Dear family and Friends,
Us with President and Sister Gil
A big Ya'ta' eeh from the Navajo Rez. We are still on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we are serving in Ganado, Az. We really love the Navajo people and have made some real dear friends. The members of the branch here are wonderful, and have been supportive and helpful in everything we've done, from sewing, dry pack canning, cleaning up after socials, and even singing in the Christmas and 4th of July programs for sacrament meeting. Testimony meetings are especially inspiring as the members here have wonderful, faith promoting experiences, and insights to share. We love those meetings. We finish our mission in April of 2009 and it will be difficult to say goodby to our branch.
We have also been blessed to rub shoulders with 30 plus seniors missionaries since we came last November. We don't see each other often, but we have had some great socials together, mainly when someone goes home. Here is out "cowboy" chuck wagon summer event.
Last Aug. the Robrechts who served with us in this area went home and so Sister Wilcox and I have had to also assume many of their duties. We have really missed them the past 5 months. We have been so busy that our proselyting time has been greatly reduced. We teach seminary each day after school, organize Yount Perpetual Education meetings, prepare and deliver monthly bulletins and help with enrichment activities and socials. Life is never dull.
My stress reliever has been to put in a little flower garden along our trailer. In October, I helped the Primary kids plant bulbs along the sidewalk and along both trailers. I hope I get to see them bloom before we leave. (Both the kids and the flowers!)
Tashina Salabye, one of our favorite friends was baptized last Sat. We have been blessed to teach several others who joined the church this year. Our next baptism is scheduled for Jan. 09. We've also helped orchestrate two weddings--what fun!
We have two new senior sisters who just arrived last night. What a great Christmas present! Even though we love the young elders, it is great to have mature missionaries to commiserate with from time to time. Sister Dille is a great granddaughter of Jacob Hamblin, and Sister Smith just returned recently from the Perth, Australia and is jumping in again with us in Navajo land. She is from Hawaii.
We had our annual branch Christmas party Friday night and had about 130 in attendance. This is about twice the number we have attend church. We used all the tables and chairs in the building and had people every where, with many little kids sitting on the floor to eat. We had enough food and managed to feed everyone. For Thanksgiving this year we did the big meal with turkeys, dressing and etc. so we decided to try something new and not quite so hectic for Christmas. We did Hawaiian Haystacks. Many of the branch member had never had it before, but I think they enjoyed the meal, and the party was real successful.
The Primary children did the Christmas pageant with songs and costumes, which the primary presidency put together. They did a great job organizing the whole thing The children sang again when a group of Eagle Scouts from Mesa brought presents and oranges for the families of the branch later that night.
Sister Wilcox showed a nice DVD presentation of this past year's activities and I believe it had pictures of most of the branch members. We were able to watch part of it for our Christmas program. She made a copy for each family. We're still in the process of delivering those.
Our newest project is to compile the history of the Ganado Branch and the growth of the LDS church in this area. Many of the Navajos went on the LDS Placement program so she will have a chapter about their experiences. She has requested each family write about their introduction and involvement with the church. She put together a DVD presentation to help give them a jump start. She wants to have this history completed before we go home. Several of the members have already begun, and it is rewarding to see their excitement and they recall past memories.
We hope as the inactive members recall past spiritual experiences with the church, this will help them rekindled their testimonies and will lead to reactivation. She also has solicited the help of our Stake Presidency as well as former missionaries who served in this area. It is a big project, but I believe it will help with the reactivation efforts.
We are still helping at the Senior Citizen center in Ganado and have done crafts a couple of times each month since we came to Ganado. We also help serve at their Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. This last Thanksgiving Sister Wilcox and I served over 200 people with just the help of about 14 jr. high school students. As we go different places in Ganado the people we have met at these activities come us and speak to us. The older folks are so appreciative of the things we do for them. We are just about finished with the Provident Living class we have been teaching for the last eight months. Sister Wilcox did five or six all day sewing workshops earlier this year, and I am still teach two Addiction Recovery classes each week.
In April I was called to be 1st counselor to President White when the branch presidency was reorganized. President White is a fairly new convert to the Church. He is doing a wonderful job, and has excellent people skills, and is attentive to tending the flock. His wife is the granddaughter to Helen Yellowman of Blanding. Sister White is one of those "beautiful" pregnant mothers and should have played Mary in the pageant. Their 3rd child is due in March.
We're been blessed to teach so many wonderful people, and most are still active. Corey, the young man we baptized last April, just received his Patriarcal Blessing and helps bless the sacrament each Sunday. We're helping him jump through the hoops of getting ready to go to CEU/SJC this next semester. We hope he'll have great experiences in Blanding and prepare to go on a mission. He calls us "Mom" and "Dad", so we have a son away from home. We also took him to do youth baptism this summer. We really love his family, and they have helped us many times in our projects. We hope they too will accept the gospel.
Another blessing has been to help prepare three people for temple endowments, and to be there with them when they went to the Snowflake temple. We taught the temple preparation classes also to President White and his wife, and hope they'll be going soon.
The family we hold near and dear:
We really miss spending time with our 18 grandchildren, but we know we are where our Heavenly Father wants us to be. We are excited to hear that we are having two more grandchildren in 2009 (Quent & Andrew). Most of our family has made the effort to visit us in Ganado, so that has some what eased our longing hearts. We are so fortunate to have such good children and think our grandchildren are even better. We love and appreciate each one of them and are glad they are being taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ so well by their parents.
At this time we want to wish each one of you a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. May we always remember our Savior and His atoning sacrifice for us. May we follow His example and show more love and kindness to each other so there will be peace on earth.
With much love and good wishes,
Elder and Sister Wilcox
