January 30, 2012 (email)
Hiya! Or maybe I should say howdy because of the cowboy/farmer life I've been thrown into. But certainly not Ya' Teh...because they don't particularly care for Navajos....
To be completely honest, this has been the absolute hardest and most miserable week of my mission. I'm trying to stay positive and play the glad game....I'm not winning the game. :)
Its always hard to leave your first area, but this is particularly nasty. I was in love with Shiprock, the scenery, and the people...But here, everyone keeps saying, "Oh you came from Shiprock, you must be so happy to leave" or "You are so lucky to be here" or "Isn't this place just prettier and better?" ....Ummmm....NNOOOOO!!!!! You booger faces! That is where my heart is! That is were the people I love are! That is were I was accepted and there wasn't blatant prejudice against my skin! It has been really hard to hear them be so derogatory about somewhere I adore so much. That is where there is actually a lot of work to do, and paradise for missionaries.
Can you tell it has been a rough transition? But here is the glad game stuff: It IS really beautiful here. And there ARE nice people here. and the wards are EXTREMELY supportive and organized. and I AM lucky to be here, because this is where the Lord trusts me to be and where he wants me to learn more lessons. Yes its pretty, yes you are awesome, and yes I'm lucky, but please stop putting down Shiprock.
My companion is Sister Rachel Patrick. Ready for the Small Mormon World Connection: she is a cousin of Sister Katherine Cottam!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!?????!!!!!!?????? It took us 3 days to figure it out. I put up my photo wall and there were photos of me and Katherine and she said "That's my cousin!! how do you know her?" Oh, I only lived with her for 3 years and went to her house all the time, and had her little brother as a valentine and went to the temple when she was endowed! no big deal. Cool connection huh?
Sister Patrick is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. And not just a town nearby, but the actual city itself. She went to BYU-I and is a Music Major. She plays Oboe (not the bassoon...they are different...I learned that really quickly...the oboe is like a clarinet) and is phenomenal at it. She is in practically EVERY performance group at BYU-I. She is ridiculousness smart, and the poor thing has to put up with my blond moments, afternoons, days, or weeks. She has been out for 3 months and has been here the entire time. To be honest, she is really burned out on Cortez, because she has only seen discouragement and things falling apart. They have had the WORST opposition I have ever heard of. It involves investigators, murders, suicide, and police...I don't care to go into more detail.
The roads here are ridiculous. They are kind of on a grid system, but because of the mountains and lakes there are jogs in the roads. The North/South roads are USUALLY a letter and the East/West are USUALLY a number, but then there are the little branch offs that are decimals, or where the road doesn't connect all the way through because of a ravine or other crazy mess. For example, we live on the road 29.75...kinda like platform 9 3/4.
We live in the garage loft apartment at a member's home, way out in the boonies. It is tiny compared to Shiprock's giant ark of a trailer...but I got all my stuff to fit, so I'm ok. The bed is like sleeping on clouds...hooray. Finally. But when I got there she said the shower drain didn't work and we should take quick showers because it gets backed up so bad. Well...I know it is impossible for me to take a quick shower...so I became determined to fix it. I started to do my thing, and got up to ask Sister Patrick if anyone had used a drain snake to clean a clog before. "No, because we can't get the plug thing off. Even the family who owns the place doesn't know how to get it off." I smiled and giggled. "Well, I don't think that will be a problem, because I just got it off, cleaned the upper clog, and used a wire hanger to unclog the pipe." Smirk. :) Look at me go. Not even a full day in Cortez and I fix something that has eluded grown men. Yes, I am that awesome.
Well, there is much to talk about, but I don't have the time to mention it all. And I'm sorry I don't have pictures to include, because I don't have an uploader for my card with me....next week. If you have any questions about Cortez, please let me know, and hopefully I can address them next week.
Love you lots!
Sister Melinda Wilkins
No comments:
Post a Comment