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 27th.
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