JOE’S VALLEY, Utah — In the October 2025 general conference, as the Church marked the 30th anniversary of “The Family Proclamation,” President Dallin H. Oaks taught about the eternal importance of the family.
“The doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints centers on the family,” he said. Later in the same message, he continued: “The Church of Jesus Christ is sometimes known as a family-centered church. It is!”
On Saturday, July 4, President Oaks and his wife, Sister Kristen M. Oaks, visited with many members of their family in a remote part of Central Utah known as Joe’s Valley. For 85 years and with only a few exceptions, President Oaks has attended the biennial Abinadi and Hannah Seely Olsen family reunion. This was the first time he did so as Prophet and President of the Church.
While there, he reiterated his teachings about the family from last October’s general conference.
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a family-oriented church, and that doesn’t just mean that we pull together as a family in our life on earth, but we began as a family — spirit children of heavenly parents,” he said. “And the world was created for the benefit of the children of heavenly parents, and that’s everyone who’s born on this earth.”
Part of that “benefit” the world was created for involves the ability to choose right from wrong and to become more like Heavenly Father, President Oaks said. Growing as a family and spending time together with extended family helps fulfill that purpose, he said.
“We are here to further our growth toward eternal beings as children of eternal heavenly parents. And so, our Church doctrine is rooted in the concept of family. What we do in a family reunion is to further our belief in God and His eternal plan of salvation,” said President Oaks.
Earthly relationships develop into heavenly relationships
As families gather together for a meal, a birthday party or a family reunion, they are developing relationships that can carry on after this mortal life, President Oaks said. And that doesn’t mean that each member of the family has to be in the same place on the covenant path when they join together.
Explained Sister Oaks: “There’s a wide variety of people with different places on the path. Because it is rooted in a belief of Jesus Christ, people don’t even realize why they’re drawn here. ... They know they feel love. They know they feel accepted.”
Tiffany Bratt, a granddaughter of President Oaks, said gathering together doesn’t require formal activities to build family relationships. By simply being together, they find activities to do together.
“Coming up here, we get to spend a lot of time with family,” she said. “Building a dam to make a swimming hole, walking through the river with cousins, fishing, fishing with Grandpa, sitting around the campfire and telling stories.”
Elder Ryan K. Olsen, a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the Church’s Central America Area presidency, is also a descendant of Hannah and Abinadi Olsen and attended this year’s reunion. He said he loves attending his family’s gathering every other year, and he said others can start their own similar traditions if they don’t already have them. “I would say this to the Saints in Central America or throughout the world: Find any place to gather. It could be at a park. It could be at one of your family members’ homes. It could even be at a church,” he said.
“But if you find someplace that you consistently go to every year or every other year, that will become a tradition. And it’s really not about the place, … but it’s the people as they gather.”
Traditions old and new
The Olsen family reunion has taken place every other year for more than 100 years. It happens on the same weekend. It happens in the same place, at the Olsen Ranch that Abinadi Olsen homesteaded many years ago. The biggest difference from one year’s reunion to the next might be the size.
Abinadi and Hannah Seely Olsen married on Feb. 21, 1887. Eight years later, Abinadi Olsen was called to serve a mission in Samoa. He and his wife had started their family and had three children when he accepted that call. Their shared commitment to the Lord made the decision easy to make, even though it posed challenges to the young family.
Knowing nothing about the Pacific island nation, his mother gave her son multiple pairs of wool socks to take with him on the mission. He served for three and a half years before returning home to his family.
In all, the Olsens welcomed five girls and six boys into their family. One daughter, Jenny, lived only 11 days after being born prematurely with her twin brother, DeLon. The remaining 10 children of Abinadi and Hannah Olsen each had their own families.
More than 600 of their descendants — spanning seven generations — gathered for this year’s Olsen family reunion.
“As I approach my 94th birthday, I suppose I am the oldest of the living descendants of Abinadi Olsen,” President Oaks said. “My grandmother, Chasty Olsen, was the oldest of Abinadi’s children, and my mother was the oldest of Chasty’s. I am the oldest of my mother’s, and we have the oldest of the oldest of the oldest for seven generations.”
Today, the family’s reunion includes a family auction, a dance party, family history activities and painting activities. Different families are responsible for organizing the reunion each time it is held.
As part of this year’s Olsen family reunion, attendees could choose to participate in a scavenger hunt around the ranch. At each stop, they learned something about the family and its history. At one stop, Abinadi Olsen’s final letter to his family was posted. In it, he gave his final counsel to future generations.
“Do not be easily offended at one another. Remember that each of you has a cross to carry, that one is not in a position to judge the other. ... Finally, farewell, not goodbye. We shall soon meet again,” he wrote.
Shared principles of the gospel and patriotism
On Saturday, July 4, the United States of America celebrated its 250th anniversary as a country. Throughout the reunion, members of the family displayed flags, sang hymns and patriotic songs, and otherwise celebrated the country’s Independence Day.
Members of the Olsen family have a legacy of serving in branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. President Oaks said that the commitment of serving one’s country runs parallel in many ways to the commitment of serving as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“And the spirit of all of those relationships is that we help each other, and we’re not just in it for what we get out of it. We’re in for what we contribute to it,” President Oaks said.
Testimony of a Prophet
President Oaks told his family at a devotional during the reunion that he is close to turning 94 years old. As such, he said his emotions are closer to the surface than ever before.
He expressed his gratitude for his ancestors setting powerful examples for him and his “Joe’s Valley cousins” to follow.
“It’s important that we pay tribute,” he said. Specifically, he thanked the descendants of the youngest son of Abinadi and Hannah Olsen, DeLon. When DeLon was a young adult, an economic depression hit the area. Many other properties went into foreclosure or were lost by their original homesteaders.
“[DeLon] devoted his salary to paying the taxes so that this ranch would not be lost,” President Oaks noted with gratitude.
As part of his devotional with the family, President Oaks shared three points about the restored Church as “the only true Church on the face of the earth.”
“First, we have the fullness of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, including the purpose of life on earth,” he said.
Second, the Church has priesthood authority. “Priesthood authority is essential to the work of Jesus Christ,” President Oaks said.
Third among President Oaks’ points is the restored knowledge of the true natures of Heavenly Father and the Savior. “The Atonement of Jesus Christ assures us that we will have the opportunity to qualify for eternal life, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God.”
Before leaving the reunion after the devotional’s conclusion, President Oaks shared part of his testimony with Church News.
“When I say that I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, I’m talking about something I know as well as I know that I live, breathe and think and enjoy the blessings of God and the knowledge of His plan for His children. And making all that possible is our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer,” President Oaks said.
