Fulfillment of a Dream by Elder Don Bullard

A number of people have written, asking me to give my testimony about the 1993 Navajo reunion that was held near Pinion, Arizona. I decided I would answer their letters and tell about the beautiful time we had out there this year. This testimony is a fulfillment of some of the needs I have seen since I first started going out to the Navajo reservation.

I wasn't able to go in 1992 because I had had a bout with cancer and was pretty sick. When 1993 came up I asked my wife if she wanted to go. She couldn't get off work but she said that I should go anyway. Two of my older boys decided to take a week off of their jobs and drive out there with me. My oldest boy had a mini-van that he let us use, and my boys did all of the driving. I got to know my boys better than ever because we were kidding each other and having fun the whole way out there.

One of the reasons that I went was I felt like there was something special that I was going to be involved in. I kept thinking about Bobby, the Indian priest out there, and I felt there was something that I needed to talk to him about. I didn't realize what the Lord had planned, though.

When we got out there, we started having our classes and meetings like you do at reunion, and all the time, I was having a certain message being impressed on me. The message came clear, but how to deliver it really worried me. I rolled and tossed a couple of nights thinking about how I was to give this message.

The message was to ask these people who were there at the reunion, to go back to their congregations and speak well of the Indian work and make preparations and raise money to put up a building so that these people could have a Sunday school. That was the message and it came clear as a bell. But how and when to deliver this message is what disturbed me.

I'm going to go back and tell you a little bit about how all of this came about and try to show you how the Lord brought all this back to my mind as I was rolling and tossing around on my bed. In 1978, the church put out a call for volunteers to go to Indian functions. I answered that call. We met in the Indian Ministries office in Independence and discussed what we were going to do. They wanted to send a couple of Elders and some nurses to the pow wows to set up a free first aid station. The nurses would tend to the children, but the Elders were sent to get acquainted with the Indian people. The first year I signed up we hit about six reservations. When it was over in the fall, I took stock of what happened and I was really amazed. I became well acquainted with the people and the number of Indians out there. It really started a fire in me to work with Indian ministries.

The first time I went out to the Navajo land was in 1981. We camped at the Twisted Water Canyon village. The tree that is by the cook shack was about two inches in diameter. They had stakes around it and a fence so it wouldn't get marred by the children running by with their bicycles. Trees and water are very precious to the Navajo people. All the water that could be spared, dish water etc., would be put on that tree. That tree today is about ten inches in diameter. It is now a nice big tall shade tree. It took a lot of effort to get that tree to grow and I was privileged to get to see the start of that little tree. That shows the dedication of the Indian people to keep it growing and out of trouble. Every time I went back I saw that tree grow a little bit stronger, fulfilling its capacity and its purpose here on the earth. I think this story has a bearing on how I was supposed to deliver my message to these people this year.

Anyway on my first trip out there I became acquainted with a couple of Navajo boys about 12 or 14 years of age. I had done a lot of reading about Indian people and how they lived and were able to survive in the winter. All of these kinds of stories really appealed to me. One afternoon these boys came over to our camp, and, as we were talking, I asked the boys if there were any pinion nuts around there. They said yes, and we decided to walk over behind some hills where these pinion nuts grew.

After coming back from our walk, we passed a house and a couple of hogans. I saw an old grandmother with a boy about seven or eight years of age walking hand in hand. The little boy said to me, "Grandmother wants to ask you a question". I stooped down to the little grandmother and smiled. She said something and the little boy translated into English. "Are you an Elder?" he asked. I said, "yes", and looked at the woman. She spoke again to the boy and he said, "Did you come from Independence?" I said "yes". She then took her finger, pointed right at me and said something in her native tongue. The boy said, "When are you going to bring a Sunday school for my children and my grandchildren?" That kind of caught me off guard because at that time we weren't out there for that purpose. When I left my heart saddened, because there was a need out there and they weren't receiving it.

Every time someone took a Sunday school out there, I made it a point to go. The only way they could get water was to haul it in big tanks and buckets that were full of leaks. When I went out there again I took my welding outfit. Everyday after bible school classes, I would spend the rest of the day welding tanks to haul their water.

Twelve or thirteen years later I was able to stand before these people at this last reunion and bear this testimony. There are two cultures here. The American culture from back in Independence, and the Native American culture. As these two cultures have come together, we have made friends and we have come to love one another. I had worn my Indian vest that an Indian man had made for me. I told them, how he had made it out of a piece of leather that another man had tanned. He cut the lacing with a pair of scissors and sewed it up for me. He even put his tribal colors on it with beads. There is nothing artificial about this vest. It was all Indian. That is just the way I feel, all Indian. What I said that day came from my Indian heart. I love these people. I feel their Indian needs. I told the congregation that day, which was probably half Indian, that I was going to speak to them like an Indian brother. I asked them to look around at their Indian brothers who were happy that they had come. I asked them "when are you going to bring a Sunday school for our children?" Many times we went up to a place called Many Farms where there was water enough to baptize. We baptized children from many families out here. Every time we have a baptismal service, the need for a Sunday school becomes greater and greater. I thanked the people that had brought the bible schools and for the years they had come to share, but now we needed something else.

When camp ended this year and we came home, the Indian support group had enough money to build a thirty-foot hogan. There are men out there on the reservation building it right now. They are building a place where these children can have their Sunday school, and where the Elders can go and administer the sacraments. That is what I saw happen at the 1993 reunion.

In closing I would like to say that it is possible that the little old grandmother is still out there. And to her I would like to say that the Lord loves you and your children, and his promise to you from the Book of Mormon is that when your people accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior, your families and tribe will blossom as the rose.

May the Lord bless each one who has had a part in this wonderful experience.  That is my prayer in Jesus name.  Amen.