Dear Family and Friends,

We left Alabama in pouring rain on Feb. 12^th.  But it finally cleared up after two days.  We made it to Pocatello last Thursday (27^th).  We had quite a trip getting here.  We stopped to see family and friends along the way.  We spent the first weekend with our daughter and her family in Granbury, Texas (attachment #1).  We got to go to the temple with them on Saturday (Attachment #2) and church Sunday.  The next stop was Surprise, Arizona to see Sister Owens’ Brother Phil and his wife Tana.  We also got to visit with our good friends from Boise who recently moved to Surprise (John and Sheila Goostrey).  They live just five minutes from Phil and Tana and are in a different Stake.  We stopped in Las Vegas to visit Sister Owens’ sister Paula and her husband Travis. It decided to rain on us again when we left Vegas, but not until after we had everything loaded in the car (another tender mercy).  We drove all the way to Tooele, Utah and stayed the next weekend with our son Robert and his wife Suzie and family (Attachment #3).

  While we were there we dropped over to Lehi to spend a little time with my brother Kelly and his wife Laurel.  We drove from Tooele Wednesday and spent some time with our good friends Earl and Debbie Cox in Logan.  Then we drove to Pocatello Thursday and we are here at “home” with Sister Owens’ mother for the time being. Our grandson Jake works at Domino’s Pizza and brought pizza for all of us.  His family came to welcome us home Thursday night, our daughter Lisa and her husband Patrick and children (attachment #4).

 We are writing, mainly, to let you all know that we are scheduled to speak in Sacrament meeting on March 15th at 10:30 am. at 5645 So. Maple Grove Rd. in Boise, Idaho 83709 (Silver Sage ward).  That is the first week that was available for us to speak since our mission ended.  That is why we have taken some time to visit family and friends on our way home.  We are only telling you this because I know if we did not let you know, we would be in hot water with somebody who would have wanted to be there if they had known when it was.  Personally, I hate for anyone to risk life and limb to make the trip during the winter in the likely case that there will be inclement weather.  Of course, we will be happy to see anyone that wants to be there but we hope your expectations are not set too high as far as what you think you will be hearing.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day.

We Love y’all,

Brother and Sister Owens (released by phone when we were in Texas)    

Home in Pocatello

Tami is already gone to bed so she can get up for work. Jake brought us all Domino’s pizza. He made it himself so it wasn’t the “run of the mill” Domino’s pizza.

ON the way home

Made a stop to see Sara and Will. 

Stopped in Surprise AZ. to see Phil and Tana Pincock and Goostrey's.

Stopped in Las Vegas to see Paula and Travis Parashonts.

Stopped in Tooele UT to see Rob and family.

Stopped and saw Kelly and Laural Owens in Lehi.

Saying goodbye

We will miss these wonderful people. 

Branch President James and his wife. Garrett and Glenda James

Week 99: Homeward bound

Dear Family and Friends,

II John 1:12

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day.

We Love Y'all

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 98: It really is coming to an end

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday we were off to make another taxi run.  The sister from a couple weeks ago called us last Friday and asked if we would take her to pay some bills Monday.  We drove up to her house and she was just leaving with an older gentleman in a car and came and told us we were confused, that she asked us to help her next Monday.  So we went home and made a batch of beans to take to President and Sister James and their family.  She had called Sunday morning to tell us she wouldn't make it to church because she had the flu.

Tuesday we drove in beautiful weather for two hours to have our final interview with President Allred.  He said he wished he could ask us to extend.  He counseled us to bear our testimony as often as possible that the Lords needs senior couples in the mission field.  He told us our family and posterity will be blessed beyond our comprehension because of our service here.  Our appointment was at 11:45 AM and we were supposed to stay there until 4:30 to attend district council after two zones had interviews.  The meeting would have been another hour and a half to two hours and then we would have been driving home late and in the dark, so we excused ourselves from the meeting and drove home during the day.  As soon as we got home the sister referred to above called us to remind us we were taking her to pay her bills next Monday and then mentioned that she didn't have any food and asked us if we could pick up some dinner for her and her girls and bring it over.  We told her we would see what we could do.  We gathered up some canned goods from our kitchen and picked up some bread and milk and a pound of hamburger at the store and brought it to her.  She couldn't really hide the disappointment when we gave it to her.  She was planning on some burgers from McDonalds or some fried chicken.  She was a little disappointed that she was going to have to fix her supper.  As we left we saw her girls walking home from the store with their grandmother.  It looked like they were all eating some candy (I love Alabama).

Our non-member "friend" that is going to another church now called and asked if we would go pick up her food bag from the food bank so we went to get that and deliver it right after our walk in the morning. Ollie insisted on taking us to lunch to show her appreciation for all the help we have been to her.  We didn't really think she should do that because she certainly didn't need to spend any of her money (what there is left of it) on us.  She wouldn't let us refuse her offer.  It is a good thing it didn't happen until the end of our mission.  We found out the best pulled pork sandwich we have had in all of Alabama is right here in Demopolis a half mile down the highway from our apartment. We have gotten quite close to an employee at Walmart.  We see her just about every time we are in the store.  She is usually doing the shopping for customer pick up.  She was walking out of the restaurant just as we were sitting down.  We visited for a while and found out Ollie went to school with her mother and Knew several members of her family.  She was just going to teach the preschool children at the Methodist church.  She has about twenty seven kids in the program, but she does have an assistant that helps her.  She said she loves it.  She said she thinks like a three of four year old so she gets along really well with the kids.  As she left she assured us that it is good to do good things but the important thing is that we accept Jesus if we want to get to heaven.  The carpets were cleaned at the church so we couldn't have our coordination meeting with Brother Smith until Thursday.

Thursday morning we went to the church to do some clerk work (we were kicked out by the carpet cleaners on Wednesday because we forgot they were coming).  Sister Owens had a little "changing of the guard" meeting with the sister that is going to be the new Relief Society president.  It was interesting since it is the sister that was released two years ago when Sister Owens was sustained.  She actually knows more about the sisters in the branch than Sister Owens does.  We had Book of Mormon class with the five of us that are left (two of us will be gone after next week, and we are the transportation for two of the remaining three).  It will be interesting to see what happens to the group after we are gone.  We had coordination meeting at the church when we got back to Demopolis.  They had lunch provided twice at the plant where Brother Smith works so he volunteered to bring the food from one of them home with him.  He had his family come to the church to eat supper.  It felt like we were having our meeting in the Smith family kitchen.  The Kirks came toward the end of our meeting to learn how to clean the building.  Zyreonia came with them (their oldest girl) but Ja'Nylia stayed home.  Neither of the girls come with them anymore when they do come to church.

We spent a good share of the day Friday with Ollie.  We picked her up at her hair dresser and took her to the church to work on her budget and check register.  She didn't ask for any help last month so we thought she had just decided not to worry about it since we are going to be gone next month anyway, but she wanted us to go through everything before we leave so she knows where she is with her account.  So we went through all the checks she has used since the first of December and I need to balance her December and January statements.  Then we will get with her next week and write checks to pay the rest of her bills.  It looks like her trust money isn't going to run out until March.  She wants to take the money out of the trust after she pays all her bills and put it in her safe deposit box and only use it in emergencies.  She called the bank while we were with her and said she wanted to find out how much money she had left in her trust and that she wanted to close the trust.  Then she would ask us a question and the lady on the phone was very concerned (understandably) and asked who was with her.  She told her, "The people that are helping me with my money."  Then I assured the lady that she didn't want to close her trust at the present time, but just wanted to know how much money she has so she can be sure she can pay off all her bills.  We could hear the relief in her voice as she told Ollie how much money was in the trust.  We had to get Ollie home so she could go with her husband to get his Veteran's Disability money (she has to sign for him since he is disabled).  Her driver was sleeping so we took them to the bank (it saved her twenty dollars).  The bank is across the street less than a quarter of a mile from her house.  We went to the local library to see the librarian.  She was one of the first persons we met when we came here.  We thought she had retired and just heard that she was still there.  A classy restaurant in town (The Red Barn) recently closed and was for sale).  Miss Connie (Lawson) told us she would love to take over the restaurant (she used to cook there)  When we heard they were open for business again we thought maybe she was there.  We visited with her for a while and found out that after being with the Library for twenty-five years they didn't even offer her the position as Director when it recently came open.  She is staying until August and then she will retire.  She told us she was hurt at first but is now happy with where she is in her life and has her bills paid off and her home is nearly paid for and she is going to be at home in her kitchen where she wants to be and do what she has always wanted to do.

Saturday we spent the day doing P-day chores and packing things that we are not going to be using the next week and a half.

Today was a great day, the sun shined all day. Sister Owens was released as Relief Society president.  This morning when President James extended the release he told her she can do missionary work for a week now. We had a great testimony meeting except people were a little over the top expressing their appreciation for the Owenses and telling how much they will miss us.  After church we couldn't pass up the chance to sit out on our back porch in the sunshine (attachment #1).  We have harvested our cotton tree (attachment #2).  Rather symbolic of the end of our mission here.  It is hard to believe we are only going to go to church here one more Sunday before we go home.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Sunrise

This was the sunrise this morning on our walk. 49 degrees.