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
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