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
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