Teepees

                                                            FLOWER OF THE WEEK
These pretty flowers are called the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant. Very appropriate since they are covered in bees. Locally they are called wild spinach. In years gone by they were gathered when young plants and cooked for food. We passed this field a couple miles out of Pinon and it was such a treat to see. We have had a few showers the last few weeks and I guess it was enough moisture for them to grow.

                                                       HAVE TRUCK WILL TRAVEL
As you can see the back of trucks are used as passenger vehicles here. In the top left they have just bought a sheep and are on their way home. The second picture was taken on the highway coming home one day when it was pouring rain. Not a very pleasant ride for the ladies in the back.  The rest are random shots around town.

TeePees are often seen on the weekends. They are used for several traditional ceremonies. The NAC (Native American Church) use them for their ceremonies. Some Medicine Men  use them for their healing ceremonies. They say medicine men will charge anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a healing session up to a few thousand.  If a TeePee is used it generally means that peyote is used which is a hallucinating drug. It seems its the younger men who do the peyote thing on the week-ends. The TeePee or the peyote is not traditional to the Navajo people so the word traditional is very loosely used.
There are those families that have a TeePee just for fun.

TeePee poles are at many of the homes but we seldom see a TeePee set up so not sure what the purpose is.  Maybe aspiring medicine men or they're hoping to sell them.

We have enjoyed being able to get out and visit with the members this week.  We have missed the contact while our van has been getting fixed. Several who are grieving have come to us this week seeking comfort. We feel inadequate but do our best to comfort and Elder Lybbert gives blessings of comfort. The people here have such tragic things happen in their lives and they look to the missionaries as their ray of hope. There is so  little we can do for them but listen and love them.

Love to all,
Elder and Sister Lybbert