Teaching in Tohatchi

Mom and Dad,

I have been doing better out here. I think I am adapting pretty well and I also have been praying more and that has helped.
Right now we have an average of 20 people that come to church. We are working with 15 less active families to try to get them to come back and 15 or so investigators. This is a tough area and it is as close as one can get to a life of poverty and trouble. I don't know what you have heard about the Indian Reservations but I can pretty much say that it is true and is getting worse.
We haven't been very successful out here because everyone says that it does not matter what religion you belong to because we are all praying to the same God or Spirit. It is hard to ask them questions or to tell them that prayer alone doesn't save us, because the people here either don't want to listen or they just don't understand. Most of them can't read very well and all we can do is explain it more simply and ask them questions. If and when they answer, they usually just tell us a story about why prayer is all that they need and that is the end of it. I have been studying about prayer and faith in action and the only thing that I can say so far is that without action or without getting up and working hard to show God that we really want those blessings, we are not really going to get anywhere. God isn't going to give us blessings that we don't deserve or something that we did not work for. I know there are some blessings he gives because he loves us and wants us to be happy, but I don't know how to tell someone that prayer alone won't save us and why. That is something that I am working on right now.

Mom and Dad, I can't tell you how much it means to me that you love us so much and you will drop everything that you want to do or like to do to help us be better. There are so many broken families here and most of them are single moms, so when we find a family that has a mom and a dad we are always excited! I love you guys so much and am glad you have pushed me to do things and support me out here on a mission.
Tell everyone that I love them and can't wait to hear from ya all!

Love,
Elder Christensen