Week 44: It was the best of times and the worst of times

Dear Family and Friends,

In her journal Sister Owens called Monday the day of minor miracles.  We experienced some tender mercies.  After our walk we decided we better drop the car off and get the oil changed before our Temple trip on Tuesday.  The shop is about half a mile from our apartment so we asked them to call us when it was finished and we walked home.  We just turned into our cul-de-sac when I realized our apartment key was on the ring with the car key back at the shop.  Then I remembered I was scraping the windows with the car running before our walk and Sister Owens came out of the house without locking it.  So we didn't have to walk back to the shop for the key.  That was good because Sister Owens decided to wear her new snow boots to walk and they were more like Frankenstein shoes than sneakers and she ended up with a very sore heel.  Later we were feeling badly that we were unable to get any initiatory work done so Sister Owens could take a family name to the endowment session with the mission on Tuesday.  We checked the new Family Tree app for the cell phone to check for names ready for ordinances and there was one name ready for endowments that we were able to print out so she could do a family name.  We delivered several invitations to branch members here in Demopolis for our Branch Conference on Sunday and then read the Book of Mormon with Ollie and Larry.

Tuesday was a great day spent in the temple with the missionaries.  We both got to do family names and they asked us to attend both sessions, once with our zone and then with the Tupelo zone after that.  They need all the senior couples because they don't have the young missionaries stand in the prayer circle.  The temple is open just for the missionaries so there isn't anyone else there but us.  They asked us to be the witness couple in the second session which is always a special privilege.  We didn't have the sisters with us this time.  All the missionaries had to drive their own cars because they were installing second generation TIWIs in all the vehicles.  We had to stop at Costco on the way home to have the tires rotated on our car.  We sat around there for two hours waiting for that which was not the most enjoyable way to end the day. We did see President and Sister Sainsbury there before we left and got to visit with them.  That seems to happen just about every time and it is always special.

Wednesday was about the lowest day of our mission so far for us.  We normally do not have district meeting in  the week when we have zone conference or mission temple trips but the sisters texted us Tuesday night and said the district leader said we were going to have District Council at 10:00 AM in Tuscaloosa anyway.  It didn't make for a very good day after such a long day on Tuesday.  It seemed to be a very discouraging day all around.  We decided something pretty special was going to happen on the weekend since Satan was exerting such a strong influence. I had tried to schedule ministering visits all week for the priesthood leaders to make tonight in conjunction with branch conference.  Out of six appointments I tried to schedule, nothing worked out except the first one I scheduled last week.  So I ended up driving to Greensboro to make that visit and Brother White was supposed to accompany me.  I got there and went to Brother White's apartment and he wasn't there and didn't answer his phone (the last thing in the world I thought would happen).  I went to the visit alone which I thought wouldn't hold up anyway.  I waited a long time at the door after knocking about three times and he came to the door just before I was going to head home.

Thursday was a much better day.  We had a good nights sleep and the sun came out for the first time in several days.  Our driving the past couple days was mostly in rain.  Sister Owens made some visits with the Primary President and invited some sisters to come to branch conference. We bought some things at the store for a gentleman the sisters have started to teach.  Sister Owens went with them Wednesday  night while I was gone to Greensboro.  He hadn't eaten anything since Monday.

Friday we fixed some things to take for the pot luck after branch conference on Sunday.  Then we went to Kamia's baptism that night (see attachment #1).  Her mother decided she was not going to be baptized because she didn't feel she would be able to live the law of chastity.  Her boyfriend is a truck driver and stays at their house whenever he is in town.  She said she was not going to marry him because that would end her benefit check from the government, and she didn't want to break up with him.  When we got to the baptism she told the sisters we could make next Friday her night.  We were all shocked.  She said  Tony asked her to marry him so she wants to be baptized. I guess we'll see what happens with that.

Saturday and Sunday were the best days of our mission so far.  We left at 8:00 AM to go to the temple in conjunction with branch conference.  We've been going back and forth all week trying to work out transportation.  President James wanted the branch council to attend the 9:00 AM session because Kamia was originally going to be baptized Saturday.  We had to change it to Friday so she could have some medical procedures done on Saturday so we wanted to change it to 11:00 since the rest of the council (Smiths) has seven kids and it would be hard to get there that early.  He said he was still going to go at 9:00 but texted us at 3:00 AM advising they were at the hospital in Birmingham with their granddaughter and weren't sure they would get to the temple.  Saturday was the day the temple invites any new converts to come to do baptisms for the dead.  So we took Ja'Nylia and the sisters (see attachment #2) in our car and Smiths took Cedric and Tasha and Zyreonia (correct spelling) in their car and they went to the 10:30 baptism session.  Brother Smith and his kids and the sisters stayed in the baptism session and Sister Owens and I were the only ones from the branch council that attended an endowment session.  We found out Sunday that The James were in the hospital for the birth of their great grandson, Zion.

Sunday was a great day that started at 7:30 AM (some of the stake leaders had to drive two hours to get here).  President Lewis (counselor in the Stake Presidency) came representing the Presidency.  He told us while he was in the Temple yesterday he was seeking inspiration as to what he should do to help the saints in Demopolis.  He said the question came into his mind, "Why can't Demopolis become a ward?" He kept thinking of all the reasons why it cant be a ward and the question just kept coming more and more forcefully.  He finally decided the Lord was trying to tell him something and he should pay attention.  So that is the question he presented to us today.  He told us miracles can happen.  We just need to pray with faith for the things we need to make it possible for us to be a ward.  We had sixty-six people in attendance.  More than 30% higher than we have ever had since we have been here.  I guess we have our work cut out for us for the next year.

Three tithing envelops were turned in today. One of them was from one of the Kirk girls, baptized two weeks ago.  What a group of special kids here!

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 43: Winter is here but the tornado missed us again

Dear Family and Friends,

The week started off a little bumpy.  Sister Owens succumbed to the approaching winter weather and was fighting a bug for a couple days ( I think she spent a little to much time in company with the sick and afflicted).  She felt good enough Wednesday that we could go to Tuscaloosa for District Council.  As usual it was a very good meeting.  We are always impressed with the caliber of these young missionaries with whom we get to serve. Sister Owens was still fighting a pretty good headache so nothing much happened after we got home from Tuscaloosa.  Brother Smith had to have Coordination meeting Tuesday night instead of Wednesday so I had gone to that without Sister Owens.

Thursday Sister Nixon's daughter came to Book of Mormon class.  She was paralyzed from the chest down from a car accident a couple years ago.  She came to church the first Sunday of the year (the first time since we have been here).  She has seemed like a pretty hard case the times we have visited her so we are excited to have her in class.  Our non-member "regular" was trying to hold back her tears all through class. Her family is failing to provide the care they should be providing.  We might be paying another visit to Human Resources again.

Friday we got some prints at Walmart of the pictures we took of the Kirk girls at their baptism so we could get them framed and give to them.  We went to a book of Mormon referral with the sisters.  He was an older black gentleman.  When we went into his apartment he apologized because he only had two chairs.  They were wooden kitchen chairs.  He has been trying to find work and is hoping to move into a different apartment in the next few weeks.  He only had one table lamp on in the whole apartment.  There was no shade on the lamp, it was just the light bulb.  He was a very humble man.  He and Sister Owens sat on the chairs while the sisters explained the Book of Mormon to him.  He said a very sweet prayer before we left.  Then we went with the sisters to meet with the McGees who we have been taking to church the past few weeks.  It is a lady and her ten year old daughter.  They are both very excited about being baptized next Saturday.

The sisters were tracting in the rain this week and thinking they should be in their car making phone calls but kept going anyway.  They knocked on a door and a young lady opened the door and invited them in and said she had been waiting for them to come.  She was being taught a year ago by the sisters and was scheduled to be baptized but moved to Tuscaloosa.  She moved back here last fall and didn't know how to contact the missionaries because she had lost their number when her apartment was flooded.  She asked them to sit and read the Book of Mormon with her and said she wanted to come to church Sunday, which she did. President James remembered her from a year ago but never knew what happened to her.  She will probably be baptized before too long.

We have a mission temple trip next Tuesday and our Branch conference is next Sunday so we will be going to the temple on Saturday as well, as a Branch.  We have had several family names for a while and have not been able to do the work when we have gone because they needed baptisms and initiatory work done.  We have to schedule everything with the temple here because they are only open certain hours on certain days.  We decided we would go Saturday and get the work done so we can do family names in the upcoming endowment sessions.  Brother Kirk was baptized several weeks ago for the names I have.  Sister Owens has some names from a couple sisters in the branch that still have to have baptisms done so we were hoping we could get those done in one of the youth sessions and then we could both do initiatory work.  When we got to the temple there was only one parking place in the parking lot.  The day before when we called to schedule an appointment they had told us they don't do appointments anymore, that they have cards for all the sessions (initiatory, endowment, etc.) and you just come and if they still have a card you can get a session sometime during the day. Kind of a gamble for a two hour and twenty minute trip one way.  When we went in they told us they had a three stake youth conference from the Tupelo, Mississippi area doing baptisms all day (don't know why they couldn't have mentioned that the night before when we were talking to them on the phone).  We asked and they didn't think they could fit in any of our names for baptisms but they would try.  We decided to do an endowment session and then see if they got any of the baptisms done and then hopefully get an initiatory session.  They hadn't done any of the names when the endowment session was done, so I went and did an initiatory session for the names I had and Sister Owens was going to wait a while longer for the names from the baptismal session.  Two hours later I was finished and they still hadn't done any of the names.  Well, next Saturday is the day for new converts to do baptisms for the dead so now we have some names for the Kirk girls to do then.  On our way home from the temple we encountered some pretty gusty winds when we crossed a bridge and traveled most of the way in moderate rain but really didn't know anything about the tornado until after we got home and started getting texts wanting to know if we were okay.  So far all the really dangerous weather has stayed pretty far to the east of us.  I guess Montgomery had a tornado Saturday but that is about a hundred miles east of Demopolis.

With all that was going on last Sunday, I forgot to mention that Brother white was ordained an Elder and set apart as the first counselor in the Elders Quorum.  I asked him today if he talked to President James about when he could go to the temple.  He said President hasn't said anything about it to him.  I told him he is the one that wants to go to the temple and he has to ask President James about it.  He was just waiting for the President to say something. We got to visit with President James for a few minutes after church.  He had interviewed the Kirk girls for their recommends for baptism for the dead and told us how impressed he was with their gospel knowledge and the depth of their testimonies.  He had been a little skeptical about their preparedness for their baptisms.  There are some really neat kids in the branch right now, mostly under sixteen and several actually primary age.  They seem to be stronger in the gospel that a lot of the adults.  Two nonmember kids call the James about 6:00 AM every Sunday morning asking them for a ride to church.  A little cousin of the Kirks, Aliah (the one wrapped up in Ja'Nylia's arms in attachment #1), has been coming to church longer that they have and is just waiting for her Auntie to give her permission to be baptized.  She is nine.

Sister Owens liked the cloud we saw on our drive home from the Temple (attachment #2 looking to the west away from the bad stuff).

We are seeing a lot of good things start to happen here.  We are glad we're here.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day.

We love y'all,  thanks for your support.

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 42: Sour milk cake and egg drop soup and the crazy little white Grandma

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday was our zone conference.  They had us go to Montgomery again to save fifteen minutes driving time for us.  We kind of miss meeting with our own zone and the rest of our district but the drive to Montgomery is much better than the drive to Birmingham.  It makes for a very full day anyway.  We left town at 6:40 AM and got home at 7:30 PM. Conference is always a very encouraging experience for us.

It seems like we are becoming the financial advisors for a number of the members of the branch.  President James had us do a Needs Assessment for one of the sisters on Tuesday.  She assured us when we got there that her outgo was definitely more than her income, which it was.  The whole state seems to have an entitlement mentality.  It is hard to convince people that they are actually supposed to work at getting to the point where they can be self-sufficient.  A lot of them just look to the church as another source for ongoing benefits to pay their expenses.

Wednesday we went to Tuscaloosa for our district council.  On the way home we took the sisters to the West End Grocery again for lunch in Eutaw.  Sister Weaver (from Chicago) was a little more comfortable there than Sister Shreeve was last time we went.  Poor Sister Tennyson just kind of goes along with anything we do.  Ruthie Brown (from our branch) is the cook there and we have never been disappointed with the food yet.  We had chicken and I really felt bad we weren't coming the next day when she said she had to start the meat marinating for the next day.  She was doing a Boston Butt and meat loaf for tomorrow.  We wanted to get by there to see her because she is really stressing over some dealings she has with the courts over her finances.  She has to go to court next Thursday.

I am having a hard time accepting the fact that the two of us do not get through a whole gallon of milk before It goes sour.  Of course only one of us ever drinks it anyway (that might have something to do with it).  Milk is about $3.85 a gallon now and we are having to pay ¾ of the price for half the milk when we buy a half gallon so we can finish it before it goes sour.  So we had half of the last gallon of milk go sour and we were going to make some sour milk pancakes but never did get around to it.  The milk got about as thick as rice pudding and Sister Owens said we had to throw it out but I wouldn't let her.  We got a recipe from Tami for sour milk chocolate cake and made one for Book of Mormon class (they will eat anything)  It was not the easiest thing to make with soda dissolved in boiling water and all, but it ended up being a very good cake.  We are keeping the recipe.  We also had to make some chicken noodle soup for the RS luncheon on Friday.  The noodles were only supposed to boil for twenty minutes but by the time we got to that point we were out of time and had to leave for class so we put it in the crock pot and figured they could go a while on low.

Friday was a very big busy day.  The monthly meeting for Relief Society included a presentation by Elder Owens on budgeting (we'll see how much good that does) and then we had the chicken noodle soup and French rolls from the "made too much" rack at Walmart for a Budget meal.  One of the sisters complimented Sister Owens on the soup and told her it reminded her of Egg Drop soup at Chinese restaurants (so much for cooking the noodles on Low in the Crock Pot).  Of course we had to make our run to Greensboro to bring the sisters in for the meeting but one of them was not home when we got there to pick her up.  That ended up being a good thing because the other sister decided to stay in Demopolis for the afternoon so we didn't have to take her back to Greensboro.  We had a baptism in the evening.  Cedric and Tasha Kirk's daughters were baptized.  They had told the sisters when they were teaching Cedric that there was no way they were being baptized.  They are turning seventeen and fourteen this year.  We took them to the temple with Cedric and Tasha when they were baptized for the dead.  The younger one, Ja'Nylia, cried all the way to Birmingham because she did not want to go the temple.  She was the one that bore her testimony on fast Sunday and asked if she could speak after she was baptized.  There were between thirty and forty people there and she got up and thanked everyone for coming and told them that she hoped they would get baptized just like she did.  There were a lot of her cousins that came for the service.  Before the service Sister Owens told her she would be her crazy little white grandma.  We took a picture of the family (Attachment #1, this was after I coaxed them all to actually smile) and Ja'Nylia whispered to Sister Weaver that she wanted to have her picture taken with Sister Owens (Attachment #2).  It's so neat to see how much the girls have changed over the past several weeks.  They are both so excited to be with the youth in the ward.  They are registered to go to the Youth Conference in February.  They will have five stakes involved.  It will be quite the experience for both of them.  Ja'Nylia's sister is Zyeronia.  A couple more of the very interesting names they have here.  Sister Owens commented once that they give everybody such exotic names here and then end up calling them Kiki or Cecee or Pepee or Tata, etc.  Very interesting. The Kirk girl's names are pronounced Janyla and Zereyawna.

Saturday we thought we were finally going to have a day to ourselves to get our cleaning and laundry done.  Not so.  A sister in Greensboro called and said she was out of food.  President James asked us if we would take her some necessities and do an Needs Assessment while we were there.  We got one grocery list from her and one from President James.  She was probably a little disappointed but she got the items on President James list and not hers. We did get our wash done before we got to bed.

We were looking forward to resting up a bit tonight but the sisters needed us to take them out to some teaching appointments.  They had four backup appointments and we ended up actually getting in with a mother and her daughter that are planning on being baptized in two weeks.  We read a chapter in the Book of Mormon with them.  We managed to reschedule two of the other four appointments.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon (and read your Come Follow Me lesson)

We Love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 41: Happy New Year from Alabama, what season is this, really!

Dear Family and Friends,

We had a great start to the New Year.  We went o  a team up with the sisters to a Book of Mormon discussion with a very receptive man that advised us that he has always attended church.  His father is a deacon in his church and he has several uncles and cousins that are deacons or preachers in different churches.  He was interested to find out about the Book of Mormon and said he was definitely going to read the introduction.  He was excited to make a follow up appointment for Friday and looked forward to seeing us again.

Wednesday morning we went with the sisters to a couple of appointments in Greensboro, both of which fell through.  So we used the time to look for some more of the inactive members of the branch.  We drove five miles out of town to try to find one of them and they weren't home (what a surprise – see attachment # 1)  I guess it's been a while since they lived there.  On the way home we took a picture of the flooded pasture that we photographed five days earlier and sent with last weeks email (this week's pic is attachment #2). We went in the afternoon to read the Book of Mormon with Larry (the Viet Nam vet with PTSD).  He always has so many questions about what we are reading.  We hope it is making a difference for him.  Sister Owens thinks he is seeming a little more mellow than before we started reading with him. After coordination meeting we went back to help Ollie get her bills paid for the month and get her bank statement balanced. She shakes so badly she can't write checks and Ross charges her $40 dollars to write them for her (what a place).

Thursday was Relief Society Presidency meeting for Sister Owens and then we had the Book of Mormon class in Greensboro.  We haven't had food for the last couple weeks and a couple of the men didn't show up this week (don't know if that is because we are just finishing up the Isaiah chapters or because we didn't have food for two weeks).  It was neat to get to chapter 25 of II Nephi and read how Nephi glories in plainness.  That chapter was much easier for them to understand.  We suggested that maybe everybody might read two or three chapters on their own before we have class because Sister Owens and I would like to get closer to the end of the book with them before we go home next year.  They have only been reading a chapter each week and at that rate would only be somewhere in Mosiah when we leave.  We'll have to see how that goes.

Friday we followed up a second time with a fellow in Linden on a team up with the sisters.  Last time was not a good time and this time he was gone shopping in Demopolis.  Sister Weaver said she has no problem with rejection but really resents people that just waste her time standing them up instead of saying they really don't want to talk to us.  They keep going back just in case.  It is Alabama and nobody wants to hurt anyone's feelings.  We went to the follow up appointment with the fellow we met with on Monday.  His father was there and he was going to go see about buying a car, so it  wasn't a good time for him.  He will have us come back next week.  Gee, someone in our branch with a car that could drive to church.  I think we are dreaming.

We had to pick up Andrea for church so we weren't available to get the new people that the sisters have been teaching.  They called a sister from Eutaw that just bought a car to see if she could get Andrea and her mother so we would be able to get the McGees, but they said they never could get in touch with her.  But the mother of the new family wasn't coming so we could just go by and get her daughter after we picked up Andrea and her mother.  Well, interestingly enough, Andrea's mother was having Vertigo and didn't come, so we just had Andrea and Kamia and we weren't late for church.  Sister McGee was "doing hair" but said she is coming next week.  The sister they tried to contact to pick up Andrea and her mother showed up at church with her inactive son and his non-member "wife."  Sadly, we found out why they were there later when the Branch President showed me the overdue power bills that they wanted us to pay for them (I guess that's not nice to say but it's so often true). The Kirk girls that wouldn't join in on the discussions when Cedric was being taught and said they did not want to be baptized are planning to be baptized this Friday.  The youngest (13) stood up and bore her testimony today in Testimony meeting. It is so neat, they seem like totally different girls than when we first met them.  On the way home from church today we had to turn on the AC.  Seventy-two degrees is kind of warm with all this humidity.  We sure miss all that snow and freezing weather (yeah, right).

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens