Baptisms, Beer Showers, and Bonfires

10/9/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' everyone!

So this week was pretty crazy to say the least...

To start off, Monday we went bowling. We got 3 games with rentals for $10.  I won one of the 3 games. I haven't bowled in a while and you could tell by watching me.

Tuesday, I went on exchanges with Elder McFarland and we did the baptism interview for Brendan.  It went well. He was so nervous and was like shaking the whole time, it was pretty funny.  After that we went to eat at Kendalbens Barbeque with the member who took us out there, Brother Williams. He is so awesome!  But anyway the people that work there know him pretty well, and the waitress knew him probably too well, but she comes out to our table and kinda yells, "Alright, who ordered the tea?!"  Unfortunately for her she had the wrong table, hahaha, so she thought she was catching Brother Williams or one of us drinking tea, but that was for another table. We were laughing so hard!

Wednesday we were out visiting one of our investigators who was on date.  We knocked on his door, nobody answered, so we were getting in the truck to leave and we saw him walk out from behind the house...  He was so wasted.  Turns out a few days prior to our visit, he and his wife got in some argument about finances, and then he started drinking again, so she took the vehicles and all the money and left him.  Over a 3-day span he had drunk like 15 bottles (40 mL each) of stuff that had 10.6% alcohol.  He had a little bit left when we were talking to him and we got him to dump it out and then we got him to throw all the bottles to show Satan who's boss. It was kinda windy, so all the residue from the bottles sprayed me when we threw the bottles, so that's the beer shower.  Later that night we went to a family's house and made some fry bread outside.  It reminded me of being at Mama B's house. I miss those days!

Saturday was insane as well, we had the baptism for Brendan...

That was pretty great!  After that we got called to do some service, which involved a huge bon fire, we were helping clean his yard, and he had a bunch of heavy equipment and tractors making this huge pile of trees and then he threw gas on it, and took a flame thrower to ligh it on fire.  That was freakin cool, it was so big.  We wanted a picture with it but unfortunately it didn't happen so we got a drawing of a picture we should have got...

Fancy right? ;)  Anyway that's all I got for this past week.  Today is gonna get crazy. We are going to be playing ball in Halloween costumes, so we will see if you can figure out which one I am.

Love you all,

Elder Takis

A Most Excellent Week for Cache Valley

10/3/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' Everyone,

So this week was pretty fantastic!  Unfortunately I did not get any pictures though, so my apologies.  But anyway first off last P-Day  we went to Gallup but the gym at the Stake Center was closed so we couldn't play basketball so we went to some softball/football/soccer fields for our activities.  Well Elder Hardman and I played catch for about 45 minutes, and MAN THAT FELT GOOD!!  I was so happy after that.  We also were pitching the blitz ball to each other, and I hit this bomb off of him that would have been like a 200-foot home run if it had stayed fair, and if we were using a real baseball. With a real bat that thing probably would've went upwards of 450+ feet.  Then we played rugby and football.

The work here is going pretty well, we are scheduled to have a baptism this weekend so that will be good for this ward.  Things have been progressing very well.

Another thing that was amazing about this week was that we had General Conference.  I loved all the talks and it is hard for me to pick which was my favorite, so that will have to wait till I decide.  But during the Priesthood session, I was freaking out cuz of the father-son choir from Cache County.  I saw Robert and Leonard Teeters (who I home taught before coming out), Nathan Nielsen, and his dad, a couple of my seminary teachers, Brother Anderson and Brother Dennison, I swear I saw my dentist Dr. Butler, and I saw Tom Galloway, and a couple other people from my stake back home.  I also saw Addy's dad and brother!  It was pretty crazy, since my companion and I were the only ones watching it at the church I would like shout out their names, and how I knew them.  It was crazy, although I am a bit disappointed in the Representation of the Takis Clan, or the lack thereof.  My little brother Ptobias is always talking about how he has a better singing voice than Justin Beiber, and he still hasn't proven it to me.  So I am disappointed.

Other than that it has been stormy all week, tons of rain, lightning, thunder, wind, and hail.  It is getting cold.  The power has been going in and out through the week.  It actually went out while we watched General Conference, so we missed like 5 minutes of a talk, I can't remember which one it was but that was lame. 

Anyway Love you all,
Elder Takis

Hunting Down Kittens in an Old RV Filled with Humble Pie

9/25/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh'  Everyone,

So to start off, umm, well, last week I was talking some mad trash...  Anyway while golfing last Monday, the 3 of us who were competing were all neck and neck after hole 7.  We only did 9 cuz of time.  But anyway at the end of hole 7 I had this blister on my thumb that made it really difficult to swing the club. Actually it got to the point where I just couldn't hold on to the club very well, so the last 2 holes I got down 7 strokes to both of them and lost...  I'm not making any excuses but that's just what happened.  So that was the humble pie.

We had Zone Conference on Wednesday, and that was really amazing. It is going to change me a whole lot more than I already have changed.

The rest of the week was kinda slow, cuz nobody really wanted to let us in and almost all of our appointments fell through.  But on Saturday we were doing service for one of the less actives we have been working with.  He has this RV/trailer thing in his yard that he has been meaning to fix, but he needed it moved.  It has been there a long time.  So he got in his truck and told me to get in the RV/trailer to steer it while he pulled it out.  So I got in there and looked back and there was this sketchy lookin' cat right there, and it started hissing at me.  At this point the man had already started to pull it out, so I couldn't get out of there.  So in my head I was thinking, "Oh Crap, this mama cat is about to go ham on me!"  cuz she  had a bunch of kittens in there.  Well she actually just ran out of a hole that was in the RV/trailer and left the kittens.  So we got it situated and I got out and told the member, "You got a nice family of cats in there,"  and he was like, "There are cats in there?!"  Well long story short we went hunting for the kittens to get them out, but we couldn't find them.  That thing stunk pretty bad, too...

Another funny experience was when we were out tracting, and this lady opened the door and went to slam it on us, but her dog got in the way and it ran out.  So she was like, "Are you kidding me?" and picked up the dog and threw it in the house and then continued to slam the door on us.  haha talk about a fail.

So that was the excitement for the week. All of the pictures taken golfing were taken on Elder McFarland's camera.  So sorry about that, I had to focus on my  game (not that I won).


Love Y'all,
Elder Takis

Bat Stakes

9/18/17 Email:


Ya'at'teh' everyone!


So not a whole lot happened this week either.  Monday after emailing, we went and played basketball and stuff in Gallup.  Elder Hardman brought a Blitz Ball, and we messed around with that for a bit, and played Monkey in the Middle with his trainee.  He is going to bring a Wiffle ball bat next Monday so we can play a game with it, and we will probably play actual catch with gloves and a baseball.  I'm excited. 

Today we are going golfing. We have been having some trash talking going on and I am going to beat everyone and they will all bow down when their beatdown happens... Just kidding, although I am going to win.  So this will be fun :) 

Also I am having a workout competition with Elder Vickery and so I am going to get huge.  It's a win-win scenario for me cuz I told our Bishop that I would arm wrestle him at the end of this transfer.  Our Bishop likes to arm wrestle and did a bunch of competitions and tournaments so he is the real deal and hasn't lost to any missionary yet.  So it's time for him to be humbled.  Man, I'm talkin' so much trash right now, haha! I'll calm down next week.  But anyway things are pretty exciting right now. 

Oh I almost forgot a picture for Steve!

So we were walking in to the church on Thursday for District Meeting and we found a bat by the door!  We thought he was dead but he wasn't.  Then on Saturday we were walking to the church for interviews with President Adams and he was still there. We thought he had to be dead cuz he hadn't moved, but he was still breathing.  I was going to check again today but I forgot, so Idk if he is still there.

Love you all,

Elder Takis

Stinky Richard

9/11/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' everyone,

So this week a few crazy things happened, but some of them will have to wait till I get home, haha.  But one of the crazy things was I went on exchanges with Elder McFarland to Crownpoint, and there was this cat that had been hanging around their trailer.  They nicknamed this cat Stinky Richard. This thing looked like and smelled like a zombie.  It was the grossest and saddest looking cat I have ever seen and it really did stink to high heaven.  There were constantly flies on it, and it was so thin.  Well when we woke up the next morning it was dead, and so we were kind of examining it and what we found was absolutely disgusting.  It had a hole bigger than my fist in its stomach, you could see everything inside of it, and I'm pretty sure it was rotting, so we think it might have gotten bit by something but man that was gross.  I should have taken a picture of it for Steve but I was going to throw up if I looked at it any longer, so I just didn't bother.  Sorry, Steve!

We are seeing some progress with the area. We have 5 people on date for baptism and we had 3 investigators come to church!  So things are progressing, slowly but surely.  Somehow word got to our Bishop that I was pretty strong, and so he wants to arm wrestle.  He likes to arm wrestle all the missionaries cuz he did arm wrestling a lot and went to competitions and tournaments and everything.  I am probably stronger than him, but he has the technique so I am screwed.  But I said we would do it at the end of this transfer.  Oh, that was another thing, we got transfer news on Saturday and we are staying the same. 

Hopefully Elder Hardman remembered his gloves, too, so we can play some catch today.  That's about it for this week.

Love you all,

Elder Takis

Bashin' Bogeys at 10 Months

9/5/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' Everyone,

So I have been out for 10 months now, and it is pretty crazy, cuz I don't know where all that time went.


Anyway, not a whole lot to tell from this past week, everything exciting that happened managed to happen yesterday.  Which I also need to apologize for not emailing yesterday.  Everywhere we email here was closed cuz it was Labor Day.  But anyway to start off I am going to give a shout out to Steve Pond  cuz he enjoys all my weird pictures that don't have a whole lot of meaning and here is another one for ya.  I had to retire a pair of shoes cuz of some holes...

Another thing that was kinda exciting is that yesterday morning we took some time out of our P-Day to do some service and it was for the parents of a convert here.  They are members of the Church of Christ, and they aren't too happy with their daughter for joining our church. Not only that but their daughter is going to serve a mission in Orem, UT.  Anyway they said they could use some help painting their house.  Well we had a good conversation to start off, but then the mother wanted to talk about religion and stuff.  So we started talking and the conversation got to the temple, and not long after that she started asking me questions about the Bible and stuff like she wanted to Bible Bash.  Well too bad for her, cuz really don't know much about the Bible so instead of a Bible Bash it was her pummeling me with the Bible, and I couldn't say anything cuz I didn't know.  So I wish I would have payed a bit more attention in Seminary, haha.

Umm yesterday Elder McFarland, Elder Vickery and myself went golfing together, cuz our trainees didn't really want to go so we left them at the church to do whatever, so it was like a mini exchange.  It was so much fun, and I was actually pleased with how well I did, given the fact that it has been over a year since I last went.  We only got in 5 holes though cuz of time, but I was in the lead by 7 strokes!!  Elder McFarland wants a rematch cuz he didn't get the full 9 holes and he was just getting warmed up...  Here are some pics...

Elder Vickery in front, Elder Mcfarland in the white shirt,
and I am the little dot in between them

Flash at the Tee
(me)

Mcfarland's hole in one pose

That's about it for now folks

Love y'all,

Elder Takis

​

Dinner with the Nielsons

Elder Takis's mom, the blog editor here.

Stephanie Nielson posted a snapshot of dinner with the missionaries on Instagram which included Elder Takis:

This was an interesting and exciting surprise.  Once upon a time, I read a LOT of Stephanie's blog (NieNieDialouges) and was touched by her story.  I shared the Nielson's story with my kids during a family morning devotional one day and it really stuck with the older kids. After a while I stopped reading the blog, though, and I had no idea that the Nielson family had moved from Utah to New Mexico. It was such a surprise to hear from Elder Takis in a letter he sent home that the Nielson's were in the stake he was serving in and that he'd been to their home for dinner. He told me to look on Instagram for the photo. I'm so glad he got to meet them.

Below is a Mormon Message video the Church made with the Nielson family. They are inspiring people.

Excuses Don't Work With Cops

8/28/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' everyone!

Wow what a week...

Ok so I didn't get to play catch with Elder Hardman cuz he forgot his gloves so that was a bummer, but we played a lot of basketball and still had a good time.  I told him to write it down for next time so he won't forget.  We did have dinner with Christian and Stephanie Nielson and their family, that was a lot of fun, and they are great cooks!

I am getting a little frustrated with some of our investigators, and on Wednesday ( I was on exchanges, and had our district leader's companion with me) we went to their house.  I get along really well with everyone in the family, and the father has a desire to learn and do things, but his wife  is just struggling with having that desire and keeping her commitments.  We have been working on getting them to come to church for a while now.  So on Wednesday when we went over there, we were just talking to her cuz her husband wasn't home, and I asked if she would come to church, and then she started listing off all these excuses... I hate excuses, so this is what I told her when she was done giving them... "  You know, I heard once that excuses are like buttholes.  Everyone has one, and they stink."  I straight up said that.  We had a good laugh about it and the look on her face was pretty priceless. She was not expecting that, but there were no hard feelings or anything.  Well after I said that I asked her again, and then she was like, "Honestly, no."  Oh, man, I got so sad.  So we were leaving and she had to go pick someone up and she had to drive by our truck so I wasn't going to get in until she stopped her truck to talk.  So I stood there and gave the best sad face I could, and it got to her, so she stopped to talk again.  Long story short I got her to commit to come to just Sacrament Meeting.  Unfortunately she still didn't come, so I'm gonna have to come up with something else to tell her now.

On Saturday morning, at 5:00 AM,  a couple of cops rolled up flashing their lights and banging on our door...  One asked if we were the missionaries, and we told them yes, and then they asked if we had been driving on a back road the day earlier.  I said yes, and then he told us that he was going to give us a ticket because I was driving 20 mph over the speed limit.  I tried telling them that we had an emergency and all that jazz, but he wouldn't hear it and bumped up the ticket even more...  I then asked him why he didn't give me the ticket they day of, and he said because they lost us.  HAHAHAHA I'm just kidding! The only part of that story that is true is that they came at 5:00 in the morning, with their lights and banging on the door.  They said they had gotten a call and that it was connected with the church, and they wanted to inspect the building, and look for a phone.  So we let them in and let them do their business.  The weird thing is that the number that called them wasn't the number for the church, so they said they would just patrol around for a few days or so.

Later that day we were helping some members with some moving and we didn't have our truck, so we were going back and forth between houses walking.  Well one of the members had this buggy thing, and so he offered a ride.  Well you betcha we took him up on that offer.  The only problem was that it had rained earlier that day and so there were puddles and this member liked to get dirty...  So he hit a puddle and me and my companion are in our shirts and ties and what not, and we got sprayed with mud.  That was so much fun!!  But then we were wearing dirty clothes the rest of the day.

Well that's the excitement for this week, my spiritual message went along with the excuses, because they are never good, and would we ever have something between us and returning to live with our Father in Heaven?

Love y'all,
Elder Takis

Master Mouse

8/21/17

Ya'at'teh' everyone,

So this week was pretty good, we had Zone Conference, and we did a lot of service, most of which was painting.  Not a whole lot to talk about, but we finally caught the devil mouse in our house!

As you can see the trap barely got his nose.  This little stinker was smart...  we had 3 traps out, one had poison in it, and he didn't go for that one.  Then we had 2 other traps and this mouse had gotten all the bait off of both of them, so we put a fruit snack on this one that way it wasn't easy for him to get it off.  He is fast and smart and we have been trying to get him for a while. He is pretty big, too.  But he almost got away from this one cuz the trap barely got his nose.  So that was exciting.

Umm today we will be in Gallup, and I told Elder Hardman to bring his gloves so we can play catch so hopefully that will happen.  I will have Elder Cox take pics.  

Spiritual thought is a poem by William Ernest Hendley...

Out of the night that covers me

Black is the pit from pole to pole

I thank whatever gods may be

for my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud

under the bludgeonings of chance

my head is bloody but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade

Yet the menace of the years 

Finds, and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how straight the gate

How charged with punishments the scroll

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul

I really like this poem because it really illustrates how it doesn't matter what is going on around us, what happens to us, or what other people do to us.  We are the ones who are responsible for how we come out of it all, we are the ones who make the choices to determine where our souls will end up.  We cannot blame others or the circumstance for what we choose (#AntiFaithList).  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

I hope you all have a good week, love you!

Elder Takis

Week 2

8/14/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' everyone,

So this week I don't have a whole lot to report on.  It has been slow lately with everyone starting school and doing school shopping and all that.  So not a whole lot happened.

Umm on Thursday President and Sister Adams came to do interviews with our district, so our area got triple worked, which was good, we found some new people to teach.  Um but when it was Elder Cox's and my turn for interviews, President asked me about my haircut and if it was my baseball cut...  haha boy was he surprised when I told him what my hair was like during baseball season.  He isn't overly fond of that type of stuff, and I am pretty sure he is going to try and talk me out of the whole bleached, curly mohawk before he is done with his mission.  So we will see how that goes haha.

Umm another thing is that we did some painting for one of our members, and I really enjoyed that. Brought back home re-modeling memories.  But I loved it and got a bit OCD but it looks good haha.

My spiritual thought comes from 1 Nephi 2:16  when Nephi prays to the Lord to have comfort and to be able to believe the things his father is saying and doing.  Laman and Lemuel were murmuring and didn't care to ask Heavenly father if it was right so they never had a good attitude about it.  Nephi on the other hand, still had to ask Heavenly Father if it was right, because I am sure there were some challenging things for him to leave behind but because he didn't complain and looked to the Lord for guidance he was blessed, and he became so much more than Laman and Lemuel.  So that was my thought, hopefully it made sense.

Anyway, Love you all!


Elder Takis

My Son Got Kissed!

8/7/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' Everyone,

So I'll just start off with this cuz it is hilarious. Well, I thought it was at least.  I'll talk about my son in a minute.  But anyway so it happened a couple of days ago, and we were out trying to see some of our investigators who are on date for baptism.  We had a little bit of extra time so we went to talk to some people we had previously met out in Smith Lake.  So we get there and then this girl who was maybe about 13 came up to us and told us that everyone was intoxicated.  So we were just like well, let's talk to some of them anyway.  So one of them, (and Elder Henderson, it was Calvin Cleveland) umm he wanted to talk to us and he was talking about golfing and bull riding, and then showed us some pictures and what not.  But I wanted to leave 2 minutes after the conversation started.  So we were trying to leave and people do crazy things when they are drunk, so Calvin was like being all friendly and wanted to do a bro hug and stuff.  But to my companion he got a little too friendly, and kissed his hand!! hahaha that was so funny! my companion was just disgusted, and I was like "haha that's your first Galani experience!"  ( I don't know if I spelled that right)

But anyway so my son (trainee), his name is Elder Cox, and he is from Missouri.  Everyone out here is like all excited cuz it is someone that isn't from Utah or Idaho.  Cuz I guess us Utahans and Idahoans aren't that great.  But it's been good. He is a really great missionary, and I feel honored to be training him (he doesn't need a whole lot of training, he is a stud).  But here he is...

Oh and another thing... Do y'all see that dashing haircut I have?  Yeah I did that! :)  I picked that up from Hudak!  Love you buddy!  But yeah that was about all the excitement for the week, but for a spiritual thought...

This comes from either Mosiah chapter 3 or 4 ( it is one of the first few chapters in Mosiah), and it is when King Benjamin is giving his address to his people.  He talks about how we are all in debt to Heavenly Father for everything he has given us and everything he has already done for us.  But he says that we will never be able to repay that debt because even when when do what Heavenly Father asks, He just gives us more.  I don't think that Heavenly Father wants us to repay the debt, because he knows we can't but he loves us so much that He is willing to give us so much more for doing what He asks us to do even when the things he asks us to do are small compared to the blessings He will give us in return, and I know that to be true, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope y'all have a great week!

Love Elder Takis

​

It's a Boy!

7/31/17 Email:

Ok so last week I forgot to tell you that this it was going to be transfers this weekend.  So yeah, Saturday afternoon I got a call from President Adams and he asked me to be a trainer.  This is going to be a crazy transfer, cuz everyone is training in our zone.   Some cool facts other than that about this transfer, my MTC companion, Elder McFarland is going to be my district leader! I love that man!  And there is another elder who will be in our zone, Elder Hardman, who played baseball for American Fork, so I am excited to get to know him as well.  So those are just some interesting facts about this new transfer.I am staying here in Thoreau, by the way.

SO some exciting events that happened this week...

Monday after playing basketball in Gallup, which by the way is probably more of a workout than the rest of the week combined, we got back to our trailer and like 15 minutes later a huge storm came in... Here are some pics that I got.

 

So yeah, the rain was ridiculous, but I loved it, not to mention the thunder and lightning.  But we had to go over to Crownpoint for some baptism interviews, and when we went out to the truck, which was like 30 minutes after we got back, it was still pouring, and because our trailer is at the lowest spot on the church property there was like a lake around us.  We were pretty much on a trailerboat.  But anyway so there was a decent amount of standing water around us and we had to walk through it to get to our truck.  Well when we got back we found that our roof had a leak, so our ceiling was collapsing...

Anyway after that nothing too crazy happened. Elder Henderson got his departing interview, and we have done a lot of walking, and have gotten soaked a fair number of times from the rain.

But yesterday was an adventure...  So it started off good, went to church did that whole thing, then we went with Elder and Sister Stubbs for lunch, then our second counselor Brother Lawrence took us out again.  Well we stopped by his place to load a few things up and that's when another storm hit.  Well he had a trailer on his van, and we were trying to go visit some people up these pretty nasty dirt roads. Well with the trailer and all he couldn't make it up the hills.  So we had to take it off in the middle of a storm on a muddy hill.  We put it back on the first time, and we almost rammed it into the back of his van cuz it was hard to control on a muddy hill, but we managed it the first time with no damage.  the second time, he thought he could  take it off by himself, and told us to stay in the car.  Well long story short, he lost control and it pinned him down.  Luckily he didn't get hurt, but we ran out and helped  him, and then we all put it back on.  So that was the excitement for this week.  

Spiritual message comes from Alma 5:14 when Alme the Younger asks "Have ye received his image in your countenances?"  I really like this because it gets us to really ponder our lives and to ask ourselves, "When others look at me, do they see Jesus Christ?  Do they see someone who radiates the Light of Christ? Do they see someone who is really trying to follow the Savior?"  SO I would just encourage you all to think about that and then to make a commitment to do what is needed so that they can see that.

Love you all, and hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Takis

America's Finest

7/24/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh everyone!

This past week was pretty chill.  Like I said last week, I went on a couple of more exchanges this week, and they were amazing!  So I wasn't in my area for a good amount of the week, but I got to meet some new people, and that was fun.  It has rained about every day for the past week.  It isn't constant rain, it is like once a day, and isn't very long, but monsoon season is starting up so this will be exciting, I love storms!

Anyway, not much else happened this week.  But on Sunday we went and had a weenie roast with one of the less-actives we are teaching.  She is a single mom, a firefighter, and her daughter is pretty stinkin' funny.  But anyway while we were having our roast, it started raining.  Anyway, we were having this roast in the rain, and she gets a call on her radio about a fire, so she quick threw her firefighters uniform on, and since she lives right next to the fire station she started walking over there to get the truck.  Well she had a stereo playing hymns, and while she was walking away "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was playing, and I was just like, how appropriate, the only thing that could have made it better was an explosion.  So #Lit.  Yeah I've never seen stuff like that in action, I was impressed.

Anyway that's about all I have for this week other than I think I broke my left big toe during exercises, haha, but oh well.  Anyway, I love you all, and hope you have a good week!

Love 

Elder Takis 

Bad Social Skills

7/17/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh everyone!

So this week has been really crazy and interesting.

I ended up going on 2 exchanges this week, so I was pretty much out of my area as long as I was in it this week, and I will be doing the same thing this coming week.  One of the exchanges was with the Zone Leaders.  It was really fun, and I enjoyed every second of it. My Zone Leaders are amazing!  We taught this one 9-year-old girl named Riley, and she was really smart.  I really enjoy teaching kids, it is so much fun!  But the funniest part of that whole exchange was when we were in bed.  It was pretty hot and we couldn't get to sleep, so we just quoted movies till we fell asleep.  We pretty much quoted all of Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, most of Hot Rod, and a little of Shrek.  Man I haven't laughed that much in a while!

Oh and last P-Day, when we played softball, we actually did a lot of things. We played volleyball, basketball, and baseball.  When we played baseball I batted lefty cuz I can't hit the slow loopy stuff right handed.  And for some odd reason everyone parked their trucks behind the right field fence.  Yeah, I almost drilled our truck, haha  But it  felt so good to hit a baseball again! I really got into this one and it went about 200 feet over the fence, across the road, and hit a van that was driving by, haha. That felt so good!

But about the title: a lot of the people we meet around here lately have not had any social skills...  Like you thought I was bad?  I have improved a lot, but some of these people take it to a whole new level.  Anyway we did meet this one really nice family and they were very sincere, had questions, and wanted to learn.  So we are hoping to see miracles with them.  Well that is about all for this week.

Love you all,

Elder Takis

Finding Feces on the Fourth

7/10/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' everyone!

Happy Independence Day!!!

Alright so last Monday, after emailing, we ended up getting lost again only in Gallup.  Then we played some basketball, which was pretty fun.

Now on Tuesday, the 4th,  it was a bit different for me than what I am used to normally doing on the fourth of July.  In the morning (this is where the title comes in)  we went over to our senior couple's place to do service for them.  Well we moved firewood, and fixed up their fence.  Then they told us that we needed to dig up their septic tank, because they needed it cleaned out or something, and when the person who was supposed to do it came out he said he couldn't find it.  So it was our job to locate their septic tank.  So we had to dig around and uncover it.  We eventually did, and it wasn't smellin' too great, but turns out they  needed some work done on it because there was some damage done by some rocks that were on top of it.  Then later we went to a family party for dinner, and we only saw about 5 minutes of fireworks before we had to head home.

Wednesday I was on Exchanges with Elder Adams, who has only been out for 3 weeks. He is being trained by our Zone Leaders.  It was fun, we did some service for this lady named Stanna, who is part Irish. We helped her with her garden, which I enjoyed.

Later in the week, I can't remember which day, we were headed home because it was time for curfew, and we got stopped by this group of drunks.  You can usually tell when they are drunks, because the Spirit just like completely disappears. Anyway they come out and they want to talk and they stop us, because we were walking. One of them looked like a shorter, older, meaner, native version of Jamie Fox, and he was getting all up in my face and cussin' up a storm and saying all sorts of stuff that was absolutely crazy, and like the spit is just flying from this guy and hitting me when he talks.  Anyway we tried to leave several times but they wouldn't let us, and the one that was in my face just seemed to get more mad by the second, and I was like, oh boy, something's about to go down! But luckily nothing did, and we were able to make it out of there. They did force a hug on us though, which was weird, but oh well.

Then another time we were talking to this other guy, who has some crazy beliefs. His name is Richard.  He just went on and on about giants, and about how we haven't made it to the moon because the sky is glass, and that the sun isn't very far away, and how the flood happened because we are in a bowl and God just opened up the glass bowl in the sky to flood the earth.  I was just trying so hard to not laugh.  Like he really believed everything he was saying, and I almost started laughing. But I shouldn't laugh. Anyway that was interesting.

That was about it for this week.  We are going to go play a softball game later today though, and I am beyond excited!!!!!  Like People coming closer to and following Jesus Christ is the most exciting thing, and baseball is second to that, but softball is a close third for me right now! :)

Love you all,
Elder Takis

Flat Tires

7/3/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' everyone,

So first off there are a couple of things that I forgot to mention about last week that are kinda funny, and I don't know how I forgot about them but here they are.  So the day after we got to our area we got up and went out on a run.  When we came back we realized that we had locked ourselves out of our trailer...  The Elders before us were supposed to leave a key to the trailer behind but there wasn't one, so we spent like half the morning trying to get back in.  We went to the Post Office and borrowed their phone, and tried calling some people, but that didn't work. We walked to one of the member's houses, Brother Eby, who has a key to the trailer, but he wasn't home.  What is also funny is that while we were out we got lost trying to find Brother Eby's trailer, so we walked to this group of people to ask where he lives.  Well one of the people was this really rude lady, maybe she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I don't know, but she was threatening us and stuff while one of the other guys was being nice and giving us directions, so that was fun.  But we eventually found his house, and he wasn't home, so we went back, and long story short we managed to get in.


Now this week.  Not much happened on Monday and Tuesday, but Tuesday night we found out that our tire had been losing air for some time, and almost got completely flat.  So we went and filled it up.  The next morning we had to go to Gallup for Zone Conference, and we were supposed to take our truck in to get it fixed before Zone Conference, but that didn't happen because we were late to Zone Conference.  But after Zone Conference we walked out to the truck and were going to take it in, but the tire was completely flat.  Now the only people around are missionaries in their suits and what not.  So nobody really wanted to change the tire.  So I did it because I really didn't care if I got dirty or not, my suit pants needed cleaned anyway.  So here are a couple pictures of changing the tire...

As you can see I am pretty dirty, haha, but I love it.  It was also really hot too, and I have some burn marks on my arms from touching the pavement, haha. Whoopie!

Friday we went out to try and find someone, got lost (again), and ended up running into this guy named Paul.  He is 18 and lives by himself, and is a pretty cool guy. Apparently we saved him from some drunks, because when we pulled up they left, haha.

Then Saturday we were out doing some service, and I was pulling weeds while a member was mowing, and out of the blue I got smoked by a rock!  It came from the lawn mower, and that sucker hurt.  Luckily it didn't break the skin but it did leave a nice mark.

Other than that I tried an interesting combination of food that wasn't half bad.  Pork Chops with applesauce.

Love you all, 

Elder Takis

Dr. Strange

6/26/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' Everyone,

So, umm, this week here in my new area, Red Cliffs, things have been very crazy, and interesting.  I really can't think of an adjective to describe it, so I will just start from the beginning.

Tuesday Elder Huff and I drove to Holbrook, AZ which was about a 2 hour drive from Tuba.  Elder Huff said he knew which way to go, so I trusted his judgement.  Well about an hour in we got lost, but after driving around for a few minutes we finally got back on the right road and made it to Holbrook.  Well we arrived about an hour and a half before the transfer van, so we just chilled at the church for a while until they showed up.  Then we separated and stuff and we took another 2 hour drive over to Gallup.  When we got there, we had to wait for the trailer to get there with all our stuff because it fell behind somehow.  Then my new companion, Elder Henderson, went and did a little training with the Zone Leaders, and then we left for our area.  When we got to our trailer we opened the door and I kid you not the trailer was an absolute disaster.  I'm not complaining or anything, but it was just bad.  Then, literally 30 seconds after us walking in we get a knock at the door and we meet Brother Eby.  He was a former bishop here, and was in charge of making sure church property was taken care of.  Anyway he came in and he was not happy with the way the trailer was, and he is a loud man, and isn't afraid to say what's on his mind.  After that we went to go have dinner with the Bishop and so he could show us around a bit.  Bishop Cothran is his name, and he is a great guy, and he has a great family.  His wife is Brazilian, and she is just a fireball with attitude as well, she was pretty funny.  So that was pretty much it for Tuesday.


Wednesday, because it was so filthy we got permission to spend as much time as it would take to clean the place.  We spent 9 hours cleaning and we didn't even finish... We had to stop because we ran out of cleaning supplies.  Here is a picture of all the stuff we had to throw out.

Yeah, the garbage was about half full before we put anything in it.  But between all the mold, grease, dust, dirt, and heaven knows what else was in there it was really gross.

Thursday we had district meeting, it was good, and I know most of the people in my district.  Then we went and did service for our senior couple, the Stubbs.  

Friday we tried to do our weekly planning, and the Area Book was an absolute disaster, and nothing had been updated since like April/May, and there were like no addresses or phone numbers on the people we were supposed to be teaching.  So yeah it was not the greatest weekly planning, and we pretty much had to trash a lot of that as well.  So yeah we have gotten lost every day so far, but we are slowly getting there.

Saturday was a little better, we have been doing a lot of tracting trying to find anyone really.  Nothing overly exciting happened that day, but we did get lost again trying to find someone, and ended up finding a different person.

Sunday.  Well Sunday has to have been the strangest Sunday on my mission yet.  It was pretty normal for the first half actually; we went to church, gave talks, and went to class and did all that jazz.  But after church we saw our bishops wife literally running around with our dinner calendar, trying to get people to sign up to feed us, so I think we will be taken care of with food.  Then we went out with our 2nd counselor in our bishopric, so he could show us more of the area and what he knew.  We originally thought it would be like an hour drive at most but it ended up being a 4 hour trip, haha.  I was in the back of the van so I didn't hear much of what he was saying, so I was pretty much on a scenic tour.  But we stopped at his wife's house were he periodically brought out more food for us to eat while we were driving.  It started out with grapes, then pop tarts, and then he brought out a bag that had hot dogs, chips, s'mores, and applesauce.  So I felt like I was having a camping picnic in the back of his mini van.  So that was very interesting but I enjoyed the trip :)  

But other than that the truck is in pretty bad shape, and we are pretty much starting from scratch with this place.  It's going to be an adventure!

Love you all,

Elder Takis

Some Final Photos in Tuba

These are happy photos, taken at Coalmine Canyon after doing some service at the bishop's house, and before Elder Takis found out he was going to be transferred.

These are photos taken the night before transfers, saying goodbye at a special family's house.

Sad News

6/19/17 Email:

Alright everyone,

So I am getting transferred out of Tuba City.  I am going to an area called Red Cliffs, it is over by Gallup, New Mexico.  So I will leave tomorrow morning.  I am all sad about it because I have really grown to love this place, and it has become a second home for me.  I have always been taken care of and watched out for by the people here, and I will miss them dearly.  I won't even get to say goodbye to everyone I want to because they are out of town.  But Heavenly Father has a plan for me and my mission and how I can be the best I can be, so I trust that whatever happens will be for the best.

I honestly don't know really anything about my new area, I have heard mixed things about it.  It is kinda a small place, deep rez, with a bit of city, and it is close to Gallup, so we will probably do our shopping there cuz I heard there is only one store where I am going.  Umm my new companion, his name I believe is Elder Henderson, we are whitewashing the area.  He was serving in Farmington as a Zone Leader before this, and is now a District Leader, but he goes home after this transfer.  He is pretty tall, according to what I've been told, so I won't get away from the tall people.  But maybe that is preparing me for something.

I don't have my camera with me to send pictures, but I will send a few of them next week.  I am just a little emotional about leaving right now.  But I am excited for the new adventure, so wish me luck!

God Bless


Elder Takis

China Star Got Baptized!!!!!

6/12/17 Email:

Ya'at'teh' everyone!

So to explain the title, China Star is a Chinese Buffet here in Tuba City.  But that isn't what got baptized.  Her name is Andrea, we just have nicknamed her China Star because she worked at China Star for a  while, and that's the name we gave her before we figured out her real name, haha.  Elder Hudak and I found her and started teaching her, and there is a really funny story as to how this all started but that is for another time.  All that is important is that she was so golden and elect and has started taking steps towards returning to Heavenly Father's presence.  Here she is...

Oh that is my companion Elder Huff, so yes I am back with someone who is a foot taller than me...

Anyway like I was saying, she is so awesome!  She is really smart, and had graduated high school with a 2 year college degree or something like that.  She actually was going to a different church when we found her, and for some reason she never got baptized there but really wanted to get baptized.  She just does so much for the community and her family, and pretty much everyone, and she is so into the church and all the programs it has to offer, and she has committed to not miss church, because she really enjoys it.  She is going to go down to Phoenix to do some college program there in a couple of weeks, and it will last about 5 weeks, but even though it's a three and a half hour drive from here to there, she said she will make the drive every weekend so she won't miss church.  Yeah, I was blown away, cuz I don't know that I would have done that.  That's obviously something I need to work on, haha.  She is also really excited to go to the temple as well.  But yeah there are so many great things and blessings in store for her as she continues to follow the path that Heavenly Father has for her.

Transfers are this weekend, so we will find out if I leave or stay.  I am praying that I stay, and hopefully y'all will do the same, haha.  But that is about all I have for this week.

Love y'all,

Elder Takis

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