Dear Family and Friends,
This was a very, very busy week. We started Monday by inspecting three of the four apartments we were asked to inspect. It was a neat privilege to get to visit with the Elders for a few minutes and find out a little bit about them and their families. I asked one of the Elders in the first apartment we went to if he was hearing from his family each week. He said his girlfriend writes to him each week. I asked about his family and he told me they are not members. He has an aunt that is a member but she really isn’t very active. I was amazed at his dedication.
Last week looking at the map, we saw that we just needed to jog over three or four miles to the east when we were coming home from one of the inspections and we would be able to go through Magnolia where the first Mormon chapel was built in the south, which is still there. Something one of the Elders said Monday reminded me that we intended to do that so we put Magnolia in the GPS after the second inspection, as we were headed home. We had to choose between two routes and we chose the shorter route, though it was about 10 minutes longer. After driving about 45 minutes on a dirt road that was seriously washed out in about three places (so much so, I did not want to go back over them ever again). We had about five miles to go and came to a pile of dirt across the whole road that was higher than the car. I got out and looked at the hill which I thought looked like a hill for a motocross track. I was sure if I went up the hill I would high center before I could get down the other side. When I climbed to the top I thought it went far enough that the rear wheels would be up before the front ones started down the other side. We went over the hill and found ourselves on a bridge with another bike jump immediately at the other end of the bridge. I figured if we got over the first one we could probably make it over the second one as well so we went for it. About five miles down the road we turned onto a paved road and Sister Owens looked back and noticed a sign where we came out that said “Bridge out, do not enter.” We never saw a sign at the other end of the road. That is miracle number one (I’m sure the Lord just looked down at us and shook his head on that one). We got home just in time for our last scheduled inspection here in Demopolis. After we got home we realized we had intended to stop in Magnolia after the inspection we did Friday not Monday. We actually drove quite a ways out of our way.
Brother Smith told us the Chevy dealership in Demopolis had an Enterprise rental car branch at their facility, so we stopped there Tuesday before leaving for district meeting in Tuscaloosa. They checked and said all their vans were reserved. We got a number for the Tuscaloosa office and called them and were told the same thing. They even checked the Birmingham airport for us and nothing was available. We were going to check some other places but meetings went too long and it was 5:00 PM before we could check and everything was closed. We were going to Linden to pick up a sister on Wednesday to bring her to the family history library to do some work and we decided to stop on the way at Enterprise and go ahead and reserve a minivan so we would have something in case we weren’t able to find the 15 passenger van we wanted. We got to the desk and saw a sign saying they were gone to the carwash. We waited for about 10 minutes and thought we better go to pick up Beth. As we were walking out a lady drove up in a wet car so we waited and it was the lady from the rental desk. We asked if we could go ahead and reserve a minivan for the weekend. She said, “did you decide you don’t want the 15 passenger?” We told her we do want one but we were told there was not one available. She said, “you’re from Demopolis, right?” I said yes. She said, “We have it reserved right here for the Church of Demopolis.” And told me the phone number she had and it was not ours. I told her we would love to have the van but that was not us. She said, “When do you need the van?” I told her we only need it for Sunday but I was told they don’t have rates for the weekend. She told us that was right, that we have to rent it on Friday and can’t bring it back until Monday. She said the van was coming back at noon on Friday and we could have it for the weekend if we wanted it. We reserved it. Miracle number two.
Thursday we worked at the family history library with the non-member we mentioned last week. She told us that when she was four and a half years old her grandfather shot and killed her father because of a disagreement over some money. That is about the strangest (and saddest) thing we have heard so far here in the south.
Thursday afternoon we went to Book of Mormon study class and were happy to report that we had the van for conference. Brother White had a non-member friend there for the class and he said he would love to come to conference with us. We had another lesson with the Webbs Thursdaynight and they said they were planning to come to conference also.
We were excited to have the van for the weekend because there was room for the whole branch council to go to leadership meeting. Since they were changing the Stake Presidency, President James had to go early for his interview. We ended up with only five of us going over in the van for leadership meeting and staying for the Saturday night session. We got home about midnight and had to get on the road by 6:10 AM to pick up everyone in Greensboro for the Sunday morning session. Sadly, the non-member friend decided not to come and the Webbs woke up just after we had to leave so we could get to the meeting on time. So we only had eight of us for the Sunday trip. The meeting was awesome. We heard Elder Wakolo’s conversion story. He didn’t tell us it was him until the end of the story. I felt bad because he was last and I was so tired from driving for two days that I couldn’t stay awake for the first half of the story. It would have been so awesome if the Webbs could have been there for the meeting.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon!
We love y’all,
Elder and Sister Owens
PS Last week when we were teaching the Webbs about the Book of Mormon I told them about the promises President Monson made to us if we would read and study the Book of Mormon daily. I told them if they read every day they could enjoy those blessings because they were promised by a prophet of God and it didn’t matter whether you are a member of the church or not. They read every day and told the sisters that they noticed the difference it made in their home. It is just like going to church or praying or paying your tithing, you have to do it before you realize the blessings that come from it. We know what a blessing it is to attend conference and hear from general authorities of the church because we have experienced it. We tend to think if we tell others how exciting it is, then they will feel the same anticipation and desire to attend. But, having not experienced it, they don’t know what a blessing it can be. Elder Johnson is such an amazing man. What a privilege it was to here him bear testimony of the Savior. These people are awesome. Words cannot express what it feels like to be in their presence.
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