2014 Stats Report and Response from Brother Allen Christensen

This was a report I typed up for our Stake President. The stats for the two wards here are really pretty good, but trying to get stats for the other units can be a real challenge. We have lists of those who have gardened, but each time a new couple comes, it's like we have to start all over because it is so hard to find them. Addresses as such are pretty much nonexistent. We have put them on a GPS, but discovered that the one we used was not compatible with the church system. In any case I wanted to include this on my blog, since in essence it has been like a journal. The second letter was written by Allen Christensen who was president of the Benson Institute, but has since retired. Elder Seeley and his wife mentored us to take their place when we came in 2011. He continues to keep in touch and sometimes sends things to the folks in SLC. Apparently he sent the first report to President Justice and then received the second which he was kind enough to forward to us yesterday. We are so grateful to work with the people that we do. Sister Olson Dear President Justice, This is a rough draft of my findings. If the numbers have been added correctly, we had an 85.3% retention rate for the gardens in 1st & 2nd Ward in Tuba City. I hope we can get a more accurate account of the garden retention rate in the other units of the Stake. 2014 Report for TC Stake 1st & 2nd Stake Ward Stats Since 2010 Materials have been distributed to 287 participants in the Tuba City 1st and 2nd Wards since 2010. 245 of those have planted and harvested using the materials provided by the gardening program. 82% of the previous participants continue to utilize the original materials with minimum assistance from the missionaries. The main reasons for not using the materials are: 1. Employment somewhere else 2. Could not afford to haul water 3. Thought the increase in house water was to high 4. Had health issues which prevented them from doing the work involved 5. Dec = deceased We have had 6 participants pass away. Most of those gardens are still in production by other family members. Several participants have moved. Most of them have taken the materials and continue to plant at their new home sites. Those that move into the homes that have been left find fencing and irrigation and continue using the originally garden site. I have calculated that only 29 have let their gardens sit idle, which calculates to only 10% of the materials provided since 2010 are not being used. 2014 end of year stats In 2014 there was a total of 287 participants and 245 planted, which means 85% of people who were provided with materials planted and harvested. Four people who had missed planting in 2013 planted again in 2014. Many of our previous gardeners have become independent and require minimal if any help at all. A number of them have extended their gardens because they realized how valuable the investment had been. We hope to eventually get an accurate count of all those who have extended. They are doing this without any help from the church. They comment that they now know what can be done and how to do it. Those who are now confident, and many have become so, mentor new participants in their areas. This is happening in Dilcon, "Belentiville", Rocky Ridge, Hwy 89, Red Lake, and Tuba City. Families are mentoring family members. Those who have gained confidence share the skills they have mastered by attending the monthly garden demos. This was written to Elder Seeley by Allen Christensen. Thanks, Brother Seeley, For this wonderful report. It is of great interest to me as I am certain it is with other priesthood leaders. I deeply appreciate the devotion and courage of missionaries, members and priesthood leaders, all of whom have made this effort succeed with a success rate that is above that which we frequently had with Benson Projects in Latin America. Of course, I would be insensitive if I do not acknowledge the hand of the Lord in all of this. I think the Lord must be pleased with this effort. Skeptics have been moved to active participants, who now recognize that with training and a minimum bundle of resources and the Lord's blessing, these arid lands can be made to blossom. I think this effort represents a rather remarkable effort with the Children of Lehi. Thanks to you and Sister Seeley for the inspirational service that you have given and continued to give to this part of the Lord's vineyard. Clearly the Lord must be well pleased with the service of Elder and Sister Olson. Their effort have been and continues to be superb. Kindest personal regards, Allen

Chloe Begay Baptism

Today we had two baptisms in the 1st Ward.  I don't think I have ever felt the presence of the Spirit as  strongly as I did today.  Tristan Begay baptized his little sister Chloe.  Although the group was small the spirit was not.  His words as he spoke the prayer had so much meaning.
  Sister Allen gave the talk on Baptism.  She is always so well prepared and brings such an amazing spirit with her.
  Elder Olson gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.  At first he related a story about an 86 woman that he had baptized while serving as a young Elder.  The water was very cold and because her toe had come up he had to baptize her again.  Because the water was so cold and he did not want to have to do it 3 times, he pushed her under and looked first to the right and then to the left as he held her under.  The witnesses said, "Let her up, let her up!"  She came up with a great big smile.
  Elder Olson related this story because Chloe had also had to been baptized more than once.  The Bishop apologized to the family.  He said he had been very concerned about the warmth of the water and didn't give as much thought to the level of the water,  which was very low.  The second baptism took place later tonight and you can be sure that the water level in the font was much higher.
  Elder Olson talked about Tristan and how well he played basketball.  He said that Tristan was as good as he was because he listened and obeyed his coach.  He told Chloe that Tristan learned how to listen and how to obey and that he might not have always liked what his coach told him to do, but he did it.  He likened what Tristan did in listening to his coach to what Chloe would be doing as she listened to the Holy Ghost.  She would get better and recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost more and more as she obeyed.  Even though I am slightly prejudice, I thought he did a great job.
  I forgot my phone, so I did not get a picture, but Sister Simpson did, so I asked that she email me a copy of the one she took.  I will try and get that posted.
  The second baptism was for Ladria Manygoats.  Her brother, Rue, was baptized a few months ago. She had braided her beautiful long hair and she looked so beautiful.
  

Amazing Day In the Family History Center

 Today we had two patrons come into the center.  It had been well over a year for one and about 2 months for the other.  

  We had been invited to go to Chinle for a Senior Christmas Party, but I just felt like there was a reason we needed to be in Tuba City.

  Bro. Haswood started his family tree.  He entered his parents names, and his mother's parent's names.  He also entered some of his siblings including a brother who has passed away.  All the names qualified for ordinance work.

  It took a while to get started because he thought he had an account, but we discovered he did not.  He said his home teacher had told him to write the names down and to GET STARTED.  

 I cannot convey the power of the spirit we felt as we found the social death records for all those people.  Brother Haswood was a bit a overwhelmed also.

  I told him he can now visit with the Bishop and get things in order, so that he can do the Temple work.  Words truly cannot express what we all were feeling today.

  Sister Singer from Kayenta, also came in and added her Grandmother and three of her children to the family tree.  She plans to go to the Temple next week and do the work.

  I had come over early to work with Sister Horseherder, who is also working on her family tree.  What an amazing day it has been to feel so close to those on the other side who want their work done.

  Both patrons plan to come in again next week.  I am not sure who Bro Haswood's home teacher is, but he obviously was inspired to tell him to write the names down and get into the family history center.  How grateful I am that he heeded the counsel he was given.

Dad and The Bee

I bet you already know which one won the fight.  Yesterday Dad had to respond to a call from Mother Nature while he was out and about.  It seems that a local bee found the inside of his upper right leg a perfect place to land.  Unfortunately for the bee and Dad, the bee was still resting when he pulled up his pants.

I have never seen such a reaction.  Dad did not come right home, but when he did, he asked if I would please remove the stinger.  Well, it looked like he had about 5 stingers, but one was more prominent that the others, so I girded up my loins and scraped across it with a credit card.  We had read that if you use tweezers, the stinger may break.

  What should have been a big red lump was actually a 3 inch circle with 15-20 blisters inside a 7 or 8 inch larger red circle.  It looked so bad.  I wanted to take him to the emergency room, but you all know your dad well enough to know that he was not about to go for just a little old bee sting.  

  He poured on the Lavender and several other oils, then sat in the tub.  I kept checking to make sure he was still breathing.  Even after prayers and he actually went to bed, I kept listening and touching him, so he would move and I could be sure he was okay.

  Today the smaller circle is still full of blisters that look like they are healing well, but the larger red circle is still there with considerable swelling, but does your dad complain, of course not.   It makes me cry sometimes when I see how much he endures.  I will be eternally grateful for him and the example he has set.  I can see how he lives with pain every waking minute, but he puts a smile on his face and goes about like he was 25 instead of 66.

  He is always saying that he would rather wear out instead of rust out.  It would truly be a death sentence to become a couch potato, but I am grateful each day he comes home, takes his long soak in the tub, says his prayers and crawls into bed.   We use to laugh when his parents went to bed at 7, but guess who is becoming his dad.  :o} It's 7:40 and Dad has been asleep for almost an hour.

  We always laugh when we come to visit and the time to leave approaches.  He looks at me and says, should we pull a mom and dad and leave at 4 or 5 in the morning.  DeRell and Marie would do that quite often.  We laughed a lot over that, but now that we are maturing, we understand better why they did that.

  I hope everyone is praying for good weather, bad weather would be the only thing that would stop us from coming.  Sister Stevens mentioned last night about a multiple car pile up somewhere up there, due to the weather.  I tried not to freak out.  The Justice family has 2 sons coming from Rexburg for Thanksgiving.

  We do need to check out phones while we are there and I would like to go to the Temple.

  We have our Stake Temple Trip on Dec 6, but if we go while we are there it would save us the 7 hours travel time to Snowflake.

  Well it is almost 8, bed time right LOL.  

  I like to crawl in about 10, but have learned 9 isn't so bad and being up and on the go by 4 insures that I will have uninterrupted time for scriptures and breakfast.

  Although every day isn't always great, we know that God has everything in hand and that we just need to trust Him and know that things will work out.

  We are very proud of each of you and thank Heavenly Father for the privilege of being your earthly parents.  We are grateful for the memories.

Love,

Mom

Successful Gardeners 1

Pictures of Succes

This week on the "Rez"

This week has been pretty crazy in the “busy” way.  Elder Olson was gone every day but one, and he was only here that day because we had potential senior couples come to check this mission out.

 That happens on occasion.  A couple will call and express interest and President Justice invites them to come and visit and see what they think.  Sometimes it works really well, and other times, both parties decide that it really isn’t a “good fit”   On one occasion I said, “I don’t like to have to clean up after a storm hits” which is how I feel when people aren’t happy and are unable to work things out in a good way and can’t wait to get out of Dodge.  I will let you fill in the blanks.

Elder Olson went to Monument Valley Saturday with Brother Nez.  They did a Demo on how to prep the soil and put the fence up.  They had a pretty good turn out and I think everyone felt a whole lot better about going home and prepping their own gardens and putting the fence up.  The new senior couple were especially happy to have the support from the “Old Pro”  Elder Olson laughed because he is used to having everything laid out just so.  Well, they had 2 extra fence posts which when laid out did not compute.  It took a while for him to recognize that he had 2 extra that he was trying to fit into the layout of the standard fence of 30 x 30. 

We try to explain that while we have been here longer than most, we still do not know everything, nor do we pretend to know.  I think it turned out well and lunch was served.

The young Elders had made an apt for one of their investigators to come into the History Center on Saturday afternoon, but neglected to ask if someone could be there to help.  The other senior elder asked them about someone being there and they said something like, Sister O is always around.  He suggested they ask me anyway, which they finally did.

I knew the sister who came in but could not place her.  She is actually a member, but had not done anything on her family tree.  We started with her of course and then added what she did know.  One name lead to another and pretty soon we had her back about 4 generations.  We found census records with her gr grandparents including their first names which she had not known before, but wanted to know.  We found 2 young men who died at 14 and 16.  We actually found their death certificates.  One had died from drowning, the other from tuberculosis, because of “traditions” of not speaking the names of those who pass on, they might not have ever had the opportunity to be identified and sealed to their parents if she had not come in to get started.

We also found the Soc Sec Death Index for her grandfather who died in Texas in 2000.  While scrolling through the other names, she found a grandmother, an aunt, and an uncle’s information.  I think we had about 20 names recorded and several documents printed out before we knew it.

She stayed for about 2 hours and took pedigree charts and family group sheets.  She is anxious to come back and continue doing research to find others.  What a blessing to have such great tech support at our finger tips.  I love it when it works.

Elder Olson got a load of firewood and took it to one of our favorites in Red Lake.  A family member got angry and broke every window and door in her home.  They still have one large window that has not been replaced.  The wood helps tremendously, but the blanket over the one window, can only do so much.  When you say your prayers, please remember all the little things you take for granted.

Love,

Sister Olson

3:00 A.M. Phone Call and Stake Conference

  At 3:00 in the morning on Oct 28, my phone rang.  I just happen to put the phone on the night stand  One of our young sisters was calling.  I answered the phone and spent 45 mins  listening.  She obviously was going through a horrible situation.  I have learned to listen more and talk less.  When she was ready to hang up she said she could breathe again and that she felt loved and not  alone.

  The next day, I called to see how the rest of the night had gone.  She knows God loves her and she is going to make it.  I am sure there will be difficult days ahead, but I pray that she will always feel like she can call and talk no matter what the time.

  Prayer is interesting that way also.  There is never any message like Press 1 if you want...or Press 2 if you want..etc,  No call waiting message, no silence when you need to hear what only God knows can help you through whatever you are facing.

  I have learned to trust God more, while serving out here.  I have learned to listen more for the still small voice.  I have learned to love the people we serve. to celebrate differences and not be so quick to decide what the problem is.  Sometimes things are much different than you first think they are.  We also have to be so careful when we listen.  One of my favorite songs has the words, "In the quiet heart is hidden, sorrow that the eye cannot see."  

  I think we are often guilty of judging by appearance only and not looking into the heart.  So many people carry such heavy loads.  I hope we cheer more and stop throwing so many rocks.  We are here to help and to love one another.  

I wasn't planning on writing all that, but I guess there is a reason.

We just finished what I call our "Fruit Season"  The Stake President orders Peaches, Pears, and Apples.  We just finished with the Apple Order.  It is fun to watch the sisters order and bottle their fruit.  They are doing a great job of it too.

We have lots going on all the time  The young Elders are meeting more people through the gardening initiative.  People love to talk about their gardens and that opens right up to the blessings of the Lord.

  We had Stake Conference this weekend.  President Justice is such an amazing Stake President.  He speaks with great power and insight.  There is no doubt that he loves the Lord and seeks His guiding spirit in how to direct the affairs of the Stake.  He is amazing.

  His comments last night centered around Obedience and Sacrifice.  He said we all know how to go without, but do we know how to sacrifice.

  He shared the sacrifice that Abraham was willing to make and the widow who feed the prophet and then prepared to die.  Her sacrifice blessed her life and sustained her until the situation changed.  Are we willing to make such a sacrifice as they did?  We feel so blessed to work with such great people, who have strengthened their understanding of the gospel and the principles that we came here to learn.

  We cannot always understand the WHY of things, but we can trust that God does and that he will never leave us nor forsake us.  

  He focused on the blessings of paying a full tithe and being Temple worthy.  He told the people of this Stake that if they also would be willing to sacrifice that they would never go without the necessities of life, but that they had to be committed.  It was such an amazing thing to be a witness of.

  We will have Fast Sunday next week and then on the 16th we will have the Phx Temple Dedication.  We are really looking forward to that.

  The time change is great because now I don't have to figure out two different time zones and what time my appts. are.  Is it our time or the other time????  Now when you go through the intersection it is still the same time.  LOL

  We love you.

Sister Olson