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