The Climb

It's Green!

September 14, 2015

Kaibeto, AZ

 

This week was all about ascent. The area is really looking up which is awesome. Elder Butterfield got his visa after 5 months in this mission and in a week will be off to Brisbane Australia. We have started teaching a couple of teenage boys named Eli and Jaden. They came to church with their aunt/grandma (Navajo relations are very complex) and that is when we first met them. We were able to start talking to them about the Plan of Salvation because the Sunday School lesson that they came to was kind of scary... the signs of the second coming, including the "Battle of Armageddon". Luckily we were able to explain to them that it was nothing to be scared of and honestly to really not worry about it. They are pretty solid kids and have even started coming to mutual. 

 

We have been having a battle with mice here Kaibeto. At first it was a mouse every couple of weeks and then on exchanges with Elder Butterfield we found one just roaming the house. We trapped him under the stove--where they come in--and then made a wall of binders and put some traps out, plugged up every hole on the outside of the trailer, as well as put out a bunch of ramen noodles (which mice love) with cheese, peanut butter, sunflower seeds and comet on it surrounded by duct tape. This was an attempt to draw him out. In the morning one of the traps was sprung but no mouse... that is until we looked inside and found a hand. We just missed him, the trap was quite scratched up and gnawed on and then we realized, after closer inspection, that he chewed his hand off to escape. The traps then got better, sticky traps were introduced and a more solid wall was put up. We caught 3 mice in the nights following but all of them had 4 feet, so Scabbers (as we named him) is still on the loose. 

 

Mouse Hunt

Mouse Bait

 

 

 

Almost....

 

 

Updated Mouse Hunt

 

 

The other part of our climb is that last P-Day we climbed Navajo Mountain. This was quite fun, long and tiring.  The elevation is 10,348ft but the Prominence is 4,226ft. Quite the climb for some untrained missionaries. Well that's it for this week.

Elder Warnick

Navajo Mountain

Surprise!

A Real Tree

Another Real Tree

Aspens in Navajo Nation

Arrowhead found by Butterfield--We left it there

Eating Cactus

Half Way

The Throne

VICTORY

My Best Selfie Ever

Untitled

September 7, 2015
Kaibeto, AZ

Well this was a good week. It was a little slow because it is the first of the month so people got paid and left town. Also it was the weekend so people all left. And it was a 4 day weekend so even more people left. We did get to see quite a few people. Okay this week we had another person stop us and ask if we would come by and teach them, hopefully this one is a non-member. We had another encounter this week where we started teaching someone that we hoped was an investigator but they ended up being a member. There isn't really too much to say this week. We had a less-active that we taught this week and before the lesson she was very against the Book of Mormon. So we sat down and found a lot of scriptures from the Bible to teach her the Restoration. After the lesson we asked her if she had any questions.  "No" she said "you put all of it together for me and it all makes sense."  I am very grateful for the way that the Bible and Book of Mormon go hand in hand. Well if there is anything else I will let you know.

Elder Warnick

Week 3 in Kaibeto

August 31, 2015

Kaibeto, AZ

 

Well 3 weeks have come and gone already in Kaibeto. From all of you I am hearing about school and how great it is for you to be back and about all of the fun that you are having. Well school has started here as well, and that is no so much fun. Now people are gone during the day, people are starting to work again and the most productive time in the New Mexico Farmington Mission is coming to an end.

This week JR the one recent convert that we have moved back to Flagstaff for school. He is a Junior in College and is 18. Jr is fluent in English, Navajo, Japanese, Korean and is currently learning Mandarin Chinese. He is an awesome kid, I am sad to see him go. Well now that I have been out for a year people here as well as myself seem to keep reminding me that I am on the downward slope, I am over the hill. This is more of a motivation than ever to make sure that I am doing all that I can to serve the Lord to my fullest.

This week we had the mission tour with Elder Christoffel Golden Jr of the Seventy. It was a wonderful experience but we were advised to keep the things that the spirit taught us sacred to us and to our calling. However I will tell you of one experience I had with him. He asked that President Adams pick out 2 companionships to come forward and do a role play for everyone. President choose Elder Anderson and I as well as the Winslow AZ Sisters. He had me and Anderson be the missionaries and the sisters be people whose house we were going to knock on. Well I took the lead and we "knocked" on the door and we talked to them. After the role play Elder Golden said "Notice that Elder Warnick is a very seasoned missionary and he knew exactly what to do" he went on to talk about the technique that I approached the women with and then offered some suggestions. Now here comes the cool part, we role-played again but this time I was companions with Elder Golden.

Things seem to be picking up in Kaibeto and I am very grateful for all of the energy and motivation which the Lord has given me this week. Thanks for all of the prayers.

Elder Warnick

Beginning of the Storm

I found a Nintendo 64 in our house

Part of our garden harvest

Since Thursday

August 24, 2015

Kaibeto, AZ

 

Surprisingly a lot has happened since Thursday. First my spider bite is gone. I have had bite on the top of my foot for about 4 weeks it was about the size of a 50 cent piece but after some council from the Mission Doctor it has nearly disappeared.

Let me tell you a little bit about Kaibeto. It is a small Reservation town about 40 minutes southeast of Page Arizona. There are roughly 330 homes and 130 of them are abandoned/shut down for remodeling. There is a ward here, which is smaller than it should be. When the houses were shutdown many members and investigators were moved out and sent to other places. This week we had about 50 people at church. Most of the church leadership comes form Page and Lechèè. There are a lot of wonderful people here. The missionary work in this area has been dwindling because they Elders who were here when the housing got shutdown got pretty discouraged, I don't blame them. Our only commodity is the Gas Station/Post Office/Grocery Store. Well that is Kaibeto.

We have received a lot of referrals this week.  We have had a lot of people tell us that we should take them out with us when we go to contact the referral. We have done quite a bit of walking and people are noticing us. Yesterday we had someone stop driving and give us some water. Right after our first sip she told us that she would like us to come teach her, we were able to get her address and will be going over after she returns from her trip to Phoenix. Things are really starting to move forward and it is all thanks to the lord. This week we painted a hogan, octagon house, with the Elders in Inscription House which was a great service opprotunity. (The difference between a hogan and an octagon house is that a hogan is made out of mud and an octagon house is made like a normal house, with shingles and sheet-rock).

Okay now here is the quote of the week. This is from a 12 year old boy. 'Whenever my grandmother farts she says "chìdì gìnè"

Now for those of you non-Navajo speakers "chìdì gìnè" translates to "devil speaks".

Hope you all have a great week.

Elder Warnick

Surprisingly a lot has happened since Thursday. First my spider bite is gone. I have had bite on the top of my foot for about 4 weeks it was about the size of a 50 cent piece but after some council from the Mission Doctor it has nearly disappeared.

Let me tell you a little bit about Kaibeto. It is a small Reservation town about 40 minutes southeast of Page Arizona. There are roughly 330 homes and 130 of them are abandoned/shut down for remodeling. There is a ward here, which is smaller than it should be. When the houses were shutdown many members and investigators were moved out and sent to other places. This week we had about 50 people at church. Most of the church leadership comes form Page and Lechèè. There are a lot of wonderful people here. The missionary work in this area has been dwindling because they Elders who were here when the housing got shutdown got pretty discouraged, I don't blame them. Our only commodity is the Gas Station/Post Office/Grocery Store. Well that is Kaibeto.

We have received a lot of referrals this week.  We have had a lot of people tell us that we should take them out with us when we go to contact the referral. We have done quite a bit of walking and people are noticing us. Yesterday we had someone stop driving and give us some water. Right after our first sip she told us that she would like us to come teach her, we were able to get her address and will be going over after she returns from her trip to Phoenix. Things are really starting to move forward and it is all thanks to the lord. This week we painted a hogan, octagon house, with the Elders in Inscription House which was a great service opprotunity. (The difference between a hogan and an octagon house is that a hogan is made out of mud and an octagon house is made like a normal house, with shingles and sheet-rock).

Okay now here is the quote of the week. This is from a 12 year old boy. 'Whenever my grandmother farts she says "chìdì gìnè"

Now for those of you non-Navajo speakers "chìdì gìnè" translates to "devil speaks".

Hope you all have a great week.

Elder Warnick

Castro and Me eating Chinese

Cheap Taters

Elder Anderson in Kaibeto

ME in Kiabeto

Elders Warnick, Rainey, Butterfield, and Anderson

The Lord Looks Out For His Servants

August 20, 2015

Kaibeto, Arizona

 

Well first off I would like to tell you that after some talking to the Zone-Leaders it has been decided that we will be emailing on Mondays again, like we should. There was a lot of disobedience in this area of the mission and the Lord has different plans for it so he has filled it up with some new Elders and we are going to work. We will now actually be able to do some work on Thursdays now instead of having 2 P-Days. So on Monday I will be emailing again. Last Monday we came into Page and played sports, then my week of observation was up and a few Elders and I did some talking.

Well it was a wonderful week. Things in the area already seem to be looking up. So far this week we have as many lessons as we did total last week. There is going to be a lot of knocking and a lot of finding going this week.

We had stake conference this week and we were with Elder Larry Echo Hawk of the Seventy and out Mission President was there too. It was such a wonderful experience. There was a lot of talk about missionary work. About how the Lord will judge us based on what we did with what we have. Just lots of wonderful stuff. My 2 favorite quotes from it were- "Lack of Knowledge is the great discomforter" and the other "You experienced miracles, don't explain them away."

Okay now for the highlight of the week. I will keep this short and not too detailed since there may be a legal case. Saturday night all of the Elders stayed the night at the zone-leader's house for stake conference the next morning. We were unloading our luggage out of the back of our truck when the whit car that was parked 50 feet behind us started playing music really loudly. The car then spun out and came straight at the truck to swerve at the last second. He hit the truck, an elder's suitcase and nicked of the elders. The man pulled over and began to talk to us. He was drunk. I talked with him as a phone call was placed to out mission president and to the police. Just before the Police arrived the man started to walk away, to leave the scene. The Police came and talked to us and we told them that the man was down the street trying to leave. One of the officers tracked him down, and  because  the man tried to resist he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. We gave a report then he was hauled off with a DWI, Hit and Run, and an Assault charge. Only the Elder who got hit and I really saw what happened so we may be asked to testify, hopefully not. The Elder who was hit walked away with nothing more than ripped pants and a scratch in his hip. The Lord was watching us.

Well Have a great week. Will talk more on Monday.

Elder Dallin Warnick

Page District

Elder Warnick and Elder Anderson

Missionaries Serving in the Page Arizona Stake with Elder Larry Echo Hawk (middle back)

Nothing Much to Say

August 13, 2015

Kaibeto, Arizona

Well I am in Kaibeto now. My address is

PO Box 1555

Kaibeto AZ 86053

It fun being back on the reservation but I am kind of disappointed with the missionaries here. There has been a lot of disobedience here and things have really slacked off. I hope that I will be able to help bring some self-respect to this area of the mission. My area is pretty slow. The 2000 census reports there being around 330 occupied residences but last year half of those homes were condemned and are being rebuilt. Sadly everyone who lived there not only moved out of their house but they moved out of the area. There is a lot of work that needs to be done here and I am just observing for now and as the end of this week draws nigh I am developing more and more of a vision of what needs to happen and how I can help implement that plan. Things seem like they will be better most people are new here. The area next to us got white washed and one is a good elder, Elder Butterfield and  the other is a trainee from Atlanta, Georgia Elder Rainey. Then we have Sister Navarro, who I came out with, in Page who is training. We have the zone leaders Elder Hancock, who I knew in Utah, and his companion Elder Peterson. Then there are the Lechee elders, I don't really know them. Then there are the Echo Cliffs/ Bitter Springs elders. Elder Vickers and his trainee Elder Erikson, from Rexburg. I get along pretty great with Elder Erikson, Butterfield and Rainey. My companion is Elder Anderson. He is from Taylorsville Utah. He is a swell guy.

Oh yeah now we email on Thursdays. so yeah...

Thanks for everything y'all.

And He's Out of Here

August 10, 2015

Cortez, Colorado 

Well transfers are here and I am getting transferred to Kaibeto, Arizona. It appears that my purpose in Anglo-Land is complete. Elder Castro is going back to Bloomfield and back to speaking Spanish and he is stoked and Elder Sessions is going to be training and District Leader. That will either be really good for him or really bad for him, but the Lord qualifies them who he calls. I will actually be step-training in Kaibeto. His trainer is getting transferred or going home and so I will be finishing up his training for the next transfer. This week was good. We had a lot of people to see and then we spent all of yesterday saying good bye to people. It was hard but not too bad since I wasn't here for much more than a month. I don't have much to say for this week, I will let you all know next week how Kaibeto is.

Elder Warnick

 

Saying Good-byes 

The Antablian Family

Brother Nielson

Bill

Edward Family

McFarlands

Mikkelsons

 

Paul & Shirley

Pixler Family

Stepp Family

Cook Family

DJ and Bro. Vreeken

Brother Riffey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roxie