SNOW!

We woke up this morning to two inches of snow.  We had been having Indian Summer until yesterday.  The winds came up; the clouds rolled in; and now the snow is falling.  The temperatures fell too, from 60 degrees to 25 degrees.  They told us it would be hot in Arizona.  Yeah, right!---- This blog thing seems to be more than I am capable of.  Here we've been here a month already and this is only my second time to write on here.--- On Saturday we got to go with another senior missionary couple and a Navajo sister, from our ward, to her family land in Kinlichee.  We got to hike into an area where the rock dwellers lived.  We got to see ruins of walls; we saw carvings; and wall paintings you would call petroglyphs.  The red rock is very beautiful.  We found a few pottery shards.  Johanna would not touch anything.  The Navajo won't touch anything having to do with their dead.  She stood well back while we took pictures and looked up close.  I have read about the ancient "Anasazi" before, so this was a neat experience.--- Our ward is having a Halloween party on Friday, so today Elder Cain and I delivered invites to less actives and recent converts on our travels.  We are in charge of the fishing booth with Elder and Sister Hafen and a recently baptized couple.  This ward needs some activities for people to come to, so we're really promoting it.--- Time to head to bed. Talk to you soon (I hope).

Ramona

This is Ramona Tso. Hers is the first baptism that we attended in the Window Rock Ward. Dad gave the talk on baptism and Mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Neat lady. As happy as her smile.

Washington Missionaries Rule

 Back row L to R .Elder Tripp from Chehalis, Elder and Sister Cain,Elder Wilson from Yakima (He's our next door neighbor ) 

Front row- Elder Picket from Vancouver and Elder Bergeson from Moses Lake.

Our Hogan

The fence keeps the horses and cows from grazing on the grass. Most houses have no grass or yards at all.

This is our " Hogan. "  It is a 3 bedroom/ 2 bath popout trailer.

Another view of our " Hogan ". New front deck.

We're busy

 A mission is not all fun and games and we find that we're exhausted as the day comes to an end.  I think it's harder than it was to go to work in the salon every day.  We're back to living in a single wide trailer, but it's enough room for now.  The furniture is basic and some of it is not too comfortable.  One of the toilets is threatening to fall off it's foundation, but what the heck.  We actually have the better of the three trailers that are parked behind the church.---- The travel is unbelievable.  We've only been here two weeks and we've traveled hundreds of miles.  There are miles and miles to travel between the areas where we go for district and zone conferences.  We haul the young elders when their mileage allottment runs out.  They've all been great guys so far.---- Elder Cain and I spoke in church on Sunday, taught the Gospel Principles class, then held adult Institute at our house that night at 6 pm.  The Spirit was strong and many tears were shed and not all of them were ours.---- Out blog is called Enjoy the Heat, well, where we live it's not as hot.  We sit at 6,800 feet above sea level.  The summit is 7,750 feet.  We seem to have sunshine every day, but this morning I woke up at three and it was raining.  We've had rain one other day, last Wednesday.  The air is beginning to cool, so in the mornings we've needed to turn on the heat.  I brought a big double batted quilt with us and we've used it several times.  I don't know what the winter will be like.  Cold I am sure but they tell us that any snow doesn't usually last too long.  We'll see.--- The main roads here are paved, but there are lots of patches and potholes.  The other roads are all just graded dirt.  When the winter weather hits we've been told that they turn to icky sticky mud.  Cars have been known to get stuck up to their hubcaps.  Most people park next to the road and hike in to their homes when the roads are bad.--- We have been able to teach a couple of lessons so far and have a few booked for the rest of our week.  The Navajo people have been nice, but are very reserved.  Learning the culture is going to take time.  Our stake president is Navajo and is a great help to giving us a heads up as to how we should proceed.  The ward mission leader is going to help us learn more about the culture and wants to teach us a church song in Navajo that we missionaries can sing in church one Sunday.---- I'm glad I like to read because there's lots to read.  Yesterday I had a  beast of a headache after all of the reading.  I need to pace myself.  As the mission president stressed in our recent zone conference, you need to be OBEDIENT, so that's what I'm trying to do.--- Gotta start the day and review our plan of action.  We'll try this again another day.