Our second week - February 27th to March 3

On Monday Carolynn Luna came over and took us out to the gardens that were outside Kayenta.  We first went out toward Monument Park.  We stopped at the Blacks, but they weren’t home and then went on down the highway and turned into Lila Chatter’s place.  She was home and she told us that some of her relatives

The Black's garden area

Bobby Singers home

Black Mesa in the background

wanted to have a garden this year too.  She was a less active sister but was really friendly.  Then we went the opposite direction and headed toward the Black Mesa to find Bobby Singer’s garden.  We finally found his home way out by the Black Mesa.  His nephew came out which I had meet at church last Sunday.  He was a very nice young man and showed us around.  They had a really big garden because several families had gone in together. They raised sheep so they have enough fertilizer.  They also had quite a nice peach orchard.  They lived way out in the middle of nowhere but they had solar panels and wind generated electricity.  The grandparents lived at the home where Bobby and his sister and her son took care of them.  The Navajo’s take care of the elderly and the family bonds are very strong.  For birthdays, wedding, and other important holidays, they all get together and have a great big party. 

Sister Tom

 On our way back into town we picked up a hitchhiker along the road and took him to the towing shop.  Since we were right there, we stopped in and saw Sister Tom.  She is really a sweet older lady that has her daughter and her family living with her.  She had a nice garden space but needed Willard to come over and prune the trees.  Then she showed us where other gardens were that we could see from her house.  We took Carolynn out to lunch at the Golden Sands that was near by.  The food wasn’t bad and the prices were good.   That afternoon we stayed home and I made Google maps of the ward area so we could find our way around.  We were going to go out to dinner later but we weren’t hungry.   I received a lot of birthday wishes on facebook and talked to some of the kids. Any others tried to call me but I was gone. I really appreciate their efforts.  That night I went with Sister Zielger and Williams to a nutrition class that was being taught by a sweet lady at the Seventh Day Adventist Church.  Sarah and Holly would have loved the classes.  She gave us a delicious Peanut Butter treat that was made out of Tofu.  She also made a Blueberry Desert and Strawberry treat that didn’t use hardly any sugar.   She gave us a lot of interesting recipes.  Then we saw a film on Diabetes which was very interesting. It reminded me why I need to drink water and exercise more.  We were the only one’s there at her class but she had made a lot of hand outs and really did a great job and was very well prepared.  She also wants to start a garden.   So all in all, we had a good time together and I had a very nice birthday.

Tuesday we were going to go out with the William’s to update the ward lists and to find out where the gardens were.  It snowed a little and it was bitterly cold, so we just stayed over at the Williams home after I mixed up some No Knead Rolls for dinner later on that night.  We teamed up and went over the ward list and got quite a lot accomplished.  We combined food and had lunch there together.  We heard some sad news that Elder Ellis had chosen to go home.  I guess he just wasn’t happy out here and no one could talk him into staying.  I was sad because he was really a nice young man.  After lunch   I went home and made the rolls and made mash potatoes for dinner.  We were having a dinner for the Chappman’s because it was their last day at the employment center.  Elder Chappman was just made district leader.  They are stationed at Dennehotso and are gardening missionaries.  He wasn’t feeling well so after they got through going to their Alcohol Recovery Meeting for the intoxicated residence were court ordered to atttend, he and he wife quickly went home.  He really didn’t look good.

Wednesday was a busy day.  Teresa Singer, who is not a member but has great enthusiasm for gardening, came over in the morning to help us identify where the non-member gardens were.  She works at Bashess, a local food chain, and see’s everyone in the town.  We asked her if she would be a mentor and she was excited to help.  She even suggested that she might approach the Women’s Shelter, where she works part time, if they would like to participate.  She was a great gal.  Ziegler’s called and said that they were sick.  They were worried about us, because they thought they had gotten food poisoning from last night’s dinner.  They said when they got home, they were immediately vomiting.  We assured her that we felt fine.  We then went to the Flea market and I go 4 beautiful necklaces and 3 pairs of earrings for only $34 for my birthday.  They were all hand made by the locals and I felt I needed to support the economy.  Then we went to Ace’s to get some pipe insulation to keep our pipes from freezing.  We got it on but were short about 2 lengths.  In the afternoon we walked up to the church to meet with Elder and Sister McMurtrey.  We had a good discussion and we were able to glean some good information and guidance. When we got home we saw 4 chairs outside the missionaries’ apartment.  They  had just got back with the new Elder that was replacing Elder Ellis.  We asked them if they wanted the chairs and they said that they were just going to throw them in the trash.  Since we needed 3 chairs desperately because the ones that we had were really broken, we took them, cleaned them up and vacuumed them.  It was so good to sit down without the fear of the chair failing down.  The Lord had come through for us again.

Young women of the ward

 After fixing dinner I went to Mutual up at the church to show the girls how to make Microwave Peanut Brittle and German Pancakes.   The German Pancakes turned out well and they all loved seeing how it rose, but the Peanut Brittle was another story.  The microwave heated unevenly and it burnt the Brittle. It really tasted terrible.  One girl said it was alright, because she had tasted it at Movie night and knew it was good.  Then Sister Holiday informed the girls that they were going to sing in 2 weeks for Sacrament meeting.  I told her that I would look for some music that they could sing. She was relieved because she didn’t have a clue what to do.  When I got home, I remembered that I had told Becky McCarney that I would help her with get her family names ready to take to the temple on Saturday.  I had stopped to talk to her while I was waiting for the girls to arrive. Then when the girls came I went to do my demonstration and forgot about Becky.  I felt terrible that night so I planned to go to her home in the morning because I didn’t have her phone number the next day.

On Thursday I called Ziegler’s to see if they were still sick and if there was anything I could do for them.  She didn’t have anything except she requested some home made bread.  I told her I would be happy to make some and bring it over.  Before making the bread, we set out for Becky’s home that was in the old trailer court.  That was an experience just to find her home.  There are actually house numbers but they are on the fence so you have to look carefully and the number’s sometime don’t follow a logical sequence.  I got no answer so I left a note with my phone number. We then went to Ace’s and got more installation and then we stopped at Julie Holiday’s who lives on our way home and to showed her some music.  She chose Karen Stanton’s song that she had written when she was in MIA many years ago called “My Liahona”.  It has a easy to learn melody and I think the girls will catch on quickly.  Sister Williams is going to direct and I am going to play for them.  Anyway, when we got home I started to make bread, then there was a knock on the door and there was Becky.  (She is the mother of Nellie and has had quite a difficult life)  She came in and while the bread was rising,  I helped her qualify the names.  Then President Justice and his brother-in-law came knocking at the door.   It was good to meet Pres. Justice.  He sat down in the kitchen (I was so glad that we had gotten the new chairs )and talked with Willard while his brother-in-law, Dan fixed our bedroom lights.  When Becky was about to leave, she mentioned that she was glad she came over.  I asked her if she had seen my note on the door.  She said  she wasn’t aware that we had even gone over to her house.  She just felt that she needed to come over.  She is such a spiritual person.

 Dan got everything fixed and then they took Willard up to the shed to get a rototiller and took him down to the garden.  They were surprised that the garden hadn’t been put to bed for the winter.  They began to show Willard how to work the rototiller and then they discovered that a bolt was missing so Willard had to stop.  After they hooked up the RV that wasn’t being used that was beside us,  I had them come in and enjoy some nice warm bread and some Chicken Wild Rice Soup.  I was so thankful that Sister Ziegler had asked for some bread because now I had something to offer them.  After they left, Willard checked the email, and told me that Sister Olsen had written that she wanted know how many new  gardens that we were going to have.  So first I got Elder Ziegler to show me how to set up a spread sheet and after about 4 hours of working on it, I finally was ready to input our data of the current gardeners  which  Willard helped with.  Pres. Justice, said that we might get enough materials for 25 garden.  The equipment is worth about $500 and is made in Israel so we are going to look for some motivated gardeners.

 Friday morning we woke up to a blanket of snow.  I was glad we had insulated the water lines. It was

Part of the Painted Desert

bitter cold outside. We left around 10 to go to the Snowflake temple.   We took the road to Chinle and then turned on Highway 40.  Then we decided to go to the Petrified Forest.  We bought a lifetime pass for $10 that will get us into any national park for free.  We figured since there are so many national parks around here, we certainly will get our money’s worth.  At the gift store I bought some Petrified wood, enough for all the grandkids and saw we saw a film about the area.  They cautioned everyone not to pick up any  rocks because you would be persecuted.  They told us that a million pounds per month were taken illegally from the park.  The petrified rocks are over 2 million years old so it is a great loss to the park if people steal them.

Mural at the Painted Desert Inn

Ancient Ruins

Famous Bird petroglyph

Agate Bridge

Petrified wood

Dinosaurs that lived in this area

One of the first sights we saw was the Painted Desert.  It was gorgeous! It is amazing how the Lord has created such beauty.  Up at the top of the mountain, we stopped at the Painted Desert Inn.  It had been build at the turn of the 20 century out of Petrified wood and then the Corp of Engineer restored it in the 1930’s.  It has some beautiful murals painted by renowned Native American Artist.  Then the guide pointed out the ceiling that had panels of glass with Hopi drawings.   Then we went on down the road and stopped at Puerco Pueblo, which was a large archeological site that was occupied over 600 years ago.   The pueblo had been partially excavated.  We also saw some petroglyphs  that were ancient.  Then there was this one partial building that was well persevered  away from them all.  We called it the baptismal font.  We also stopped to see the Agate Bridge which was a large petrified log spanning a gully.  Then we stopped at the Crystal Forest and saw a whole bunch of petrified logs.  They were really quite unique and beautiful to look at.  Our last stop was at the Rainbow Forest Museum that has skeletons of the dinosaurs that once inhabited the area.  I thought of Zane and his love of dinosaurs and how much he would love this exhibit because there were dinosaurs there that I have never seen before.  I was so glad we stopped and enjoyed it even though it was so cold and windy.

We finally go into Taylor, (we were staying at the Roadway inn there) about 4:15.  We checked in and then went to the Trader Café that was down the road and was recommended to us.  Since we didn’t see any other places to eat besides fast food we decided it couldn’t be that bad.  The food was good and our stomachs were satisfied  After we got back to the hotel, Willard crawled into bed and quickly went to sleep.  He was tired out by all the driving.

At the Snowflake Temple

Saturday morning we got up early and ate a hot breakfast.  For $48 it was a great place to stay.  We got to the temple about 8:45 and meet some of the other gardening missionaries while we waited for the others to arrive.  Then we all meet in the Chapel together and President Justice asked me to play the organ.  After they  turned off the taped music, I started to look for the right stops to use.  However, the organ had been set low and I couldn’t make it go louder.  I didn’t have time to figure out how the organ was set up so the congregation drowned out the organ.  I would say that there were almost 90 people there.  That included the teens that came to do baptisms.  It was so awesome.  A former president spoke for a few minutes. He was a Hawaiian that had come as a missionary as a young man to teach the Navajo’s and returned to marry his wife and settle here.  So he could speak Navajo fluently.  He was very striking.  He reminded me Of Lue Diamond Philips with a mustache.    As he spoke I could feel his magnificent spirit which brought tears to my eyes.    One thing he said that really stuck me was that we should all belong to the culture of Christ.  Christ does unite us all no matter what background we come from.  President Justice built on that theme and reminded them that we as missionaries were there to serve them  not to take over and do for them what they can do for themselves. Then President Johnson, the president of the Snowflake temple spoke and told us that today was the 10^th anniversary of the temples dedication.  Then he told us the story of how the temple came to be on the hill that it was on.  It seems that President Hinkley came out to look at possible

The temple on the right hill

sites.  The church owned property on a smaller hill and some leader suggested that it would be a good site.  However President Hinkley looked out and saw the higher hill and pointed to it and said that was where the Lord wanted the temple and for them to do what they needed to do to get the land.  Well when the Lord wants a temple someplace it happens.  I loved the story.

  

When we entered the endowment room I saw a lady with a lot of headsets to listen to the session in a different language.  I thought they were for those who spoke only Navajo.  But I was surprised because I was the one that needed the headset because the whole session was in Navajo. However, there was a small screen that followed along with English.  I was sitting in front right under the screen, because the session was so large they had to bring in a lot of extra chair so I had to look straight up to read the words.  My neck got a kink but   still really enjoy the session and the spirit was so strong there. 

We stopped at Jenny Shelton Davis’s mother-in-laws home to change and left on our way home.  Then we decided to go back by the way for Flagstaff just so we could see a different part of Arizona.  We stopped at the Village Inn to eat because tomorrow  is and bought a cherry pie to share with our fellow missionaries.  Then we headed for home.  We pulled in about 6:15.  We decided that going by Flagstaff was definitely the longer way.  But all in all, the trip to the temple was well worth the effort.

Sunday was a full day.  We went to the 2^nd ward Sacrament Meeting that was at 9 AM.  I was sustained as counselor in Primary.  It really doesn’t make any difference whether it was 1^st or 2^nd counselor because the other counselor is moving and she again will only have one then too.  The primary had that day 12 children and 3 teachers.  But size wasn’t a problem in the singing category.  Boy could they sing! She has to shut the primary door and they have to shut the chapel doors so the 1^st ward can’t hear them.  They knew the songs and they just loved to sing.  Then I went to Sunday school in the 1^st ward to listen to Willard give the lesson there.  He did a great job, as he usually.  Then finally I went to 1^st ward young women to help them learn the song.  They had a pretty good start on the song; there were only 3 girls and 2 leader there.  We hope to bribe more to come on Wednesday so I agreed to bring cinnamon roll.

After church we came home for a short time and then went to Ward Council.   It was interesting that the bishop was trying to get people to be friendlier and greet new people.  Wards are the same no matter where they are.  They have a lot of challenges in their ward.  They really should be a combined with the other ward but if they do that they wouldn’t have enough wards in the stake to make a stake.  There are plenty of member’s but just not active ones.  So there big push is to reactive those who have fallen into inactivity.

After that we went over to the Williams to eat with them and the elders.  It was so funny because both elders had dated the same girl at BYUI. That was quite the story.  After dinner we got the trailer hooked up for our trip to Tuba City for our first Gardening meeting.   Now the work really begins.