Hopefully this blog will still be availaable

"Formal Mission" Ending

Our mission ended today with our interview with Brother Simpson who is a counselor in the Stake Presidency, it was bitter sweet. We visited for about a half an hour and then we took our badges off. How do you sum up 4 and 1/2 years? The Bishopric of our home ward, Osmond, came to visit Sunday. Bishop Milne and McKay Erickson, his second counselor were two of the varsity scouts when Brother Olson served as their scout leader. Lance Harmon another scout has served as a Bishop as well, can't remember where he served, but one of the pilots who fly patients out of Tuba, asked Elder Olson if he knew a Lance Harmon. He told him that Lance was one of his varsity scouts. We had a great visit with them and Brother Olson shared some memories with Brother Harris, the 1st Counselor about his varsity scouts and the tournaments they won, the memories they created, and the great young men they were when he was their leader. We address the High Counsel on Sunday at 8:00 A.M. and speak at 11:00.

a different time

Gen, Tausha, & Allens

Today was one of those days that is hard to describe in terms of what was felt spiritually. The Alexanders who have just moved back into the 2nd Ward spoke in Sacrament meeting. Sister Alexander introduced them and told some stories about their family and some of the blessing they have received as they have tried to raise their family in the gospel. She spoke about going to church every Sunday, reading scriptures, and praying together. She was inactive when they met and when he took the lessons and was baptized she watched his life changing as he lived what the Elders had taught him. She decided she liked what she saw and needed to make some significant changes in her own life. That was over 40 years ago. Brother Alexander spoke of similar experiences and how important prayer has become to him. He related a story about a time they were traveling together and how important it was to get to the top of the hill they were driving up. He knew the car was having major problems and he worried that if things got worse he could end up stalling and the car would go into reverse and Sister Alexander was following him up the hill. He prayed with all his heart that the car would make it. The Lord did bless him to make it up the hill. He talked about some of the problems he has had to face during his life and how the Lord blesses him and supports him. He served as the Bishop when he lived in 2nd Ward before the boundary changes put them in the 1st Ward. He is one of the most humble men you could find and he is one of the best Ward Mission Leaders that any Bishop could ask for. He helped Sister Goldtooth while she was taking the math class for Pathways. I was able to listen to him one time when he was going over a math problem with her. He explained it in such a simple way, making it easier to solve. She walked away with a better understanding of how to solve similar problems in the future. Sister Alexander works as a consultant in the Family History Center and comes every Wednesday morning for about 4 hours with few exceptions. Brother Alexander goes out with the young Elders all the time and bears solemn witness to everyone they visit about the restored gospel and what it can do for them. They have become two of my favorite people here in Tuba City. After sacrament we went into the History Center and worked with 2 people. A visitor had been in sacrament meeting and somehow knew Brother Mexican who does a tremendous amount of work in the center. They apparently share a line in the tree. He was asking Brother Mexican how he had found the name of a certain relative. Brother Mexican found the birth certificate of one of the children that had the father listed with his census number. He printed it out, but the man was gone. I had heard him give Brother Mexican his phone number and suggested he call. He said he was meeting him at the hospital after church where they planned to give someone a blessing. He ended up leaving the center with two documents that he planned to share. At 11 it was time to go back for 1st Ward Sacrament. Sister Manygoats shared her experience of going to the St. George Temple on Saturday with her sister, Sister Tunney. She shared what she felt about knowing she is sealed to her parents, but that she has not had the privilege of being sealed to her husband or children. He is not a member yet and even though their son is currently serving and mission and will return in December, her husband has not yet been converted. We all hope this changes. After sacrament meeting we were back in the center to work with some of the members. Sister Gen Hadley had come in several weeks ago, but when she came back in we could not find her file. It was very frustrating because she had recently had surgery and was still in a lot of pain and we had several others in the center at the time and could not take the time we needed to find it, so she ended up leaving. Today when she returned she was able to get right onto her file, which we had found later. She added several more names and we found death information about 3 of her family members on ancestry.com. I explained about doing Temple work and she said she was going to cry because of what she was feeling. Her only brother died as a young man and I could not help but think that she was feeling his presence as we sat there. Three other people were also in the center. Sister Victoria Nez and her mom, Lena Secody were on the next computer. Sister Nez is very comfortable with the program and today she found two more family members to add to her tree. Sister Tausha Dickson is also an expert doing research on the internet. She has made several small albums of her family photos. She visited her grandmother for a long time without getting much information and then as she is visiting her one time, she walked over to a trunk at the end of her bed and opened it. She had a couple of hundred family photos which she allowed Tausha to take. Sister Dickson has been called to be the RS secretary in the 1st Ward. Since it was the 5th Sunday we met with the YM/YW in the Relief Society room. After Bishop Allen started us off, Sister Allen’s Sunday school went into action. Kyle Nockideneh started building a sundae. Believe me when I say he had everyone’s attention. One of the young Elders noticed he had written Sundae a delight on the board. Ice cream, cherries, whip cream, chocolate syrup, sprinkles, the works were quickly put together. Then he brought out ketchup and mustard, which he generously applied to everyone’s horror. He asked why, ketchup and mustard are good things also, right? A short discussion ensued. We decided that they were good, but not on a Sundae, right? Kyle turned the time over to another young classmate and she in turn passed the baton to another. Both talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy and asked a lot of questions about how we can do that and why we do that. Sister Allen then came up and talked about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy as well. She suggested 4 things that we should think about. 1. The Sabbath should taste different. 2. The Sabbath should look different. 3. The Sabbath should sound different. 4. The Sabbath should feel different. She displayed pictures to go along with the 4 ideas. The first had a picture of a pizza ½ with an actual pizza and ½ with vegetables. The second was a picture of a shirt ½ play type shirt ½ white shirt and tie. The third ½ electric guitar ½ violin. The fourth a chair ½ a theater chair, ½ a church chair. We discussed each of the pictures and how they were different and how we can make the Sabbath different by what we choose to do on the Sabbath. Great ideas were shared. She also added that the leaders do not specify what we can or cannot do. We have to make our own way so to speak, using our unique situations to do so, and based on gospel principles and teachings. It was an amazing day really, so full of the spirit and so edifying and uplifting. We all came away spiritually feed. Bishop and Sister Allen are amazing people and those who have the privilege of associating with them always come away feeling good or determined to make changes in their lives. They are great examples of people who are dedicated to serving the Lord with their time and talents. I am not sure how they accomplish all the great things that they do, but I believe the Lord fortifies them for the challenges they face and never ever leaves them alone.

DeRell & Marie 30-31 July 2015 Family Reunion

“The people around us are not perfect. People do things that annoy, disappoint, and anger. In this mortal life it will always be that way. Nevertheless, we must let go of our grievances. Part of the purpose of mortality is to learn how to let go of such things. That is the Lord’s way.” Elder Dieter Uchtdorf This is a quote that someone posted recently that I really liked. I realize that once again it has taken me a long time to get around to posting. Not sure why I do that since great things happen all the time and I should share those great things. It’s always like a booster shot that makes the day even better. We did go to the AMAZING George DeRell & Grace Marie Olson Family Reunion at the end of July. It was so fun to see everyone again and get updates on what has been happening in everyone’s life. Evan & Diane had all their kids there including Lizzie who had not been there for several years. It was so great to see her and get reacquainted. She is a wonderful young lady, generous and fun loving. She got all the teenagers to set aside their electronic devices and have some great fun. I did not count how many times they flew through the house, but boy did they make memories. The catered dinner was really nice allowing more time to visit and enjoy each other’s company. Trena brought a cotton candy making machine and got covered more than once by flying strands of cotton candy. What a surprise and so much fun. LaVar and Linda were able to come and share some time. We know it was a great sacrifice, but oh how fun it was to see them. LaVar made gifts for each of the brothers. A milking stool and a poem. Tony filled in for Danny since he was not there when LaVar presented the gifts. Tony was a good sport and he swears he was only obeying his dad when he use to tease me so unmercifully. OK, Tony, I believe you. Watching Tony with his grandkids makes me believe he could win the World’s Best Grandpa Award. He was so patient when they bowled and when they wanted to ride in Grandma’s wheel chair. You win Tony, I am sorry for giving you such a bad time. Danny and Gloria, Crystal & Jordan arrived in time to visit on Friday evening. They only missed LaVar and Linda by less than 10 mins. They ended up behind an accident site, so they were later than they expected to be. It was so fun to see them. They brought Stitch who was a big hit with the little kids. Daryl, Liz, & kids did not make it this year since they are making some changes in their lives and hoping to get moved to Arizona, just in time for us to leave the Mission Field. ;o[ The consolation will be flying from SLC to PHX instead of Maryland will be much shorter. Shelaine and Derek were making preparations for their big Convention in Chicago which ended last night. From all the posts on facebook it was pretty amazing. Hopefully they will make the next one in 2017 which will be planned by Daryl. John & Jamie were hosting students from China, so they too could not come this year. With all the things going on in the world with marriage and family it is great to belong to one of the most awesome families in the world. If all siblings could love each other like, LaVar, Evan, Ronnie, and Danny the world would be totally different. I have seen enough families to know that theirs is really unique and not found very often. I feel totally blessed to have married into such a great family. I love and cherish the way they treat each other and the love they have for each other. I know coming requires great sacrifice for many, BUT they do it because of the love they have for each other. It doesn’t get any better than that. Thanks to each of you who were there and the love that we share as descendants of DeRell & Marie, how proud they must be. Special thanks to Laura, and all the others who joined in to get the activities, meals etc together. Trenna for the cotton candy and helping arrange the float trip. Special thanks to RaDawn for the family photos she took. I have grown to truly love photo shop, but then again she had great models to work with, right? The biggest thanks go to those who did sacrifice to come. Each of you is what makes our family so great. If anyone doesn't know. Our mission will end in Oct and we will be returning to Wyoming for a season. ;o} or more. Love, Sister Olson

"DId you hear that? She said,Please"

We are keeping very busy is the Family History Center and loving it. We seem to be busy every day we are open and even most days that we are not open officially. It’s pretty neat. The center is open 27 hours a week when everyone comes for their shift. It gets a little discouraging when someone doesn’t show and we have patrons that want to come in, but life happens. It is exciting when someone comes in and thinks that you won’t be able to find anything and then all these documents start popping up. We get birth records and death records for children that they knew nothing about. A sister came into the Sunday school class and we found 4 death certificates for little children that she knew nothing about. With the information she found she can have those four babies sealed to their parents, after their work is done. It was a little frustrating today because I could not open one of the sister’s files and I can’t figure out what I did wrong and why we could not open her file. I am sure it has something to do with the way I saved it, but she ended up not staying which was not good. The other patrons were able to work on their trees and add names and dates for several of their family members who have passed away. Elder Olson is taking a water boy tank to Polacca tomorrow, so it will be another long day alone, but I have decided that they are the days to work on my own family history. I found Deana and Dawna’s great grandmother and great grandfather on their Dad’s side. Julian Kostecki and Helen Mary Habowski. Two great Polish names. Their dad, David, was born in Stuebenville, Jefferson, Ohio. I think there were 7 or 8 children, one of which was their grandmother, Veronica Kostecki, who has passed away. I hope to find out more about their line, but for now that is as far as I can go. Julian and Helen were born in Poland in the late 1800’s and until I can tie them to their parents, I am stuck, but I know miracles happen. The pictures were taken in the Family History Center this last month. The one is of Rudy and Gloria Begay from Chinle. We met them the first week we came out here. They are salt of the earth people and very special friends, that we have grown to love a great deal. They are the Family History Directors in Chinle. I was able to show them some of the great things they can do to help their patrons find their ancestors. One funny story I would like to share is about Sister Goldtooth. She is in the Pathways Program and right now they are doing a math class. She was really struggling and very frustrated because she could not figure out how to solve one of the problems. She decided to get down on her knees and ask Heavenly Father for help. Her little granddaughter, Lily, knelt beside her. Sister Goldtooth saw her and decided to pray out loud. Lily repeated the words. When she finished, Lily cocked her head and said, “Did you hear that, she said please?” Within minutes she understood what she was doing wrong and was able to solve the problem. I am sure we smile sometimes at what children say, but what a great example of her simple faith and asking if God had heard her grandmother’s prayer. I know you understand why we love being here so much. Sister Olson

Well it's been a while since I last posted, so I thought I better write something. Some of you may remember Desbah Tsinnie. She passed away since we've been here. Her daughter has had a rough go of life for quite a while. She came in the other day and wanted to do some volunteer work. I started her on obituaries and then decided to have her start her family tree. When we connected her father and then her grandfather connections or links as some would call it started to appear. The links kept going on and on. The last person I looked at was dated 1203. Her birth father was Sioux and it appears that somewhere along the line she has royalty from Europe in her line. She did not realize what a gold mine she had found, but the two others in the center did. We found death certificates and marriage certificates for her uncles, which is a rarity. Their names were clearly typed as was the wives with maiden names and the date of the marriage. We also found death dates for several family members on the Social Security Death Index. Since we started the genealogy class during Sunday School we have had people in every Sunday. Some of them come in during the week also. It's nice staying busy helping people find their ancestors without having to leave Tuba City to do so. We are finding death records for children that they did not know even existed. There is such an amazing spirit that can be felt when that happens. Our new Seminary teaches came in Friday. They are from North Carolina and it is fun to listen to them. It will take them a while to get used to Tuba and the weather. It was 103 today. I enjoyed staying indoors, and I think they did also. They will teach Seminary when school starts, but for now they will teach Institute and help with Pathways. Our other Sister Missionary will return from Maryland this week. It will be so fun to see her again. She has been wonderful to post things every week about what was going on. She plans to do Family History when she returns. ;o}