In spite of it being the first of the month when people are in town, we were able to make several contacts and visit with several people. It felt good to be 'back in the saddle' again.

Today was another special day for our new convert. He was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood to the office of a Priest. I can see so much growth in him, and other people have noticed it, too. He is now the only active Aaronic Priesthood in our Branch.

We spent a day out in the Manuelito area visiting with members and trying to find other members whom we haven't met yet. It is kind of discouraging when you drive all the way out there and find a gate closed or a 'No Trespassing' sign. There are only a few families in that area, so we wanted to touch base with them and see what we can do to help them. We will just have to keep trying, a way will open somehow.

When we went to visit one family, Owen noticed an old log cabin on their property. He asked them about it and they were planning on tearing it down. So he showed them his book on O'ville and what he has done there. They were very impressed and had him go out and look at the cabin. I think he has 'cabin fever' again. If he had had the materials, he probably would have started that very day on restoring it. So we shall see.

We haven't been able to visit at the Senior Center for a couple of weeks; so when we went last week, they all seemed happy to see us. We were happy to see them, too. One lady said they thought we had gone home without saying good-bye. Never!

El Morro National Monument is in our area. So we decided to take a ride over there and check it out. We took one of our friends with us. It is out on the Zuni Reservation by Ramah. It was very fascinating. I wanted to do just the ½ mile trek; but Owen took off on a trail and before I knew it we were hiking, and hiking, and hiking. We ended up doing the two-mile hike (up the mountain, across the rocks, around the box canyon, and down the other side). We got to see the Atsinna Pueblo ruins up on top which were built around 1275. They figure the pueblo was about 200 by 300 feet and housed between 1,000 to 1,500 people. It had multiple stories of interconnected rooms. Cisterns on top of the mesa collected rain water. There is a pool – 12 feet deep – at the base of the sandstone bluff which was used by the native Americans, Spanish explorers, and early travelers. On the walls at the base of the bluff are over 200 inscriptions and petroglyphs. The oldest inscription is the 16^th of April 1605. It was quite a hike, but very interesting and beautiful scenery. I kept stopping to take pictures – at least that is what the guys thought I was doing. I was really stopping to catch my breath and rest.

The little family that we helped take care of the burial of their baby has decided to move to Salt Lake area. We are hoping this will be a good move for them, and they will continue to strengthen each other and stay active in the Church. We will miss them and their little boys; but Salt Lake isn't that far away from our home, so I am sure we will be able to see them when we get home.

We have a mission conference this week in Chinle, RVs to work on, places to go, and people to see. So I am sure we will be busy as we go about doing the Lord's work.