Here Comes the Bride

One of our granddaughters was married earlier this month and we received permission to leave our mission field and go to the wedding.  We had a wonderful time and so appreciated the opportunity to be there and to be able to see many of our family members.  The above pictures are just a drop in the bucket of all the photos that were taken, but they give the idea of all of us enjoying the occasion.

If you are wondering why there is a tractor  intruding in the wedding pictures, it is because there is a story to be told that I thought should be included in our May blog.  A senior couple who had been called to our mission with gardening as part of their assignment, came to their assigned area trailing that tractor.  The Elder was a farmer who thought like a farmer…why use a tiller when you can use a tractor?  He called some of his farmer friends and a company who sold tractors and to make a long story short, that tractor is a donation to the Navajo Nation, to be used for the gardening project in perpetuity.  When the farmer and his wife return home, the tractor stays.  I took the above picture the morning after said tractor had tilled up 21 gardens in a day.  I guess we can say that even though a tractor is a machine, it is a sacred and dedicated machine to all those who will benefit for years to come thanks to  an Idaho farmer who had a very fruitful idea and some very special and generous friends and ward members.

Spring 2013

		Tulips, Mutton Stew, And Other Things VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Here it is April and my tulips are so brave and beautiful to survive the winds and the freezing temps every night.  I love them.

This is my birthday month so I had Clive take a picture of me on the day I turned 74.  Our Tongan Elder was transferred along with another of our Elders so we had a mutton stew dinner to celebrate my birthday and had 6 Elders to dinner to help us celebrate and to say goodbye to those leaving and welcome to those arriving. 

Mutton stew and Navajo fry bread are the signature Navajo meal as sheep are treasured and to have sheep is part of being Navajo.  Our ward has a mutton stew cook-off every year and this year much to everyone’s surprise the winner was a Belagona (white man).  Women aren’t allowed to participate in the contest, this is a man thing.  I have thrown in pictures in of Elder G. making his mutton stew.  I also have a picture of the three Navajo sisters who judged the contest.  All three gave the top number to the same stew, and guess whose it was….yes, Elder Grimmett’s.  There is a picture of him coming up to get his prize and his certificate for making the winning stew.   He’ll now go down in history in our ward.  For years people will say, “do you remember the time a Belagona got first place,” and they’ll shake their heads in disbelief.

You can see the picture of a window pane all tapped up to hold it together.  I don’t think it was a coincidence that I had a notion to come home 20 minutes early at the end of our work day. I went into my sewing room to do something and then came out into the living room.  When I arrived I had put my cell phone on a little tv tray stand by the window, which is unusual.  I would more than likely put it on the credenza  by the coat hooks.  Just as I stepped into the living room, I heard a loud cracking sound and the drapes flew clear up to the ceiling.  I was able to get to the window in three steps and put my hands on the shattered pane.  The wind had been blowing hard for three days at 35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph and it finally got the better of a little bb hole in our window.  I pushed towards the outside and the wind pushed towards the inside.  My phone was right where I could reach it, so I called Clive.  He came running home and got some tape and started taping on the outside and then the inside.  We were so blessed.  If I hadn’t been here to hold the window together until Clive got it tapped, we would have come home to glass shattered all over our living room floor, and we would have had an open window in a very bad wind storm. 

Jingle dresses are used for dancing in powwows.  The metal trim dangling around the dress makes a jingle sound.  I thought the little grands and greats in Coeur d’Alene would like to dance around and jingle away so I sent some up there.  I’ll have to do a little adjusting for size when I get home.  The stew judge the farthest from the camera made the jingle dresses.

You might wonder who the guy is with the cowboy boots.  I actually can’t remember his name, but he came into our office wearing some cool boots so I asked him if I could take his picture. Unfortunately you can’t really see the boots well enough to think they are special, but I thought they were.

This past weekend was stake conf. and I’m the one who put the choir together, sent out the information, arranged the music, and then conducted it.  It was a lot of work and lot of sleepless nights worrying about if it would work out because we were only to have one practice. But, the Lord loves it here just as we do and it couldn’t have turned out better because of HIm.  In all my years of choir directing, I’ve never felt the spirit so deeply as I did when our Navajo choir sang at conference.  My prayer was that they would have a meaningful and spiritual experience as they sang and I can honestly say that they did because so many came up to me later to tell me that very thing.  Our Stake President got up after the choir number and said, ”tabernacle choir, here we come.”  He said that with a great deal of reverence in his voice for what had just transpired.

Thank you all who sent me birthday cards and those who called on the phone.  No matter how many birthdays have gone by, it is still nice to have friends and loved ones take the time to wish you well on your birthday.

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

		Hodge Podge VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

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.