Week 66: Out with the old; In with the new.

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday we were without the car all day long again.  They asked us to bring it in early in the morning so they could replace the lug and nut from our little incident at Costco during our tire rotation.  After 92 degrees on Sunday and noticing it took about an hour for the car to cool down, we asked them if they could check the AC since they just replaced the compressor in March.  We kinda thought it ought to be work a little more efficiently than that.  They said they would change the oil for us also.  We called at noon and they told me they had replaced the lug and nut and changed the oil and had started to check the AC but needed to go to lunch.  She was going to call us when it was ready.  We waited all afternoon for them to call us and finally called them at 4:50 and, like last time, they said, "Oh, you're all ready, Hon, sorry I forgot to call you."  I was glad I called since they closed at 5:00.  They added two pounds of coolant because the core in the fill port was lose (we weren't charged for it).  They said it was probably due to the age of the car and to keep an eye on it.  We might have to replace the line if we still have problems.  So far it's working pretty good.

Tuesday we had a new experience.  All three of the Smith boys had their Eagle Board of Review in Tuscaloosa and they needed some one to go with them to serve on the board that were not members of their family.  With limited transportation in the Branch, we were pretty much the only ones that could go.  The man that was released as the High Council representative for the Branch the week before we came also said he would come (he lives in Tuscaloosa).

We were up bright and early Wednesday to go to Zone Conference in Inverness.  Our cruise control has not been working most of the time we have been here, which is very irritating on long trips.  As we drove out of town I noticed it was working.  We used it all the way to and from the conference and the next day it quite working again.  On the way there I realized in our prayer that morning we had prayed that the car would function properly.  Another tender mercy.  It was a special Zone Conference.  It was the last one we will have with President Sainsbury.  We change Presidents and realign the mission boundaries July 1^st.

Thursday was happy birthday to Sister Owens.  We made a cake and took it to Book of Mormon class but we couldn't mention the birthday because we had overlooked a few birthdays in the Branch while Sister Owens was dealing with her Bronchitis. Sister Owens doesn't think her funeral will be as nice as her birthday.  There were too many kind wishes and nice things said by so many people.  Thanks to all of you who sent her special greetings.

Friday three of the sisters in the branch took Sister Owens to Lunch at the Mennonite bakery.  She thoroughly enjoyed the dozen shrimp she had for lunch but the cake wasn't really all that great.  They didn't get to use the private back room because of a family reunion that was having lunch there, so they had to make do with a table among the Cowboy church folks that were there for lunch.  A truly unique experience.

We had a special pot luck for all the senior couples in the mission on Saturday night with President and Sister Sainsbury  and then another pot luck for the branch on Sunday so we made cinnamon rolls for both of them.  Due to a slight miscalculation on my part, there were only half as many as I intended and they were extremely bready and really didn't have that much cinnamon in them.  I should have divided the dough before I rolled it out and I just didn't do it.  They did get eaten though.  It was the last time we will see the Sainsburys on our mission.  We are going to miss them.  He has been a great President.  He has been encouraging the missionaries to support and sustain the new President when he comes.  He shared with us, at zone conference, how he was duped by a zone leader when he was brand new.  The elder told him he had hurt his back and that the equipment at golds gym would help him in his recovery. President said he thought if you can't trust a zone leader, who can you trust?   So he gave him special permission to use the gym.  A couple months later he noticed that all his missionaries were walking around like they were pushing wheelbarrows and he was getting letters from all the parents wanting to know why they were having to pay for memberships at Golds Gym.  The zone leader had told everybody that the president had given them permission to get memberships at the gym. He put an end to that and had everyone cancel their memberships.  He said if anyone tried something like that with the new president he personally would hunt them down and shoot them.  All the elders now in the mission get to have two exit interviews.  President Sainsbury had the elders meet with him during conference and the sisters with Sister Sainsbury.  He said since he didn't get to talk with them when they leave to go home he was going to share some things with them there.  So he gave all some very sound advice for when they are released from their missions that will help them for the rest of their lives.  I hope they paid attention.

We had another little tender mercy Thursday night.  We happened to see the red hornet between the sheet and the blanket on our bed as we were turning down the sheets to go to bed, rather than discovering it during the night when one of us got stung.  I'm glad the Lord is watching out for us.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day ("for the rest of your life until you're dead,"—President Sainsbury)

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

PS.  We got a group picture of the Zone with the Sainsburys and one of the senior couples with them but we didn't take them.  We hope they will be posted on the mission facebook page before long so we can download them and send them with our next email.

Week 65: One for the books

Dear Family and Friends,

Other than a persistent cough, Sister Owens seems to be getting quite a bit better.  This was a very busy week and she went through it like a real trooper.  Of course it was probably the cut and perm she got Monday that made all the difference.  We had the sisters over for pizza at lunch since we were taking Sister Weaver to transfers Wednesday.  It was a little unnerving making pizza for a Chicago native, but she said she liked it.  The pulmonologist said Sister Owens should take an antihistamine in addition to the Flonase she is taking every morning, so today she took one of the Zyrtec pills that I got for my pneumonia shot reaction.  It didn’t sit with her any better than it did for me.  We think she is allergic to the active ingredient in it.  Her cough got worse and her air way tightened up.  Now we still have three more of the pills we need to figure out what to do with (man, they’re expensive).

Tuesday Sister Owens had presidency meeting to plan out the rest of the year for the monthly RS meetings.  Then we went and did the shopping for the luncheon for the meeting this Friday.  Neither of us recording anything for that day and we can’t remember anything else about the day so there is nothing more to tell.

Wednesday we drove to Gardendale for transfers.  Sister Weaver had more luggage than any sister we ever transported from California, and I let her know it.  We couldn’t have stuffed one more thing into our car for that trip.  As soon as we arrived at the chapel Sister Hurst came over and asked us if they had talked to us about bring a third sister back with us and dropping her off in Tuscaloosa.  No one had said anything to us so we did not bring our car top carrier with us.  I told her we could make room for the sister but we only had room for luggage for one sister.  We got our new sister.

She is Sister McRaney from (you guessed it) California.  Then I was sure we would not have room for any luggage for the third sister. Now our missionaries in Demopolis are Sister McCreath and Sister McRaney.  Sister McRaney is a Temple Square missionary.  She has been out about a year.  About half way through their mission they have the opportunity to go to another mission and serve as a proselyting missionary.  She came to our mission last transfer and is now in our area.  She seems like another really good missionary.  We felt bad losing Sister Weaver.  She had been in Demopolis for six months and is a super missionary.  We still have two really great sisters to work with here. We loaded Sister McRaney’s luggage and I was flabbergasted.  She had one Suitcase and one bedding bag.  We laterally had half the luggage area still empty.  We got all of the third sister’s luggage in except for one big box.  She insisted on holding it on her lap for the hour ride to Tuscaloosa.  I was surprised she and the box both actually fit in the back seat, besides the other two sisters sitting with her.  Then, of course, we stopped at Costco on the way home to get lunch and it was time to have the tires rotated.  They called me just as they finished the rotation to advise me that one of the lug nuts seized half way onto the lug when they were putting the wheel back on the car.  Now we have to take the car into the shop tomorrow morning to have that repaired.

Thursday we were just sitting down to eat our lunch and our Branch President’s wife called to say one of the sisters in the branch had been in intensive care since Sunday and they just released her and needed someone to pick her up and take her home.  She couldn’t go because she was at work so we told her we would go get her (we assumed she would be there waiting for us).  We got there and I waited in the car at patient pick-up and Sister Owens went in to let them know we were there.  They told her they were getting her dressed and had to check her blood pressure once more before she could leave and I couldn’t park where I was. I would have to move.  So I went and parked in the sun for twenty minutes with the A/C on which really wasn’t doing much to cool the car.  Then I finally saw Sister Owens come out and I started to pull up to the door.  She shook her head and motioned for me not to come to the door.  She came out and said they were still getting her ready to come down and that she was probably making sure that she got her lunch before she left.  Sorry, but I was a little put out by then and told her to tell them that we would leave and they could call us when she was ready and we would come and get her.  Sister Owens disappeared back into the hospital and I waited another fifteen minutes in the sun and by then the A\C was really not keeping me cool.  I assumed they told her she would be right down any minute so she decided we would just wait.  I decided I was going to go park in the shade at patient pick-up and wait until they came and told me I had to move, and then I would tell them to have my wife come out and we would go.  About five minutes later they wheeled her out and got her in the car and we had to go to the pharmacy and buy her medication for her before we took her home (I love Alabama).  On the way to her apartment she said she hoped her son was home because she didn’t have her key.  He wasn’t home so we left her at her neighbor’s apartment and about an hour and a half after we left our apartment we headed home to eat our lunch.  Before we left, she asked if she could give us some money and we could bring her some dinner on our way home from Book of Mormon class.  We only were about twenty minutes late for class by the time we got there.  After class we went to HR again to report elder abuse.  The non-member that meets with us each week is still living in deplorable conditions and is not being treated right by her daughters.  This was the third time we have been in to talk to them about it.  We aren’t really seeing where it is making much difference for her (I do love Alabama).  After we delivered dinner to Sister Jones and got home we made the taco salad for the luncheon the next day and then went down and set up for the meeting at the church.

Bright and early Friday we fired up the taxi and headed for Greensboro to pick up sisters for Relief Society.  The meeting was a success.  A sister from the other end of the branch did a class on flower arranging (see attachment #1).  After we got the sisters back home to Greensboro and straightened up a bit at the church we texted the sisters who were at a mission leadership meeting all day and asked them if they were going to be back to Demopolis in time for dinner.  They said they would just be getting back about 6:00 PM.  We told them we could bring dinner over to their apartment so they could eat when they got there.  They said that would be great.  We got there at six and they weren’t there.  We realized we had the spare key to their apartment in our car (several sisters back they kept locking their keys in the apartment and had to keep calling their landlord so they asked us to keep the spare for them). Just as we were putting the leftover taco salad on their table they texted and said they were almost home.  We told them we left it on the table and they could eat when they got there.

We had gotten a call Wednesday night and were asked if we would speak in church for Father’s day.  We set aside Saturday to devote to making cinnamon rolls (attachment #2) for the dads in the branch and finish preparing our talks.  We decided that was our plan for Saturday and we wouldn’t commit to anything else until that was done.  So Friday afternoon we got a call from the substitute housing coordinator telling us that the senior couples decided they were going to go Saturday to see the Civil War battlefield in Shiloh Tennessee since in two weeks it will no longer be in our mission. They are re-aligning the boundaries when they change mission presidents on July 1^st.  We told him we had a pretty busy day planned and would have to call him back to let him know if we would make it.  It was an opportunity we really didn’t want to pass up so we called and said we would be there.  Then after we got dinner to the sisters we went home and started the dough for the cinnamon rolls and got them made Friday night so they would be ready for Sunday.

Saturday morning we had to leave Demopolis at 6:00 AM to get to Birmingham by 8:00 AM to join the other couples and go in the van for three hours to Shiloh.  We went all the way to northern Alabama and then through part of Mississippi and into Tennessee to get there.  It was a long, but beautiful, drive. We didn’t really have time to do much when we got there but we did tour the visitor center (Museum) and watch a 45 minute film explaining the battle that took place there.  Then we got to see the national cemetery they have there (attachment #3).  We stopped at a famous restaurant nearby, The Catfish Inn, but the wait was forty-five minutes to get a table (at 2:20 in the afternoon) so we headed home and stopped to eat on the way at Jack’s (a bit of a disappointment).  We finally got home about 9:00 PM.  Sister Owens went to bed and I worked on my talk until after midnight (I really wasn’t expecting to have time to give it anyway).

Sunday morning President James started the meeting and mentioned that we had a new sister missionary and said he would have Sister McRaney introduce herself later in the meeting. So for the meeting we were going to have the sacrament (which is actually about seven minutes, tops, in the branch).  Sister McRaney introducing herself, a message by Ollie about fathers, a message by Sister Owens, a congregational hymn (I looked it up; “Oh My Father”), and then a message from me.  Sure enough, when I stood up there was ten minutes left in the meeting for me and the closing hymn.  It didn’t matter a bit because Sister Owens gave an awesome talk about how the Savior set the perfect example of honoring His Father by being perfectly obedient to Him in all things. I bore my testimony and we closed the meeting.  Brother and Sister Morgan invited us and the sisters to their home for dinner today and then we got to come home and talk to the kids for father’s day.  It was a great day.

We hope all you fathers had a great father’s day.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day

We love y’all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 64: The saddle is still slipping a little

Dear Family and Friends,

We scheduled our three apartment inspections for Monday and the Housing coordinator called us and asked if we could inspect the sisters apartment in Camden also.  They just re-opened the area after several years without missionaries.  So we went to see the sisters in Camden.  They have a very small branch there with about fifteen members that come each week.  The sisters were so excited to be there.  They told us how "they" got into their apartment before they arrived and decorated the walls with welcome notes and stocked their pantry and put up signs.  We asked if it was the Branch that did that.  They told us it was the Vicks.  I said, "Is that a family in the branch?"  They said it was.  By the time we were leaving to come home we had found out the Vicks are the branch.  It is just one family and extended family.  Their son is on his mission right now.  The sisters told us the whole town came to his farewell.  Everybody in town knows the family. They go tracting in the town and ask people if they know Stone Vick.  They tell them yes, and then they say "We are doing what he is doing right now."  It seems to be a good approach for them to use.  Anyway we did our four inspections and it made Sister Owens pretty tired.  Kind of a long day for her.

Tuesday we didn't do much other than recuperate from the day before, except for taking our sisters halfway back to Camden to meet the other sisters so they could do their exchanges for the transfer.  They trade companions and each set works in one of the areas for twenty-four hours.  We did go with the sisters in the evening for an appointment with a single male.  It was a no show.  So we went to check on some less active members we have been unable to contact and still couldn't find them home.  We did get to see a recent convert (baptized a few weeks before we came)  who has never been to church since we came.  He avoided us for a long time and his brother told us he moved to Tuscaloosa a few months ago.  We had never met him but saw someone outside his apartment some weeks ago and I just went up and asked him if he was Johnny Braxton.  He was too surprised to say anything but "yes" and he wondered how I knew that because he didn't know me.  Anyway, his door was open Tuesday night so we went to see him.  His kids were there visiting so we didn't stay.  We just told him we would love to see him at church someday.  In typical Alabama style, he told us he loved the church and he would be coming.

Wednesday we took the sisters back to get paired up with their companions again.  Last week Sister Owens told the Book of Mormon class it was time we had a treat again (it has been a while) so we had to pick up some stuff and get a cake made to take with us Thursday.  We had coordination meeting with Brother Smith and then we were going to go to the appointment with the sisters to see Marquise who we had a discussion with on Sunday evening but he called them and said he would have to cancel.  It was kind of exciting for the sisters because usually they just aren't home when they go for appointments.

Thursday we took Sister Owens to Tuscaloosa in the morning to have her consultation with the pulmonologist.  I had to go in with her to make sure she didn't leave out any of the important stuff.  She seems to have a hard time telling the whole truth when she talks to doctors.  The doctor wasn't to excited to hear that she is coughing up some colored mucous again and put her on another antibiotic.  So we get to go through that routine again for another ten days.  She scheduled her for a CT scan in August and a follow up appointment.  Sister Owens says she is never getting sick again because it makes her too tired and depressed.  Of course, she might be right.  If she doesn't start following orders and getting the rest she needs she won't ever get better this time and then she won't be able to get sick again.  We did have a good Book of Mormon class.  I cut the cake and Sister Owens said I cut the pieces too small.  She was the only one that complained though.  We had enough left to give some to the sisters and to one of the sisters in the branch that wasn't feeling well.  She felt bad because Sister Owens missed her birthday and didn't bring her a cake.  That was the week we were seeing all the doctors in Demopolis.

Friday was our last District Council for this transfer.  The District Leader changed the time from 11:00 AM to noon so the sisters could go to lunch before the meeting because he said the elders were going to go to lunch.  A few months ago the President asked us to discontinue the occasional practice of going to lunch as a district with the elders and sisters together after District Council.  So for some reason the DL thought it would be alright to go to lunch before the meeting but not after.  He was right about not having the elders go with the sisters but there wasn't any reason they couldn't go after the meeting at lunch time, as long as they didn't go together.  Anyway, we drove in early so the Demopolis sisters could meet up with the sisters from the rest of the district and we got to have a nice late breakfast with them before the meeting. Then we took our traditional district picture since it was our last Council meeting (see attachment).  We got home in time to pick up Ollie and take her to the church to work on her finances again.  She had her hair done in the morning and just as we left the church we had some "car wash rain" as Sister Owens calls it.  We had lots of fun getting her into and out of the car and back into her house and still save the hairdo.

Our P-day was Saturday this week because we did inspections all day on Monday.  We just did our shopping and chores around the apartment.  We had our standing appointment with Joe Davis in the evening.  He is trying so hard to give up the coffee but his body is putting up a real fight about it.  We had a good discussion and then brought up President Nelson's conference talk, "Come Follow Me" on his computer terminal.  He made it about five minutes or less and went to sleep, but the four of us enjoyed the talk.  He felt so bad when we woke him up at the end and he apologized about eight times in the six minutes we were there before we left.  He is seventy-three and works about twelve hours a day on his farm during the week and then all night Saturday and Sunday at the Trucking terminal.  He told us he was coming to church though and he was there and stayed for Sacrament meeting and Priesthood meeting.  He would benefit from any prayers offered in his behalf to overcome his coffee.  He will be baptized as soon as he can stop.

Sundays are really renewing each week but they have been pretty long as well since we have been having the Self Reliance class after meetings and then we get everyone home after class.  Today was an easy day since the one from Linden didn't come and Elder and Sister Champion, who come from Tuscaloosa each week to facilitate the class, offered to take Timothy home for us because it was on the way back to Tuscaloosa.  They will be doing that now for the rest of the time we have the class.  So today we just had to take two people home that live here in Demopolis.  The guest speakers that came down from Tuscaloosa commented on how glad they were to be back in Demopolis again to attend our meetings because there is such a special spirit here in our building.  It made us remember how we felt the first week we were here for church when we got here last March.  Everybody that comes here always says that about being here.

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

We Love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Fwd: Week 63: Back in the Saddle again (with a vengeance)

Dear Family and Friends,

Sister Owens has been feeling better every day so we decided to start venturing out this week.  Monday she stayed home and did a little laundry and I went without her to the church and did some clerk work.  Then we took the sisters out to Greensboro in the afternoon and evening.  We had a couple of sisters we had to follow up with for addresses on their daughters and the sisters had an appointment with a single man at a park that evening.  He is a member who knew the elders when they were in Greensboro and they had a branch there.  He and his sister are on the branch list and we had tried to locate them before but could not find the address.  We were excited to find out where they lived and he was pretty excited to meet with the sisters.  Neither of the ladies we wanted to see were home (it was a holiday).  Neither of them would return my call I had made previously.  We all went to the park and waited for Jonah for twenty-five minutes and called him once and texted him twice with no response. We finally left to come home and on the way he called and asked if we were still at the park.  He said he was sorry but he was asleep and didn't wake up.  So we had a nice test run for Sister Owens but didn't really accomplish anything as far as the work goes.  It did tire her out quite a bit.

Since we tired her out pretty good we decided to keep her home Tuesday to get ready for Wednesday when we had committed to take a sister to get a medical test in Birmingham.  So other than some of our P-day chores she just spent the day resting.  Wednesday we had to leave at 6:20 so we could pick up Sister Borden in Greensboro by 7:00.  We were a little apprehensive about going to Birmingham because they have closed all the freeways into downtown to do some major revamping of the roadways into town.  We found out the test she needed was actually being done at a facility in the outskirts of town so we didn't have to deal with that at all.  On the way home we got a call from a sister in Greensboro and told her we would stop and see her after we dropped off Sister Borden.  We visited with her and found out she has been off work for a few weeks because of blood clots and heart problems and she was going to need help getting her rent paid for June.  We didn't get home until 4:00 and Sister Owens was too tired to try to go to Coordination meeting with the sisters and Brother Smith so we called and told them we wouldn't make it.  When we don't get there Brother Smith has to meet with them in the parking lot because he can't be in the building alone with the sisters.  It is starting to get pretty warm now so that isn't really very fun.  We discussed the rent situation with President James and he said we could use fast offering funds to help her.

Thursday morning we picked up Ollie and took her to the church to help her with her checkbook.  We can't take Sister Owens in their house anymore because of the heavy cigar smoke from her husband's smoking.  In the afternoon we went to Book of Mormon class in Greensboro.  Brother White was there after having his dialysis in the morning.  He looked really good.  Sister Owens told him he forgot to bring his pillow down  He said he wasn't going to use it.  He sat up in his chair for the whole class.  They removed a stint in one arm that has not been used for quite some time and placed another one in his other arm.  If it works they will be able to remove the port they currently have in his chest for his dialysis.  It should reduce the amount of pain he has been experiencing everyday lately.  After class we went to find the sister's landlord to give him the check for rent and get a receipt.  It was a very frustrating wild goose chase.  I've never known of anyone that makes it so hard to find them to give them money. We drove to his home, his daughter's home, and an employee's home trying to get a phone number for him.  We finally got his wife's phone number and didn't get any answer.  We finally told the sister to tell him to call us and let us know where we could meet him to pay him and left to come home.  He showed up at her house about ten minutes after we left and nobody ever called us.  I just decided if he wanted the money he would call us and I wasn't going to worry about it until we heard from him.

Friday we picked up the sisters and went to Tuscaloosa to District Council.  We have been planning to take Timothy to the temple to do baptisms but as yet he did not have his recommend.  President James was going to be in Linden for work and said he would come over to the church if we could get him there for an interview.  So we picked him up in Forkland on the way home from Tuscaloosa and brought him to the church.  We thought we would probably have to stop in Greensboro to deliver the check but nobody called us so we didn't worry about it.  Timothy had his interview  and we took him and the sisters home and then we got a call from Greensboro.  They said the landlord would be there at 4:00 for us to give him the check.  Since it was 3:45 we told them that wouldn't work but we could be there by 5:00.  Then we only had to wait about twenty minutes for him to show up and we finally got that done.  We had one more appointment at 6:30.  President James wanted us to go visit a recent convert who had sent a letter to the church asking to have her name removed from the records.  Her cousin and his wife live with her and are very hateful toward the church.  They have been pressuring her to remove her name.  We were supposed to find out if that was really what she wanted of if she had changed her mind.  We had to meet with her outside on the porch and his cousin was hanging around us the whole time listening.  Finally a lady that was living there came over and interrupted our conversation and accused her of lying to us and not telling us what she had been telling everyone else.  Everything went down hill from there pretty fast.  Her cousin called the Landlord and asked if it was private property, which it was, and he said those dang Mormons are here again and he wanted to call the police and have us removed from the premises.  He was being extremely rude and had the landlord on speaker.  It kind of backfired on him.  The landlord said, "Man, you don't want to call the police on a Mormon.  If you want them to leave just go out in the front yard and start yelling obscenities and they will leave."  Then the cousin said, "Yey, I have you on speaker, they're hearing everything you say."  We asked the member to give it some thought and address a letter to President James and let him know what she had decided and excused ourselves. It was definitely not a fun way to end the day.

The next morning we left about 7:30 to pick up the sisters and Timothy to take him to the temple in Birmingham (see attachment).  After stopping on the way to get gas, we arrived at the temple and drove into the parking lot and just happened to pass a group of people walking from their cars to the temple.  Sister Owens said, "That is our son-in-law's parents."  I thought that was crazy.  It might have been someone that looked like them but it couldn't have been them.  They live in Pocatello.  I hurried and followed them to the side of the temple were they were going to have some pictures taken and sure enough, it was them.  They were there for a niece's sealing.  Had we not driven into the parking lot at that precise time neither of us would have known the other was there.  It was such a perfect tender mercy from the Lord that just seemed to give us such a boost and made us so happy after the experience we had just had the night before.  Then we got to top it off with the opportunity to see Timothy baptized for the dead.  It has been two weeks since he was baptized.

Today we had an awesome testimony meeting.  Sister Weaver bore a beautiful testimony.  We and she knows she is leaving this transfer, but no one else in the branch does (except her companion).  She will be going a week from this Wednesday.  We are really going to miss her.  She is an awesome missionary. After we got everyone home following the Self Reliance class the sisters texted us that they had an appointment with a single male tonight and wondered if we could go with them.  We were pretty tired but told them we would go.  They had met his neighbor and had been invited to her home but had gone three times to see her and she was never there.  Marquise lived next door and opened his door every time they knocked on the neighbor's door.  Finally the third time they told him they were missionaries and they gave him a Book of Mormon and set an appointment to meet with him tonight.  It was a really good discussion.  He seems very sincere and says he has been thinking lately that he wants to get closer to God and find a church that is right for him.  He hadn't started reading the Book of Mormon but he said he was going to start reading it tonight before he goes to bed and he said the closing prayer.  We are excited to meet with him again this Wednesday night.

It is so neat to know the gospel is true and see the Lord's hand in the work.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon everyday.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens