Besdt of the Rez Week 53

Best of the Rez     Week 53     January 9^th to January 15^th

Hurray, life is back to normal; at least a little bit.  School started today, so we are back in Seminary.  Piano lesson should get more consistent.  We are establishing our teaching poll and all our classes.  I wish I could say I had the energy for all this, but I am sorry to say I am still dragging. 
Happy birthday to Neil.  We held our farewell on his birthday last year and now celebrate it in the mission field. 

1)      We started our new year in Seminary in a most interesting way.  It was like we all had the giggles and couldn’t stop laughing.  So fun.  Then the Roberts came over and we drove them up to Rough Rock.  We showed them the cemetery and took them to the Trading Post.  We bought Blue Bird Flour sacks there for RS.  Everyone loves Blue Bird down here and they use the bags for tons of stuff; everything from pot holders to neckties.  We came back to Many Farms and we fixed a fun lunch for us all.
At 3 we headed to Rock Point where I am now teaching a piano class for 6 youth and 2 teachers.  That worked amazingly well.  I had a lot of fun.  Sister Davis had fixed us lunch, but we had a dinner appointment that we had no faith in, but thought we should show up.  She sent us home with a meatloaf and all the trimmings.  Sure enough, Safe did not show up, so we had our own nice little dinner.  We went over to Begaye’s but Evelyn had gotten sick again and was at the hospital. Then our 7:00 fell through as well.  Still felt like a busy day.

2)      Tuesday we had a Mohawk spiked hair kid show up and asked if he could donate money to the church.  He really liked the Christensen’s – missionaries from Alta, WY.  He said not to judge him on his hair; that it was an expression of freedom of speech.
We gave Evelyn a blessing with April there as well.  Then we got ready for RS.  We only had 11 showed up but that is still pretty good.  Sister Tsosie was sewing with Sister Arthur and Sister Curley did a little.  The rest all made hearts out of candy canes.  Everyone had fun.  We had a soup, sandwiches, dessert muffins and frozen fruit blended like ice cream – only it was all fruit.  EP taught ARP and I taught 5 piano lessons and then we took Sister Tsosie back to Chinle.  Long day!

3)      Wednesday was a huge piano day.  We are also teaching the Scott children missionary lessons along with piano.  We were supposed to go to Round Rock but they cancelled so we took a birthday cake out to Nizhoni Tsosie.  That was a great experience as we got a good lesson in about prayer.
We also got some bad news.  John Draper had just got his brother out of jail.  He said he was really in a bad way and he wondered why he was even here instead of the valley.  Well, they found him frozen to death by his house.  Alcohol is one deadly thing on the Rez.  I cannot believe they cannot shut down the boot-legers.  We took him some money and food to help him out.

4)      Thursday we went to Chinle to teach Sister Tsosie.  We tried to find people and set up appointments, but it did not go so well.  It was basically a slow, unproductive day.

5)      Friday we had district meeting with the seniors.  Our zone leader talked and said how hard Sunday’s were on him.  Boy—could we all feel that.  Still, it was fun to get together.  We are expecting a new couple today from Michigan but they didn’t make it for the meeting.  Then we bought groceries and headed home. 
It was a big piano day and we are also teaching the Nez children both piano and missionary lessons.  They were really cute.  Fun day.
That night we helped John make a funeral program.  Oh my!  Did my house ever stink afterwards.  Remember, he is the man that leaves with 30 cats.  We cleaned and sprayed and vacuumed and washed.  That night we watched ‘Lord of the Rings.’

6)      We cancelled our trip to go to the temple to go to the Draper funeral.  We got a call late that night that the postponed the funeral because the family was fighting and mostly drunk. 
We went out and read with Dale Mitchell.  EP is going to teach him literacy lessons as well.  We love Dale but such a sad story.  Alcohol ruins lives—even many that live through it.  We found others and did some inviting.  When we went to Yoe’s house she was just leaving for her ranch so we drove up with her.  It was a wonderful ride—very pretty.  We took a little hike as well.
That night we went to Garcia’s and had supper to celebrate our year mark on the Rez.  Yummy!

7)      Sunday was nice but so I get so tired.  The music all did really well and that was fun.  Then Sister Martinez didn’t show up so I taught her class for her.  I was so tired I could hardly make it through sharing/singing time.  Finally it was over.  We came home to our little roast and ate.  We rushed to a 1:00 but we were stood up.  Then we headed to Chinle where Sister Tsosie was supposed to be getting her temple recommend interview.  The stake president was ill and hadn’t shown up.  We stayed around there waiting for her, a Priesthood Meeting, and then a family history meeting.  We got Sister Tsosie there and then made it through most of the meetings.  We had to leave the family history meeting early (sad—it was good) to rush to Round Rock.  Of course, you guessed it—we got stood up for both the 5:30 and 6:30 appointments.  We came home and just collapsed.  I was so tired I was sick. 

The week was rather stressful and non-productive with so many people missing appointments.  Sometimes that happens on missions.  Actually more than it does not.  Keeping positive is the hardest part of being a missionary.  We had over 70 at church so we were happy about that, other than thinking about all those we had hoped to be there.  Elder Parkinson was looking out of the window and said he did it again—he had expectations. 

The Church is True,

            Eat your roughage,

                        Our faith and prayers,

                                    Elder and Sister Parkinson