This morning we attended our zone conference with President and Sister Holm. We also had a real nice visit from our Stake President and his wife, President and Sister Squires. He gave some real good instruction on how to talk to African American men to that would kindle in them a desire to learn about the gospel. We have many African American members, but most are women and children; we need to bring in the husbands and fathers.

This evening we met up with the Elders in the South Augusta area and together we visited  several members and investigators. We gave them our presentation on becoming the kind of people that God knows they can become.

A photo from our conference with Elder Bednar. This is the entire mission.

We took the Elders bowling today. Here are some photos of the fun. By the way sister Gowans beat Elder Gowans for the first time ever!

 Here we are eating hot dogs.

 Elder Berry

 Elder Schwartz

 The Allreds

 Elder Gowans

 Elder Nielson, Oviat and Clark

The final score

Yesterday, when commenting on how long of a day today would be, I really had no idea how long. It is now 11:13pm. We arrived at the Stake Center for the Saints at War program, which Elder Gowans had been asked to take charge of and it ended up lasting until 8:30 pm. We had one fellow in the class who completely bore his soul out for an hour and a half. Obviously he is under much stress, worry and fear. It would be impossible for us to completely cover here in this blog the extent of all his concerns. We tired to help him focus on his faith in Christ and His Atonement and to lay his burdens at the feet of Christ and to move forward with faith. Hopefully, with the time he had to lay out all his concerns he learned something about himself and will learn to do as we counseled.

Since the Saints at War went so long, we were an hour late to our 8 o'clock appointment. We had another predeployment brief to give. The husband will be on his way in a month and the wife and children will go stay with family for the next several months and during that time she will give birth to their 3rd child. We had a real nice evening with them. She baked some real yummy cookies that we ate while we visited. It is now time to go to bed.

One more thing, our Servicemen's group was made into the Fort Gordon Servicemen's Branch today. Brother Estep, the group leader was called to be the Branch President.

Our LDS FRG (Family Resource Group) that we have been planning for quite sometime was held this evening. It was very successful in bringing together a few of the military sisters of the stake. We had a moderate turn out, but those who were there showed a lot of excitement and enthusiasm toward the ideas that were offered. Three sisters volunteered to take the leadership reigns. They will do real well. We will give them a lot of support and assistance. We look forward to the growth that will come and how it will provide support for all who wish to take advantage of this program.

This morning we held a baptism for Sister Westbrook; it was a delightfully spiritual experience. Elder Gowans was asked to conduct the baptismal at the last minute by a member of the Bishopric who was supposed to be there, but could not attend at the last minute. While waiting for Sister Westbrook and Elder Nielson to dress he called upon four brethren to bear their testimonies, which kept a strong spirit for the remainder of the service.

This morning we went out to the Post to continue to look for 3 soldiers who were investigating the church. We have not been able to locate them. However, we did find one young lady who committed to coming out to church tomorrow. We also spoke with one of our other soldiers who has faced some sore trials from home, which has affected his spirituality and hasn't been out to church at all since he has come to Fort Gordon. His wife and son will soon join him here as this will be their permanent duty station. We hope that once she comes out that her presence will inspire him to activity.

We had a real nice turn out at our Institute class this evening. We are studying the final book of the Book of Moroni. This evening we focused on chapters 1-6 and discussed the importance of Priesthood Ordinances, what they are, why they are important and what they do.

Today was our first trip out into the Waynesboro Ward. We learned of one military family in that ward, so we called and found out that he is retired from the Army, but now works as a contractor to the Army. He is also deployed to Afghanistan. He has been gone for 11 months and will return in 1 month. Sorry we are so late getting out to see you, but we had no idea, no one ever told us. To double the negitive, she forgot we were coming over and had left the house. Fortunately, a 16 year old daughter was at home, so she let us in and we had a nice visit with her. We told her to tell her mom that since she forgot we were coming that she owed us dinner! Ha Ha, she had a good chuckle over that.

This afternoon we took 3 of our military member's wives out for the afternoon. 2 of the 3 have no transportation, so they sit at home all day, day after day. So we picked them up and took them to the Morris Museum of Art, a museum dedicated to southern art and artists. See the photos below. Then we all took a walk down on the Savannah river walk. We had a nice time with them, but more importantly they had a nice time being together and getting out of their little apartments. They are all roughly the same age, about 21.

 This is a beautiful paining, unfortunately they do not know who painted it.

 Notice the grown up look about the eyes and features of these little boys.

 Mr. Morris of Morris Code fame. His wife is below.

                                                       A Magnolia

 The four ladies

 Laurel and Hardy car; however this is made of wood, 100%

 A beautiful fall tree.

 A ferry coming into dock.

 Huge homes across the river.

 The pink house

 The ferry leaving.

Sister Gowans, Sister Anthony, Sister Allred, Sister Baker