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