Oatmeal Cake

Made oatmeal cake for anyone that comes to conference today. If it's good we'll make one for Book of Mormon Study class on Thursday.

We Have Arrived

Family and friends,

Here we are in Demopolis, AL.  Population 15,000 plus 2.  Sacrament meeting attendance 20 plus 2 (it was a record turnout, according to the Sisters).  We are getting used to our new apartment (garage). We have a cozy living space which we share with some pretty good sized spiders and beetles. The little green frogs and black lizards are staying outside so far. We have a little living room, dining room, kitchen combo with a bathroom right off from the kitchen table (true missionary style).  We do have a king sized bed in our small bedroom area which is giving both of us bruised legs when we try to walk around it. We have a small laundry room off the bedroom.  The inside measurement of the entire apartment is 20’ X 27’.

The weather has been warm.  It has been 80 degrees already and the locals tell us this is cold.  We had a light rain tonightwhen we came home from a discussion we went to with the sister missionaries. We met with a mother of four age eight and younger.  Three girls and a baby boy six months old. She is currently separated from her “husband.” 

We have district meeting Tuesday at 11 about an hour away in Tuscaloosa and then we meet with the Branch mission leader on Wednesday at 5 here in Demopolis.   Between that and a few things we still need to do to get the apartment set up we need to track down 4 inactive brethren that the Branch President asked us to locate this week.

We took the sisters to dinner Saturday night for Easter since next week will be Conference.  Sister Bond had Shrimp and Grits (actually a menu item).  She really loves grits and has them all the time. Very interesting since she is from Southern California.

We will have to get the account of the miracle baptism of Ollie recorded and send it to you.  We heard it from President Sainsbury when we got here and then they related it to us again today in Priesthood meeting at the Branch.  She was baptized last November.

 

Love y’all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Mother of Invention

They say necessity is the mother of invention. What you do when you have a tall outlet and toaster with a short cord.

Arriving in Birmingham

We got to Birmingham Friday afternoon and stayed that night with President and Sister Sainsbury. These are pictures of some of the houses and yards on the way through their neighborhood.

Slow Bone

With Slow Bone only 15 minutes off route in Dallas, we had to stop there Thursday for the best Ribs we'll have for probably the next two years.

On the Road!

Happy birthday Kelly

We were in class Friday until after 3:00 PM. Then we had to pack everything back into the car and check out. It was kind of hard to say goodbye to every body and actually leave. We are staying with Kelly for the weekend so we don't have to drive all day Sunday. His company gave him tickets to the Jazz game Saturday night. Got to see my first NBA game from a private suite. Pretty fun to get to spend Kelly's birthday with them. Kind of ironic that I'm a full time missionary when I see my first NBA game.

New friends, Forever Friends

This is Brother Staheli, Our afternoon instructor. As far as we know, we don't know his Grandpa or his dad.

This is who we sat by and met for the first time tonight. they are the Omers. They found out we were from Boise and asked if we knew President Bartlett of the Boise Mission. We told them as a matter of fact President Bartlett was good friends with Mom's brother David Pincock. Elder Omer said he was second counselor in the stake presidency for five years when David was first counselor. The Omers moved to Utah and President Bartlett, who was on the high council, became the new second counselor. We asked Omers where they where staying.they ar in S309. We are in S307, next door down the hall.

This is Elder and Sister Boyer. Our newest life long friends. We can't even begin to tell you the spiritual experiences we have had with them, and the deep personal connection we have with them. We will love them forever. They are from SLC (Holiday) and are leaving for Manchester, England n Monday. They will be gone for 18 months.

Murals at the MTC

We had free time Thursday night and walked over to the new classroom building to see all the murals. These are Alma the Younger praying and the sons of Mosiah on their mission to the Lamanites. There are twelve life-size murals all together. They are all really awesome. We have had beautiful weather all week (like late spring). We had to walk across campus from our apartment to see the murals. It was snowing as we walked back to the apartment.

Our Mission

Dear Children and Grandchildren,

We are having a great time at the Mission Training Center!  There are many beautiful paintings of the Savior and gospel scenes on the walls.  And there are pictures of missionaries serving in different places all over the world. One is of two people in a baptismal font chipped out of about 18 inches of ice.

We are having wonderful classes taught by inspired returned missionaries.  They are all so young, but so smart and so very good at teaching the gospel. 

There didn’t seem to be a time before we left you for us to share our testimonies.  We both know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. That is why we are here.  That is why we are going on this mission.  We know that Jesus Christ lives and loves each of you.  He knows your name and what you think about.  He knows what is in your heart.

We are so happy and grateful that our children are each so good and try so hard to live the gospel.  We know you each are facing many challenges, but we know the Lord will help you as long as you stay faithful.  We appreciate our great sons and daughters in law and appreciate the tremendous support they are to our whole family.

There is nothing we want more than for our grandchildren to develop their own testimonies of the Savior and His gospel.  You can only do that by reading the scriptures regularly, praying, and living the principles you learn about as you read.  Living the gospel is the most important thing you can do in this world if you want to be happy.  We love you all! We know the Lord will take care of you and He will take care of us.  We pray for that every day.

Love,

Grandpa and Grandma Owens

Small World

I'm sure all you kids remember Elder (Larry) Echo Hawk who was our home teacher when we lived on Lancaster in Pocatello. We met 15 instructors on Tuesday morning. Each district was assigned to one of them for the week. Our district was assigned to Cameron Echo Hawk. Larry's grandson. Of course when we met him we told him his dad was our home teacher. Then Elder Holbrook asked him (teasing) if he had a brother that played football for BYU. Cameron said his grandpa Larry did. That was when we found out he was the grandson.....It's so fun being old.  Watch for familiar faces in conference next month.

MTC District

Here is our MTC District. The Covingtons on the left. They are serving in their home stake in St. George. Next couple to the right is the Holbrooks. They are assigned to the Ohio-Columbus mission. Third couple to the right, next to us is the Mitchell's. They are going to Uruguay. She will be the mission nurse. The district leader is the one on the far right. ;)

When the Branch President said "Elder and Sister Owens, you're from Boise, right?" as we walked into the room, I knew something was up.

We made it!

Today we made it to the MTC here in Provo Ut.
We will be busy earning all week and then off to Birmingham Alabama on Friday!

Last get together before the big trip

All the current grandkids, Minus the Bohney's who couldn't all come. We missed them.

All the siblings and spouses except for Will who stayed in Texas.

All six kids. 

We had a great a marvelous morning. We started Early today. Met at the temple for a 6:30 sealing session where President Cragun was our sealer and we sealed couples and children for all time and Eternity. Rob & Suzie brought 30 family names but we only got to 20 of them, and Lisa & Pat brought 30 names.
After the temple we met together at Rob's church for one last family breakfast. We had breakfast burritos, donuts, muffins, fruit, milk, and juice. It was all wonderful I don't think anyone left hungry.
then we loaded up our little car and drove out of town.
Provo here we come!

Being set apart

We were set apart as missionaries on Friday night. March 9th at 8:00.
Set apart by Stake President Richard Johnson