Missions are great learning experiences. You get to meet new people and experience new cultures and thoughts and ideas. Some of those experiences are a little more trying than others. Things I have learned this month.

 NAVAJO PAVEMENT

Looks like a nice safety barrier.......

Until enough people run into it - and it looks like this 

For those that know me – you know I don’t like anything close to “high adventure”. While traveling on Navajo Pavement (sand, slickrock, washboard dirt, gravel, steep inclines, and deep washes) is a challenge and exciting for Rich, it somewhat terrifies me. I know how to have a tight grip on my seat and my eyes closed as we travel some of the roads. I can’t believe people travel these roads daily.  (The miracle is I haven’t gotten out and walked yet – thought about it but haven’t done it.) 

Traffic Jam - One Lane dirt road

 Our area is the area in blue.

 FOOD

 Navajos would rather eat fry bread than a cinnamon roll or cookie. (Not sure how that can be)

 BUGS 

The bugs here are as big as I imagine them being in Texas (Where Ashkii and Mike went on their Missions) The bugs and I are at war. And since I value the life cycle of all life forms – I don’t feel bad when I feed the bugs to my newfound lizard friends. Rich said my lizard family will starve when I leave. Even Rich in his effort to keep me from moving into a motel here has resorted to catching the bugs and letting me feed them to the lizards. 

 WEATHER

 It’s hot here. I can’t imagine how hot it will be at the end of July – Continue to pray for rain HERE. The wind blows a lot.  Fox tail is plentiful in front of our little trailer.  The wind blows a lot. 

 The sunsets continue to be jaw dropping  and inspiring with a little Pickleball thrown in

EXERCISE 

Rich has not lost his adventuresome spirit

I'm relegated to the trainer until I can get this replaced. 

We taped the basketball court for pickleball. We have played pickleball a couple of times with the Elders. We are devoted to hitting the ball back rather than missing and having to run into foxtails and puncture weed to retrieve it. 

TEMPLE 

Monticello Temple

We are making new friends and were excited to go to the Monticello Temple to witness the sealing of children to their deceased parents.

 MIRACLES

 Miracles never cease when you are on a mission. Here Rich is planting potatoes in our Branch’s demonstration garden. The church has an amazing gardening program. You can take someone that knows nothing about gardens and follow the program and have a bountiful harvest. I am looking forward to trying it when I get home. 

STARLINK 

Starlink has been fussy and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s portable. I’m thankful for a tall elder that can hold the ladder while Rich tries to find a place for the Starlink dish. When Rich was a missionary here 50 years ago, they would hook up the little film strip projector to their car battery and show the Man's Search for Happiness filmstrip. We can hook up Starlink and plug it into our truck and we can show any of the church videos on our laptop. We can also show folks how family search works. (Kind of) 

 FAMILY HISTORY 

Navajo family history is complicated by not being a written language. Important family events are handed down verbally and not written. The Navajos did their own census in the 30’s and names are spelled however the census taker heard it. Our son’s nickname is Ashkii. It means little boy in Navajo. Those censuses have that “little boy” written over and over – but spelled any number of ways Uzshkie, boy, little boy, etc. -- One year the person will be 38 years old in the census and the next year’s census shows them as 34 years. Our branch clerk and I have now decided we are “Dick Tracy” and need our decoder watches to work. Yesterday when talking with a bilaganna gal in our complex about family history found out her great grandmother came over from the Netherlands to Ellis Island. Because the intake person couldn’t pronounce or spell her name, they just wrote Edna Netherlands, so they really don’t know what her birth name is. It doesn’t matter if you are Anglo or Navajo, my family history skills are being stretched. 

WHY WE ARE HERE

WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY? In our zone conference our Mission President’s first question to the missionaries is what you learned in the Book of Mormon this morning. This simple question has a lot of depth. 

It Assumes:

* You read your scriptures in the morning 

*You  think about what you read 

* What action are you going to take in response to that learning.? 

*What Christlike attribute are you going to put into practice? 

We read the Book of Mormon each day to get to know Christ. When we get to know Christ better, we want to be better people. When we want to be better people, then we are kinder. We mourn with those that mourn. 

For those that don’t read scriptures daily and are amazing, the questions just look different. 

I will now ask the question...

*What did you learn about being kind this morning?

* What are you going to do today to be a better person? 

* How are you going to help make the world a better place?

Christ is the Light and Life of the World