Monday

We did all the normal stuff we do on preparation day, and afterwards we made it to an appointment with one of the people we are teaching named Seth. His lesson went super well, we really felt the Spirit there. After that, we set up for family home evening. I played piano to start it off, and the message we shared was the Mormon message about the 2 silver dollars that Gordon B. Hinckley shared. Elder Sperry made some good cookies for after the meeting.

Tuesday

The first thing we did today was pull weeds for around 2 hours under the hot sun. We did that for the branch president, who started a garden this year and it is looking really good so far. He gave us some sandwiches and IBC root beer for our service. When we got back, we went for a long walk to Johnny's home, where we read from the Book of Mormon and talked about random stuff with him. Later, I made a flyer for a movie night that me and Elder Sperry are going to host sometime in the future. The exact day is yet to be determined, but either way I am excited to see how many people will show up to it. We tried by a few more people after that and turned in for the night.

Wednesday

Me and Elder Sperry left around 10:00 in the morning and met with the Aztec 1st ward missionaries at the halfway point between Aztec and Dulce and I went on an exchange with Elder Bruning. I was the driver for the day, and I was in Dulce with him. Elder Sperry went with Elder Daffer to Aztec. Me and Elder Bruning worked hard and had fun, and we were able to meet a fantastic person named Nancy. We are hoping to meet with her and her husband sometime in the future. They both seem interested in learning more about us. After knocking a few doors, we helped out and participated in a potluck! Me and Elder Bruning helped out with all the crazy activities that were set up by the branch president. I think my favorite game that we helped out with there was the fishing game for the really little kids. We got to give them huge smiles when they fished out a dinosaur or a hot-wheels car on their fishing pole. After that, we did some studies and turned in for the night.

Thursday

This morning, me and Elder Bruning prepared for district meeting and left at about 8:00 am. We exchanged back into our normal companionships there. The zone leaders were at district meeting today, and they gave us some good insights about missionary work. I gave a training about a case study on missionary work that was given by the church, and Elder Bruning had us do a roleplay where we had to find the 'elect individual' who was open and ready to hear a message from the missionaries. That was pretty fun. After district meeting, me and Elder Sperry visited Daniel and we were able to read from the Book of Mormon with him. After that, we went home, planned, went to the post office where I got a package full of cereal (yes!), and went out to find people. While we were out on a specific street, we were trying to find someone named David, but nobody seemed to know who he was. After talking with a few people, we got a text from Elder Bruning asking me if I remember the person's address that we had met at the gas station yesterday. I told him all I could remember was that he worked at the clinic in Dulce, and Elder Bruning told us what street he remembers the guy telling us he lives on, and it happened to be the street that we were on right then! We hopped out of the truck and went out in search of this person whose name had entirely escaped my head. We met a bunch of nice people, and eventually we got to a lady named Marlene. I asked her if she knew anyone who works at the clinic, and she pointed at a house that we had tried previously that nobody answered at and told us his name is Larry. We talked with Marlene for a long time, and gave a Book of Mormon. She seemed genuinely interested in it and said she would read it. I think that event was inspiration from the Lord. 

Friday

We did weekly planning for the majority of the day, and were able to contact a few people. I got really sick, so we stayed home for the rest of the evening.

Saturday

I found out that Elder Bruning got sick too, and later today the branch president gave us a call and said that he also got the same thing, so it must have been some kind of bug that was at the potluck. I was home for most of the day. I didn't sleep too much last night because of how sick I was. I practiced a bit on the piano, though.

Sunday

We went to church this morning and the branch president told us that a lot of people got sick at the potluck and church attendance was down a bit. I was feeling a lot better today other than a sore throat. We were able to visit Mary and schedule a time tomorrow on Monday that we can learn how to bead stuff the Apache way. I'm pretty excited for that. Afterwards, we went home, had dinner, studied, and went to bed.

Best wishes!

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My studies have pretty much been out of the Doctrine and Covenants lately. I have also found that the Sister Susan Fulcher case study is pretty neat and has tons of missionary ideas in it. I had to do a training on that in district meeting. Something weird I noticed at one part in the Doctrine and Covenants is that in one of Joseph Smith's revelations, God is saying that he will bring to pass his "Work, his strange work" and it also talks about his "strange act" in the same verse. Maybe when God says "strange", he means that we do not understand or cannot comprehend it fully, so it is strange to us, or something like that...

So have you had any good ice cream lately?

Monday

Today was pretty boring, honestly. For preparation day, we cleaned the house for a bit, went to the Jicarilla Market and bought a couple things, and pretty much played card games the rest of P-day. Nobody showed up to the Family Home Evening thing, so me and Elder Sperry just did some studies together until it was time to go back home.

Tuesday

Today was slow. We walked out to the post office to check the mail (I found a penny there!) and met a bunch of people on the way there and back. I was sweating buckets because of the heat! Later in the afternoon, we did some online proselyting at the church. After that, we turned in for the night.

Wednesday

I went on an exchange today! Me and Elder Sperry left at 10:00am from our place to meet up with the Aztec Elders (I can't remember if it's the 1st or 2nd ward missionaries) and I went with Elder Daffer while Elder Sperry went with Elder Bruning. I was the driver for the exchange because Elder Daffer's card wasn't scanning on the TIWI thing in the truck. We had a great time visiting people and just talking with each other. Elder Daffer is very relatable! I realized on this exchange that it's kind of rare to be a missionary and not stay with another companionship in the same building for  the year that I've served. At least, that's the impression I got from the other missionaries in Aztec. They were a fun group to be around.

Thursday

Elder Daffer and I along with the other set of missionaries all went for a jog in the morning to this neat outdoor exercise place. We talked about random stuff while we were there (I had a crazy dream that I talked about in which I was a soldier on a military cruise ship headed for Europe!) and then we ran back. After that, we did some studies and headed out to district meeting, where we would exchange back into our normal companionships. After district meeting, me and Elder Sperry took Elder Bruning to Subway and we got some delicious sandwiches, then we dropped Elder Bruning off back at the church with his companion and headed home. The drive home was two hours, as usual. When we arrived home, it was nearly the end of the day, so we did some studies, had dinner, and turned in for the night.

Friday

We planned for the week all morning, and afterwards we went for a walk to check the mail and hopefully find people to talk to. We went all the way there and nearly back to our house before someone randomly pulled up next to the church and asked if he could cut our hedges for us. He said that was what he did for a living and every time he drove by the church he saw the unkempt hedges and he must have seen them enough times and gotten bugged by it that he finally made the decision to come and talk to us. So we talked to them about coming to sacrament meeting on Sunday and offered them a Book of Mormon (Spoiler alert: they didn't come to church on Sunday)! Later, a member came to our place and asked us for help with his computer, so we went over there and helped him send some files to Russia. He was going there to throw tomahawks with some friends, or something like that. He must be some kind of entertainer or something. After that, we went home and turned in.

Saturday

We caught Daryl home in the afternoon and we talked for a good hour about our testimonies. Daryl is a returned missionary who hasn't been coming to church every week, but he came last week! He has a very strong testimony and he just got elected as one of the tribal council members in Dulce. Later, we went to a little party that a man named Reynard was hosting, and we met a ton of new people there that were super nice and fun to talk to. We ate green chili hot dogs and green chili stew. It was SPICY! We met a large group of people who came to the party in a small bus with the pastor of their church. They were all very friendly and couldn't stop talking about cats and movies. Later in the evening I got a late notice that the current piano player would be gone for sacrament meeting, so I had to practice my songs like crazy for the rest of the day so that I could play the piano tomorrow for sacrament meeting. 

Sunday

I played the piano for sacrament meeting today, and it went great! The branch president even told me that my playing was the most perfect it could be. Also, Daryl came to sacrament meeting for the 2nd week in a row! I forgot to mention that when we met with Daryl yesterday he said he was a lazy Lamanite when we talked about coming to church, but I guess he pulled through and came! We had a ton of people at church today, I'd say around 35 or 40 people. Most of them were white old people from places other than Dulce, including the stake president and some branch missionaries that were just called to help the Dulce branch. After church, we set up the flat screen T.V. in the church and watched the tabernacle choir do their who concert thing for Pioneer Day. I fell asleep about halfway through for a bit, but it was a good concert! Sadly, the only people who showed up to watch was the branch president and Ryan, a long-time member whose only ride home was with the branch president. Later in the evening, we went with the branch president to go to the Billie's household and we taught them the sixth temple preparation lesson. Now they just need to spiritually prepare themselves and they will be ready to go to the temple! We turned in for the night after that lesson.

Thanks for everything!

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I don't get sunburned too much, although I got a little burnt the first week I was here. I have been careful and I've been using sunscreen

The only injury I have gotten is the phantom injury you get from eating really spicy green chili peppers. Muy Spicy!

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Okay, so here's how I feel about the area: It's beautiful! There is greenery and mountains all over. However, one of the problems with Dulce is that it's in the middle of nowhere. Also church attendance is lower on average than any area I've been to - even Zuni! My goal is to get more members who aren't attending sacrament meeting to attend sacrament meeting. We need more support in the branch, there just aren't enough people here to attract attention. Also, the building is hiding behind massive hedges that need to be trimmed. More about that in my weekly email.

I think my favorite success in this area is that Daryl has been coming to church. I am really hoping that he attends church a lot more. The plan is to visit him every Saturday and our presence is to be a reminder for him to come to church. It's worked so far! Also, I said it in my weekly email, but I played piano for sacrament meeting! I played these hymns in order from first to last: hymn 58 Come Ye Children of the Lord, hymn 180 Father in Heaven, We Do Believe, hymn 270 I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go, and hymn 163 Lord, Dismiss Us With This Blessing. The branch president really appreciated my piano playing and praised me for it after church was over. He got super excited about it!!

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Danzho! Kishe! Ya'at'eh! Hola!

Monday

We did the basics; shopping, cleaning the house, that kind of stuff. Later on me and Elder Sperry played some board games. After Preparation day hours were over we did the family home evening thing that we host every week on Mondays and only President Pendergrass (The branch president) showed up, so we talked a lot and it was good. Family Home Evening took up the rest of Monday.

Tuesday

We visited a few people in the morning, but they weren't home. We were able to meet a guy named Merrill and he was interested in meeting with us but at another time. Later in the day we met with a less-active returned missionary who served in Australia and we talked about his mission for a long time. It was interesting to hear his crazy stories!

Wednesday

We woke up early in the morning to make it to zone conference. I was able to talk with a lot of people I knew, although none of my old companions were there. After zone conference, Elder Sperry went and got a haircut and after that we went to Wal-mart and bought foods and stuff. Elder Sperry bought a Brita filter so we don't have to buy water every Monday. We got home at around 7:45pm so we just turned in for the night and did studies.

Thursday

We did Family History in the morning, then went out and tried to see a lot of people. We got together with President Pendergrass and went to an appointment with a lady named Afton, but when we got there nobody answered the door. We heard a lot of kids running around in the house, too. We were sad about that failed appointment. Hopefully next time we go over she will be brave enough to answer the door.

Friday

We did weekly planning in the morning, and afterwards visited one of our potential investigators who we found out wasn't home/didn't answer the door. We left a card at his house and continued on our way. Later in the day he gave us a call and said that he wasn't interested in getting involved in religion or politics or anything like that. That's a thing. We won't be seeing him for a while. We also tried by OJ again but he wasn't home... again. Either way, I enjoyed the rain we got, as light and short-lived as it was.

Saturday

We visited with President Pendergrass today and we talked for a long time about how weird it was that my phone couldn't hold more than one phone number per individual, and then randomly President Pendergrass asked me to give a 15 minute talk about whatever I wanted for sacrament meeting on Sunday. I agreed, and I began writing my talk soon after saying goodbye to him. I spent a couple hours on it and it took up most of the rest of today, although we did get a little bit of time to try by OJ again and find out he wasn't home, plus we visited our ward mission leader and talked about random stuff for an hour. 

Sunday

I got to give the opening prayer, pass the sacrament and give a talk today for sacrament meeting! There were around 12-15 people today, and I was surprised to find that having less people made me even more nervous than normal to give a talk, but after I gave the talk people said they loved it! We had a less-active member there that day (The one who is a returned missionary) and he liked my talk, too. I'm hoping my talk left enough of an impression on him to get him to come to church more often. After church it rained super hard and there was really loud lightning like every 30 seconds, so we stayed inside and proselyted online for a good portion of the day. We also did a little family history at the church, too. Overall, it was a good, yet slow week.

Monday

Today is my first preparation day in Dulce! I went with Elder Sperry to the Jicarilla Market to buy some groceries, and while we were there a random guy showed up and bought us lunch! He was super nice. Afterwards we went to this place called "Jicarilla Arts and Crafts" where they sell tons of beaded stuff and a few ceramic pots. Everything was expensive, but pretty neat. For the rest of Prep-day hours we played board games. After P-day was over we went to this family home evening thing we do every Monday. I think the point in this group is to get people who don't have any family nearby to join us and be a part of the church family for an evening. We had treats and watched gospel videos and talked about them. It took the rest of the day.

Tuesday

Just another ordinary day. We weren't able to meet with anyone, really. I ate poptarts for lunch!

Wednesday

Happy 4th of July! We visited a returning member named Mary who we helped load some fancy household items into her home, and we ate dinner at a member's home. This member let us throw knives and tomahawks at logs! I was better at the knives than the tomahawks. When we turned in, we watched some fireworks a distance away while at the church and went to bed after it was done.

Thursday

We left at around 8:30am to get to district meeting on time. I did a roleplay with the missionaries about doing stuff online. I had them video call each other from different rooms, it was fun. Afterwards, we went to Daniel's home and visited with him. He wasn't in the right state of mind, to put things nicely. The rest of the day, not much happened. We basically tried online proselyting with little success, then went to bed.

Friday

All I can remember about today is that we spent FOREVER on weekly planning. 

Saturday

We left at around 9am to go to Bloomfield for our first interview with President and Sister Ackerman! They were super nice, and we mostly just talked about stuff. After our interviews were over, me and Elder Sperry went to Burger King and I thought my burger tasted funny, then I realized that this was Burger King. I guess I still don't like their chicken sandwiches. Later in the day when we were back in Dulce, we visited Elridge and talked for a while. We were hoping to see him at church but that didn't happen.

Sunday

We went to church! Church starts at 10:30am (I can't remember if I told you that or not) and we had almost double the amount of people at church today than last week. The senior missionaries visited us and stayed for sacrament meeting and sunday school. They gave us food! After church, we spent a few hours working on the computers with President Pendergrass and Brother Savage (Members in the branch). We did some online proselyting while we were there and the rest of the day was spent figuring stuff out on our teaching records and doing some studies.

Hiende! (Goodbye!) Thanks for all the support!

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We stay in a really tiny house next to the church, but it's nicer than I expected, especially the bathroom! Remember the low pressure water in Mancos? It's the exact opposite here in Mancos. The shower shoots water like a fire hose and it never runs out of hot water! Honestly, I think the bathroom is the best part of our home. The shower is CRAZY! 

I ate a pizza a few days ago, but other than that I haven't been eating pizza all that much. I cook eggs and sausages, mostly. 

Dunjzo! (That's 'hello' in Apache!)

Monday

Me and Elder Adams first went to the library in Cortez to email, then we went to the bookstore for Elder Adams so that he could find some weird religious stuff to read and study. We didn't have much else to do in Mancos or Cortez so we went to Durango and hung out with a bunch of the missionaries there. After we arrived back in Mancos, we went to an appointment with a man named Tyler and he gave us milk just taken from a cow! Elder Adams couldn't stop talking about the stuff. We brought the milk home and put it in the fridge. Not much else happened today, it was mostly just me and Elder Adams saying goodbye to people.

Tuesday

Today is transfer day! I finished up packing and cleaned the entire trailer. I tried the milk, but it just tasted like normal milk to me. When I told that to Elder Adams, he thought I was weird. We were asked to throw away all the food, so a lot of good food went straight into the trash. I secretly left a giant thing of cinnamon in one of the cupboards as an act of rebellion, then we headed out to Farmington to find our new companions. I found my new companion Elder Sperry, got most of my bags into our BRAND NEW 2018 TACOMA, and headed out to Dulce, New Mexico! Note that I said that I got MOST of my bags into the truck. I left my big suitcase with all of my clothing in the Apache building in Farmington. I had to go THREE DAYS wearing my suit pants and a long-sleeved white shirt before I would get it back at district meeting on Thursday. All that driving took up the entire day, so that's about it.

Wednesday

I can't remember what me and Elder Sperry did on Wednesday... I guess it's one of those great mysteries that will never be solved (I forgot to journal on Wednesday).

Thursday

We had to leave early and drive for over an hour to make it to district meeting because it's all the way out in bloomfield. To my surprise, when I got there, the district leaders had my suitcase! I snatched that thing like it was made of gold, put it in the bed of our truck, and went to start district meeting. Sister Allred is in our district, and she was in my last district in Cortez, and there was also Elder Bruning who was serving in Polacca (I don't know how to spell that) while I was in Kayenta. It was nice to see a couple of familiar faces there. After district meeting, our district had a district lunch, so me and Elder Sperry went and got Subway for lunch and talked with a bunch of people. It turns out Elder Redford is our zone leader, and I knew him from when he was serving in Tuba City. We have been on exchanges together before, so I was excited about that. On the drive back to Dulce, we stopped by an appointment we had with a man named Daniel. He was definitely NOT sober, I can tell ya that. He talked a lot about the sasquatch making yelling noises at like three in the morning, and he sang us a song about leaving with a blessing or something like that. He was kinda strange. After meeting with him, we headed home. The drive in total going to and from Bloomfield took about 3 hours. Yikes!

Friday

In the morning, we were SUPPOSED to do weekly planning, but a whole bunch of stuff got in the way like appointments and service. We called the district leaders for permission to move our planning time to later, then went to help a family build a shed. After that, we went to a really old lady named Winona who has a seventy-something year old sister with down syndrome. She is the nicest old Shimah I've ever met. We read some scriptures with them, then went to yet another appointment which fell through before we even got there because he cancelled our appointment through a text. After all that, we were finally able to do our weekly planning, which took up the rest of the day.

Saturday

Our new mission president (President Ackerman) and his wife asked us to go to this "get to know you" thing in Farmington, so we left at 7:00 in the morning and drove for a solid 2 hours to get there on time. The whole zone of missionaries were at the meeting, so I got to say hello to a bunch of missionaries I know. We basically sat around waiting for our interviews, but the assistants to President Ackerman had a bunch of missionary activities for us to do. I think the funnest activity we did was when we did a roleplay at a barbecue and I was the one flipping burgers. After me and Elder Sperry did our interview and the rest of the missionaries did their interviews, we had a quick lunch and sat down on some tables in front of a projector screen so that President and Sister Ackerman could introduce themselves and their families. After that, the meeting was over, so me and Elder Sperry went to Elder Wadsworth the vehicle coordinator to talk about a chip in our windshield (so sad!) and get it fixed. He directed us to a repair shop in town. It was closed, so he told us to try by another day. We went back to the church building, said goodbye to a bunch of missionaries and the mission President, and began our long drive back to Dulce. After another two hours of fighting sleep in the passenger seat of the truck, we finally arrived home in time to go to bed.

Sunday

Sacrament meeting starts at 10:30 am here in Dulce, and we have correlation meetings every week with the presidency at 10:00am. We went to that, and then we went to say hello to the 15 people that came to sacrament meeting. I got to play the piano for sacrament meeting! I played hymns 58, 124, and 97. It was also testimony meeting, so I went up there first to introduce myself and bear my testimony. After sacrament meeting, about half of the congregation left so we had like 8 people at sunday school. While there are few members who come to church here, it makes me happy to hear the strong testimonies of the few that actually come every week. In a place where most people go to other churches, the fact that they aren't straying from the true church is really saying something. After sacrament meeting, us and the presidency sat at the computers in the church and did tithing stuff that lasted about two hours, at least that's what it felt like. After that, we went home and did some online proselyting on Facebook for a bit, then we went back to the church to do family history work. After that, we turned in, talked to the district leaders, watched "Ephraim's Rescue", and went to bed.

Hiende! (That means 'goodbye'!) (My brain is going to explode with all these languages!)

 Elder Sperry is balancing an ace he just bought at Walmart on his neck.

 (Laundry in between the fridge and the stove!)

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I'm not the driver, thankfully, but I enjoyed the driving while it lasted! It felt good having dominion over the music

Dulce is pronounced dull-see like a dull pencil!