It's a Wrap

We finished our mission August 7, 2022.

It is a bittersweet experience.  

The last month went by in a blur.  We were meeting new people that we would want to get to know better. 

 So much unfinished work to do.  

Our last week we went to the Monticello temple with our sweet couple the Nimrods. Steven has chronic lung disease is on constant oxygen and in a wheelchair. The Monticello temple workers were marvelous in helping make his experience a memorable one.  There were also three funerals that same week.  One of the deaths was a dear friend I had made while making weekly visits to her assisted care facility.  

Garden guru

 I thought I knew how to garden, but the church and a very dedicated follower of the church’s gardening program taught me a new and effective way of gardening.  

Thanks to a branch member who provided a trailer behind the Chapel for us to land, so we could rest and prepare for our visits.

Youth 

There didn’t seem to be a lot of youth on the reservation, but we had a few for the summer and they brought so much joy.  They are honest and loving. 

 I'm pretty sure this is the only pickleball court on the reservation.  Chasing balls into puncture vine inspired keeping the ball on the court.   

Loved Teaching these teenagers how to make yeast bread and freezer jam.  

Patience

The patience of the Navajo women in trying to teach me how to do fry bread is unparalleled.  We had a stake pioneer day activity, and they made hundreds of pieces of fry bread.  I would take a ball of dough and try to fashion it into a flat circle.  The sweet ladies would watch me torture this dough and take my half circle out of my hands and fix it.  At some point I expected them to tell me to find a job I was better suited to – but no – they just patiently let me try over and over.  I think I had two out of dozens of tries that didn’t need to be fixed.   I might have been better suited to helping Rich serve the food.  

Elders

I never really appreciated my own children’s missions until I watched our young elders.  Their job is hard they were always smiling.  Our missionaries worked hard and I appreciated them so much.  

Miracles

This picture is after we came out of the flash flood.  If I ever felt protected, it was driving though a flash flood.  When it comes and you are in the middle – you can’t stop- you can’t go back—you can’t see and you have to pray and move forward.  When we got to this side of the flood we realized that  traffic had stopped we had made it through safely because there had been no oncoming traffic.  

We are thankful for the opportunity we had to share our love of our Savior.