Hey,

So I am out in a Branch again, and we only had twenty-seven people at church on Sunday. Which seems like it is less than usual for out here but I've only been out here for a few Sundays so far.

When I got out here I expected to be in small towns most of the time. When I thought small I thought like Stanwood back home (Stanwood is a 4A school for those wondering how big!).  When I got to Ramah I saw what a small town actually is, everyone was related and there were only about 5 streets! Compared to that Toadlena isn't even a town. It really is just a tiny community with a trading post, a couple churches and a gas station that is 12-ish miles from most of the people. Just a tiny little place, but from our trailer and the church, which is at the base of the mountain, we have the best view over the whole place. Some nights we can see the lights of Farmington from where here.

This week was very different from normal. P-day was way good. We climbed part of  Bennets Peak (way steeper than we thought it would be) and then climbed up the mountain behind us. It was also way steep but I just went up the side of it and the view from the top was amazing! Then on Tuesday we got to have a zone conference with Elder Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy. He spoke on some really great things. Some of the most interesting was that they had been considering changing missionary age for about a year but didn't decide until now. Along with that age change comes another change. All missionaries, starting January 1, will spend only 2/3 of the time they do now in the MTC, so for English speakers its down from 3 weeks to 2 weeks. More responsibility will be placed on the trainers of those missionaries than ever before. Its going to be very different out in the mission field in the next few years. And I have already started to see the change in peoples' decisions. A friend from school wrote to tell me she was putting in her papers in the next couple of months. I never thought that she would serve but now she is and she will do a wonderful job out in the field. Then after our zone conference I had exchanges with Elder Vawdry from back home (Arlington 3rd) which was pretty fun and really different from my last exchanges. When I got back to Toadlena I got pretty sick, I think I threw up 5 times on Friday and wasn't really able to work or go out till Monday. We think it might have been some lead poisoning cause I found some shot in the venison I ate the night before, but whatever it was it was not fun. And so i didn't even get to teach in Toadlena this week because of that.

Those days you are sick feel like such a waste of time. Other than that it was a really good week and I can't wait to get back to work.

The gospel and the priesthood truly will and do bless our lives so much.

Love
Elder Alex Huff

Baptismal Font

Hauling wood with our truck.

Old Zuni Mission

Hahhahaaha

Look close and you will see the "roads" on the reservation!

Kachinas painted on the walls.

Sunset over Ward building in Ramah, NM