Johnson’s Visit

What a great time we had with Traci, Brandon and Tony!  As Traci said, we will now know how to be tour guides for the next family that comes.  I thought it would be fun to make Navajo fry bread, but they turned out more like potato chips than bread, but I’ll keep working on it.  We were able to go to Canyon DeShelly one day thanks to our friends who took over the office for us and then the next day we closed an hour early so we could drive over to Gallup to a trading post and also to Earl’s which is a restaurant.  All the while you are eating at that particular place folks come by vending their goods and even outside, as you can see, before you even get in the building there is plenty to look at.  The pictures by the window rock are standard and the last pictures you see are in our office….goodbye time.  We loved having family here with us and appreciate the sacrifice it was for them to come.  There was a lot more that they saw and did, but this is all I have recorded in pictures.  Brandon took a lot of really cool pictures as well.  He has a very good camera on his phone and is a good photographer.  He, like Dad, is fascinated with the rock formations and has some good photos of the scenery here.  The day after they left a cow got through the cattle guard and into our parking lot.  Dad and the Elders chased her out.  Too bad that didn’t happen when we had witnesses.  That’s the first cow incidence we’ve had since last summer.  Again, thanks for coming Traci, Brandon, and Tony, and Jenni, it was fun to see you on skype.  Oh, by the way, I forgot to say that Traci spent some time with us in the office and helped a candidate with his resume.  She was surprised at how busy we are. Ok, I’m through, love you all.

February and early March

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Well, this doesn’t look very artistic, but it will have to do.  The Navajo grandmother is making fry bread, but her hands are so quick as she shapes them all you can see is a blur. There is no recipe for Navajo fry bread/tacos but the ingredients are just flour and baking powder mixed with warm water.  The dough is kneaded until smooth and then covered with a cloth.  It almost immediately begins to rise.  The dough is treated kind of like pizza dough.  You can roll it out, but the Navajo cooks would never think of such a thing.  This lady tried to show me how to get the dough into a circle and I dropped it on the floor.  Not good!  The only difference between the taco and the fry bread is that the fry bread is fried and the taco is scorched in a hot pan or on a hot burner.  The dough is the same for both.

The Elder with the apron on is hot off of the MTC burner, but is unique in my book because he is the first Elder to invite us to dinner in our own house.  That’s right, he planned it, cooked it, cleaned up after it and it was delicious.  He also invited a bunch of Elders who were just coming in.  One of the Elders in the picture is a first wave 18 year-old.  We are getting 30 Elders at a time for a number of months until June when our mission will be a whole lot larger than it was before Pres. Monson’s announcement in the last conference.  Where to put them is a challenge, but we are very excited about having them in our mission.

I included a picture of Elder G. painting our bathroom.  This house is going to be a lot nicer when we leave than it was when we arrived thanks to you know who.

The sweetie in the baptism suit is a 16-year-old genius.  That might be a generous observation, but I’ve never heard such deep prayers as this girl gives.  She is such a thinker.  Her grandparents invited us to their home a couple of times for dinner and the Elders gave her the final discussion in our home.  We won’t be forgetting them any time soon.

The Elder with Elder G. adopted him as his grandfather.  The pictured Elder has been transferred now.  It is always hard to say goodbye.

A year ago yesterday we drove down our driveway, down the street, and on our way to Boise.  Can’t believe where the time has gone, but gone it is.  In another week and a half on March 26 it will be a year since we entered the MTC.  It was April 9 when we drove into the Church parking lot and saw our little blue house.  The wind was blowing like crazy and continued to blow until June.  Today we have a big wind storm so I’m thinking this is the beginning of the hang-on-to-your-hat season.  And, wouldn’t you know it, we are having company next week and I was so hoping the winds would hold off until they left.  We are so excited about having Traci, Brandon, and Toni come for a visit.  My next blog will be all about the Johnsons in Navajo country.