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WEEKEND December 31, 2005 Volume 135, Number 261 (^p Award-Winning Newspaper 2004 Better Newspaper Contest In BRIEF Teen errested in armed robbery Warner Robins Police arrested a 16-year-old in Thursday’s armed rob bery of Jerry’s Quick Tax. At approximately 11:30 a.m., police responded to 550 N. Davis Drive, in reference to a reported robbery. A man report edly entered the busi ness, showed a handgun and demanded property from an employee and a customer in the store at the time. There were no injuries. The perpetrator fled to a nearby neighborhood and was later taken into custody without incident. Police turned the juve nile over to the Houston County Sheriff’s Juvenile Division after his arrest. Anyone with informa tion about the incident is asked to call Det. Mark Wright at 929-6911 or 929-6906. - Ray Lightner Happy BIRTHDAY! Dec. 31 Effie Almand Nelle Cosey Haley Crofutt Jo Hunt Ken Keadle Vivian Long Dick McCoy Lorraine Pratt Mark Snay Allison Wilson Jan. 1 Nancy Branscom Cheryl Stephens Jan. 2 Bryce Patton Otis Smith Jan. 3 Jeff Spires (Surprise your friends! Let us know when their birthday or anni versary is, and we’ll put their names in the paper that day. Just send the name and date at least a week in advance, and we’ll do the rest. E mail to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, or mail them to us at the address inside. No phone calls, please. Many happy returns!) Area DEATHS Robert “Bob” Konrady Sr. Obit, page 2A INDEX CLASSIFIED 9A COMICS 8A CROSSWORD.... 8A LIFESTYLE 5A OPINION 4A SCHOOL NEWS .. 7A SPORTS 10A TV LISTINGS 8A WEATHER 2A PERIODICAL flfiiilliiillimifiiliiilf 4 Georgia Newspaper Project Man Übrarv UNIV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 30602-0002 +LL FOR ADC 301 December 31, 2005 Serving Houston County Since 1870 C7!F(\ mptametf (LLhe s\mxxwi " LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY, city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville Church Mormons look to future on Smith's 200th birthday By JENNIFER DOBNER Associated Press Writer SALT LAKE CITY - Though The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is one of the world’s fast est-growing religions - 120 million copies of the Book of Mormon are in print - believ ers still endure suggestions by mainstream churches that they are not authenti cally Christian. Yes, the Mormons once called themselves “a peculiar people.” But as the church celebrates the 200th anni versary of founder Joseph Smith Jr.’s birth, its presi dent says his flock is well within the Christian fold. “Of course we’re Christian. The very name of the church declares that,” said Gordon B. Hinckley, in a recent inter view with The Associated Press. “No one believes more strongly in the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one believes more strongly in the power of his redeem ing sacrifice. The Book of Mormon is another witness for the divinity and reality of Jesus Christ,” he said. “The more people see us and come to know us, the more I believe they will come to realize that we are trying to exemplify in our lives and in our living the great ideals which he taught.” Smith founded the Mormon church in April 1830, 10 years after he claimed to experience a vision of God and Jesus in a grove of trees near his family home in Palmyra, N.Y. He said an angel, Moroni, later led him to a buried set of gold plates inscribed with the story of a lost tribe of Israel that had settled North America. Smith’s translation of the plates became known as The Book of Mormon, the first of the unique scriptures the church follows alongside the Bible. The church teaches that Smith was a prophet and con siders the men who succeed ed him as church president to this day as the “prophet, seer and revelator” on earth for Mormons. Even more than the 78- year-old Pope Benedict XVI, the 95-year-old Hinckley bears weighty See HINCKLEY, page 3A Hospital unit spreads joy to local family Perry Medical/Surgical Unit workers adopt needy family for Christmas Employees of Perry Hospital’s Medical/Surgical Unit took it upon themselves to bring Christmas to a local family this year. “Instead of buying each other gifts for Christmas like we do every year, we decid ed to adopt a family right here in our own community and help bring Christmas to them,” explains Karen Herring, Nurse Manager for Perry Hospital’s Med/Surg Unit. “Employees from each of the three shifts donated money as well as their own Christmas gift cards from the hospital and I went shop ping for the family’s Wish List.” www.hhjnews.com m - / I Elders Carter Wilford and Alex Daily are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints in Warner Robins. WR, Perry home to Mormon wards Story and photos by Timothy Graham 2005 was a significant year for many people, but none more so than the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of their Prophet, Joseph Smith. Despite the fact that there are congregations (known as wards) of Mormons in Warner Robins and Perry, the church remains a mys tery to many people. Some consider them a cult. Some feel they are not Christians. Smith was born in 1805 in Sharon, Windsor County, Vt. He was raised to read the Bible and have faith in God, but he did not know what church was right. He decided to ask God, and at the age of 14, he had a vision of God and Jesus Christ. Christ told Smith that none of the churches that existed at that time were right for him. Mormons believe that this was the beginning of the Restoration of Christ’s Church to Earth. Four years later in 1823 Smith was visited by the Angel Moroni. Moroni told Smith that the record of ancient inhabitants of America was buried in a nearby hillside and it con- According to Willie Blige, Certified Nursing Assistant at Perry Hospital, the deci sion to adopt the family was unanimous among the staff. “We couldn’t think of a better way to give back to our community than by helping bring Christmas to a child who otherwise would not know the joy of Christmas,” she says. “The Perry Volunteer Outreach provided us with several families to choose from and we chose a family with three little boys. Just knowing that those little boys will have smiles on their faces Christmas morning is gift enough for all of us.” iMßii fit - f ' i The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Warner Robins is located on Draper Street. tained the full record of the Gospel of Christ. Smith dug up several thin plates of gold on which was inscribed what has become known as the Book of Mormon. Smith rapidly gained adherents but the estab lished churches of the time would not tolerate his church and they had to constantly move westward. Smith was finally lynched in Illinois and the group decided to move to what is now Utah. Smith is considered to be a prophet by the Church of Latter-Day Saints. All of the church leaders who served after him, such as Brigham Young, were also consid ered prophets. The current president of the church, Gordon B. Hinckley, has this to say about Smith: ' jyf&jßP iPL # wflr SHE * ■' 1 JaLk-&as v ‘- : *w //■> viihlnit (Ld From left, Willie Blige, CNA; Karen Herring, Perry Hospital Med/Surg Nurse Manager, Linda Bausick, CNA; Gladys Alexander, CNA; and Karla Jessup, RN, are pictured with some of the gifts for their adopted family. “We do not worship the Prophet Smith. We worship God our Eternal Father and the risen Lord Jesus Christ. But we acknowl edge the Prophet; we pro claim him; we respect him; we reverence him as an instrument in the hands of the Almighty in restoring to the earth the ancient truths of the divine gospel, together with the priest hood.” The core beliefs of the Church of Latter Day Saints differ but little from those of any mainstream Christian faith. They had 13 Articles of Faith which are the basic beliefs of the Church. The first is: “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, See WARDS, page 3A an Evans Family Newspaper 500 mum 8*55108*00001“* 4 ONE SECTION *l2 PAGES Confused about Medicare Some seniors scratching their heads over new prescription drug benefit By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ Associated Press Writer MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Jean Newman is hardly afraid of challenges. The 73- year-old Cuban native came to the United States as a teen, worked for years as a substitute teacher and vol unteered in the Israeli army well into her 50s. But when it comes to the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, she is at a loss. “The whole thing is so con fusing. It might as well be in Chinese,” Newman said. Millions of senior citizens will become eligible for the benefit Jan. 1, but but many don’t know whether it will save them money, or which private insurance plan they should choose among the dozens that have bombarded their mailboxes with ads in recent months. Many don’t know how to apply or wheth er they are even eligible. And many are asking: Will the medications I need be cov ered? The clock is ticking. Those who fail to sign up by May 15 may not get coverage until 2007. Not surprisingly, the peo ple who seem to know the most tend to be the more educated and more affluent - the ones least likely to need the new coverage. About 42 million people are eligible for the Medicare drug benefit. As of mid- December, nearly 20 million were enrolled in some form, but the vast majority of them were automatically switched over from other benefit pro grams, including Medicaid. Only about 1 million had joined voluntarily. Newman spends about $l5O a month on Prozac and the thyroid supple ment Levoxyl. She applied for the low-income assis tance but was rejected. Now she is unsure whether she is eligible for any of the See MEDICARE, page 3 A