Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Quite A Week

January 19, 2015

Polacca, AZ

Well everyone this has been quite a week. It started out with us going to Winslow to go to Walmart to go shopping. I'll tell you what I am terrified to leave my area because that will mean the possibility of being in a city and it is freaky driving around there! And one way streets are especially confusing. Well anyways our shopping trip went well and we were able to make it back to the Rez without any problems. Earlier that morning we were at the gym working out and we were approached and asked if we were the new firefighters. I guess that's what happens when you can actually move some weight around in the gym.

The next couple of days that followed were great. We ended the week with 7 new investigators and the attendance at church was awesome! There were over 90 people attending our branch and 13 of them are investigators. 

Wednesday was pretty awesome. It had rained almost all day Tuesday so that means mud. We got a very energetic call from a member and she needed our help, she got her little Mazda stuck in the mud. Good thing we carry shovels in our truck and don't care about how dirty we get. We spent the 2 hours following pushing, digging and slipping before we could finally get the car the quarter mile down the road to where it could actually drive on it's own. The end result of this was wonderful lesson with this member's son who is very torn and seriously contemplating the church, since the traditions have become so corrupt. We left Second Mesa and made the horrible choice of taking the old mission road down the side. Usually it is just cool to drive on, it is a gravel road and consists of a cliff on both sides one going up and the other going down. Well all was well on the way down until there was a random patch of mud that was very slick. our truck slipped and was sliding sideways down the road, but thanks to some urgent prayers in our hearts I was finally able to get the truck back under control and not slip off the edge. The end result of that day was a very, very muddy truck.

The next day was district meeting, and we drove to Tuba City in our Muddy truck. We had a wonderful meeting and learned a lot, but when we came out there was a note on our truck from one of the Senior Sister Missionaries on our truck telling us to wash it immediately. We left in a bit of anger but washed our truck at the car wash in Tuba. After the other missionaries had a discussion with her they found out that her husband had tried to get her to relax because he saw the shovels in the bed of our truck and knew what we were doing, but she didn't listen and took a picture and sent it to our mission president. Luckily he knows what we do as missionaries and nothing bad came from that.

While we were getting our truck washed we were driving up to the gas station and saw a missionary. This is the sequence of thought that went through our heads;

     Hey it's Elder Beck! 

     Wait why is he in Tuba?

     Hold on where is his companion?

     What!? He's with a girl! Who is she?

     Their getting into the same car! What is going on?

     OH, wait he's going home... it's his mom.

We got out and talked to him and his mother and he was touring the mission before going home. Boy oh boy it was a confusing few seconds.

Friday I was sick and it was not fun. I had lots of stomach pain and the next day was not much better. We got some hamburger and hamburger helper form our neighbors and decided to make it. Let's just say I remember why I don't eat that stuff now.

Well that's just some of my week. I hope that you all have a wonderful week as well.

Love, Elder Warnick
Oh Leroy our Recent Convert also got the priesthood this Sunday and is a priest.
This is what our New Years consisted of.


Elder Warnick and Elder Tippetts
Elder Warnick on New Year's Day 2015


and there is some random slush from a snowy day
Not A Tasty Slushie

and yes there was actually snow here
Real Snow! Jan. 1, 2015
Here are some pictures from after we were getting the car unstuck 

Attempt at being happy

Attempt at being stoic

okay just the truck
This is my shoes from after pushing the car
Muddy Shoes
all of my shoes 

My shoes
a sweet tie pin. My nickname is Hoonaw or bear because I am so big compared to my companion and he is a cougar, lean and small.

new tie pin


The final is a basketball I kind of popped while trying to dunk
whoops!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Burglary and 6 more...

Polacca, AZ

Jan. 12, 2015

6 more weeks that is... transfer news came and Elder Tippetts and I are both staying in Polacca for 6 weeks more weeks. I am so happy that I still get to be here. I will get to see 2 more people that we're teaching be baptized in the next month. We have been having a lot of fun here in Hopiland and have had some of the best numbers this past couple of weeks that this area has ever had.

We had zone conference this week and it was awesome! We learned a lot of new ideas and even received some awesome revelation for our area. One thing that we are starting to do now is to bring  up the Baptismal Interview Questions the first time that we meet with people so they know what we are trying to help them understand and learn.

We have been teaching a lot of lessons lately and are finding all sorts of new people to talk to. This week we found an investigator that I was teaching in the past. He was in Winslow for a couple of months, now he's back. He has been reading the Book of Mormon, stopped using drugs and alcohol, and he really wants to be baptized! 

Well I am officially a burglar.... A member of the Branch was out of the country for a couple of weeks over the Christmas break and his house was empty. We have taken care of his house in the past setting fires to make sure the pipes don't freeze. Well he hadn't asked us this time but we knew that it was getting down to single digits a few nights, so we went over and started a fire a few nights. Now here's where it gets interesting. When he got home his neighbors told him that people had been breaking into his house while he was gone. He looked around and noticed that nothing was missing, but he decided to fill out a police report anyway. He was about half way through the report when he thought he should call us. I answered the phone and after a minute of discussion telling him that we couldn't reach his phone while he was in Ecuador and that it was us, all was well and he was very grateful to us for taking care of his house. We've now learned that next time we do something like that we will leave a note if we can't reach them. We are so grateful for the prompting he received to call us. 

Well that's it for this week.

Love,
Elder Warnick

Editorial notes:
This picture is the Kuna "boyz" of the New Mexico Farmington Mission with President Batt. They were at zone conference together on Jan. 6, 2015.
Elder Dallin Warnick, KHS '14 and Elder Tanner Patterson, KHS '13. 
Dallin was super excited to open his call. It was only a few minutes after opening it that he remembered that "T-Pat" is serving in this same mission. The news traveled fast and Elder Patterson's mom contacted Dallin and gave him Elder Patterson's e-mail address. They e-mailed back and forth several times before Dallin left. It was very helpful too. One thing Elder Patterson told him was to bring everything on the list clothing wise. He'd need it. It's already proven to be true!
Kuna Boyz with President Batt
 These two pictures are from October 2014. He just sent them today.
 
Elder Warnick and Elder Patterson





Happy New Year's!

Polacca, AZ

Jan. 5, 2015

It has been a good week here in Hopi! We have been working our tails off and now that December is over we are a lot more productive. December is the time for the dead and traditionally you shouldn't be outside and doing thing especially after dark. We have had a lot of good lessons this week. We started teaching Leroy's nephew. After Leroy's baptism, he came to us and told us that he felt a good feeling when Leroy was baptized and that he wants to be baptized. We have been working a lot with him this week. He and his girlfriend are preparing to get married so that they can both be baptized.

Tomorrow is Zone Conference and have be in Tuba City literally the whole day! It will be grueling. 

New Year's was interesting. We had to be in early because of the craziness that happens. So we had a little party in the church with ourselves. We watched church movies and ate nachos. It was fun and quiet. Then we went to sleep at 10:00. Missionary life is awesome! Well that's about all to report on this week. I'm sure that I'll think of something more during the week. Love you all.

Elder Warnick

 (this is a second e-mail sent later in the day)

Oh it's transfers not this Tuesday (tomorrow) but next week. I would appreciate no mail because I have a good possibility of leaving...

Last week we also tried to go to the buffalo dance (a traditional dance that is meant to bring snow) but it didn't work out. I literally drove through every single village on the Hopi Rez looking for it after we couldn't find where it was in the village that we were originally told that it was in, Kykotsmovi. It was a lot of driving around for nothing that night (but it was new years so that's okay).

The other investigators that we have been teaching are doing really good as well. We currently have 2 on date for baptism one on January 17 and one on February 7. They are both doing very well and will very likely make their dates., We are so excited to be teaching as many wonderful people as we are. And are so blessed to be in this area. We just finished cleaning our truck for inspections tomorrow and I do have to say it looks pretty good. We have had an awesome P-Day and I now wish you all a wonderful week.