St Michael's (photos from Dana Prescott)

pictures

Packing madness and Lawrence

Here's all my junk...

then a goodbye to Deb's son Lawrence.  When we asked how we should pose, he said to be "angry." Isn't he cute?


old companion

new companion

letter from Ludene - cutest recent convert of my life

news from St Michaels

I'm currently on the slowest computer of my life... so, this is going to be exciting! I hope I'm able to get everything in.  Oh wow, and now I'm figuring out that I left my email list in the trailer!  Bah!  This is going to be super scattered now.

Well, I'm officially serving in St. Michael's now.  And it's been so good.  It's nice being on the reservation again.  It feels normal, until we go to sacrament meeting on Sunday.  I think there was a grand total of **maybe** 30 people there on Sunday.  I thought Gallup was kinda small in number... they're huge now in my mind!  I think I'm going to go into shock when I get back to Utah.  There's gonna be way too many people.  

So, I'm now with Sister Porter.  She's from Pleasant Grove, UT, and is possibly in the same stake as Grandma and Grandpa Cardon.  If not, then she's in Jeff and Rebecca's stake.  We tried to figure it out, but couldn't.  But it's nice being able to talk about Utah things and have her follow along 100%.  And both of her parents are cosmetologists!  So we can talk hair as well :)  She's so great.  She's been out for 5 months now, and we're working well together so far.

It rained a LOT this past week!  There's actually green out here!!! And we have grass outside of our trailer!!!!!!!!!!  I haven't had grass where I've lived the entire mission.  It's so weird, but so great.  But one day it was just pouring down buckets.  And so Sister Porter asked me if it was kosher to go out and run in the rain... I didn't see why not, so we did!  We froliced around the parking lot to the church (cause our trailer is directly behind the church) and enjoyed ourselves.  Sister Porter more than me, cause it turned into hail partway through, but it was still fun.  It's looking like she's gonna get the fun side out of me once again.  I'm looking forward to it.  

Final goodbyes were hard in Gallup.  Monday/Tuesday we saw Marie Williams - a returning less active - and it was the saddest thing ever.  Man.  I asked her to say the closing prayer in Navajo one last time and she started crying during it.  All I understood was aheehee (thank you) and Sister Cardon throughout the entire thing, but the feeling of love was so strong during our visit.  I'm gonna miss her so much.  And then Deb's goodbye.  It was hard, but still enjoyable too. She invited us over for chocolate pudding Monday night and then we took lots of pictures.  It was good :)

Unpacking... it's not even fair how long it takes to pack, and then you can unpack in minutes.  I was pretty much done unpacking in 2 meal hours.  Dumb.

Miracle of the week - On Friday night we got 4 new investigators and all 4 were put on date for baptism!!! :D  We were teaching our lesson, and then Brandon (the older member brother) turns to one of the kids and says "didn't you want to ask the Sisters something?" and then the little boy says "yeah, can I be baptized?"  Then the 3 other boys say "yeah, I want to be baptized to!"  ... It was the craziest thing ever.  I was shocked.  But I won't complain!  We're excited to work with them :)  we got a total of 7 new investigators this week!  Now we just need to keep moving forward.  The work is definitely coming along.  I'm so excited to keep trying my best out here.

Oh!  And I totally got to use my broadway knowledge in a door approach the other day!  We asked the guy if he had read the Book of Mormon before and he said he had seen the musical.  I got super excited just in the fact that he liked broadway.  We told him the book is always better than the musical, and he accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon!  I loved geeking out over theater for a quick minute.

...That's all I can think of for now... Sorry, there was probably something more that I'm forgetting.  Like the fun fact that our neighbors are the Elders.  That's weird.  Even weirder that Elder Larsen, one of my first Zone Leaders, is one of them and he'll be finishing out his mission here.  Mission life is strange.  Maybe those who read that won't think it sounds strange, but I feel like it is.  I'm in such a bubble right now... :\

Well, I love you all and hope you're doing well!!!!

Love,

Becca

food and shirts!

What I feasted on all this week, 

then matching shirts! :D

Goodbyes are HARD!

We saw Mary one last time yesterday.  So sad to say goodbye!

Our District this past transfer, minus the Zone Leaders


and then the Chee Family.  Saying goodbye to the Chee's just made me cry.  I love that family SO much!

And guess what!!

I FINISHED PERSONAL PROGRESS!!!! And got my medallion yesterday at church!!! :D

Goodbyes are rough

Well, transfer calls came in and I'm sadly leaving Gallup.  But, it's okay because I'm only transferring over to St. Michael's which is miraculously the closest Sister area outside of Gallup being only 30 minutes away.  The next closest Sisters are about 2 hours away.  SO, I might be able to come back for the Chee's baptism!!!!! I'm really really really hoping that's the case.

NEW ADDRESS!!!!!

P.O BOX 203

St Michaels AZ, 86511

 So send lots of mail there :)

It's also exciting going back to the Rez.  I was thinking about it, and I'm pretty sure that there hasn't been a Sister that's served on the Rez twice in their mission, so I'm excited to be the first!  And I'm excited to be fully surrounded by brown people once again.  I love Natives with all my heart.

Goodbyes in Gallup were awful though.  We went over to our 99 year old widows... they just broke my heart.  First Sister Olive, who taught us how to crochet, and while I was saying the prayer I couldn't even get through it because I was crying.  Then Mary... aw, sweet Mary!  She gave us some of her handmade cards.  Bah, I died.  She's just the cutest lady ever.  Then the Chee's... man... tears in sacrament meeting!  Kim was darling, she was saying how much she was gonna miss me and how much she had learned from me.  Which surprised me because she was always really quiet whenever I was around, no matter how hard I tried to get her out of her shell.  So that was precious.  Then we went over to Deb's for dinner... wasn't too bad, but mostly because we're seeing her again tonight for dessert.  I love these people SO MUCH!  I wanted 6 more weeks in Gallup, that was it, but it's okay.  I'll survive.  I know that going to St. Michaels is what needs to be done at this time.

It's just hard, cause things were just starting to really move forward.  Sister Brown and I even made Thank You cookies!  We made a batch of Grandma Cardon's chocolate chippers and delivered those with thank you notes to members that come out with us consistently.  It was really neat, and I loved showing our appreciation that way.

And Sister Brown and I had just started an intense game of mission scrabble.  It was on going for days, and we had to use only mission related words.  We didn't get too far into it, cause we could only put down words during lunch or free time or whatever, but it was getting good.  Oh well, maybe Sister Hillam will continue in my place.

We had 6 new investigators this week! MIRACLE!  It just happened.  The missionary work here in Gallup is REALLY moving forward.

The coolest experience with the new investigators was at church yesterday.  We were just minding our own business, then one of the young women comes up to us and says that her friend has questions.  So, instead of going to gospel principles we had a member present lesson in a random classroom and pretty much explained the Book of Mormon and Restoration.  It was the coolest thing of my life.

In other news, I finished Personal Progress!!! :D  Got my medallion at church yesterday right before they made me give a departing testimony.  I was supposed to have an interview with the Bishop before getting it and the interview went like this 

"Did you finish?" 

"yes." 

"okay then"

I might have added the  "okay then."  It might have been a two sentence interview on our way out the door from ward council.

And finally, packing is the pits.  I hate it.  I hope St. Michael's is my last area so I don't have to worry about another transfer again.  

I love you all so much!  And I hope you're doing well!!!

Love,

Becca

cutest dress of my LIFE!

We had a ward member who had a dress she bought and discovered it didn't fit her rib cage.  So guess who got it?!  It's the cutest thing in all the world!! :D  When I'm desperate for a letter, I'll start wearing this dress ;)

transfers

Transfer news just came in tonight.  I got a text from Deb.  Sister Brown will be staying in Gallup, but Becca is transferring to St Michaels, Arizona.  It is not too far away, and she was told she'd be able to come back to visit.
St. Michaels is a chapter of the Navajo Nation Tribe  in Apache County, Arizona.  The population was 1,443 at the 2010 census.

pics

We made heartbreak caramel popcorn this week... SO GOOD!  I've missed this stuff.  So good, but so bad for my health.  Good thing we gave away a ton of it!

Hello! Sorry I'm late

Hey there!  

Kay, so biggest miracle of the week - FRANK AND KIM ARE GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!! The entire Chee family will be members on July 30th and we are just dying from excitement.  It was such a powerfully spiritual lesson when they told us they made the decision to be baptized.  Ah, we were bouncing off the walls.

Antonio was baptized!  And a few days after the baptism I realized that I failed to take any pictures of the day!  We bolted out of there after the baptism to get to another lesson... Thankfully, Sister Wadlington took some pictures and sent them to Mother's phone.  Hopefully those pictures have made it to the mission blog.  But the baptism was amazing.  Sister Brown and I sang a musical number of Be Still My Soul.  It went well for only putting it together 24 hours before the baptism.  Never again will we do that.

Sister Brown and I adventured quite a bit this week.  We checked out El Rancho, a famous hotel that's in Gallup and it's SO COOL!  They've got signed pictures from movie stars all over the place and it's the greatest.  They had a picture of Lucille Ball and it instantly made me happy :)  This is partially why I'm so late in emailing today... we checked it out a second time this morning and went tourist shopping.  But, we made sure to not look like tourists, so we could stay true to the missionary standards ;)

We've been working on getting different members out with us this past month and we are **loving** it!!! I love building trust with members!  It seriously makes missionary work SO much better!

Our role play in Zone Conference went well.  I thought it was kinda boring, but everyone else liked it.  I just wasn't the biggest fan of the subject... but it worked out.

We learned how to crochet!!!! I now have a new addiction. And I'm determined to finish a blanket by the time I go home.  It's so relaxing.  Seriously, biggest stress reliever of my life.  Haha, I felt like SUCH an old lady one morning though... I was sitting on the couch crocheting and listening to classical piano music.  Wow, I can just see my future now. #LookingForwardToBeing99

We also visited another widow, Sister Mortensen.  She's our Bishop's mother.  She's super sweet :)  We got to look though some scrapbooks with her and she told us all about the east coast.

Marie, Arianna's grandma, had a stroke.  So, that's why they missed church.  We dropped in and saw her and helped her find two priesthood holders that could give her a blessing.  We'll hopefully be checking up on her tomorrow and we'll see how she's doing.

We did SO much finding this week!  And we didn't see a ton of fruits from our labors in our numbers, but we're still trying.  We're still gonna be out doing our best.  Hopefully we'll find a new investigator family soon, cause all our investigators are getting baptized and we're running out of investigators.  That's a really good problem, but still a problem.  

And, that's about it!  Our week has been a good one.  We find out about transfers on Friday or Saturday.  Hopefully Saturday, cause that'll most likely mean that Sister Brown and I are staying together.  I'm not done with Gallup just yet, and neither is Sister Brown, so we are just praying for the best!  I'd be so sad if I were transferred and missed Frank, Kim, Arianna, and Deb's baptisms.... That would be heartbreaking.  Hopefully I'll stick around!

I love you all!!!

Love,

Becca

a 10 minute summary of Becca's mission thus far

(a copy of the talk Linnea shared in Sacrament Meeting on July 10, 2016)

“Ya’ah Te’hey” (Yaah - Te-heh)  That’s “hello” in Navajo. 

Rebecca Cardon left for the New Mexico Farmington mission exactly 13 months ago today.  Although her mission includes the four corners of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, she has always been assigned to serve in New Mexico.

No sooner did she arrive in the mission field, than the mission president took them out for pepperoni and green chili pizza!  Apparently green chile is a “huge” thing out there.  They put it on everything. While the pizza wasn’t too bad, Becca said green chile ice cream was weird.  Her favorite food so far is the Navajo taco.  I am told that the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Shiprock is the only one in the world that serves Navajo Tacos and Mutton.

Shiprock is also the first area where Becca was assigned to labor.  At the time it was one of only 3 areas on the reservation where the sisters could teach.  She lived in a cute little trailer out in the middle of nowhere and drove a really big truck.  Last year for the 24th of July Becca got to be on a parade float because the ward needed white people to be the Jaredites, so the missionaries wore bath robes and rode down the street smiling and waving.  They also perfected their fry bread making skills.

While serving in Shiprock, they taught two sisters - the Keams girls.  Becca tried to get them to go to seminary, but the girls just weren’t budging.  It wasn’t until a missionary training meeting some time later that the senior missionaries approached Becca and explained her how the Keams girls had signed up for seminary.  Apparently, one of them had the spiritual thought and told how the sister missionaries came to her house and shared a message.  She decided after that message to turn her life around and enroll in seminary and be excited about church again. (Aug 31, 2015)

Another fantastic person they met in Shiprock was Ludene.  Ludene read the entire Book of Mormon in about 4 weeks and was able to give a very detailed description of everything she read.  They taught her about the word of wisdom, which meant she had to give up coffee, tea, tobacco and alcohol.  Ludene was more than willing to stop doing these things so that she could be baptized.  To help her out, the missionaries took a few items from her including tea and wine.  [Just for the record, wine is illegal on the reservation, so Becca had something against the word of wisdom and against the law in their trailer for a little while … it was a little sketchy.]  But Ludene was baptized.  “She was so funny when she came out of the water.  She looked at the little kids and said ‘and that’s how it’s done!  You pay attention so you can do it in a few years.’”  

Rebecca actually received permission to return and witness Ludene’s baptism as she had already been transferred to Flora Vista.

Flora Vista is where she had her first door slammed in her face.  According to Becca, “We knocked on the door, the guy we kinda knew opened it, looked at us, we said hi, then he said “Nope, not today” then proceeded to close the door and lock it without a second to spare.  We were both so surprised that happened that we couldn’t help but burst out laughing.”

No sooner had Rebecca passed off her 12 week certification program, than she was given a greenie to train straight from the MTC.

In October Becca was made a Sister Training Leader (the female equivalent of a zone leader.)  This gave her the responsibility to look after several companionships of sisters, going on exchanges and making sure they are doing alright. (Oct 31, 2015)

Becca placed a lot of emphasis on member missionary work. To quote her:

“Members bring absolute miracles when it comes to missionary work!! (Oct 26, 2015)

“Fully occupy the missionaries in your area.  Give them referrals!!!!!! Go out with them! Invite them into your homes!  Missionaries are the tools you can use in sharing the gospel, but you've gotta give them something to work with. (Nov 9, 2015)

“I want to challenge ALL of you to do missionary work!! Talk to people about your beliefs!  Tell them about the gospel!  There is no greater joy than spreading the gospel.  I love it with all my heart and soul.” (Dec 28, 2015)

In December Becca was asked to train another missionary.  (Dec 14, ’15)  She described her next trainee as “super bold, super fearless, and super awesome.” (Dec 21, 2015)  They soon had 6 new investigators!  “What I love about new missionaries is their incredible faith in finding.” (Jan 4)

Shane Kirkland was a theater teacher at the local high school which Becca described as “the greatest thing since sliced bread.”  “He came to church … with the Black family, they gave him a Book of Mormon, he read the first 11 chapters, and instantly knew that it was true and couldn’t get baptized soon enough!”  Shane went from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day to nothing in 2 weeks.

“I never thought I'd be the person to say that as a missionary I met and baptized someone in 2 weeks, but now it's happening!  Heavenly Father has truly been working with Shane for a while to get him to this point.  And it's so amazing.  It's funny, some missionaries hear about this and say things like "wow, you're so good!" or "wow, you must be an incredible teacher"  but I have to say that everything goes to Heavenly Father here.  We did absolutely nothing, it was ALL the Spirit.  Missionaries never convert anyone, it's always the Spirit.” (Jan 18, 2016)

The sisters had an awesome activity at a scout pack meeting where the boys acted out the story of Ammon and King Lamoni.  Becca had cut out paper arms so the “bad guys” could actually lose their arms when Ammon hit them with his cardboard sword.  In the end, everyone fainted to the floor.

Tom Smith was found as a media referral.  They hadn’t even mentioned baptism when Tom asked how he could get to the temple to be sealed to his wife for eternity.  So they taught Tom and reactivated his wife Marty (who was more than willing to come back to church), so that they could be sealed together by their anniversary.

Melissa Dawes was baptized on the same day as Tom (Feb 22, 2016).  Melissa was introduced to the church by a coworker.  She is half Native and half Hispanic, so she calls herself a Navajo Taco.  When they asked Melissa to be baptized she said she was so excited she wanted to scream. (Jan 25, 2016) 

Melissa’s 24-year-old son Jeremiah loved the change he saw in his mother and was baptized two months later.  Unfortunately, Becca was not there to witness that baptism.  After 7 1/2 months in Flora Vista, her mission president determined that Becca had almost exceeded the time limit for being in one area and transferred her to Gallup, New Mexico. (20 Feb ’16)

Rebecca was in Gallup training her third missionary when she experience the biggest miracle of her LIFE.  She and her companion had set a goal for 2 baptisms in May because their mission president had told them that their zone would have 2 baptisms that month and there wasn’t a single person on date in the whole zone.  President Adams went on to talk about having the faith of a child.  And so they worked their tails off and said a TON of prayers.  The Chee family had been investigating the church for 2 years.  Finally on the last week of the month, the twins agreed to be baptized.  But President Adams said the twins couldn't be baptized without a parent, so Sister Chee agreed to be baptized!  It was like a rollercoaster ride, but they exceeded their goal by getting 3 baptisms instead of 2!  “Miracles happen,” Rebecca confirmed. “We just have to work and put our trust in the Lord.” (30 May ’16)

The missionary work is moving forward in Gallup.  This past week 22-year-old Antonio was baptized on July 5.  They were expecting the entire fire department to attend since Antonio’s family volunteers there all the time.  Antonio’s mother wrote to say that Becca and her companion sang at the baptism.  It “was so beautiful, you would have been … proud.”

Then while Becca was sitting in church last Sunday, her Catholic friend Deb leaned over during the sacrament to ask what baptism entailed.  Becca pulled out her scriptures to show her the covenants she’d be making, and Deb said, “no, I know that part.  I’m asking where is it held, what do I wear, and what would happen during the service.”  Becca just about died in that moment.  Then as they were walking out of the chapel Deb asked Brother Mortensen, "would you be willing to baptize me?"  Those are the moments that make missionary work all worthwhile.

Becca summarized by saying, “Life is … good.  Missionary work is awesome.  My companion is fantastic.  The members are amazing.  I’m just LOVING life as a servant of the Lord!” (smiley face.) (March 22, 2016)

Her only complaint is that time is passing much too quickly.  She will be home to give a full report of her mission just after Christmas.

To the youth of the ward she said, "I [love] being with future missionaries.  They have such an incredible Spirit about them.  And you [can] definitely tell who consistently prays, reads scriptures, and follows the example of Christ and who kinda does it once a week on Sunday.  The consistent [ones] were confident and had a very bright light in their eyes.  I loved seeing it in others!  And I know all of you can have that light in your eye as you do what Heavenly Father has asked you to do." (Oct 16, 2015).  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

zone conference

note from Cherie Adams: Zone conference this week in Tuba city and Gallup. Only 8 sisters in these 5 zones - so naturally we need a sister pic! Enjoy your darling sister missionaries moms. President Adams and I love our sister missionaries a bushel and a peck!!!!!

Antonio's baptism

Note: "This is Sister Wadlington.  This is pictures of my son's baptism.  Your daughter was such a blessing.  Thought you would like the picture.  They even did a song.  That was so beautiful, you would have been so proud.

 ...She is a big blessing to our ward.  We all love her."

Happy 4th

Gotta love 4th of July outfits!  ... It looks better in person.... This was taken rather quickly before email

Week in Review‏

Hey Family and Friends!

This week... so good.  We started at MLC and I got to travel down with Sister Monson while Sisters Brown and Millard stayed and worked in Gallup for Monday and Tuesday.  MLC was so good!  I really enjoyed how we accomplished a lot of things and it didn't feel like a meeting that went on and on for no reason.  That doesn't happen often, but every now and then... but usually it's a really good meeting.

Sister Chee went out with the missionaries this past week!!!! SO GOOD! She loved it :) and now the baptized Chee's are scheduling a time to be interviewed for their limited use recommends! YAY! 

We visited some widows this past week.  Our Bishop has asked us to visit the widows weekly.  We visited a cute 99 year old lady named Iva Olive.  She is DARLING!  We pulled out a scrapbook and she was telling us all about the pictures.  The book we had pulled out had pictures from Finland, so I definitely was reminded of Sisar Val Cardon.  Miss her so much!  Sister Olive told us she would teach us how to crochet!  Super excited :)

Antonio passed his interview for baptism!!! So he's getting baptized tomorrow at 6:30! YAY!!!!!!!! We're helping his mother make a cake for it tonight.  Should be good!  It sounds like there's gonna be quite the crowd!  The whole fire department is gonna be there!  Antonio's family volunteers there all the time.  We're looking forward to this whole thing :)

We visited another widow named Sister Spirose.  She's a sweetheart.  We got to play Jenga with her :)

Awkward experience - we were making phone calls this week in an attempt to reach out to different ward members and one of the phone calls went like this 

"Hi!  Is this Micha?"

"no"

"Oh, well we're trying to contact some people from our church.  Are you a member of the LDS church?"

"Yes, I am."

"Oh, really??"

"Yes, this is Brother Boggs"

...awkward conversation continues...This member is one that we just barely started connecting with and taking out with us.  Apparently the number we had was to his mother - in - law's house, and Micha is his Sister - in - law that lives elsewhere.  We laughed about the experience when we saw each other on Sunday.

Sad news - the Lucio family is moving!!! :(  This is a family we've just started to take out with us all the time.  And the son Kiona is preparing to go on a mission July 27th (Paul!  Look for an Elder Lucio when you get to the MTC!  This family is seriously my favorite. He's going to the Washington, Somewhere mission.)  But the Lucio's are moving to Gilbert, Arizona, so the Zuniga's can be on the lookout for them!  And then I can visit them once I'm off the mission and see both family and friends!  Such a win - win situation :)

Another sad moment - Arianna didn't come to church yesterday!!! :( She's in her two week NEED to come time period... so we're probably gonna have to push her date back a week or so :(  No bueno. 

BUT!  MIRACLE happened at church yesterday!!!!   We sad by Deb in Sacrament meeting and she leaned over during the sacrament and asked me what baptism entailed.  So I pulled out my scriptures to show her the covenants she'd be making, then she's like "no, I know that part.  I'm asking where is it held, what do I wear, and when it happens"  .... oh my gosh, I DIED in that moment!!!! Deb is gaining such a strong testimony!!!!! She even asked Brother Mortensen to baptize her on our way out of the chapel!!!! AH!!!!!!! 

That was pretty much the biggest highlight of the week.  Heavenly Father is definitely working on Deb slowly but surely.  Love it.  She is just golden beyond belief.  

Everyone else is doing well.  We're still just saying a TON of prayers for our 5 investigators we think could be baptized this month.  It's going to be incredible.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,

Becca