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
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