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.
