September 2

The questions I asked Matt:
1)  How are things in Bluff?
2)  How did the transfer affect you and Elder Waldo?
3)  Why was this transfer after just 5 weeks and the next one at 7 weeks instead of the usual 6 weeks?
4)  Is there a grocery store in Bluff?
5)  How long is the drive from Bluff to Blanding?
6)  How is your learning of the Navajo language coming?
7)  Do many people on the reservation near Bluff speak Navajo?
8)  What is your area?  One time you said it went south to the state border.  How far does it go in the other directions?

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Mom,

Great! I didn't get time to email yesterday because it was labor day and the libraries were closed, so I'm keeping this one short.

1) Bluff is amazing, things are really coming together here and I think I'm going to grow a ton as a missionary over the next few months.

2) It sure did! Elder Waldo went back to his first area which was Bloomfield Spanish Branch and I'm with... *drum roll please* ... ELDER VICZNESKY! AGAIN! Hahaha I just picked him up this morning and things are awesome, we get along really well and things are going to be super cool together again.

3) I don't know for sure. I think President Batt has a meeting next week when transfers would usually be so he moved it up a week because he doesn't want to be gone from the mission for a meeting while transfers are going on.

4) Nope, no grocery store just a gas station and two restaurants. 

5) Blanding has a store and it is about 30 minutes away.

6) Navajo is coming pretty well! I'm still growing. Unfortunately, I'm not doing Navajo Rosetta Stone ever since I've been in Bluff. There isn't enough time really as a zone leader to spend doing language study so maybe I'll be able to do it again in the future. 

7) Yeah, it's pretty rural so they all speak Navajo still, except for the young generation that is younger than 20 years old. 

8) Our area does go down to the stateline and I don't really know how to explain how far east and west it goes. Probably like a 30 mile width, 15 miles each direction off of Highway 191. We cover area northwest of Bluff too, but no one lives out there so we don't go out there at all.

Bluff is doing awesome. Tonight we have a meeting with a less active newly wed couple who are super cool and super nice so it'll be awesome. I don't really know what I've told you about stuff. Our branch president is super cool, his name is Robert McPhearson and he's a professor of native american history at the Blanding extension of USU and he's written books on Navajo stuff and on Ute stuff and I don't know what else, but he's a really funny and nice guy and the branch leadership is so cool.

I love you all so much! That's the biggest blessing that comes from sharing the gospel, is the joy and the strengthened testimony that comes from it. I love you and pray that opportunities to share the gospel will continue to unfold before you as you pray and seek for them!

Love,
Elder Schaelling