NMFM Week 5: April 16-21, 2012

Hello family!

It's hard to believe that we are heading into our sixth week here in Farmington. We are giving it all we got and a little more -- and that is exactly what we hoped to do! We work with some pretty amazing people and the best part is having such a wonderful missionary companion to share it with. The Paynes are kind, hospitable neighbors and we have appreciated the opportunity to get better acquainted with them. Their oldest son, David, is on a mission to the West Indies and recently became the companion of an elder from Aztec (a town about 15 miles from Farmington). Isn't this a small world! This week the Combs began training in the mission office (to replace the Fallons who will be leaving soon). The Combs recently moved to Aztec from Ridgecrest CA and were good friends of the Rossers and also Deckers.

We feel humbled to be entrusted with the Lord's treasury in caring for the housing needs of his missionaries. We try to give them encouragement and love as well as meet their physical needs. We are so very thankful for this opportunity to serve. Thanks for your letters, calls, emails, etc. We send our love, Elder & Sister Hunt

~~~

Monday: Five new elders (Elders Gallup, Gaudreau, Christensen, Belnap, and Nielsen) flew into the Durango, CO, airport around 11 am and President and Sister Jones and the APs picked them up and brought them to the mission home in Farmington. Elders Hunt and Langkilde picked up jalapeño/green chile pizza from Papa John’s (a tradition to break in the new missionaries) and took it to the mission home for their lunch. After lunch the office closed and the entire staff went to the mission home for the orientation meeting. Each staff member did some mini training regarding mission procedure. I was especially interested in the video that was shown regarding driving safety – Elder Holland was the narrator and spoke rather plainly about the importance of safe driving.

Tuesday: The mission office was swarming with missionaries for transfer day. It was Sister Langkilde’s birthday and she has been one to go all out and make a big deal about birthdays, so the office staff planned a surprise breakfast (complete with balloons and decorations) for her. We had plenty of food (I made “egg bread” with green chile) and that was a good thing because we probably had 30 missionaries milling around at any given time for a couple of hours. Sister Jones had muffins, juice, and milk for them upstairs in the cultural hall, but they all gravitated downstairs (including Pres. and Sister Jones) to join the party. We had six elders and one sister leave to go home – it was pretty touching watching them say their good-byes to their companions and mission friends.

Wednesday: I had a PET scan done at the San Juan Medical Center in Farmington. It is a really nice facility. Dr. Payne had written a prescription for Zanax for me and I handled the procedure much better than the last one without it. And as an added bonus, I was able to have a nice, long nap during the afternoon which I badly needed. Our long hours was starting to take its toll and the restful sleep was a blessing. Elder Hunt worked on plans for our next inspection road trip (haven’t set a date for that yet, but it will probably be in a couple of weeks).

Thursday: We centered our devotional around the theme of stewardships and used D&C 104:54-57 as our scripture reference. Our hymn was #218: “We give thee but thine own, What e’er the gift may be, For all we have is thine alone, A Trust, O Lord, from thee.” After devotional we went on another shopping frenzy with the Langkildes and then delivered our purchases to the new trailer in Steamboat – a new missionary couple will be there in a couple of weeks. Steamboat is about 20 miles west of Ganado. We drove down over Buffalo Pass and dropped some things off at the Tsaile trailer and then dropped more at the Chinle trailer. The Pinon elders met us at Chinle to trade us trucks (they had been in a fender-bender in Holbrook during the week) – Elder Hunt drove them a loaner from the mission office and we drove the elders’ truck for the rest of the trip. It was late afternoon when we got to Steamboat and had to hustle as there was no electricity in the trailer to give us light. I’m not much help at putting furniture together, but I can hang shower curtains and put dishes in cupboards. We drove home a different route and as we were driving from Ganado to Window Rock I commented that I had never been on that stretch of road before and asked Elder Hunt if he had. He said “Yes,” he had as a matter of fact. He and Maren towed Paul’s car from Chinle to Joseph City and drove on that stretch of highway. We arrived back in Farmington just after midnight!

Friday: Elders Hunt and Langkilde left the mission office just after 8 am for another run to drop off goods for the new trailers and were gone most of the day. I worked on unreported referrals and used the new spreadsheet Elder Hunt helped me create and it saved me LOTS of time. I worked well and efficiently until about 4 pm and then all of a sudden I ran out of gas. Elder Hunt showed up around then so we just picked up our bags and headed out the door. It was a new experience to drive up to the Paynes’ yard before dark!

Saturday: This was the first real P-Day we’ve had since we arrived in the mission. We slept in until 7:30 and then worked on the usual P-Day things: laundry, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the car insider and outside, organizing, and relaxing a little. It was fun to watch the Payne boys work in the yard (especially the dad) as the way they move around working on things is so like my brother Dennis. Today has been warm and sunny and they are looking forward to uncovering their pool in the next few days (they have a pool heater).

We are looking forward to next week: Bishop Hatch (Kirtland 2^nd Ward) invited us to attend their Ward Council Meeting tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m.), Monday is our mission temple trip to Monticello, and Saturday is the BYU Folkdance Show at the San Juan College Performance Hall. We purchased four tickets and hope to be able to take some nonmembers with us to the show.

NMFM Week 4: April 9-15, 2012

Hi Family! Thanks for the calls, texts, emails and letter (Cami) this week. We love hearing from you and carry you around in our hearts. We are heading into transfer week and have been keenly interested in watching how transfers are orchestrated. We have 5 greenies coming in and 7 going home who have finished their mission. I hope our little travelouge for week 4 won't be too boring. A log like that will help us in future excursions. We send our love, Elder and Sister Hunt April 16, 2012


Monday: I was able to submit the monthly Baptism
report to SL (with Sister Langkilde coaching me) and check it against the
original handwritten reports sent in from the missionaries. There were a couple of discrepancies which I
called in to SL so they can make corrections.
After printing out the report, the copies were filed in the Baptism
binder. Elder Hunt worked on weekly Key
Indicator reports (baptisms, confirmations, investigators with a baptismal
date, # of investigators attending church, # of lessons taught with members
present, # of new investigators).

Tuesday: I worked on the Referral List and Elder Hunt
worked on our itinerary for our upcoming inspection trip. He looked up Google maps and I sent texts out
that we were coming for inspections.

Wednesday: It was our turn to give the devotional so
Elder Hunt shared some thoughts and scriptures on Charity – did a nice
job. After devotional I sent out a few
texts notifying missionaries that we would be dropping by for apartment checks
while Elder Hunt picked up the truck and trailer we would use to shuttle
mission furniture around. We left for
Escrito a little after 10. Neither of us
had been on the highway from Bloomfield to Albuquerque before, so it was
another big adventure! Names like Blanco
and Cuba that I had heard my Johnson cousins use before were now real places
for me. We took a bed to Elder Healy –
he and Elder Evans were moving in with “Grandpa Roundy,” a little 94 year old
man. We loaded up a couple of couches
and dresser from their apt. and brought them back to Farmington to be stored in
the AP garage (the mission 2nd hand shop). We had a delightful visit with Grandpa Roundy
who is a rock hound and makes jewelry from many of the rocks he finds or buys. He showed us his whole shop area – pretty
impressive that a man of his age can still do the intricate jewelry work that
he does. We came home with several
pieces of his jewelry. Our
granddaughters and friends will be some of the lucky recipients of Grandpa
Roundy’s work.

Thursday: We left a little after 7 am for another
“Inspection Odyssey.” We took a bucket
of cleaning supplies to leave at each apartment we inspected along with the
little “Buckets” note. We drove past
Beclabito, Mexican Water, Rockpoint, Round Rock and enjoyed the sun-speckled
mountains as it tried to peek through the clouds on our way to Many Farms.
It was pretty amazing! It was a surprise
visit for Elders Giles and Openshaw as their phone had changed and they didn’t
get the text message I sent. We met the
Parkinsons, the Sr. couple who live in a trailer next to the elders. They are
both retired school teachers and poured their hearts out to us about how
heart-breaking some of the situations are on the reservation.
Our next
stop was Chinle and we hit the jackpot there. Thursday is District Meeting day so we found
the elders at the church. Four elders
live in a trailer there next to the church:
Elders Nelson and Tauti, also Elders Olsen and Simpson. Elders Gochnour and Orme from Pinon were
there and assured us their apt. was in tip-top shape so we shaved an hour off
our trip by not driving out there and back (a nearby Sr. couple, the Lybberts,
checks their trailer).
After we
left Chinle we stopped and looked at the trailer next to the chapel at Greasewood,
but the elders were in Holbrook at district meeting. Elder Hunt was impressed that one of the
hogans in that area had a green metal roof on it. We stopped at Indian Wells to
visit the Jensens, the Sr. couple who inspect the trailer at Greasewood. The Jensens have really fixed their trailer
up nice – they live right next to the chapel.
We found
a group of elders at the Holbrook Stake center just finishing up their District
Meeting and were able to schedule visits with them. We drove to Joseph City and inspected
the apt. of Elders Olea and Jamison who live in Lance Baldwin’s apt. just north
of his house. We picked up a matt for a
picture frame from Linda and Rich Miller, picked up a bowl of flowers from
Carol Shelley, and had dinner with Perry and Carol Ann Baldwin (I called them
the day before to ask if they could feed the missionaries and they very
graciously agreed to do just that!) Then
we went to Holbrook to visit Elders Amott and Totten. Before going home we stopped to chat with
Ryan and Ericka for a few minutes to touch base with home happenings. It was nice to sleep in our own bed, we just
weren’t in it quite long enough!

Friday: We gathered up “stuff” that was on our list
of things to take with us and then headed to Winslow to check the apt.
of Elders Taylor and Wagstaff. We drove
north to Dilkon to visit Elders
Boneck and Garrett who live in a trailer next to the little chapel there. We headed north again to visit Elders Merrill
and Warner who live in a brand new trailer next to the chapel in Polacca. We visited with a Sr. couple that live next
to the elders, the Pages, who were just getting ready to go home as their
mission was completed. Elder Page
suggested we take the northern loop to Leupp and we enjoyed the amazing
view from the mesa near Kykotsmovi.
Elders Akaka and Brinkman live in a trailer next to the Leupp
chapel. From there we took the north
road to Flagstaff that comes out by Winona.
In Flagstaff we visited Sisters Tuddenham and Wise in their cute
little, tidy basement apt; Elders Moore, Saur, Rasmussen and Royce in their
crowded apt.; Elders Lord and Silva who live in the basement of a member’s
home; Elders Hunsaker and Johnstun who live near the tracks; and Elders Burgin
and Schmidt (the ZLs) who live near campus.
The Flagstaff elders told us that snow was predicted for that night and
next day. We spent the night at the
Fairfield (who give missionary discounts) and woke up to a white landscape the
next morning.

Saturday: We braved the storm and drove to Williams
to visit Elders Christensen and James in a secured, clean apt. complex. On our way back to Flagstaff we got stuck in
a traffic jam – a truck going too fast on bad roads jack-knifed across both
lanes of traffic so we sat there for two and a half hours waiting for traffic
to move again. We had lunch in Flagstaff
before heading north again. We drove to Tuba
City to visit Elders Daniels and Kaulia.
We hadn’t been able to contact them by phone, but drove to the church
and knocked at the door of one of the Sr. couples, the Droddys. Sr. Droddy was fun to visit with – she told
us it was their stake conference weekend and that was why the elders weren’t
home. We noticed the New York licence
plates on the car in front of their apt. and asked about where they were
from. Elder Hunt asked if she knew
Jimmer’s family because they are from Jimmer’s home town. Her eyes lit up and she said that she IS
Jimmer’s family; Jimmer’s dad is her brother!
She showed us the wedding announcement she had just received in the mail
from Jimmer (who is marrying a cute little chick from Littleton CO on June 1). From Tuba City we drove back out to Hwy 89
and headed to Bitter Springs to drop off a new ceiling fan, parts to
hook up the washer and dryer, and other misc. kitchen items. We left a bowl of flowers on the kitchen
table that Carol Shelly donated, and a picture of Christ with the children on
the living room wall that the Millers matted and put into a frame for us. As we drove up the big hill to Page
snowflakes started hitting the windshield.
In Page we visited the apts. of Elders Grisham, Cody, Tukia, and Chapple
(these 4 elders live in a duplex apt. – the owners are members and live in the
other side of the house). Elders Barron and Nielsen weren’t home, but left the
door open for us to check their apt.
Elder
Hunt’s lunch didn’t sit well and the 2-hour drive from Page to Kayenta was
difficult. The road was covered with
snow and we got into a mini-blizzard making it hard to concentrate on the
road. When we got to Kayenta we pulled
into the first motel parking lot we saw at Hampton Inn. The desk clerk said they had a room for us
for $189 – the mgr. quickly looked up and saw my nametag and said, “Give it to
her for $99.” It was the nicest Hampton
Inn I’ve seen and it saved our lives Saturday night!

Sunday: We left Kayenta at 10 am and drove straight
to the Payne’s ward building and arrived there at 12:20, just in time to attend
8th Ward meetings with them.
Joanne had picked up Lauana and she sat with them during the
meetings. She showed signs of
recognition as I gave her a hug and kiss before Joanne left to take her back to
her place. After meetings I went over to
visit with the Paynes while Elder Hunt took a much-needed nap. We were glad to be able to go to bed
early. We felt good about our 3-day
journey and hope that we can get a framework set up to make future inspections
easier – hopefully by delegating part of the job to those who live in the
missionary areas.

NMFM Week 2: March 26-31, 2012

Monday: President Jones made it back from his week on the road and invited us into his office for a visit. He said that he would like for us to be cross-trained in the office duties so that we can fill any of the roles. All of us recognize the fact that changes will be made when President Batt becomes our new president in July and two couples presently in the office will be leaving before then. He also asked us to make ourselves available to the Kirtland Stake to help with reactivation there. We have been invited to attend their Stake Welfare Council meeting next Tuesday where we can meet all of the Bishops and hopefully get some direction on how to effectively assist them.

Tuesday: I had an appointment with Dr. Payne at his clinic to start my day. I basically wanted to get my records established in his office and have him set up as my primary care physician while we are here. His philosophy of medical care fits well with ours and it was difficult subject matter to discuss, but a pleasant visit. His office is near the hospital, which is not very far from the mission office. When we drove into the church parking lot we noticed the pick-ups neatly lined up in rows. It was Zone Leader Council meeting day with District Leaders included for leadership training. President Jones invited me to help teach “O Fair New Mexico” after lunch so we handed out maracas and music and the fun began! The Elders caught the spirit and had a good time following their leader, Pres. Jones (who introduced me as Sister Payne, but quickly caught himself). I enjoyed visiting with Elder Chapple, the Zone Leader in Page. He remembered Megan’s name and the rest of the James Chapple family, but not all the names. Today the NMFM celebrated 1000 baptisms since the mission was organized July 1 2010! Sister Fallon reviewed all of the ordering training she has patiently given to me which includes three parts: Church Distribution supplies, supplies from Staples (online orders are discounted 30% for the Church), and Books of Mormon which are ordered from a special department under Church Distribution. I feel confident that I can take care of those orders now. Elder Hunt and I were asked to order and pick up meals for 23 elders and deliver them to the mission home (which is clear across town from the mission office) at 6:30 pm. Pres. Jones wanted Blake’s green chile Lotta-Burgers with fries and root beer, so that is just what we delivered. I was glad that my companion had concession stand experience with dispensing rootbeer into a cup and knew that it took 3 foam-downs to fill an extra large cup. I enjoyed visiting with Sister Joyce Jones and having a tour of the mission home. It is out in the Country Club area and is a very nice place. We didn’t get home until 8:30, another long day.

Wednesday: Our day started earlier as we met the Langkildes at Home Depot for our “Second Senior Shopping Spree” at 8 am. Elder Langkilde suggested that we split company and have the ladies go to Walmart to start picking up housewares there and the brethren would stay and pick a washer and dryer at Home Depot before joining us. We basically did a repeat of the shopping we did last Saturday so it went a little faster. By 10:30 the truck and trailer were loaded and we were on our way to deliver our goods to a new trailer that was recently set up for a senior couple in Tsaile. To get there we turned west about six miles south of Shiprock and drove up over Buffalo Pass, which is between Red Rock and Lukachukai. The landscape was absolutely gorgeous and the rock wall formations were different than any we had ever seen! It was a beautiful drive up through the pines and there was still snow on the sides of the road. Tsaile is just a few miles east of Canyon de Chelley. Elder and Sister Wright will move into the trailer next week after the utilities get turned on (we have not met them yet, but were told that they are both near 79—what dedication!) Elders Gledhill and Ford from Crystal came to help unload the trailer and since the furniture was all new, it needed to be unboxed and put together. We didn’t head back to Farmington until after 5:30 and pulled into the church parking lot at 7:30 pm.

Thursday: Dennis went with Elder Langkilde to return a damaged piece of furniture to the American Furniture Store and also to take the trailer full of cardboard boxes the new trailer furnishings came in to the recycle center. Elder L. isn’t a recycler so it might take a bit of coaxing to convince him to change his habits. We’ve learned that he likes to do things his way and for us to “go along to get along” is a good policy. However, we are willing to stand up to him concerning recycling such a large amount of cardboard. We were tired of a sack lunch so went out to lunch at K-Bobs and enjoyed their soup and salad bar. I helped with mail again and also entered baptisms and referrals into the computer. As a refreshing break I went outside with the auto crew to drive pickups from the park across the street to the church parking lot. They are doing some kind of work at the park and needed the grounds cleared. The park is owned by the church and is fenced and kept locked when not in use. Facilities Management (FM in church lingo) keep their vehicles in the fenced yard there. President Jones asked Elder Hunt to sit in on a disciplinary council this evening for a couple of elders that will most likely be sent home. We pray that they will be able to turn their lives around and make the changes necessary to be worthy servants in the Kingdom. APs Elders Nielsen and Jeski (lovingly known as Jet Ski) waited out that long, heart-rending process outside the president’s office. They are impressive elders.

Friday: We were saddened with the departure of the two elders who were sent home today. The APs took one of the elders to the Aztec airport to fly home and the parents of the other elder came to the mission office to pick up their son. My heart went out to them and the elders who were there to be with him until he left. Elder James needed someone to go with him to Gallup to pick up a loaner truck from the elders there (which they used while theirs was in the shop). Sister James had a lot of things to finish up what she was working on at the office, so Elder Hunt got to make the trip. They went the back way, which is actually shorter and which the locals use a lot. Instead of driving down thru Shiprock, they took the road that goes past Newcomb, Sheep Springs, and Tohachi. They enjoyed lunch at Sizzler and were back in Farmington by mid-afternoon. I spent a good part of the day working on “The Referral List” which comprises referrals not reported on. Missionaries are supposed to make an effort to make contact with referrals within 24 hours after they receive them and are supposed to call the referral hotline in SLC to report on the status of the referral. If those calls aren’t made, they show up on our report. The church’s computer program has a filter that will allow us to look at each area where missionaries are assigned and then send a text message to their cell phones with the referral information. This procedure hadn’t been done here since November so it may take me another couple of days to finish up that task. Before sending texts, I call the missionaries to tell them we are working to clean up our referral list and give them a “heads up” of the forthcoming text. I rather enjoyed making the calls as I had previously met quite a few of the missionaries that I called, including Elder Olea in Joseph City. After we left the office we stopped by Natural Grocers, a smaller version of Sprouts in Mesa. We discovered it on our way home the first week we were here and were delighted to find such a nice new store with organic produce and products. There is a big sign on the front door that says BYOB (bring your own bag) and we just happen to have a nice one that was given to us by Holbrook Wells Fargo Bank that we have used several times now. We got back to our apt. around 5, the earliest since we arrived here. We enjoyed the vegetable/lentils soup we waiting for us in the crock pot, went for a stroll in the neighborhood, and fell into bed happy to be here doing what we are doing, but exhausted.

Saturday: It was soooo nice to be able to sleep in this morning! My cell phone alarm is set for both 5:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., so it was a treat to roll out a little later than that. We cut hair, started our laundry, had a leisurely breakfast, and then snuggled under a blanket to enjoy conference. All of the talks were really good, but Elder Eyring’s take on adversity hit pretty close to home and Elder Holland always gives a good wake-up call. I look forward to reading them in text format. Jared knocked on our door to ask if he could wash our car since he was already out on the driveway washing the car he drives to school -- we gladly handed him the keys. Elder Hunt is getting ready to go to Kirtland for the Priesthood session; he hopeful that he will be able to connect with some of the folks there.

NMFM week 2

Hello family! I thought I would get a note off to you while Elder Hunt is gone to the Priesthood meeting. We REALLY enjoyed conference and look forward to the sessions tomorrow. We couldn't help but wonder if the Turleys were there--hope to hear their report of conference if they were there in person. I'm attaching my NMFM Week 2 journal entry and hope you will find a few interesting things therein. The weather has warmed up considerably this week and the grass is greening up and the apricot trees all over town are in their glory. I just stirred up some "haystack" cookies and will go over to see if Isaac will bake them for me (Isaac is the youngest) while the other Payne boys are gone to their stake center. Just a reminder: we love letters, we love texts, we love emails, we love phone calls, and WE LOVE ALL OF YOU! Sister Hunt