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