Doing Many Good Things

Dear Family and Friends,

First and foremost, next week is going to be the beginning of my 8th Transfer. As a result we will have e-mailing and preparation day on Monday instead of Tuesday. Consider yourselves duly warned :) I hear we are going to have a surplus of missionaries from what we now do, and the Socorro New Mexico area is going to be opening up. That means I will be in a NEW DISTRICT almost no matter what. I was kind of hoping to make it a whole year in the same one, but oh well :)

**Spoiler Note: If you have a easily unsettled stomach continue with caution, or skip to the stars and read after that.** On another exciting note, I participated and assisted in slaughtering a sheep yesterday. That is a common thing to do for celebrations in Navajo culture. The thing about this is that nothing goes to waste. Not even the blood is wasted. I realize that this may be a sensitive topic so I will forebear the details, but I want to mention that is was so cool to see a family work together in such great unity. Everyone knew what to do, and did it. All the way down to eating it and staking claim on the different parts (Something I have only heard of but never witnessed nor thought I would.) I want to also share the list of things that I tried.

First was the "Bible" which is a part of the internal stomach. It get's it's name because it has flaps similar to pages on a book. This is eaten raw, and Yes I did gag. Next I helped make twister, which is a sheet of abdominal fat cut into strips and wrapped with the small intestine. It literally tastes like Bacon. I also tried the heart, stuffed liver, kidney, tongue, and blood sausage. The last on is made by taking all the blood, straining it and mixing it with potatoes, red chile, habanero, and putting it all into the cleaned out stomach and boiling it for two ours. That was an experience that I will remember.

This week I have been feeling a lot of strength in just coming to terms that this life is not always easy. I don't expect it to be either. In fact I like the thought I heard once that we should never pray for the Lord to take away our challenges, but pray that we may have the strength to overcome them. We are all called to go through trials and tribulations, also known as the refiners fire. Often during these times the real struggle can be not knowing if the path we are on is the right one. It is at times like these when I would turn to D&C 58 and read that we should all be "anxiously engaged in a good cause." There are a lot of things in this life that do not make a truly significant impact on our eternal destination. Many of the choices we make in life are completely our own to make. These are things that can often cause frustration and anxiety or sadness because it's hard to get a really definite answer through the spirit, at least in my experience. If we are living the commandments and striving our very best to serve God then we need not worry. I would take this scripture one step further and say that instead of doing many good things, to do many of the "best" things. Our God takes priority over anything else, and when we put him first then our Natural course following would be to put our families as our next priority. Just as I saw this family work together yesterday to bring this food to their table, we can work together in all things.

One other quick experience, I had the opportunity to give a priesthood blessing this week to a new investigator. He and His partner have been together 30 years and are now planning to get married in September which is how we met them. My first day here in Alamo they cam e to ask if they could use our church to do it. I can't give any specifics because of the sacred and personal nature of the information. In giving him that blessing though, I can say without a shadow of doubt I know that Jesus Christ lives and directs this work. It is by his power and his mercy that we are all here. The Priesthood is real. After we gave them each a blessing, the sister mentioned that they (including their son) want to be Baptized! Just another perk of being where you need to be when you need to be there.

I love you all :) I love hearing from you! So many good stories. So much of the best things in life are right now! Keep me updated on life and adventures. I miss hearing from some of you, so you're not all off the hook ;) I am loving the work here and it is Always challenging, But the Lord is my strength and in him I will trust now, and forever.

Ayoo' Aniinishni

Elder McGarry