Elder Warnick in the Land of Enchantment: Attack!

June 1, 2015

Bluff, Utah

This has been a great week here in good Ol' Bluff, however it had been full of animal attacks. The gnats are out here and the are rampant, I would much rather have a mosquito bite any day. The gnats are impossible to notice until you have been bitten, the bites themselves are like mosquito bites but there are 50 times more irritating and if you are allergic to them they will cause a blister which when it pops will run and the blister will spread to wherever that pus covers. This week I had a good sized Schnauzer come at me from under a deck. As it ran toward me I held out the Book of Mormon which was the only thing that I had with me and it stopped and ran away, I felt really cool until I realized that Elder Middleton had picked up a rock and that is what scared it off. The dog attack that could have actually ended badly was the German Shepard that broke its chain and charged us. With backpacks for shields we backed up and I threw a rock at it and hit it in the head which made it finally back off. I also got bit by a sheep. There were 2 sheep wandering around at a house that we were at and one started to sniff my hand, I had a feeling that it was going to bite my hand so it put it in my pocket only to have it bite my wrist instead. It was just a little nip but it was a nip big enough to make me yelp like a frightened 4 year old. While we were helping brand cattle (the fun way, roping them and throwing them down not using a squeeze shoot) we were just about to take one of the steers down when the one that we had just branded was still a little "hot" and decided to charge Elder Middleton, who narrowly avoided it. It was a good week. (:

Missionary work wise things are really picking up. It has been hard to get in a good groove with so many companions lately but Elder Middleton and I really click. Navajos are all about relationships and because Elder Middleton and I are so alike he has already to develop a great relationship with many of the people down here. We started teaching a lady who is very traditional, her name is Anna, and she shows a lot of promise. She has a very real desire to know if what we are teaching her is true and she has already had a desire to attend our church in the past. She also says that she really likes our teaching since they are so similar to her traditional Navajo beliefs, she know some of what we believe because she likes to watch General Women's Conference every time that is comes on. Things here in this area are really turning around and looking up.

Elder Warnick