Here is a picture of Hayden near some ruins they hiked to.  The weather has been a little warmer and drier for him.

28 January 2013
We email at the college computer lab. The college also feeds us free lunch at the cafeteria once a week, so it's cafeteria food, but it's free. We gave a blessing to the grandmother of an investigator we have. She lives on the res and they are having a dispute with their neighbors apparently over the llamas? But I guess they're neighbors sorta came over and attacked them and punched the old lady in the stomach and stuff. It's an all around crazy situation. The grandma also has cancer, so she has to go to Salt Lake or something for treatments every month. So now she has to go to court or something and their family is just going through a crazy time. It makes me grateful for always living in a nice place where I'm not afraid my neighbors might try to kill me or "witch" me.
So I sent an email to Miranda talking about something I ate this week. Friday I had menudo, a Mexican soup. It's usually got pig's feet in it but this one was made with hominy, corn stuff and tripe. The tripe was slimy and chewy. It was like eating nasty beef flavored jello that you had to chew for a long time. I only ate one bite of it about the size of a postage stamp and I nearly threw it up. I was literally gagging trying to swallow it. Then Saturday, the same family had us over again for dinner (we had menudo at 10:00 am Friday, so yes, for breakfast) and this time they made pho, pronounced like huh with an "f". It's an Asian beef noodle soup with rice noodles, beef, tripe, green onions and bean sprouts and cilantro. You make the broth with the meat and then put the cooked noodles in it and top it with onions, sprouts, cilantro, hoisin, and sriracha. It was super good. The tripe was even easier to eat because you could just eat it with a bunch of noodles and pretend it's not there. Tripe has a weird flavor that I'm not a huge fan of though, besides the awful texture. I told Miranda I'd take a picture of the leftovers they gave us so you could see it. Saturday we also had a lesson over there with them and the grandpa, an old Navajo guy who is an awesome member of the church, said the opening prayer in Navajo. Navajos prayers are really long. It's like a cultural thing. He prayed for at least eight minutes, no joke! So I've had tripe twice in the two days in Blanding, UT.

We've had a good week. The days fly by incredibly fast. It feels as if I just left the MTC. This is the beginning of our seventh week. This transfer is an extra long one due to the Holiday season. They're usually five or six weeks I think.
We have still been working with a lot of less active members and its been so great to see so many of them coming to church. Good things are happening. People are coming to church, they're reading the Book of Mormon, its just exciting. With investigator we've got a couple younger Native boys who are foster kids, I think orphans, living with their aunt and uncle. The aunt is a member, the uncle is not. The boys are awesome, they want to be baptized, they know all their stuff, but the aunt and uncle don't want them to get baptized until Spring. Apparently that's a good time for it in Navajo tradition, even though in Navajo tradition there isn't really baptism. But anyways, they want us to wait there. Then there's Jonas who is doing great and is making some big changes in his life. We had an appointment scheduled and we were going to give him a baptismal date but they canceled on us. But we totally think he's ready. We're going to see him and his family this evening.
We've had a lot of rain. Saturday it dumped all day long. It was like a mini flood. It's been raining continuously since then, only it turned into snow this morning, and it's still coming down.
Holy cow! I saw the pictures of the family room and the kitchen. It looks pretty awesome. It seems way different though, like more than just the color of the walls. Yesterday morning, I woke up a little before the alarm went off and I thought I was home. It was so weird, I totally thought I was in my room for a few seconds as I was halfway between sleep and waking up.
I've had another great week. Transfers are coming up. I guess I'll know whether I'm staying or going by Saturday. I got an email from the travel office saying they're still working on the Visa, they appreciate the work I'm doing here and they'll notify President Batt as soon as it's approved. That's all I know at this point so I'm a little anxious to see what happens.
I've seen that as I've been striving to be closer to my Father in Heaven and to be more Christlike my prayers have become more and more sincere, more and more meaningful. I really know He's there, He's listening and He's helping me. Thank you so much for your letters and more especially your prayers. I love you all and I've kept you in my prayers as well.
Jackson and Evan good luck in your running and basketball!
Elder Hayden Thieme