Best of the Rez Week 28

Best of the Rez     Week 28     July 25^th to July 31^st

Ah, the ups and downs of mission life.  All in all, it was quite a good week with a few down moments.  Our baptism happened and we were just thrilled.  Sunday was a bit confusing at church but we made it through the day.

1)      Monday was a calm day.  We cleaned, washed and gardened during the day.  Then we drove out to give a blessing to a little boy that has been told he has brain cancer.  Elder Parkinson asked his Uncle, Dale Mitchell to assist in the blessing.  Bro. Mitchell is one of our favorite.  He had a bad wreck and a stroke and really can’t function mentally or physically at 100% but he wants to help.  He kept saying, “I’ll do the best I can,” and he did.  He repeated every word Brad told him.  Then we drove out to give a follow up lesson but they had company so that didn’t happen.  Nizhoni and I got to chat so all was not lost.

2)      Tuesday we drove over to Ganado to get a haircut and kill prairie dogs.  It is always fun to be with the Payne’s.  Then we drove back to Chinle and stopped in to see Margaret.  She didn’t feel tops so we made an appointment to visit her again on Thursday.  We came home and taught Derrick and Vanessa and their son Aaron that is home with them now and wanting baptism.  That was really fun.  Then I taught Caitlyn a piano lesson.  We were supposed to go to Ahausteen’s but it was pouring rain so they called to cancel.  That night we had ARP and a new record—2 showed up.  I think it went well; pretty good discussion but a little too much blaming and not realizing their choice in agency.  It rained all during ARP so we stayed in the rest of the evening.

3)      Wednesday I taught piano because the Curley’s were leaving next week.  That was fun.  Then a slow afternoon but we had a great lesson with the Ahausteen’s.  Then I taught the entire Thomas family—mom, dad and 4 children a piano lesson.  That was really fun.  As I was finishing up I noticed that the Roberts from Ganado were there.  They had just been re-assigned to teach seminary in Chinle and we were holding the supplies until they found a teacher.  We tried to chat with them but Thomas kept on playing and Roberts kept asking questions and then YM-YW showed up.  All so confusing.  Of all things, I taught the YM-YW tennis in the gym.  It was hot but we had a good crowd and all seemed to be having fun.  We set chairs up across the gym for a net and played tennis baseball, and the volley game.  I was a wet noodle by the end—so hot and tired.  We had this family that use to be active show up for help.  Always interesting!

4)      OH NO!!  Massive headache.  I woke up at 4 AM with a bad headache.  A little after 5 AM I had to get up so I was walking around looking out and a brown cow was just reaching into our garden.  That started the morning off with a bang as we were running and yelling at that cow.  He took off on a run and ran right under the chain link fence like it wasn’t there.  I just could not break that headache so I mostly slept/sat for the day.  Brad had a drunk come for help and they had an interesting chat.  He wanted a prayer, so Brad went into the young Elder’s district meeting and asked for Elder Searle.  Elder Searle (greenie) wanted to know what was happening.  Brad told him a drunk needed money so he told him that he could sell Elder Searle for whatever he could get.  Elder Searle sure has great faces and expressions.  (Hope you laughed Val)  We did have one lesson that night with a member family trying to show them how to use the scriptures.  My hair was a fright (too sick to comb it), but we made it through it and then home and back to bed.

5)      Friday started with a blessing for a young father.  Brad needed to talk to the man alone, so I took his son and we went and picked peas and beets in the garden.  When we came back the man was just sobbing and rightfully so—such a sad story.  Second marriage—wife left him—now wants back child support—no job—no money.  The sadness on the Rez can choke a person.  Then we drove over to Chinle and ate at Garcia’s—a Navajo burger.  It was good.  Next we went to Margaret and talked about putting zipper’s in a purse.  She thinks she figured that out so we had a temple lesson.  Interesting!  She sure gave a sweet prayer.
We stopped at Bashas’s (Arizona grocery store) for treats for the baptism.  We saw a man there that was supposed to be showing up for ARP.  He was drunk and had stolen a blanket and was trying to sell it.  We had quite the talk in the parking lot.  I don’t think he won. We rushed home for Kirby Bia’s baptism interview.  That again was interesting.  The parking lot experience was connected with our baptism and the family had ended up in a fight but Kirby stood strong waiting for his interview.  He did great and we planned out his baptism.  We started filling the font but the hot water came in black and the cold water turned deep-dark brown.  YUCK!  We got stood up for a lesson and then had a pick-up rodeo chasing that brown cow up and down the road.  We just stopped and gave it up for the day!

6)      Saturday was another new experience.  First off we went over really early and tried the font again.  We may have it figured out.  We turned on the hot water only, just barely and ran it for a while and then the cold water – again just barely.  That seemed to work.  The pictures still look not so good, but it is clear (dark) water and you can see the bottom so we were pleased. 
At 10 we went over with the Curley girls to try to fix a softball field.  It was hot and lots of work, but we made some progress.  Finally noon and out of the sun.  We made up the program and got everything ready for the baptism.  At 7 PM Kirby, his mother and sister were the only ones here.  I felt so bad.  Then all the sudden the Bishop pulled in with 8 of his family, the Curley’s came with 5, and the Thomas’s pulled in with 4 so it was much better.  And of course, the 4 missionaries.  The baptism went great and then we made root beer floats.  Home to do all the wash.  Hard to settle down after a big day.

7)      Sunday seemed like a very early start.  Brad got up and left and I just couldn’t move.  I finally made it over there to get the music organized.  Humm!  Not the best day for music.  Everyone goofed bad.  There were suppose to be 8 speakers in Sacrament, but time ran out after 4 so they wisely stopped there.  It was a great Sunday School lesson so that went pretty well also.  Then @#$%%^&*.  I went into primary and everyone kept coming and taking their children and leaving.  I went into to see what was happening and nothing was happening.  It was 5^th Sunday and everyone forgot, so everyone was just sitting.  I got something going there and then turned it over to an Elder but he called on someone who changed directions.  That’s fine as long as there was a direction.  Anyhow, after church we were literally too tired to cook.  We had a sandwich and took a nap.  Just as we feel asleep the phone rang.  Then we tried to call people (everyone runs out of minutes at the end of the month) and make visits but not much happening. 
Another new experience.  We have decided we need people coming to us instead of us doing all the running while teaching the same thing over and over so we started a Gospel Institute class.  We had no expectations but we did get one person there—an investigator.  She really seemed to enjoy it and the Elders said they learned as well. 
After that the Elders came over and asked how in the world we could help Many Farms function as a ward.  It had been a bit of a depressing day at church.  Elder Parkinson said, “Okay let’s look at this picture.  You are here for about six months at the most, and then you get transferred.  We stay for the entire 18 months!”   They looked at one another and started doing high 5’s and clicking their heels.  Boy did we cheer them up.  Can’t say that it did much for us.  We think we are making some progress or as President Jones calls it -- baby steps and then the Rez shuffle takes us back 2 or 3 giant steps. 

And there you have it for another week; the good and the bad of the Rez.  This week the elementary goes back to school but the high school has one more week off.  The weather has been cooler with rain here and there so that has been nice.  Our garden is amazing and we love the food. 

The Church is True,

            Eat fresh – 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day,

                        God Be With You,

                                    Elder and Sister Parkinson

Okay -- Wild Kingdom strikes again.

At Ganado we saw these 2 dung beetles pushing

this prairie dog poop along.  One just rode it

while the other one pushed it with his back legs

I promise -- it was fascinating.

We all watched it and had a great time.

Tennis on the Rez!

This is the good.  It was just slightly yellow.

The deeper it gets, the darker it looks.

But believe me -- this is the good stuff.

You should have seen what we dumped out.

Since we ran hot -- then cold -- I had to get in and stir it up.

I also cleaned out any junk that came along.

Erin, Kirby Bia, his mother Elaine Teller and Elder Parkinson.

Add Elder Read, Elder Searle, me,

President Curley and Bishop Benally.

And now add the Thomas family--their cousins.

I got the big idea to clean up and burn the tumble weeds

Monday morning.

This is the third time we have burned them this summer.

Apache/Navajo ingenuity.

One of our investigators stand for their

air conditioner.