Dear Friends and Family,
This week really was full of ups and downs. Last Sunday was Sister Tennyson's last week here and this is where she started her mission four and a half months ago. We were all a little discouraged with the poor turnout at church. None of the people they have been working with that said they would be to church were there except Shearsten. Then on Monday Sister Owens and I read with Ollie and Larry again. Larry kind of surprised us and said he hoped they would be able to finish the book before we go home. We told him they would have to read a lot more than one chapter a week to do that. Maybe we can get him to do a little more reading. Monday evening we took the sisters to Greensboro for a couple of appointments and to follow up with some other people. Both appointments fell through and no one else was home. I found the address of an inactive we have been wanting to see and asked if they wanted to go with us to try to see them. I assumed we would have about the same luck finding them that we have usually had in the past but we decided we would try. We drove about eight to ten miles out past Greensboro toward Tuscaloosa to find them. The four of us went to the door and it was actually the people we were looking for. I told him we were missionaries from the church and we have never seen them and came out to meet them. He said if we would give him a minute to put a shirt on we could come in. We had a great visit for more than an hour before we had to leave to get the sisters back to Demopolis for another appointment. He joined the church in 1987 and had been ordained an elder. He had served as the Branch Presidents councilor before he left the church. He told us he left because people in the church were always talking about Joseph Smith instead of Jesus Christ. They started attending the Baptist church. Then I remembered that they had responded to an invitation to attend branch conference last year before we got here. The letter was there when I was made the branch clerk. They told us in the letter that they were attending another church. They told us they had gotten quite close to different sets of missionaries right after they joined the church and several senior couples as well, who they have visited during trips to the west. He told us that he got a blessing years ago from a man in the church that wasn't just an ordinary blessing but a really special one. He said he told him in the blessing what kind of person he would become later in life. He told his wife at the time that he didn't know what he was talking about because he would never be that kind of person. He said that he has thought about that blessing several times because he has become the very person that the blessing talked about. We explained to him that was his patriarchal blessing and that we could get a copy of it for him. He said he would really like to read it. I said we could come back the next night and set up an account for them on the church web site and order a copy of his blessing so he could read it within a couple weeks. Before we left he told me that he had a strong feeling when he greeted us at the door that he wanted us to come in and talk to them.
Tuesday night Sister Owens and I went back to see them without the sisters. I think we were there about three hours. His wife told Sister Owens that when we left the night before they both looked at each other and said, "Did you feel that!?" We played President Monson's conference talk he gave as an apostle about patriarchal blessings to help them understand more about their blessing, and then set up their account on LDS.org and requested his blessing. He is anxious for it to come (digital copy). As we visited we found out he never accepted Joseph Smith as a prophet. He only joined the church because he agreed with several of the things that the missionaries taught him. He said he had always thought that way and had never found those teachings in any other church. I asked him how he felt about the Book of Mormon and he said he didn't have any feelings one way or another about it. I explained that if he read it and prayed about it the Holy Ghost would tell him if it is true or not, but he would have to be sincere about it and willing to act on the answer that he gets. He told us he never really gave it a chance when he joined the church but now he wants to read it and he really wants to learn. He is a different person now than he was then. I asked him if he came to know the Book of Mormon is true, what that would tell him about Joseph Smith. He said it would mean he was a prophet. It was a great visit and they told us they are definitely going to be at church this Sunday. We also got to meet Abby, their lap pit bull (attachment #1). She has to hold the leash because Abby likes to nuzzle everybody to get pets.
Wednesday was transfers. We were told we would pick up a sister in Tuscaloosa to take along with Sister Tennyson to transfers and leave Sister Weaver in Tuscaloosa until we brought the two new sisters back, which meant we would have to take luggage for two sisters both ways. So we finally had a use for the car top carrier we bought months ago for transfers. We got a call about a half hour before we left informing us that one of the Tuscaloosa sisters had a doctor appointment in Birmingham so they were going to drive to transfers from there and we would just have Sister Weaver and Sister Tennyson to take with us. Sister Tennyson's new area is two YSA branches which made her super excited. She loved working on the campus at the university over in Livingston here in our branch. Our new sister is Sister Beauqez (Bo-zhay'). Her mother is white and her father is Hispanic from Biloxi, Miss. So her name is Cajun. She was in our district before in a different area. She was excited to come back to the district and we are excited to have her in the area. She is a great missionary. We got home about 7:30 PM and realized that I left my iPad at the chapel in Birmingham during transfers. Then I remembered how unwise I thought it was when I put it in the hymnbook holder in front of me and did it anyway. When they announced our new sister we just got up and went to the parking lot to unload and load the car and never thought about the iPad until I got home. I called our fleet coordinator and he said he had a key to the building and would pick it up the next morning. Then I noticed we had a missed call right after we left the church (phone still on vibrate from being in the meeting). The APs called to let me know they had my iPad. So I called Elder Barker back and told him he didn't have to pick it up the next morning. There was going to be a Missionary Leadership Council on Friday and the senior couple from Tuscaloosa was asked to come to it so they were going to give it to them. I called Elder Hurst and asked him to get it for me and let me know when they were going to be home so I could get it from them. And felt naked for the next two days because all my information and all of our schedule is on the iPad (I'm proud to say it is the first time I have left it anywhere in almost a year….except the time I left it in the shopping basket in the Walmart parking lot, but I went back for it after about 20 minutes and it was still there and didn't even get very wet in the rain—I don't use it for shopping lists anymore).
Thursday we were getting things ready for the RS meeting and Luncheon that was scheduled for Friday. And then that evening we had our coordination meeting with Brother Smith that is usually on Wednesday and then we were going to meet with James for another lesson but when we got there he was not there and didn't answer his phone.
We have our little mentally challenged convert sister of about a year and a half who is pregnant out of wedlock. Her baby was due in February. We got a text at 7:00 AM Friday morning that she was in Tuscaloosa in the hospital. She had an emergency C-section and emergency hysterectomy and was hemorrhaging badly and would like the missionaries in Tuscaloosa to come and give her a blessing. We called the only set of elders there (our zone leader and district leader) and they were both just leaving to attend the Mission Leadership Council). We finally got our previous high councilman who lives in Tuscaloosa to go up to give her a blessing. We went ahead and ran the taxi service for Relief Society and when the meeting was over we took Sister Borden home to Greensboro and only had to go another 30 minutes to get to the hospital in Tuscaloosa. She was told in her blessing that she would have to fight for her life and if she did she would have angels attend her. She had two surgeries to find the source of the bleeding and both were unsuccessful. She depleted the hospital's blood supply twice. She was given a 50/50 chance of survival in the first surgery. At 3:00 AM Saturday morning they completed a third surgery with five surgeons involved. The one that found the source of the bleeding was operating with a 102 degree temperature, himself. They were able to stop the bleeding and felt she would survive although she has several hurdles yet to get over. When we were there during the day she was in her second surgery. They were using dye to try to trace the blood and thought they found the leaking artery and stopped it. We left and went to pick up the iPad and when we were on our way home we got a call advising that the bleeding had not stopped and they thought they were going to loose her. They told us she was loosing blood faster than they could pump it into her. And her body was rejecting the blood they were giving her (like it would reject a transplanted organ). Anyway, to make a long story a little less long, we talked to her uncle this afternoon. He said they have put her on a respirator and she is partially responsive. She is scheduled for surgery again tomorrow to removing the packing that was absorbing all the bleeding. She will have a very long recovery if she does survive. The baby boy was born healthy and is in the well baby nursery ready to go home.
On a happier note we had 42 people at church today. The whole Kirk family was there. Tasha got a full time job this week and they are looking for a nicer apartment or home to rent. Things are looking up for them. We are planning to fast as a branch to ask the Lord to soften the heart of Aliah's aunt so she will give permission for her to be baptized. The Bullards we met Monday did not come to church so we felt kind of bad about that. After our appointments this afternoon I called them. They said they both woke up with stomach issues this morning and didn't go anywhere today. They want us to come and meet with them this Wednesday.
Attachment #2 is a picture of the group that went Saturday to help Sister Patterson transfer a lot of her furniture from one storage unit to another so she could stage it for a garage sale.
It has been a busy, rewarding, but challenging week. We will close for now.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day (it saves you from a lot of unnecessary problems and challenges)
We love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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