Parkinson's at Navajo Nation: Best of the Rez Week 59

Best of the Rez Week 59 February 20^th to February 26^th

I was rebuked for wanting to slow down. Well, this week was no slow down, but I am afraid it took its toll on me and I am now on self prescribed bed rest. What a week, what a ride? The bed rest has really taken me out of it and this is the first day I am up with time to work on the computer. It is a marvelous wind storm out there—oh for the Rexburg wind!

1) Holiday so we got to sleep in a minute. We left the young elders at the house and headed to Gallup where we got the ride serviced, bought some groceries and had a bite to eat. Another senior couple, the Brown’s were at Sizzler with us, so we had a fun chat with them.
Then rush home to have both appointments be a no show. JOY!

2) Back to Seminary but we really love it. It was Esther today and we have great video clips of her story. We worked at the church and cleaned up the trailer as well. We taught Dale Mitchell a literacy lesson. Then while I taught piano, EP fixed a spaghetti dinner for Logan’s. Our ARP didn’t show and our appointment fell through. JOY!

3) Seminary and one set of piano. The other fell through. Then we went to a dinner/teaching appointment with the young elders. I taught about the temple and how you can be sealed even to those that have passed. A family lost their son and daughter-in-law leaving them to raise the 2 small girls. I did my best but I have no clue how it was received. Then we rushed to the church to get all the YM-YW interviewed for the temple trip. Next we rushed to an appointment that started late and I think went rather well. Still no expectations—we have been working with them for 13 & ½ months. Home late and very tired.

4) Seminary, and off to visiting teaching with Sister Tsosie. We had a most interesting stop with Joe and Evelyn Sam. Joe is a medicine man that let us read his life history. He and EP got talking about the sacrament, the priesthood and the medicine man ways. Really interesting. His wife asked him to take her to church. That would be nice.
Then we had tuna fish sandwiches (Margaret’s favorite) and were off to Elvira’s Begay’s. That was nice but Scotty slept through it so I missed him. Ardella Mitchell wasn’t home so we headed back to Chinle. We stopped to drop off tablecloths to Robert’s and had a fun chat there.
Then I had a piano and we headed to Round Rock for Johanna’s last lesson – Chutes and Ladders. We rushed out of there and back to Many Farms for a family piano/BB. Then we went and picked up our 7 – brought them back to the church and taught them, took both groups home and waited for our 8 – no show. Oh well, so tired. As we were crawling in bed I realized that we had missed an appointment and that the one we taught was not in our book. I was sick—our new investigators.

5) First muffins, then waffles. We fixed waffles for seminary and muffins for the 8:30 AM baptism of Timitrius. We love Timitrius. His little sister came too and what an absolute doll. We almost made it through the baptism before we were absolutely rushing out the door to Chinle for senior zone conference. We made it with 3 minutes to spare but I should have had all the tables set up. Sister Roberts had done most of it but I tried to hurry and get the dishes where they belonged and all that. I was running in and out of the meeting the whole time.
The conference was good. There are 6 couples leaving before the next one so they gave their final testimonies. Then the food. We had soup, salad, rolls, and cakes. It was so good. Everyone made the best food ever. I was very happy with out well it turned out. They had an ARP meeting but I did the clean up while EP attended.
We rushed out to make it home for piano lessons. We had a bit of a break so we rushed over to see Jimmie who is home from work in Houston. Then back to a no show. JOY!
I heated up the left over soup and tried to split it with one set of elders. They carved apple cores for me to bake apples. Then the other elders showed up so they had to make apples too. Finally, they all left and we could get a minute to organize for tomorrow.

6) We were up early and on our way to the Snowflake Temple with 9 youth by 6:45. We got there in time to go to the cannery for hot chocolate and potato pearls. The temple was so impressed with our beautiful group. We did our baptisms and then went to Pizza Hut. It was really a fun—fun day. (Just a very long trip.)
Of course, we cannot relax and enjoy but had to rush home to get ready for Johanna’s baptism. This is interesting. Johanna and her family live in Round Rock which is in Many Farms Ward. They wanted a grandfather to baptize her that lives in the Tsalie Ward. They went to church there to ask him and that ward took them over. They do plan to build a home there so …. And to keep it interesting they wanted the baptism in Chinle. It all did pull together but it was a bit confusing to run. I was supposed to give the talk on baptism, but the grandfather said he had baptism so I switched to the Holy Ghost. What a confusing night. In the end, we talked her into the water and her father (a new convert) did the baptism after about 10 minutes of instruction and all was well. They had treats afterwards for the grandma’s birthday. I helped get them out and then we rushed off.
Home only to more same ol’, same ol’. The day just never wanted to end.

7) That leaves Sunday. I got up rather early and did not feel well. I was supposed to speak in church so I tried to write my talk. I went to pick up my people but they said they were okay on their own.
There were 2 speakers and the other one took almost 3 minutes. JOY! I finished the talk and went into primary but couldn’t stay. I did one song and had to rush home where I was one very sick lady for a very long spell. Finally it ended and I could get some sleep.
EP tried going out with the elders but they only one person came out to talk with them. Kind of one of those ending to one of those weeks.

And so you have week 59. You cannot complain too much with 2 baptisms and a temple trip with 4 new people attending the temple. If only I wouldn’t have physically collapsed with the dreaded gaumboo maybe I could feel a little more joy about the whirlwind adventure that it was. Another 7 days lived one day at a time.

The Church is True,

And this too shall pass,

With love,

Elder and Sister Parkinson