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 4th 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 4th 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.
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