Week 40: A very merry Christmas in Alabama

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday was our District Council in Tuscaloosa.  It was the only day this week we could have it.  We are having to change the day because our District Leader and his companion have been designated the technology specialists for the mission so they will be traveling most of the time on Tuesdays to help other districts with technology problems.  Sister Owens just rescheduled her monthly Relief Society meeting to Friday so our Branch President’s wife could attend.  The district chose Friday to start having District Meeting (just our luck).  We told them of the conflict and it might be changed to Thursday.  The meeting was later than usual and everybody took a dinner break before going caroling as a district along the river in Tuscaloosa.  I heard the sisters from our area explaining to the other sisters that they came with us and would have to go to dinner with us.  Then they went to Sister Owens and asked her very timidly if they might be able to go to diner with the other sisters in the district.  She told them she thought that would be okay (yippee, only two for dinner tonight).  It was so funny that they felt so apologetic about asking.  We got to go with the Hursts (the other senior couple).  We went to the Cook Out restaurant.  We got to have our traditional hamburger supper for Christmas Eve.  They had a hamburger, two sides, and a drink for $5.  Not bad.  I ordered a double burger with cheese and Sister Owens’ single had more meat on it than mine did.  We were excited that we got two sides for such a reasonable price until we got our order and noticed that the side of onion rings was four onion rings.  But all in all it was a pretty good deal.  Everybody was supposed to be back at the Institute by 6:00 PM but nobody showed up until 7:00.  It was already dark for two hours and we still had to drive home.  Our sisters were good to be willing to leave for home instead of going caroling with the rest of the district so we didn’t get down to the river.

We spent most of Christmas day preparing the turkey dinner with all the trimmings that Sister Patterson delivered to feed us and the sisters.  It was a fifteen pound turkey.  We had Turkey, yams, dressing, gravy, brown and serve rolls, canned cranberries (we gave those to the sisters) and bags of frozen black eyed peas in every stage of growth you can imagine.  There was also a bag of frozen whole okra which Sister Owens gave to the sisters as well, so we don’t get to try it now.  Sister Patterson also gave us one of her award winning buttermilk pecan pies for desert.  The sisters had their lunch appointment at noon so we thought they would be over by 5:00 since we had an appointment at 7:30.  They called about 4:30 and asked if they could come for dinner at 6:00.  They were going to the church to skype their families at 5:00 so we were pretty sure they wouldn’t be over by 6:00 for dinner (which was ready to eat at 5:00).  We texted them at 6:07 and asked if they would mind if we started without them.  They showed up about 6:15 and we all ate cold turkey (see attachment #1) and headed to Greensboro.  We were all invited to the Merrills to see their twenty-four Christmas trees that they have set up in their antebellum mansion (see attachment #2).  We visited with the Merrills  until 9:00 so we got the sisters home a little late.

The Branch President got a call from one of the branch members on Monday advising him that their water was going to be turned off that day because their bill hadn’t  been paid.  More times than not President James usually pays things like that out of his own funds because we are always negative in our Fast Offering fund.  They had done a lot for different members for Christmas and Sister James called us to see if we might be able to help in some way.  We told her we would look into it and take care of it.  We couldn’t get an answer when we called the member so we called the water department and they weren’t open.  If they weren’t open we were pretty sure they weren’t going to be turning off anyone’s water on Christmas Eve.  Wednesday we made some calls and went out to Livingston to pay the bill as it would be turned off the next day.  We found out the members daughter and fiancé are living with her and had agreed to pay the water bill.  When they were advised that it would be turned off the member asked her daughter why she hadn’t paid the bill.  She said, “Nobody reminded me.”  When we went to pay the bill we learned it hadn’t been paid since October.  It had two late payment fees of $50 each and 10 percent interest on the unpaid balance each month.  If we hadn’t paid the bill when we did there would have been another $50 late fee the next day and it would have been shut off.  It is so frustrating that almost everybody here knows they can just ignore their bills and when they threaten to shut off the utilities then the church will step in and take care of it and it is always at least twice as much as it would have been if the bills were paid on time.  Anyway, we certainly appreciate so many of you that sent us funds (which you really shouldn’t do) this month which made it possible for us to help several people this season.  We took the sisters out to Linden to keep a couple of appointments in the evening after our coordination meeting.  Both of them said it wasn’t a good time and rescheduled the appointments.

Thursday we went out with the sisters to help with an eagle project for one of the Smith boys.  The Smith family along with their grandparents and the sisters and us were the only ones there, but we accomplished quite a lot of work.  We were  clearing a birding trail at one of the parks in the area (see attachment #3).  We also put up several markers identifying different trees along the trail. Sister Owens got to run the leaf blower for the first time in her life.  She was pretty excited about it.  One of the park caretakers followed along with her and spelled her about every ten minutes so it went pretty well.  We had Book of Mormon class in the afternoon and drove home in a torrential rain storm.  At 11:55 PM  we received a flash flood warning on our cell phone.  We have a weather radio in our apartment that is supposed to come on and warn us of dangerous weather situations.  It has never gone off even though people in the area have asked us a couple times if it went off because theirs did. It was raining so hard when we left the building in Greensboro I didn’t even bother to hurry going to get the car.  I was totally drenched as soon as I went out the door.

Friday we went back to Greensboro to deliver oranges, Theraflu, and chicken soup to one of the sisters from Book of Mormon class that has a really bad cold.  We got a picture of the pastures where the cattle were feeding the day before the rain storm (see attachment #4).  Since both of us spoke in church today we spent Friday afternoon preparing our talks.

Saturday we got to do our laundry and cleaning and finish preparing our talks and pack up all the dishes, etc. that we used for our Christmas dinner.

Brother White had his interview today with a counselor in the Stake Presidency.  I didn’t get to find out from the President when he is going to be ordained but we think it should be soon.  We are excited for him.  The sisters called us this morning before Branch Presidency meeting.  They needed us to pick up some people they started teaching this week.  Luckily Andrea called us before that to say they weren’t coming so we didn’t have to pick them up as we usually do.  It was a lady and her nine year old daughter.  We had quite a fiasco in the third hour trying to set everyone up with accounts at Family Search and Ancestry.com.  Probably not the best introduction to the church.  And we had to explain that it is all going to be different next week with the new meeting schedule. Her daughter came out from primary and asked her mom if they can come back again next week.  When we took them home the mom asked us what lesson we wanted them to study for next week and said they were planning to come again.  It may prove to be a bit of a logistics problem if we are picking up Andrea and her mother next week as we usually do.  We are sure it will all work out some how.

We hope y’all had a merry Christmas and wish y’all a happy new year.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon and study Come Follow Me this week with your family.

We love y’all,

Elder and Sister Owens

PS.  Brother Hurst says if y’all means you all then w’all should be what you say for we all.

Week 39: Ministering to the sick and afflicted and The Work and The Glory revisited

Dear Family and Friends,

Transfers came a week early this month because of Christmas.  Monday we took both the sisters to Tuscaloosa.  Sister Shreeve went home this week so she went to the mission home a day early and Sister Tennison spent the day and night with the sisters in Tuscaloosa before going to Gardendale to get her new companion.  After we dropped them off we were so excited to be someplace with just the two of us that we went to Panda Express for a late lunch all by ourselves.  It was nice.  When we got home Sister Owens had her daily phone conversation with Beth and then for home evening we read another chapter out of "Reality and Refuge."  It is a book by John H. Groberg about experiences he had as president of the Idaho Falls Temple.  One of the senior couples in the mission gave it to us for Christmas.

Tuesday we spent ministering to the sick and afflicted in the branch.  We didn't really have time to make chicken soup so we had to buy cans at the store along with oranges, Theraflu, and some apple juice and then we delivered it to different sisters in the branch that are suffering from bad colds or flu.  One had been to the emergency room the previous day and we took her to the drug store to get a prescription for some pretty powerful medication.  Later we cooked up some butter beans with the ham bone we boiled from the Branch potluck on Sunday.  We will take it with us to Book of Mormon class on Thursday in Greensboro.

We asked a couple of times whether we would be needed to help with transfers in Gardendale but everybody just kept saying they would let us know.  Tuesday night Sister Tennyson texted us to see if we got the text about transfers.  We had not so she forwarded it to us.  They told her she would pick up her new companion and return to Demopolis and that the Owens should be able to give her a ride.  So I guess they decided they wanted our help.  We decided, since we were going without sisters, we could go a little later because we just had to be there to pick them up and bring them home.  We didn't leave until after 8:00 AM instead of 6:30 when we usually go.  We got there about twenty minutes to eleven and noticed all the missionaries were just arriving.  We went into the chapel and found out they never start until eleven o'clock.  Every time we have gone until now one of our sisters has been getting a new missionary to train and they always have to be there by nine o'clock.  We were glad we didn't decide to go at the regular time.  Sister Tennison's new companion is African American and has been out about six months. She is from south side Chicago. I think she can handle about anything they can throw at her here.  She seems like she will be a really good missionary.  We are excited to have her here.  Of course she received the standard initiation.  We took her to Costco for a hotdog on our way home.

Back in September right after we moved into our new apartment we met a man in Walmart who is a member of the church and also a member of the National Guard.  He doesn't live in Demopolis but has duties here at the armory.  We found out he was seeing a doctor here and would be coming a few weeks after that with his wife to one of his appointments.  We were so excited about our big, spacious apartment that we told him to call us when he got to town and we would have them over for lunch.  We didn't get his number and the mission scheduled a Zone Conference for that very day.  We had no way to tell him we could not have them come.  We got the call from him the day of the conference and had to tell him we couldn't have them over.  Fast forward to about two weeks ago.  We got a text from him that the guard sponsored a toys for tots and had several toys left over.  He said they would like to help some kids in Demopolis and thought we might know of some families that could use the assistance.  We called Sister James and came up with a list of ten names and sent the list to Mark and said if he needed more we could give him several more names.  He responded that we did not need to give him more names, he didn't expect nearly that many.  He texted us Wednesday on our way home from transfers and said they had the toys at the Armory.  We told him we would be home by 4:30 and could come over and pick them up.  He said he would stay as long as he needed to.  When we got there he took us back to a huge room with about four six foot tables loaded with toys.  I thought it was a little strange that they still had so many toys because he said he wasn't expecting such a big list.  It looked to me like they still had plenty more toys.  The toys were all divided into piles and I thought he was showing us the pile that was ours.  Each pile was for one of the ten children.  Everything in the room was for us.  We were overwhelmed, we were expecting one or two toys for each of the kids.  He told Sister Owens while we were there that his mother-in-law called them and said she wanted to do something for him and his wife for Christmas.  He asked her to spend the money on the kids in Demopolis instead of doing something for them. He had reached out to friends and several other members of his family to come up with all the toys they gave us.  He and his wife have no children.  He is retiring from the Guard this next year and they are going to start fostering children.  Our Thursday was pretty full before Book of Mormon class. We and the Branch President's wife were wrapping Christmas presents (see attachment) for eleven children in the branch.  Every one of those kids are having a nicer Christmas from the National Guard than any of our children ever had while they lived in our home.

Our new neighbors are from Tennessee.  They met 30 years ago when they were both white water river guides.  They are old now, like us, but they still canoe.  They have a Suburban and it has two very long canoes strapped on top of it.  We wrote our testimony in a copy of the Book of Mormon and took it over to her with a little plate of banana bread.  When we offered it to her she told us that she and her husband were both extras in the movie a few years ago (The Work and The Glory) and she has read the whole series.  We assured her the series she read was not the Book of Mormon.  She said she knew that but she is Christian and she would never convert to "Mormonism."  Sister Owens asked her if we could leave the book with her anyway.  She said that would be fine but she won't read it.  They own some land in Sumter County which they are going to be developing.  They are gone back to Tennessee this weekend to pick up some more of their belongings.  We will just have to be friends while we are here and see what happens.

Friday we got some of our Laundry done (well Sister owens did) since we are going back to Birmingham again tomorrow to have dinner with the other senior couples at President and Sister Sainsbury's home.  Later in the day Sister Owens went with the sisters to a couple of appointments in Greensboro.  We were both going to go but I remembered the last time I was in a room full of four women and decided it would be better all around if I stayed home.  So they went to the appointments and I stayed home and prepared dinner so we could feed the sisters after their meetings.

Saturday we only had to drive to Tuscaloosa.  The Hursts, the YSA couple at the Institute, drove from there to Birmingham for the dinner at Sainsburys. We had a chance to fellowship with all the seniors in the mission.  A new couple just arrived last week.  They are assigned to the military base in Montgomery.

We had a really good Sacrament meeting this morning.  Ollie Wilson spoke for the second time since she was baptized.  She read the Christmas story from Luke 2.  Sister James had a nice message on improving ourselves as a gift to the Savior  and talked about how we can change our lives based on the beatitudes that were taught by the Savior.  Our Elders Quorum President, Brother Smith, spoke about the Savior and the Atonement.  We had 30 people there and only one of them was a non-member.  That was Chris Grice that has been coming on and off to our Book of Mormon class.  The neatest thing today was President James submitting the recommendation for Brother White to be ordained an Elder.  If all goes well a councilor to the Stake President will come next week and he will be ordained.

We are so grateful for this season of the year when everyone commemorates the birth of the Savior.  It is such a privilege for us to be here to serve him.  We are especially thankful for all of you and all the support you give us.  We hope the Lord will bless you all and that you will all have a very merry Christmas.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 38: Too many parties, I think my wife is joining the Baptists

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was so busy we didn’t have any time to do missionary work.  Monday Sister Owens had her Relief Society Presidency meeting……from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM!!  I guess they did plan out next year through April.  Then we did go read the Book of Mormon with Ollie and Larry.  We finished that just in time for Sister Owens to get to the Fair Haven Baptist Women’s annual Christmas meeting…that included dinner, door prizes, and a special speaker.  They had over one hundred ladies in attendance.  You can just imagine how long that went with that many women there.  Sister Owens was quite impressed with Judy, the guest speaker.  She is the Bargainomics lady who spoke on having a Christ centered Christmas and how to find bargains (??). She told about how she was very upset with a church in another community that she found out was using her copyrighted name (Bargainomics) and finally decided she was going to have to call them and explain that they could not use the name because she had paid for and owned the exclusive right to use that name. The lady she talked to was very upset and just didn’t know what they could do.  The woman that was coming to speak to their group used the name and that is why they announced it that way.  She asked them who was coming to speak and they told her.  She said, “Wait a minute, that’s my name” and asked when the meeting was scheduled.  They told her and she said she didn’t know anything about the meeting. The women both thought the other had called and made the arrangements and no one had made the call. She said it was just impossible for her to clear her schedule to be there on such short notice.  Then she explained how the Lord intervened and everything worked out so she could be there for the engagement.

We had interviews scheduled this week with the President so we didn’t have our weekly District Council meeting on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, I was being very efficient six months ago when I scheduled my six month follow up exam for my eyes and set it for early Tuesday morning before District Council, so we had to go to Tuscaloosa anyway. The doctor said everything looks good and I don’t have to go back for a year. We stopped at the transmission shop before we came home so they could check out the transmission.  It was about a half quart low so they topped it off and asked if we could bring it by sometime and let them “play around with it a little.” We were sent to the office to schedule a time and they took our number and said they would call us. I doubt we will hear from them.  When we got home we went shopping for the RS luncheon on Wednesday and the Branch pot luck after church on Sunday.  Then we went home and made chili for the luncheon in Relief Society. We were up quite late and some of the beans were still a little too firm for Sister Owens (I thought they were just right).

Wednesday was our full day of taxi service for the Relief Society meeting.  Out to Greensboro and back to the church then over to pick up Andrea and Helen and back to the church.  The turn out was pretty good (14 sisters).  Between them and the Smith children they consumed 40 servings of Chili (attachment #3).  There was not a bean left in the pot.  Sister Owens says it was more like a special ed class.  Half the sisters needed one on one help and the other half helped them.  They embroidered a simple manger scene on canvas (attachment #2).  Sister Owens is not saying whether she was giving or receiving the help.  The day was pretty well gone by the time we finished the clean up and got everybody back home.

Thursday was our Zone Conference/Christmas party in Birmingham.  We were wondering what a Christmas party was going to be like with about 50 to 60 missionaries (half of the mission).  It was really quite nice.  We had instruction from President Sainsbury in the morning and a few musical numbers from the young missionaries and testimonies from some senior couples and the President’s councilors and their wives.  There is some really great talent in this mission.  After a tremendous lunch served by the stake Relief Society there was a talent show put on by the missionaries.  Very entertaining (attachment #4)!   Then we watched the movie Coco.  That was the first time for us to see that movie.  After the movie we went to the chapel and had a devotional and the President asked us that no one talk after the devotional but that we just leave and get in our cars and drive home and not talk in our cars either.  He just wanted us to spend time contemplating on the things that were presented in the devotional.  He and Sister Sainsbury shared the scriptures that they read every year in their family and had us sing different Christmas hymns between the scripture passages.  This is the third time they have done it at Christmas in the mission.  We left Demopolis at 7:45 AM to get to the Conference and got home at 8:00PM.  Very long day.

Friday we went back to Tuscaloosa for interviews with the President.  We waited for all the young missionaries to be interviewed (in the district).  Two of them were extended interviews because they are going home this transfer.  When the President got done with them he shook our hand and said, “Are we good?”  We told him that we were fine, though we always look forward to visiting with him for a few minutes. He had to get on to another district for more interviews and as always with interviews, they were running late.  On the way home we stopped in Tuscaloosa and took the sisters to Olive Garden for a late lunch (Sister Shreeve’s choice, since she is going home this next week.)

Saturday was P-day.  We finally got a break (for a little while).  We got to do laundry and house cleaning and then started preparing food for the dinner after church on Sunday.  We peeled, cooked, and mashed ten pounds plus of potatoes, cut up a nice big fresh pineapple and made a big batch of gravy. We bought some little mini lights for our Christmas cotton tree (attachment #1).  We were going to make some fresh cranberry sauce for the dinner but only had half a package of cranberries by the time we sorted them (I swore I would never by off brand cranberries from Walmart several years ago but since they are the only store in this town I gave in…never again).

We had several new people at church today.  Our optimistic Elders Quorum President said we had over sixty people, but I counted during Sacrament Meeting and never could get more than forty-seven.  We had six people in the Gospel Principles class compared to none for the last four weeks so that was pretty good.  The Relief Society Instructor didn’t come today so I got to teach the Gospel Principles class and combined Elders Quorum and Relief Society (probably a little hard on the visitors).  But it had to go well since the topic we covered was “Believe, Love, and Do” by Elder Uchtdorf.  The dinner went well but we found that the black people here really aren’t big on mashed potatoes and gravy.  We brought about five pounds of them home.  That’s okay.  It will make good quick meals this coming week (or two).  Cedric Kirk’s father passed away last Sunday.  We went to his funeral after the dinner.  It was a packed house at the Baptist church.  There had to be between two and three hundred people there.  Quite a production, and very loud.  We visited for a few minutes with Tasha and Cedric after the service before they went to the cemetery and who should walk up to say hello to all of us but the good Baptist librarian that we had deliver the gift card last week. We definitely have some stiff competition here numbers wise.  The Baptists and other protestants are very religious and out number us here the way the members at home out number the protestants.  It is easy to see that the only ones that are very interested in investigating the church are the ones that are actually dissalusioned  with their church.  Otherwise it is hard to get them to listen, unless they are the very poor and see an opportunity to get financial assistance.  Very sad but very true.  It has been a long day.  We are going to end our day and get some sleep before we have to take the sisters to Tuscaloosa tomorrow for Sister Shreeve to be transferred home.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day (finish by the end of the year)

We love y’all

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 37: Invasion of the lady bugs, and ministered to by Elder Costa

Dear Family and Friends,

The weather has driven the lady bugs indoors.  They are like flies in Idaho except they just fly around a while and then die and we sweep them up and throw them away.  Brother Smith told us they are not indigenous but have been brought in to the state and don't have any natural predators.

We started the week with a senior couple activity for December.  We toured the only Hyundai manufacturing plant in the United States (attachment #1).  They manufacture 1350 automobiles every day.  It was a fascinating tour.  We also visited the White House of the Confederacy in Montgomery and the Alabama State Capital Building.  Attachment #2 is all the seniors in the lobby of the Hyundai plant.

Tuesday we attended our last District Council for this transfer.  Attachment #3 is a picture of our unique district.  All sisters except for two senior couples and the District Leader and his companion.  On the way home we stopped in Eutah and treated the sisters to lunch at West End Grocery.  It is actually a service station with a quick stop grocery and a kitchen ran by a member of our branch.  She teaches Relief Society once a month.  She does all the cooking and serves lunches over the counter.  President James says she has a following.  Whenever she changes employers most of the customers start going wherever she is.  We have eaten there twice.  She makes an awesome chicken pot pie and Tuesday we had hamburger steak with rice and beans.  The steak was a little salty but very very good.  I don't think the sisters were really excited to eat at the little cafeteria tables in the service station but they did say thank you.

Wednesday we put Light the World posters in the Post Office and the City Library.  We get to do some secret Santa things for members of the branch.  We enlisted the help of the Librarian, Miss Connie, to deliver a gift card to one of the members.  She said she is always happy to play Santa Claus.  She is a really neat lady that knows several people in the branch and has known several sets of missionaries and is a self proclaimed good friend to our church, but is a very staunch Baptist.  We just keep working on her.  Later we went to read from the Book of Mormon again with Larry and Ollie.  Larry is a Viet Nam war vet with PTSD and has some really difficult challenges, but he really loves us to read to him (he doesn't read).  We are reading with him at least once a week now and still wreak of tobacco when we leave but we hope it is doing some good.

Thursday we went and helped Ollie set up auto payment for several monthly bills and took her to a couple places where she had to do some paperwork.  Then we did her grocery shopping for her at Walmart.  Sister Owens says it was the most frustrating time she has ever spent in Walmart.  We don't know if anyone was a little surprised that the missionaries for the Church were buying coffee.  At least we didn't have to get cigarettes for her hired help.  In spite of the frustrations, I think we saved her about $60 that her driver would have charged her to take her to the power company, the credit card company and to do her shopping for her.  We were a little pressed for time to get the cole slaw and fish taco fixins ready for the Book of Mormon class.  Sister Borden said she was bringing catfish so we thought we would introduce them to a new way to eat it.  They all tried it but one.  I'm not sure how many of them would do it again but a few of them said they really liked it.

We had to make a trip to Montgomery Friday and Sister James called us early in the morning and said she had a check for Sister Rogers to help her with her down payment on a car.  She was hesitant to drive out to her house on the river and asked if we would be willing to take it out to her.  We told her we would and she brought it to us.  As we were leaving we called Sister Rogers to make sure she was home.  She was across the street from us at the car dealership.  We took the check over just as she was completing a test drive with the salesman.  She was able to complete the purchase with the check from the James and we didn't have to go to Eutaw before we went to Montgomery.  Neat how the Lord works.  We met a member of the National Guard a few months ago in Walmart that is a member of the church.  They are from northern Alabama but his doctor is here in Demopolis.  We told him we would love to have him and his wife over the next time she came with him to Demopolis.  When the day came we had to cancel on them because they scheduled a Zone Conference that day.  He called us Thursday and said the Guard was doing toys for Tots and they had a few toys left over and wanted to do something for Demopolis.  We forwarded the names of about eight children that we got from Sister James and told him we had more if he needed them.  He said, "No, that's plenty.  I wasn't expecting quite that many names."  He said he would get right on it and get back to us.

Saturday we left at noon for our two hour training meeting with Elder Johnson (the area seventy that was our previous Stake President) and Elder Costa.  Elder Johnson spent the first hour giving us training on ministering and then told us a little bit about Elder Costa.  They both had joined the church when President Kimball was the prophet.  He told us Elder Costa has been a general authority longer than anyone other than President Nelson, President Oaks, President Eyring, President Ballard, and Elder Holland.  Then Elder Costa spoke to us for the last hour.  The meeting was for Bishops, Clerks, Elders Quorum Presidents and Relief Society Presidents from six stakes.  It was an experience we will always treasure.  It was one of those times when the general authority just talks to us and shares several personal experiences and teaches so many things on a personal level.  He will be given emeritus status in just a few months when he turns seventy.  He told us when we minister the way the Lord intends for us to minister and we truly get to know the people to whom we minister that we actually become more like Christ.  He pointed out how Christ knows all of us so well. He knows our very soul.  When we get to really know people, that is when we start to truly care about them, and start to pray for them and to put their names in the temple.  One of the things Elder Johnson told us is that effective ministering leads to the Temple and begins with love.  Elder Costa said several miracles are happening in the church  because we are becoming more like Christ.  That is one of the reasons for our ministering assignments.  It is such a privilege to be able to listen to the servants of the Lord.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon everyday.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 36: Our First pot party, and the Christmas season officially begins

Dear Family and Friends,

Truly there is a prophet in Israel. What an awesome message from President Nelson in the Christmas Devotional tonight.  We hope all y'all got to hear it.  The whole meeting was tremendous, as it is every year.

We thought you might be interested to see Sister Owens' entry in her Journal for Monday:

"Sunny and cold this morning.  Went to the church to take down the "Be Thankful" bulletin board.  Sister Patterson is helping me do one for "Light The World" for December… We spent three hours this afternoon helping a sister write checks for her bills and balance her checkbook.  We wreak of tobacco and marijuana.  Her husband, her care giver, and her son all smoke something.  Our clothes really pick it up and so does my hair.  I have to shower when I come home.  For home evening and companion study we read the first few pages of "Come Follow Me for personal and family study."  It is marvelous.  It will be so fun to study the gospel this way.  We are hopeful each of our children will study each week with our grandchildren.  It will bless and strengthen them.  We can't bear the thought of losing any of them."

We went to District Council on Tuesday.  The sisters have always been between five and ten minutes late coming out of their apartment regardless of what time I tell them we need to leave.  Last time was Zone Conference. Sister Owens politely told them it is not in good form to be late.  One of the sisters responded by saying they had total faith that I would get them there on time.  Well, since I decided not to break the speed limit that day, we got to conference about seven or eight minutes late.  The sisters got a call from one of the President's assistants exactly when the conference started.  He was wondering where they were.  So we arrived at the sisters apartment Tuesday morning to pick them up for District Council and they were stranding on the curb waiting for us.  They told us this time, no matter what, they were going to be early.  We'll see if they are early this next week or if it is like when the Bishop stands up and tells the congregation we need to be more reverent in Sacrament meeting.

Wednesday was a very frustrating day for us. More than a month ago we promised a member of the branch that we would reserve the day for her so we could take her to her doctor appointment (it was even going to be in her car, she just needed someone else to drive).  So that morning she called to tell us we wouldn't have to take her because her sister would take her.  It has been frustrating lately because no one could decide on a definite plan to participate in the Christmas on the River celebration this Saturday.  President James finally just told us the branch wouldn't do anything. Having a booth on the square would have been a little expensive for the branch but we talked about inviting those who wanted to (out of the 25,000 people who come for the event), to come to the branch building and have a free cinnamon roll and hot chocolate while they warm up for the nautical parade that evening.  We entertained the idea of asking him again if we could do it but decided against it since he already said we shouldn't.  It was hard to approach him about it when he had announced to the branch that we would keep our meeting time the same next year (9:00 AM)  because he wanted families to have the extra time later in the day to spend studying together.  Then in our implementation meeting with the Stake the Stake President said he wanted all of the stake to meet at 10:00 AM.  Even though he disagreed, President James announced the next week that our meeting time will be 10:00 AM because he intends to support our leaders. So we never did decide on a way to be of service on Saturday.  After Coordination meeting we were going with the sisters to an appointment to deliver a Book of Mormon to a single man.  The sisters were on exchange (for 24 hours) with the training leaders and the sister here with Sister Tennison was one of the Spanish speaking sisters (she is not Spanish).  When discussing the referral in coordination meeting, Brother Smith asked who it was, thinking it was a person the sisters had taught about a year ago.  It was a different person but the sisters decided we would try to see the other person as well.  We had to call the referral to get his address and he did not answer his phone, so we went to the other family that had been taught previously.  We had just stopped in front of his house when he drove up behind us.  We went to the door and Sister Womeldorf started talking to him in Spanish.  He invited us in and we made a couple comments about his beautiful Christmas tree and he just looked at Sister Womeldorf and she told him what we said.  We and Sister Tennison didn't say anything for the next fifteen minutes while he and Sister Womeldorf spoke with each other.  When we got back in the car I told Sister Womeldorf I thought it was amazing that she could do that.  She said it had to be the spirit because she hasn't spoken that much Spanish for a long time.  He told her they had gone to church a couple times before and they would be interested in having the missionaries come back and teach them again (Brother Smith speaks Spanish and can be there for the discussions). We called the referral they had and he still didn't answer his phone.  It is neat to see how the Lord works and has the right people in the right place at the right time.

Friday morning Sister Owens went to put up the new bulletin board (attachment #1) with Sister Patterson and we decided I would stay home and make some cinnamon rolls (attachment #2) and we would go and deliver them to people with a Light the World pass along card and encourage them to do service to others this month to honor the Savior. Our next door neighbor who just moved and left a plant and some area rugs which they said we could use just moved around the corner from us (so we thought; he did back up to the garage and unload a couch).  There was just him and his mother so we brought our little plate of four rolls and went to the back door (here if you go to the front door they think your are a politician or a salesman).  When we walked up the driveway we noticed a man sitting at a table with the porch light behind him so we couldn't see his face.  I assumed it was Josh and set the rolls in from of him and we started  visiting with him.  Well, he wasn't Josh and Josh and his mother didn't move into his house.  I asked how many people were in his house and he said "about fifteen right now."  His name was Frank and Josh was his nephew and Josh's mother was his sister.  They actually moved around the corner and down the street from him with Josh's brother.  They were moving the couch into Frank's garage because they didn't have room for it where they were moving.  To make a long story short (well not as long, anyway) Frank lives in that house.  His mother lives with him.  He has five siblings and most of them live in the same neighborhood.  We went home and got another dozen rolls and brought them back and were invited in.  We got to visit for a while with all of them.  They are a really neat close knit family.  Their dad died about fifteen years ago.  They were so gracious to us.  Sister Owens is going to get their mom's chili recipe and we need to find a way to introduce them to the gospel.

Saturday it rained in the morning during the COTR celebration, but the rest of the day was well over 70 degrees. Interesting how inspired our Branch President is about not having hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. It was shirt sleeve weather for the nautical parade on the river at night.  We can't tell you how that went, we didn't go.  We cleaned the Branch building instead.

The Reed family (father, mother, and three children) have been meeting with the sisters for a few weeks.  At their last meeting the sisters asked when they could meet with them again and they said they weren't sure but they were coming to church with us this week.  The mom and two of the kids were there.  Their dad was gone with the national guard. Their nine year old boy is in class with one of the Smith children from the branch.  In class they were talking about scriptures.  They said they have the Bible. Clarisa explained that we have the Bible and the Book of Mormon.  Bryant (the Reed boy) went to Clarisa and said, "Do you believe in the Book of Mormon?"  Clarisa told him yes and he said, "So do we! The missionaries are teaching us."  Clarisa asked who the missionaries were and Bryant told her their names and Clarisa said, "Those are our missionaries."  Bryant always has to pray when the sisters come to teach them.  He insists.  They only stayed today for testimony meeting.  Just observing them, Bryant and his younger sister seemed to me to be more engaged in the meeting than their Mother did.  They seem like a really neat family.  The sisters say when the kids ask questions during the lessons their mother explains it to them and tells them exactly what the sisters just taught them.  We hope we will get to meet the father next week.  This evening we got to watch the First Presidency Devotional at the branch building with the Sisters.  It is broadcast on BYU TV and most of the members do get that so they don't come back to the building for the devotional.  It is quite a long drive for them.  We are going to download it and show it to those who didn't get to see it.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon

And serve others this Christmas season

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

PS.  We volunteered to come and read the Book of Mormon with the pot smoking husband each week.  We aren't sure who will develop a new habit first.  We hope it will be him.