I was raised by my grandparents a lot. And that’s where I learned a lot of Navajo, living with my grandparents. Because my grandma, she spoke Navajo a lot. I remember one day I asked my mom, “Why don’t we go to church? I want to go to church, Mom. Let’s go to church.” I’d never owned a dress. And so she said, “Okay, let’s go to church.” And I remember my grandpa always carrying scriptures—I can still see it in my mind’s eye. He always had scriptures in his hands, and I remember seeing in my grandparents’ bedroom, these white clothes hanging up. And I always wondered, “What are those?” And they were always separate from their regular clothes. My grandma she always dressed very traditional—like this. My grandma’s traditional skirt and turquoise rings, and she always had her hair up nice in a bun and always just very well kept and the house was clean. But I always remember my grandpa carrying scriptures all the time.
And then they wore their garments all the time, but I never knew what they were. And they were always hung up, like in this special, separate way. And I was curious about them. I never knew what they were. But I knew they were different. And like, there was something about those. So, the day that they took me to church—my mom took me to church—I remember just feeling so good. I remember that day. I remember I was embarrassed because I didn’t wear a dress—I didn’t have a dress. But I tried to find the best outfit. I was really into looking good. I’ve always tried to dress really cute. I was eight years old, but I still tried to be fashionable. And I remember going into the little branch there and sitting down and just thinking, “This is really different from what my aunt’s church is.” It was still the same kind of, you know, we sit down, and we sing and there’s prayers, but there was a different feel to it. It just felt different. It felt a little more sacred. It felt a little more reverent.