We ate dinner in Gallup at the Sizzler Restaurant, the first commercial lease I did as a real estate broker while developing the Little Bears Plaza Shopping Center. The owners are giving missionaries a 50% discount, so we had steak and lobster.
We then drove back to Farmington arriving home about 9:30 pm a long day.
Our next outing was to go on a Canyon De Chelly trip with all the senior couples. We drove to Chinle with a pick-up full of furniture so we could make good use of our time. When we loaded the furniture in the pick-up Sister Langkilde insisted that we take a tarp in the event it rained. I didn't want to take it.
Well, to her glee and my misgivings it did rain just as we were crossing over Buffalo Pass so we had to stop during the storm and cover the furniture. I will always be reminded to listen to Sister Langkilde!!!
We met the other Senior Couples at the Chinle Church building and ate lunch, then loaded up in the 4x4 vehicles that some brought and headed for Canyon De Chelly.
We had a wonderful time exploring a part of the canyon that our guide (a sister member and her husband) has lived in during as a child.
Her family still owns the area we explored. She showed us where her grandmother was buried near an old ruin in the picture below.
We saw a lot of petrographic markings on various parts of the canyon walls.
The circular one on the left side of this photo was of particularly interest to me which later I found a possible explanation for during a trip to First Mesa. I will explain more later in the blog.
We went up to the end of a splinter of the canyon to a spring.
We even saw some small sand dunes.
She also showed us were her home used to be, but now is nothing but rocks laying on the ground.
On a second trip to Indian Wells we had Elder and Sister Jones with us, who came back to the mission for another six months.
We dropped off a king bed set and two recliners to a new senior couple (Jensen's) and then made a round trip w stops at Second and then First Mesa.
Then we drove to Dilkon and inspected the trailers where the Elders stay. One Elder was from American Samoa. It was fun relating him our experiences while we were in Samoa about 20 years ago for a Langkilde World Reunion.
Then on our way home we went to First and Second Mesa the heart of Hopi land. We were pulling a trailer so got into some tight spots on top of Second Mesa. While there we were advised not to pull the trailer to the top of First Mesa or we might not make it back.
We left the trailer here, then drove on to the top of First Mesa.
On First Mesa Sister Langkilde and I had a wonderful experience. While watching the Hopi me dance a older gentleman (a Hopi) asked if we wanted a tour. Having been there some thirth years ago and remembering that I was not able to go on the edge of the mesa due to its sacredness, said yes, hoping maybe he would take us there. Sure enough we were able to go. He explained some fascinating things to us.
When asked about the dance we had watched (they danced in a single file circle), he said it represented a migration of the Hopi's to the area. Then he got down on his knees and drew a circle in the sand similar to the petrographic picture on the wall in Canyon De Chelly, remember? Interesting!He then proceeded to stomp on the rock floor of the narrow mesa, and asked if we could hear an echo. I looked over the edge some thirty feet down and saw what appeared to be a hatch coming out of the side of the shear canyon wall and asked if there were caverns under us? He said I was astute, that there were in fact caverns and they represented several things depending where they were. Some areas were used to keep the women, children and prisoners during an attach by their enemies. Some other areas were sacred, similar to the womb of a women where while below they experienced a cleansing ceremony and were anointed with white corn oil, then would be given a new name and come out clean.
There were other great stories he told us such as how it took the men four years of going through different trials before they were ready for a certain level of acknowledgement by the tribal members.
Another story I found interesting later while doing some research was that the Hopi's do an annual trek to the Aztec's in Mexico who they feel are their cousins. They are to also have a special stone with Aztec symbols on it with a part broken off, which a great white God will bring back to them some day. When Cortez invaded their area after leaving Mexico they fought him due to him not having the stone with him. The Mexicans treated him as the great white God (Quetzalcoatl) and many were killed having no such belief to verify who he was.
We then visited the Senior Couple in Polacca and saws their gardens which is a reservation project.
In the Dulce Branch they release first councilor Bro. Knowlton and replaced him with Bro. Palmer plus sister Myra has a second councilor now a Sister Palmer.
We attended a Children of Lehi conference emphasizing the Native Americans and church ordinances. It was great, especially the featured speaker the previous President Gilmore from the Tuba City Stake. He was on placement then married a white lady in the temple. Went inactive for seventeen years while being involved with the AIM"s (American Indian Movement). Later left them and then became active again becoming an Elders Quorum President, Bishop and then Stake President for eight years. He said when he went to Honduran to pick up his son from his mission he felt he had come full circle. In other words, he felt that the natives in Central American were part of his ancestors.
We even took a KFC dinner with us one evening.
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