Born the Boy of the Corn

Funny: This week we got to go down to Polacca for a baptismal interview. While we were down there, we met a man who was convinced that our souls were actually represented best by vegetables. After some discussion he determined that my soul vegetable was black corn. A member thought it was so funny that he got me a piece of black corn. So now I will forever be known in Polacca as Elder Black Corn Boy.

Spiritual: The Lord works in mysterious ways. We finished a lesson and we were going to evaluate it but for some reason we drove to a random street to evaluate there. As we were evaluating a kid knocked on our window. He told us that his mom was home and that she wanted to meet with us. We had a great lesson and as we were walking back to the truck, we saw a group of kids playing ball and so we challenged them to a game, after we smoked those 12-year-olds in ball they told us that their aunt had met with the missionaries a while ago and wanted to meet again. We set up an appointment and finally got to evaluate those lessons. It was amazing!

Where I am at: We had zone conference and interviews this week. I have found that the longer I have been out the less I know. The focus was on finding and on building the faith to see miracles. It was a great conference! We also have had a crazy week. It seems that on those weeks that we the missionaries get on a spiritual high those in the area get pounded by Satan. We had a week that was filled with helping those we are teaching to see that they can overcome whatever it is that they are struggling with.

Page Party

Funny: We had a lesson with a member family and their kids crack me up. We were talking about the Word of Wisdom. We used the acronym of CATTS to describe what we should not take into the body (Coffee, Alcohol, Tea, Tobacco, Substances) after we had taught them, we were reviewing and asked them what they remember about what CATTS stands for, one young boy raised his hand and said it was: Coffee, Alcohol, Tea, Tobacco, and Sandwiches. Personally, I had always wondered why Subway tastes so good and now we know why.

Spiritual: We had a baptism this week! It was great! The kid we baptized was 9 and very energetic. It was fun to see him get so excited for the baptism, I don’t think I will ever have anyone who will ever again get so excited that he will go under again just because it felt so good the first time. It got us excited to do missionary work even more than we already are. It is now an inferno of motivation, experiences like that are some of my favorite.

Where I am at: We got to take a trip to Page this week! There was an old man who had a broken stove door and smoke was pouring into his house, so we grabbed the door and got the permission and then headed up to Page. It was fun to be back. Not much has changed. We stopped for lunch at the famous RD's, when who walks in the door? Elder Hunt... the look on his face was priceless. Other than that, it was a good week. We found a lot of new people and everything is going well!

Love ya'
Elder Black

Happy and Hopi

Funny: I finally got to go to the Hopi reservation on an exchange! It is by far the most interesting place I have ever been to in my life. It is situated all on the mesas and there are these ancient building stacked on top of each other. While we were there we met a man who claimed that he was traditional so he couldn't believe in our church. We asked him to explain a bit about what his traditions are and he proceeded to tell us about the white brother who came and visited his ancestors and taught them their traditions but then after he left the people traveled up here to the mesas and they met a monster who told them that they could live on the land but some of their traditions would have to change. He told us that he was not interested in following the monster's traditions but that he was waiting for the white brother to come and correct the false traditions. We almost wanted to laugh at how close he was to finding the truth. We were able to give him a Book of Mormon and testified that it does have the answers he is searching for. This story really isn't super funny but I thought it was interesting and worth writing about.

Spiritual: we had a ton of miracles on Saturday. We had our senior couple drive us out to Tonalea which is about 30 minutes into the middle of nowhere and then you turn right and drive for another 15 minutes. We went to go visit an online referral we had received. We got lost for a few hours but after some lucky guesses and asking some locals we finally found her. She is incredible, she had met with missionaries a few years ago and has been prepared by the Lord, we invited her to be baptized and she accepted. We then went to go see if we could find a member family that was hidden away behind a hill. We went to where the address looked like we knocked on the door and a guy who was not who we were looking for opened the door. He had been taught a year ago but somewhere in the midst of the change of transfers he had been lost. He had missed the missionaries but because he had no phone or way of contacting us he couldn't get back in contact so he had watched the BYU sacrament service on BYU TV every week for the past year. He also accepted a baptismal date. It was miracle after miracle that day!

Where I am at: The blessings are flowing on the rez. As a mission we set a goal a few months back of having 40 baptisms a month. We have never before been able to hit that until now. This month we are looking very very good. We are going to have 2 baptisms in our district this next week and that will make 10 in our zone this month. The best part about this is the culture change that has happened. When I first came into the mission the rez was a place where bad missionaries were banished because there they couldn't do much harm. Now the rez zones are the power houses of the mission. It is so fun and exciting to be a literal part of the Lamanite people blossom like a rose. What a great time to be a missionary! In other news we are doing great and are looking forward to another week in the best place in the world.

The bread thing is peko bread, imagine ash and paper put into an edible form

Miracles and Walmart

Funny: we met a family who was very nice and very interested. Except the dad, he was very drunk. We were talking about the Plan of Salvation and we asked them how they felt about what we had talked about. The rest of the family seemed very accepting and really liked it. The dad told us that he didn't like it because he doesn't believe there are any Walmart’s in heaven. It was not really funny that a drunk guy said it but the funny part was that the rest of the family started agreeing. They told us that Walmart is more of a part of their culture and traditions than it is a store.

Spiritual: we had a flurry of miracles on Wednesday. It being the day after new year's we had heard that no one was going to be home or sober enough to really want to listen. We split and went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders so I was with Elder Longhurst and we decided to increase our faith and see the miracles. We prayed hard and worked even harder to find new people to teach and the Lord answered our prayers plentifully. We found 4 new people but what was a amazing was how we found them. Our schedule was barren and every time we didn't have anywhere to be we would say a prayer then try to feel where the spirit would have us go. Sometimes we would have a name pop into our minds and other times that person would call us and ask if we could come by. We ended up having a very busy day.

Where I am at: We have had an incredible week. The Lord is hastening His work down here and we are so happy to be a part of it. We met some really great people and are really hopeful to have a lot of baptisms in the next few months. We finally have a few weeks of straight missionary work ahead of us. It will be nice to work hard without very many distractions.

Love y'all
Elder Black

Winter Blizzards and a Happy New Year

Funny: the weather down here is very unpredictable and the weathermen have a very hard job. Last Thursday we were visiting some members and a blizzard warning came on. We spent the rest of the evening running around helping people prepare for the big storm. The results of the blizzard, I think I saw 3 snowflakes and the wind picked up to about 15 mph. It sure did a good job of shutting down the town though. They were ready to cancel everything that was going on the next day.

Spiritual: we got to see the fruit of old missionary efforts in this area. We went to a part member family who from the record did not sound very interested and hadn't responded very well in the past to the missionaries. As we talked with them, we learned that they were actually interested and they had been listening to the other missionaries but circumstances didn't allow them to progress at that time and so they had given up hope. Now that times are better, they told that they would be happy to continue the lessons and prepare for baptism.

Where I am at: Tuba City is a great area and we have had a great time serving here! The weather is getting colder and there is a lot more wind but that had not stopped us very much. Mostly that just means that people are more likely to be home. The only hard part is that they all have wood stoves so it gets really hot inside their Hogans and so it is difficult to decide if you want to bundle up and stay warm outside and burn inside or to dress light and be comfortable inside and freeze outside. Other than that all is well and we are having a great time out here serving these people. Christmas was incredible and it was so fun to talk to y'all and see your beautiful faces.

Have a happy new year
Elder Black

Ya'at'eeh Keshmish Pt.2

Funny: rather than having the traditional snowmen, the people out here build snowmen out of sand. With the occasional snowman made out of tumble weeds. It definitely puts a different spin on Christmas but is really fun to still see people celebrating however they can.

Spiritual: white washing and training around Christmas time is a perfect setup for some incredible miracles and the Lord blessed us greatly. We received a referral from the Elders Quorum president for a returning member. When we got there, he wasn't home but his neighbor was. He told us that he normally doesn't let missionaries in but because it is Christmas time he would. We shared the Light the World campaign and as we were talking about the birth of Jesus Christ, he told us that he felt really good about us and our message. He went and got his mom and grandma to listen to our message. We ended up teaching a wonderful family. What a good time to be a missionary!

Where I am at: Tuba city is a promised land! There is so much work to do and we are having a great time figuring everything out. The members treat us great and our love for this people is growing so much! Christmas should be fun, we are planning on having a drybread (similar to frybread) contest and hopefully we will go on a hike. I hope that you have a very merry Keshmish!

Tubas, Pinons, and Tactical Forces

Funny: there were some crazy things going down in Pinon when we went there for our District council. There were some active shooters and so the FBI used the church parking lot as kind of a base. Well I guess they must have thought that we were part of them when we came out in our dark suits because we had a police officer ask us what we would like him to do... we didn't really have an answer but one of them missionaries invited him to come to church that Sunday.

Spiritual: I am very sad to leave the amazing people here. We had a lesson with the Allen's who are so very close to baptism. During the lesson they both really opened up to us. She told us that she had finally prayed with real intent. She asked God to help her know if this really is the true church. She then opened up the Book Of Mormon randomly and it flipped to Ether chapter 12. Her prayer was answered and when she shared that experiance with Donovian (her soon to be husband) he told us that he always knew that their was a right and a wrong church and that he finally felt that what we were talking about is true. The changes they have made in a relatively short time have been incredible. When we met them they weren't sure that there was a God and she had only heard of Jesus Christ a few times. Conversion changes you!

Where I am going: sadly my blessed time in Window Rock is over. But thankfully I am still going to be on the rez. I am headed to that great town of Tuba City. I will be a district leader and training a new missionary and whitewashing. It will be very fun and I am very excited. Most of the members in my district are covering Hopi land so we will get to experience a new culture that from what I have heard is very rich in Book of Mormon parallels.