Ridiculous Weather

3/27/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh'  everyone!  So this week has been excellent!  We walked a ton, because we have a certain amount of miles we are supposed to stay under for each month, and so we were trying to stay under,but since we had to go out to Red Lake we kinda went over, so oh well, we are going to do better on that.  But my legs are tired, haha, and I am tired as well.

Monday was pretty fun. We went to Kayenta and played football for quite a while. I kinda got sunburned a little, and on top of that a little bit of turf burn that covered my right leg, but I enjoyed it anyway!

So the weather here lately has been in like the mid 70's so it has been kinda hot. On Thursday we picked up Elder Richardson for exchanges, and were walking around to teach people, in the sketchy upper NHA, and it had kinda been sprinkling on and off since we got out of district meeting.  We stopped at one of our part member family's house, to see if we could teach them. We didn't actually teach them a lesson, we just kinda talked with them for a bit waiting for the sky to clear up.  Well it cleared up, and so we were headed to leave to an appointment we had, and then it started hailing...

So that is me and Elder Richardson (he is from Brigham City by the way).  Those fancy cool umbrellas we are holding are the part member family's that we were just at. They lent them to us while we were out walking, and I got the cooler of the two, the zebra one.  But what is crazy is that the hail only lasted about 10 minutes, and then in another 15 minutes it was sunny like it had never happened.  So that was fun.

Friday we ended up going to the Flea Market. One of the members there had a food booth and he asked us if we could come help him take down his stand when the market closed.  So a little bit about the Flea Market--you can find a lot of things there; they have some of the nicest blankets, they have shirts, hats, shoes, food, jewelry, and a bunch of other stuff.  I got a blanket from one when I was back in Kirtland.  Anyway we went back and helped him, and his dad bought us some nachos and snow cones.  The nachos were probably some of the best nachos I've ever had.  After that we went and changed to teach a lesson to one of our recent convert families, and we ended up playing soccer in our dress clothes with them.  While playing I was trying to get all fancy and I tripped and ate the dirt! Haha, it was quite funny.  Then we went and did more service.

Saturday we found out transfer news. Nothing happened to our trailer, and only two changes happened to our zone, so that is good.

Sunday, we were at Tina's house, and what's special about this is that her husband went to church!  So we were talking to him, because he isn't a member, and Tina wants him to become a member so they can be sealed as a family, and he agreed to start taking the lessons!!  It is so exciting!  Things are going very well out here, and I love it!

Love you all,
Elder Takis

Editor's Note:  I asked for some clarification on a few things he mentions above that you might be wondering as well. I also asked him about Tuba City and the people there. (A little backstory is that I was told that Tuba City straddles two Reservations and is split down the middle with Navajo one half of the city and Hopi the othe. Also that the Navajo half of the city is one time zone, since the Navajo Reservation covers the four corners and three of those states adopt Daylight Savings, and the Hopi half is a different time zone because it goes with Arizona and no Daylight Savings.) Here is Elder Takis's response.

NHA is the Navajo Housing Authority. They are just like housing complexes, owned by the NHA.  It is sketchy because of dogs, haha.

I was told the translation [of Ya'at'teh'] is, "it is good," but I'm not sure if that is true cuz I heard it from another missionary. But it is just the Navajo greeting, and it can mean like all sorts of different greetings. That is why Navajo is so confusing, because words in Navajo don't always translate into words in English. They can either be a phrase, or a concept or something. It is really confusing.

Yes Tuba is half Navajo and half Hopi. We teach some Hopis. If a Navajo and a Hopi were walking side by side, I probably couldn't tell a difference, but you can tell a difference in the way their homes are decorated.  I don't know much of the differences, but I do know there are a few.

Sheep Wrestling

3/20/17 Email:

So this week was a pretty good week. Not much happened though, so I'll just go through the highlights I can remember.

After last week's baptisms we haven't had a whole lot of investigators left to teach. We still have a lot on our teaching list, but it's hard to get in with them and to get them to do a whole lot.  So as a zone we did a fast to help us find new investigators to teach, and this week, Elder Hudak and I have found 5 new investigators!  Some of them come from a family out in Red Lake, and their 13-year-old girl shouted, "Alright, let's learn!" before we started, and that made me happy.  I'm excited to get to know them and teach them.

Umm, 1st Ward had a baptism, so that is good.  We were also helping out with a birthday party and we were there to set up, we grilled all the meat, but it was a pretty good.  We are running short on miles right now too, so we are going to have to do a lot of walking, and that means probably a lot of dog fighting, depending on where we go, haha.

But the reason for the title is we recently went and spent a little bit of time with one of our member families, and they are big into rodeo, roping, and cowboyish stuff. Well, I did a little bit of roping-- I roped Elder Hudak, haha. But then their dad, I think, called me over because he and some other guy were doing stuff with their sheep, and he was like, "Let's see how much of a man you are."  Then he told me to hold this rope, and try not to let the sheep get away, haha, so he let the sheep out and I was holding on and I got it tied around this other trailer like they told me to, so they could tie its legs up and take it off, probably to be butchered.  So that was fun, Elder Hudak thought it was pretty funny watching me try and handle that sheep. It was a pretty big one, and was going pretty crazy, not to mention I was in my dress clothes, haha.  So I'll probably be doing that again sometime soon, which I liked it, and roping was pretty fun, too. I think I could get the hang of it.

But yeah, on a spiritual note, Tina got her temple recommend to do baptisms yesterday, and she is going to start doing family history work to get names to take to the temple.  So that is really exciting!
I am also sick again...  that is really frustrating, but oh well, nothing I can do about it really. I did get a blessing and that instantly helped a lot!

I love you all, keep following the Spirit, and doing what is right.  And Shawn, good luck to you this season, and tell everyone else on the team good luck for me, and that I miss you all and love you all!

Love, Elder Takis

Golden

3/14/17 Email:

This week we had a couple more baptisms. Tina and Dishaundre got baptized and confirmed this past weekend!!!!  It was so exciting, and such a wonderful experience!  Both of them have just been golden. Tina was just on fire the whole time, and has a burning testimony of the gospel, and is really pressing forward to get to the temple.  Dishaundre has to have been the most responsible 11-year-old I have ever met.  He is a very busy kid, goes to 11-year-old scouts, plays basketball, keeps really good grades, and he even sets up his own appointments for our lessons without his parents' help, and he even remembers them and is really engaged in the lessons, and is just a really smart kid.  Here they are...

It was actually a pretty funny baptismal service.  Brother Tano baptized Dishaundre, and with our baptismal font the water doesn't stay warm exactly.  (So Tano is this 75-year-old Hawaiian, that looks like he is like 50, he came here on his mission and hasn't left since, and he is the Superintendent at one of the schools here.  I am going to be like him when I'm that old, he just rocks everything.)  Anyway he gets in the water to do the baptism and he starts making comments and faces about the temperature of the water, and he exaggerates a bit but it was funny.  He had to do the baptism twice because Dishaundre's feet came up out of the water the first time.  I can't remember what he said but Elder Szendre was the other witness with me and he cracked up and blew a snot rocket out of his nose.  After Dishaundre's baptism we were going to do Tina's but when she walked in to her side to get in she disappeared for like a minute, so we are all standing there like, "Umm where is she?"  And to make it even better we had Brother Curley conduct it.

Now Sunday during Sacrament Meeting, Brother Curley was conducting that as well because Bishop was out of town, and there was a sustaining to be done, and he had never done it before, so he was trying to figure it out for like 5 minutes. He had Thomas and his wife stand up, and was like, "Umm are we supposed to do a vote or, uh, I don't know, you all know what to do."  And then he raised his hand and then everyone else followed, and after he said, "Does anyone think differently?"  Haha, it was so funny.  Then we went to  one of the member's house for dinner which was Thomas's baby's first laugh party, that was fun.

Also I got to go and play a little baseball with some of the members here,  One of them is on the high school baseball team, and he knew that I played and was a pitcher so he asked me to pitch to him, and I did. He looked kinda goofy trying to hit it, haha, but it is Spring Break down here so hopefully I'll get to go and play some more baseball with them this week.  But that is about it for the week.  Just remember that a family centered in Jesus Christ is a family that is forever and is happy!

Love y'all,

Elder Takis

Spiritual Things

3/6/17 Email:

So I have been thinking lately and I have come to the conclusion that I haven't sent a whole lot of spiritual things, which I thought was kind of odd for a missionary, so I figured for this email, I will focus on spiritual things.

But first I'd like to talk a little bit of the happenings of the week.  We had Zone Conference this past Wednesday, and it was really good,  Elder Hudak and I gave a training/roleplay on following up with our commitments we give out and it went well.  It was my first Zone Conference, aside from the mission tour, and I was giving a training/roleplay. I don't think that President Adams or the AP's remembered that it was my first cuz they were surprised when I told them that.  In interviews with President he was like, "Wow, really? I forgot about that. Well I hope it was a good experience."  And it was. Everyone told us we did a good job and that they really enjoyed it so I am happy with it even though I was nervous out of my mind.

But anyway, Sunday  was really good. It was a busy day, but aside from partaking of the Sacrament, Sunday School was one of my favorite things about Sunday.  The teacher, Brother Tano,  is just an amazing man and teacher. Everyone loves coming to his class.  One of the things he talked about was commandments, and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ isn't a buffet where we can pick and choose what commandments we will or won't follow, like we pick and choose our food at a buffet.  The gospel is a complete meal, and to get the best and most out of it you have to eat everything, you have to keep all the commandments.  There is a reason that the scriptures say "Keep the Commandments" and not "Keep the easy commandments", or  "Keep the commandments you like, and forget about the ones you don't like."  Heavenly Father knows best, and for us to become the best we can be we have to do ALL He tells us to do, not just some.  So that was a really good lesson.

Now I'd like to talk about a couple of the people we are teaching. The first is an investigator named Tina.  She is a mom of 3 kids, I think, 2 of them are girls, Tiana and Tanaya.  Anyway her two daughters got baptized last November, and around that time she had been searching for something like church to do because she had a belief in God and that He can help her.  So we started teaching her at the beginning of this year, and I haven't seen anyone more ready to receive this gospel than her.  She is just on fire with everything, she gets emotional with her prayers, she gets emotional just talking about certain subjects of the gospel because she knows it's true.  But what truly amazes me about her is that she uses what we teach her and she applies it immediately.  Especially when things get hard.  She has been having a lot of family issues lately, and normally when investigators start experiencing bad things happening while taking the lessons (they think) that it is a sign that they should stop, but not her, she wholeheartedly takes what we teach her and she uses it as much as she can to get through her trials, and that is such an amazing testimony booster to me.  Now she is getting baptized this weekend, and we are so so so excited for her!!

The next person I'd like to talk about is one of the less active/returning members we are teaching, her name is Shandiin.  When I first met her, from the way she appeared, she seemed stressed, unhappy, tired, nervous, and just like there were a lot of other things in her life that she struggled handling.  She told us that when she first started having the missionaries over she just did it to be nice, and she also told us that even though she grew up in church she didn't have a belief in Jesus Christ.  So we have been working with her for a long time, we have been leaving her commitment after commitment, and for the longest time she wouldn't keep her commitments.  Then we had a lesson with her about the importance of the commitments we give her and that they will help and bless her life.  She finally came to the conclusion that she owed it to herself to actually try.  So she started reading the scriptures, she started praying, she started coming back to church.  The change that has come over her since she started doing those things is remarkable.  There is a physical change in her countenance, she looks so calm and relaxed, things seemed to go so much better for her, and she noticed it too, and has seen the difference.  She finally admitted to us that she is happy now.  She is one of my favorite people ever now, and I will never forget the change that I have seen in her.  An experience that she has had was when she took a trip to Reno, Nevada to visit her husband who is out working there, and that is kind of a long drive, and normally her son would have a fit the whole time because of being in the car, but this trip she decided that since she was driving she would listen to the scriptures instead. She doesn't remember anything she listened to but she did notice that her son was quiet and wasn't throwing a fit the whole drive.  

I am so blessed to be here to be a part of their lives and to be able to help them change their lives to be happier and have more peace and comfort,  I know that that is exactly what this Gospel can do, and I bear you my testimony of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love you all, and try to do everything that Heavenly Father has asked you to do, your lives will be so much better.

Love Elder Takis

Where Justice, Love, and Mercy Meet at Horseshoe Bend

2/27/17 Email:

Hey there Y'all,  

So this week was a bit relaxed. There wasn't a whole lot of people around this week because it is States for basketball here, and when there is a Rez team playing in State, almost everyone on the Rez goes to support.  Basketball is really big out here; we were talking to one of our less actives yesterday and he was telling us that when it comes to States for basketball, they use one of the big arena places in Phoenix, and they make a lot of money when there are Rez teams playing in it cuz everyone comes, and the arena gets packed. But there was one year he remembered that they lost a lot of money because none of the Rez teams were in it, they had got beat out, and so nobody really went to watch.  But anyway States is over so everyone should be getting home this week hopefully.

Monday was a pretty good day. We took Cameron to Page with us to do some shopping at Wally World.  On the way there is a short little hike with an awesome view. It's called Horseshoe Bend, and it's a little chunk of the Grand Canyon, so we stopped there to take pictures and stretch our legs.

Here is Cameron: Elder Rillamas is on the left, and Elder Stott, our District Leader, is on the right. Elder Stott couldn't tie his shoe cuz he figured he would rip his suit if he tried to bend over, haha.

Haha yeah, but here is horseshoe bend...

Now this is where the title comes in...  So I don't know how many of you remember the talk given by Elder Holland where he tells the story of the two brothers who were rock climbing and it turned out to almost be a complete disaster with one of them dying, but they made it safely to the top... Well, we watched the video the Church made of that story earlier, before we left for Page while we were emailing, and we had this crazy idea to try and re-enact  the story while we were at Horseshoe Bend...  Well that was almost disastrous cuz we about lost Elder Rillamas...

Hahahahahaha, I'm just kidding. He is standing on a ledge. We thought it would be pretty funny to have a picture like this so, yeah, he was safe and fine, hahaha.  

That was about the excitement for the week, other than almost having some run-ins with the Red Lake Rez Dog Gang, led by Mojo, the ridiculously ripped pitbull, haha. But here is a nice pic of us at Horseshoe Bend.

Anyway, that's about all I got for this week, I hope you are all doing fantabulous, and that you are all being excellent to each other.  Listen to and follow the Spirit and no matter what happens you can't go wrong.

Love you all,

Elder Takis

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For clarification, you may want to know that "Cameron" is both a town and the nickname the two elders serving in Cameron are known as. So, if Elder Takis says, "We went with Cameron..." he is referring to the elders both serving in the town of Cameron.

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Editor's note:  Here is the video Elder Takis refers to above. Watch it!

Baptisms!!!

2/20/17 Email:

Howdy Y'all,

So this week was a really exciting one. It was the first week of the transfer, and we had 2 Baptisms!! 

We had exchanges over Valentines Day, oh and HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE!!  But yeah, I went to Cameron with Elder Rillamas, he is from Hawaii, and it was really fun.  We went to their Branch Valentine Dinner, and I made garlic bread because Elder Rillamas didn't know how, so they all said I did a good job, but maybe they were just being nice.  But at the dinner, we watched the short version of Johnny Lingo twice, and then played a "how well do you know your partner" game, and that was pretty fun.  

The next day we went and did service at the Senior Center, that was pretty fun. There weren't a whole lot of people there, but there was one lady we chatted with for a bit, then we went back later and cleaned up the place.  We also went and chopped some wood, and last P-day we played football, and we were so sore from that so chopping wood wasn't the easiest, and it didn't help that the wood was wet.  But anyway while chopping Elder Rillamas and I were trying to chop this one piece, and we would take turns to see who could chop it in half. We didn't get it so we just left it, but Elder Rillamas was trying to pull his ax out of the wood, and ended up falling down on his butt, it was pretty hilarious.  But that was all the excitement, other than putting a couple more of our investigators on date for baptism, till Saturday, when Thomas and Amber were baptized!!!!!

Here they are, my companion Elder Hudak is on the right.  It was a really great day, but kinda stressing at the same time because some people were late.  But Thomas' wife gave the talk on baptism, which was really cool. Usually people ask us to give the talks but his wife, Alissia, wanted to do it.  I was so happy, and both of them were just so ready to be baptized.  Thomas, during his interview for baptism, was asked why he wanted to be baptized and he said it was because he wanted to be sealed to his family forever!  That was so wonderful, and that is the goal with everyone here on earth is to be sealed to their family forever, and he really knows that this gospel is true. He would even bear his own testimony during our lessons with him!  It was a real testimony builder for me. The whole day was pretty much, because after the baptism, we got a text from our Stake President, President Justice, and he was at the baptism, asking us to come over to his house later that night, so we were really worried that we did something wrong.  But we didn't and he just talked to us about the goal the Stake has about retaining converts and such, and it was a really good discussion, and we are now going to try to get Thomas, and his wife, and Amber to the temple here in a couple weeks for the Stake Temple Day.  But it was just a really sweet experience.  On Sunday, we got really worried, because our ward starts at 9 am , and nobody showed up till after 9, like there was nobody there on time, so we started late, but thankfully they were both confirmed members of the church!  So I am just really blessed and happy to be here.  

Love you all,
Elder Takis