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| The picture of me crying at the sign indicating how far away we were from the California border. |
First I will explain the pictures I'm sending: We
had a crazy fun two hour drive to St. Michaels last week for exchanges.
Why did they assign us a Sister Training Leader who lives a billion
miles away? I'll never know. But we had a blast, and enjoyed talking and
sharing stories during the ride up. I told Sister Garcia about the time
I put a snail on my hand to avoid holding hands with a boy. That's a
Sister Valdez Classic. Also I love snails and miss them cause they
pretty much don't exist here ever. There was a ridiculous amount of dust
at one point, and very beautiful clouds towards the end of the day. The
last picture is a tribute to "Kyle" who I can only assume died at this
same gas station we got lost and stranded at. We were freaking out
calling our leader since it was ten minutes till curfew, little did we
know that she had lost her phone at a members house and was freaking out
trying to find it. I left a voicemail nervously singing "Heeyyyy
sisters, we're stuuuck at a gas station... and I think we might get..
stabbed.to.death. BYE!" Which we laughed about later once we were safe
("safe") in their tiny little dirty trailer next to the church building.
I slept on a big red rocking chair similar to the one the Heymans used
to have, the kind you can just sink into.
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| driving to the Rez |
Exchanges were fun though, we met a lot more natives, got to see what the reservation is like over there. Our leader is Sister Nava and she's one of the few other hispanic sisters in this mission. (Brown power!) Her companion is Sister Clark who is beyond the point of awkward and completely adorable and I want to wrap her up and stick a bow on her head. She is, in fact, the third person I've met on my mission who has the same love of websites and TV shows that I do. There was much screaming and giggling occurring in our part of the exchange together.
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| and I convinced Sister Garcia to be a handstand master like unto myself |
"So... Do you... get a lot of flies?"
*mild applause* Very well done, Sister Garcia. Good form, good form.
Our miles are shot this month since our tire got a slow leak and we
had to drive to Farmington twice, along with the trip to St. Micheal's
and our Zone Conference in Bloomfield, we will be walking lots. That's
all I have to say.
Someone fed us taco salad with Doritos, which changed my life
forever. And our beloved Sister Johnson got Emergency Transferred to
Dove Creek, so I am beyond the point of devastation.
Things
are lining up for the baptism this weekend and I am super excited,
especially for Sister Garcia since this will be her first!
Oh yeah one more thing I wanted to mention, Dad asked about 4th of
July. 4th of July here in Kirtland is like President's Day in Taiwan. It
meant very little. Well.. I over dramatized that. People did set off
fireworks all night. But during the day pretty much the whole town went
to Farmington or went out camping so this place was a ghost town.
HOWEVER. Pioneer day is the world's biggest event. People have been
talking about it since Sister Garcia got here in February. It's
seriously the hugest deal since... since.. anything. So it's pretty much
a three day celebration, dances, parties, picnics, PARADES. What did
you say...? Did you just ask me.... if I was going to be on a FLOAT? Why
yes. Yes I am. How'd you know? What a clever little thing you are.
Yesterday I wrote a song about a grasshopper that involved silly
voices and sang it all during tracting and I think Sister Garcia
contemplated beating me to death with her bag.
Probably the
greatest miracle this week were the tiny miracles. Especially last
Monday, because I was an emotional wreck. I think even just a fly
landing on my arm would've made me burst into tears. I cried all during
writing letters (for no apparent reason at all), suddenly remembered how
my dog died last year and decided to cry about that too, cried on the
way to dinner with Sister Garcia's tears accompanying mine as well
because we started talking about mothers. Before going into dinner we
wiped our little baby faces and I looked at her and asked:
"How in the world am I going to walk into that house and see a mother feeding and loving her children and not start sobbing?"
We
collected ourselves and braved into their house. This was the family
I've talked about before, less active husband, semi active mom, adorable
kids, one of which gave me an arrowhead because he's adorable. We get
in there and play it cool like we weren't just blubbering about being
randomly homesick. We enjoy dinner, and then the young mother asked us
about how we can only go to Farmington once a month. She freaked out
about having fresh produce (like any good mother would), and grabbed a
list, and insisted we tell her what fruits and veggies we like. She made
a long list and bought us grapes, strawberries, cut us some pineapple,
got me this fruit juice that I really like. And I don't think she
realizes what a difference that makes. Because on that exact day, all I
needed was a little love from a mommy. The Lord knew that and I am
grateful for tender mercies.
I love you all and hope your week goes great!
I miss everybody like the madness,
also I wish I could pinch everyone individually wherever it hurts the most!
xoxxo
Sister Valdez
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