Beautiful People, Beautiful Jewelry

Another form of art here is the beautiful jewellery.  The Navajo people love wearing the turquoise and silver jewellery and many of them make it as a way of earning a living. This picture is typical of the elderly with their beautiful necklaces, broaches, and bracelets. Turquoise and silver are mined in Arizona and New Mexico so it has been a part of the native culture for a long time.

This type of jewellery are what the Zunis are known for. The upper necklace is called a Squash Blossom design and is very beautiful and expensive. It is also very heavy. The broaches and bracelet are Needlepoint design and are also very expensive and beautiful.

The pawn shops have many pieces of this type of jewellery. The older it is the more valuable it is.

This necklace was made by a 93 old gentleman. He gathers the stones, polishes them and makes jewellery and then gives it to the missionaries.

Beadwork is sold at flea markets and Trading posts and we often have ladies come to the door trying to sell their jewellery.

Jewellery is very popular with the men as well as the ladies

Elder Earl decided we needed a Branch Social to promote Family Home Evening  and show the members how to have fun. The above pictures are a cookie eating contest done by putting a cookie on the forehead and working it down to your mouth. There were several who were successful.

We did the Limbo while everyone was coming and then Elder Hodges gave a short lesson about Family Home Evening and its purpose. We then played musical chairs, elephant relay,  human pretzel, donut eating contest, and decorated valentine cookies.
Everyone had a great time and hopefully went home with some ideas to do in their own families. The plan is to have a Family Fun Night once a month in the Branch so we hope Elder Earl will be here for awhile.
We had our first of the season gardening meeting on Saturday. Our spring weather had changed to blowing snow so we wondered how many would brave the weather to attend. We did have quite a few come out which was good. We like to start early in the spring to get everyone enthused about gardening this summer and hopefully to encourage them to start early in getting the soil prepared. The soil is very pour here but when it is built up with sheep manure, humate and fertilizer it grows great gardens.

The roads were dry this (until today) so we were able to get out and visit more members which was good. In several of the homes we have been teaching the life of Christ since their understanding of Christ and his teachings are very limited. One family asked if we could get a picture of Christ and the Ten Commandments to put on their wall. We were only too happy to do this. We are asked daily to give prayers for healing and blessing homes. It still amazes us how much faith the people here have in  prayers. it is a blessing to have the opportunity to serve the people here.

Love to all,
Elder and Sister Lybbert