Week 5 A little Celestial and a little Telestial

Dear Family and Friends,

The week started out on a high note with a special trip to the Birmingham Temple just for the Alabama missionaries.  The temple was closed, but they opened for two sessions on Tuesday and two sessions on Wednesday and the workers all volunteered to come in to run the temple just for us.  We got to go to the two sessions on Tuesday.  A couple is going home in about a week and they were the witness couple for the first session and President Sainsbury asked us if we would be the witnesses for the second session. The young missionaries only got to attend one session but they needed four couples to attend both sessions so we could provide participants for the prayer circle.  They don’t have the elders and sisters stand in the prayer circle.  The temple is beautiful and it was a really special experience.   That was the Celestial (attachment #1).  The Telestial part (attachment #3 President James in the red ball cap and Brother Smith, the branch mission leader, in the green and blue T-shirt) (Attachment #4, Sister James in straw hat) came on Saturday when we had a branch service project out in the remote forest (we drove for 40 minutes to get to the members home right down on the river).  We spent the morning clearing the forest away around their house with weed whackers, lawn mowers, pruners, etc.  They put 3 rounds from a .22 pistol into a four foot long cottonmouth before it finally died.  Sorry, no pictures.  It got back into the water after the first two shots before I got there.  The kill shot was to the head when it raised up out of the water.  I was just a little undone when I realized they killed it right where I was whacking weeds by the river about 30 minutes earlier.  The sisters from the branch brought a cooler full of warm hot dogs and hamburgers for everybody for lunch when we finished.

On Wednesday we spent several hours alone at the Family History Library again, but we’re working on it.  Thursday we had a great study class in Greensboro (Attachment #2).  The gentleman in the foreground on the right in the picture is Brother White (the clean up man). Brother Borden (the one sitting next to Brother White) brought BBQ chicken for everybody and we didn’t bring dessert.  We did last week but they didn’t have anything else to eat that week, and we didn’t know they were going to have chicken this week.  Brother Borden said, “Dats OK, dats OK.”

We are getting accustomed to being disappointed on Sunday when people don’t show up at church that told is they were coming.  It has been a month since we saw the golden family the sisters are teaching, and the return missionary sister and her mom that we visited again this week promised they were coming today and sent a text this morning telling us she was sorry but she slept in.  At least we didn’t have to worry about overwhelming investigators in church when we spoke today about family history and the importance of saving ordinances.

Sister Owens was sustained today in her calling as Branch Relief Society President.  She kept the same first councilor and the previous president is going to be her secretary, and lead the music in Sacrament meeting, and teach the gospel doctrine class in Sunday School.  Brother Smith was released today as the Branch Mission Leader.  Now he is just the Elders Quorum President and my assistant Clerk.  We just love small branches.

After the service project yesterday we drove 2 hours to attend a BBQ with the senior couples in the mission.  They toured a monastery in the morning but we had to skip that for the service project.  While we were there we received orientation from the mission housing coordinator for our new temporary (maybe) assignment.  We are going to be inspecting 12 of the missionary apartments between here and Tuscaloosa once every six weeks.

We went with the Sisters tonight to visit with a sister in the ward.  She married a Methodist minister several years ago and was baptized into the Methodist church.  Her husband died three years ago and now she has come back to the church.  She says it has always been her church.  Her name is no longer on the church records because she joined another church and she is having kind of a hard time dealing with that.  She comes from a family with eighteen children, all from the same parents.  Her mother died from breast cancer at age 56 when she was 12 years old.

We are so excited that McKay is being baptized this next Saturday.  We are very proud of him.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon.

We love y’all!

Elder and Sister Owens

Week Four

Dear Friends and Family,

This story was related to us by President Sainsbury the morning after we arrived in Birmingham just before we left for our assigned area and then was related to me again the next day in Priesthood meeting by the Branch President and the Branch Mission Leader.

The senior couple that served here before we came were scheduled to return home last October and they shared with the Mission President that they wanted to have a baptism of their own before they were released from their mission.  So they began to pray and ask the Lord to lead them to someone that wanted to learn about the gospel.  They were both avid walkers and one day as they were walking through a neighborhood a lady (see attachment) hollered to them and said, “You are Mormon missionaries, aren’t you?”  They told her they were and she said she wanted to learn about their church.  They began teaching her the gospel and she decided she wanted to be baptized.  She is an older lady with a number of health issues and is basically confined to a wheelchair.  When it came time to be baptized a very definite obstacle presented itself.  They didn’t know how they were going to get her into the font and back out.  They decided to do a “dry run” to make sure everything would go well.  President James and Brother Smith helped her down the stairs to the font (which was no easy task).  Once they got down to the font, they found they could not get her back up the stairs to get out.  She is quite a good sized woman and there wasn’t room for the two men to be on either side of her to help her up the stairs.  They finally ended up pulling her up by her arms, step by step, until they got her out of the font.  After that experience, Ollie said there was no way she was going to be baptized. The Sister missionaries talked to her and they decided to fast and pray for a way to be opened up that she could be baptized.  One of the sisters was a fire fighter before she came on her mission and she knew that firemen were trained to carry people in emergency situations and she knew that the fire department would be able to assist them.  She contacted the department and explained the situation and asked for their assistance.  Two fire fighters came to the church to see what they could do to help.  They told them that it would be impossible for them to carry her down into the font because the stairs were too narrow.  Everyone kept praying and the sisters thought of using a livestock watering trough and they would perform the baptism outside the branch building,  They went to the hardware store to see about renting a trough and were told they weren’t for rent, they were only for sale and it would cost $500. They obviously did not have that kind of money.  They asked if they were to purchase the trough, if they could return it and get a refund.  They were told if it was undamaged when it was returned that they would receive a full refund. A member of the branch offered to buy the trough since it could be returned for a refund. The firemen told them that they could lift Ollie into the trough without a problem.  There was only enough room in the trough for Ollie (it was oval shaped).  It was decided that Brother Smith would Kneel  beside the trough to perform the ordinance and then the firemen would lift her out and help her back into her wheelchair. So by the time they could proceed with the baptism it was the middle of November and quite cold outside. (Interestingly, the senior couple was released the end of October but were given permission to travel to Florida for two weeks to visit family before they returned home so they were back in Demopolis for the baptism.)  They had a bucket brigade to fill the trough from the kitchen sink inside the branch building so that the water would be warm.  It was taking a very long time and a brother came and told them about a hose bib on the outside of the building that ran hot water.  Nobody there knew about the hot water access outside the building.  They used a hose and were able to fill the trough with warm water very quickly.  (Out of all the people in the branch that I have talked to, nobody knows who the brother was that told them about the hot water access.) So with the firetruck and the firemen there (the entire crew, since they weren’t allowed to be separated while they were on duty), Ollie was lifted into the trough, the baptism was performed, and she was lifted out without a problem.

When they were filling the trough with water they found that the seam was faulty and the water was leaking nearly as fast as it was being filled.  Someone there had a roll of duct tape that was used to seal the seam and they were able to proceed.   After the baptism they emptied the trough and returned it to the hardware store for a full refund.  I believe they informed them that it had a faulty seam.

A little about our week:  We started making the family history library in the branch building available to the public for two hours each week (Wednesday noon to 2:00 PM)  Luckily no one came because we don’t know enough to teach anyone anything anyway.  We are going to line up a crash course with the Stake lead consultant for this next week.  We arranged at church for the folks at Greensboro to meet us Monday at the public Library so they wouldn’t have to drive to Demopolis.  We were going call them when we arrived.  NOBODY’s phone worked.  We didn’t get through to a single person.  So we spent most of the day trying to find them at their homes and that was a challenge because the addresses were old in the Branch list.  We left a couple 4 generation sheets with a couple of the men in one of the apartment complexes so they could work on it during the week.  One of them was Brother White (the cleanup man).  He is so humble.  He told us about how his old friends keep coming around trying to get him to do what he used to do, because he would have so much more money (he is on disability).  He just tells them he has found a better way and that they should come with him to church.  If they would just partake of the sacrament they would definitely feel something. I was able to give him a blessing.  The Lord truly loves him.  We went to visit the Harbins.  He was a counselor in the branch presidency about 8 years ago and is not active.  We had a good visit with him and told him we wanted him to come back to church.  He told us that he doesn’t tell people he will do something if he isn’t sure he is going to do it because he doesn’t want to lie.  When we left, I told him we were serious about him getting back to church and that we were going to be looking for him.  He said to just keep looking because you never know.  He was “raised up” in the church in Magnolia and his sister is our Relief Society President.  He said it would sure make his mother happy if he started to come back.  I told him I couldn’t think of a better reason to do it.

We both received calls today to serve in the Branch.  I was sustained today as the Branch Clerk (I already told Mom we need to call Alan and tell him to move down here, now we really need to).  Mom won’t be sustained until next week so you will have to wait until then to find out what she is going to be doing.

While we were doing some research at the Library Wednesday, I was reminded that my great grandfather served his mission in the southern states mission in 1888.  I have a photo copy of his missionary journal packed away somewhere at home.  I wish I had it now so I could see if he was ever in this area while he was here.

We went to the Lunch and Learn at the Library here where they invite a guest speaker.  He was a juvenile probation officer that had to write a book about  Alabama’s Home for Wayward Boys after he learned the history of its founding.  You know it was impressive because when he finished I felt we needed to buy his book, which we did.  One of the Librarians there informed us the first time we were there that she is a good friend of our church.  We hope to have a visit with her one day and find out why she is just a friend and not a member.  Other than the fact that she loves Gladys Knight concerts and she likes her church’s music better than ours.  Our church is too quiet.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon

We Love y’all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 3- A Little Culture

Dear Family and friends,

This week on our third try to locate a family in the branch we thought we lucked out since the mail delivery person was delivering mail in the trailer park so we asked her if she could tell us the address of the trailer park (she was putting mail in the rack of mail boxes).  She said, “I don’t know, I’m just filling in today.”   Humm???....Okay:\  So Sister Owens went to two people that were standing on their porch watching us to ask them.  It turned out to be a member and her Mom (a non-member).  She noticed our license plate and said she knows Idaho because her dad lives in Rexburg.  She just came back here from South Carolina and nobody in the branch knew about her yet.  Mom had a nice visit with her and she was able to give us the mailing address of the trailer park.  The family we were looking for still wasn’t home and we still can’t decide what the space number is, but we will keep trying.

We went to District meeting in Tuscaloosa and arrived early.  Since the door was locked we walked up the street to a mansion that was donated to the U of A.  It used to be the governor’s mansion.  We took a picture of the sisters standing in front of it.  They serve in Demopolis with us. Sister Bond is the tall brunette from California and Sister Humphreys is the 98 pounder in the right corner from the Cache Valley area of Utah.

That is the home we wish we were living in instead of our garage.

We tried to visit the Merrills this week in Greensboro.  They have an antebellum (built prior to the Civil War) home that they have restored.  We missed them and they have moved back to Paris now for the summer (Paris, Idaho that is).  This is Sister Owens in front of their home. She feels just like Scarlett O’Hara

We were invited with the sisters to have lunch with Miss Ollie Wilson on Thursday.  We were going to have Chef Salad.  A young black man that works for her was going to get everything ready while we visited a while out on the porch.  We were going to help move a couple women in the afternoon and our branch mission leader’s wife was handling some emergency things for them when she got a call from the high school and had to turn around and go to the school to tend to a matter with one of her children.  She called and asked if we could go and take care of the emergency for her.  It was ten to one and Ross never came and told us that lunch was ready and we noticed that he was gone.  We looked in the kitchen and noticed the salad on the table ready to eat (we don’t know how long it had been ready).  We had to eat as quickly as we could and excuse ourselves. We had to miss our Book of Mormon study class in Greensboro because we spent the rest of that day moving the girl and her Mom that we had moved out of her Grandmother’s house the week before.  They had to be out of the one bedroom apartment that they moved into with a friend by that night.  We spent the next day with the sisters helping to clean the apartment that we moved them out of the day before (a little more of the local culture, I’m afraid).

Saturday was rooster day here in Demopolis.  A celebration they have every year to commemorate the day the whole county came together and had a rooster auction to raise money for a bridge they needed to build in 1919.  Woodrow Wilson donated a rooster for the auction and everybody wanted to bid on it.  Helen Keller and Fatty Arbuckle also donated roosters. We went to the civic center and mingled with citizens and vendors of all sorts and passed out a few cards encouraging family history work.  The county is publishing a book this summer on the history of Marengo county and they want submissions from all the locals regarding their history. We thought it would be a good opportunity but we actually stuck out like a sore thumb and felt extremely out of place.  No one was really interested in talking to us and when they saw our badges they looked away and hurried by.  Sister Owens did spend $25 on a basket that was hand made by a nice old black lady who learned the craft from her father.  When Mom commented on how hard the work seemed to be she said, “The work is hard but it’s better than beggin or stealin.”

Here’s Sister Owens feeding the Rooster.

The celebration is held at the civic center which is located on White Bluff.

Demopolis was founded by the Bonapartist exiles.  It means “City of the People.” It was originally established as a vine and olive colony, but the olives didn’t grow so well.  The main industry here now is a huge paper mill outside of town.  The counselor in the branch presidency is the middle of three generations in his family that have worked there.

 

The highlight of our week was meeting Sister Sherry Paterson this evening.  We drove to Livingston (About 30 minutes) earlier this week and she wasn’t home.  She is a returned missionary and hasn’t been active for several years.  Her husband (second marriage) was a convert.  His parents and children are not members.  They have been attending the Methodist church for years because that was the only way they were allowed to see their grandchildren.  Her husband died about eight months ago.  She and Sister Owens felt an immediate bond and during our visit she promised us that she is going to be to church next week, and will probably bring her mother who is also less active.  She is a very sweet lady and has a lot to offer this struggling branch.  We don’t really mind going to Livingston twice.  It is as pretty a drive and we have been on since we have been here.

We love y’all.  Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon.

Elder and Sister Owens

Garage Apartment.

Just kidding about the garage apartment. This is actually where we live....I wish

District

This is our District. We meet every Tuesday in Tuscaloosa at the institute, which is a suite right next to the Alternative Sentencing Office.

Just a little rain

Rain day today in Alabama until about 2:00 in the morning. This is out our front window.

Our APT. in Demopolis

It looks big but we only have half of it. The wall runs down the middle and we have the front half. The wall is right between the two decks behind us. The vertical line at the left end of the picture is the edge of the garage door.

Morning walks

Here are a few pix of the walking path we found to walk in the mornings.  Also a little critter we found the first day there.  We see him or one of his cousins every day so far. 

Week 2 Big Week

Dear Family and Friends,

After our fantastic General Conference on Easter we had our first Zone Conference this week.  It was a multi-zone conference and our visiting authority was Elder Klebingat.  He was amazing.  He taught us for about six hours all together without any notes and was quoting scriptures (chapter and verse) right and left right off the top of his head. The last hour he just took questions from the Elders and Sisters and he answered every one with a scripture.  He told us the chapter and verse and told us to look it up and had some one read it and then he would expound it.  It was truly awesome. He reminded us that we are here to fulfill a premortal covenant to gather scattered Israel.  We all know that already, but the way he got us to visualize the making of that covenant was a pretty awesome thing.

We told you about Johnny and Bobbie Jean and their family last week.  The referral we checked with the Sisters.  They met with them this week a couple of times and the family came to church today.  Johnny missed the lesson on the restoration so the Sisters taught it again during SundaySchool and asked Bobbie how she felt about the Joseph Smith story.  She said she knows it is true.  Johnny said he feels like it is also.  After church we had a nice visit with both of them because their kids didn’t want to leave the primary room.  They are a great family.  The Sisters have another appointment with them Tuesday night.

We went with the Sisters to teach a family they met tracting.  Wayne and Angela Airington.  Their neighbor was there with them.  His name is Michael.  He is twenty-one and very religious.  They both (Wayne and Michael) told us about several miracles they had experienced in their life recently. We had a very good discussion with them.  At one point Wayne said, “So what is it about the Mormon church that makes it so different from all the other churches?”  Of course good old Satan had to get his hand in things. Before Sister Humphreys could start to answer his question his daughter started a ruckus down the hall and he had to leave the room and was gone for more than five minutes.   The Sisters asked him if he would pray about the Book of Mormon.  He said he would pray to keep an open mind.  He was sick and Michael wasn’t there for the next discussion so it was just with his wife.  They didn’t make it to church today, but one out of two is not bad.

We didn’t make it to the Book of Mormon study class in Greensboro Thursday because of Zone Conference.  We will get to go this next week and are looking forward to it.  They are all really neat, humble people.  We are looking at starting one in Linden each week as well.  People are all spread out so far here and there just is no transportation for them to get together for things like that.

We had a great thunderstorm Friday night.  Rattled our garage apartment really good.  Hope we are built on a rock.  Still here so far.  There is only one window in the whole place so we didn’t really get to see much of it, but we did feel it and hear it really well.  We have found a beautiful path for walking every morning.  The temperature really fluctuates right now.  We haven’t gotten up to 80 anymore since the day we got here but it goes from the 70s during the day to the high 30s sometimes during the night.  You’ll have to check the blog for a picture of our spacious apartment and a couple pictures of the path where we walk in the mornings. 

The gospel is true! Our Branch President and his wife both bore their testimony in fast meeting today.  They are both amazing people.  Brother Smith told me when they came to Demopolis fourteen years ago President James was the Branch President and he has been running the branch ever since.  I told President James at Priesthood meeting last week that I just can’t believe he can do what he does.  He just told me the Lord has really blessed his family.

Love y’all! Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 1 Easter greetings and hope y'all enjoyed our historic conference

We kept busy this week going back and forth to Greensboro and met some very nice very interesting people.  At Sister Nixon’s trailer we were prayed for and blessed by a nice middle aged inebriated black man who gave us hugs all around.  He called himself a blessed child.  It was very difficult to understand anything he was saying because of his deep southern drawl and his “slightly” slurred speech. He was telling us about the time his life was changed because God spanked him and he was in a coma for 6 days.

The degree of poverty here is overwhelming.  Sister Nixon had a thin sheet of plastic (like from the cleaners) over the lower half of the doorway to her trailer to keep the rain out (no door).  We had quite a downpour that day.  After our visit with her we went to a Book of Mormon study class taught by the Sisters (Sister Humphreys and Sister Bond).  There were seven people there besides us and the sisters.  The only one that could actually read above a third grade level was a non-member whose daughter won’t allow her to be baptized.  A couple of them didn’t even try to read. We were reading I Nephi 5 about when Nephi and his brothers returned with the plates.  It was a real eye opener that they didn’t even understand the story about getting the plates without having to have it explained to them.  There is so much work to do with these people it is just overwhelming.

Sister Humphreys wanted to play a game while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.  She wanted us each to tell something about themselves that nobody else knew about.  The first person said he used to be a clean up man.  Sister Humphreys said, “Oh, did you do custodial work?”  He said, “No.”  She said, ”Were you a groundskeeper?” He chuckled and told her no.  After three or four more guesses from Sister Humphreys he explained that he used have a gun and a big knife as he gestured with his hands indicating the size of the knife (about 18 inches).  Then we all understood what he meant.  He did say he never killed anybody.  Sister Humphreys said. “Well, you’ve come a long way since then.”  He is really a very sweet old black gentleman.  I mentioned to Linda that we are surrounded by Uncle Remus here.

We went to check on a referral with the sisters after study class.  Her sister was baptized in Selma a couple months ago.  She said she talks about the church with her sister just about every time they are on the phone.  They want to have the sisters come back and teach them about the church.  They are a really good family.  She has three children. A sixteen year old boy and two girls eight and three years old.  She has a really nice husband. I kept repeating his name as he would try to tell me what it was.  He corrected me about three times.  I finally quite trying.  Sister Humphreys said to him later, “ And your name is Johnny?”  He said, “yes.”  I think when he was telling me his name he was saying Johnny, y’all.  I thought it was all part of his name.  I still need to learn the language.

Conference was exciting and renewing.  We and the sisters were the only ones at the Saturday sessions.  The BYU channel is part of both the satellite packages here so the really  active members (Branch presidency and Branch mission leader} watch at home.  I got to the church for the Priesthood session and  nobody was there.  Since I don’t have a key I got my laptop out and started the session in the parking lot.  After the opening prayer started President James and his son drove up and went to the door and started pressing the service button.  I got out of the car and walked up and told them there wasn’t anyone in the building.  He asked me if I had a key and I told him I was going to get one from him.  He said, “Lord, I left mine home!” (about 30 minutes away).  He was going to drive over to his councilor’s home (in Demopolis) and get his.  Then  he came back from his car before he left and said, “I found mine!” and the three of us went in and watched the Priesthood session.

We took Ollie to the Sunday morning session and the Sisters were there with a girl they have started to teach.  President and Sister James were there with their son and the Relief Society president and one other sister was there.  In the afternoon it was just the two of us and the sisters again, even though a few of the members we talked to last week told us they would be coming.  President James informed me at the Priesthood session that most people here will tell you what they think you want to hear but it really doesn’t mean anything.  We feel  so bad that there are so many here that could benefit so much from hearing the brethren but they just don’t come.

Our work is definitely cut out for us.

We love you all,

Elder and Sister Owens