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.