Crabby Pickles

Funny: the Navajo people are the biggest fans of salt and sour stuff. There is a crab apple tree on front of our church and they have to keep a fence around it because people keep coming and eating the Apple's and tearing up the tree, they also are obsessed with piccadillies, for those of you who don't know what they are imagine a pickle snow cones. By the bottom of the cup you are only drinking sugared vinegar

Spiritual: we have a baptism this Saturday! We are teaching a part member family and they are incredible. We were teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and instead of us teaching them they were teaching us. They had studied the lessons because they just wanted to be baptized so bad. We were able to finish the rest of the lessons in one day! They have also moved their baptismal date up 2 weeks to this Saturday!

Where I am at: Life is so good to me out here. Every day is an adventure and I couldn't be happier. We are very busy and it seems like we only come home long enough to take a short lunch or dinner. I apologize if I promised you a letter and it isn't there yet. I will try to do better this week...

Matchmaker Matchmaker make me a match

Funny: So, in the traditional Navajo culture it turns out that they don't really date, most of what happens is matchmaking. We were teaching a family the Law of Chastity, which is way different when they have no concept of dating, and they told me that they could find a very lovely Navajo girl for me... I politely declined but they still said they would try. I might be coming home with more than I bargained for ;)

Spiritual: We were teaching another girl about the restoration. As we finished the First Vision she broke down in tears. She told us that as we had been telling her the story, her grandmother had appeared beside us and told her that what we were telling was true. Whoa, someday I hope to have the childlike faith to be able to do that.

Where I am at: This is a very foreign land. One that I feel very white in. The area is beautiful and so are the people. Being back with Elder Hunt here is one of the best things that could have happened. We have had some incredible experiences here within the first week. I love him, he is the best! Window Rock is the Navajo Nation capital but that doesn't change anything about the culture or the poverty. It is remarkable how these people live with literally nothing. Some only have a belief that God will take care of them.

Ya'at'eeh Dine!!!

Funny: For those of you who haven't seen Better Off Dead this one might be a bit confusing. We were at a lesson with some of our people who we have on date. The brother and sister were arguing and the sister took the younger boys 2 dollars. he then proceeded to chase her around the trailer yelling "I want my two dollars!!!" Bahaha.

Spiritual: We were blessed to have a lot of returning members come to church. Some of them hadn't been in years. The miracle in this was that for most of them we were about to give up hope. We had literally done everything we could and just when we were about to turn away the Lord blessed us. Oh, how I love the lessons that are learned from those experiences.

Where I am going: I am saying good bye to Farmington and saying ya'at'eeh to Window Rock AZ. I will be going down there to be a Zone Leader with my old companion Elder Hunt!!! I am so excited to be back with Elder Hunt. The zone I am going to is almost all deep rez and is all elders. It is going to be quite different than what I have experienced thus far.

 Jonah went to the Connie Mack World Series for Little League with his district.

 Jonah was a little short on food this month so he learned a lot of ramen recipes. His favorite was when he learned to make ramen waffles. 

A Scout's Duty

Funny: This week I was able to do a baptismal interview for a very excited man named Bryan. He was so excited and so honored to be able to come to this interview that he decided to dress up for the occasion. What did he wear? His scout uniform of course! He can fully decked out in the official uniform with the official cowboy boots and hat. I love seeing people get so excited about the Gospel!!

Spiritual: Because of a strange set of circumstances we ended up in a very sketchy part of the hood. We were trying to find a potential but we think that she moved. After quite a bit of searching we were about to leave. The area had freaked out my companions and they were more than ready to leave. As we were getting into our truck I heard the sound of a girl next to us in an old rickety trailer. We went over and there we met Alex. Though not much came of the meeting, it didn't even last very long, the Spirit that was there was powerful. God loves all of us even though we might live in a very rough part of town, with enough piercings that you are more metal than skin, and hair that is the color of every flavor of snow cones He loves us! 

Where I am at: The work here is really beginning to see some progress. We are following the council of our leaders and the miracles that it is bringing are incredible. We also have the fun activity for the day of going to Connie Mac, which is the little league world series for baseball. It should be a really fun activity, expect pictures next week :)

I love you all, thanks for the prayers

Elder Black