Dear Family & Friends,
May not post pictures this week. Seems like every week is busy in a different way. Sacrament is always a renewing feast to start a new week.
One of the wards attendance is down, so today a 96 year blessed the water, the one who blessed the bread is older too, perhaps in his 70's. He recently survived a heart attack. Both bore their testimonies of the gospel. I don't remember all the words, but I won't forget the spirit and the power of their words.
The men who passed the sacrament weren't as old as those two, but the youngest was probably in his 30's. Everything was done in such a reverent manner. The 96 year old took a while to get down to his knees and when he finished the other one helped him stand up, what an amazing display of compassion and charity for his brother in the gospel.
They didn't just bless the sacrament, you felt the power of each word of the sacrament prayer. You know that they know Heavenly Father and the Savior in a very personal way. It wasn't done quickly either each word was spoken clearly and with emotion. It still touches my heart to see them kneeling before the Lord and saying the prayers. I don't know the right words to convey what I felt. I just wish you could have been here to feel what we did.
All but two of the testimonies were by the brethren. Brother Mitchell thanked everyone for their prayers and told how much it meant to him to know we were praying for him when he had his heart attack.
Another Brother talked about praying to the Lord to know what the words were in the Bible and Book of Mormon. He had not had an education and could not read. He wanted to learn to read so he could know the words himself. He has taken the literacy course that the Church offers. He was the one who wanted to read every single word of every scripture in the lessons. He was not content to read just the excerpts that are in the manual. He wants to find the verse in his scriptures and mark them carefully, reading each word. Then he talks about them and if he has questions, he asks. He has an amazing testimony and desire to know the scriptures. Decoding new words is not always easy, but he wants to do it by himself, so when he is at home he can feel confident about attacking new words. He has probably been taking the lessons for over a year. He thanked Sister Droddy for being his teacher and helping him learn to read better. He had started with Sister Meldrum and then I taught him two lessons, but thinking that we were leaving we thought it best to have the consistency of one teacher instead of one for a couple of months then another. What a privilege to be his teacher for just two lessons.
I wondered today what it will be like for him when he passes through the veil and what the Savior will say to him.
Someone asked me what I had learned here on my mission. I have to honest, I have learned a lot about myself and the testimony of humble people. When they are asked to speak at church, they do not download a conference talk and read it. They go to the scriptures and they go to their knees and you get to hear what they learned from the Spirit.
Tomorrow we go to Durango for the second injection. They are predicting snow, so we are putting 6 bags of sawdust in the truck bed for the extra weight on the roads. I would say keep us in your prayers, but we already know you do and can feel the power of those prayers as we travel.
The appt after that will be Nov. 30. We will visit with Dr. Yousself and see what he feels would be the best "plan of attack"
The new couple arrived Friday night during a bad storm. They are from Rigby, Idaho, practically next door neighbors. They seem very nice and have a lot of family history experience. We are suppose to be updating our family history center. We got a new printer, fax, scanner machine sitting over there right now. Hopefully we will get a couple of new computers also, but won't know for sure until they arrive. The brother from Facility Maintenance has to come from Page to install things, so we are not sure when that will happen.
Next weekend, Sister Thompson, Sister Dalton, and Sister Esplan are coming from SLC. They will hold meetings in Kayenta and speak at our 2nd Ward meeting at 9 Sunday. We have a baptism on Sat, so we won't be going to the meetings there on Sat. Everyone has been invited to the 2nd Ward meeting on Sunday. Hopefully we will have a full house.
Guess that is all for this week. Grandkid letters may be a little late this week. We love you all and hope all is well in your part of the world.
Elder & Sister Olson
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