Robert vs. Goodbyes

Ya'at'eeh!!!

Ya sooo....I wont be saying Ya'at'eeh fro a while I think.  This was a surprise for everyone in the district.  Elder Bunderson and I are both being transferred out of Shiprock!!!  Elder Bunderson is being sent to Pinon! (pinyawn)  Right smack dab in the middle of the Rez.  There is nothing out there literally so he should have fun.  I will be heading BACK to the city....of Farmington.  In Farmignton 1st ward with Elder Johnson.  Im pretty disappointed cause I wanted to go to deep out in the middle of nowhere Rez like Elder Bunderson.  Guess not!  So my new address will be the Mission office so no change, I get to check mail on Mondays and Thursdays and that's to prevent us from spending to much time at the mission office.  As much as I wont miss Shipock for the scenery I will miss it for the flea market and a lot of the people.  We are definitely coming back sometime.  At least now in Farmington the houses have addresses and I don't have to follow directions that we got yesterday..."you take a first right den go over 3 speed bumps and den 1 more den der will be a house with da best grass in da neighborhood...iss dat one."  Im gonna miss that.  Farmington is where the connie mac world series is and if my info is correct its goin on right now!!  So I will be there when all the baseball ruckus is going on.  That makes me happy and sad at the same time.  As far as I know we will have a truck still but who knows I might be biking!  Gosh this week is gonna be a sad one.  My best friend I've made so far out here is Elder Hayden Ott from Burlington, Wyoming.  He was my Zone leader in Cortez and he is "dying" tomorrow, or going home!!  He really helped me out a lot and showed me how to do everything.  He will be driving through Shiprock tonight on the way to Farmington and he is going to stop and say goodbye, being a missionary for some reason gives you an "ok" to be emotional a little bit, I might shed a tear when he stops by.  I spoke in church yesterday not for very long though cause it was a homecoming talk for Elder Campbell who just got home from Evan's mission last week.  It went good.  When we went to say goodbye to people last night the "no hugging" rule doesn't apply to Navajo's.  They know the rules but they don't care when they like you so we got plenty of hugs from Nikki (the lady who was just baptized) and others but it was good.  I haven't had a hug from really anyone since I left the airport haha that's kinda funny actually.  Yep tomorrow it will be the 6 month mark.  They say once you hit 6 months it zooms by til 9 then from 9 to 12 it feels like it takes forever!  My next 6 month mark will be the big 1 year! that's crazy.  But yep so I will have more to talk about next week hopefully.  This has been a fun 6 weeks in Shiprcok New Mexico!  Minus the flies in our trailer which I have kept a running count on how many ive killed...62.  Anyways  Ha'goo'nee'!!

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. The Bloody Nose

 

Ya'at'eeh!!!

 

 So the hottest week in New mexico history wasn't really that bad.  Oh well, I thought I was gonna have some fun experience being outside when it was 120 or something...maybe next week!  Not much went on this week anyways.  No crazy experiences or being chased or anything! Kinda boring, but hey its ok.  Well gosh I don't even know what to talk about....so this wont be very long im sorry.  Seriously nothing really happened this week, we taught 9 lessons and a few of them went really well but most of the time the people just don't really seem to care.  Tonight we are teaching a less active family, and they are super strong when it comes to faith and everything! They pay tithing, have 0 problems with any of the doctrine at all! Except they don't come to church!!!.....they haven't for a very long time its annoying! Elder Bunderson and I have had quite a few discussions tryin to figure out what they need, but they are an awesome family and every time we go over to teach it seems like they already know EVERYTHING and we are just preaching to the choir.  Frustrating.  But oh well, the work must go on.  Transfers are this week so we will see what happens come Saturday night.  My prediction is that I will be here in Shiprock for another transfer possibly 2 more if I get a trainee.  That would be a fun experience to train, I would act like a total goof for the first few days just to scare the new guy.  Like im not already a goof already but I think I would just talk in a Russian accent for the first while or so...I'll figure something good out.  I guess the hot weather though did have some effect on me.  I have had the bloodiest bloody noses of my life this week, one was when we were in a lesson and it just started waterfalling!  (and no Llyr I am NOT picking my nose).  Anyways I got that taken care of.  

 

The sheep butchering was pretty awesome! I will hopefully be able to get some pictures off sometime soon.  The 2 people that were baptized last week were both girls, and we are continuing to have lessons with them and they are doing awesome!  Yesterday with one of them we talked about Priesthood and Auxiliaries and I think I learned more then she did it was great.  There was a missionary that just got home on July 2nd from the Houston South mission Vietnamese speaking!  He is a good guy, and we will be taking him out to lessons with us this week.  We had to give him a planner yesterday cause he said he didn't know what to do with his life without one.  He is speaking in church this week and all 4 of us other missionaries will be speaking with him, so that will be good.  My cooking skills have improved quite a bit!  We had a big taco night the other day and I have learned a lot about spices, and herbs and whatnot.  I pan fried some Jalapenos and put them all over my tacos with some Cholula sauce and Cilantro!  mmmmm...I have definitely acquired the Hot and spicy bug down here.  When I get back there will be no mercy to my cooking.  Everything will be spicy.  Anyways that's all I got for the week! Things are going good and I'm happy to be out here.

 

love Elder Christensen 

Robert vs. The Cops

 

 

Ya'at'eeh!!!

 

Elder Bunderson and I each had the privilege to do the confirmations for the 2 new members that were baptizedon saturday.  Sheep Butchering was sweet!!!!  You're right mom, I don't think you would have liked being there for at least the first part especially with all of the blood and throat cutting and whatnot.  I'm trying to make you all feel queezy hopefully it worked.  The meat didn't taste as good as I thought it would.  It had traces of poo everywhere and yes I did get a piece or two of sheep doo doo in my mouth.  But I just ate a ton of fry bread to mask the taste.

 

I have some good pictures of that I just can't really get them uploaded right now.  Yes, it is VERY hot! This is supposed to be the hottest week in New Mexico history so it will be fun!  The Navajo language learning CD's and stuff are hard to follow, its just a book and a guy repeating words over and over again.  I haven't been very persistent in doing them cause to be honest they are pretty boring. If i want to learn it, I am going to have do everything myself so its frustrating especially with such a difficult language that you have to think and speak completely backwards in.  Our new bishopric is awesome! They seem like they are extremely excited with getting missionary work going and getting our ward out here organized.  The bishop is actually a bilagaana. (white)  He builds missiles for the government so hes a pretty organized guy. I liked his comment yesterday when he spoke, "I have a high security clearance with the military and the government so I'm pretty good at keeping secrets."  Plus, during Sunday school, the 2 councilors taught and straight up told everyone that they weren't doing enough and everyone needed to step up and be who they are supposed to be! So that was interesting and a pretty good kick in the pants for some of the less active people that were there and for the members that just are there for the ride. People reject callings ALL THE TIME here on the Rez because its "to much work"  or "takes to much time"...so they also had a big "knock it off" segment about that so that was good.   

 

So my fun Rez story of the week is about eh NAVAJO COPS!! get ready!.....So after zone conference last Saturday we got back around 4pm to Shiprock again and we didn't have any scheduled appointments so we decided to go and see some people that we talked to awhile ago.  There is this one man named Oscar and every time we try to see him is more drunk then the time before...its really sad but mostly makes me angry that people do this to themselves when they know that it doesn't feel good afterwards and they know that they hurt their family members, their physical bodies, and definitely their spiritual bodies.  Anyways so we went to see Oscar again and the joke was "lets go see how drunk Oscar is"...so we walk up to his door and knock, we wait around for a bit and he comes out drunk as ever!  He shook my hand and almost fell over.  We talked for a minute and then his friend came out..and oh boy was he hammered.  He shook my hand and I had to catch him from falling down it was disgusting how drunk and out of mind and thought they were.  Just vegetables with lips those two were.  I wanted to go but Elder Bunderson kept talking for a minute and just wouldn't leave them....anyways they kept on asking us if we wanted to fight and we just played around with them, for a second Oscar looked like he was gonna grab Elder Bunderson and oh man I got tense real fast.  About a minute into talking Elder Bunderson and I feel this tap on our shoulders.....I turn around and WHAM! 3 Navajo cops!  They say sorry for breaking up our talk and they just go grab the 2 drunk guys and arrest them right in front of us haha! it was pretty funny actually!!  I guess Osca'rs wife called them in because they had a big fight right before we got there...it makes sense because Oscar had a bloody nose when he came out.  So we had 2 baptisms and 2 arrests on Saturday! Good day!  Those Navajo cops are sneaky!  The wind was blowing really hard so it was loud anyways, but man they snuck up right behind me like Wiley Coyote!  Other then that everything is good!!  Having lots of fun with Elder Bunderson, we get along great and we hopefully be getting a lot more lessons soon.  Ha'goo'nee'!

 

Love Elder Christensen

 

 

 

Robert vs. A Big White Dog

 

 

Ya'at'eeh!!

 

Well this last week was certaintly not very productive at all but that happens every now and then.  I was able to watch the training yesterday, that was really good.  I wish I was there for the family reunion but I think I have grown a bit attatched to the hot sun and sand.  The language is coming slow, its hard to stay motivated to learn it because its so difficult.  Right now im figuring out all the animals and foods but haven't really put together sentences yet.  I am taking pictures but the computers here don't have a port for cameras so I guess you will have to wait sorry.  We are butchering a sheep (dibe) today and its gonna be messy!!!! lots of Dil (blood) and dirt so good times. I will be trying so ach'ii or  intestine and possibly some na' dibe or sheep eyes we will see.  

 

Okay fun story of the week....ya in cortez every now and then there would be an angry dog or two but never really any that wanted to eat us or really chase us down.  WELL THAT CHANGED!  I see about 150 dogs a day here, no joke.  They are everywhere and some of them are nasty and diseased.  Well we were on day exchanges for a few hours. I was with Elder Phillips and we were knocking on some doors cause we had nothing better to do.  Anyways so we come up to this trailer and there is a platform with stairs leading up to it which led to the door.  As we approached the stairs Elder Phillips said that he saw a dog or two underneath the platform...well I didn't really hear it I guess.  I walk up to the door and knock...right when my knuckles hit the wood there was a big WOOF! from underneath my feet....it made me jump bad.  I knocked again and of course nobody was home to save us haha.  Well it so  happened that there were these little posts that were evenly spaced out and I decided I was gonna jump from the platform onto one, and from there to the other and so on until I got out of the close area of that big dog.  So I was standing on one of the posts and a car came drivin by and I didn't want to let people think that it was just us missionaries messin around so I decided that the dog wasn't so big and I jumped down....big mistake.  I turned and looked under the platform to see if the dog was chained up or not....it wasn't.  Elder Phillips had already vacated the premises and was on the road.  I kinda froze for a sec as the dog just started growling at me and it did like a fake charge at me...I flinched like I was going to run of course....another big mistake...okay now if you have seen "THE SANDLOT"  there is a scene where the kid runs from the dog says Oh crap!!!! and books it....well that's exactly what happened. I freaked out and started to run as this Leechaa'id Ligai Nez...(big white dog) is runnin me down.  I turned my head as I was running and saw that it was gaining on me so I thought about pullin my knife out of my pocket and get prepared to do some thrashing but I just felt like I didn't need the knife....I instead turned around and RAN BACK AT THE DOG....smart right?? Well I ran back at it and opened my arms as wide as I could and screamed a few times! it was great haha.  I stopped it in its tracks and we had a grin off Davy Crockett style for a few seconds. It would make little jukes at me like it was gonna jump me but I stood my ground! Elder Phillips is over on the road dying of laughter of course while I'm wizzin myself.  Anyways this dog had big nasty black and purple looking teeth...it reminded me of a vampire dog, it was gross.  Come to find out it wasn't even owned, it was just a random Rez dog! FUN TIMES ON THE REZ! but I walked away after the showdown and it didn't follow me.  be prepared eh? 

 

Anyways its all good here, we got a new bishopric and I feel that we will have a lot more work.  This mission is basically one big less active pool...its very rare to get a NEW investigator here.  Everybody went on the placement program and has already been baptized they just don't understand anything or don't care about church no more.  We are having 2 baptisms this Saturday the 29th though! I will be confirming one of them on Sunday! fun stuff!  Yes I do point with my lips at some things for fun, but it hasn't really been ingrained in me yet.  I do say "over der" "da" "dat"  dis dey and whatnot sometimes without noticing it.  I have bought a few cool lookin Indian shirts.  Everything is awesome, I love being a missionary!

 

Ha'goonee'!!!

 

love elder christensen

 

 

 

Robert vs. Horseshoes

Ya'at'eeh!!!

I'm doin dandy down here in Shiprock! or Tse' bit' a' i' in Navajo.  Its nice and hot and extremely dry....just the way i like it... not really, but oh well.  It did rain a tidbit the other day which was much needed but the next day it went back to normal.  So i have now been to a Navajo church twice and its pretty interesting.  They hold a gospel doctrine class in Navajo for the older members of the ward that cant speak good English.  We were asked to sing in that class it was kinda weird, ive never sung in front of people before except elementary school and church stuff with big crowds. But it was fun to sit and listen to the Navajo language. I can pick out a word here and there but it its extremely difficult.   The Navajos assume that because we are biligaana (white man) that we know how to do everything....piano, sing, lead music....everything.  So we get asked to do alot of junk that im not too fond of doing.  The prayers in a native American church are very long and seem to be much more respectful and personal.  When they say things like "thank you for this earth" or something they go into a very long description about what exactly they are thankful for about the earth and then they move onto the next subject so its its pretty cool.  

I have had angry rez dogs chase after our truck and me sometimes but i will swerve into them and they run away or I just run or yell at them and then they get scared. I LOVE IT! My companion and i are doing awesome and we are becoming very good friends. Since he is a professional horse shoer he has permission to trim peoples horses out here. We had an appointment the other day with that. I learned a lot and my love for horses has grown a lot, they are amazing animals.  The people he trimmed for invited us to go and rope some calves so we did that, that was way fun.  I'm a ropin cowboy brandin missionary now!!!  

About the Shiprock ward.....so the Navajo people get attached to certain people if they are liked very quickly and they DO NOT like change at all.  About 10 years ago the bishop was Bishop Clah and he was a great bishop apparently.  There was over 200 people coming every week.  Once he was released....less then 100 came.  The new Bishop even had a number of "opposed" votes which is sad. Now there are probably about 100 that come a week on a good week, and we are getting a new bishop next week.  So we will see what happens. They are very stubborn people sometimes and once they find a comfort zone they stick to it and never change unless something crazy happens.  We are having a meeting with President Batt today to figure out ways we can improve missionary work with the ward here because NOBODY cares....it seems about half the ward only comes because they are on welfare and they have to have a certain attendance % to get financial help. Sad. So its kinda hard but i still enjoy it.  

Anyways things are goin good i guess! I have become attached to the Navajo people though already.  There is a big flea market every Saturday and i bought some shirts, one is an air jordan symbol but it has an Indian headdress on it its sweet! The other has a picture of a big chief on it with an eagle haha. Awesome. 

Love Elder Christensen

oh also......I'm butchering a sheep next week just thought id throw that in there

Robert vs. Shiprock

Ya'at'eeh!

 

From Shiprock, NM!!!! So we email at Dine College and they have a 1 hour time limit and then the computer shuts off at 0, its dumb. So my letters will probably be significantly shorter for awhile. My new companion is Elder Cody Bunderson from Preston!!! He is awesome! He is a professional horse shoer and he dates a rodeo queen.  Lucky guy. He is about 145 lbs and 5'6 but he is a 2 time state wrestler so I haven't tested him out yet.  Anyway we are doing great and having the funnest time on my mission so far.  I am in the Navajo reservation and holy cow.....ya aint seen a white person in awhile, I've already gotten used to it.  We went tracting the other day and a man came and talked to us for 2 hours telling us a Navajo creation story.  It was really cool!!  It's very intersesting to see that the "traditional" beliefs are so similar to our beliefs.  Its been over 100 degrees twice this last week and its only gonna get worse.  There hasn't been rain here in over 2 years or something like that.  It's a dust bowl, everyday I see big dust tornadoes.  I got to eat some mutton stew and have had lots of fry bread.  My Navajo has grown a lot in just a week. basically I just know a bunch of random words still but am starting to put together some phrases.  I am having a blast out here with most of the people even though they don't want anything to do with us, they know who we are and respect us.  I have dealt with lots of drunk people and angry dogs that chase me.  I see new dead dogs every day, they are everywhere!!! and a lot of them are not afraid of us and they will run right at us.  But don't worry I carry my big knife I got and so far I just have to act like I'm pickin up a rock or run back at them and they back off. Its fun!!!! well my time has almost run out! got to go!

 

ha'gone'!

love Elder Christensen