I'm Here - email

August 15, 2011

Hello everyone!! Well, I'm sorry it took over a week to contact you. We missed P day in the field by 1 day, so its been a while. I'm here! I'm in New Mexico! Drum Roll Please......I'm in Shiprock, NM. (which is about an hour west of Farmington). The Farmington Mission should be called the Navajo Nation Mission, but that probably isn't the most politically correct name. Shiprock is Reservation through and through. We are the ONLY sis. on a res, but to keep us safe, we have elders who also serve in the ward (the boundaries are huge!!!) blessing number 1: the elders are the district leader, and my favorite elder from my mtc district! elder munns. They are going to be great.

As for the area, things are slow. not the work being slow, but the people. no one drives fast, talks fast, walks fast, or even moves quickly. I'm going to certainly learn patience.

When we left the MTC and got to the airport, the E's got their feathers ruffled because I wasn't going to sit around and wait for them to unload the luggage. I jumped into the cargo hold, and started throwing bags out to them. they protested, but never did anything about it. yes, I am here to work, and I'm too stubborn to wait for any of you! We got picked up by the Mission pres. and his wife. Pres. Jones reminds me of Uncle Allen (its been a while since I've seen him in person, but I think there are definite similarities) and his wife is just like my boss April from Brick Oven. I love them already. The mission home is in a golf course development and is AMAZING!! and that's coming from me, the interior designer! It was beautiful. I found out they don't have sisters in Ramah, but they do have them in Gallup. They put me out on the res, which means we have a TRUCK!!!! actually, most missionaries here have trucks. big beasty things. LOVE IT!!!! Pres. Jones says we have the best fleat of cars in the world.

I met my companion, Sis. Tsosie (so-see) who has been in shiprock since january. she is navajo herself, and really get's us in with the people. We went to walmart in farmington, and bought food for a month. litterally. the cart was heaping ovetr the top. we only go into town once a month. there is a store like Smith's, but its expensive. We started right away with appointments. We have 3 bap dates from before I got here, but alot of our work is reactivation. Our ward has 1400 members!!! but only 150 come to church. oye. most of the older members were in the lamanite placement program. it gets me kinda upset because these people were baptized and had amazing experiences, but they didn't go to church when they came back to live on the res. ugh! ...see, i need to work on patience!

WE had an amazing experience with a recent convert, Lisa. I love her with all my heart. She came on exchanges with us, and we were going to read the BoM with her for a couple min and stayed for 2 hours. she told us about going to do bap for the dead for the first time and it reminded her of some dreams she had had. she proceeded to tell us about her dreams and sis. tsosie and i gaped at one another. This woman has seen the inside of the temple. she has looked in the mirrors. she has seen her family in white. it was amazing! we gushed our excitement as she told us about her dream, and we explained what we could about the temple. oh, she is just awesome.!!

we also had a service project where we drove an hour out with the elders to put plaster up on a less active member's house. when we got there it wasn't stucco, but cement. it didn't work so swell to get it to stay with the rocks, so I had the idea to sift them out. that worked, but it was still cement. to make matters worse, we had to use our hands...so the cement sucked the water out of our hands, and it started to eat the skin. i rubbed them raw and then got the rocks in it. they are a mess!

well, I'm running out of time! if you want to send any letters or packages, send them to the mission office address. I'm not allowed to give out our po box. if you send a package, send it priority so that the office can forward it to me. otherwise it sits in the office until someone drives out here to the middle of nowhere.

love you all

Sis. Wilkins (the new white missionary)