SANDERS

THE POCKET OVER HIS HEART!

NUMBER ONE!!!!

GO FORTH AND SPREAD THE WORD OF THE LORD

ELDER SEARLE AND ELDER RUHTON

So time is winding down out here and I only have one more week left which is just about the weirdest thing ever! I feel like it is still so far away! I think I have just convinced myself that I will be out here forever which is a good thing cause it keeps me working hard! At this point I am just sitting here trying to soak it all in because I know I will never get this opportunity again for the rest of my life! It has been fun! I have learned so much out here and although it scares me a little bit to go back home I can’t wait to take the things that I have learned out here and bring them back home and use them every day! I am so excited to see my family it’s hard to believe it has been two years since I have last seen them! I know this church is true I would not have spent these past 24 months away from my family if it wasn’t! I Love the Navajo people they have honestly became my family! I know that if we do what is right we are blessed because of it! I’m grateful for every second I have served out here it wasn’t always easy but through the good and the bad I have learned so much! I want to thank everyone that has helped me out on my mission and been there for me and all the prayers that have been sent my way they have helped so much! Take care and we will see you soon!

So this past week was pretty busy we had the opportunity to go branding with our branch president that was so much fun we had a blast!  It brought back some good old memories of doing that back home with my buddies Kade and Kade!  Anyway Saturday night we were out trying to visit this couple that lives way back about 7 miles down this dirt road into the middle of no where!  So we get our there and we missed the turn to there house so we turn around and right as we get about 2 ft off the road we get stuck so instead of digging we were just going to call someone to come pull us out well no service haha we would have had to walk back about 6 miles to get service!  haha so we were pretty well stuck it just so happened that this happened at about 7 at night!  So I went to get into the back of the truck to get the shovel because my whole mission I have always had a shovel in the back of the truck especially for moments like this!  Well as I look back there it was gone so for 3 hours we dug ourselves out i felt like bear grills getting tree branches and sage brush and putting them under the tire to get unstuck I ended up having to jack the truck up with the jack and then putting the branches under each tire but we finally got out haha and barely got home in time it was a crazy experience haha but I know the lord answered our prayer that night anyway we have been having some fun its fun having four elders living so close to one another!  I love you all and hope you have a great week!  

The Wide Ruins Church House

Beautiful Horses

So over this past week things were pretty good!  Im still trying to adjust to the new area its weird living so far away from home and not being able to come back to the house for lunch and having to try to take something with you!  I hate that I miss warm food haha but its all good.  I love being way out there!  Church was great this week, we really pushed to try to get more people there this week!  We were able to have about 8 people there!  It was great to see!  We spent a lot of time tracting this past week, just knocking on door after door!  I get frustrated sometimes because it's hard to try to stay so positive after you hear no's for a long time.  Honestly the Navajo people are so great they are really nice about it!  We found a new guy who was awesome.  We sat right down with him and talked about the restoration.  He mentioned the struggles that he is going through, how him and his wife just separated because she got hooked on meth.  He has 2 beautiful little girls and he knows it's not safe for them.  It was great to talk to him.  We had a great lesson, and we invited him to church.  He showed up it was awesome!  I am loving Wide Ruins it is hard at times but we all need to be tested in life to become stronger!  Thanks for everything!

So wow, it has been a busy fun week!  So as you know I got transferred to Wide Ruins, AZ!  Which is a little tiny town on the Navajo rez!  I would guess we have about 400 people in our whole area!  The homes are very spread out!  We live in Sanders, AZ which is a bout 30 minutes away, that you have to take a little dirt road to get to!  We started out last week by doing some branding and castrating cattle it was so much fun!  I love doing that kind of stuff we had the Sanders Elders with us as well too so that was fun!  One of the bulls that we were castrating, I was trying to take it down and flip it over and in the process it stomped on my foot pretty good.  Haha so for the past week my foot has been pretty swollen and it looks pretty cool so that was fun!  Later on in the week we had a pine wood derby with the branch in Sanders.  Since Wide Ruins is not quite a branch yet all of the activities we do with the Sanders Branch so it is so much fun.  My first day they handed me a Pine Wood Derby car told me to carve it out and be ready to go by Thursday night (2 days).  I carved a pretty good looking car and colored it with the sharpie!  It has been a crazy week trying to get to know the area and the people.  I have met some good people that are very nice!  As I said before for church, we meet out in Wide Ruins.  There is a little abandoned house that someone lent the church, so the church has fixed it up and put a wood stove in there and that is where we meet for sacrament!  There is no running water and no electricity so it is sure something totally different!  Anyway so early Sunday morning we got up and headed out there to start the fire and get it warm for sacrament well it was sad because the no one showed up for church it was just us and a high councilmen from Holbrook, AZ.  I know that the Lord has sent me here for a reason and I know that there is work to be done here!  I love my new companion Elder Searle who is from Mesa, AZ.  He is a hard worker who I can really get a long with!  Anyway I love my new area I miss Sheep Springs.  Things here definitely are not the same but i will learn to love it! Take care and have a great week!

A very special family to Elder Rushton

Elder Rushton loves this family!

So this past week was weird it seems like week 6's always do that to you!  Anyway on Saturday I found out for the last time if I was being transferred or not!  I am going to be getting transferred which took me by complete surprise!  I have 5 weeks left of my mission so I just assumed I was going to stay here in Sheep Springs and just finish my mission out!  But nope I guess the Lord has bigger plans for me!  So I am going to be heading back to Arizona for a third time and going to a place called Wide Ruins!  Wide Ruins used to be in my zone when I was in Winslow!  So I know a little bit about that area!  If you remember me saying they meet for church in a little tiny house that was given to the church to use as a meeting place!  The house is no bigger than most peoples living rooms last I heard there was only about 6 to 7 people going to church there!  The house that they meet in does not have electricity and they have a wood stove that they use to heat up the place!  I think it is the elder’s job every Sunday morning to head out there and heat up the place and get it ready!  It is very very remote but I am really looking forward to it if anybody knows me they would know that this is exactly the kind of area I would love to serve in! You can really meet some of the humblest most amazing people in areas like this and that is what I’m most excited for!  I don’t want to be in a big city or some city rez area I want to be smack dab in the middle of nowhere with a Book of Mormon and an axe in my hand :)  I am very sad to be leaving Sheep Springs, NM!  I honestly thought I was going to finish my mission here!  The people here have been so good to me!  They have taken me in and treated me like family I will always remember Sheep Springs and the special time I have had here!  Take care and have a great week!

So this past week was great!  We had the chance to be able to start teaching someone new!  She is a new investigator who we found through a family that has just recently been baptized within the past 2 years!  It was so awesome we were able to have our first lesson with her at the member’s house who live right next door!  That is exactly what you want as a missionary is a family that will help in whatever way they can to fellowship someone who is learning about the church!  So that was great we taught her about the restoration and how the Church of Jesus Christ had to be restored and it was through the prophet Joseph Smith!  Later in the week we had the opportunity to help a lady who is starting a community garden!  So that was fun the community got together and we started on building the garden! It was awesome to see how many people showed up we got to meet a lot of the people in the community!  Little thing like that are the greatest way to be able to meet new people sometimes it isn’t always about finding new people to teach as much as it is just being able to be a good example and put the church name out there and being that follower and example of Jesus Christ because that is when people are curious and so it will lead them to ask questions!  Later in the week we also had a puppy show up at our house man this pup was in bad shape!  He was muddy and wet and cold and shivering so we brought him in and gave him a bath!  Then we fed him and let him loose well after that he liked us so much he wouldn’t leave ha-ha so we would leave for our appointments that day come home and night and he would just be sitting there waiting for us to come back!  We wanted to keep him so bad but we knew we shouldn’t so we were able to find a home for him so he is now safe and sound!  I had the chance to visit with my family yesterday that was fun it was so cool to be able to see my little nephew that was born it was my first time being able to see him since he was born!  I can’t wait to be able to hold him here shortly!  Happy late mother’s day to my mom and grandma's and all the other mothers that have always done so much for me thank you so much :)

Did some Branding with my friend David

Taught Primary with these kids.

So I will try to give a rundown of the last 2 weeks since I kind of forgot to send a weekly letter last week!  In the last two weeks we had a zone conference now this zone conference was a special one because it was my last one on my mission!  At your last zone conference you are expected to give what’s called a departing testimony!  It was the weirdest thing ever!  Throughout your whole mission you watch hundreds of other missionaries give there’s but in the back of your mind you really think that day will never come!  Well that day came and it was weird!  I will admit it was cool sitting back and watching a lot of the elder you came out with give theirs like Elder Peck, Makalio, Patterson, and many more!  I love a lot of those guys and we have become very good friends over the past two years and it was so fun to sit back and hear all the things we have learned over the past 2 years!  This past week we had the chance to have a branch barbeque it was way fun!  In the morning we decided to send a massive text out and invite everybody in our phone it turned out great we had a great turnout!  The weather was perfect we set up the volleyball net and we also played basketball!  It was a blast!  We had a lot of less actives come to the barbeque and in turn the fellowship there was great and they actually finally made it back to church this Sunday!  The more and more I spend my time here in Sheep Springs, NM I really truly feel like the work here is mainly for less actives!  Now a lot of people may say "no you always need to have investigators"  which yes I agree with but that is what we have tried my whole time here and I’m not going spend any more time working with investigators rather than working with less actives!  I have truly seen some miracles in my time here working with less actives so strongly!  I have watched an old branch president quit drinking completely and now be active in the church working on getting his temple recommend back!  I have watched a mother and grandmother who had such hard feeling for people at church and for the missionaries soften her heart and let us in her home and then even come to church for the past couple of weeks!  It’s been incredible to watch the Lord’s hands in all of this! Have a great week take care and happy mother’s day!  

Elder Rushton and Elder Allen from Herriman, Utah

Sheep Springs, its beautiful there!

So this past week we were pretty busy with a lot of things! We started our week out great last Tuesday when we had a great day we were able to have 5 lessons in just that one day which honestly is a rare occurrence here in sheep springs so that was very cool!  On Wednesday I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with a new elder that is in our district named Elder Allen he is an awesome kid on the drive back to sheep springs we got talking and he mentioned how he was from Utah before and I never knew where so I asked him and he said Herriman, Utah!  I said no way that is where my grandma lives awesome anyway we got talking and new exactly where my grandma lives because he would always go running down her road!  It was awesome it just goes to show how small of a world we live in!  Anyway on Sunday we were both asked to give talk so we got up and talk about the sacrifices we make in our lives due to the gospel! That dang Elder Houston gets up and gives about a 5 minute talk and goes and sits down and leaves me to give about a 30 minute talk ha-ha little brat!  Anyway they were both good talks and I feel like that was what the branch really needed to hear! Anyway love you guys have a great week take care!

SAYING GOODBYE TO ELDER KUNS

A VISIT FROM ELDER WEST

So this past week we had transfers and I was able to pick up my new companion his name is Elder Houston and he is from Austin, TX! I’m excited for this new transfer and to see what kind of work he have to be done! This past week we were busy we got a lot of lessons and a lot of appointments to go to! I love it when we are busy because that means it is fun and time flies! We also had a stake conference this week! So on Saturday we went down to Gallup, NM for the adult session which started at 6 pm! We spent the night with the Tohlakai Elders who live just outside of Gallup on the reservation then on Sunday morning we woke up and headed back to be able to go to the Sunday morning session which started at 10 am! There were some great talks there President and Sister Batt were also there and they gave some great talks as well! We had a good turn out from sheep springs I think we had about 12 sheep springs people there! It was great! We had the chance to be able to go up and do some wood hauling with some members here in Sheep Springs it was awesome I love being up on the mountain because honestly it is the only green place for 100 square miles! ha-ha It was cool we saw some deer and had a great time I have some pictures of the deer I’ll have to send home Anyway imp doing good I still love my mission each and every day and I know there are still things for me to learn out here! I couldn’t picture myself anywhere especially a big city! I am proud to say that after living on the rez for a year imp now an official rezneck! Anyway love you all take care and have a great week!

So this past week was pretty good!  We had a great district meeting!  I decided to train on being a little more focused as missionaries because I knew that was something that would help each one of us out!  So I decided to have each missionary in the district bring a picture of their family!  I had each missionary come up to the front and introduce their families and tell us experiences or things they miss or things that there family has taught them!  It was great not only did we get to learn about the background of each other and what kind of family we came from but also it was very spiritual some people even got emotional!  After they were done introducing there family I talked about how much of an example they are to each one of their families!  Ever since Elder Holland came down to our mission to speak I have always remembered one of the things he said to us!  He said "Be the kind of missionaries that your families think you are!" When there have been times when I have wanted to quit or wanted to just go back to the trailer and come in early for the night I have always remembered that quote!  I know my family especially my little bro probably think I’m the best missionary out here and I told the district that I know their families think the same way and how we should act like it!  We also talked about the strippling warriors and read Alma 56 and 57!  We talked about when they left to battle and how they and their families knew exactly what they were going to be doing! They knew there purpose and they were not going to stop until it was accomplished!  We are the same way we knew before we came out why we were coming out here and we know now what our purpose is!  The example of their mothers was really cool too how their mothers taught them well and they did not doubt!  I know it was the same for each of our mothers back home as well!  On Friday we had a funeral of one of the less active guys we had just found it was very sad to lose him you may remember one of my letters that I sent a month ago, where I told of a less active guy that we had found who was diagnosed with cancer.  Well sadly that cancer is what caused him to pass away it came over him a lot quicker then everyone was expecting what was amazing is we were able to share the plan of salvation with him the week before he passed away!  I know that he is resting peacefully!  He left his wife behind and she was very grateful for the help that we gave her for the funeral!  I have forgot to mention the funerals down here are a lot different then back home!  At 8 o’clock the morning of the funeral we got a call that said they were going to be needed help digging the grave out by their house so we grabbed our shovels and headed out there! We got done digging right as the funeral was about to start!  They don’t those hearses out here so they loaded up his casket in the back of his old 75 dodge pickup truck and gave him one last ride in his truck I thought that was really cool following behind the truck on the way to his grave spot!  Anyway it was a great service our branch president gave a great talk on the plan of salvation as well and we were able to meet a lot of new people there!  This week was also transfer news and I found out I will be staying in sheep springs!  I am very excited to see what the new transfer has to bring!  Elder Sparks will be leaving and heading to Sawmill, AZ I know he will have a great time with Elder Peck he is awesome!  Thanks for all you guys do and have a great week!~  

So this past week we had a lot of miracles take place!  As a district we were really pushing to meet our monthly goals!  Some of us were really behind on our monthly goal so we knew we were going to have to reach a little bit! Well I was very proud of everyone because we each either met our goals or came very very close to meeting them!  The one that stood out to me was how many new investigators we found!  Here in Sheep Springs we have had a hard time finding new investigators but this week we found 4!  It seemed like we could find so many less actives but the investigators were hiding somewhere! Well this week they came out of the wood work!  one of the 4 that really stands out in my mind was there was a white guy named rick that came running up to us at the gas station and told us he was really struggling in his life and how he needed help come to find out he actually lives in our area and we were able to get his number and where he lived and we were able to find him!  It was awesome!  We are really excited to be able to start and continue working with the new people we have found this week!  We also had a lot of fun at district meeting this week!  We have been working on making our district meetings really creative and having fun and learning that way rather than just reading everything out of the book!  So this past week we had a Frisbee toss contest and a nerf gun war ha-ha that all had to do with working with the ward leaders it was very very fun to do!  It kept everyone entertained and no one was dozing off so I say it turned out great!  The sisters also provided a lunch for us they brought steaks and chips and drinks it was awesome!  But yet they didn’t know how to cook steaks so we had to cook them for them???? Ha-ha good thing that me and Elder Kuns are grilling masters! Ha-ha Anyway all in all it turned out for a great week!  We also had a cook out on Monday with the Elders in the district we went up to the mountain and grilled out it was very very fun!  Anyway take care and have a great week!

So this past week was a really good one there was a lot that went on!  On Thursday we had interviews with our mission president, President Batt!  Those happen about every 3 months! I really look forward to being able to sit down with President Batt because he is a great guy and there is a lot to learn from him!  So that was nice to be able to visit with him!  I love the fact that there are over 150 missionaries that president is over, but for 15 minutes, we get to sit down just one on one with him!  He really gave me a lot of great advice on how to finish my mission strong and how really these last couple months are what are going to determine how I live the rest of my life.  Also how it would set the course for the rest of my life!  It was great to be able to visit with him! We also had another fun experience this week when me and Elder Sparks were in bed at about11 p.m. at night and all of the sudden we got a huge loud knock at our door!  Well the thing out here on the reservation is, you never knock on peoples doors at night, especially at 11 pm at night.  So I got up out of bed and went to the door and looked out the window and there were 3 drunk guys trying to get into our house.  Ha-ha it was pretty scary cause I could hear them moving the door handle and trying to open the living room window!  But I decided instead of going outside and kicking them out I would just go back to bed!  So that’s what I did!  So then at 12 am we both wake up to the same thing again knocking and pounding on the door so we just stayed in bed until they finally left!  So finally we thought we were good so we went back to bed!  Then we woke up to pounding and a lot of wrestling with the door handle at about 1:30 at this point I was sick and tired of it.  I had to be the bad guy, I opened the door and scared the heck out of the two of them (there was only two of them this time idk where the other one went) and told them if they didn’t get out of our property they would be spending the night in jail!  Ha-ha it was funny watching them run away and falling every 5 feet!  After that we finally got some sleep!  It’s crazy the things we experience out here!  It was funny seeing the look on Elder Sparks face after I walked back into the room for the third time mad as I can be after I just yelled at them!  Don’t wake me up at 1 in the morning to a pounding on the door!  Anyway it was a great week and we saw a lot of people this week! You’re not going to believe this either, but we found some new less actives!  No new investigators but yep we found some new less actives!  So that was awesome anyway take care have a great week!

So this past week was so much of the same!  This might make you laugh but we found a new less active family again this week.  No new investigators but yep new less actives!  It has been amazing how prepared these less actives have been to be able to receive the gospel once again!  They almost all have the same story and that is that they once went on the Indian placement program got baptized and now have not been to church since!  The couple we found this week were probably in there 60's and the husband actually just got diagnosed with cancer and found out he is going to have to be going through chemotherapy!  You can tell he is a little shaken up from it as anyone would be but he is looking for something to put his faith him to be able to help him through these struggles!  We found him by simply meeting with one of the old Branch Presidents who lives here who has been going through a hard time.  He has been recently coming back to church but has been off the straight and narrow for quite some time now!  It’s sad to see someone such as a Branch President lose a testimony that used to be so strong!  He is doing really good lately and has been making a lot of changes in his life.  We asked him if there is anyone he knew that we could see that we could help out! He sent us over to the house where these new people live.  I love the Navajo people so much!  They are such strong faithful people and the humble ones are honestly the most faithful people I will ever meet in my life!  I love being around them and they make my day that much better!  No matter what struggle they go through in their lives they always have the faith to push through it!  Anyway it’s been super nice out here now that the sun has come out.  It has been really good weather!  That makes for a lot of fun :) hope you all take care and have a great week :)

So it's official this week I officially became an uncle, I was so excited he is such a cute little guy!  I can't wait to be able to see him when I get home!  He is going to be my little buddy!  Anyway things down here this week have been really good! We found this new less active family that lives about 6 miles up in the mountains this week!  It was so awesome me and Elder Sparks had nothing to do Saturday afternoon so we decided to see where one of the roads we have never gone on would lead to and to see if anyone lived up it!  We saw that somebody had been driving up and down the road for quite a while,  we promised that if we found any houses up that road that we would tract them!  So we did and man the very last house on the road that we got to, we got out of the truck and started walking up and instantly we could see for some reason this guy was very excited to see us! (Which was very unusual because we have been pretty used to the opposite reaction ha-ha)  So we started talking with him, turns out he was baptized a while back and he needed some help hauling wood into his house so he asked us for help!  We started helping him anyway long story short he is an awesome guy he is a really do it your selfer.   He said that we could come back anytime and sit down and read the Book of Mormon with him so we were really excited!  Anyway later in the week we had a lot of opportunities to chop some wood, a lot of the old ladies called us needing help this week so we always love to be able to help them out it was fun!  It was a rough day at church yesterday, not a whole lot of people showed up I think because of the time change and there was also a high school basketball game clear across the state so everyone got back late from that!  Anyway things are good here in sheep springs I'm loving it and it has been fun! I'm running out of time on the computer so I have to run!  

So this past week was pretty crazy!  We woke up to about 9 inches of snow this week and then it all melted away and then on Saturday we woke up to about 6 inches of snow!  So there has definitely been a lot of snow around here lately!  Which has led us to doing a lot of service projects!  On each of those days it snowed we took the church's snow shovel and we shoveled all the sidewalks at the church and then we went out and shoveled all the single ladies driveways and porches here in sheep springs we shoveled walkways out to their wood piles so they would be ok and wouldn’t be tripping or falling it made us feel really good and I could really tell it meant a lot to them!  We also chopped a lot of wood to help people get ready for the storm and even chopped some during the storm ha-ha it was a snowy experience!  But it was a blast!  Now that all the snow has melted it has just left us with nothing but mud everywhere!  Our truck is so so muddy and every time we even step out of the truck we sink about 3 inches in the mud!  Ha-ha it has made for a muddy mess at first I kind of liked it I thought it was super cool now I’m just tired of all the mud ha-ha.  It has been hard as well, we have not been able to go too far off the main roads because of all the mud or we would definitely get stuck!  So, we have been playing it safe to a point ha-ha anyway not much this week just a lot of service!  Its crazy down here the people that live too far off the main road are not able to come out of their houses at all or else they will get stuck so if they need groceries they have to wait until about 2 AM in the morning before they leave there house so the mud will be frozen so they won’t get stuck and then they have to come back around that time the same night!  I swear sometimes I feel like I’m serving in a foreign country and I love it!  I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!  Take care and have a great week!

Pretty cool photo!  Normal occurance to see horses wandering through the town.

Cole's bed is the one with the blue blanket on it.  

So this past week went by really fast!  It was a very busy week!  On Tuesday and Wednesday we decided to do exchanges with the Tolechi and Tohatchi Elders!  I went to Tohlechi and this time we did it with both Elder Lowe and Vickers!  Elder Sparks went with Tohatchi Elders, Elder Kuns and Gray!  Me and Elder Lowe and Vickers had a great day in Tolechi we had a lot of fun and I was able to meet some amazing people in their area!  I can really tell that hat branch really does appreciate those two elders!  Later in the week I had the chance to go one exchanges with the Zone leaders in Gallup!  We had a pretty good day!  We went tracting for a couple of hours and met and talked to a lot of people!  This week not much went on here in sheep springs!  We chopped a lot of wood once again!  We are really trying to be like Ammon in all that we do! I love the story of Ammon!  If we serve the people then they will know how much we care and the miracles in our area will continue to show!  I love my mission I think I tell Elder Sparks that every day that we have one of the best missions in the world!  It’s so unique and I know I have truly grown so much since I first came out here! Thanks for Everything!  Have a great week!  

Found this puppy in a cave.  I wanted him so bad!

Awesome Hogan we found

Bum Lambs, aren't they so cute!

Feed my sheep!