Week 18: Ministering and Ministering

Dear Family and Friends,

It seems we have pretty much become the goffers of Demopolis.  Beth, from Linden, spent last week with her friend Andrea and her Mom in Demopolis.  None of them have any transportation.  Since Beth was staying with them, they had to buy some extra groceries, so last week we had to take them (all three) to the Walmart to shop.  They filled the back of the car with groceries.  Beth road home last Sunday with her ride (Sister Langley) from Church, but the Sisters said they would pick up her things and take them home for her.  They forgot her blanket and pillow so we got a call Monday morning asking if we would pick up her pillow, blanket and Diabetes medicine and take it to Linden for her.  We did find an address we were looking for while we were there but they were not home (becoming a very common occurrence). 

We went to Zone Conference in Birmingham Tuesday.  We got a call from the fleet coordinator asking if we would mind driving the Sisters car instead of our own.  He was sending them back with a brand new car; which I got to drive back to Demopolis also.  It was a tender mercy for us.  We were going to fill the tank Monday and get ready for our weekly trip to Tuscaloosa and beyond and then didn’t have to take our car or pay for gas.  It was a great conference.  President and Sister Sainsbury did some great teaching on how to plan our week.  It was geared for the young missionaries, but we could see a lot of ways it would help us.  It ended up being quite a long day.  We had to pick up the Sisters at 6:40 AM to get there by 8:40 AM. We turned off our alarm Monday morning because we had such a late night Sunday with our Stake Meeting in Bessemer. I set the alarm for 5:30 AM Monday night when we went to bed but I forgot to flip the switch to turn it back on (it never pays to break the rules).  I was awake at 5:25 AM just waiting for the alarm and the next thing I knew, I looked at the clock again and it was 6:25 AM.  So I went to Zone Conference without showering or shaving (Sister Owens bathed Monday night).  We did arrive at 8:40 AM and no we didn’t speed.  The mission cars have a TIWI in them which monitors all your driving actions.  Some of the missionaries we were transporting had interviews with the President after the Conference so we didn’t get away until after 6:30 PM. With time to drop off and pick up missionaries in Tuscaloosa we didn’t get home until after 9:30 PM.  Another LONG DAY for these old folks.

So we got up Wednesday morning all excited to apply the planning principles we learned in conference.  First thing, we got a call from Andrea saying she needed us to give her a ride to a Doctor appointment.  Then just a while later a lady in the branch called and asked if we would make a cake for her to take to her uncle’s funeral service.  We were just a little surprised at the request.  Sister Owens said we would be glad to pick up a cake mix and bring it over.  She said she doesn’t know how to bake a cake (She has four teenage children).  So much for senior missionaries planning their week.

So in between the goffer trips we are still trying to track down members of the branch that haven’t been to church for years.  The senior couple that served here until December (Brother and Sister Jones) are visiting here this week.  They were in church.  Sister Owens was teaching in our combined meeting and mentioned that we try as often as we can to find members of the branch that we haven’t met.  Sister Jones piped up and said, “Good luck with that!”

We want to give you an update on Brother White and Geraldine Lee who we mentioned last week.  The Stake President approved the use of Fast Offering funds to help with Brother White’s surgery but we found out that it never was scheduled (he didn’t know where he was going to get the money).  He was supposed to call them back to schedule and he never did.  The receptionist has to talk to the surgeon tomorrow to see when it can be done.  It is doubtful that Thursday is still possible, so we will have to get the next available date. We talked to Sister Lee and she is still waiting in Boston for the police to release her son’s remains so she can bring him home for the funeral.  We hope it won’t be too much longer.

We also told you about Donna that the sisters met in Walmart, who called them because they were so happy she wanted them to come and see her.  She came to church by herself last week and came again this week, alone.  After church, we came home and had lunch and Sister Owens said, “I wonder who the Lord wants us to minister to today.”  This was after our fifth Sunday combined meeting where we discussed the importance of ministering.  About ten minutes later we got a call from a sister in the branch advising us that Donna went home from church and decided to leave her husband.  She called Sister Patterson and talked to her and she explained that President James is out of town and gave her our number because Sister Owens is the Relief Society President.  Before I hung up the phone, Donna was calling us.  When her name came up in Branch Council meeting last week, President James told us he knows the family and that her husband is extremely abusive.  We went today and visited with her for quite a while.  She never married the man.  They are married by common law.  She has lived with him for 36 years.  She has four grown daughters who have been trying to convince her for years to leave him.  She told us today that it is so bad that she almost took a butcher knife to stab him and if she did she would not have stopped until he was dead.  She didn’t do it because she doesn’t want to go to jail.  We stayed with her until her daughter, who lives here in Demopolis, came to pick her up. She wouldn’t share a lot of things with us because she didn’t want to upset us.  We are so happy that she has a daughter her in town that can care for her and she has a job to support herself.  That is very rarely the case here.  I guess that is a bit depressing again but we are actually quit optimistic for her.  Her daughter and family seem to be very nice people and she said she is going to keep coming to church.  It will be much easier for the sisters to teach her now that she is no longer with her husband.

We love y’all,

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon!

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 17: Long week and long day (short email)

Dear Family and Friends,

For all of you who didn’t bother to email me pointing out my calendaring error on the picture of Christopher and Brother White with Sister Humphreys, The baptismal date was July (this year) not June.

So last weekend we got a reprieve on our two day notice to talk in church.  On Saturday the Stake finally called the councilor to the Branch President and told him who was coming to speak in Sacrament meeting.  Of course that automatically put us on the program for this week.  So we spent the week preparing our talks in between going to district council and cruising the area looking for more members that never come to church.

We met a nice lady (Geraldine Lee) several weeks ago who was sitting on the porch with several members of her family who had come to help her cut her grass.  We told her we were going to call her and we would like to come out and visit with her and get to know her better.  This week we felt like we needed to call her and go see her.  Sister Owens called her and reminded her of our visit several weeks ago and asked if we could come by.  She told us she was in Boston to pick up the remains of her son who had been shot to death.  She won’t be back until next weekend when they are going to have a memorial service for him in her front yard.  We told her we would like to come and she said that would be all right. We visited several people in Greensboro during the week and asked each of them if they knew Geraldine.  They all said they did and they already knew about her son’s death.  They told us it was a drive by shooting and that there were about ten people standing on the street and her son was the only one that was shot.  He was thirty-six years old.  She had another son that was killed in an automobile accident just a few years ago as well.

So the two people that promised us they would be at church did not come today.  But one lady (Donna) the Sisters met several weeks ago drove in alone from Bellamy (about 30 minutes) all by herself and was there. The Sisters met her in Walmart and did not get her name or number at the time.  They got a call a few weeks later and Donna asked them if they remembered her from Walmart (they didn’t).  She said they were so happy that she wanted them to come and see her.  So they did.  When she came to church today she asked if this is the church where Sister Humphreys comes.  We told her it was.  She said, “You all are so loving, but especially that little one.” (We really are missing Sister Humphreys).

Cedric and Tasha finally got there this week.  Poor Cedric came once four weeks ago and then again today and probably thinks Brother Smith is the only one that teaches in Priesthood meeting and that he always talks about ministering.  He doesn’t know we have a different teacher and different subject every week.

So we got to the church this morning at 8:00 AM for Branch Presidency meeting, then spoke in Sacrament meeting at nine.  After the block Brother Morgan and I did finances and then came back for Branch Council.  We got to come home for a bite of lunch and then we were off on a two hour drive to Bessemer to the Stake Center for a two hour meeting on ministering and got home a little bit after 9:00 PM.  We had a bite to eat even though it is late and then took a few minutes to let you all know what we have been doing this week.

We did go to find a new move-in this week in Greensboro.  The road was washed out so bad we had to park and walk up to the trailers.  We had no idea which one was the one we were looking for.  We could only walk around between the trailers (there were no roads or driveways).  There were several young children sitting at a picnic table in front of one of the trailers so we asked them if they knew where the address was that we were looking for.  An older girl pointed out a trailer and told us it was the one.  When we got to the trailer there was a rather grumpy lady on the porch who informed us that the person we were looking for did not live there and that she had been there for several years.  As we were walking on the sections of old carpet and a lot of old asphalt shingles that had been spread out to make a walking path that wouldn’t wash out, I couldn’t help but think that it was no different than if we had been called to a remote area in Africa to serve our mission.  I wanted to take a picture of it but Sister Owens said the people would probably get upset with us if they noticed we were taking pictures.  We will be back there this week and I am going to try to get a photo.

Brother White got some bad news this week that really got him down.  As we have mentioned in the past, he drives himself to dialysis three times a week (he gets up at 4:00 AM).  They told him this week that he has to have surgery on his neck to implant two screws.  His skull is pressing down on his spine and beginning to crush some nerves and blood vessels and without the surgery he will soon be paralyzed from his head to his waste.  Medicare and Medicaid will pay for all but $800 and they will not perform the surgery without payment of the $800 in advance. President James is checking with the Stake President about using fast offerings for payment of the bill.  Our little branch is negative by quite a bit in our fast offering account.  The need is overwhelming and the donations are very meager.  I guess I shouldn’t have ended with such a depressing paragraph.  I guess all in all it has been kind of a hard week.  But we are going to bed and will be ready to start again in the morning.

We Love y’all.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon!

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 16: Good News for Y'all and farewell to our favorite

Dear Family and Friends,

So, the good news is that our emails should be a little bit shorter from now on.  With the exception of a tornado (which we hope doesn’t happen) we have experienced just about all the weird things Alabama has to offer.  We are starting to get over the cultural shock and the senior couple excursions have seemed to drop off for the summer (just too hot).  So there should be a few less things to write about.  The one thing we haven’t caught on to yet is the language.  We finished our week this afternoon with an experience that was very reminiscent of an experience my brother, Kelly, told me about years ago.  If memory serves, it was his first night in the mission field in Tonga.  He had been on the plane for several hours that day flying over from the states and was very tired.  The Elders took him with them to visit a member and every one there was speaking Tongan.  He could not understand a word that anyone was saying and simply could not stay awake because he was so tired.  Well, except for not staying awake, that is what happened to us today.  A sister didn’t come to church today and we wanted to go to Greensboro to visit her.  Her sister is sister Borden so she wanted us to pick her up and take her with us. Another sister here in Demopolis knows her really well and wanted to go along also. The four of us went to her trailer and had a nice visit.  It was standing room only for Sister Owens and I (which is why we couldn’t fall asleep). There we were with three nice black ladies, two of whom had raspy voices and talked like Mohamed Ali only louder and faster and the other one just talked really loud and, typically, only said half of every word she was saying (which I think they do so they can say everything twice as fast).  We were both a little surprised that we could actually understand a little bit of what Sister Nixon (the one we went to visit) was saying, explaining all the health issues that are plaguing her right now.  Our problem was that when she got to the part where we didn’t understand anything she said, she would stop talking and look at us waiting for a response.  Most uncomfortable.

We went to see a man this week that has told everyone that has come to visit him from the church for years now to please remove their names from the record. I had found a letter he had written requesting it and asked President James if anything had ever been done about it.  He wanted us to go out and see if he still feels the same way.  Needless to say, we were a little apprehensive about how we might be received.  He was on the phone when he answered the door and talked to us while carrying on the phone conversation.  He told us we all keep coming to his home and he tells us every time to remove his name and we just keep coming.  Then he told the person on the phone he would call them back and hung up.  We thought we were in for a good tongue lashing. He was very pleasant and visited with us for about thirty minutes and told us all about his family.  Three times he would say, “I’m not running you off but…,” and then would talk to us for another ten minutes (I know, that’s more than thirty minutes, whatever).  First, his legs were tired of standing so long, then he had to call his son back, and I forget what he said the third time.  He said we could come back and visit with him anytime we wanted as long as we didn’t talk about the church.  He and his family was baptized about twenty years ago.  He was ordained an elder about six months later and they were sealed in the temple two years later.  We definitely want to go back and see and ask him if he will tell us his story (without talking about the church).  He is a nice 65 year old black gentleman.

There is a family in Greensboro consisting of several adult children, one brother and the rest sisters.  One of the sisters is married and the rest are single.  They each live in their own homes.  Their mother, who passed away several years ago, was a stalwart in the gospel and while she was alive all of the children were active.  Not too long after her passing they all stopped coming to church for some reason.  We have seen the brother twice since we have been here and each time before we say anything to him he says, “I’m coming back, I’m coming back.”  And that is the last thing he would say as he would drive off to work. We have met two of the sisters and the daughter of one of the sisters so far (we are still trying to get to all of them).  While visiting with one I told her about our visits with her brother and what he says to us each time we see him.  She told us she was talking to one of her sisters the other day and told her she is going to church next Sunday no matter what, even if she has to go alone (she had to work this Sunday).  I told her that I just told Sister Owens that sooner or later one of them was going to have to buck up and do what their mom wants them to do and come back to church and then encourage the rest of them to come back.  She said she is definitely going to come next week.  Then she said, “Don’t worry, I’m coming back.”  I told her to be careful, she is starting to sound like her brother.  When we got to her house, we were actually looking for her neighbor and I stopped and asked her which house he lived in.  She told me and we went to see him.  Then we looked at our list and saw that Gloria Williams was in the same area.  We noticed her mailbox had her address on it and I drove up to her and rolled the window down and said, “Are you Gloria?” My tone was as if she was trying to hide from us.  She bowed her head and looked away and said, “Yeeesss.”  I told her we wanted to talk to her and asked if she would take a little break so we could visit.  Brother White told us that five of the Williams have told him this week that they are coming to church next week.  Our fingers are crossed.  Whenever I tell President James that one of them told us they are coming he just bows his head and looks at me over the top of his glasses and smiles.  He did that about Sherrie Patterson a couple months ago and she taught the Relief Society lesson today.

Of course transfers were this last Wednesday.  We took the Sisters two hours and fifteen minutes to the meeting next to the temple and had to say goodbye to Sister Humphreys.  We feel like she has been our trainer.  She has been here ever since we came in March.  Saying goodbye to her has probably been the hardest thing we have done since we have been here.  Brother White, the clean up man, says he is really going to miss the feisty one, as will we all. If he ever said anything that she didn’t like, she would look at him with her squinty eyes and he would just cower like a little baby. We all love Sister Humphreys.

We love y’all too.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon.

Elder and Sister Owens

Here is a picture of Sister Humphreys with Christopher Grice on the left and Brother White on the right.  Christopher is a friend that Brother White invited to come to Book of Mormon Study class several weeks ago.  He is scheduled to be baptized in two weeks on June 27^th.

Exodus 9:11- In Alabama we start to wonder sometimes, and D&C 112:10

Dear Family and Friends,

We started this week with a district activity in Tuscaloosa so we drove the sisters over for the activity. We drove through the worst rain storm we have ever experienced.  The freeway traffic slowed down to about 35 MPH and everyone had their emergency blinkers on……..except the car in front of us.  Everyone kept passing me wondering, I’m sure, why I was going so slow.  Visibility was not more than about 50 feet and I didn’t like not seeing the car in front of me.  It was literally worse than sitting in an automatic car wash.  There was no reason to even run the windshield wipers (don’t worry, we still did, even though it did no good) because the rain was pouring down on us so hard.  We passed several cars that were stopped under the overpasses to wait it out.  We finally considered doing the same even though it would make us late.  About one minute or two after we considered doing so the rain stopped and we drove into Tuscaloosa in the sunshine.  We were going to have quite the experience to write home about.  The fund raising chairman for UAB (ROLL TIDE) lives in the ward where the District leader is assigned and he has been trying to schedule a tour of the Crimson Tide football stadium, but it just didn’t fit into the schedule.  So they did the next best thing, I guess, and decided to go bowling. We are the only senior couple in the two districts and Sister Owens wants me to let you know that they prevailed on old Grandpa Owens to get in there and bowl a game with the rest of them.  I managed to hold my own and came out with the highest score, although 135 is nothing to be proud of.  One of the sisters was really nipping at my heels.  I only beat her by 5 pins and that was because I lucked out and got a strike in the tenth frame and she didn’t.  Just so Mike knows, I didn’t do any hand stands past the fowl line this time.

District meeting is always in Tuscaloosa on Tuesdays and the Sisters here in Demopolis were really pressed for time this week, so they talked the district leader and his companion into borrowing the sisters car in Tuscaloosa and driving to Demopolis for District meeting (I really think they were more concerned, or worried, for us since we had just gone on Monday and we had to go again on Thursday for a Doctor appointment).  Little 98 pound Sister Humphreys did a happy dance, recorded it, and texted it to us and the district leader because she was “so pumped” that the district leader was coming to Demopolis for District meeting.  I told her I plan to show that video at our fireside when we get home from our mission and she was not very happy with me.  She is going home Wednesday and we will miss her so much.  She has been here since we arrived and is one of the best missionaries, if not the best, that I have met in my life.

We spent the 4^th of July trying to find branch members in Livingston. We didn’t have much luck, although we met a lot of very helpful people that knew some of them and informed us that they had moved from the area about two years ago.  We stopped at one house and met the person that bought the home from the member of the branch.  They said he bought a house there in Linden but he didn’t know exactly where.  We stopped by Sister Patterson’s to use her internet and look for his new address on the internet white pages.  We couldn’t find an address but as we discussed it with Sister Paterson, she realized that his wife works at the office where she goes to see her doctor.  The next day she sent us his new address and pictures of his house so we would recognize it when we went there.  We also found out she used to work with the sister we were going to see when we left her house and that she had just seen her last week.  We found her at home enjoying the 4^th with her family and we will get to come and visit her in the near future.

We went to Tuscaloosa Thursday for my first doctor visit, finally, and when we walked in they informed us that the power had just gone out and they called and were told it might be as long as two hours before it would be back on.  They asked if they could re-schedule me and we told them we came in from Demopolis and if we could get in when it came back on we would stay.  It was a new patient visit and I was only seeing the PA.  She decided to have me come in even though the power was off.  It all went well until she wanted to look in my ears and she couldn’t figure out why her little light didn’t work.  Then she remembered the power was off. She actually spent a lot of time with us and Sister Owens and I were both very impressed with her.  She took me before I filled out all the papers they had given me.  As we finished, she looked at the papers and said, “That’s all the stuff I ask everybody, I’ve never seen those before.  That must be why everybody always says, ‘I already wrote all that down.’”  She was glad to learn something because the power had gone off.  All the rest of the office was sent home except the receptionist who was just staying until we finished so she could go home.  She probably wasn’t so happy that the PA was so gracious to us.

Friday was our best day.  We went to Linden to try to find members.  We prayed that we  would be able to find someone that we might be able to influence a little and that would be encouraged to come back and attend church. We found some had moved but the neighbors were all helpful.  There was no one home at the first home we checked. But there was an electrician’s truck in the driveway so I wrote down the company name and phone number before we left. An address we checked later was 604 West Eighth.  The 700 block began where the 500 block ended so we knocked on one of the doors anyway, but no one was home.  There was an electrician’s truck in the driveway from the same company as the one we saw earlier and a fellow was taking a ladder out of it and putting it in a pickup.  We asked him if he lived there or if he was just doing some work.  He said his buddy lived there and he was just picking up some things.  He had a shirt on from the electrical company so I asked him if he knew someone at work that lived out at the edge of town (I had forgotten the name)  He said it is probably Alan Hurst (which it was) and that he wasn’t home because his grandfather had died over the weekend. We went to find another member down the highway that was baptized back in 1997 when he was 42 years old.  We found two mailboxes with the name on them, one with the exact number we were looking for.  There was a house on both sides of the mailboxes.  One looked deserted so we went and knocked on the other one and no one was home.  We were sure we had the right place because of the number on the box so we made some notes and started to leave.  There was a dirt lane beside the mailboxes that led off into the woods and I said I think we will drive down that lane before we leave.  After a couple hundred yards we saw a nice house and an older gentleman in the back yard washing a beautiful new red mustang.  I got out and went to see if he was the man we were looking for, he was, and we visited for about 40 minutes while Sister Owens sat in the car with the air conditioner on (she wouldn’t get out of the car because he wasn’t wearing a shirt).  He said he moved in with his parents and counts it a real privilege to be able to take care of them.  His dad died about 5 years ago and he is taking care of his mom now.  He said his mom is happy when he goes to the Methodist church with her and it is important to him right now to make his mom happy.  We went to check another address and again no one answered the door.  As we were stepping off the porch an older gentleman that looked a lot like Mr. McGoo, only a lot bigger, drove up in a golf cart and asked us if he could help us.  I asked if he was Mr. Burge.  He said, “What’s left of him.”  I explained who we were. He was obviously not pleased that we were there and would not look at us.  He just kept looking straight ahead and would say “Okay” after everything we said.  After witnessing his demeanor I just asked him how he felt about the church.  He said, “I am perfectly happy with the Providence Baptist church.” I said we certainly didn’t want to offend him in any way and he said, “Okay.” Sister Owens said we were new in the area and his name was on our list so we wanted to come and meet him.  He said, ”Okay.” I asked if there was anything we might be able to do for him.  He said “no” and started his golf cart and drove away.  There was one address left on the road home so we stopped there on our way back to Demopolis to feed the Sisters supper.  We drove down the lane and found the box with the number on it and knocked on the door, but again there was no answer.  As we were leaving we decided we would just go down to the big home back behind that one and just see if it might be the people we were looking for.  The husband is a non-member and in the driveway, by the back door, was a huge black road bike fully upholstered in black leather.  A man came to the door with a beard and mustache and I asked if he was Tony.  He said he was.  I told him who we were and that his wife was a member of the church and we wanted to come by and meet them.  He invited us in and we visited with him for a few minutes before his wife joined us (dinner smelled absolutely delicious, by the way).  She has had some medical problems beginning with a serious car accident about three years ago where she broke her leg and crushed her foot.  They are trying to take care of her father-in-law who is having health issues and their son who has developed seizures.  They told us how they were going to do some work on their roof several weeks ago and two elders stopped by and asked if there was anything they could do for them.  She said she needed some straw removed from their roof and they took off their shoes and climbed up and removed it for her.  She said the Lord was watching out for her that day.  I have wondered several times since our visit who those elders could have been.  The only missionaries assigned to this area are the Sisters and us.  We gave her the number of a sister in Linden and told her to please call us if there is anything we can for them.  She said she just doesn’t feel right about that because it has been so long since she has attended church.  They really try to make sure the family is able to take care of everything.  We assured her that was the way it should be but if there was a need that the family can’t meet that she shouldn’t feel bad about calling us for help, that is what the church is for.  But we would love to see them at church as well.  As we left we told them we would love to come back at a convenient time and visit with them again.  They both said they would like that very much.  We were late getting home to get supper ready for the sisters but they called from Gardendale and said they probably wouldn’t make it until about 7:00 PM, so we had plenty of time.

As one of the Elders recently posted on the Mission Facebook Page, “This is the Lord’s work and He is in the details of it.”

It is so true.  We know it.

Thank you all for your love and support.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon – EVERY DAY!!!!

We Love y’all,

Elder and Sister Owens

PS:  Attachment is the picture Sister Owens took of all of us at the Bowling alley after our game of bowling.  Cell phone doesn’t do so well inside from far away without a flash.  But it’s a picture.

Week 14: Our worst day yet and a welcome renewal

Dear Family and Friends,

This week we had our absolute worst day so far on our mission. Actually, on Saturday I had to say to Sister Owens, “Now wait, I need to get this straight.  Which day this week was our worst day?”  On Tuesday we heard from several members of the branch that a young girl, a recent convert, was telling everybody that she is going to have a baby.  She is not married.  After hearing it from several people in the branch, we got a call from her telling us about it and she said she was so happy.  Sister Owens told her that she is not happy, she is very sad.  She reminded her that she has broken her covenants that she made when she was baptized.  She said she thought that everybody would just be so happy for her.  The poor girl has some mental challenges and just doesn’t realize what a serious situation she is in.  She has been married before and has had children that were taken from her.  We met the father who was helping her move to a new apartment and asked him if he is going to do right by this baby.  He said, “Yes ma’am, I already have one young’un, 11 years old.”  Of course there is no indication he has any intention of marrying the mother. It is a very depressing situation.  She told her friend that when she has the baby then she will get more money to spend. Such a large percentage of the population her is made up of single women with several children, even in the membership of the branch. It is so hard to overcome the wicked traditions of the fathers.

On a much happier note, Sister Owens made a visit to the Doctor this week, after her mission president told her she better (he seems to wield more influence than her husband does).  She had a bit of an episode several weeks ago where she was unable to form the words she wanted to say in her Presidency meeting.  The two health professionals in her presidency were both sure she had a mini stroke.  After an EKG and an ultrasound on her carotid arteries they said her heart and blood vessels were fine and her blood pressure was fine also (although it was higher than Elder Owens’s, just if you want to know).  We both seem to be doing pretty good at becoming childlike.  We both get to take a baby aspirin every day now.  They are supposed to call us when they can schedule an MRI to check to see if she actually had any kind of stroke. They aren’t really concerned about anything that they are seeing at this point.

We did do a couple more apartment inspections this week.  It is always a privilege to meet with the different elders for a few minutes and hear about the great work they are doing and hear about the miracles that are happening every day in the mission.

Our great renewal was the glorious Sabbath we had today. We got to attend Fast and Testimony meeting and hear the awesome humble testimonies of the members of this branch.  The clean up man bore his testimony today.  Brother Morgan, President James only councilor, conducted and bore his testimony.  He is 78 years old and can hardly use either of his hands.  He started to say he was thinking about the sacrament prayers and got so emotional he couldn’t speak.  He said he loved wife and family and the Savior and closed and sat down. The spirit was so strong throughout the whole meeting.  Sister Humphreys is going home in a week and a half and no one here knows it but her and her companion and Sister Owens and me. At the start of the transfer President Sainsbury asked all the missionaries that would go home at the end of the transfer to make this an invisible transfer and not let anyone know they would be leaving.  We would not have known it except that we figured it out when she was asked to bear her testimony at our Zone Conference this transfer.  The departing missionaries are the only ones that bear their testimonies. She bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting today.  I don’t think I have ever heard anything more profound in my life than what she said to the members of the branch (and not even a hint that she was going to be leaving).  She is an awesome missionary.  It has been such a privilege to work with her here in Demopolis for the past fourteen weeks.  We got two phone calls tonight one from the mission housing coordinator and one from our district leader.  They both asked me how our Sunday was and I told them it was great.  We had 37 people attend our Sacrament meeting.  Elder Barfuss said they had 15 in attendance at their meeting, and Elder Foster said they had 20 at theirs.  The Lord is really blessing us here.  We got to visit with President and Sister James this afternoon while they were waiting for their son so they could take him home.  They had driven over 30 minutes from York to pick him up. That was after they had driven in this morning for church then Sister James drove 40 minutes one way to Greensboro to get kids and bring them back to church and then go to get children here in Demopolis and bring them to church and then take everybody home after church and come back and pick up President James and drive another 30+ minutes to get home.

I have to tell you about the visit we had this week with Sister McCleskey who used to be the Relief Society President in Greensboro before they closed the branch there.  She stopped coming to church for various reasons after the branches were combined.  She had had periods of inactivity in her life previously.  She married a non-member and went through the temple by herself a few years later, but has not stayed active.  She told us about her two daughters.  One is in the church and attends periodically and, commenting on why that was, she pointed back at herself and raised her eyebrows.  Her other daughter has joined the Pentecostal church and has broken her heart. As we visited further she began to tell us how much she admires Sister James for all she does for everyone.  She told us that Sister James told her once that she will never say “no” to the Lord because she wants her family to be with her after this life.  It is such a privilege to be here and to know the James.  I noticed on his record that he was sustained as Branch President in 2007 and that was after seven or so years serving as councilor.

Sister McCleskey called us later in the evening to tell us to call her daughter that works at the Moundville archeological site and she would arrange a private tour for us. She had given us her name during our visit and we said we were going to try to find her if we got to go there sometime.  She had called her daughter and told her about us after we left.  A couple days later she called Sister Owens and wanted her to know that she didn’t know what she said when she called but she wanted her to know that she wasn’t drunk.  She had taken some allergy medication and intended to call to tell us about her daughter but couldn’t remember what she said. She just wanted us to know she was not drunk. We assured her that she didn’t seem drunk to us at all and that she did, in deed, tell us all about her daughter and we did appreciate it.

We love y’all!

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon.

Elder and Sister Owens

PS. Sister Owens finally saw a live armadillo.  It made her day. Sorry, no pic.  It was too fast.  I know, you wouldn’t think so, as many as we see dead on the road.

Attachment:  Storm systems here are beautiful from far away.