Yesterday we had ward conference, which in our ward apparently means a 2 hour sacrament meeting and we still have the last hour to squeeze in whatever we can. I have 2 callings that mean I am busy all during church! I am the sacrament meeting pianist (3rd time having this calling...and I still don't like it...) and primary music leader. Primary sounded intimidating because I'm used to wards having a junior and senior primary and each having about 40 kids. But this ward combines junior and senior, and they still only have about 7 kids show up, and it's usually different kids each week because most people in our ward only attend about once a month. But I like that it's not a lot of pressure and I can just get up and sing and have fun!
Well yesterday we had the stake presidency speak, and the 1st counselor had, I thought, some very interesting things to say! He is a white man, but he opened up his talk by speaking Navajo very fluently. I was surprised because usually you only hear the Natives speak the language. But the mystery was quickly solved when he switched back to English and said that back in the 70's, he had gone on his mission to this area. And what a different mission it must have been!
He said he spent a little time at a place called Navajo Mountain (pretty close to us). He said that we may think it's isolated now, but back then was even worse. It was all dirt roads and they didn't have any cars, so they had to hitchhike or walk wherever they needed to go. They're "apartment" was really just a room at the back of the health clinic in the main part of town. It was only them and they didn't have any phones at all to contact the outside world. And going tracting sounded like quite an adventure! He said that to go tracting, they would pack up their sleeping bags and backpacks, and hike out to wherever they needed to go and spend the night camping and then head off to the next place. They would be gone from their apartment for days at a time. After having lived here, I could see that! You can see houses so far off the road and so spread apart, that if you didn't have a car you really would have to camp out to visit them.
Well he said one week they left their apartment to go visit some people. They were gone for a few days and when they got back the Mission President's assistant was there waiting for them. He said they couldn't get a hold of him (no phone) and they didn't know where he was (out camping) and that he had been transferred the previous week! It really is a different place here. I've learned a lot about this culture, but at the same time I feel like I still don't know much. I can definitely say, though, that this will be a time that I won't ever forget!
1 comment:
That was such an interesting story! I think I would actually like to serve that kind of mission. Abby, I think you and I are just going to have to accept the fact that we will always have a music related calling (or two!)! :)
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