Dear family and friends,
The highlight of this week was the arrival of our 25th grandchild (Gideon, Attachment #1) in the wee hours of this very morning, and Mckay’s baptism yesterday. We feel bad that we missed them both but we are very pleased that all is going as it should at home in our absence. We have yet to receive all the vitals on Gideon so they cannot be included here. Congratulations, however, to McKay and Rob and Suzie.
In other not so fantastic (but still fantastic) news, we attended our first for real zone conference this week (the last one with Elder Klebingat was spur of the moment because he was available and it actually included two zones). We had to miss our Book of Mormon study class for the conference. It was a little humbling (well, a lot really). The whole zone stood and recited “The Living Christ” from memory while we read it from our ipad. The Johnsons are the senior couple going home this Tuesday. They bore their testimony at the conclusion of the conference. Elder Johnson said he was saying “apples and oranges, apples and oranges” all the time because he saw President Sainsbury looking at him. Good thing they make allowances for us old fogies. The Johnsons are really special. They were working with the YSA in Tuscaloosa. They gave each of the senior couples a cookbook on Southern cooking as a parting gift. We left Demopolis at 6:30 in the morning to get to the conference by 9:00 AM and got back to Greensboro by 7:00 PM just in time to go to a really special discussion on the Book of Mormon with the Sisters and the Webb family. They have committed to baptism but she has to work almost every Sunday so it is really hard for them to get to church. Johnny, the husband, gave a really special opening prayer. It was really neat to hear him pray for his wife and family. We finally got home to Demopolis at about 9:30 PM.
Earlier in the week we were looking for sisters in Greensboro who were on the Relief Society list ( I spent a lot of time being chauffeur to the Relief Society President this week). We were looking for one sister and pulled into a driveway behind a car that we were following to ask them if they knew where this sister lived. She said the lady we were looking for lived across the street and asked if we were missionaries for the Latter-day-Saints. She told us her name is probably on our list too. We checked and it was. She is in her mid 30s with three children. She was baptized when she was 10 years old and said that she just kind of got off track, but she wants to come back and start bringing her kids to church. She said her husband is not a member but he wouldn’t mind at all if she goes to church. We tried to call her Saturday to invite her again to church but couldn’t get through on either number. We sent a text on one of the numbers and invited her to church. We got a text back saying we had the wrong person. Sister Owens texted back and thanked them for letting us know. I told her to tell them they were welcome to come to church with us anyway, but she didn’t. I told her she needs to be more bold (after all, it was only a text). Funny thing, we just got a phone call from that number and nobody answered. We called back and they didn’t answer.
Fast and testimony meeting is so awesome here. I really wondered how it would go last month because there are usually only about 8 or 10 adults in the entire congregation and the sacrament takes all of about 10 minutes. We have heard some awesome testimonies both last month and today. The lady from Livingston (Sister Patterson) came today along with her mother (attachment #2). It was neat to see them come, they haven’t been for a long time. They both bore their testimony. President James and his family was not in church today. His councilor, Brother Morgan, presided and conducted. He is nearly 80 years old. President James always conducts. Forty years ago Brother Morgan was working on the side of a 2 or 3 story high boiler at the paper mill when it exploded. It killed some of the workers and he was not expected to live. He was severely burned but he survived. He spent the last month driving back and forth from here to Tuscaloosa for doctor appointments and surgeries and his wife wanted to take him to the emergency room this morning instead of church, But he insisted on coming to church. They went from church to the immediate care center and spent about 5 hours there and may have to go to the hospital if his pain gets any worse. They invited us to go to “The Miracle Worker” with them Friday night at the Cane Brake Players (a local not for profit theater group). Almost everybody we past knew the Morgans and stopped to give them a hug and ask how Andy was doing. They all seemed to love both of them so much. They told us they were all friends of theirs from the Baptist church. Just about everybody Andy told me about worked with him at the paper mill. He has been retired now for almost fifteen years. He bore a really sweet testimony this morning (the shortest of all) and made everybody cry. Almost everyone that bore their testimony told him how much they loved him and his wife.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon!
We love y’all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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