Navajo Code 2/24

       Yaa Teeh!

       It was a crazy good week!

       Monday we went up to Blanding and played ultimate with the missionaries up their. Elder Provard and I got to talk for a little and catch up on some things. It's so good to be able to see and talk to him. Then we went to the gas station to pick up a pizza and fill up on gas there was a family there that came up to me and asked if I knew how to get a hold of a bishop cause they were in a bind. It's interesting that they were there the same time we were. They talked to me out of the four elders there and that I was the only one that had served in Blanding out of all of us so I knew who to call. God knows how to help ALL his children that's for sure. Then we went back down and I got to try stuffed peppers for the first time. Interesting. :)

       Tuesday was crazy insane! So in the morning we biked to a small village about a mile east of Bluff and tried some people. Well this girl and her sister came out and began talking to us in not a nice way. We were able to talk with her and it was weird because when we just invited her to learn more she completely changed and became really interested! Then on the way back to Bluff we passed through a heard of sheep dogs and they didn't even try to attack us! THAT'S WHAT'S UP!!!!  So one of the joys of missionary work is being able to go door to door talking to people. Personally one of my least favorite things of being a missionary. Well we knocked on this door and this 12 year old kid pokes his head to the door and starts talk to us. About half way through our conversation the door flies the rest of the was open and his little brother yells, "WHAZ UP!!!!" Then turns around and leaves. Kinda stunned me for a second cause it was so random and funny. Then we played a game of horse with a kids from the village. While we were playing the other kids got some sticks and pretended to shoot us. Well me being the person I am start to pretend to shoot back. :) Later in the evening when the sun had gone down we were trying another house. We had to go through a little air lock porch thing to get to the front door. Well next to the stairs there was a wood pile. When I was walking up to it, it moved. THAT FREAKED ME OUT!!! WOOD PILES DON'T MOVE!!!! Well after I got my courage up I walked a little closer and saw that it was a chicken sitting on top of the wood. That made me feel really courageous, not. :) Then we had a lesson with a couple named Kelly and Evans. Kelly is a member and goes to the Montezuma ward but her husband Evans doesn't really believe in God. Well we started talking with him and got some inspired questions. I asked him what would he do if he knew God was real. His answer, "I'd make me change my purpose." You never hear that response! It was AWESOME!!!


       Wednesday we had some crazy wind! I wish I could take pictures while out teaching because they were sweet! I found a new really effective cardio workout. Go go logs into short enough pieces that will fit into peoples stoves. Ya that's a good workout! Then we went and contacted a referral and had a lesson on his door step, on the rez, in 20 to 30 mph wind, with sand flying EVERYWHERE!!! Ya that was cool. :) Then we came in at the end of the day and we had do some paper work. Well we needed to go make copies inside the church so walked outside and before I got the key out to unlock the church door, (We live next to the church fyi) I noticed some boy scouts coming out. So I just leaned up against the wall and waited for them. Well they didn't see me until they were outside and almost ran into me. Those scouts must do some serious jump training cause they jumped pretty high. :)

       Thursday we stopped by the Ceder Mesa pottery shop in Blanding after district meeting and one of our investigators gave us a tour. It's pretty cool to see how all the pottery is made. Then we went out to the Rez and helped burned some weeds. I love burning weeds. :D

       Friday I started to watch some Old Testimant DVD's that were in the church. Man the Old Testimant is cool! Then we gave some service at the senior citizens center. That night we had our first basketball night. We had 4 people show up but it was pretty fun.

       Saturday we got to go to the communities Chinese New Year potluck. That was some good food. Then some kids took us out side and we played with them for about an hour and a half. We are really starting to get some good connections with the people in Bluff. :)

       Sunday was awesome! After church we had studies. We practiced how to begin teaching together. Well then we biked out to the village east of Bluff and found 2 new investigators. Because we had practiced How to begin teaching it went really well! That was one of the best lessons I've had in Bluff!

       Well that's all for this week. Until next time, Hagoonee'.

Elder Chipman

Navajo Code 2/17/14

Yaa Teeh!

       Monday was good, we went up to Blanding and played some sports with the zone. 

       Tuesday we were out walking around the Rez to save some miles and I found a Canadian penny from 1964 ON THE NAVAJO RESERVATION!!! Talk about random. We had some good lessons with Ernie and then with Randy and his family. Randy is so prepared! I love going over there because he is always waiting to learn more.

       Wednesday we went over to a members house and they pulled out one of their ancestors patriarchal blessings. The blessing had been given by Hyrum Smith!!! It was so cool! Then we went down close to the Arizona boarder and saw Aaron. We taught him about the second half of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, well really just reviewed it because he somehow already knew it all. That was such an amazing experience!

         Thursday we had Zone Training. I trained on Hope. Mainly the attitude missionaries put into the work and how it affects them. It went really well. Then we went back down to the Reservation and had 4 really solid lessons with Randy and Family, Daylene and family, Kaeahlyiah, and Dory and family. They were all really good lessons because each of them were so excited to keep learning more about the gospel!

       Friday we didn't use the truck because we had used a lot of miles in the past week so we walked around Bluff and did some service. The nice part was it was over 70 degrees so we could take off our suit coats. We painted this older ladies patio. It looks pretty good. :)

        Saturday we drove out to the rez then took out or bikes and biked around. If you want to get fit fast then go biking in sand. :) That was crazy fun. Plus we had to go over some wash boards, bumps in the dirt roads. It was pretty intense. :)

       Sunday was church and I was sitting by a family with a 1 or 2 year old girl. Well I was playing around with her and I had my foot up on my other leg. So eventually she grabs my shoe lace and guess what... Most toddles would try to put it in their mouth. NOT THIS ONE!! Nope she went straight for her nose. I kept pulling it away and she would grab it and go after it again. Crazy little girl. :)

       So that's my week. A number of people have asked me what I want for my Birthday. So here is the best wishlist I can put together.

-Jericho Road music

-Church music in general

-I don't need any ties, I'm set for life on those. :)

-healthy food

-and i'm always game for surprises just don't spend to much on it.

Well thanks for all the support! Until next time, Hagoonee'!

Elder Chipman

Navajo Code 2/10/14

  Yaa Teeh!

       Well another week has come and gone, and it's been a great one!

       Monday we went hiking in Blanding for P day. That was fun. Then we went back to Bluff. When we pulled in I hoped out to go close the gate. Well I jumped out and E Tucker started to drive off. Well my suit coat got stuck on the truck some how. Thankfully he wasn't going very fast. :) That was some funny stuff. We both got a laugh about it. 

       

       Tuesday we met with Bob, a Navajo guy that is basically deaf with out his sound amplifier that we have to yell into. He has been meeting with the Jehovah's Witnesses and the have been giving him some anti stuff. His biggest concern about the BOM is, "If the Nephites were fighting with metal swords why haven't we found any? And we didn't' they teach the Lamanites to build swords like that? Cause when the spanish came they were fighting with stone knives!" (face + palm) I tried arguing with him for like 30 seconds but it wasn't going anywhere so we just invited him to read and pray about the BOM. When the day was over we went back to the house and E Tucker was laying on his bed reading. Well you can see his bed from the opposite side of the house and right above his head are those plastic blinds that make a lot of noise. Well I was playing with a racquetball that we had found and so I decided to bounce it off the ground, over his head into the blinds. Sooo FUNNY!!!! It scared him way bad!

       Wednesday was absolutely insane! So we got to go do some service for this Navajo family. We moved some tumbleweeds away from there house and then we got to watch them burn it. The pile of tumbleweed was 8 feet high, 8 feet deep, and 30 feet long. No joke! It was awesome! It made a popping sound. Like a bunch of bubble wrap going off at once. The flame so so hot though. It was just awesome! Then we started going around the back roads trying people and making our way to the Tapaha village which is where our next activity was. Well we were on this dirt road and we went down this really steep hill, like really steep. Like you couldn't see the whole thing until you were on it, steep. So we went down it and I said, "That would be so much fun to bike down." E Tucker said, "You want to?" "Either way." Next thing I know we turned around went back up the hill and took out my bike. So I biked down the dirt/ sand/ rock hill at 40+ mph with E Tucker behind me in the truck. AWESOMENESS!!! Then we got to the Tahapa village. The reason we were there was because we had been invited to come to a worship service for a Navajo Christian Church. So we walk in and no one was there. So we started looking around. Then some people walk in and the main girl asks us, "Can either of you play the piano?" I said that I could and so I followed her up to the stage and sat down at the keyboard. She marked 3 songs for me. I started looking through the first one. When I got through that I went to the second one but before I could practice she asked if I was ready. Uhhhhhhhh, sure. So I sight read all the songs while they were singing. And then they threw another song on me in the middle of the service. That was crazy! Oh and half the songs were in Navajo so I had no clue what was really being said. Lol!

       Thursday was pretty cool. We had District Meeting up in Blanding. On the way back I was really struggling with some stuff as a leader. I then had a prompting to listen to the Atonement track that we had in the truck. It's so cool to receive meaningful revelation for your benefit and others at the same time. Well then we went out to White Rock. So the first house on the north side of the road, whenever we walk in has 15 dogs. Every time we leave there is 15 cats. It's pretty weird but funny.

       Friday we decided to do a vehicle fast so we just walked around Bluff all day and tried to do some service.

       Saturday we a baptism for an 8 year old named, Kaeahliya. This girl is solid! She said the opening prayer at her baptism and had all the women in tears and even some of the men! Then on Sunday she ask.... ASKED to give a talk! She did such a good job too! Well her baptism went really well. She had asked me to do the confirmation. That was really special for me. That night we also got transfer news. I am staying here with Elder Tucker. E Provard is going to Blanding South!!!!!! My first area!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!! I went nuts when I found that out!

       So my mailing address for the next 6 weeks will be:

             PO BOX 116

             Bluff, UT 84512

       Sunday we had church. I sang a solo, "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul" again. And again it went really well. Then we had a meeting with the stake president in Blanding. Then we stayed for a fireside. The speaker was Clive Romney, the author of "Scripture Power" in the primary song book. It was so good. I got to talk to him after. He actually lives less than 2 miles away from my home in WJ! I also got to talk to some people from Blanding that I haven't seen in a while. It was really good!

       So that was my week! It was a good one! Well, until next time, Hagoonee'!

Elder Bryson Chipman

 Kaeahliya's baptism

3 main Navajo foods: Fry bread, beans, and salt

Navajo Code 2/3/14

       Yaa Teeh!

       It's been an interesting week. So for a general notice the post office isn't forwarding mail anymore. So this is the address you will need to send mail to. 

PO Box 116

Bluff, UT 84512

Don't send me anything this week because we have transfers. If you sent me something this past week I probably won't get it until next week or so.

       Monday I got a package and a letter inside that talked about mom. That was cool but that night we went down to Kirtland because we had MLC the next day. We went on splits with the zone leaders there and in the lesson we taught mom got brought up. That was really kinda interesting how mom got brought up so many times during the day. But it was good.

       Tuesday we had MLC, always good and full of learning. Then I went and got a hair cut and the person who cut my hair is from Flora Vista. It was so good to see her again and be able to talk to her. She and her family are super funny and great to be around! Then we drove back to Bluff.

       Wednesday I went on exchanges up to La Sal with Elder Means. That was a lot of fun. I got to play a 121 year old piano! AWESOME!!!!!! It was even in tune!

        So Thursday was basically the first day that I got to work in my area for the week. Not much happened but we taught a couple of lessons and we FINALLY started to get sprickled with rain. That was the first time of the year for rain.

       Friday we had another funeral at the church, only this time I was the pianist. It's a really interesting feeling knowing that you are the only person that about 100 people are hearing. So if you make a mistake EVERYONE knows. I did pretty good. Then we had a lesson with Kaylia, an 8 year old. She is so prepared! She has been taking great notes from reading the book of Mormon. She said the opening prayer and just blew us away because she quoted a little of I'm a child of God. Then she started talking about the pre earth life and how she wants to live with God again. It was just awesome!

        Saturday was the funny story of the week, I just got new water bottle, someone sent it to me in a package. It's one of those metal ones that's circular and about a foot tall. Well I take it with me when we go biking cause it's a little harder to take the jug. I have this clip that i use to clip it to my backpack. So when we are biking we get attacked by a lot by sheep dogs. So we've ended up grabbing some rocks and putting them in our pocket so when we are biking we can throw them at the dogs. Well we've started keeping score between the missionaries vs the dogs. We get a point when we hit them with a rock or kick them and they get a point when they bite us. A really friendly game, I know. Well the score was at 2 - 0 missionaries then here came some more dogs. My companion kicks one in the face and I almost hit one with a rock. So the score becomes 3 - 0 missionaries. Well we get to our destination and I start bouncing up and down on my bike trying to be all cool and I had forgotten about my water bottle which then came up and hit me right in the eye, and it was full of water too. Haha. So the end score, for now, is Missionaries 3, water bottle 1, and dogs 0. Oh fun stuff. And then on the way back the sheep decided to run in front of our bikes so we almost ran into them! Crazy stuff.

       Sunday was spent with members watching some Mormon messages that I had. It was awesome!

       Well I gtg, Until next time! Hagoonee'!

Elder Bryson Chipman