It is very late; just as we arrived back at our apartment, we received a text message that one of our troops had been taken to the ER. Elder Gowans returned to the Post and went to the hospital to be with this young man. For several weeks he has been suffering sharp chest pains from time-to-time. He had another episode this evening. The doctors have ruled out his heart, lungs chest cavity and so forth. It doesn't seem to be life threatening, rather it is more of an annoyance. He will return to the doctor tomorrow and now they are going to run more tests on his stomach and see if it might be stomach related.

As we were completing our service at the hospital this afternoon, Elder Gowans received a phone call from the Bishop stating that he had just learned of a young 12 year old boy who had been found dead in his room. He was the son of a woman who was not active in the church, in fact we didn't even know they were there, but with this tragedy they had made themselves known. He asked us to go to the home and see what we could do to help until he could get there. We gave the mom and her fiance blessings, sat with her, mourned with her and tried to console her. The Bishop arrived about 2 hours after we did. He took charge of the situation and so we left.

After our church meetings ended today we went to the stake's Saint's at War meeting. The stake is trying to get the service members to come and participate in a forum designed to give them opportunities to talk about their experiences with others who have had the same or similar experiences to be able to help them work through the tough things they have witnessed. We have had brethren attend who served clear back in WWII and all the wars since then to help these new soldiers work through their problems. We have tried to expand this to include the wives to help them support each other during their husband's absence. At some point in time we will be teaching the Church's resiliency program to aid all military and their families cope with deployment issues.

This morning we picked up 3 of our servicemen and met several others at the Friendship chapel on Post and then headed for the South Carolina Columbia Temple. One of the servicemen, a sister, who has only been a member for a couple of months, was able to do 12 baptisms and confirmations for the dead. She was very excited as this was her first time in the temple. In the temple Elder Gowans was able to perform the ordinances while she stood in as proxy for 10 women so they could be confirmed members of the church and receive the Holy Ghost. Then we went into the baptismal font and Elder Gowans baptized her for 10 women who had died many decades ago. After we finished we went outside so they could walk around the temple and take pictures. As we were coming back into the temple to join the remainder of the group one of the temple workers asked this young lady if she would mind doing 2 more baptisms for a lady who had brought the names of two of her family members who had passed away sometime ago. She went in and changed and Elder Gowans went in and changed; so he baptized and confirmed her two more times for the two deceased women this lady had brought in to have the work done for. It was a very good experience for both of us. Apparently this lady who brought the names of her deceased relatives in was going to do all the work for them that afternoon, but she couldn't do the baptisms herself do to some issue involving getting into the water.

This afternoon we prepared for Saints At War event on Sunday evening. We were asked to present a small portion of the program.

 The Columbia South Carolina Temple

 Sister Gowans and Sister Sousa

 The Allreds

 Elder Gowans

 Sister Sousa

A short entry today. Elder Gowans took the Sportage in to get the repair estimate done. We almost forgot to add the mirror into the estimate. The total will be slightly over $1400.00. It will probably take about 3 days to complete once they get all the parts in and that should be no later than Tuesday. So, hopefully by the end of next week it will be all fixed up. Until then it is still able to get us around, for which we are grateful.

We had our institute class this evening. We enjoy this class, it is always enjoyable to be around our friends. We covered 3 Nephi 23-26 this evening. Spent most of the time learning how to search the scriptures and study Isaiah.

Well, it finally happened this evening, we got into a car accident. No one was hurt and not too much damage, but it is very aggravating. We will have to take the car in for repair soon, the wheels are way out of alignment; we hope that it will be okay to drive to the temple on Saturday. We may end up having to drive with someone else or not go at all. We are not sure if we want to drive it all that way or not. We were hunting for a street and when it suddenly showed up we started making a right turn, but just then another car was coming up on the right and we collided, side to side.

We went to see the lady who Elder Gowans mows the lawn for. She requested a blessing, which of course was given with the ward Elder's quorum president assisting. It is nice to know that people will call upon us when needed.

This morning we did 4 hours of book inventory, most all of them were books about war; the war of independence, the civil war and so forth. Made me think of how much war, the thoughts of war, the tragedies of war and so forth occupies our lives.

This evening we had a nice dinner and visit with another one of our great families. He is in the Bishopric, so we were able to discuss some families in the ward who may at this time or soon will need our assistance. A big deployment is coming up soon, which will have a large impact on our members.

This morning we attended a Zone Development meeting. All missionaries in the zone gathered at the Augusta chapel and set a new tone and standard to be used in our District Development meetings. After the meeting completed we were asked to take the Sister missionaries assigned to the Harlem ward back to their apartment. Before we left the Sisters who serve in the Martinez ward asked if they could all go to lunch together. So we, the 6 of us, all went to a nearby Chinese restaurant. We enjoyed a nice meal together and fun conversation.

After lunch, Elder Gowans left to go mow our sister's lawn. It had started to rain before he left, but it still looked sunny out in the direction he was going. When he drew near the home, he could tell that it had not yet rained there. However, there was a nearby dark cloud threatening. So he went to work and mowed the front yard first in case it decided to rain. He completed the front yard and moved to the back. About 1/3 of the way through it began to get  misty, then a few drops and then a down pour. By now he was 1/2 done. He kept on mowing and soon the rain stopped, but he was very drenched. He was able to finish the job and get home in time to get ready for dinner and their evening appointments.

This evening we went out to visit a family who we had already met, but it was during the husband's deployment. So now we were able to meet him. We had a nice visit and was able to help move some furniture out of the way of their delivery people moving in a new fridge.

Next we drove back out to Harlem. We went to visit a fellow who had been in a severe accident nearly 2 years ago and as a result was in the process of being medically retired. It could come down to a medical discharge, but he was hoping for a retirement. He had been on a motorcycle and was cut off by an on coming car. The accident caused 2 months of coma. It took a year for his brain to fully recover and for him to get back to somewhat of a normal life. The Army, however, didn't think his new normal was good enough, so out he goes.