Monday
We had nothing to do for preparation day today, so we pretty much just sat around all day. After preparation day hours were over, my farewell potluck started! Nobody showed up at 6pm, which is when it should have started. People gradually showed up until we finally started at 7pm. A lot of people showed up! I was given 2 hats, a watch and a bolo tie from President Yazzie. I am really going to miss Steamboat.
Tuesday
I finished up my packing and headed out to Gallup to meet my new companions. I was super excited to be with two more Elders in a new area. I think this change was much needed. While at Gallup waiting for people to arrive, I got to talk with Elder Adams! Elder Adams was my companion on my 2nd transfer in Mancos, Colorado. There were a lot of Elders there to talk to. Eventually, Elder Viola and Elder Linney showed up and we went to Walmart to shop for some basic stuff, then we were headed off to Sanders, Arizona! My first impression of Sanders is that it is HUGE compared to Steamboat. I feel like I entered a different dimension coming here. Even though it's still on the reservation, there is a variety of ethnicities in the population, unlike Steamboat. We stay in a trailer literally identical in design from the one I stayed in at Steamboat, but this time we will actually be using the front door! We usually used the back door in Steamboat because lots of drunk people would hang around behind the chain linked fence next to the front door, and they would taunt us a little bit. Now I don't have to worry about that! Yes!
My new companions both came out about 4 or 5 months ago, and they are fun to be around. We enjoy working hard and having fun while doing so. I'm looking forward to this transfer!
Wednesday
This morning we went over to brother Garner's place to learn some Navajo with him. He is an older member who served his mission here on the reservation and learned to speak fluent Navajo. We visited Roxanne afterwards. She is a mother who has made a lot of changes in her life and likes to talk. Our lesson with her ended up being a couple hours. After that lesson, I realized it was going to be hard to make our lessons go at or under an hour with her. That's one of the missionary rules, to keep lessons and visits under an hour. Elder Linney introduced Elder Viola and I to Bear, a man who has a LOT of crazy, hard-to-believe stories. He is basically impossible to get to stop talking, and will tell stories endlessly unless you cut him off and tell him you have to go. I ended up being the one to cut him off, but I did it when the sun went down! We had to have been listening to him tell stories for 3 hours! After our visit with Bear, we went to the church and had a spaghetti and meatball dinner. We sat outside the cultural hall because they were watching "Lady and the Tramp" in there. I got to reunite with Sister Laughter, a member who moved out of Steamboat while I was there! She lives in Klaigeto now, which is north of Sanders a little bit. We went home after we ate and turned in for the night.
Thursday
We drove out to district council today, and I was very surprised at how large our district is. There are three trios of missionaries, if you include the zone leaders. The total number of missionaries in our district is 15 if you include the zone leaders. On our way to district council, President and Sister Winn, the branch president and his wife, came up to us at Subway and bought everything for us, which was super nice! We had a district lunch after district council was over, then left to visit some people on the way back to Sanders. We met with the Tsinnijinnies and found out that Sister Tsinnijinnie was not baptized, even though she is marked down as a member! We are now working with her to get her baptized. I think we will be able to put her on a baptism date this transfer if she starts coming to church more. We tried by a few more people and turned in for the night after meeting with the Tsinnijinnies.
Friday
We spent most of the day doing weekly planning. After weekly planning, we went out tracting in some of the NHA housing here in Sanders. It reminded me of tracting in Zuni because the housing out there was very similar to here.
Saturday
Today we went to the morer rural parts of the community and visited Wydale, an older man who we are trying to get to church. Jennifer, a 10 year old girl, lives with him too. She is very excitable and likes talking. We were over there for about an hour, just talking about random stuff. After that, we left to go find a man named Billy. He apparently lives in Pine Springs, but nobody seemed to know where he was and we couldn't find him either! We tried a lot of houses, but it seemed as though nobody was home. I guess that's what happens on Saturdays. After trying that for a few hours, we went back and met with Sister Begay, a member who we had planned on visiting earlier in the day. She is preparing to go to the temple! One of the people who was there named Irene explained to us how she was not baptized and goes to another church. We are hoping to see her again sometime.
Sunday
Today was great! We had around 50 people at church, which is a huge change from having so few in Steamboat. There's a pianist, so I won't be able to practice piano too much anymore. I'm a little sad about that, but it's for the best. Since it was fast and testimony meeting, I went up there and shared my story about the fire in Steamboat. There's a good teacher here who knows how to actually get everyone involved! Her name is Sister Garner. She is a very good teacher. She even had everyone do a role play about baptism! Afterwards, while we were doing a correlation meeting, the Attsons from Steamboat showed up out of nowhere to give me a gift! It was good to see them. They gave me a nice watch. After church, we went over to the Winns and they fed us lunch and gave us some referrals to track down. We visited Virgie, the referral we were given from Sister Winn, and she really wants to start coming back to church. Nothing is holding her back but her own will, and she realizes that. She once had a temple recommend and a calling, but stopped for various reasons. We will be meeting with her more often in the future.
I am excited for this transfer, it is going to be so fun!
Thanks for checking up on my emails!
-Sister Laughter and I.
- I'm sitting in the driver's seat.
- us at a river. We were trying to follow a road on our map and it said we had to cross the river!😂
-(left to right) Elder Viola, me, Elder Linney
--------------------------------------
Yes, this area is WAAY bigger than Steamboat. I wish I could play the piano, but there are already some pianists here and it is not necessary. I will practice when I can, but won't be learning new hymns for a bit. The branch presidency does show up to church, which is great. They even do correlation meetings every week. I'd say there are more service opportunities technically, but people do not call us to ask for help as much and I think people are more independent here. I have already chopped wood once for somebody, but that's it so far. I got some pretty good calluses from using an axe without gloves! The work is moving faster here than it was in Steamboat, for sure.
My companions are actually great people! Elder Viola and Elder Linney are hard workers and they show a love and care for the work. They are polite, we confide in each other's opinions and we talk! I think the talker in this trio is Elder Linney, but Elder Viola is really good at talking about interesting factoids and doctrinal stuff. Guess what? Elder Viola is from Canada! I'm serving with a missionary from a foreign country! Wow!
I stay in a trailer identical to the trailer from Steamboat. It's a bit of a mess right now, so I don't have any pictures yet. We stay a couple miles from the church grounds and we don't have WiFi.
That's the church in Holbrook. Elder Kersey is playing the organ, he's the district leader. Elder Packer is in the back doing some thumbs-up shenanigans. Both are great missionaries!
Elder Daffer
Elder Dittmer, Elder Asher, ??, Elder Vea, Elder White, ??
A lot of semi trucks drive along the highway. This happens a lot, haha!
