December 9

Tim-Tam,

Elder and Sister Watts are fantastic. They are also working with Northwest High School (which is a BIA School, Shiprock High is a local school) but I'm not sure what the third school they are referring to is! Perhaps the high school down in Newcomb, which would be great!

Our conversation is supposed to be limited to 45 minutes, and usually our study schedule isn't over until 10 o'clock, but I can't imagine them not allowing us to alter that for Christmas. I'll try to get more details on it and get back to you! I would love to be able to have the Norris and Phillipps families there too.

I'm sure spending a few minutes in Shiprock was a little different for the Griffiths family than Layton, but there are so many great people here in Shiprock and my heart will forever have a soft spot for this place because I began my mission here. There are many families that I will miss dearly when the time comes to leave! 

We really haven't been able to meet with Leo and Blaire for the past two weeks or so, which is really sad. Things just keep coming up for them at all of our appointment times. I really hope we can meet with them this week. Bryan is doing well! He came to church yesterday. Gwenevere is doing well also, she was all out of wood so we went out to chop down a few trees on a mesa just north of Hogback on Saturday and dropped it off at her place as a Christmas present.

We are decorated at our little trailer for Christmas with a Christmasweed Tumbletree (it's just a really big tumbleweed with lights and ornaments). It sure does brighten up the place! Thank you and Grandma for all of the Christmas-y stuff, it is all going to good use so far.

The Christmas Devotional last night was fantastic and really helped me focus on the true meaning of Christmas and the sacred message we all have to focus on and spread during the next month. I also have loved the commitment left in General Conference by Elder Ballard to touch "one" life by Christmas with the gospel as a gift from us to Christ.

With love and regards,

Elder Schaelling

happy thanksgiving from elder schaelling!

photo dump!

December 2

Mom,

Good to hear the package got to you guys alright! I'm glad you were all able to look through some of the picture and videos, haha. The newer abandoned homes were being built by some company by contract and they ripped off the Navajo Housing Authority (or whoever else was building them, I'm not sure) and they have very poor foundations and things like that. They weren't in livable condition. I don't know a ton though. We were wresting the sheep!

1) Yes, I have already gotten all of the packages! We ended up going into Farmington on Wednesday to get something checked out on our truck, so I was able to pick up those packages. Thank you so much for sending all of those great gifts to me! I plan on opening them on Christmas Day and I'm sure I'll have opened them by the time I call/Skype you guys. Sounds good! I wouldn't be surprised if we tried Skyping from the Watts' place because they have internet at their trailer (not too many people have internet) and they said they wont be doing too much on Christmas. I wouldn't want to interrupt some other family's Christmas morning celebrations too much! I hope I'll be able to see/talk to Natalie and Jackie and their families too!...

3) Thanksgiving was great! We got to spend time with a lot of families... I love all of those families and they are all very hospitable to all of us missionaries! ...

Good to hear all went well for you guys with Thanksgiving! Ahh, Los Gatos Cafe is very good. That's probably the biggest activity/temporal thing I miss being on a mission is eating good food at good restaurants. I love you all!

With Love and Regards,
Elder Schaelling

November 25

Thanksgiving in Shiprock should be pretty good, and I'm excited to get whatever things are in store for me in the package. Thank you so much for taking such good care of me even while I'm on my mission! But, I guess I'm not as far away as most other missionaries are, haha, I'm just over the hill. The Watts are great people, I am very appreciative to have such a nice, caring, and supportive senior couple here in Shiprock. They feed us dinner every Sunday and it feels like family dinner back at Grandma's, which is really nice.

I am so thankful to have grown up in a family that encouraged righteous living and where I had the gospel and the priesthood available to me. Thank you, Mom and everyone else, for doing so much to encourage me to live a life in accordance to gospel standards and I hope to be able to do so even more after I get home. I hope Thanksgiving goes swell for all of you and that you have the opportunity to thank and glorify God for his marvelous works in our lives. I read Luke 17:12-19 which discusses the story of the 10 lepers that Jesus healed and the one who turned to give thanks. Jesus has healed every single one of us from the sickness of sin, and it is essential we all use this time to give thanks unto him.

I love you,

Elder Schaelling

November 18

Mom,

Transfers went great! I am still in Shiprock with Elder Johnson, so this will be our third transfer together which is a pretty long time, but we get along really well. I'm glad I'll be able to stay in Shiprock for Thanksgiving and Christmas since I've already gotten pretty close with some members and investigators in the area. The biggest change that is happening this transfer is that they are adding sisters to our district. So far there have only been elders in the district. They are the Kirtland 3rd Ward sisters (previously the ward had elders) and they cover some reservation so I'm guessing that's why they are being placed in the Shiprock District instead of the Kirtland District, they are some of the only sisters on the reservation so they are pretty lucky! Our mission has the least amount of sisters out of all the missions in the world, along with the highest number of vehicles. Thank you! We also set another baptismal date this week with one of our investigators named Bryan. He is such an awesome and solid guy, he's been to church the past two weeks and he's on date for December 21st. He has two little kids who are awesome and he's been reading the Book of Mormon a lot! It's been amazing to see the area progress so much, I have truly been able to see the Lord's hand at work.  

I went to the Shiprock Fair on the Friday night for like an hour or two and it was pretty cool! Supposedly it's actually been getting smaller the past few years, which is pretty crazy to hear. Yeah, I want to come down for a fair after my mission but I'll probably go to the Window Rock Fair instead because the Shiprock Fair is always on General Conference weekend. I'm probably going to Sanostee sometime soon! A family in our ward, the Yellowhairs, are going to take us down there some day to go hiking on a land bridge and butcher a lamb or a goat! It's only about 45 minutes away from Shiprock, and Sister Yellowhair is originally from there. She's from the Bedah family. Yeah, reading/writing Navajo is essentially nonexistent down here, only the younger kids who take Navajo classes learn to read and write it, but supposedly the language is changing between the generations. Yeah, especially in the boarder towns like Shiprock the language is being lost. Deeper in to the heart of the reservation or the small communities Navajo is spoken a lot more.

I've already tried blue corn mush, kneel down bread, roast mutton, dumpling stew, fry bread, steamed corn soup. The only thing I haven't heard of before is Navajo ice cream! I'd try blood sausage, but apparently the mission has told us not to eat it because some missionaries have gotten sick in the past. We're planning on roasting ach'ii at the Watts' place one of these days though!

I'm sure I'll be surprised at the connections I find to Farmington and the rez once I go home also! I think the primary descendants of the Anasazi are the Hopi and Zuni tribes. They are all related to the other tribes of the area too, like the Laguna and Ute and stuff like that. The Navajo and Apache are actually not originally from the Southwest, they migrated over like 600 years ago or something.

I hope all is going well at home! I love you all very much. I got your Thanksgiving package with The Lower Lights, by the way. Thank you so much! The CD is amazing. It's probably the closest thing to some of the music I used to listen to while still being spiritual and about Christ, haha. Greg's recommendation never fails.

Love and regards,

Elder Schaelling

November 12

We have already received an invitation for Thanksgiving, thankfully. We are still technically supposed to do regular missionary work on that day, along with every other holiday, but I doubt we'll get much done. No one wants strangers to knock on their door when you have the whole family over on a holiday like that, haha. So we'll probably just go to members' or investigators' houses that invite us over and whatnot. California sounds like a lot of fun! I enjoyed that Thanksgiving I spent with Jackie and Trevor in Philly a few years ago, that was way awesome! I hope the Phillipps can make it out to Oklahoma too! ...

Yesterday for P-day one of the members here took me and the two Kirtland missionaries I was living with to look at some Anasazi ruins sites between here and Four Corners. It was tons of fun! There is some way cool stuff out there and supposedly there were once hundreds of thousands of people living here along the San Juan river between about Bloomfield, NM and Aneth, UT. The Anasazi and the Navajo aren't related, the Anasazi are the parents of the Hopi and Zuni natives around here. They are all pueblo peoples, so they live in little cities and towns, where Navajos and Apaches all live very spread out and remotely and speak different dialects. Hopefully I'll send you some cool pictures soon!

I love you!

Elder Schaelling

November 4

These are the questions that Matt was answering for me:

1)  What is the weather doing where you are?

2)  How was your Halloween?

3)  If you have specific preferences for Christmas gifts we need that info now or asap because President Batt sent an e-mail requesting all Christmas packages arrive at the Mission Office by December 1.  We're making plans to send you some Christmas cheer!

4)  Are there any more missionaries in the Shiprock area than you, your companion (Elder Johnson), Elder Howe and Elder Thompson?

5)  Are you in your new trailer now?  Is it just you and Elder Johnson there?  Where do Elder Howe and Elder Thompson live?

6) Sadly, I'm just realizing that we never got the names of who you were living with in Kirtland.  How many other Elders were there?  I am sorry about that.  That wasn't very nice of me.  I sent Elders Johnson, Howe and Thompson Halloween candy, I should've known the others and sent them some also.

7)  How are things going with all of your investigators?  Did any come back to church again yesterday?  We are always praying for you and the people in Shiprock!

-------------------------------------------

Mom,

1) The weather is pretty good! Occasionally a little too cold, but I am enjoying it for now. How's it back in Utah?

2) My Halloween was fun. The night before my ward had the trunk or treat and Brother Yellowhair the second counselor dressed up as Duck Dynasty and his wife as the wife from the show, it was pretty funny! Other than that, we ate brownies and your cookies, which were awesome, and watched Hastening the Work videos.

3) I'll send you details by next week hopefully, I hope that isn't too late!

4) Nope, us four are the only Shiprock Elders. Our district covers Teec Nos Pos and Toadlena too, so we see those elders at least once a week.

5) We are moving to our trailer today! It's just me and Elder Johnson. Elder Howe and Thompson live in another trailer by City Market, but it's too small for four missionaries.

6) There were two elders, it was Elders Huff and Munns, now it's Elders Huff and Openshaw. Openshaw is going home in two weeks.

7) No investigators at church yesterday, but things were pretty good this week other than that! Thank you so much!

I am short on time today, so I'm sorry! Glad to hear things are going well! Don't worry about the Intro to Mormons videos. You guys probably just burned the video files to the disc rather than encoding it onto the disc as DVD, but I think I can do it myself down here. I bought some DVDs the other day and already have put some Bible Videos on them and other videos from Hastening the Work.

I love you too!!! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Schaelling

October 28

Mom,

Sounds like the Halloween party was a success! I'll be glad to return in two years and usurp the title of doughnut race king back from Allen. I'm thinking about putting on some sunglasses on Halloween and being an FBI Agent. #justkidding

1) I have heard that some kids do trick or treat in Shiprock! I doubt we'll get any visitors at our trailer because it is kind of awkwardly placed, but we'll see. We'll probably be moving back to Shiprock on Wednesday or later this week! The trailer is finally finished and the Housing Coordinators will be inspecting it tomorrow for approval. I heard that a lot of the kids go to the hospital housing complex, it's a little housing development for all of the Indian Health Services employees, so a lot of the doctors and nurses live there and I guess they give out better candy than other places. I would guess that there are only a few of the housing developments that have trick or treating going on because some of them would probably not be super safe to be in late at night or the kids might not have tons of success in terms of pounds of candy collected. We have to be home by 8 o'clock at the latest on Halloween. On Wednesday the ward is having a trunk or treat though, so I'm excited about that! I might even try to decorate one of the missionary trucks if I am feeling even mildly creative, but I'll probably get lazy and not do it.

2) The appointment fell through on Wednesday. We had another appointment Sunday after church but that fell through also. However, the mom and son came to church which is awesome! It is pretty hard to get people to go to church, so I was so happy when they showed up! However, I think it was overwhelming to them with how long it is, but I hope they can stick it out and come a few more times so they can see the joy and benefits of church!

3) Thanks! I'll email and ask my mission president today and ask him if I can get special permission to go to deseretbook.com to look at scriptures. Usually we can only access mormon.org, lds.org, and the missionary email.

4) We didn't get to Costa Vida on Monday, but we went into town on Friday to get the tires replaces on our truck before winter so we went to Costa Vida and there were like a million members there that offered to buy our meal. It was so nice. It's weird to leave the rez and go to the city where there are tons of members all over the place and it just feels like being back in Mormonville.

... It is so true that nothing feels better than successfully sharing the gospel. I hope everything goes better with Natalie too and that she can get back to 100% soon! I remember the day that I had the nausea from the pain medication coming back from Jackie and Trevor's during Spring Break 2012. That was the absolute worst.

The PTA meeting sounds really interesting! I miss learning and reading about policy and politics. What ever happened with the immigration reform back in July and August? I heard once that basically everything was tabled for a later time, is that true? It's so interesting (and sad) how much the way you grow up can affect one's future even in the "land of opportunity" that our country has been known as.

Sounds like you all have had a good week! This week the best thing that happened to me was that a lot of the investigators and less active members we have been teaching came to church. As I mentioned earlier, it can be so hard to convince people to go to church and we haven't had really any success in getting people to come to church the past two months or so, but God gave us a miracle yesterday! There were eight less active members there and four investigators. It was funny because usually before church we have to make the sacrament meeting program because no one has a calling to do that, so that's what we spend our Sunday mornings doing, but yesterday the program was already made so we knocked on a bunch of doors reminding people about church and basically none of those people came to church, yet the Lord still delivered! I was so happy. I also had an amazing personal experience while studying the last half of Alma 26 regarding the principles of missionary work. It is awesome to read those chapters of the missionary work among the Lamanites and to be working among the Lamanites in the modern days !

Last comment about teaching the Lamanites. When I read the Book of Mormon and I read of the "incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers" it has such a more real meaning to me and being on the reservation really makes the things I read about the Lamanites and traditions pop out. I'm sure I can talk to you guys tons about this when I get home. 

I love you all and hope that your week is great,

Elder Schaelling

October 14

Mom,

 

Sounds like Aimee did a great job! I hope Elder Romney does great in the mission field, regardless of where he ends up at first!

 

The Priesthood Session was fantastic. Yes, to the best of my knowledge Bishop Causse is French. He spoke at a fireside that was broadcast to the U of U Institute that I went to about a year ago I think. I did love his Les Miserables quote as well, and that must have at least been the 3rd or 4th time Les Mis has been quoted in conference I think. Does that make it part of the Standard Works now?

 

I hope Dad's vertigo goes away for a while now! I guess all you can do is just manage it as best as he can. I'm praying for all of you and your health!

 

Good luck to Skot and the Carlings as they make some changes in their lives (although I doubt the Carlings will have too many changes, just maybe a new ward or stake).

 

Have a great time in OKC for me! You'll be in the land of the Plains Indians. I doubt you'll see any Navajo stuff out there. Tell everyone hi for me! I didn't know that Natalie hadn't gotten her wisdom teeth out yet, she seems pretty late to the game to be getting them out considereing I got mine taken care of in 9th grade!

 

Keep up the less active work! It's the ward's responsibility to care for and nurture those within the area, especially the less active members as President Monson always talks about with rescuing.

 

Yes, I got the package and I believe all 5 postcards! The most recent one was the JFK Library postcard. I can't wait to make it there one of these days! Thank you for everything.

 

We had a great week, we found 10 new investigators and had a lesson with a family yesterday who is amazing. They are total golden investigators and I already love them so much. We asked them to be baptized in the first lesson and they totally accepted before we could even finish the question! We'll be meeting with them again next Sunday.

 

Love and Regards,

Elder Schaelling

October 7

Matt is answering the following questions that I asked:

1)  How was your Conference Weekend?

2)  How was the Shiprock Fair from what you could tell?  I hope it didn't conflict too much with you, the members and your investigators.

3)  You said that you have a washing machine in your trailer, so are you in your new trailer in Shiprock or are the missionaries in Kirtland in a trailer?  Are there any apartments in Shiprock and Kirtland?

4)  How do you pronounce the Navajo word for white people?

-------------------------------------

1) Conference was amazing. President Uchtdorf's talks always leave me ringing with hope and spiritual healing, but I also really enjoyed Elder Dyches' talk that focused on Jesus Christ and the painting by Carl Bloch, Elder Bednar is one of my favorite speakers in the way he organizes his talks so I really enjoyed his, but I don't pay tithing as a missionary since I don't earn any money, I liked Elder Ballard's talk since it was all about missionary work, and every talk was great I can't even decide.

2) We only went to it for like an hour and a half on Friday night, but it was pretty crazy! Traffic on Saturday was terrible, but we just stayed holed up in the church all day and we got to the church taking a bunch of back dirt roads which was not a problem at all. Driving on dirt roads is super relaxing and fun, in all honesty! I'll need to come down after my mission to experience the Shiprock Fair.

3) We are still living in Kirtland for now, but we will hopefully be moving back to Shiprock within the next week or two! The Kirtland place is a trailer. There are some apartments in Shiprock but you have to be Navajo or work for the tribe/government to live in them and I'm not sure if there are apartments in Kirtland. I haven't noticed any! Pretty much everything out here is either trailers or houses.

4) Bil-li-ghaa-na, if you google the Navajo alphabet it should have sounds for each of the letters and vowels pretty much. Navajo is pretty straight forward to read after you figure out what sound all of the vowels make and it's actually easier than English. An "a" in English can have four different sounds, in Navajo it is just one. Keep a list of any Navajo words you want me to say and I'll say them on Skype/phone on Christmas!

I grabbed the sheet music for I Am A Child of God in Navajo and I hope I can perform it alright in two years! The colors haven't changed too much down here, but it sure is starting to get cold at night! It is freezing every morning and warms up quite a bit in the afternoon. Monsoon season is now over, so no more rain over the past week. 

No flu shots yet, I'm not sure what the usual procedure is. I've been doing pretty well! A little bit of allergies here and there and some stuffy noses, but nothing I can't handle.

Conference really was so great, this is probably the first time I have intently watched every talk and genuinely enjoyed and each one! The sad part about that is that I know that is my own fault, not the fault of the speakers. I wish more people watched and appreciated General Conference! It is such a fantastic opportunity to received revelation.

I love you all too!

Regards and love,

Elder Schaelling

October 1

I asked him the following questions in my letter and he was very kind to answer them:

1) Will you watch General Conference at the church or members' homes?

2) Do you do your laundry at a laundromat?

3) Are there any trees in Shiprock to see the leaves change to fall colors?

4) Where do all of the visitors stay that come for the Shiprock Fair?

5) Where do all of the visitors come from that come for the Shiprock Fair?

6) Is the Shiprock Fair celebrating anything in particular or is it like a county fair or just a regular general celebration?

Mom,

Good to hear you made it home safely! Sounds like you had a fantastic time on the cruise, I'm jealous of you guys! However, I know one day it will be my turn to go on adventures while the kids are at home.

The Monticello temple was great, but it was REALLY small! The church next door is bigger than it, haha.

1) We will watch general conference at the church. It seems like Saturday we are going to be holed up in the church literally all day. We will get there at about 7 AM and then probably leave after we are done cleaning up after priesthood session at 8:30 or 9. We can't really leave between sessions because the town will be jam packed for the parade and the Shiprock Fair. Like I said before, there will be over 100,000 people in this small town of probably 7000 or 8000.

2) We have laundry machines at our trailer.

3) There are some trees along the north side of the river mostly. There are more trees in Kirtland too. I haven't seen too many color changes yet!

4) No idea, I suppose I'll find out! Probably stay with family or sleep in their car or outside. There isn't a motel or anything in Shiprock or even in Kirtland I don't think. Maybe some of them stay in Farmington and drive over.

5) All over the Navajo Nation mostly I think. I don't think too many biliigaanas (white people) come in for the fair, but I'm not sure yet. I'll find out this weekend!

6) The Shiprock Fair is just a fair pretty much, but it is in conjunction with a 9 day long traditional ceremony that marks the changing of the seasons. We aren't allowed to go to any traditional ceremonies, so I won't be seeing any of that.

Yes, we had our primary program probably four weeks ago or so! It was fantastic, our primary is actually surprisingly strong and large! It was an awesome program. The kids also sang I Am a Child of God in Navajo!

I've been reading the Ensign more recently, it is such a fantastic magazine! I really loved Elder Holland's article in the September Ensign as well along with the article on grace. I'll have to take another look at the article on hope, I kind of grazed over that one!

I am very very excited for my first conference as a missionary. Good to hear you guys are keeping up at member missionary work! It makes all the difference in the world.

Once I send home my SD card you guys should be able to see some interesting stuff! We found an abandoned hooghan (Navajo house) out in the middle of nowhere on the south east side of town. I can't wait to take you all on a mission tour once I get home.

Good luck with life and tell Aimee good job on school! I love you all a lot and hope you all have a good conference!

Love,
Elder Schaelling

September 23

Mom,

I am doing well! This week was a little tiring, we were only able to get in with one of our investigators after chasing lessons all week but we had a lot of lessons with less active members. If I ever slack off on my home teaching after I get home, I will probably have a big kick-in-the-butt from God once I think back to my mission and how big of a difference home teaching can make in strengthening the ward. We met with Charlie Jones a couple of times and we'll see him again tonight! He's such an awesome guy and has lots of great stories. We also have a lesson with an investigator named Daniela, she is pretty involved with a smaller Christian church in Shiprock but she is curious because she has seen LDS churches all over the place. We also have an investigator named Gwenevere. She's really great but she's pretty traditional and I think that is keeping her from wanting to get too involved with the church or Christianity in general.

I can't wait to get the postcard! That's disappointing you had to skip out on Maine, better luck next time I suppose! I imagine it has to be beautiful up there. 

Last Saturday we bucked hay and wrestled some sheep and a ram, it was lots of fun! The family we did that with said in April every year they invite the missionaries over to shear the sheep, unfortunately I doubt I'll still be around Shiprock then. Also, a lot of the native people down here have trouble saying/reading my name so they saw whatever they want (which is totally fine with me, I think it's funny). The other day Charlie's brother called me Elder McLaufin, I have no idea where that came from! The Shiprock Fair is coming up and I'm excited to see it! It's going to be insane here that weekend.

Love and regards,
Elder Schaelling

September 16

Farmington might have a city bus with like one or two routes or something, but who knows. I think there is a bus that goes from Window Rock to Shiprock to Farmington too, but I'm not positive how expensive it is.

Yeah, the evenings are pretty cool. The past few weeks have had a LOT of rain. It is pretty crazy driving on some of the dirt roads with it being so muddy and rainy.

Only one of the six return appointments went through for our new investigators. I hope we can get in with the other five this week! We had two more new investigators this week though.

Navajo tacos are usually on fry bread, which is pretty much a scone. The dough for fry bread and tortillas are the same, fry bread is just fried in lard and tortillas are just tossed on the grill. I'm glad you all enjoyed Robin's Nest! They have some of the best sandwiches in SLC. I like the SINK sandwich there.

That's great that the missionaries are assigned to the stake! That's a pretty small area for those guys though, I hope they have good stuff to do! If you guys could host a lesson in our home or go out with the missionaries to the lesson that would be so awesome. Those kind of lessons are the best...

Today for p-day we are going down to Toadlena with a bunch of elders so I am excited to get down there! I hear its really pretty down there because it's up in the mountains and whatnot. It's pretty deep rez down there.

I love you guys so much! I appreciate all the support and love I get from you all, it helps a lot every single day. 

Love and Regards,
Elder Schaelling

September 9

 The weather down here is hot, but usually isn't not terrible. It stays in the 90s most days but sometimes it is overcast which is really really nice. 95 degrees isn't too bad when you aren't outside for too long, but it can be pretty hot when knocking doors and whatnot. Also, trailers heat up way bad when the sun shines on them so on bad days the heat just stays locked in the trailer and it is still really hot when we go to bed at 10:30. People say that it usually cools down in October. It sounds like it might be like Utah, where the fall and the spring only last for a week or two and it goes from hot weather to cold weather over the course of a few weeks.

 

Our temple trip is on September 30th to the Monticello temple!

 

... this past week we had a really good week and found 6 new investigators! A new investigator is someone who we have a lesson with for the first time and we have a return appointment scheduled. We have a really awesome new investigator named Kee. His dad was a member and attended BYU so Kee has always been a big BYU fan, but it doesn't seem like he had looked into the church much throughout his life. His father passed away a few months ago, unfortunately, and he decided to come to the LDS church here in Shiprock and we started talking with him and he would come to our basketball nights that we have on Fridays. He is such an awesome guy and our lesson he pretty much just spent the whole time teaching me and Elder Johnson everything we need to know, haha. He is really spiritual and knows quite a bit about the Bible. He goes to Provo for BYU games quite a bit and was up there this past weekend for the BYU vs. Texas game and I recommended he try J Dawgs and he said he really liked it!

 

Thank you so much for the ties and the Mormon Messages! I got both of them last week and they are awesome. I love the Mormon Messages, they work really well for families and it helps the youth and kids focus because they all enjoy watching TV more than talking with guys in ties, haha. If you haven't watched very many of them, you should. They are really great and you can watch them all for free online.

 

I hope you guys are all having a good week! I love you all very much.

 

Regards and love,

 

Elder Schaelling

September 3

Mom,

Sorry I didn't email yesterday, all of the public libraries were closed for Labor Day.

I am doing pretty well! This week has been stressful and tiring taking over our area in Shiprock and being in charge of setting the agenda and whatnot since Elder Johnson is learning the area, but it was still a pretty good week! This is a super awesome mission to be in.

We have a City Market in Shiprock which I think is in the same family as Smith's, gas stations, and a few trading posts that sale native stuff, but that's mostly it. We go to Walmart when we go to Farmington for p-days. 

If you are serving on the reservation than you can take 30 minutes a day for language study and get a Navajo tag, but if a missionary serving off the rez wants a Navajo nametag they could just order one through the missionary office.

Sundays start at 8 o'clock with weekly coordination meeting with the ward missionary leader, Brother Shepard. He was called about three weeks ago so he is getting the hang of his calling. For a while he was training to be a medicine man (essentially a priest in the traditional Navajo religion) but he rediscovered the church about a year ago, he's a really great guy! I spoke in church just for a few minutes my second Sunday in the area mostly just bearing my testimony and introducing myself. Us missionaries rotate every week teaching the Gospel Principle's class which is pretty fun! I taught the lesson last Sunday on tithes and offerings. 

 It is amazing how much I have not necessarily learned, but understood on my mission. Before my mission I could easily pass a "Mormon Test" and answer any question correctly in terms of the words, concepts, and terms, but now I truly understand many things so much better in my heart and am starting to see what the gospel and the atonement are all about.

The old Navajo nametags said "Gaamali" (which just means Mormon) instead of "Elder" but it has turned into a little bit of a derogatory term (just like for a while we were encouraged to say "LDS Church" instead of "Mormon Church"). We can get a Gaamali nametag just for fun but we can't wear them around, so we get them during our exit interview with President Batt. 

The Snowflake temple is outside of our mission, but President Batt got us permission to leave the mission boundaries for this temple trip. I should be going to the Monticello temple unless something weird happens, I think just the AZ and maybe Gallup missionaries are going to the Snowflake temple.

There are a lot of really great people down here on the reservation and I have really grown to love them and love serving them. 

Regards and Love,
Elder Schaelling

August 26

We have been meeting with some awesome families. We have been talking more to Nicole's mom, who isn't a member, and she is so awesome. Her brother-in-law, Brother Yellowhair, is in the bishopric of our ward and his family is super great too. The other picture is of us and Stevie after she was confirmed at the church with most of the Mason family, but her husband isn't in the picture because he is still up in Chicago for his Naval training. The Masons, her in-laws, are members of the ward and they are really great. Sister Mason is really funny and Brother Mason helps me with my Navajo (and tries to keep himself from laughing when I mispronounce things). They've got two sons who served missions. Sometimes I forget what I have already told you guys and so I don't know what else to say. We are working with these two boys named Lynol and Lyman whose grandma is a member of the ward and they are really funny.

The mission will be having a temple trip at the end of September. One half goes to Monticello and the other half goes to Snowflake, it will be great, I'm sure!

I love and miss you guys! I'm glad everything is going well at home. I look forward to hearing from all of you as always and hope Aimee's birthday is fun!

Regards and love,

Elder Schaelling

Farewell photos

Here are a few photos I took at Matt's farewell. Thanks to all who came to support him!

August 19

Mom,

I have moved to Kirtland now so it is a 30 minute drive to and from Shiprock everyday, so that cuts a little into our proselyting time which is unfortunate. But we live with the zone leaders...

We taught seminary every day for the past week! It was a lot of fun, but the senior couple is here now and they are teaching this week and for the rest of the year. There are only three kids in the class right now, but there are 1-3 kids who are trying to get signed up. It was way cool to teach and all the kids are super awesome and I hope they learn to love the gospel and allow it to work in their life throughout this year of seminary!

We get fed dinner 2-4 times a week usually, so pretty good! There are a lot of really awesome families in the ward that are really nice to us. 

This week we had two baptisms! One was of this little girl who is 8 years old and her name is Nicole. Neither of her parents are members, but her older sister was baptized a few years ago and a few people in her extended family are members of the ward. She is such a funny girl and I'll send you a picture of her and her sister and mom if I have time! We have been teaching a girl named Stevie also. She married an RM and then started to become interested in the church and she is going to be such a solid member! We have seriously taught her everything we possibly can: patriarchal blessing, temples, etc. She was baptized by her husband up in Chicago (he is there for a few months because of the Navy) but will be confirmed in our ward next Sunday.

Aimee should be expecting a surprise in the mail sometime this week or next! Thank you so much Aimee for diligently writing me letters every week, I love getting to read them! I'm glad you're having a fun time :)

I have been eating a lot of fry bread and tortillas (Navajo tortillas are different from Mexican tortillas, they are more thick) and some lamb and mutton stews. I actually has menudo with tripe (stomach) this past week.

Regards and love,

Elder Schaelling

August 6

Overall there is one set of missionaries per unit (ward/branch) but we have two sets here in Shiprock since there are so many missionaries in our mission.

Yes, I am in a Chevy 4x4! They are good trucks. There are a few Nissan Frontiers and Tacomas. The Navajo tacos are pretty much the same as the ones as Navajo Hogan! The fry bread is really good down here. Kirtland has five wards and we are in the Kirtland Stake, there are lots of members over there. I couldn't tell you percentages or anything though. We just wear our suit to church or meetings. Between the two conferences we don't have to wear our suit and if it's over 70 degrees we don't have to.

Last week I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders so I spent the day in Kirtland with one of the zone leaders who is from Farmington, UT. It was a lot of fun and had some funny stories in connection to it. We wrestled a ram at a farm and it got pretty intense, we vacuumed up a bunch of wasps (about 30 of them!) outside of their house. We also found a horned toad, those are good luck and protection in the Navajo culture.

I've got to get off but I love you guys and I hope you're all having a wonderful time!

Love and regards,
Elder Schaelling

July 29

Ya'at'eeh!

Shiprock is still going well! I am meeting lots of people and the ward is really nice. There are some awesome families in the ward that have had us over for dinner, which is really nice. That Pioneer Day celebration in Kirtland was really fun, we rode on the ward float and helped the ward make frybread for the Navajo Tacos at the celebration afterwards! It was really fun to hang out with members of the ward and work and joke with them in that more casual environment. While we were at the Pioneer Day parade it felt like we were back in Utah in Mormonville, which was nice and funny at the same time. It was really nice to see grass again, haha, it's pretty brown here in Shiprock. I have been getting to know the other Elders in Shiprock better and I get along with them really well too, which is fun. We play basketball all together sometimes and I plan on getting decently good at it while being on the mission. People on the rez love basketball, so we have a sports night every and invite ward members and investigators to come play ball with the missionaries at the church. We stay pretty busy every day, which is nice, but I don't always know what parts to tell you! We teach about 15-20 lessons a week, about half less active members or recent converts and half investigators.

I love you all very much and miss you!!!

Regards and love,

Elder Schaelling

July 22

Mom,

Since I didn't check my email last week there were tons of emails to read so I only have 10 minutes to write this email. Tell everyone I love them and sorry if I didn't email back. I can write more easily than email, but I hope to respond more next week. I couldn't read all of your emails.

I am in Shiprock, NM! It is on the reservation, but it is called "city-rez" because it is established and whatnot. But I use the term city loosely, because by this standard Brigham City would be a metropolis. My companion is Elder Miller. He is a nice guy from Florida and has been in the area for 4 months and has been on the mission for 18 months. We live in a trailer behind the seminary building by the high school, but it is a really nice one because usually the senior couple who teaches seminary lives here, but we have it since school isn't in session. We'll have to move next month though, but I think we'll be teaching seminary for a couple of weeks until the couple gets here!

The flight here was good, but a bunch of baggage was misplaced and one of my bags was included. They had them rushed that day and we got them in the evening, so it didn't cause any serious problem... I really like President and Sister Batt, they are super nice and I get along with them well. I had more of an opportunity to talk to Sister Batt because President was busy interviewing everyone.

Shiprock is interesting. I have learned some Navajo and have done a lot of service already. I have been doing "man work" rather than "mind work" which is fun: we built a shed, worked on the ward float for the Pioneer Day parade in Kirtland last weekend and chopped down some trees with more service coming up this week! The ward is good, but pretty small. About 100 people come every week but there are over a thousand members on record. A lot of people were baptized without being properly converted or were baptized on the placement program.

We are tracting more than one would think. Dad will probably think that's funny.

20 seconds left, maybe I'll write you a letter too!

Love,
Elder Schaelling

July 9

Mom (and family),

Thanks for all the letters! I got Aimee's letter today and I got your Dear Elder a few days ago and the package on Saturday (but I didn't pick it up until Monday because the package center closed). I got the ID just fine and all is good!

Like I said in my postcard, I am district leader (my whole district is my same mission, along with two other districts I haven't met) and my companion is great... I don't feel too nervous when teaching, but I am still learning what I need to do to really teach the individual better. This time in the MTC has been awesome spiritually. The first full day, Thursday, I had a bit of a hard time understanding what my purpose as a missionary is. The missionary purpose is to "[i]nvite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in jesus Christ and His Atonmenet, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." That makes sense well, but in my class they were telling us that we shouldn't be afraid to invite investigators to be baptized in our first lesson, but that didn't really make sense to me because, first, I was worried about being abrasive and, second, I couldn't really understand why we wouldn't begin working on faith and repentance before inviting them to baptism. However, on Friday morning as I pondered this, the spirit revealed unto me a more full understanding of covenants. I understood that while faith and repentance can help us become good people, we are limited in eternal progression until we establish a relationship with God and become covenant people. This first step is baptism. As I learned this, I wanted to go to the temple immediately to ponder further but the Provo temple is closed! How unfortunate.

Today is my P-day for the MTC, but that is only for this week since we leave next Monday...

The food is great for being mass produced. I am sleeping alright, but we have 6:30 AM breakfast (the earliest breakfast) so I have to wake up at 5:45 and we usually don't get in bed until 10:30 or soon after, so I have been pretty tired, especially because we have long days just sitting in a classroom being taught or studying. They are keeping us pretty busy.

Tell people that I love getting mail, especially here in the MTC! I only will be here until Sunday essentially, so send it soon and Dear Elder is great too! Hope I didn't forget too much more. I have grown a lot in the short time I have been here already.

Love,
Elder Schaelling