Dear Family and Friends,
I’ll start by explaining the above attachments. We mentioned last week that the Kirks got to move from their old neighborhood into a new two bedroom apartment. Number one above is the house the four of them have been living in for the last several years. It had a small living room, a bedroom, a closet sized Kitchen without a stove or table, and a tiny bathroom that was added onto the back of the house. I took some pictures of the depressing neighborhood that I am not sending. Number two is the Kirks outside their front door at their new apartment. I told them they all had to smile this time. Tasha almost did but Cedric never looks any different (He actually smiled once in church when I called him Captain Kirk, but that was the only time I have ever seen it happen). Zeryonia (second from the right) is turning seventeen this Wednesday. Number three is Tasha with Sister Owens in front of the new apartment.
We do apologize for this being a day late. Daylight savings starting along with a very busy Sunday just made it too hard to get the email done last night before we had to go to bed.
So this was mostly not a really exciting week. It definitely had it’s ups and downs. Monday was a good, busy day. Sister Owens had her RS Presidency meeting in the morning. They finished up their plans for the RS birthday party which was Friday. We were supposed to read with Larry and Ollie in the afternoon but we started with Ollies finances and check register and three hours later it was too late to read (It was getting too hard for both of us to breathe anyway because of the “Cigar” smoke. We went with the sisters in the evening to follow up on some appointments which fell through and then met with a young man who really doesn’t seem interested in finding a testimony of anything but doesn’t tell the sisters to get lost (I think he enjoys the attention of two nice looking young women). The sisters keep working with him even though he isn’t really keeping any of his commitments.
Tuesday we went to District Council and went home through Greensboro to check on some people the sisters have been trying to contact and see some of the branch members. As Sister Weaver put it, “That’s missionary work.” Everywhere we went there was no one at home. Then the appointment they had in the evening that we were going to go to with them fell through as well. Lisa salvaged the day for us when she called and told us their kids got to go help clear the land for the Pocatello Temple ground breaking. The ground was too soft for any heavy equipment so all the youth from the temple district were invited to come to do the job. What an awesome experience for them.
Wednesday was coordination meeting. We found out the golden sister that came to church by herself from 30 minutes away and Sister Owens has been to discussions with her has cut off all contact with the sisters. She was on baptism date for next week. They had a discussion last Sunday evening that went really well and since then she has not answered her door or responded to any texts or phone messages and does not answer phone calls. No one has any idea what happened with her.
Thursday morning we took the sisters out to Uniontown and Faunsdale to check on some people. They met a woman store contacting who was very anxious to meet with them. We got to her home in time for the appointment and no one answered the door. We checked on an old bible referral in Faunsdale. An old gentleman answered the door and we told him who we were trying to contact. He said he didn’t know her, we should check next door. We went next door and the lady there said she lived next door with her father who is sick and never answers the door. She was a nice lady and invited the sisters back on Sunday to talk. We haven’t heard whether anything came of that. We went to Book of Mormon class in the afternoon. Brother White wasn’t there. We went up to see him after class. He is very weak and in a great deal of pain but refuses to go to the hospital.
Friday was the RS birthday Luncheon. We only had to make one trip to and from Greensboro before and after. We didn’t take Sister Jones with us because we thought we would have to get two sisters but one had to work and couldn’t come. Sister Jones was a little put out with us for not taking her but finally warmed up to us by the end of the meeting (I just love Alabama). After our Greensboro run after the meeting, we came back and cleaned up the building and checked some of the videos on the church website and went home and crashed for the night.
We have been trying to change our P-day from Saturday to Monday so we don’t get so far behind when the sisters need us to go with them on Saturday. It’s not working very well yet because we keep running out of clothes by Saturday and have to do the laundry. We had another meeting with the sisters and Jonah (the one that enjoys the attention). He said he would come to church on Sunday but his mother was using her car to go to her church so he would need a ride. We met in the evening with Joe Davis (the dispatcher at Dana Transport). He feels he has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration but says he can’t be baptized because he likes to drink coffee. He knows he needs to stop in order to be baptized and says he won’t be until he decides he is going to stop. We have very good discussions and we are hoping to get him to understand the blessings that are available to him through baptism and membership in the church. He told us he would come to church.
We were all kind of excited about Sunday after all the things that fell through during the week, we had five people that said they were going to come to church. We usually go get Andrea and her mother for church but Andrea called and said she wasn’t feeling well and they weren’t coming. So we were free to go get the two single men that said they were coming and needed rides. The sisters had called both of them and reminded them Sunday morning. Jonah actually didn’t answer. We went to get the first one, James, and while we were knocking on his door the neighbors told us he just left about five minutes before. We sent a text and told him we were there to pick him up for church and wondered if he was around. He texted back that he was gone grocery shopping in Tuscaloosa with his sister. We went to get Jonah and knocked about three times on the door and he yelled from inside wanting to know who it was. I told him we were there to take him to church. He said he just got up. Maybe he could come next week. So we struck out but the two people the sisters had invited came on their own. They were related to the Kirks. We had thirty-two people there and at least twenty of them were under seventeen. A lot of members were gone due to illness. I taught the lesson in Priesthood meeting because the quorum president had to work. It was on “One in Christ” by Elder Soares. All about how we should be more welcoming to new members and visitors that come to church. I had a questionnaire for everyone to fill out about how much they knew about our most recent convert (Brother Kirk). Those in attendance were Brother Kirk, his non-member nephew, myself, the Branch President’s son, and the first counselor to the Branch President, and two Aaronic priesthood boys. Lamar, Cedric’s non-member nephew, was the only one that knew the answers to the questions. It was an interesting class. After church Cedric came with me to administer the sacrament to Brother White in Greensboro. He has been helping pass the sacrament in church. I asked him if he wanted to bless the water when we went to Brother White’s. He said he would. It was the first time for him. It was a neat experience. Brother White was in bed and was having so much pain in his shoulder he couldn’t even sit up to take the sacrament. Before we left Sister Owens asked if there was anything we could get for him (so he wouldn’t have to try to get out of bed after we were gone). He asked for some white bread and sliced cheese. I went to the kitchen and found some cheese in the fridge but couldn’t find any bread. I went back to ask if he wanted me to slice some of the cheese for him and found out he wanted us to go to the store to get bread and sliced cheese. He had plenty of food in the house so I told him we would rather not go to the store on Sunday but we would get the things for him and bring them out first thing in the morning. He said that would be okay. After we got home we went last night to another discussion with the sisters.
Since we are a day late, I will jump ahead and let you know we got out to Brother White’s a little before noon today and he didn’t answer his door or his phone. We went and told the manager and they went up and unlocked his door and he was lying in bed non-responsive and they had to get the ambulance to take him to the hospital again. His niece just called us to say he had to be sedated and is still out of it but she will be back up in the morning and will call us and let us know how he is doing. Life is not easy here for a lot of people. They need all the help they can get. Brother White always says, “The Lord is still in charge.” It is true!
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day and PRAY FOR BROTHER WHITE
We love y’all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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