Point with your lips!

Sorry I didn't email much last week. I logged off and then realized I never actually sent an email talking about my week.  The Halloween decorations you sent me two weeks ago are hanging up and the elders and I have eaten most of the candy.  The temperature is usually in the 60's which means it is suit season. I get to wear my suit every day! I wear the separate pants we bought that can be washed so my suit pants don't get dirty. Its nice when all my cloths are the same shade of black haha. Thank you for the hoody! I use it every morning because its freezing at 6:30 in our trailer. I feel like a weirdo for asking you to send the blanket, because the week after I asked you a member gave me a fleece blanket with a Navajo design on it. Then, 5 days ago an Investigator we teach gave my companion and I a blanket. Now I have 4 blankets and I don't know what to do with 2 of them haha. I have a really cool story! We have been teaching a youth minister from a Christian church for a month or two and we have set a baptism date with him before but he got too busy with school and finding someone to take over the church so we had to move it. When we met with him two weeks ago we re-set a date and last week we meet with him to see how he was doing. He told us that he is training someone to take over at the church but his school work is making it hard for him to read. When we asked him about the date we set with him he told us that he didn't want to push it off anymore and he wants to do it on that day. He basically bore his testimony the whole time and decided at the end that he could find time to read because he knows its important. Last Sunday was Stake Conference and he showed up and brought a family he knew who ended up being a Less Active in the church. (He is already a member missionary and he hasn't been baptized yet) He told us that he is reading the Book of Mormon every day and he has seen the difference it has made in his life. I'll let you know how his baptism goes :) We keep joking that after he is baptized all the people in his old church are going to be converted and we're going to have 100+ new members! He is Awesome! Feel free to ask any questions about the area because I've been here long enough that things that are different seem normal to me. I can say some obvious stuff that I can think of... The people here all have wood stoves to keep them warm in the winter so every fall they go get some wood in the mountains near by and haul them back in their truck. We cant leave our area to help people get the wood but we can chop it up after they bring it back. I've already chopped wood 20+ times and lets just say I'm pretty good at swinging an ax now haha. The people here also refer to stuff plural all the time so instead of saying "wood" or "fry bread" they say "wood's" or "fry bread's." They also point with their lips instead of their finger, which freaked me out at first but now I'm starting to do it on accident and it doesn't bother me any more. Maybe you could try it some time, it looks funny. Well, that's all I can think of so I guess that's it. Talk to you next week, Peace!

Snail mail is the best :)

 This week was kind of slow but it was like a super recharge when I watched conference. When you're on a mission everything in Conference applies, so I got a lot out of this one.  The people we are seeing are showing improvement and two of them watched conference and now are super exited about the Gospel. I have had my own little miracles and my testimony of the power of prayer grows a lot while I'm out here. We have found a few people so ready for the church its like they're already waiting for us in the baptismal font and all my companion and I can do is scratch our heads and wonder why we didn't find them earlier. A lot of the people in Many Farms know who we are but a lot of them are caught up in their traditions and don't like change. But we meet a lot of people who are super nice and even if they don't want to talk with us they give us water and talk with us for a while. I am amazed how nice people are after you get to know them and the Natives are super loving. I love where I'm at and I know this is my mission for a reason. Transfer week was this week and I'm staying here for at least another 6 weeks. anyways, I got to go because I'm out of computer time. Could you please have Rachel and Dad send me mail. I can write letters any day and its cool when you get mail. Thank you! Peace!

Josh's address:

New Mexico Farmington Mission

400 West Apache 

Farmington, NM 87401

(all mail and packages must be sent first class priority so the mission home can forward it - otherwise it sits at the mission office for 3 weeks until the district leaders take it to them)

The picture of the home I sent you is the mountain man we visit who lives in a shack a 1/2 mile up the mountain. hiking to his house is fun.

Traditional Hogans are made of sections of logs like a cabin only in an octagon shape and have dirt floors with no running water with only a few windows and a wood burning stove in the middle. Some people have modernized the traditional Hogan and have put running water but still no plumbing (Most people who live in them have an outhouse.) The newest ones have siding, insulation, wood floors, and electricity. Every Hogan I've been in has been one big room, but I have seen people drape a blanket across a section for privacy. We go shopping every Monday in Chinlee at a store called "Bashes." That's the only store in the immediate area so when ever we go to Farmington or any place with a Walmart we stop in and get wheat we need. Many Farms has 2 gas stations and that's it. My companion is from North Dakota and the two other missionaries are from Utah and Idaho. I have food to spare and lately the members have been feeding us dinner. I bought cereal and eggs for breakfast and I usually have a sandwich for lunch. I bought Spaghetti noodles and a bunch of caned food for dinners and other meals as well. I put an effort into making my meals instead of eating ramen my whole mission. I had tomato soup for dinner last night and I made cream of wheat the other morning for breakfast. The members feed us Fry bread all the time and its awesome :) We have a washer and dryer in the trailer and the color catchers are working. Every now and then I wash my whites by them selves and put bleach in the load. My whites might be brown when I come home.  Peace!

 I had my first Baptism and conformation last Saturday! We have been teaching these three kids (ages 11,12, and 13) living with their grandma ever since I got here and now they're members! The oldest son is going to get the priesthood within the next two weeks so that's exiting. when we filled up the font the day before they were baptized the water came out brown so we had to empty the font and start over the next morning. By a crazy awesome miracle we were able to keep the water fairly clear and it finished filling up 5 minutes before the baptism! Two of the kids asked me to baptize them which is strange because my companion is the one who found them a week before I got here. But its cool that they liked me enough to have me do it. The next Sunday in Sacrament Meeting we gave them the gift of the Holy Ghost and confirmed them members. 10 minutes later I gave my second talk in sacrament meeting in the Many Farms Ward. Not a lot of members are active ( 40-50 every Sunday) and even fewer members will give a talk. The missionaries make the Sunday programs and teach gospel doctrine sometimes. We even take care of youth nights on Wednesdays which is super fun! The active member families here are fun to talk to. Our area is super spread out so the last couple weeks we've been track-ting in places that have probably never seen missionaries, just so we can find less actives and new investigators. We went on top of this mesa and there were a bunch of horses running around all cool like. Yesterday we went to the Snow-Flake, Az, Temple and it was spectacular! they have native american artwork and poetry in the temple. They have a huge native rug outside the dressing rooms that is just crazy beautiful! I'm having loads of fun on my mission and I cant wait to have more mud stories for you! Till next Monday, Peace!

Mud everywhere!

This place is very dry and the ground doesn't pick up moisture very well so last Tuesday it rained so much over night that the whole city was a lake. The area around the church is slightly higher than the rest of the town so we were fine, but at 7:30 in the morning while I was in the shower we got a phone call from a member whose house had started to flood. We got over to their house and the road to get there was a river. We got out of the car and walked the 1/4 mile through 3 feet of water. Me being just barely out of the shower was trying to stay dry because the water was dark red. Little did I know that there was a 5 foot hole of the side of their road, and I was lucky enough to fall into it! My companion couldn't stop laughing because I disappeared while we were running through the water. One minute I’m there and the next minute I’m completely under. After I got out of the hole I looked like I had rolled in the mud, it was gross. When we got to the house the family was running around like crazy trying to shovel dirt to stop the flow to their home. We hauled a bunch of tires they had (everyone out here collects tires for some reason) and we put them around the house and dumped dirt on top of them. After we created a dam around the house we were able to redirect the water and we saved the house. It was awesome!

I live in a trailer

(we) live in a trailer in the church parking lot .....the piping out here is so rusted that the water is red! The most popular meal out here is Fri bread and stew. When winter hits the stew will be mutton stew, I heard it was gross haha.. The ward here in Many Farms has 300 members but only 50 of them come to church because of the placement programs in the late 1900's. They have all been baptized in Utah or Idaho but after they come back to the reservation they fall of the face of the earth. Most of our efforts are tracking members down and reactivating them. Half the people down here don't work at all and drinking is a big problem. Dogs run rapid and I've seen herds of cattle lose on the side streets and dirt roads. There are only 3-4 paved roads and the rest are dirt. There are only 2 small neighborhoods and the rest of the homes are trailers or Hogan's that have been set up randomly along the main road. The homes that are real fun are the ones on top of the mesa next  to the town. People here are way different. You have to have a 30 minute casual conversation with someone before they trust you enough to hear about the Gospel. When we go up to a house we get swarmed by a dozen of their dogs. None of them have tried to eat me and their usually friendly so that's good. We wash our Pick-up every P Day and its fun to see all the brown mud fall of our white Truck. All these dirt roads are murder to any car, especially after it rains. We almost got stuck in some mud yesterday. My companion is from North Dakota but he lived in Colorado for two years. The mission Office should have sent you a picture of us the day we were made companions. He's awesome! Our Mission President is an inspired man, and God Knew who I needed as a trainer. We get along and he's helped me with my weaknesses and social skills. I'm now way more comfortable talking with people. We already committed 4 people to baptism since I've been here and we have another 2 people still on date from before I got here. If all goes well, 6 people will be baptized by the end of October. I love my mission and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! Stay Strong, and God be with you till we meet again.. sometime. yeah. K bye :)"

Im on the Navajo Indian Reservation!

I'm On The Reservation

Im on the Navajo Indian Reservation! Im in Many Farms, Arizona and its super small and spread out. We drive a truck everywhere. Everyone lives in a trailer or a Hogan, which is an octagon shaped hut! Ive been out here for only a week but this place is awesome! Its like im camping every day, haha. We sometimes have to hike a half mile up a mountain just to get to an investigators hut. My companion and I share a trailer with two other elders and we split the ward. We have a senior couple too and they feed us a lot. Peace!