The Mountain Speaks Fireside a Success

After two months of work and planning, the long anticipated Mountain Speaks fireside finally happened. The Lovells and Brother Long travelled down from Blanding to share their stories and testimonies.
We were so worried about attendance at the fireside, as the Ganado girls basketball team was playing for the state championship at exactly the same time. I kept praying for a miracle that we would have a good audience and we did. Fortunately for us the senior couples had done a good job of publicizing, and came in good numbers, many of them bringing members from outlying branches.
We along with the Robrechts and Elders Hardy and Carlston canvassed over 360 homes in the immediate Ganado area 2-3 days before the event. I think that's where I got sick, as a new storm was rolling in that day. Steve finished the last area up in the snow! We did have some people come because of that, whom we will follow up with. We had about 50 people in attendance, which was very satisfying to us, as well as the presenters. Both Brother Long and Brother Lovell gave very good presentations, and then President Yazzie who gave the closing prayer, also got into the spirit and gave quite a energetic testimony of the Book of Mormon, and also confirmed some of the things that Clayton had said.
We served banana bread and milk for refreshments afterward and passed out the media packets they provided. We also collected names and addresses of most of the people who attended. Overall, we were very happy with the outcome, and hope it brings more listeners to the program, as well as more people out to church.

Walking Doctor Stays at LDS Church in Ganado

Last night we had a guest from Switzerland stay at the church complex. "It was the only dry ground in the territory," according to Dr. Martin Vosseler, who is a retired physician. Even though he was invited to sleep indoors, he declined, but did use the Robrecht's computer to add to his blog. His web site is www.martin.vosseler.ch/sites/sunwalk/s1e.htm

A few years ago he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a solar powered boat. Hmmm, I wonder if he had heard about Nephi, or the Jaredites? He plans to walk clear across the US and travels about 30 miles per day. He is in very good shape, and is promoting awareness of climate protection, and renewable energy.
Brother Robrecht called the Navajo Times and alerted them about him, and they ran a very interesting front page story about him today.

The Great Senior Missionaries of the Phoenix Mission

Most of the senior couples gathered to wish the Nickells well, as they returned home from their 3rd mission together.



Elders Peterson, Robrecht, Eagan & Wilcox sample the goodies at party in Ganado.



Good bye party for the Nickells, and welcome to Sister Hunsicker.

Home Sweet Hogan

Our office and extra bedroom/storage room.



Our front room and kitchen, and yes, it's usually this messy. I made whole wheat bread this day, then two batches of banana bread.




The Church parking lot had two nice trailers for the Sr. missionaries. The Elders live up the hill in a little house. This was last week's snow storm.

More Valentine Activities

The places they "attacked" were Hubbell's Trading Post, The Fire Station, Ambulance station, Sage Hospital, Post Office, Branch President, Nursing Home and RS President.



Here is part of the Heart Attack crew. The Branch YW decorated the sacks one week, then made cookies and decorated the doors of 9 different places in Gando, thus giving them a "heart attack."

Weddings and baptisms

We feel like we just married off two of our our kids, as we helped to orchestrate the wedding of a wonderful couple we've been teaching. Lowell and Marcella Burnette were married on Valentines Day. They have 8 children, so they have a strong desire to have them to be raised in the gospel. We have been working with them since Thanksgiving. Lowell and his son, Larold will be baptized soon.
We were fortunate that Shar Tsosie, a member of our branch was willing to tackle making the wedding cake (with her sister's help). It was about a 24 hr. job, but it turned out great. This is the first wedding cake she's made.

It was the 1st wedding President Shorty had performed, and it turned out really well. Both sides of the family were there in large numbers to support them. They also helped so much with the food, setup, and clean up. It was a great to have their families help so much.

Favorite shopping spots

Little did we know when we were assigned to the Navajo reservation, that one of our favorite places to shop would be the flea markets. Whenever there is a nice day, local artisans, and families cleaning out their garages, or decluttering, load up their things and bring them to a common spot and start selling. People just wander from table to table, or from tailgate to trunk, and look at what there is. One family often brings a mini-dollar store right out in the open, where you can buy new household items for $1. I've always found something I can use -- Just like Wal Mart!!
Window Rock has one of the nicer flea markets, as they have a designated paved area right in the middle of town. They also have little food booths on the perimeter, so Steve can go get his fry bread and mutton stew, while I walk around. We've taken Nathan and Anthony's families there, and even such discerning shoppers as Ashley and Tammy found great bargains! It is kind of fun. We've never been to the Chinle or Gallop flea markets, but they are are supposed to be good too. Seee: http://www.rustywire.com/Starmtn/flea.html
The missionaries often put up information booths and talk to visitors about the Book of Mormon, so it can be a pretty good outreach activity.
I especially like looking at the Navajo jewelery, and can usually find a pretty good bargain there. Personally, I like supporting the local craftsmen, and like to see them keeping their arts alive and earning money in this way. When you come down, we'll show you around! Check out the links for more info on Rez flea markets.
http://canuspareadime.blogspot.com/2007/11/fry-bread-and-sheep.html,

Creative Projects in Ganado

Here is the ginger bread hogan Steve made at our Dec. activity.

My Christmas project done during those snow storms we've been having.

Sewing enrichment activity a success

On Jan. 30 I did my first sewing workshop for the sisters. There were 3 missionaries and 7 sisters of our branch who came. They completed about 16 pillow cases. We had a lot of fun while we were there working. I was able to get 7 finished that weekend, during the stormy weather, and mailed one to each daughter-in-law, and daughter, along with valentine cards for the grandkids.

A new year begins--2008

The Kinlichee family is preparing for a wedding and baptism. They had us come up and bless their home yesterday. The parents are really working to make their situation better. Bro. Kinlichee had a job interview Wed. which we hope has positive results as well. They are planning to get married on Feb. 14. Wed. Sis. Davis and I spent about 3 hours filling commodity boxes for the Sr. Citizens, while our husbands ran the Addiction recovery program at the church. We went there planning to do a craft activity, but the room was filled with cases of canned good of all sorts. We had to break down the boxes, and repackage them, with the same items in each smaller box. It was wild for awhile. It think we probably packaged 40-50 smaller boxes with about 20 different items in each. Boy, were we tired when we finished. My favorite item was the Vita-soy chocolate mint milk substitute!

My other project has been getting publicity designed for a fireside our branch is hosting Feb. 23. Four men from Blanding starting producing religious broadcasts in Navajo about 10 years ago. In the process they helped to start a Navajo choir, which provides the music. It has really been a grassroots dream they've brought to fruitition. Two of them, Steve Lovell and Ike Chamberlain were SW Indian missionaries 50 years ago, one is the singer, Stan Bronson, and Clayton Long is the Native speaker. They've done all the recordings in Blanding, having to have the time down to the second. They send out the CDs to 4 or 5 AM radio stations that reach the reservation. They have recorded over 50 different program, and it has been a real labor of love. We knew something about their efforts while in Blanding, but didn't realize the financial sacrifice and time commitment it has been for them; neither did we realize how much the Navajo people love the program. it reaches homes that are often inaccessible to us as missionaries and brings a strong gospel message to them. They have had 17,000 requests for literature since the first broadcast in 2000, but are hoping for 50,000. We've invited Steve Lovell and his wife to come down and do a fireside, to tell the people about this labor of love. We really want it to be successful, and hopefully, it will reach additional people, and bring them to the church.

More Winter in Ganado

Wouldn't you think if you went to Arizona for the winter it would be warm? Well, you're wrong. It's been as low as -4 the past week, and always below zero. This past week school was cancelled twice, and the other 3 days, they had a 2 hr. delay starting, so that the busses could get out on the muddy roads and back. Last Sunday, Jan. 27 it rained all day, and then the snow and winds started on Monday. It made for one muddy week! Now it's snowing again tonight. Such stormy weather has really hindered our work, as we daresn't go off the paved roads, unless we're on foot, which we have done several times.
Besides the usual work of teaching lessons, and ecouraging inactive members to return, we have organized several activities. This past week I taught a workshop on making customized pillowcases. There were 10 sisters who came, 3 of them missionaries from Chinle. We had a very fun time and several made 2 or more.
Jan. 26 we organized a game day, and played Mexican Train, Farkle, Mormon Rook, Concentration, and other table games. We had about 17 participate and enjoyed getting better acquainted with branch members.