The Mesa's Around Us

What a country!  We do have a great love for all environments including the high desert.  The mesa's are beautiful.  The trees are very different.  There are a lot of wild horses (and dogs) around but right now they do not all look so good.  Elder Parkinson is having a ball trying to attrack birds and name all the plants and animals.  He has also learned we are in a different world here.

The above pictures are first a natural arch that we saw near Blanding Utah as we were coming  to Many Farms.
The next picture is a mesa that is just north of us and is located near Round Rock AZ.
The next two pictures are pictures of Bishop Benally's children in front of the old family Hogan.  They do not live there but their family lived there at one time.  The next pic is of the hogan
The next pic was taken north of Many Farms. My pickup is in a wash.  A wash is where water runs after a rain storm, we might call it a flood. Notice that there are cottonwood trees here near the water.
The next pic is of a pinion pine at a place called Rough Rock.  Marie bought some treasures here from the Navajo at the Rough Rock trading Post
The next pic is of a modern hogan that we found.
The last picture is of an ent like you would find in the lord of the Rings.

Our First Lessons on the Rez

January 30, 2011
Ya-et aa,

Greeting from the new missionaries at the Many Farms Church Parking Lot. 

So  here are the first lessons we have learned on the rez.

1)      Don’t believe anything anyone tells you before you get to the rez.  The culture shock is going to be enough without building up false hopes and false fears.  The rez is the rez and there is probably not another thing that you can say to describe it.  Just commit to why you are there and go in with your heart open and your eyes shut.

2)      Never expect only one family to be living in a Hogan.  Elder Parkinson is in continual trauma trying to remember who is who and how they are connected to live there.

3)      Marriage is seldom practiced.  There are many common law marriages and that does not qualify one for baptism.  Oh the sadness.

4)      Contrary to what we were told, there are grocery stores on the rez.  15 miles from us is a town (Chinle) with a nice grocery store (bit pricey) and a Burger King, Pizza Hut, A & W and a Subway.  The Holiday Inn has a really good restaurant too so we are in terrific shape.   It is all by a wonderful tourist site, Canyon De Chilly, so why don’t you all come see it and visit usJ.

5)      Do not disturb Mother Earth.  Mother Earth is one of the four Gifts from the Holy One and you should treasure Mother Earth.  Therefore, if particles of Mother Earth land in your home on your furniture leave her be—do not dust.  To make matters worse, it is a red dirt dust that sticks.  At first I tried to figure out how to sit, but now I just hold my breath and plop anywhere. 

6)      Address system—there are no addresses on the rez.  The post office does not deliver mail.  How about these:

5.5 mi E on Navajo Rt  12 fm RR store Trn Rt past windmill, Mobile home on Rt       or

N pst NHA, R at cattleguard, l. at fork, .25 M. LGT GRN HSE, GRN RF.  2 trees in front.

                Sister ********  speaks only Navajo and has dementia issue.

7)      Leadership.  Our poor dear Many Farms wards is basically being held by a very few dedicated souls.  There is a Bishop without counselors, RS President without counselors or teachers, Primary President and one counselor with no teachers or music and YW President with no help and no Young Men or Elders Quorum.  I pray they will have the energy to keep it up.  They work so hard.  I went to YM-YW the other night and the Bishop’s family and the Curley’s were there cleaning the church.  That was the activity for the week.

8)      Questions to start the day:

a.       How did you sleep (Mission bed not so goodL)?

b.      How is the weather?

c.       What color is the water today?

Our water color changes almost daily—needless to say we do not drink the water.

9)      The color of dirt.  When you look out, it is just beautiful.  The rock formations are amazing.  But if you look down, it is 100% red-brown dirt.  Grass and plants are hard to keep alive, so they have gone to good old dirt.  I wonder what Sister Goodliff would do down here?

10) The Lord does love me--we have a bathtub :>).

11)   We have posted a blog with some pix so if you are interested in checking in we are at :

http://parkinsonsatnavajonation.blogspot.com/

I am just learning how to do it, but I will try to post the updates and the pictures.  We sure would love to stay connected.  IF you are not into blogs, then here is our address and phone:

Elder/Sister Parkinson

P O Box 695

Many Farms, AZ 86538

928-781-6790

Oh, and one more thing—

12)   Gloria Andrus is amazing.  Thank you, a million thank you’s.  We so enjoy hearing from you!

The Church is true,

                                Stay Healthy,

                                                Love you all,

                                                                Elder and Sister Parkinson

The first pix is of our Youth Sunday School Class.  Second some of the darling children in Primary.  The third the most amazing ward mission leader on earth--Brother Draper.  The fourth is our District Leaders and the fifth our first District Conference.

The Arrival

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Well, bless my soul.  As if things were not already in a continual whirlwind, we were driving back into town on Dec 20th and got a phone message from the mission president that they would like us to come early.  We said that the soonest we could make it would be Jan 10.  He said he would call us back.  Two days later he called back and said that we would be expected at the MTC on Jan 10th.  We finished the condo very late on the 24th and pulled out.  We had the simpliest of Christmas' and then headed for SLC.  On the 27th we flew out to see the kids back east.  We spent a week there.  On New Year's Eve we got a call that we were going to be stationed at Many Farms, AZ.  We flew home on the 3rd and drove to Rexburg the next day and saw Marilyn Stedman (Brad's sister), got our mail and headed for the cabin.  We got there are started to put up all the things we brought from the condo.  Then we packed for the mission (with the help of the Hazard's) and left for Rexburg on the 8th.  Since we didn't have a home we stayed at a motel where Neil and Becca were staying.  We got up early the next morning, spoke in church at 9AM, got set apart and stopped to see three friends and then had lunch at Brian and Shanie's.  All too soon, we were on our way, packed to the very hilt of the cab.  We stayed with Neil and Becca that night and got up and headed for the MTC way too early (thanks to a gumpy man working there) and then had the MTC experience.  That was made all the funner because we were there with the Webster's and Steiner's from Rexburg.  Friday night Neil and Becca came and went out to eat with us and then we had our very last good-bye.  No more please!!!! Elder Kaleb Nygaard, (#1 Boy's Singles), - Texas US, and Elder Shane Peterson (#1 Boy's Doubles) - Japan Saturday the 15th we headed out.  The drive was nice but rather long.  The closer we got the more nervous we were.  I would think, 2 hours and 15 minutes and I am going to see the new home.  Finally the time came, and we turned that last corner into the church parking lot.  It all felt just fine.  There were two trailers and we picked the wrong one first.  The Roger's (DL) came and let us in and then we started to unpack.  How could unpacking go so much easier than packing.  We put stuff away for a while and then sat down and had a cheese sandwich.  The Elders came over and said that church was at 10 but we had a meeting at 9:30.  BED!  We forgot the time and we ready for the meeting at 8:30 but all was well. It was really fun going to church for the first time.  About 40 people were there and it was really fun.  We introduced ourselves in Sacrament meeting and then taught the youth Sunday School class. I loved it. We are here, we are at Many Farms, AZ.  We are part of the Navajo Nation.  What will the next 18 months bring?