We have thought of you this week with school
letting out and the change of schedule for a lot of folks. We haven't
missed the end-of-the-year stress. We hope summer will be a fun time
for all of you. George's ward had their Father/Son Campout in the
Payne's yard. We were in Monticello Friday night so missed the party.
Joanne told us that with 3 new houses under construction at this end of
Samantha Lane that meant the fathers and sons could use the 3
port-a-potties next to the Payne lot! Joanne and the Payne boys are
headed to Utah next week. Josh is going to EFY and Jared is going to a
BYU Music Camp. Joanne's sister is flying up to meet them in SLC so
Isaac and Joanne will have a chance to show them around temple square.
None of Joanne's family are members of the church (YET!).
Allyson went to Virden this weekend to give my mom some TLC.
She has suffered severely with shingles this past week and Allyson went
to give her some hugs for me. I think we will all agree that Ally's
hugs and attention can help to make a lot of things better. Maren
wasn't available this time as she was in Hawaii giving Cherise hugs this
past week.
I'm attaching a picture I took this morning out in George's garden -- I thought Josh and Kolby would especially enjoy it.
Please note our address -- we have had mail sent to a different
address this week and Joanne's neighbor kindly delivered it to her. We
LOVE to get mail! Love you lots, Elder & Sister Hunt
Elder and Sister Hunt
c/o George Payne
5101 Samantha Lane
Farmington, NM 87402
Monday: Our new missionaries flew into Durango this
morning and the APs and President and Sister Jones met them at the
airport. We went to the mission home
after lunch for the orientation meeting with the rest of the office staff. Our new bunch include Sisters Ward and
Rowley, and Elders Henrie, Rich, Tanner, Wightman, and Edwards (Elder Edwards
looks like he could be a big brother to Jim Edwards’ son). President Jones’ message was basically the
same as last time: “We are a Preach My
Gospel Mission and our focus is to baptize and retain.”
Tuesday: The mission office parking lot was humming as
we drove up. The “transfer van” and
trailer were being loaded and missionaries were everywhere. Transfer day is a fun day to be a part of and
to see up close the interactions between the missionaries. We were able to send new desks to Gallup,
Chinle, and St. Michaels with elders going to those locations. We were just getting used to knowing who was
where, now we get to start all over again!
During the afternoon we spent some time preparing for another little
road trip.
Wednesday: We left Farmington at 7:30 am headed south to
Crownpoint. On our first visit to the
elders there we were rather dismayed with what we found (lots of grease and
grime). We spent time scrubbing the
stove and kitchen WITH THEM. We promised
we could be back to fix their broken couch frame so took supplies to accomplish
that task. This time as we walked in the
door the place looked well cared for and clean.
The stove was clean, the refrigerator and microwave were clean, their
dishes were done and put away! I took
the elders some fresh cookie dough to bake in their clean oven! The Redmonds, the senior couple who live next
to the elders, took us all to lunch. The Navajo Technical College there in
Crownpoint have an impressive culinary arts program and serve meals at noon
which are prepared by their students.
The meal was tasty and there were several dishes to choose from. After
the couch was fixed we headed south to Thoreau.
We had never
been inside the Thoreau trailer before.
The elders were there for a few minutes before they had to leave for an
appointment so we visited a little with them and then promised to lock up their
trailer when we left. We stayed there
for a couple of hours scrubbing their stove (which had been cooking fry bread
for many weeks – we even found some uncooked fry bread dough in the
refrigerator!). The floor in front of
the stove had a thick layer of grease as well that required an SOS pad to
remove it. While scrubbing I kept
thinking: “Fry bread, fry bread, Oh so
greasy – we beat your team really easy!”
We definitely left that place BTIW.
We arrived back in Farmington around 8 pm feeling well rewarded for our
day’s efforts. It was a fun outing!
Thursday: Our devotional theme was charity from Moroni 7:45 and 10:21. We worked on updating
our record keeping and reports by changing new companionships etc. We also cleaned out our car to get ready for
another road trip (restocked cleaning supplies, etc).
Friday: We left Farmington at 8:30 am headed north to
Durango. We caught the elders there in
the parking lot just leaving for an appointment (they knew we were coming!) They let us in their apartment and left us
there to do our inspection. From there
we drove to the Durango sisters’ apartment which is clear across town. It was fun to visit Sisters Kesler and
Dillman again. They live in a small studio apartment and it was clean and tidy! When I called the day before to ask what we
could bring them, their text back said HUGS!
We stopped at
Dolores to visit Sisters Kidd and Nay.
They live out in the country in an upstairs apt. above a member family’s
barn. It is cozy and cute and was tidy
and clean. We invited them to join us in
Cortez with the elders for lunch. Elders
Smith and Wilkinson are bicycle elders (NO TRUCK) so we picked them up and met
the sisters at “Pepperhead.”
Elders Chapple and Grisham, the Cortez Zone leaders, were
out for the day so we didn’t see them, but they left their door unlocked so we
could check out their place.
We arrived in
Monticello in time to check in to our motel and freshen up a bit before heading
to the temple for the 5 pm session. We
enjoyed the peace and beauty of that little temple – we always like to go some
time during the week of our anniversary so this fit the bill perfectly! After the temple session we visited Sisters
Wise and Kost who serve the entire Monticello area. We looked on their area map and it is HUGE –
goes to the outer city limits of Moab, over to Dove Creek, almost to Blanding,
and west up and over the mountain.
Saturday: We weren’t in any hurry as we drove south to
Monticello. We met some folks from
England at our motel who just hit a deer 5 miles south of town. Sure enough, we saw four deer at the side of
the road who had been hit recently. We
had to come to a complete stop and honk our horn to get one to move out our lane
of traffic. We knocked on Elders Christensen
and Coesens’ door in Blanding at 8 am and they were ready for us. They didn’t have a workable vacuum so we
traded theirs out for an almost new one that works. Two other sets of elders live in Blanding in
the home of an older member lady. Elders
Sharp and Miller are assigned to the Bluff/Montezuma Creek area and have to
drive quite a distance every day to fill their assignment. So far, nothing has worked out for them to be
able to live down in that area. Elders
Seals and Openshaw work in Blanding.
After
visiting the missionaries in Blanding, we headed south and as we passed the
Montezuma Creek chapel we noticed a couple of cars in the parking lot. We
stopped and found the door open so walked in and met President Hansen, the
branch president and also his high priest group leader. It was a providential visit as we were able
to discuss possibilities of finding the elders a place to live there. Hopefully something will work out there soon!
We drove
across the 4-corners area and stopped by the chapel at Teec Nos Pos – there was
a truck parked next to the trailer there, but the gate was locked. Dennis
walked around and found a place where he could climb over and then went over
and knocked on their door. One of the
elders came and unlocked the gate and I drove on in. and we visited Elders
Iversen and Nelson there. Next we stopped
in Shiprock to visit the McBrides, the
new couple who just moved in this a couple of weeks ago. We
didn’t find a family connection.
After we got
back to Farmington we had a little nap and then went to the Kirtland Stake
Saturday evening session of stake conference.
It was a REALLY good meeting.
Sunday: This morning I was sitting here at the
computer and had the blinds open and noticed two deer out in George’s garden
enjoying his green beans that have struggled to come up. I went out in my pajamas and chased them off
two different times.
Kirtland Stake
conference was inspiring and uplifting.
The visitors were President and Sister Redhair from the NM Farmington
Mission (live in Page), and President and Sister Hine of the Albuquerque Temple. This evening we plan to attend a special
fireside in Kirtland for Native Americans.
Sister Blue Eyes said she would like to go with us. Elder Tad Callister
has been visiting different areas of our mission this weekend and he is
supposed to speak at this fireside.
No comments:
Post a Comment