Week Ending December 22, 2012

Sunday we woke to more snow, although it had quit falling. The roads were slippery so we had a small group for church. We passed out a flyer for the New Year’s Eve party. We have about 19 signed up right now. In RS I asked the sisters if any had favorite games and got some responses. We planned an agenda for the party, so I think we are coming closer to what should happen. I think we’ll have a good time.

After church Ted and I went out walking to deliver some popcorn we’d made as gifts. We gave some to 4 families. It was really cold so we were really glad to get back home. We gave some to people at church as well—ones we didn’t particularly want to visit since we don’t know where they live. When we got home we had a message from one of our Toh-la-kai seminary students saying she was in a choir concert in Gallup and, even though it was short notice, she wanted to invite us. After we had some hot chocolate and cider and warmed Ted’s feet a bit, we drove to the concert at the Sacred Heart Cathedral. It was a beautiful concert. It was mostly the choirs from Rehoboth Christian School, but they let the Gallup Catholic School do three numbers.

Monday we woke up to more cold but a beautiful day. We had a good visit with our grandma. Her husband’s pneumonia is nearly cleared up so he will return to work after Christmas. He had hoped to retire at the end of the month, but he was out sick the entire month so he needs to keep working for a while. We shared “Man’s Search for Happiness”. She really enjoyed it so we left her the DVD to share with her husband. He came home just as we were wrapping things up. Ted shared the story of the Founding Fathers coming to Wilford Woodruff asking to have their temple work done. We challenged them to prepare themselves to go to the temple then we had a prayer and left.

We drove to a couple of places to deliver some popcorn but no one was home. We stopped at a couple of other places instead and gave them the popcorn. We visited one man who was grouchy the first time we’d visited. He was much nicer this time. The roads were pretty clear, but we tried to avoid the mud in our walking.

Tuesday we went to the Iyanbito Senior Center for their Christmas lunch. The ground was quite soft so we got covered in mud. We enjoyed the lunch and met several people we had not found at home when we visited. The regulars had all drawn names and exchanged gifts. It was fun to watch some of the things they gave each other. One of the ladies told us she wanted us to visit her, so I got her address and phone number. When it was time to go Ted volunteered to get a sister’s car for her because it was in the middle of the mud. He got so covered with mud on his shoes that he couldn’t keep his foot on the clutch pedal. Our car was full of mud by the time we got home. Ted took some rags and water and tried to clean up the car. Then he had to clean up himself. It was really heavy, heavy mud. My side of the car at our house had leaves under the snow so it was fairly firm, but Ted’s side was pure mud. He ended up putting a towel on the ground to walk on. I cleaned up my side of the car and put a towel on the floor to protect it. I scraped the big chunks of mud from the wheel wells. It was a huge mess.

During the night I spent quite a bit of time thinking about a young man we are teaching. I got up and worked on the discussion for him for a couple of hours then went back to bed. I felt like I had been guided to write down several things as an approach to teaching him. In the afternoon we left fairly early to run some errands before institute. We have to get bottled water because we’ve been told our water here is contaminated with Uranium from the mines. Fortunately, the Water Store in Gallup gives us our water free—we just need to bring in the bottles and fill them. That is very generous of them. We fill up about once a week. When we arrived at Walmart, we discovered that one of the gallon bottles had tipped over in the back seat and dumped about ¾ of a gallon of water on the car floor. We did the best we could to mop it up, then we put the floor mat in the trunk on a towel. Bad day for our car!

One of our students had called to say a storm would hit around 3 PM so he wouldn’t be coming. It was plenty cold outside, but it wasn’t raining or snowing. We ran into the sister missionaries in Walmart and they said they were bringing a lady to institute. We got to the church just in time to set up for institute. About 10 minutes late the sisters walked in. Their contact finally arrived about 7 PM. We visited a bit then had a song and prayer and spiritual thought. Then Ted shared his favorite Christmas story and the story of the Founding Fathers. I shared a story by Pres. Kimball about giving gifts to Christ for His birthday. It was a good meeting. We gave the lady a bag of popcorn. She said she had been hesitant to come, but now she’s feeling comfortable and will come back when we start again.

Wednesday we woke up to a white world. It was not snowing, but there was some snow on the ground and the car was covered. It was about 20 degrees outside and windy. I stayed in most of the day and studied to prepare for Saturday. We walked down to the post office and there were two packages waiting—mail is really a treat. It was quite windy and very cold. Even though it was so cold the ground was muddy and wet most places. It didn’t take much to convince me to stay inside.

Mt. Taylor, one of the Navajo's four sacred mountains

Thursday morning was spent studying and preparing. We taught a young man in the afternoon. I gave the partI had prepared then turned the rest of the lesson over to Ted. We only got about half way through, but there was a good spirit. I just want to convey to the young man that he is loved of Heavenly Father and he can feel the blessings of the gospel in his life. After we left there we delivered some popcorn to several families on the way home. It seemed to be well-received.

Friday our appointment fell through so we hurriedly headed into Gallup for a district meeting. After that we went with the other missionaries to Sizzler for a late lunch. We then headed to Toh-la-kai for seminary. At about 6:25 one of my students ran in to say they needed to stop at home to get their books and they’d be right back. No one else came. When my students returned, we had our lesson and I showed the video of The Nativity. It was really touching to me. After we were done I wished them a Merry Christmas and gave them the candy bars I’d bought for a Christmas gift for them. We gave their mom a bag of popcorn. I was discouraged that the others hadn’t come.

Saturday our class president was on time for the first time so she conducted the seminary class. Her siblings arrived a bit later, but we had the entire class there. I felt a lot better. After class I had Ted take a picture of me with the kids and me with the kids and parents. I wished them a Merry Christmas and gave them the candy bars which they were all thrilled with. I was packing up my stuff when one of the kids came to get me for something in the hallway. The Joes gave us pillows with fleece covers in one of the Navajo patterns. They have no idea how much that meant to me. They told us how much they loved us and appreciated what we were doing for them and their kids. What a blessing they are to us.

Ft. Wingate Seminary and Adult Education classes

We drove to Thoreau (pronounced Thuh-roo) to meet another senior couple so they could take us to meet Jack, a pottery maker that lives there and gives missionaries a good deal. They are going home in a couple of weeks and were having a baptism—great way to end a mission. We visited a bit then asked if Elder Lords was around. He was just down the hall so we were able to meet him. He is our former bishop’s nephew. We visited with the couple in their RV. They have lived for a year in an RV that is really intended for someone to spend a weekend in—it is about 20 feet. They showed us where some ruins were near their home then we ate some lunch with them before heading back. We spent the rest of the afternoon delivering popcorn to several people in the branch.

Senior missionary RV in Thoreau
Drive one and sleep in one

Elder and Sister Roeth, Elder Lords at Thoreau

We wanted to visit a couple in Iyanbito we had met at the senior center. We’d been told they lived “just behind the chapter house”. We stopped at the first house on the road. A little boy about 7 ran out to see who we were. We told him who we were looking for and he pointed up the road and jabbered something very quickly about finding a church and they were next door. He said we could either go up his driveway or go back to the main (dirt) road. We chose to go back to the main road. We went on to another couple of houses and tried again. This time an elderly man answered and told us the same thing—find the church on the left and they are next door. The road was quite muddy and a couple of times we weren’t sure we’d make it, but we kept on. (There was really no way to turn around.) We passed a lot on the left with a school bus in the yard and decided that may be what we were looking for. We parked very nearly in the middle of the road and walked back to the house. It was the right house. I’m not sure what everyone was calling a church—there was a very small building about the size of a small work shed at the back of the lot with a cross on the side, but you had to know it was there to notice it. I certainly would not have used it as a landmark. I might have said they lived in the lot with a chain link fence around it since they were the only ones meeting that description. Funny the difference in the way we look at things. I went back to the car and backed it up the very wet and muddy road and pulled into their yard. I only spun the tires a few times. I then picked up a bag of popcorn and took it into the house. The lady wasn’t home, but her husband was glad to see us. The dogs in the yard were also glad to see us, but we’d forgotten our dog bones so we were without defense. We were advised to go back out the way we’d come in instead of going on down the road so we did. We were glad to get home.

Red Sage Loop, "just behind the chapter house", yech!