Just looked at the date of the last posting, guess it's been a long time since I posted anything. Guess I have been getting lazy. It just seems like the days are fairly routine and things are rather quiet, but I am not complaining.
We did have a lot of excitement and fun in Sep. We drove to Shelaine's on Thursday Sep. 6 and enjoyed a couple of days of relaxing between projects. On Sunday we drove to John's new home in Lake Point and I was able to visit his classroom on Monday. I was also able to eat breakfast at school with Shandon, who is quite the little charmer.
On Tues. Jamie drove us to the airport which is only 20 mins from their house. We flew to Maryland and hid out the next morning so we could surprise Madelyn and Carter when they got off the bus. That was really fun. Carter and Grandpa walked from the bus stop to their house while I rode with Daryl, Liz, and Madelyn.
We had a great time doing different projects. Ronnie helped Daryl build a new ramp to his shed. He also weeded a flower bed and took out a tree. Over the weekend we visited Brandywine Park where we watched a re -enactment of a battle that took place around 1777 between the British and the Americans. It was very interesting and a lot of fun. We all learned a lot about how it really was for the people back then.
We had a great time with the kids and it is hard not to miss them, but we did get lots of pictures.
We flew back on Tues and stayed with Shelaine until Saturday morning, then drove up to Star Valley and did numerous projects there. I told RaDawn that now we will take trips based on who has the most interesting projects to tackle. We both like to be useful and helpful, but a few days of laying around looking like grandparents who are aging isn't that bad either. ;o}
We waited until the 2nd of Oct to head back, because we brought a load of peaches with us for the ward members and others who love peaches.
The Provident Living Committee has something going all the time. The pickling party was a huge success and this week they did a pie making demo. Each sister made their own pie crust and filled it with peaches. Then they took it home to bake. Can't say no to that kind of offer.
They bottled the first load of peaches while were traveling. They were here at the church all day and one of the members ended up bottling 96 quarts with her sisters and mother. She is an amazing young woman and we hope she will head up the Gardening Committe next year. She is the Natural Resource Agent for the BIA here in Tuba.
The Gardening Program has had a very positive influence on the people involved. We are able to get into homes and share the gospel while we work along side the people. It is pretty awesome really. We had 59 new gardners this year and almost all of them had a great harvest this fall. About 3 had problems and weren't able to follow through, but hopefully will be able to do so next year.
We have 506 gardens in the Stake and 173 are between Red Lake and Tuba, so it keeps us busy. Ronnie works with the gardners and I work in the Family History Center. Last year I was able to go with him more because we had a couple that just worked in the Family History Center. We were able to index 468 obiutaries from the Crownpoint area. An older sister had collected obits from 2001 until 2012 and she shared them with the couple serving there. They in turn zeroxed all of them and mailed them to us. It took several weeks, but the majority of the work is done. We put one obit on every page and then alphabetized them. We ended up with 3 binders. We included surname, given name, birth and death dates and places, parents, spouse if listed and clan names, which is very important to the Navajo People.
We did have 2 other couples to help with gardening and one of the sisters helped for 2 hours in the family history center. Now we just have the couple that teaches Seminary and us.
The Andersons are from Montana. They are wonderful neighbors, very quiet and unassuming. Ronnie enjoys working with Elder Anderson who is quiet, soft spoken, and has a great work ethic. He is the one who will take care of the two RV's that are parked here. Fortunately, they have lived in trailers and know how to care for them.
Our Stake President has been in Israel the last couple of weeks and will be returning this Friday. We have stake conference next weekend. He took his wife, one of his sons, and a daughter-in-law. I guess it is a tradition in their family. They also take young men who are preparing for missions, back to the church historical sites before they leave on their missions. They have some pretty great traditions.
We have about 14 new participants signed up for next year. They will till in a new product called Humate with manure and fertilizer this fall, so the ground will be much better for next spring when they plant. They are excited to have what they have seen others have.
The Halloween Party was great. We had a lot turn out for the Chili Cook Off, carnival and trunk-or-treat.
They will be doing a Thanksgiving dinner in each ward, so I get to cook two turkeys. one Wed and one Thursday. Each ward will cook 6 turkeys and the members will bring side dishes. They love food get-togethers, and so do I. They are great cooks.
The picture says a lot about how excited they get when they get to go to the garden and pick something to eat. I am going to try and put some other pictures up, but I still have my challenges doing that with any degree of success.
We are without young elders in Tuba, but we were told that after President Monson's announcement the applications went from 700 a week to 4,000 a week. Pretty amazing. A lot of elders left our mission at the same time, but it sounds like we will be getting a lot soon.
I hope you will read Ether 2:12 and then get out and vote.
Love,
Elder & Sister Olson
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