San Carlos-Week 1

I started to type this week’s blog and it turned into three pages and Quinn says my posts are too long anyway--so I have to keep telling myself, “These are the small plates, and the large plates are for myself.”  With that in mind, just know I am only sharing a portion of all we are learning and experiencing while we are here.  Every conversation and interaction is a learning experience.

When we arrived in San Carlos to our “gated” community, the elders were here to meet us.  They helped unload the car which was a big help. Over the course of the week I have tried to settle in and make it “our” home.  The trailer is old and let’s say 2-star accommodations, but fairly roomy. No dishwasher or garbage disposal and it goes snap, crackle, and pop all day and all night. The first night I hardly slept at all trying to place all the sounds. Now, my bedtime attire is nightgown, hoodie, socks, and earplugs and I can get some sleep. Compared to some of our neighbors, we have it pretty good.  Our routine is to walk the perimeter every night and check all the doors of the church and turn off any lights left on; which has turned out to be necessary, since lights are left on regularly and sometimes the doors don’t shut tight. We have measured a walking path and 5 laps around equals a mile--so we walk most mornings--and it is chilly!

We have been warmly greeted. The members have all been so friendly and kind.  We’ve had visitors and the elders stop by on a regular basis and they are helpful with understanding members (who all seem to be related) and how to navigate our way around.  We have been driving around to orient ourselves but this place makes no sense to me. It is made up of little housing developments with unusual names like: Moonbase (New and #1--but the “new” one is the old one), Tufa Stone, Chinatown, Jurassic Park, Hollywood Ridge, and Tarzan Valley, none of which are native sounding to me. Most houses don’t have numbers and their number system is different anyway.  House #1 may start on the left side entering a development and continues on the left side weaving in and out of cul-de-sacs until you come to the beginning with the last house number on the right side. So house #3 may be across the street from house #43. We just try to memorize a landmark.  

Our work so far has been to attend Zone Conference in Mesa, attend Addiction Recovery class, teach seminary with 10 students (quite the turn out), and we have turned in our paperwork and been fingerprinted to teach at the San Carlos Detention Center.  They said the background check would take 4-6 weeks, but the director said he wanted us to start Thursday (we must look honest). He assigned Captain Henry to give us a tour of the facility and answer any questions. She works on the juvenile side and she has us convinced that we need to come over and teach them too--which we will probably do.  

We have made two trips to Mesa this week which allowed us to visit Quinn’s mom twice.  We have also made multiple trips to Globe which is where the nearest Walmart is located.  I also found a little rock shop that is a gem hidden in a dumpy looking little establishment.  I will definitely go back to get some peridot which this area is famous for.  

The days seem to fill up and we will have more responsibilities as the weeks go by.  The senior couple before us was known for making loaves of bread and leaving them everywhere they went.  Quinn says we are following a trail of bread loaves wherever we go. We have made banana bread and Quinn made some homemade bread which we took around today to the members who have welcomed us here.  Now we will start using bread to meet the less active.  

Here is a cool thing I just learned today.  If you go to the Conference edition of the Ensign and go to settings and pick a language--type Apache in the search menu--then click on one of President Nelson’s talks and you will hear the voice of Brother Boni! He is a member of our branch!  Also, we heard one with Sister Boni’s voice (I think it was the first one), but there is one female voice that is NOT her. Now I can always remember them! We (meaning the elders and us) went to their home today to deliver bread and we were invited inside to give a blessing.  They speak Apache to each other, and if it is something Sister Boni thinks we need to know, she will tell us what he is saying. Brother Boni said some words in Apache and Sister Boni said, “He said to wait.” I said, “That was a lot of words for wait.” She thought that was funny, but he went into the other room and brought out a beautiful beaded hair barrette and gave it to me.  That is their way--SO generous. I may have to grow out my hair. I better stop here for now, because abridging into small plates is hard for me!!

 This  is a portion of the area map.  We live on Mormon Hill (there is a "you are here" label).

 San Carlos is the headquarters of the Apache nation.  This is downtown which could all fit inside a Salt Lake City block.

 This is the Catholic church.  It is made of tufa stone and so are several of the buildings in downtown.

 Another church made of tufa stone.

 This is the veteran section of the cemetery.  Each grave has its own flagpole.  Veteran's Day is the biggest holiday here as far as ceremony goes.  The Apache are a warrior people and they honor anyone who has fought, so veterans are in high regard.  You can see the church steeple on the right side.

We noticed this in the road driving up when we first got here.  The missionaries said it was a memorial to someone who had passed several years ago.  I asked, "Oh, did he live nearby?"  They said, "No, that is where he died."  You can see our trailer in the background.