This has been one of those weeks where you have experiences that you really shouldn't tell about in your email home. Don't worry, nobody tried to shoot us. It was just a really discouraging week seeing the trying circumstances that these people have to put up with every day of their lives. Monday wasn't so hard until the afternoon. We took the sisters to lunch since Sister Snarr was transferred Wednesday. Then we went to the Salvation Army store to find a table to put in our spacious living room and a pot to plant our cotton tree. They didn't really have anything that would work for either but Sister Owens did find a couple shirts for a really good price. The week kinda went down hill from there. We went to the church to work on the membership records and I wrote out the two questions I had for Salt Lake and spent some time trying to do a couple other things with some other records. By the time I was done my two questions turned into five and I was ready to smash the computer. I clicked on the "contact us" tab to find a phone number to call with my questions (Everybody tells me to just call the number, but nobody can tell me the number or exactly where to find it). It had a list of every language on the planet (actually I think they were regions) and wanted me to choose one so they could tell me how to contact them. I finally found the one I needed and clicked on it and a flag came up saying the website was down and to please try again later. Go figure. As we were getting ready to leave we got a call from one of the older sisters in the branch telling us she was sitting on the curb and had walked as far as she could and she couldn't go any further. Her nose started bleeding at 11 in the morning and wouldn't stop. She walked to the emergency room at the hospital to get some help and after quite a while they told her they couldn't do anything for her and sent her home with her nose still bleeding (we have been told in no uncertain terms that if anything ever happens to either of us that we definitely should never go to the emergency room. We should go to the Med Center). So it was about 5:30 and we went and found her sitting on the corner about a mile from her apartment with a shopping bag full of bloody towels and wash clothes. We got her to her home and she was locked out. She gave her key to her son before she left because he had lost his. She called his cell phone and he didn't answer. She thought she knew where he would be so we got back in the car and started driving around the neighborhood in the dark trying to find him. Sister Owens went in at the first place we stopped and found out they never heard of the lady or her son. We kept looking. We finally found him after about a half hour and got the key from him. He said he would be home later to check on her. He is 40 years old, by the way, and has two children that live with their mother to whom he is not married. Her nose was still bleeding through all of this. I had gone across the street to ask for some ice when we first arrived at her home. When we got in finally we found that they had no ice in their freezer so I had to go ask for some more ice so we could try to get the bleeding to stop. Her son finally came home. They talked quite loudly to each other a little while (we really couldn't understand anything they were saying) then he left again. Nothing we did stopped the bleeding and she refused to go back to the hospital. Soon her neighbor came over to check on her. He is a very polite and helpful gentleman. He checks up on her often. She wanted me to give her a blessing so the bleeding would stop and then she was going to go to bed. I walked over to give her the blessing and her neighbor stepped up like he was going to assist me. I wasn't sure what I was going to say to him since he is not a member of the church. He just stood close to me so I really didn't have to say anything. As I gave her the blessing, every couple sentences he would say a nice loud "Uh Huh." It was definitely a different experience than I have had before.
That was our Monday. Tuesday morning we got a call from another sister in tears because she needed help writing checks to pay her bills and she was just so confused that she didn't even know if she had enough money in her account to pay them. We told her we would come over. When we got there she said that a fellow was coming to help her. We stayed and tried to help her feel better about things until he arrived. He would not come in until we left. He is a little less than upstanding. He has a drug problem to be sure. He used to "work" for her quite a bit. He would drive her to appointments or go to the store for her and would charge $20 every time he did anything. She asked if we would come back later and make sure everything was done correctly. When we got back we found out he had taken about 30 minutes to write a few checks for her and charged her $40. She hasn't balanced her checkbook in months. It was all a little frustrating. We went through all her income and expenses with her and are going to meet with her again. She is paying her own son $400 a month to come and mop and sweep floors for her. It is truly a sad state of affairs. The sisters called us and asked if they could each have a blessing that evening since transfers were the next day. Sister Snarr is going to her second area for her mission and Sister Shreeve is getting a brand new missionary to train her in Demopolis.
Wednesday morning we got to the sister's apartment to load up all of Sister Snarr's belongings and her bike and head for Birmingham for transfers. We left her there and picked up Sister Shreeve's new companion, Sister Tennyson, from Utah. One of the new Elders that arrived this week is from Meridian but we didn't get to meet him. Elder Barfuss gave us a bed frame to replace the broken one in Selma. We told him about Cedric having hip surgery Monday and that we had a bed for him but we needed a frame. He said he would get one for us. We told him we shouldn't do that without asking. He said, "I'm the one you ask." I told him if he was going to do that, I would use the one he had just given us for Cedric and get another one for Selma. Cedric was coming home from the hospital that day and needed the bed. We got back to Demopolis in time for Coordination meeting and Brother Smith had the bed so we were going to deliver it after the meeting. He had told us he had everything but the frame but it was actually the box springs he didn't have. It was okay since it was part of a set of bunk beds and had enough slats to support the mattress. Cedric is pretty short so it is just about right anyway. We set up the bed in the living room. While we were there Sister Owens went back to the kitchen with Tasha. Their house consists of a living room, a bedroom with a queen bed (no closet) a kitchen (about the size of a closet) and probably a bathroom, though we didn't see it. They have a fridge and a microwave oven. They have no range because the wiring in the house is not sufficient. They had to choose between a fridge and a range. They chose the fridge. If we were serving in a third world country it would be hard but maybe we could accept that that is home for a family of four but it sickens me that it is that way in the USA. Their oldest daughter is 18 and has to live up the street with Tasha's aunt because there isn't room for her in the house. After seeing their home we are feeling pretty guilty about our new apartment.
Book of Mormon class was really great Thursday. We were going to take the sisters but they called and said they had too much to do and wouldn't be able to go. We still had to drop off Sister Jones and Sister Borden at the class and double back for Sister Nixon because the car isn't big enough to take them all at once. Brother Borden buys chicken for the group just about every week even though he is usually working and can't be there and we try to bring cookies often. Without the sisters it was just Sister Owens and I with seven black people. After we finished reading a few of them bore their testimonies about what the Lord had done for them in their lives. After we ate the chicken they all just started talking and laughing like you would see in an old movie. Somebody would say something and then somebody would point at them and start laughing and then everybody would laugh. We just laughed along with them but really didn't understand hardly anything they were saying. It was so neat to be there. We had a visitor there this week. He didn't want to read but he just sat at a table and listened. Of course we are reading the Isaiah chapters right now. When we finished, he said he really liked it and wanted to know if I was a preacher. I told him it was sort of like that. I told him that from listening before we got started it seemed like he was related to somebody there. He pointed to one of the ladies and said, "That is my ex wife." I said, "Oh, I see." (awkward). He asked when we would be back. I told him we are there every Thursday. He said he will come back next week. We all made plans for our meal Sunday after Conference. We felt really bad because Debra was there. She is the non-member whose family won't allow her to be baptized or to come to church.
Friday we took the bed frame to Selma and then did our laundry and cleaning and prepared the food for Conference so we could enjoy the conference on the weekend. Last conference was on the second weekend we were here in the mission. We were totally shocked when the two of us and the Sisters were the only ones that attended the Saturday conference sessions. And then President James and his son were the only ones there with me for the Priesthood session. It was a little discouraging this time after being her six months and we and the sisters were the only ones at the morning session of conference. The sisters went to Livingston for the afternoon session. We would have been alone for the afternoon session but a sister that was released this week had served in Demopolis. Her parents came to pick her up and they were here for conference Saturday afternoon and evening. There were ten of us at the Sisters session Saturday night including her and her parents (and me).
Brother White came by himself for conference this morning. He said it was like a ghost town when he looked for the guys that were going to come with him. Everybody at the morning session was from Greensboro except one carload from Linden and President and Sister James from York and Brother and Sister Morgan came (they live right around the corner from us and usually watch it on TV). Everybody left right after the session but the ones from Greensboro and us and two girls from Linden. After we ate they all went home except the Sisters and the two girls from Linden (they had to wait for us to take them home). We felt so badly that more of them don't appreciate the feast that conference is. Of course the James and the Morgans do watch it on TV as well as a few of the other active white members. So many of the members don't see or hear any of the conference.
We love the prophet and are so excited about the changes that are coming. It looks like only one of the rumors ended up being true. How about that.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon (every day)
And study what the prophets said in conference.
We love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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