Memorable Moments and Revolving Doors

Dear Family and Friends,

  What an amazing weekend we’ve just had.  On Saturday we attended a baptism.  Three young people were baptized.  In both families their dads were able to perform the ordinance.  Almost every seat in the baptismal font room  was filled.  There was such an amazing spirit that filled the room.

 After the baptism we went to celebrate Gloria Babbitt’s birthday.  She did not know why she was coming to the building where it was held.  They just told her that everyone was going there to eat.  When she came in we all sang Happy Birthday.  She really didn’t understand at first, but soon it became evident and she enjoyed every minute with relatives and old friends who had come to celebrate with her. 

 After we ate people would stand up and pay tribute to her and the extraordinary life she has lived.  They asked me to share some thoughts also, which I was happy to do.  I told how much I had grown to love her and how she had helped me with my rugs.  I said that Mary was a little jealous that her mom called me her baby, but that Mary had been her daughter all her life and I had only had her as mom for a couple of years, so she should be OK sharing her.  Everyone thought that was pretty funny.

  We had to leave a little early and Mary texted this morning and said that Gloria had spoken at the end and had talked about her daughters and how much she loved them.  Then she talked about her last daughter meaning me.  It meant a great deal to me to know that she shares what I feel for her.  She has lived an amazing life and faced tremendous challenges raising a family on the rez.  We are all privileged to know such a great woman.

 Saturday night was one of the “revolving door” nights which happens frequently.  It is a night when you have revolving guests in a steady stream.  There was a knock at the door.  Elder Olson answered and said which he frequently does  “Woshdee”  which means Come in.  In come two people, male and female.  Both have black eyes and evidence of being in a bad fight.  We don’t know them and now they are sitting on our couch, asking for a ride and wanting us to drive them to their home just over there. 

Elder Olson explains that he is waiting for some friends and does not want to miss them.  Within a short time his friend and her husband knock on the door.  He invites them in.  Now we have 4 people in our tiny apt.  Devonne was about 4 when he last saw her.  She and I went to the same college, worked in the same mall in Torrance and we discovered all this in just a short time.

   Meanwhile the first two are commenting about common friends and working close to where Devonne and I worked and other places we seemed to have in common, although many years apart. She mentions graduating from Torrance High.  I am feeling a little safer thinking Devonne  and her husband can testify and identify who was in our apt.

  Then comes another knock and I open the door.  There is a sweet lady asking if someone can give the sister in her car a blessing.  They had just come from the hospital.  The woman had slipped on some ice and hit her head.  Elder Anderson is gone and the young Elders do not answer when I call their phone.  I am pretty distressed by now and call Brother Allen who answers even when I ask for Elder Anderson.   I ask if he can come over to the church.  He says he can. 

Devonne and her husband had come by to see Elder Olson, but are actually on their way home to Phoenix.  They had just taken her husband’s grandmother back to Missouri, so she could be buried with her husband.  Devonne had found lots of family history when they were going through her things and promises to email copies so we can start a family tree.

  They exit as Brother Allen arrives, Elder Olson goes over to the church to help with the blessing and I am now alone with the couple who came for a ride.  Oh me, oh my, NOW  I am alone with complete strangers who now share that they were “jumped” and “beaten up”  They also share that they have attended a funeral as well and that they had their money and wallet stolen by the thugs who” jumped “ them.  They notice the pictures of the temple and a copy of the Ensign.

I ask her name thinking it might be good to know and she tells me her name and that she was baptized a long time ago into the church.  He also gives me his name.  I ask if they would like some water and he says he wants a sandwich. 

 I check and we do have 4 slices of bread, peanut butter and honey.  I  slip into the kitchen wondering about what is laying around the living room and if it will be there when I return and also the scripture, “Oh ye of little faith,”.  I make the sandwiches quickly and return, with them, a bottle of water for each and two apples.  I hand them the food.  As I sit down he picks up the top slice to check what is inside and rolls his eyes just a bit.  They eat slowly , take a few sips of water and slip the apples into their pockets.

Meanwhile I am counting the minutes until Elder Olson returns.  He had to feel my concern and appears fairly quickly.  They have finished the sandwiches and are now ready to be driven home.  They drive off and I wonder if I will see Elder Olson again.  It was only “3 miles” away, how long would it take? 

  Elder Olson returns in 20 mins, much to my great happiness.  I am thinking of installing an iron gate on the door and not allowing Elder Olson to answer any knocks in the future.  He also had to endure Lecture #82 on not letting everyone who comes to the door into our apt. ;o}

Today we spoke in the 1^st and 2^nd Wards in Kayenta.  It was so fun.  The people enjoyed hearing about how Elder Olson and I met.  I always speak first so he can correct anything he thinks I remember incorrectly. ;o}

 We spoke on President Utchdorf’s Ensign talk on “Regrets and Resolutions”.  I will be writing about that experience next week, since this is getting rather long, and tonight has been another “revolving door” night.

 We appreciate all the prayers in our behalf, I know that they are answered.

Elder & Sister Olson

Christmas 2012 Headstands and gathering firewood

Dear Family and Friends,

  I know it seems like I don't write as regular and I always feel a little bad, because things are happening all the time and I think I need to record it, but then I get tired and have lots to do, so I talk myself out of writing it down.  Then I think, you are doing family history right, so what is up with that kind of thinking?

  We did get to go to Utah for about 8 days over the Christmas holidays.  The missionaries now need to get special clearance to leave even for Dr. or dental appts. when they are out of zone which is every time we go to Flag or Page or even to one of the other units in the Stake,.  I don't think anyone is ever turned down, but they need to keep tract of where you are, just in case.  It is actually one of my responsibilities to keep tract of the gardening missionaries.  I tell them it is just a safe guard, so we know which way to start looking if they don't get home safely.

  While in Utah Elder Olson was able to shovel Shelaine's driveway about seven times.  He loved it, trust me.  He had good help with Brock and Braxton although Brock was a little more interested in doing back flips into the snow banks. ;o}  I took his picture which looked like he was doing a headstand in the snow bank, which I guess you might say was exactly the effect he was trying to get.

  We were suppose to leave the day after Christmas, but Shelaine had prayed for snow, which came in abundance.  We stayed 2 extra days. You need to know that we did have our baggage packed and by the door and were ready to go, so we did try. ;o} even if we didn't leave the driveway, which Elder Olson gladly shoveled again.

  On the Saturday before Christmas all our kids, grandkids, (minus JaKohbi, who called) plus Deana and Ricky came together for dinner, which was wonderful.  I didn't have to do much except enjoy being a mom and grandma and watching everyone have fun sharing memories, good food, tender moments in time and laughing their heads off.

  As usually I heard "memories" that the kids shared and that I wasn't privy too at the time they were being made.  Some of them probably could have remained their secret, but maybe the fact that they can remember and laugh makes it OK.

  We did head out on Friday at 5:30 AM and got back to Tuba around 2:30 PM  The roads weren't bad until we got to Jacob's Lake and then we had to drive more slowly, but all went well.

  Elder Olson went with a member to cut wood for the member's mother-in-law the next week.  They drove about 40 miles away and then off road in the snow.  If I can find the picture I will post it.  I say this for all the comments we get about being in sunny Arizona and basking in the sun.  It went down to 8 degrees the last couple of nights.  Many people are dealing with frozen pipes, which is certainly not fun.

  Sister Goldtooth continues to make me stand in awe of the amazing testimony and the great faith she has of the Savior and the Atonement.  A week ago she ended up coming to Relief Society long after opening exercises.  She is the president and right now both counselors are unable to be here, and she still doesn't have a secretary.  She also showed up in pants, which was a surprise.  Well, we are not suppose to judge and so often we do without knowing the whole story.

 Sister Goldtooth had had a young man come late at night, knock on the door, and simply say, "You need to come with me."  After a few questions and prayer, she ended up going.  She also ended up spending the night in Flagstaff with his mother who did not want to be alone.  She just told her something to the effect that she had watched Sister G and knew she could trust her because of what she had observed in her. 

  It is a tragic story in many ways, but also an amazing story that confirms that people do watch us and what we do.  I do not know how that part of the story will turn out, but I know that Sister G takes her calling very seriously and felt it was more important to come as she was, because she was the president and no one knew where she was or why she hadn't shown up.  She had left Flagstaff at 9 am that Sunday morning after spending the night with someone she didn't hardly know, but  who knew her to be a good woman and someone who could be trusted when she needed someone the most, who would stay by her and not judge her.

  The other part of the story is that when Sister G did not show up, the other Sister Missionary asked Sister Goldtooth's counselors daughters who were there if their mother had told them what to do, and if their mom could not be there then they were taking over by default I guess you might say. Both girls got up.  One played the piano while the other conducted the singing.  Then quickly one of them used her Ipod, found a conference talk, and gave a beautiful lesson.  

  Sister Goldtooth came in some time later and quietly sat in the back. After the girls finished the lesson, she shared her story.  For obvious reasons I have not shared the details of her story, which is one that you hear in stunned silence, and which fortifies your testimony of having the gospel in your life and seeing the wisdom and strength of members here  who help those who do not have the gospel, but who recognize the Savior's attributes in the example that the member lives and knowing what they see in the member, they will come forward and ask for help.

  I am not sure I have written what I wanted to say, exactly how I should have, but I hope you will continue to keep the people here in your prayers.  Members here have a number of challenges that other members do not.  Those who have found the gospel and gained strong testimonies are amazing examples of what the gospel does to change lives and provide strength in difficult circumstances.

  The weather continues to remain well below average temperatures for this time of year, and it is suppose to continue to stay cold throughout this week.

  Something that warmed our hearts yesterday was a picture sent to our phones, showing Carter Michael Kjar Olson as the newest deacon in the Church.  We are very proud grandparents of Carter and hope we can attend his ward so he can pass us the sacrament.

  We would enjoy hearing from you.  Letters, comments, or emails, warm our hearts. ;o}

Elder & Sister Olson

Christmas Play with the Littlest Angel Heralding the Savior's Birth with maracas

Dear Family and Friends,

  The two sweet sisters at the top are Gloria Babbitt, my most favorite here on the rez, and her sister Lorraine, who is the mother of 22 children, all single births.  Mary, Gloria's daughter, said she thought she had 6 with her first husband, so that would make it 28 children.  I hope I will be able to do her family group sheet.  I think she was given in marriage when she was 13 and had her first child at age 14.  They think she is around 105 +  years right now.  Pretty amazing, she needed no real help to get around, although her daughter took her plate of food to her.

  The second picture is the Nativity scene they used at the Christmas dinner minus the sheep that was placed in front of the waste basket on the left.  We think one of the shepherds ran off with the sheep.  You remember leaving the 99 in search of the one that was missing. ;o}

  This is the first Christmas where the littlest angel heralded in the birth by using maracas.  He walked in on the left with a tinsel halo and two bright red maracas which he thoroughly enjoyed shaking.  I guess they were in the sack with the other Christmas items and he found them very appealing, so he helped himself and ran back to his mom, who had quite a time taking them away from him. ;o}  A Christmas to remember.

  The brother who conducted did so in Navajo, which was awesome because many of the older people do not speak English.  The Bishop did tell the Christmas story in English as the primary children enacted the parts.  The spirit was amazing.  The dinner was very good also, although we actually ran out of meat, so Elder Olson went back to our apt.  and brought back a few slices from the roast we had shared with the Nez family.

  We continue to see every day as a new adventure, not knowing what will happen.  Sometimes we have sad things happen, but where we choose to focus makes us who we are and who we will become. One day when I opened the door and asked if I could help, the answer was "We would like a missionary lesson, could you give us one?"  Not an every day occurrence., but one we were delighted to respond to.

  Our Relief Society President is amazing.  Yesterday her first counselor told her that her new job demanded that she work every Sunday morning until Feb, so she would not be coming to church for the next while.  I asked her about the lesson and she realized that her counselor was suppose to give it.  We learned long ago to have "talks" in our scripture bag as well as "lessons" for that week ready, just in case.  Today it was the Sunday School lesson and the Relief Society lesson.  We are really learning a lot about being prepared and relying on the Holy Ghost to direct our thoughts and words about what to speak about.  I am truly grateful for the tender mercies of Heavenly Father.

  Tomorrow we have a missionary meeting and have been asked to present a spiritual thought and our ideas on what has been the best way to help the people here.  There is a message in the Ensign that is directed specifically to Seniors, in fact there is more than one article and one of the highlighted headings was focusing on what you can do and that was an answer to prayer, because it is pretty easy to stress over what should be done and the fact that it doesn't always happen the way it does in other wards and branches throughout the church.  We are uniquely different and we need to do what works to meet the needs of the people here and not stress that what works looks different here than it does in other areas.

  The Relief Society lesson was on Living Righteously in Perilous Times.  In light of what has happened in the last few days back east, it was very profound that it should be today's lesson.  We need more than ever to have God and the gospel in our lives, in our schools, and yes in our work places.  He has promised so many things, but still we see those who would take Him out of everything and then wonder why such tragedies occur.

  We hope at this time of year, we would make a stand for what we know to be true, even if others would have it some other way.  It is He who has the answers and He who can heal lives and broken hearts. We would hope that instead of thinking of more ways He can be taken out, we share how important it is to put Him in everything, for He is the Savior, the Redeemer and in Him all things can be answered.

Merry Christmas

Elder and Sister Olson

  

Elvis has been seen on the rez

Dear Family and Friends, 

    The top picture is of Ann Thompson and Avvy Trujillio.  Ann made the aprons and bag.  The aprons she gave to Elder Olson and me as gifts.  If you look closely you will see a Chee hat on the one, that is Elder Olson's and he loves it.  Mine is the one Avvy is holding on the right.  We love both these single moms very much.  Both are very hard working in their gardens and in their lives in general.
  The second picture is of Avelina Nez, Lee's wife helping in the kitchen which she loves to do.  She is a beautiful Navajo woman and a great cook.
  Elder Olson has not cut his hair for quite a while and a few days ago I asked if his clippers were broken.  He said, "No, why do you ask?"
  I said, "Well you usually keep your hair much shorter, are you growing it out?"
  He responded that he might be trying to grow it out like Brother Nez, who's hair is half way down his back and I said, "Hmmmmmm"
  Today someone at church asked if I was dating Elvis and I must have looked a little puzzled.  He said he thought the man I was with was Elvis because he had such long hair.  Elder Olson had slicked it back after I left the apt and before he came over to the meeting.
  Since he likes to go to bed early, when he is home before dark, and that makes him wake up very, very early, we shall see in the morning if Elvis will go back into retirement.
  After church today we had the Nezs and Andersons over for dinner.  The table is small, but we had enough room to all sit down after we filled our plates at the kitchen counter.  Elder Olson has become quite good at cooking roasts in the dutch oven, which he puts into the regular oven and cooks at a very low temperature from early in the morning until after the last meeting at 2:00.  Sister Anderson brought a nice fruit salad and Sister Nez had brought things for a green salad.
  We invited Bishop Kingsford, who's wife has been with her daughter in Utah for several weeks.  He could not come over when we ate, but came by for leftovers, which he took home to eat.  He will be driving up to Utah for the break and she will return with him after the holidays.
  We were glad Sister Kingsford went because it was her daughter's first baby and they ended up taking him C-section because they discovered that the cord was wrapped around his neck.  Mom and baby are doing well.  Also an update on the baby that Elder Olson blessed.  He is doing well and growing fast.
  We had another Piano Play time last Friday and my fingers were shaking, so I did not do as well as I wanted.  Tonight after Institute I forced myself to play while everyone enjoyed treats.  My fingers were still a little naughty, but when Brother Nez sat on the bench next to me I DID NOT FREAK OUT, even though I was afraid I might.  I kept right on playing and although I also made some mistakes I did much better than Friday and there was an audience listening, which I think is what makes me freak out every time.
  I do practice and I can play, but when I know there are people actually listening for real, my hands shake and I can't play well at all.  I would like to believe that I can fake it until I can make it, but my fingers haven't gotten the message yet.  BUT I shall not give up. ;o}
  Tomorrow we go to Page for my dental appt.  We are also going to get pipe pieces to use on my loom. The dowel sticks tend to bend slightly when you stretch the rug to work on it.
 I am working on my first diamond pattern and am about half way done with the second rug which is much bigger than the first.  The next one will be smaller, so I can practice putting them on the loom more quickly.  It won't take as long to finish it and then I can put another one on if it is smaller and faster to finish, and I will feel more comfortable about putting on the warp and lacing the ends.
  Today the Patriarch along with his wife spoke to both wards.  They live in Page.  He said some really wonderful things about what a patriarchal blessing is and why we should get one.  His youngest person to receive one was 12 and the oldest 86.  One of the sisters is the First Ward had spoken to me about getting hers just this last week. She was afraid she might be to old.  I was very glad she was there to hear them speak and feel confident that she will be preparing herself to get her blessing in the near future.
 Our temperatures have been very nice for quite a while, but today it was cold and the wind was blowing.  I think they are predicting a storm.
  Hope all is well with you and your family.  We feel very blessed to be serving in such a unique way.  President Justice remains us that we are the pioneers and that we are leading the way in several things.  Brother Stephan says that sometimes we just have to make it up as we go because it hasn't been done before.  He says lots of other funny things too. ;O}
  Elder & Sister Olson
PS Elder Olson went to bed at 8:00 so he wasn't up to edit this post.  Hopefully my fingers weren't to naughty and didn't make too many mistakes, or is it to many???  Old age makes you forget how to spell also. ;o}

Who's turning 65????

Dear Family and Friends,
  Cute little baby boy is in the arms of his Grandmother.  Pretty bright and alert for being only three weeks old.
  Can anyone guess who will turn the big 65 tomorrow, couldn't be grum pa could it??  :O}
  Last week was pretty busy.  On Saturday we went to the Snowflake Temple with the Stake,  They had standing room only in the chapel session.  It was so amazing.  They also had to ask people to wait and go through the 11:30 session because the could not seat all the people even though they brought in extra chairs. That was actually a pretty "nice problem" to have to deal with.
  I did discover to late that they were handing out the headsets for the "white" people because the session was all in Navajo.  Fortunately they had a screen with the English scrolling down so you could read what was being said.  I never even thought about getting one to begin with, then I was to embarrassed to admit that I needed one.  I thought that they were giving them out the those who wanted to hear the session in Navajo.  Getting older sucks sometimes because you assume to much.  I mean it was a Navajo session, duh?  Oh well, I did get through it and the spirit was there, the language really didn't matter.
  We left at 5:30 A.M. and arrived home 7:30 P.M.  Wonderful experience, but very hard on Elder Olson's leg with all the sitting.
  Today I started at 7:30 A.M.  Ronnie, Lee and Avy Nez cooked Navajo tacos for the group that met at 2:00 after the 2nd Ward meetings ended.  We meet with a sister from Chandler Heights who drove up to help us with all the indexing that we are doing.  She will be officially retired tomorrow at 5:00 after working for the Church in family history for over 41 years. She just couldn't quit, so she was thrilled about volunteering to help us.
  Two other senior couples came to the meeting plus Sister Norris, Sister Benally and Pres. Justice.  We discussed our concerns and questions about what we had done, what we wanted to do, and what was the best way to accomplish our goals.  We ate around 4:00 cleaned up and went home a little after 5 then headed back to watch the devotional at 6.
  We invited several people to the Christmas Devotional  and Sister Mary from the Catholic Church ;O} came and thought it was awesome.  She could not say enough about how much she enjoyed it.  Sister Margaret was sick, so she could not make it, but I am confident that Sister Mary will share what she saw and heard.
  Went back to the apt and Bishop came to visit, he left and then a sister came and left at !0:05.  It has been a wonderful weekend.
  Elder Olson is going with Brother Yellowhorse out to work on a garden in Monaeve tomorrow. They are going to work on Sister Bighorse's garden, which is way out there as the crow flies.
 Brother Yellowhorse is an excellent gardner and raises a fantastic garden every year.  He and his wife love their garden and it shows.
  We haven't had snow yet, but I suspect it is coming.
Elder and Sister Olson

Gratitude for the little things.

Dear Family and Friends,
  Don't want to get out of the habit of writing on our blog. This week was very quiet compared to last week when we cooked 10 turkeys.  This week Sister Boothe cooked 1 turkey, the gravy and the stuffing.  We brought our favorite holiday salad, a veggie tray, and rolls.  The Andersons brought mashed potatoes, pickles, olives, and fresh cranberry sauce.  I must admit dinner was pretty quiest with just 6 mature people, but we had a lot of fun and ate pie for dessert.  Sister Anderson made pumpkin pie and chocolate pie, both were very, very good.
  We discovered that Elder Anderson is also very good at making pottery.  He said they only brought their imperfect pots, but they looked pretty perfect to me.  I loved the colors and shapes.  I am going to ask him if I could take a picture.  He is extremely modest and very quiet most of the time, but I think he will let me take pictures if I say PLEASE!
  This week the Stake members are going over to the Snowflake Temple to do baptisms and endowments.  They always take their Temple trips very seriously and next Sunday being Fast Sunday I know we will be in awe of all the neat experiences they will share about going to the Temple.
  On Sunday afternoon a Sister Ashcroft will be coming up to talk to us about preserving the records we have been indexing.  She is retireing after serving in the family history center for 40 plus years.  She is an expert on Native American culture, so we are excited to visit with her and get ideas on how we can make our records available to descendants of the Native Americans in our area.
  Here is one story that I have allready shared with a few of you.  This happened Tuesday night at the Family History Center.

At 6:55 I walk over to the FHC and practice the piano in the Primary room while they have opening exercises.  Then Brother Allen comes in and we start, teaching both boys who show up for YM.  It was awesome.  Joseph is Pres. Justice's son, and they go back to the 1500's, but Matthew is a nonmember.  He is one very large kid and pretty funny, he likes to joke and kid around.  We had visited his dad just a few days ago because he was in the hospital.  He was going in for surgery about 40 mins later.  His mom who is also a nonmember has been attending the RS activities and getting to know the ward members.  She has also been coming out to church. 

  Anyway I told Matthew he couldn't just sit there and look cute, he had to work.  We started him out on the old PAF and he comes to a stop after putting in his parents.  Then Bro Allen says his mom is there and that he would go get her.  She comes in we chit chat and she tells Matthew to type.  He doesn't like to use the shift key, so he is always having to go back and capitalize, which his mom and I both say almost at the same second everytime he forgets which is everytime he types a name.

  She is telling him names and he is typing.  We come to her grandparents and she says she doesn't remember the first name of her gr mother.  She mentions that they all died in New Mexico and I ask, "Crownpoint?" 

 She says, " Yes some did die there. "

Then she says Becenti and I say,  "let's look."

  We start with the first few and then we get to Nellie Becenti and she says, "That's her."

I start reading the obituary and it states that she had 11 children.  I say that not all the children born lived to adulthood, because of the conditions.  Much to my surprise all 11 children are listed with their residence at the time she died.

  That obituary was one of the 468 obituaries that we indexed, cut, filed and put into the 3 binders we put together.

  I asked Matthew today if he filled out the papers I sent with him, but he hadn't.  He is however coming back with his mom on Tuesday. 
    Sunday Elder Olson was asked to give a blessing to one of the member's mother who was having trouble with her eyes.  It turns out that she is Matthew's aunt.  She is his dad's sister.  I don't think things like this happen by coincidence.  We are going to have Matthew visit with her and add her husband, children, and grandchildren to the tree he has already started.

When you walk over and turn on the faucet and water comes out remember to offer a pray of thanks for how easy it was to do.

Elder & Sister Olson

Last of the Harvest at Red Lake

Top picture is George Lee's garden after he decided to burn off all the dead materials instead of tilling them into the ground.

Middle picture is Geraldine Maize with daughters harvesting the last of their potatoes.

Bottom picture is Anslom Maize tilling the part where they have extended their garden for next year.

Dear Family and Friends,

   WOW Thanksgiving will be here in four days.  We have cooked 10 turkeys in the last week, yes I said ten.  1st Ward had their Thanksgiving dinner on Wed night and then 2nd Ward had theirs on Friday.  Thursday night the Relief Society did a stuffing demo, which Sister Deaton taught.  She used wild rice and cranberries in hers and baked it in little cookie like mounds, so everyone could sample it.  That was a lot of fun and everybody enjoyed the fruits of her labor. ;o}

  Our 2^nd Ward Bishop’s wife was also going to do a demo, but their daughter is having her first baby any day now, so she went to be with her.  Their daughter and her husband live in Idaho Falls.  Bishop Kingsford will go up Wed and stay until Sunday.  Sister Kingsford will stay until Dec 21.  That way she can spend time with her daughter and new granddaughter.  Sounds good to me.

  This morning we drove 98 miles to speak at the Dennehotso Branch.  They have a beautiful new building and even though it is small they are growing and will probably outgrow it when everyone is attending on a regular basis.  The meeting went well and we enjoyed getting to know the Branch President, Brian Holiday and his counselor, Albert Tinhorn and the members. 

    It was the Branch President and his wife who adopted the baby not long after we came.  The social workers wanted them to meet in McDonald’s parking lot, but Sister Kirk said they weren’t coming to pick up a dog, and Sister Holiday said she was not going to tell their son that they got him at McDonalds.  It made us all laugh.  That little boy is now walking and getting into everything.

  President Holiday was talking about something in the Sunday School  lesson and he said that his dad did not like his name.  His name is Kee Happy Holiday.  He always got annoyed at this time of year because everyone was always saying his name.  President Holiday gave the Sunday School lesson on 3 Nephi  27.  He also shared a story about his mission and church names.  He served in Kentucky and there was a row of churches and one was named Ford Baptist.  A few blocks away there was Chevy Baptist.  The story he learned was that they had started out as one church, but disputes came over which was the better car, Ford or Chevy.  It became so heated that those who liked Chey’s  broke away and started their own church.  We had a great discussion on the name of our Church and whose church it really is.

   We shared dinner with Elder and Sister Chapman who will leave a few weeks before we do next spring.  They are really helping the branch out there and have shared a great many talents.  He loves rocks and has collected a great many of them.  They were beautiful laying there in front of their trailer.  He took a watering can and said this is what the people are really like and this is what the gospel does for them, then he sprayed water over the rocks.  The colors were absolutely amazing.

   He has also collected quite a few garnets that can be found not far from where their trailer is located at the chapel site.  He said some people find them as big as golf balls, but he has not as yet found any of the bigger ones.  I guess a lot of sisters go out and collect them where the Chapmans do.

  We drove home and visited the RS president who is in the hospital with pneumonia.  One of the members came in with the former Bishop and gave her a wonderful blessing.  The natives here often pause as they give blessings waiting for the Holy Ghost to direct their words.  It is a very humbling experience to be a part of that.

  We have Institute on Sunday evening and we were reading in Mosiah 4.  The people shared some really uplifting thoughts about the chapter.  It is so amazing to listen to what they have pondered and thought of when they study the scriptures.

  I may have mentioned the visit from Ranelle Wallace and Dr. Judith S. Moore.  I have found their books on line and I feel bad that I did not realize what great company had graced our home with their presence.  If you want to be uplifted I would encourage you to find their books on line and get them.

  Will close for now.  We hope you have a fun holiday and enjoy being with your family and friends.

Elder and Sister Olson