We had a wonderful Zone Conference Tuesday. It was a very long day and the theme of the Conference was member involvement in missionary work and fellowshipping. President Sainsbury wanted us to know that when we bring people to church, if they sit within the first four rows there is a much greater chance that they will feel the spirit. Sister Owens noted that was the one thing we have down to perfection in Demopolis. We only have four rows of chairs in our chapel. After the conference Sister Weaver talked to President Sainsbury and said it was a great conference but she didn't know of anything they talked about that we can do in Demopolis. He told her to take really good notes and use them when she is transferred to a ward. At least he understands our situation. About eighty percent of the sisters' teaching appointments this week fell through due to sickness or just the people not being home. It has been a pretty hard week, so it has been really nice to finish up the week with a fantastic General Conference.
Brother Foote lives in Northport (by Tuscaloosa). That is one of Sister Beauquez' previous areas. She was teaching his niece. The two of them were going to be in Greensboro Wednesday and wanted to take the sisters to lunch. The niece was ill and couldn't come so they invited us to go with them. It was awesome to visit with him and hear his testimony of how he joined the church. The elders worked with him for about five months and he wouldn't keep any of his commitments. Finally before one of them was transferred (he was trained in the area and was leaving) he confronted Brother Foote and told him for five months they have been meeting with him and he hasn't come to church and he hasn't prayed about the Book of Mormon. He asked him if he would commit to doing that. He told him he would. He said to us that he was a person that follows through with the commitments that he makes so he had to go to church. When Sunday came his wife told him not to go, but he knew he had to because he told them he would. When he left for church he realized he told them he would pray about it and he hadn't yet, so he ran back into the house and knelt down and prayed. He prayed and asked God to not let anyone there notice that he was there and to let him know if the church was true. He walked in a few minutes late and nobody said anything to him. There was an empty seat right next to the missionaries and he sat there but neither of them said anything to them. He said he noticed that there were a lot of kids and they were a little noisy. He was a little offended and then he thought Christ would have wanted the children to be in his church. Then he remembered that he always had a hang up about the members of the church practicing polygamy. And he thought that Christ would not judge them for that, so he shouldn't. Then he felt the spirit tell him that it is the true church and he thought, "Wait a minute, if it is true then all those people that practiced polygamy were good and they were supposed to do that." And he wasn't concerned about that anymore. Then he got up and left early and went home and nobody at church even acknowledged that he was there. He told us to be careful what we pray for because the Lord answers our prayers. Later the Elder called him and said, "You came to church today, didn't you?" He said he did. The Elder asked him if he prayed and he said he did. Then he asked him if he would be baptized. He said, "Of course I will, it's true." He had an appointment to look at a building lot in Greensboro. It would be so neat to have him in the branch. He has such a strong testimony and desire to serve. We found out later that he has been talking about coming to Greensboro for about ten years.
Friday night we got a text from our son, Robert, advising us that a few hours before he was set apart as an ordinance worker in the temple and that his wife thought we might like to know (Thank you Suzie). What an opportunity. We are excited for him and very pleased that he is able to serve in that capacity.
Saturday we went to the Branch building and got set up for conference so we could watch it with the sisters. That's about how it goes on the Saturday of conference. Of course all the active people get the BYU channel on satellite so they don't come to the branch. Just before the meeting started Sister Humphreys (Attachment #1) came in with her parents (Attachment #2). She was one of the sisters serving here when we came last March. She was one of the sisters that watched conference with us a year ago. We had a great little reunion. And Brother Humphreys was there with us for Priesthood meeting with President James and his son and Brother Smith and his sons and myself. All the sessions were so awesome, including Sunday. We had a few of the branch members come on Sunday morning and one non-member, James, came as well. We took him home after the morning session and we asked him what he thought about conference. He said he enjoyed it. That was about the longest sentence we have heard him say since we started meeting with him with the sisters. He seems to be extremely anti-social. President James tried to visit with him at conference but he just didn't talk much.
Our late night tonight was due to another meeting with the Bullards. Rick watched Elder Homer and Elder Holland speak yesterday and was very impressed. He recorded the priesthood session and the sessions today. We asked them how their day went today and they told us they went to church this morning and everyone was really happy to see them. They went back to their Baptist church. He said he wants a hard copy of Elder Holland's talk so he can use it to preach to the congregation at the Baptist church and then ask them if he sounds like a man of God or a fraud. I'm sure he could have a lot of influence on the Baptist congregation but he is still missing the boat on what he needs to do to come back and learn all the truth that he turned his back on so many years ago.
We hope everyone got to watch all of conference. If you didn't, be sure to go to the website and watch them. They were all so awesome. To quote President Nelson, "Do it now, time is running out."
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon and study the conference talks.
We love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
No comments:
Post a Comment