We did a lot of hitchhiking that summer in Dilkon. Here I am at
bedtime showing the effect of all of that sun, as well as the effect of
six months without a haircut.
Meanwhile, in the back of the trailer, Elder Willden (my companion) does the Haircut Dance.
If you look closely at this picture, you will notice that the front
tires on the truck no longer point in the same direction. Our tie-rod
had broken out in the middle of nowhere and about a million miles from
any repair shop. We had to walk home that day, call the mission home
for instructions, order a new tie-rod, hitchhike down to Winslow to pick
up the part, then walk back out to our truck with tools to replace the
tie-rod. After all of that mess, a week or two later we discovered
that the frame was broken in two or three places and the truck was no longer
driveable. When the mission mechanic came with our new truck (only
been driven by the AP's, what a deal!) he said, "I have only two words
for you Elders -- SLOW DOWN!". The picture shows Elder Willden on
the left and Elder Rice on the right of the truck as they celebrate our
misfortune. Elder Rice was serving in Leupp at the time, but was
between companions for a couple of weeks and worked with us in the interim.
Elder Barney coming out of the Dilkon trailer for another day of work.
Like Elder Rice, Elder Barney was between companions for a couple of weeks
and worked with us while he was waiting for a new companion to be assigned.
He was from the English division and serving in Polacca. It was fun
covering both areas. I got to see more of Hopiland than I normally
would have, and Elder Barney got to learn a little Navajo. We taught
Elder Barney a few useful phrases in Navajo, the most important of which
was "doo shil beehozin da". Whenever we visited a family, they would
invariably ask us why Elder Barney never spoke. At that point we
would cue him and he would say "doo shil beehozin da". For some reason
people found this amusing.
This is supposed to be a joke picture of Elder Willden sitting out in
the middle of nowhere studying Young & Morgan. But actually,
it's pretty close to the truth. In my experience, learning Navajo
was on ongoing project and most of the Elders I knew would spend a lot
of the time as they walked around during the day studying various language
aids. Elder Willden and I also developed a rule of thumb that said
the more tattered your copy of Young & Morgan, the more Navajo you
knew. So we intentionally "distressed" our books on occasion to try
to give them that 'Zaad Man look.
Elder Willden on his way out of Dilkon. The jar of peanut butter
he is holding is some kind of inside joke, but I can't remember what it
is now.
A view of Dilkon Hill taken from in front of the Elders' trailer. Features to note: "DILKON" spelled out on the side of the hill near the top, the herd of sheep grazing across it, and the tire tracks showing how far a Chevy Luv can make it up Dilkon Hill before dying (*I* did not do this!).
A view of the Dilkon housing compound taken from the top of Dilkon Hill. The large white trailer in the foreground is the chapel, the Elders' trailer is to the right of it along the treeline, and the trading post is on the other side of the trees.
A view from Dilkon Hill in almost the opposite direction showing the Dilkon Boarding School compound.
Some time later, Elder Willden totally wigs out over the tie-rod disaster.
One of our evening food miracles. In this case: rice, a can of cream of mushroom soup, frozen peas, and a half-pound of ground beef.
Taking time to answer another kind of call, somewhere in the Dilkon area.
Elder Willden: " ashlizh, ilizh, alizh, ajilizh,..."
I believe this was taken on transfer from Dilkon to Pinon. From left to right we have: Elder Underwood, Elder Wright, and Elder Barney (who was also being transferred that day). This photo was taken at the Winslow Elders' place, the first stage of my transfer that day.
The Haircut Dance starts to become more than a little scary as Willden emerges from the back of the trailer wearing his PJ's, freaky sunglasses, and foreign objects up both nostrils. And I edge closer to the door.
In normal missions you spend every day tracting out apartment buildings or something. In the Arizona Holbrook Mission, however, every day brought a new adventure. Here's one I would have preferred to skip. A former missionary visited the area and we put him in the chapel for a night. The next day we noticed the chapel smelled a little rank, and we thought our guest may have had a personal hygeine problem. But the smell got a lot worse over the next few days. Finally, Elder Underwood crawled under the chapel and found that this little doggie had decided to go to sleep there and never woke up. In this photo Elder Underwood has just removed the corpse from under the trailer. I recall we spent most of that morning with T-shirts soaked in aftershave under our noses.