Elder Warnick in the Land of Enchantment: Week 12 in Hopi

November 17, 2014

Polacca, AZ

Lolo ma (hello) everyone,

Well I hit three months this week... It's strange to think about.

I thought that it was supposed to be warm in Arizona! This week was cold. We have been waking up to 45 degree temperatures in our trailer and outside the temperatures are below 10 degrees. However the Housing Coordinator, Elder James came out today and helped us with our trailer now it is ready for the winter and we should be good. We put lots of insulation in and did a ton more stuff. He told us that our "trailer is honestly the worst in the whole mission." Then he told us that we also have the least complaints than anywhere else in the mission. Boy we are awesome!

That's how cold it got inside... it's frost!

This week was the legendary exchange. I was in Polacca with Elder Christensen from Boise all week but Hooton was in multiple areas. We started a legend with this. Now on my side of the week Elder Christensen broke his glasses so we called President and Sister Batt and they said since we are only an hour away from Holbrook to go. So we did. It was awesome there were people!!! We also ate at Carl's Jr.

Eating at Carl's Jr.

Elder Christensen

But that's not all. We were driving around killing time until the eye doctor opened again when we came across a couple of elders tracting. So we put on sunglasses and covered our name tags with our hands and followed them. They kept looking back at us and they knew it was a mission truck (a white Tacoma with New Mexico plates) but they don't know who it was. Hopefully they think that is was the Assistants to the President checking up on them.

Elder Christensen and I also got to eat dinner on the Mesa! We went to the feast with a member of the branch and we ate! Just like you do anywhere on the Hopi reservation, but we got to eat deer and elk Hominy stew. It was awesome!

This week was the Phoenix Temple dedication. It was so hard telling people that they can't come to church this week. ): But it was such an awesome experience. We also watched the last half hour of the cultural celebration. There was one part of it that was awesome. At the end the kids all sang 'Called to Serve' and all of the missionaries in the Phoenix Mission marched out carrying flags of where they are from and they stood there as the song went on. It kind of moved me, just thinking about how awesome it is to be on a mission.

Elder Hooton and I also did a lot of tracting this week (our mission is one of the few that still knocks doors as a regular activity). We love walking around on dirt roads and trails trying to find people to talk to...especially when it is 20 degrees with 16 mph winds. But I really do love it out here.