Grandapa L.M. Olson

Here’s a little story by a Grandpa L.M. Olson. Because of the nature of people in Sweden and Norway of wanting to know everything about everyone… L.M. Olson recorded the following experience…

“This condition is, of course, aggravated where you are best known, as there are people who think of so many more questions to ask, as many of your affairs are known to them. In order to make better progress, by avoiding all these stoppages (while traveling), Mrs. Ekstrom decided to leave when our neighborhood was all asleep and accordingly, we set out towards midnight (to travel to Christiania).

This being in the early and pleasant part of the Summer, the weather was delightful, and although it was night, it was not the time of year so dark that one could not see fairly well, and travel with perfect ease. The roads, which might properly be regarded as our county roads, though very much better, were as level as a floor with sides nicely rounded off and grass growing on the sides. As our road was winding along in a small vale with farms on our left and on the right, pasture with a considerable growth of young trees. I was suddenly alarmed by the snorting, and simultaneous appearance of two black horses. They were black as jet and their eyes had the brilliancy of the brightest fire. As the cow we brought with us was rather a pet, she followed without being driven, and hence, we all walked side by side, as it were. I happened to be on the left side of the animal and towards the front, just at the moment the horses made their appearance. The cow was taken as much by surprise as we were. She made a jump to the side and in doing so, struck my forehead with the full length of her horn, and I found myself rolling off the road. When I gathered myself up, which was only the effort of seconds, I looked for those beautiful horses, and saw them with high head and curved bushy tails make their way between the trees, which were not close enough to impede their fleet movements. To be sure, I had received a blow that made a swollen ridge from one side of my forehead to the other, but considering what might have happened, the evil intended was providentially modified, to be a only a temporary effect. And this time, I again escaped what might have had serious consequences.

Until this day, this would have passed into oblivion and henceforth and forever, been lost to my recollections had the incident terminated with what is related above. But that is what it did not, and it is this second feature of my experience, which made an impression on my mind that time cannot efface, but will presume, remain the greatest mystery of my life.

Our road from this point tended upward on both sides of the road were scattered farm houses with the unusual belonging. In the part of the world where this incident took place, a heavy cart or a two-wheeled conveyance was at that time used more than anything else in the farm line. These carts, even on a smooth road would make much noise, as they were springless and comfortless, and less everything else but noiseless. Now, as we had proceeded but a short distance, we heard in the absolute stillness of the night, the faintest rattle of a cart. It increased and increased and increased in volume of loudness until I was absolutely sure it was right on my heels. I turned and looked within a few feet of me to get out of the road, as it were, but there was nothing to be seen, and yet the night was so light that it could have been discovered a block away. The delusion was repeated time and time again and I repeatedly looked behind me to see it as I was not wise enough to imagine anything out of the ordinary. We had now reached the highest point of the road in the vicinity, and there Mrs. Ekstrom stopped. She had matches with—why, I don’t know; when travelers in that country wanted fire they stopped at some house. Fire by the roadside, as we use them here, I had never seen until I came to Utah. She, however, had some and she struck some, and remarked, “Now we shall hear it no more. That, my boy is not cart,” she added. She was right. We heard it no more. She was no doubt equally right when she said, “That is no cart.” You, no doubt, will say, what was it? I must answer I cannot say what it was. More than fifty-four years have intervened since then; and the incident is as vivid before my eyes as the night it transpired.”

No doubt, fear and darkness flees and vanquishes in the presence of light.

Josh's Park City Pad

Sunday October 28, 2007

After Stake Conference Ronda, Tiffany, and I drove to Ogden in the Explorer following Brittny and Chantell in the white Contour. Fortunately, we made it and dropped off the chest of drawers Ronda has worked a week restoring to its former glory but changing it to black.

We then continued on to Park City to visit with Joshua and spend the night. In the morning we will try and get into Deer Valley to see the homes he is working on with Rocky Collins construction, and later wonder around Park City. Josh has to be up at 5:55 AM and is off to work by 6:25 AM and gets to work at 7:00 AM.

Ronda is giving Jacks (Joshua’s boxer) a back rub and he loves it.

It is 8:24 PM and everyone is ready for bed. I’m not that sleepy yet.

This wasn’t posted until I could get to an internet connection, which I don’t have up in the mountains of Summit Park, Park City, Utah.

Stake Conference

Stake Conference was especially enlightening. Those of us with children that have gone astray can help by loving them unconditionally and living the gospel with our heart, might, mind, and soul. Study, prayer, missionary work, testimony, temple work, etc. will purify our hearts, spirits, bodies and minds. I imagine our wayward children tire of us trying to convert them or get them to change their ways.

I need to concentrate on improving myself and living God’s commandments. Share my testimony, joy, and let my loved one see that doing “good” feels “good”. Then being there when help is needed.

Heavenly Father simply wants us to be happy. Think of the kite. The string represents a loving Father’s commandments that keep us grounded and in control. When we break His commandments, it is like cutting the string that He is holding and we, like the kite, tumble to the ground unrestrained and out of control.

TnT Wedding Video/Slide Show

I have been trying for most of the week to get this wedding video to post for Tosha and Tyler and I haven't had any luck. It finally worked... but just a short segment of the whole thing.

TnT Wedding Video/Slides

I hope this works, because it is my first try at a video.

Canyon Elementary Classroom

This was my first attempt at uploading a video. I realize it isn't very interesting but it is a little bit informative as to where I spend my weekdays.

First Day on the Job

Tyler and Tosha

It was Tyler Stanger’s (Tosha’s husband) first day in our ESL class at Canyon Elementary. I will be able to have the good fortune of working closely with him.

He will be working with our 3rd and 5th Grade groups. This is a real blessing for us because these grades are our largest groups and also our most challenging as far as needs and behavior. Having smaller groups gives us the opportunity to focus more attention on their academics.

Tyler did a great job today. The students like him and he seems to relate to them in a personable and friendly manner. His first lesson consisted of proof-reading sentences, checking punctuation, and capitalization.

Students also finished the stories they started yesterday and read the completed stories to others in their groups.

The children in my group also really got into writing their stories and many even wanted to write another one. Working with children and teaching is the best.

Look Ma No Hair!

This shows Tosha four months after the day in question.

Brittny and Ronda were telling me about the time Ronda and Kathy (Benson) went somewhere and left Matt (Benson) and I to watch the children. (Big mistake! Right?) When they returned home they found the children outside playing unattended and Matt and I had fallen asleep on the floor in the living room. Nicole and Joshua were standing in front of Tosha and would let the two moms see her. After seeing Tosha bald from her new haircut they were livid (and for good reason) with the two dads one of which was me. Lucky for me it grew back.

The moral of the story is that we shouldn't fall asleep in our stewardships the Lord gives to us. Even though there is repentance vigilance and diligence may save ourselves, those we are called to serve and that will make all the difference.

TnT Wedding podcast

This posting is my first try at a slide-show/video/podcast. Tosha and Tyler recently got married and I did this presentation as a DVD and then podcast. I'm attempting to put it on my site as a podcast. If it works I hope family and friends will feel a little closer to us and the special wedding day we enjoyed.

Today, my mind drifted back to the first place Ronda and I lived when we were first married. I say “place” because it wasn’t an apartment or house. It was a very small trailer. The trailer would have seemed larger if we could have lived in the whole thing but the electric heater would only keep the front of it warm in the bitter cold Iowa winter. We shut up the back part and slept on a fold down couch in the front room slash kitchen. We could almost put our arms out and touch both walls. The total livable space was smaller than our kitchen in our Hyrum house. The water heater was so little that it would only fill the tub up with two or three inches of water. Sitting down in the water wasn’t enough to give a reasonable bath for getting clean and there wasn’t enough for a quarter of a shower. I remember Ronda and I getting up early every morning (about five or five thirty) and going to the gym to play racquetball so we could have a shower and be presentable before she went to Mary Greeley Hospital for her internship in recreational therapy and I to the Child Development Department to work as an instructor. Getting ready for Sundays was even a bigger challenge. This meant playing racquetball Saturday nights so we could get clean for Sunday church meetings. Ronda and I got very competitive and fairly good after so much practice. One morning, two doctors (Ronda worked with at the hospital) saw us going into a court and smugly challenged us to a game. After beating them rather badly they grumbled off never to challenge us again.

One of the best memories of Ames, Iowa was the evening Ronda and I went for a walk on campus by the small lake with the white swans. This was where Ronda told me that we were pregnant with our first child, Tanielle. Just thinking about it brings tears of joy to my eyes. Iowa State University conjures fond and happy memories for me. That was twenty-eight years ago.
The picture below is Tanielle and baby Joshua also many years ago.

OCR

The Office of Civil Rights will be doing their final review of our ESL programs in Cache County School District next week. We are hopeful that everything is up to standard in our program at Canyon Elementary where I am teaching English as a Second Language. I'm sure they will have more helpful suggestions on how we can serve our students. I really enjoy the children. Most of my students are from Mexico, some from South America, and I even have a student that speaks Russian. We really are a global society. I love working with children. They teach me as much as I teach them.

Angels Among Us

This is a mirror image picture of Brittny all grown up. She is now attending Weber State University.

I remember when Ronda and I were upstairs standing in the south bedroom in the old Alan Swainston house on 400 North in Logan when we heard honking and the screeching of brakes. We looked out the large window and saw Brittny (2 years old) out in the middle of the busy road. We both flew out of the room down the stairs and as Ronda ran through the front door breaking her little finger there was a little old man and woman holding Brittny by the hand bringing her out of the congested street. The cute little couple were about the age of temple workers and had sweet pure smile of helpfulness. We were so engrossed in our attention to Brittny that when we turned to thank the kind people, they were gone. It wasn't but a few seconds. We looked up and down the street, around at the homes, and everywhere. Ronda even walked to the end of the block to find them and thank them, but they had vanished into thin air. The only conclusion that Ronda and I could come up with was that there are angels among us and that Brittny had two wonderful guardian angels that were there when she needed them.

LATOJA Logan to Jackson

This was the beginning of the race for some of the last racers to leave Logan as they participated in the Lotoja road bike one hundred mile race from Logan Utah to Jackson Wyoming. This was the tail-end of the the riders just starting the race.
The race was a few weeks ago, but I had to post it. I love road biking.
Some riders finish in less than ten hours.

The Cache Valley country side is beautiful as is seen in some of these pictures.

Time to head back home.

Life is a race. The winners aren't always the fast but "those that endure to the end."

This is a picture of south Cache Valley in the morning at about 7:50 AM when I arrive at school taken from the parking lot.
Tyler’s surgery went well. There was a lot more damage than the emergency room doctors had reported to the surgeon and family. The nerves were completely severed and the tendons need extensive reconstruction. Ronda made dinner for them and we took it over. Tyler was asleep on the couch still tired from surgery, but doing well.

Just before going in a little boy from next door that I knew from Bridger Elementary yelled, “Mr. Welch, where are you going?”

We had a conversation and later when I came out of Tosha’s house the young boy said, “Come over and eat dinner with us.”

I apologized, “I’m sorry, but my wife has dinner already made and we are going home to eat.”

He said, “Bring her too.”

I smiled, “…but our food is waiting for us at home.”

Without hesitation he invited, “Bring the food too. We’ll eat it with you.”

Sunday Evening with Family

Matt and Brittny came to dinner and then Ronda and I played Scramble with them. We played with one board but two games of letters.

With a stellar performance, Ronda as usual is once again champion of the competition. The fun was in sharing time, conversation, and socializing.


Tyler and Tosha came over and she removed the stitches in his arm. Tomorrow Tyler goes into surgery to have his finger operated on. Nerves, tendons, and muscle will be reattached. Ronda and I went over to his parents house with Tosha and he where Gary (his father) and I gave him a priesthood blessing. Reattaching nerves can take five years for them to grow back together. I believe that the blessings of Heavenly Father are evident in the amounts of knowledge available to us today, especially in medicine. Again our love, faith and prayers are with Tyler and Tosha.

Fruit of the Vine

Brittny is home this weekend from Weber State University visiting the family and Matt. They are working on homework in the dinning room as I write.



Ronda made grape juice today… Welch’s Grape Juice from our vineyard against the backyard fence. Last night, David the young man that went to the football game with Tiffany, Ronda and I told Ronda that his mother made juice from their plumbs. So she got out the juicer and started making Welch’s Plumb Juice. Sorry, it isn’t for sale. I sampled some and it is extremely tart. I’m not a tart person. While she worked in a hot kitchen I harvested the potatoes and onions from our garden, mowed the lawn and washed out the garage. It was a beautiful fall day in the midst of trees sporting yellow and orange leaves. Mowing the lawn also help me rack leaves that I blew under the large blue spruce bordering the yard. We finished the day folding seven or eight loads of clothes.


Saturday is the day we get ready for Sunday. Sunday, my favorite day, a day of worship and rest. I think we are ready for Sunday.

Service 20 Years Ago Remembered

Friday October 12, 2007
We went to the Mountain Crest vs. Sky View football game and we saw a man (Chad Vernon) there. Who years ago was roofing Bessie Morris’ house next door to us when we lived on 400 N. 441 E in Logan. Bessie lived to be one hundred and four years old. Joshua (age 3) and Tanielle (age 5) would watch Chad work on Bessie's roof chipping ice away in the cold of winter so he could shingle it. Joshua was the most fascinated and kept telling Ronda that they needed to do something for him because he was so cold. This went on day after day. When Joshua insisted that they do something for the man, Ronda let Joshua and Tanielle help her bake cookies and took them to the him on the roof. That was twenty plus years ago and the man still remembered the icy roof, the little children and their mother bringing him warm cookies on a cold winter day. Joshua and Tanielle felt the desire to help a person they didn’t know and felt joy in serving someone in need. Joshua is now a carpenter working on cold winter days in Park City Utah. Who knows? Maybe somebody will take him warm cookies.

Lime Disease and Sin

Thursday October 11, 2007

Tosha isn’t feeling well because she has lyme disease and the many doctors she has seen won’t acknowledge the one test that was positive so they won’t treat it. Tosha continues to get sicker and we don’t know anything we can do about it. We have put her name in the temple and ask the Lord for help. All things are possible for the Lord.

I guess sin is the same type of affliction only it destroys the spiritual and physical man/woman. Sometimes those that claim to be healers denigh it exists. Lie a little, cheat a little, dig a pit for thy neighbor and the Lord will smite us with a few stripes and you will still be saved in the kingdom of God. These untruths hide the dangers of sin and cover the cancer that can grow in us if we don't repent and rely on the atoning power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ is the greatest healer of all if we but let him in at the door.

Tosha be faithful, strong and believing and you will be blessed.

Love Dad

Heavenly Retreat on Earth

Ronda and I attended the 5:00 PM session at the Logan Temple. The peace and comfort was a spiritual oasis in a hectic world. Feelings of love, I know my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ has for me, strengthens me in my daily walk here on earth. Their love truly is a fruit more precious, fulfilling, and delicious above all other things. My greatest desire is for my family and I to be worthy to once again live in their presence. The temple lets me feel that whenever I attend.

Tyler is scheduled for surgery. Our thoughts and prayers are with he and Tosha.

Catch Up Posting

Last week, we had two young men teach us a missionary lesson from Preach My Gospel and Jan Knudsen sent cookies over with her daughter for having them come. That’s what you call doubly blessed. If missionaries offered cookies proselyting might go up. Ronda took Chantell to the doctors and he said, “If she puts any weight on the broken bone it could split open more and then she would need surgery. It will be four more weeks on crutches.” She cried and for good reason but better caution and care than paying with surgery.

Next, I got the ladders out and climbed on the roof, drained the swamp cooler, covered it for winter and climbed down. The Lord wants us to prepare for the winter (trials) in our lives.

Next, I did a little genealogy. Nothing fancy, just documenting some dates and information so records could show what goes where.
Tuesday October 9, 2007
In this thing called life most days are simple and not very complicated. Those days might be some of the best we experience. After work, I came home went over to Tom Arquette’s home to turn in a home teaching report and give him a pair of leather Native American gloves that are extremely old. He's a man of pure descent and should have them. After all that he wasn’t home. I’ll have to try again.



Tyler (Tosha's gentle husband) needs surgery on his lacerated hand… probably Thursday. He needs surgery so he can have nervous, muscles, and tendons worked on. He received a wonderful blessing and I know things it will work out for the best.

Monday, October 8, 2007
Driving home from work, I saw a horse trailer being pulled by an expensive heavy-duty truck. The memory of Gator Boy the only horse I’ve ever owned came rushing back to my memory. He was a golden brown Arabian stallion, fast strong, smart, and handsome. I remembered making an important decision in my family’s life at the time we had him. He would be so much fun for us to ride when he was old enough. Our children would have memories upon memories if we continued to feed him, pay the vet bills, and raise him as a family pet. It seemed like such a wonderful and right decision to scrimp and pay for this luxury. It seemed like it was such a good thing to do. As good as it was the money wasn’t there to do it unless Ronda went to work. A “good thing” to do wasn’t the “eternal best thing” to do. Rather than approach the subject of the mother of our home working so that we could afford to keep Gator we decided to give him back to Grandpa Benson. Having Mother in the home was the eternally right and best thing to do for our young and impressionable family. I have always been thankful for having Ronda in the home with and for our children. Each child has been so very bless for this. I’m seeing Tanielle and Chris follow this same path with their little children.

Sunday, October 7, 2007
We watched General Conference as a family and have had our testimonies and spirits strengthened. Elder Henry B. Eyring has been called to replace James in the First Presidency our departed and well love apostle Elder James E. Faust. The Lord has loving giving us continued leadership.

We watched conference this morning in Stansbury Park with Tanielle and in the afternoon with Nana in Murray.

Breakfast at Tanielle’s home was a joint project cooking Swedish pancakes, sausage, and peaches. I got to cook the pancakes. Donna cooked lunch before the afternoon session.
Satan can only entice and tempt. “Satan can’t destroy or weaken your character, only we can do that to ourselves.” Richard G. Scott
“We must… get our teachers to speak out of their hearts and not their books,” taught President Gordon B. Hinckley. I have found that when I speak out of my heart the Holy Ghost can influence what I teach. I’ve learned to teach from my heart through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Godly sorrow, a broken and contrite spirit heart enables us to be teachable.
One must read the Book of Mormon and fast a pray about it and it will be revealed unto us and we will know that it is true and we will know that we know.
Dallin Oaks talked about family togetherness saying, “Spend your time doing not simply “good” things but the “best” things. What children want for dinner is you.”
Bergen Johnson (my granddaughter typed the following, ;l;ll;llk‘’’’’’’’’’’o’,,,,,,,l,lk,lj,lmuhlg, vvccc////////.k….ml;//lm;
.’ She fell off a chair and bumped her head today, but you can still see her typing ability hasn’t diminished one bit.

Saturday, October 6, 2007
We (Nana “Elaine”, Donna, Matt Budge, Chantell, Tiffany, Ronda, and I) attended conference in the Assembly Center where our testimonies were strengthened and we received spiritual nourishment and direction.
I learned from Boyd K. Packer, the because of the order of sustaining members to callings first prevented impostors from taking over positions in the Lord’s church, next provided those called to speak in the name of the Lord concerning the stewardship they were assigned, next His work would be accomplished by the weak and simple things of the earth and that they will break down the mighty, next it is not important where we serve but how we serve, next the Holy Ghost will teach us as we serve in the positions we are called, next the Lord’s church has an endless supply of teachers and leaders because all are called to serve, finally we fulfill our callings righteously when we bare pure testimony of Jesus Christ, His atonement, the restoration of His church on earth in this life, and of our Heavenly Father.