Delhi

Dear Family,

Delhi is awesome, we are doing really well- Elder Johnson and I. He is from California(Bay area). I am really loving serving with him, I'll send some great pictures next week. I am really enjoying the work with him. He is really good at talking to people and connecting with them fast. He loves them and I am learning a lot from him. We found a lot of people to follow up with this week. One couple in particular stands out to me. They attend the Assembly of God church. They were a very nice and she was talking to us outside for a little bit and then we her husband drove up, she said "now my husband is really mean so if he comes out of the car with a shotgun...." Meanwhile her husband has already smiled and raised his eyebrows while waving. So that brought some laughs and we were having a great conversation about the book of mormon, and then we started talking about what they liked about religion, they asked us if we had any songs so I pulled out my hymn book and showed it to them. I said that one of my favorites was # 116. She opened to it and started reading, after the second line I started singing it as she read it, she stopped reading and listened while I sang the rest of it. The Spirit came. I said that I felt the Spirit and asked if they did too. He responded that he did. I then testified that: "This is the reason that I am out here sharing these things with people. I know that the book of Mormon is true and that as you read, ponder and pray, this feeling comes. Will you allow us to come back and teach you more?"

It was awesome. I love missionary work. There are so many nice people here. The branch is really close and most are excited about the work, they just don't quite know how to go about doing it. So we are going to take them out hometeaching and teaching our investigators. I am really excited. (about 65ish active)

In all probability I am going to go on exchange over to Norwich soon, It is still in the district. (Delhi, Oneonta and Norwich) and I felt like I had done my part there so I am just filled with hope and joy and excitement about the future. I don't have any regrets about leaving Norwich. I want to be able to say the same thing at the end of my mission, I still have a ways to go though.

Last night was pretty cool, the car died(The battery did something wierd) and it wouldn't start for a while. But it finally did start and we were able to make it back home. I know that the Lord is watching out for us. I am glad that Lovetta and Tom were able to get jobs. It is interesting to think about how merciful the Lord is to all of us. It is indeed really hard to have a child die young. Joseph Smith and Emma had so many of theirs die very young. But thinking about it in the eternal perspective, what a blessing that must be now, they are all saved in the celestial kingdom, they have the chance to raise them now in righteousness, while their posterity who did live fell away from the church. I don't understand why all things happen, nor do I think we can in this life fully, but I do know that God loves His children, that His plan is perfect. I am so grateful for the many things that I don't understand which seem hard and difficult but make me grow.

Hope you have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Trezor Sheen Owens

Dear Family,

Here are some fun pictures of us from this past week. We are really enjoying working with Teresa and have shifted our focus-just because they are so distracting- and are going to be teaching her children at the same time as her, so we have held off on the baptism. She is having so many AHA! moments. She continues to say: "I know that! but she hasn't ever heard it before. It is so wonderful to see the spirit have an effect on people's lives. We have also been working with a brother in the ward who has had a really rough childhood, and his grandma took him in and saved him from it. He has struggled with his testimony and with any desire to come to church or participate. It was so cool to be able to see how the Lord knows each of His children. We have been able to teach him the missionary lessons and he is excited now to read from the Book of Mormon, he loves to pray now, and there is a new light in his eyes, more hope and much more joy. It is so wonderful.

We ate dinner at Brother Lopez's house(on his roof) And then threw the blanket off. While we were up there his dog dissappeared so he was searching all of friday night and saturday for him. He hasn't found him yet. But I shared my testimony in sacrament meeting about how each of our trials are personally geared towards us. I am so grateful for all of the things that I have gone through and experienced because I am so much stronger because of it. Brother Lopez got up right after me and was still worried about his dog, but bore a simple testimony that the Lord has a perfect plan and that no matter what happens, it will be all right. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from President Hinkley: Everything will turn out in the end. If it hasn't turned out yet, it isn't the end.

Love, Elder Owens

Dear Family,

It sounds like you had a good memorial day yesterday. We spent all of our P-day cleaning, just like we have every p-day since I got here to Norwich. The Appartment at first glance looks worse than it did when we started, because we are doing a deep clean. The bathroom really smelled, the oven and fridge, the sink, the car. Things that you don't see at first. But I am really excited for it to be a clean place again. I really have gained a testimony of the spirit being able to be more abundant in places where you invite it through trying to clean and lighten up the place. Teresa is having a crazy time trying to learn the gospel at the same time as moving and raising 5 kids by herself and being in the Air Force reserves and going into a nursing program. We hope to be able to teach her soon. We got permission to teach her at 9 A.M.(usually comp. study) because she said that was the best time due to Nehemiah being a 3 year old who is grumpy by the time 10:00 comes around.

We got a few referrals from the people in the ward who have missionaries out. The sons wrote home and said that we should talk to some of their friends, so that was cool. One of them (stephen spitner) said that we could talk to him some more, and he is our age, keeps the commandments, so we are excited to teach him.

Haven't been able to see the Bitners(With the 6 month old who was in the hospital)

Robert and Diane Rogers are progressing well, we see them every sunday at 3, and they are liking the book of mormon.

We helped Paint Teresa's house. Brother Lopez is awesome, he comes with us whenever we want, he is 62 but looks 39. He is a painter and had a paint sprayer so we were able to paint her whole house in a day, which was incredible. We spent 2 saturdays ago painting half a wall. Teresa's Children's names are Noah(15) Caleb(12) Micah(10) Yo'hanna(6) Nehemiah(3) Hanna is amazing. I got to talk with her a little bit and she saw a picture of Christ and said: "I love him" I showed her a picture of Joseph Smith seeing Him and Heavenly Father because he prayed, and she kept saying: Do it! Do it! I want to see Him. So I was able to teach her about the spirit and how we can feel their love even though we can't see them yet, we live our life so that we will get to eventually. It was so cool. little children have so great understanding and faith. I learn a lot from Knee-High and Hanna. :D

I love you all!

Elder Owens

Dear Family,

Wow, that sounds like is has been eventful and is really exciting. It is hard to hear about the baby. I am glad that Lovetta is still doing ok though. She is a strong woman. I have been telling Elder Gurney about her this past week and sharing with him all of the things that I have learned from her about what really is important. One thing that I still remember about her is when she got upset one time-she didn't hurt me or anything, she just got upset and went to her room- but she came back in a few minutes in the depths of humility and appologized. It was amazing to me to see how fast she changed her attitude, and really how much love she had for me. It made me want to be a much more caring brother/father/ faithful priesthood man.

We are going to get some flowers today for our appartment. We have been cleaning near every day a little bit, and we just really felt the spirit tell us that we needed to take some time yesterday and clean. This appartment belonged to some people before the missionaries. There are lots of stories about it. Elder Stahle cleaned it before I got here, but he didn't get it all, and the Spirit needed us to clean it if we wanted it to continue to dwell with us.

These pictures were from Elder Gurney's camera card. The computer recognizes his. So you get some this week!

We are really seeing a whole lot of blessings. Teresa is coming along, we pushed her date back to the 19th of June, because she has to go out of town, and teaching with 5 kids and all the stress that goes along with it is not too quick and easy. But she is really loving and learning by the spirit. It is amazing. The Bitner family is also doing great. They have a daughter Nyia who has gone to the hospital twice now because she stopped breathing in the middle of the night. As we were thinking about what to teach them, Lovetta's story came to mind as a good example of faith in the Lord no matter what happens. I think that it would really hit home and touch them. I'd like permission to use it though, and it would be more powerful in her own words too. To Lovetta: Could you write up something for me to share? Just your feelings/testimony even in the midst of your trials? I love you all and hope that you will have a wonderful week!

Love,

~Elder Owens

P.S. I didn't get sound for the movie, but it looked like a lot of fun. Telisa's testimony would be awesome to have recorded, I wish I had written mine down as an activity right when I was baptized and confirmed.

One thing that I felt I needed to tell mom was that I am indeed grateful for the lessons that she has taught me about loving animals. I remember when I was little I was capturing ants and using a magnifying glass to try to burn them with the sun, and mom scolded me. It really made an impression and since then my love for all animials all life has really grown. Carissa has also helped. The pictures were fun, I am glad that you sent them. Telisa's party looked like a sucess. The successes that I have found from the Lord have really been higlighted in the phrase: "Find Joy in the Journey. I am definetely sure that this life is not ment to be full of sadness and misery every single day. But when those days do come, I am glad for the humility and closeness to the Savior that they bring. I am glad that she likes interviews. I agree with her, those men are so kind and they are really there for our blessing. The Bitners asked the other night about the priesthood, and if it were only the men who were able to hold it. I answered: "The priesthood is the power of God given to men to serve as He would, Elder Gurney and I have had a whole lot of fun experiences this past week. It has been great to serve with him so far. We helped Teresa paint her new house, we gave her another blessing. He spoke in Sacrament meeting, and Brother Lopez had us over for dinner. He is fixing up a house(a big old one) for someone else, and they are letting him stay there while he does. He had a bonfire and invited the owner of his house and a friend over for ice cream. The friend had just gotten cancer, was in the hospital about to die, and his mom asked many congregations from different churches to pray for him. Miraculously his cancer disappeared, the doctors couldn't explain it, he just got up and started walking around. He kept asking us: "is that possible?" Do you believe it? Was that an answer to those prayers? He kept saying "but I don't understand, is it because I lived a good life before, and tried to help the poor and give of what I had?" I have tried to live a good life, and when the mormons came and visted me in the hospital they prayed with me and had me say a prayer, they told me that it wouldn't be selfish just to ask for that blessing. Then just so quickly I was up and walking around and the doctors were looking at me as if I were a god." We weren't able to teach him much. He isn't the type to listen to us, even when he asked us questions, he didn't really want to know the answers. "Be comforted" "have faith" "repent" "come follow me" The way to understand sprititual things must be done BY us, not done TO us.

Love, Elder Owens

Bye!

Dear Family,

I offered to play hymn number 142 Be Still my soul- but I can only play the right hand, and I am not that great at it. It will be such a blessing for Skyler to be able to play the piano. (We ended up singing A-cappella in Gospel Principles.) Writing things down is definitely something I have learned to do as a missionary. I carry a notebook with me everywhere so that I can write down Spiritual promptings when they come- otherwise I forget way too easily and quickly. Anyway we are going to Oneonta to play some sports with my district today, so I've gotta run, :D but I am glad I got to hear from you. Thank you so much for all you've done. I love you so much. I love You mom. I love you Dad, I love all of you Melody especially has been in my thoughts and love. Lovetta and Tom are such great examples of love and fun. I love them, I love Skyler and his obedient Spirit, I think he is blessed with the gift of knowledge and wisdom from what I remember. I love Telisa and she is such a joy to our family, I love playing with her and she is so much fun and is always so happy at the important-but seemingly small things in life. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Trezor Sheen Owens

We learned about inviting the Divine Companionship of the Spirit by our conversation. I gave a talk yesterday to our branch about being unified. I told them about Pres Bulloch's three questions to ask before saying anything. "Is it true? Is it Necessary? Is it kind?" As I have tried to do that this past week we have gotten much closer as a companionship. We are more unified than ever. I am so grateful for all that Elder Stahle has taught me. He has really been a strength. We were talking with a lady who was trying to make fun of me. She was like "is he new at this? He doesn't sound very sure" Elder Stahle told her: "No. He know what he knows, and I know that he knows it and that it is true." I felt the spirit testify to her of the truthfullness of what I was saying as well. I know that God does love us, that He cares about what we go through, and that He answers our prayers. I have prayed about the Book of Mormon and know it to be the word of God. This transfer has taught me to be a more powerful servant of the Lord, and I am able to lead out effectively. I feel much more confident in the strength of the Lord. I know that I am weak and not able to do anything of myself. But I am led by the Spirit frequently to do things in power and with authority from God. I turn to God for help when I need Him, and I do all that I can to put His will before mine. I feel that Teresa is very prepared and is going to overcome the things life has thrown at her since she committed to be baptised. We see her on wednesday and are going to set her with a date then. I know that the love that God has for His children is infinite, and I was able to feel a little bit more of that love which He has for the saints in this branch. I am going to do my very best to only grow in that love, and extend it to more of God's children, and not let it diminish, for I know that as my expectations-and I would say that those are linked to love for the human soul- decrease, so does my effectiveness. May you have as great a week as I've had, In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen
~Elder Owens.