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Shane Fawson, my good friend passed away on June 30, 2018. I am going to miss that guy, who always had a welcoming smile and plan up his sleeve to tease you or find the next cute girl. Here are just a few memories I have of Shane.

Going to the singles ward and feeling welcomed

The person that welcomed me the best to the singles ward was Shane. We were good friends from early on and he always the most welcoming person there. When I needed a friend to sit next to Shane was always there and always very welcoming.

Sacrament

Shane always passed the sacrament at church. He was always on time and always passed the sacrament to the bishop. I don’t know how many years he did this for but he did it for all five or six years I was going to the singles ward.

Testimony

Shane had a powerful testimony. He would fill the room with his love and spirit. He also was always the first in line after the person conducting the meeting. Right after he was done passing the sacrament he would sit on the stand and wait his turn. He had a well used set of scriptures that he would open up and read from. He loved sharing his testimony and I could feel it. He knew the gospel was true.

Danced with Tyler’s girlfriend

My wife and I both went to this same singles ward and while we were dating. While we were there we went to a reception next door to Shane’s house in the Asay’s backyard. Shane would not miss that opportunity to come.  They had a dance at the reception and Shane loves to dance. He came right over to where I was sitting with my now wife and asked her to dance.

With that mischievous little grin he always had when he knew he was teasing you really good he would peak over her shoulder to see me. We were all laughing our head off.

That was on Saturday night, the next morning at church and testimony meeting. He got up and in front of the entire singles ward said, “I danced with Tyler’s girlfriend.” Everybody thought that was the best testimony of the day.

Going to institute, FHE

I would often give Shane rides to singles ward activities. I would stop by his house and he was always ready to go. He was excited to be there and loved seeing all the people. Everyone seemed to know his name and he was brave enough to walk up to anybody and make friends.

Cop car coming from institute

One night coming home from institute Shane was riding along and we got pulled over. The cop said he was looking for a car in the area with my exact description and said “what have you been up to tonight?” I said we went to institute and we were driving home.

Shane was quiet and had a wide eyed look on his face. I wasn’t that comfortable about getting pulled over ether. The officer let us goes without much more being said, and as soon as we drove away Shane turned to me with that mischievous look in his eye and just said “Tyler?” That made my day but I was very glad he didn’t bare his testimony on the subject.

Remembering Shane

Some people may say that I helped him a lot in the singles ward, but I would say he helped me more with his Christi like love for me and everyone around him. He truly had an impact in my life. I hope I can be as good as he was one day. I love you Shane. Thanks for all the good memories.

How did it happen? I married my cousin…

Well sort of, you may be interested to know that when I tried the Relative Finder app it told me I was related to my wife. This can be a scary thought but we are sixth cousins.  That made me cringe a little when I first heard it until I started thinking about it.

Relative Finder

Join my group!  name: todayinmyfamily password: 123tyler

Comment below on how we are related!

Relative Finder is the first of several apps that I am going to share with you that connects to a familysearch.org to see how you are related to people who are living.  My account on Family Search is filled out very well and so is Sharlee’s (my wife).  The app pulls in the data from the tree on Family Search and compares it to the other person’s tree.  The first place that they cross is shown in the app.

When you first log in to the Relative Finder app you will first be asked to log in to your Family Search account.  Once you log in it will then download all the necessary data from your tree.  It will then take you to the page where it will list all the groups you can participate in on the left and list people in your family down the middle and how you are related to them.

Do you want to know how you are related to a president, prophet, or a famous American?  You can check the different options on the left in the public section.  I found out that I am related to lots of people who were in all of these groups.

To build your own group, look up on the navigation bar at the “groups” button and you can build a group that is password protected.  You can then invite your friends to join your group.  We shared the invitation to join our group on Facebook in some family groups.

Sharlee first built a group for us and then I joined the group.  When it finds you are related to someone in the group it sorts the people from closest relative to most distant relative and won’t show the people in the group that it can’t find a connection to.

Have fun inviting your friends to your groups and if you want to try it out go here.

 

Join my group!  name: todayinmyfamily password: 123tyler

Comment below on how we are related!

I found this cool cabin check it out!

As I backed up I heard the buzz of a rattler somewhere close behind me…

Recently I was searching through familysearch.org looking up the men who had given me the last name Merrell. I found a story that talked about Porter William Merrell my third great grandpa.  It told about his life and his experiences of the family moving out to Uintah County, Utah.

They were originally from Paradise Utah up in Cache County. One of his jobs was cutting hay with a scythe. The story I read said he was one of the best workers and he could cut five acres of hay in a day.   Although he was being paid to do all this work, he wanted to strike out on his own.  So he got with Jerome his brother-in-law and they set out for Uintah County in Utah. They traveled by wagon headed for the desert.

Moving across the deserts of Utah they followed the rivers and decided settle several miles up the White River from where it flows into the Green River.  They moved up the river and started clearing the banks of the river so they could start growing their crops.  The story continued and said that they built cabins for their families, presumably from the cottonwoods that line the river. They put a dam in the river and started irrigating the crops.

As a family we hunted deer out on the white river.  It made me wonder if that cabin was along that section of the river.  Would the cabin still be there?  I thought I might be able to see something over on the river.  So I pulled up Google Earth and started following the white river.  All I could tell from the maps was that it was a desert out there and not much vegetation outside of the river valley.  The desert surrounding the river was covered in oil wells.

Then I started looking around at some of the pictures of the area. They are marked with blue dots on the maps.  It was absolutely amazing when I clicked on one of the blue dots and there was a picture of a cabin.  It was right were they said they had lived.

I was so excited I could hardly stand it.  This could be their cabin. So I decided to go out and visit the next time we were going that way.

We had a family reunion in Vernal so we got going a little early so we could go and find the cabin. There were paved roads and bridges most of the way to the cabin.  As we got closer to the cabin we started seeing wild horses, including two that were fighting.  We were truly getting a pure western experience.

The paved roads got us close and the oil well roads took us right to the cabin.  I was able to use Google Maps to get me as close to the cabin as possible and then Google Earth to see the dirt roads that got us right to the cabin.

We walked over to the cabin and I had Sharlee (my wife) take a picture of me in front of the cabin.  I was holding the baby and as I backed up to the cabin I heard the buzz.  There was a rattle snake close and I stared running and jumping to get away.  Then I had to find the snake when I knew I was safe.  The 18 inch rattle snake that slid into a hole under the cabin rattling the entire way.  It made me think twice and watch where I step the rest of the time we were at the cabin.  I also got to see into Porter’s experiences with his family.  They probably came across lots of rattle snakes.

It must have been hard to move out to the middle of the desert where the only thing to great you are wild horses and rattle snakes.  It was amazing to find that cabin and experience and see a little into the lives of the people that gave me so much. I am not sure that the cabin was really the one that this group built but I am still researching it and I will share more as I do more research.

If you want to learn more about how to use Google Earth, you can read this how to book.