday I studied most of the day. We planned to visit in the afternoon, hoping to see some people that need support. Ted got an email asking us to speak in the Tohlakai Branch on Sunday. It is Veterans’ Day so they want him to share the story of his conversion and experience in the Navy. We set up a visit for Friday with a couple. I decided to make cookies to take with us. Just as I finished some cookies our Friday appointment called to ask if we could come now. Their granddaughter was at home and they wanted us to talk to her. They told us how to get to their home and we packed up and left.

At their home we visited with the granddaughter. We had met her on our first visit with the Relief Society President. She’s 18 and said she was out of high school and not working and not in college. She really didn’t want to participate in the seminary class we were starting. She recently told her grandma she wants to join the church. We will teach her and help her understand the gospel.

After we left there we went to visit another family. The husband had a stroke and is in a wheel chair. His ex-wife is caring for him in a home that is about half finished. The outside looks like it is missing the outside layer. We asked the husband if he would like to go to church and he indicated he would. The ex-wife was going to a Contribution Meeting. I asked what that was. Her niece’s daughter had died. Since most of the Indians don’t get life insurance, when someone dies they have a meeting where all the people give money to help with burial costs and to help the family. This is also called a “Gathering”. The people share memories about the person who has passed away.

From there we went to visit two ladies we saw a couple of weeks ago. It was almost totally dark, so it was tricky finding their driveway in the dark. The mother was home alone. Her daughter had gone with some people around there into Gallup to a motel and she didn’t know where she was. She said she thought she’d be back in about a week based on what has happened in the past. We had a good visit with the mom. She is not a member. She wants to read the Book of Mormon and the Bible before she joins the church so she knows what it is all about. She has read the Book of Mormon and it gives her a good feeling. She is currently in Psalms in the Bible. She had several questions about what she is reading and said the best thing we could do was help answer her questions.

We had thought about visiting one more person but were not ready to tackle a strange place in the dark. We came home and finished baking the cookies and studying. Sister Joe called to say they would not be able to come to seminary Saturday but wanted to do a makeup lesson. She said it is supposed to snow this weekend—I can hardly wait. We are keeping busy and getting busier. That is good.

Friday we woke up to the wind blowing. It looked as if it had rained during the night. I tried wiping the car down after our walk, but it wouldn’t get dry. It was like the water was too cold to get absorbed. I hung the towel and shammy I had used on the fence to dry. A short time later as I was studying I heard what sounded like rain on the air conditioner. Sure enough, it was raining outside. My towel and shammy were very wet on the fence. It rained off and on all day, and snow was being forecast for Saturday with about an inch on the ground Sunday. The high temperature for Sunday was supposed to be 35 degrees with a low of 4 degrees.

I worked on my lesson for both seminaries during the day and did some review for the temple preparation class we’ll be teaching. I also began thinking about the talk I need to give Sunday in Toh-la-kai. I had five students in the seminary class. We had good discussion. I got a little confused in the middle of the lesson and almost gave part of the Ft. Wingate lesson, but I caught myself in time.

Saturday we woke up to about 1 ½ inches of snow and very cold temperatures. We got ready for seminary in plenty of time, but it took Ted quite a bit of time to clean off the car so we got to the church just in time to set up and be ready. I only had three students.

Ted at our cottage, first snow

It snowed (blizzard) off and on all day. We didn’t have to go anywhere, so we hunkered down in the cottage. I made a pot of soup that tasted good. I worked on my talk part of the day and spent quite a bit of time looking at family history. When I looked at some records Steven had found, they were some German records that had just been indexed and contained quite a bit about the Roeth family back in the mid-1800’s. In the evening we watched a movie on the Code Talkers. They were really amazing and made a huge contribution to the country during the war.