Our first week in the mission field.

Willard, Gene and John Hill

Sunday,  we went to sacrament meeting with Ben and left about 12.30 and got to Gene.  They were just getting out of church about the same time.  Then John and Marsha joined us for dinner. We had a wonderful time visiting and Willard set straights some of John’s memories of an accident that they were involved in.

 Monday was a nice way to start toward Kayenta.  It was a cold and clear day.  We traveled south on I 15 and saw nothing but snow on the ground until we almost got to Washington, Ut.  We then changed courses and started going east.  On the way to Page we saw a lot of desolate land, but we were amazed by the different rock formations and wondered how they all came about. 

When we got into Page, Brother Moody wasn’t going to be able to make it so he sent his nurse to take care of us.  While we were waiting for her to come, we went to Walmart.  It was so nice to see the old familiar products there that I get.  I was in and out and we were on our way to Tuba city about 3:30. We got to Tuba City about 5 and meet Sister Olsen, who was just as wonderful as she sounded on the phone.  We picked up our official missionary badges and became Elder and Sister Hill. She gave us advice as to how to deal with dogs and beggars.  There dogs everywhere!  Then we were off to the last leg of our journey.  While we were on the road the Zigler’s called us and told us that they and the Williams had cleaned the RV and washed the bedding so it was all ready to move into minus, hot water, and heater. 

Typical landscape from the Hill

The Williams had dinner all ready for us.  They live in a mobile home that is big enough to have people over.  So Zigler’s and Elder Morales and Elder Ellis with the Williams all had dinner together.  Afterwards, they all helped us empty the truck and it was done in half an hour. The water was awful dirty looking so we didn’t have anything to drink. (We found the next day that we just needed to let it run to clean out the Pipes.) Willard was exhausted and went to bed but I stayed up and got pretty much everything in it’s place.  There is so much room here.  I even have some empty places.  The elders went to the Church house and brought us a space heater.  I plugged it in the middle of the RV and went to bed.  Then about 3 that morning I woke up with my nose freezing because the air was so cold with the CPAP.  The heater wasn’t getting the bedroom warm at all.  So I got up to move the heater into the bedroom and found the extension cord very warm so I found the heavy duty cord that I brought and moved it into the room and shut the door.  That seemed to help, but I just couldn’t get it warm enough for my nose so I hardly got any sleep.

The William's on the left, our RV is the white one, next is the Ziegler's and then the Elders

Looking up to the living room

The bed room

The Church on the Hill

Tuesday morning, Willard went out early next morning to the store to get some drinking water, and a few groceries.  Then Elder William’s came over and gave us a key to their place so that we could go over and take a hot shower.  I suggested that Willard go and take a shower but he hadn’t eaten so I went and enjoyed a hot shower.  Then when I left I forgot to get the key and the door was locked.  So Willard couldn’t take a shower.  So I heated up some water and he went into our shower to take a sponge bath.  While he was in there Brother Stephens showed up to look at all the things that needed to fix.  Meanwhile Willard was in the shower freezing waiting for more warm water that I was heating up in the microwave because our stove top didn’t work.  Then he pointed out the reason why the stove didn’t work and we had not heat was because the propane tanks were empty. He told us that he would be back on Thursday to fix the water heater and the electrical outlets that weren’t working on the south side of the RV.  He asked if we could wing it from there and we assured him we could.   So after he left and Willard finally finished his “shower” we went to get more supplies, ate at the Subway and our 2 propane tanks filled.  It cost $50 to fill both tanks.  We will see how long the gas lasts. 

Sister Big's home. One of our gardeners

In the afternoon, the Williams took us to some of the member’s homes, so we could meet them and invite them to a movie night where they would be showing ” 17 Miracles” and serving root beer floats .  Home in Kayenta are very difficult to find because some parts don’t have addresses and if they have addresses they really have neither rhythm nor reason.  The Chapel is up on the hill and the homes that are on the hill have no system of roads that you can find people.  It is wild.  Brother Stephens suggested that we get a GPS system so we could find members.  The Williams are trying to put together a map of where the ward members are and then we are going to cross reference it with who the gardeners are.

Elder Ellis, Moralas,  Elder, Sister William's and Willard

When we got home we put together a salad and went over to the William’s for dinner again along with the Elders.  They are such a wonderful couple. After dinner, we came home and did a few things, watched a movie on Netflix (the Zieglers are letting us use their internet service.) About half way through it about 9:00pm we heard a knock on the door.  It was the Secretary to the Stake Presidency, Brother Gibson, coming to welcome us here and to express his appreciation for us coming to serve.  He gave us a name of the people who were called by the stake to oversee the project for here in Kayenta.  He left after 9:30 so we just went to bed thankful that we had heat.

Wednesday morning we puttered around cleaning up and I reorganized some things. Willard this time took his shower first and was so thankful for a hot shower.  I made some bread and cinnamon rolls and baked them over at the William’s because I couldn’t figure out how to light the little stove in the RV. Also, I did some laundry at the William’s too.  They were so gracious to offer to let us do our laundry there.  They leave before 9 to work at the employment agency so it works out well.  That afternoon we went to the Big Flea Market

Jeremy Small Canyon at the Flea Market

that they have every Wednesday.  Jeremy Small Canyon, Sister Big's grandson that we had met the day before, sales pieces of cake that he makes from scratch so we told him we would come and buy a  piece.  There were all kinds of really pretty jewelry and things to buy.  I overcame the temptation and bought some sunglasses.   I know we will be going each week.  I have plenty of time to find some really nice pieces. 

Kayenta from the church parking lot

When we got home, I decided to go to the church house to practice because I am going to be playing a piano solo in the 2^nd ward.  While I was practicing Elder and Sister McMurtrey came in and introduced themselves.  They are service missionaries here to help with the addiction recovery program and Family Relations.  They were both had been licensed psychologist.  She specializes in nutrition and eating disorders and he was more into family counseling.  I immediately recognized that the Lord had defiantly had a hand in this meeting because I knew that they could help us with some difficult family matters.  We are going to meet with them next Wednesday because they come to Kayenta on Wednesday. 

I fixed Bear Creeks Potato Broccoli soup for dinner that I had brought from Boise.  The Williams arrived home late so I took over the left over’s with some bread.  I thought we needed to do something for them because they had helped us so much.  Later that night Elder Ziegler brought over the green gardening book that had  all the information about who had gardens in the past.

Willard and Brother Stephens

Thursday we went over the gardening book and called Sister Luna who we were told knew the most about the gardener.  She came over and explained more of how things were done. And then we made plans to go out with her to the outlaying areas to the people who had gardens because they weren’t on any maps.  However, Brother Stephens showed up and spent the rest of the day fixing the RV.  He got everything working. Except for the front door.  Because it a part is broken so we can only open it from the outside, so to exit one has to go to the back door which is in the bedroom.  One good thing about that is that we always make our bed now because you never know who is going to have to go through the bedroom. To say the least we were excited about having hot water.  He even showed us how to get the stove working.  I was so excited that I fixed some stew and made some breadsticks.  Well I found out that the oven that had the gas heating element right in the middle burned whatever was in the middle and didn’t cook well on the sides.  So there is about a 4” on either side of the heating element that cooked properly.  Well I guess I will have to use the Williams stove if things needed to be baked.  I did make a batch of Microwave Peanut Brittle for Movie”.  Later on that night I went up to practice again and also help set up for the movie night.  While there they discovered that the screen was going to be way to small so I suggested using one of our cream colored sheets as a screen on one of the walls.  It worked out really well

Friday, we were looking forward to using our shower for the first time with hot water but when I got up I noticed that there was no water to flush the toilets.  With further investigation, we found out that the pipes had frozen and there was no water at all.  This was very poor timing because we were going to Chinli, which was about 60 miles from Kayenta,  to a Zone conference at 9.  Thank goodness Willard had bought some drinking water because I heated it up and we took sponge baths again.  Then I tried to get more light in the bedroom by putting in a light bulb and it shorted out the breaker and we had no lights in the bedroom. Luckily I  had brought a little lamp.  We rode down with the Ziegler’s and had a nice time visiting and getting to know them.  We had a great zone conference with all the senior missionary couples in the New Mexico Farmington Mission.  Later we found out that this mission as the second largest group for senior missionary couples.  President Spence Jones is the Mission President.  I really like him because he has so much enthusiasm and his wife is just as dynamic.  He has a wonderful way of teaching.  I really enjoyed him.  We also heard from one of his counselors Elder McNeil, who really had a heart as big as the all outdoors.   After the conference, we had a pot luck and got to know the other missionary couples. Each one was delightful and am looking forward to seeing them in 3 months.  After lunch, when we were waiting for the William’s who we were going to ride home with.  President Jones,  was rushing by us and then suddenly he just put his briefcase down and said he would like to get to know us.  As we were talking, we discovered that he knew Gene.  Gene had actually been one of his trainers in the Old Mission Language mission.  I guess then have worked together and seen each other a lot during all the church assignment. He then processed to give us some additional counsel.

Elder and Sister Williams

    

On our way home we stopped at Canyon De Chelly visitor center because Elder William’s was looking for a
man that was going to make him some cuff links.  But he wasn’t there.  But we got to see all the fun possibilities of coming back. It has a wonderful loop to drive and things great rock formations.  That is on our bucket list to do.

Movie night

When we got back we had about an hour and a half before movie night was to begin.  So I made another batch of Peanut Brittle, some Toffee Bars and No Bake Cookies.  Well the party was to start at 6:30, so we were concerned no one was there but about 6:45 people began to trickle in.  By the time we started the movie we had a full house. I brought the keyboard to play some preset fun song to lighten up the mood.   It was quite exciting because many had brought their non member neighbors.  There were some children there too.  What was really amazing, how quite and attentive everyone was.   The children didn’t get up and move around the watched the movie and many of them were moved to tears.  It was a very successful night.

Over looking Monument Park. Can you see the balloon?

The group getting warm inside a Hogan

Willard with his prize sack of flour

The Group at breakfast

Saturday morning we got up at 5:30 AM to go to Monument Valley with the Ziegler and the Williams to see the balloon Festival which is about 30min away.  We took our truck because it can seat six very comfortable.   When we got there it was so cold and windy that the balloons couldn’t get up.  Three balloons  finally did launch.  We took the opportunity to look around and spun a wheel to win a prize.  I won a t-shirt and Willard won a 25 lb sack of flour.  So we are good for the next six months.  It was really so beautiful with all the different rock formations.  The landscape is constantly changing.  Then we went to Gaulding’s for breakfast and then to a souvenir shop.  I now know what I want to get is a Navajo Flute.  I just have to look around for the best price. 

Not to bad for only a 2 hour notice

The wedding

Just as we were pulling onto the road to the chapel we notice that the Elders were already at the church.  There was a Wedding and a baptism scheduled for that afternoon that I was going to play for.   We meet the bride and asked her if there was anything we could do for her and he shrugged her shoulders and said maybe some decorations!  Well  we  were up to the challenge, so Sister Ziegler and Sister William’s gathered some things at their house and then we remembered that Sister Luna had left some decorations there in the storage unit, so we got those.  We found that each of the center pieces had a round tablecloth wrapped around them.  So with all the things combined it really did look nice.  Not bad for 2 hour notice.  Also, Elder William’s who is the executive secretary to the Bishop, told us that he would like Willard to give his testimony, 5 to 7 min and for me to play a piano solo.  So I will be playing at both wards. While I was up at the church decorating Willard was going to take a shower.  He didn’t wait long enough for the water to heat up and so again he took a  cold sponge bath. 

A grandmother in native dress

I took my keyboard over and use the preset music for background music while we waited for the Bride to get ready.  Then after the wedding they opened the doors to the baptism font of the baptism.  It was a nice baptism from what I understood.  Some of them say things first in English and the repeat the same things in Navajo but one Sister just gave the whole talk on the Holy Ghost in Navajo.  But sometimes, they will be speaking in English and then switch to Navajo right in the middle of a sentence.  They are really sweet people but really have different ways.  It is very difficult to do family History because the elders don’t like to speak about the dead.  After the baptism they had a big dinner that the step father provided from Goulding's where he worked.  It was very nice.

We were going to have game night tonight but we are all too exhausted to do anything but go to bed.  But it is a great feeling to go to bed tired because you were in the service to your God and fellowmen.   

Sunday started out like all Sunday's, going to church.  We went to the 2nd ward first and I played a solo and Willard gave a short talk.  Then we went to the 1st ward and I played again.  After Sunday school, the teacher Brother Singer asked for a volunteer to teach because he was going to be out of town and Willard volunteered.  Then I meet a lot of great sisters at Relief Society.  Sister Luna gave the lesson on self-reliance  and did a great plug for the gardening project.  I learned then that we were going to go over to the William's for dinner at 5.

However, we were ready for lunch after 5 hours of church.  I had made chicken and wild rice soup in the crackpot and was a little thick but I just added chicken gravy to it and it was great.  Then at 4 o'clock we went over to the Williams to cross reference the ward list with the gardeners.  We almost got done when the Ziegler's came with dinner.  It was great with pork chops, sweet potatoes and a cabbage salad. Of course, Sister Williams provided 2 luscious deserts.  I am really getting spoiled here.

Bishop Gilmore and his counselor Greg Wayne

After dinner we came home and got comfortable in our pajama and I settled down to work on the blog but then here comes a knock on the door.  It was the Bishop of the 2nd ward Bishop Gilmore and his counselor. They came over to welcome us here and ask us to attend ward counsel and to call us to some positions.  He asked me to do about 3 things so I won't know until next week when I am called to what things I will be called to.  He asked Willard to help out in the priesthood.  There will be more to come.  Anyway,  he is a really a great Bishop. He doesn't waste time.  I was really impressed with him and his great spirit.