Huff in Bluff

June 15, 2015
Bluff, Utah

Well it has been one hot week and everywhere I go I am sweating and huffing. Yesterday I sweated through everything I was wearing. It is not only hot but it has also been strangely humid because of all of the storms that we have had. This week we had 3 more tornadoes come through. I never thought that anywhere on this mission I would be living in TORNADO ALLEY. Well the hot weather warranted a Buzz Cut which feels really nice. This week was also the end of the caterpillar migration. For the past 3 weeks we have had numberless caterpillars crawling around everywhere that you look. First they were all over the road and then all over the plants. At first we tried not to kill the future butterflies and then after an investigator did some research we discovered that they were actually moths and we started a search and destroy mission.

We have had some more wonderful work going on this week, which means that last week wasn't just a fluke! (: We are working very hard and the only thing that is stopping us is the priorities of the people. Many of them here, and I am sure everywhere else, seem to think that rodeos and Níídaah (or a Squaw Dances) are more important than coming to church. We have been teaching a great family but the best part of it is the names of the Children. First we have the eldest son who is 10 Leland. Then Sovana who is 9, but the best is to follow. She is a 3 or 4 year old girl named Chubby Boo Boo. Well that is how she introduced herself and that is what her family calls her. Her real name is Sadie but that's not what they call her. 

examples;

Us: "Hi what's your name?"  Her: "Boo Boo, Chubby Boo Boo"

Her: "Here puppy"  Mother: "Chubby! Go put some shoes on."

Well another thing that happened this week was the ambush of children. We began to walk up to a group of 3 houses and we see 6 of 7 kids out in the distance standing in a group. They saw us and one, who seemed to be the leader, motioned. They all vanished but him. As we got closer we could see a little movement here and there and the leader just stood with his staff and watched us. We knocked on a door where no one answered and because we were so uncomfortable we left. As soon as we reached the safety of the truck we looked back to see him on the top of a small hill watching us and then the children all rose from behind the hill and stood there with him and all waved. That was an experience unlike anything I have had happen on my mission it could have been a movie ambush scene. 

Oh and just a little side note. We did some service and found some old rabbit or fox traps. The metal kind that have jaws that clamp around the foot. Well she gave them to us because we thought that they were so cool.

An explanation on the pictures. Obviously I am eating a churro in one. The other 2 are the work being done at the church/our house. They are zero-scaping and have taken up all of the grass and are putting in a new watering system. In doing this they dug a 1.5 foot wide and 2 feet deep trench around our house for some pipes but the big storms came through and filled it. It has been full of water since last Wednesday. I have always wondered what it would be like to have a moat around my house and now I know. That all for this week.

Elder Warnick

Oh we also helped / mostly watched a nasty goat get butchered. And we got to help set up for a squaw dance.

Moat 1

Moat 2

 eating a churro 

This is a funny little story in a reply Elder Warnick sent in response to my letter:

Hey family!

It sounds like everything has been fun at home. Football has picked up and people are playing away. How are all of the summer chores going? Especially the garden, I know in the past that I have done anything that I could to have nothing to do with the garden but ever since being part of the Garden Project in Polacca I have been hooked. Some of my favorite mission buddies are going home this transfer, It is only 5 weeks so this is the last week of the transfer, the next one will be 7 weeks. Elder Tippetts my 2nd companion is going home and so will Elder Patterson. Well I was going to send this a couple of hours ago but our power went out. Here is the story behind that. The power guy showed up about 1/2 an hour ago and hey pulled in for the very little thing that needed to be changed, but he drove right into a mud hole. His back left tire is not visible because of how deep it is and the front left is off of the ground. We tried to pull him out with a big Ford but he didn't budge. Well the power is back on and he is just waiting for the tow truck to come and help. The thing that the senior couple were snickering about the most is that the company motto on the side of the truck is "Do the Bright Thing" and he drove straight into that puddle. Well that's it for tonight. Love you guys.