Robert vs. No Snow

 (Robert's camera is still broken, so here are some oldies from this summer)

Loloma!!! 

Well, I am staying here in Hopi for another 6 weeks!!!  Woohoo!!!  I was pretty positive I was staying so that was my favorite birthday present.   Elder Pebbles is going to Crownpoint, New Mexico.  Its about 30 miles northeast of Gallup.  It's not on the reservation so he is pretty disappointed.  There are plenty of natives though.  I have to be honest besides being able to talk to y'all Christmas was the most uneventful in my life!  I think what really ticked me off was I had 0 snow at all.  Other then Christmas in Sacramento that one year I have always known snow on Christmas.  But thats okay, I got over it already.  On Christmas day we had a big dinner at the Talaswaima families house.  There son is serving  a mission at the SLC Family History headquarters...pretty cool.  Speaking of Natives serving missions....my new companion is Elder Yazzie.  Yep he is a full blooded Navajo!!! His family is from Dennehotso which is a couple hours north of me.  He is actually from Malta, Idaho.  Dinky little town.  Its good to be back with an Idahoan and plus he is a lot like me so we will have the thermostat at about 30 degrees at night its gonna be great.  Also I talked to him earlier a few days ago and asked him a question that would determine the strength of our companionship..." Elder Yazzie.....do you like monopoly??"  " I love monopoly!!!"  ya we are gonna get along just fine.  If we get angry at each other then we will just have to settle it over a manly throwdown of monopoly.  Now because he is Navajo and Hopi's and Navajo's do NOT like each other at all....in fact they are mortal enemies...we will see how it goes down.

Church was awesome yesterday!  We had probably the easiest/best lesson on tithing on this earth during our gospel principles class with the sister that will be baptized on the 18th.  She was the only one in the class so we were able to focus on her questions.  She said that she was wondering about how we "pay money to the church"  and before we even talked about why or where it goes or the blessings she said " Go get me a slip so I can  give some money!"  She explained that she loved to give and "good mormons give cause thats what Jesus would do."  She nailed it on the spot, we dint even have to teach her really.  Oh ya then she said that she didn't have any money on her to give...we told her that it wasn't necessary to pay until she was baptized but she could if she wanted to.  She looked at us like we were crazy then said " I will just save up all my money until the day i get baptized."  She said that she is perfectly fine with giving everything down to her last penny because she knows that the Lord will take care of her and wont let her starve or be cold if she supports the church.  Now keep in mind that this sister has NEVER heard of tithing in her life and has never come to church in whole life and has been very deep into the Hopi tradition until about 10 years ago then she started seeing that it was all messed up.  Pretty good example of faith.  Also she as a gift to us for teaching her she gave us each drawings.  Elder Pebbles got a sweet black and white pencil sketch of a bear.  It doesn't look like what you would think, its the Hopi symbol of a bear so its a bit different but it still looks awesome.  In Hopi way the bear is the medicine spirit and will keep you safe from evil and keep you strong, so that was really a meaningful gift.  I got a colored sketch of  a Hopi village and a bunch of symbols, its really cool.  When she gave it to me she said that " its to represent that you have lived among us and wherever you go you will know that you lived with the Hopi and are part of our family."  I was very deeply honored by this gift.  You can't go and find a picture like that anywhere in the world except on Hopi that was given "life" as the people say when they make art here they talk to it and put their own spirit into the art and give it "life."  Most of the time when they make Kachina dolls or anything they treat it like their child they are giving up for adoption and want the gift to go to a good home.  So if they give it to you for free as a gift then that means they really trust you.  Pretty special.   

Oh going back to bear stuff for a minute.  We were looking up some former investigators and we met up with this man that the Elders have been working with for 3 years or so now.  He believes the Book of Mormon is true and he can recite back the lessons to us in pretty good detail but he doesn't want to give up the tradition.  (which is usually a cover up for saying that they don't want to give up smoking in the Kiva or just other hallucinogenic stuff) But he has read the Book of Mormon and come to church a bunch but he stopped cause earlier this year the Elders told that because he wouldn't be baptized they wouldn't come over anymore.  PATIENCE CHILDREN!!!  It may take years for some people to finally accept the truth and especially out here with the tradition its hard for people to break from it.  Give it some time!!! But we will be meeting with him on wednesday so we will start up his conversion process again.  Anyways, what I was gonna say about bears...there is this herb called "bear root" or "ha-hoysee" in Hopi that they use for spiritual protection.  They will take a nibble and chew it up then spit it on their hands and then rub it all over their bodies as protection from evil spirits and stuff.  They kinda hide it underneath their shirts in little leather pouch necklaces.  He let us see his and gave us some Ha-hoysee to try.  It looks like a really gnarly little ball of wood but I bit some and it tastes like Maple syrup/celery combined.  Not bad!  I didn't rub it on my self though so don't worry.  Anyways that was pretty cool. 

We also had an experience that I wont talk about because I don't want mom to get worried but I want to mention just for suspense purposes.:)  It involves "galaaniis" or "drunks" and maybe some other things but no need to get into detail.  I am emailing now so hence I am safe.  Thats the end of my experience. Hope you enjoyed it.

To finish off the night Chris really wanted to meet with us.  There was a situation that happened in his life that I don't need to talk about but he is not living with his mother anymore and he is not allowed to see his son for who knows how long which is killing him.  He lives up in Old Oraibi with his aunt so we drove over there to visit him with Elder Pebbles for the last time.  We talked a lot and gave him some support and then as a surprise gift to us he gave us each a Kachina Doll called the Qoqole Kachina.  Or the "storyteller."  Pretty sweet!!!  He said he had made them last February and didn't know why because he didn't want to sell them but he didn't know who to give them to.  He believes they were meant for us.  Good stuff.  I am feeling very blessed and grateful for the Hopi people and just being here.  Thanks for everything!!! GO Broncos!!!

Love Elder Christensen