Dear Family and Friends,
So after we got the Kirks settled into their new apartment a few weeks ago, it seems we are going to try to relocate Brother White as well. We went by the Riverside apartments to see Sister Hunt who is the manager of several apartment complexes around the area (she was baptized a couple years ago but hasn't been to church since we came to the branch). We never met her face to face when trying to contact her as missionaries but seem to be fairly successful when it comes to lining up potential clients. She told us once that she was going to come to church on Sunday (the Alabama polite thing) but never shows up. She said the same thing to the sisters when they were able to catch her at home, but still didn't come. Anyway, I digress. We saw her Monday morning and told her about Brother White in Greensboro wanting to get a place in Demopolis and she said, "Oh, you mean Blue. I know Blue." She said she thought she would have an opening soon and would be happy to meet with us to have him fill out an application, so we made an appointment to meet her at the complex she manages in Greensboro to complete the application for a unit in Demopolis. That would mean only one trip to Greensboro instead of two if we had to bring him to Demopolis. He has dialysis on Tuesday and Thursday so we set the appointment for Wednesday. Then Monday afternoon we went to Linden to get Beth and back to Demopolis to get Ollie and took both of them to the Hospital to attend a class on Diabetes and food safety. We went back after the class and picked them up and took them both to Ollie's so Beth could visit with Larry and have some fruit and ice cream then we went back to get Beth and took her back home to Linden. Yes our taxi service is still going strong.
Tuesday we took the sisters and went to Tuscaloosa for interviews with the Mission President and then a late District Council meeting. Great, as always, to have a chance to visit with President and Sister Sainsbury but the late meeting burned up most of the day.
Wednesday we went to Greensboro to get Brother White and take him over to meet with Sister Hunt and the office was closed. It should have already been open for an hour. The Maintenance man showed up while we were there and said they called her to another complex that was about an hour and a half away and she would be working there for the whole day. He called her for us and we rescheduled the appointment for Friday so we would have to bring him to Demopolis after all. We came back to Demopolis to meet with Larry and Ollie to read the Book of Mormon but Larry was asleep. Keith, a childhood friend of Ollie's, was there. He sang for everyone at her seventieth birthday party last summer. We asked him if he wanted to join us to read, which he did. Since Easter was coming we read a couple of different chapters that talked about the atonement of Christ. He was a little familiar with the Book of Mormon and had a copy of it at home. We hope it might have sparked a renewed interest.
Thursday we had Book of Mormon class in Greensboro. We finally had Brother White there again. He seemed to be doing really well. He was riding his electric wheelchair around the halls like it was a racecar. We had more people there than we have had for several weeks and the management had scheduled an Easter activity for everyone using the common room where we always meet. The manager came down the hall and saw us and felt really badly because she had forgotten it was the time we meet. She apologized and we assured her it was quite alright. We all went up and had class in the main lobby on that second floor. We lasted for a couple chapters but it got really warm and we had to bring it to an end. Angelinia came to class (she isn't usually there, she is in a wheelchair). Her oldest son was coming home from Juvenile detention that day and she had asked Sister Owens to bake a chocolate cake for her to welcome him home. We had an awesome thunder storm in the evening. It is the season again. We love the thunder storms here. We found out Brother White couldn't go the next day to see Sister Hunt because he had to go to Tuscaloosa to have a venogram to get ready for a procedure he has to have on Monday to try to correct a problem he is having with his dialysis port. He also told us he didn't know how he was going to get there. The man that usually helps him out with transportation was going to be out of town. We told him we would make sure he got there.
So we cancelled the appointment with Sister Hunt and ended up getting up at 4:45 AM Friday morning to get Brother White to Tuscaloosa by 7:00 AM and surprisingly were finished at the hospital by about 9:30 AM. We had planned to be in York (at the other end of our area) to pick up things for our Branch Easter activity from Sister James at 11:00 AM and had texted her that we would be late because of Brother White's appointment in Tuscaloosa. We got finished so quickly that we actually got to York right at 11:00. We got back to Demopolis and stuffed 150 plastic eggs with starbursts and skittles for the Easter egg hunt then we went home so Sister Owens could work on her talk for Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and I went back to set up the building for the activity the next day.
Last year our first day in Demopolis was the day before Easter. After being unable to locate our apartment anywhere in the town and not being able to reach our landlady we finally made contact with the Branch mission leader, Brother Smith, and found out they were just finishing up at the Branch building after the Easter egg hunt and we found the building and went there to meet him. We can hardly believe it has been more than a year since then and this year we were in the middle of everything for the activity Saturday. We didn't really know how they did everything last year and assumed they would just move along the way they did before. But after about an hour with nothing happening Sister Owens took charge and they got the egg hunt started with the children. After they found all the eggs and came inside to count their take, Brother Kirk (famous for being late for everything) showed up with his sedan full of about twelve of the Kirk cousins ready to hunt for eggs. We had to do some scrambling (no pun intended) to get some eggs stuffed with candy to give to the late arrivals. Gordon and Julia Loveland from back home in Idaho (Idaho Falls) showed up during the activity and are here to stay with us for a few days. It was exciting to have them meet some of the people that we have been writing home about over the past year. It was also kind of nice to have their help cleaning the building for Sunday (since it was our turn to clean the building again). Saturday night we had a meeting with Joe Davis. He was committed for baptism next Saturday. He told us he didn't think he was going to be ready to be baptized. He said he had a lot of personal things he was working on and had to get taken care of. We were all a little disappointed and he ended up saying he would pray about it and find out what Heavenly Father wanted him to do. He said he would come to church on Sunday.
I think Sunday was about the most beautiful day we have seen since we came to Alabama. We couldn't have asked for a better day for Easter. Brother White brought his two sons and daughter-in-law and three year old grandson with him. Right at 10:00 Joe Davis walked in and sat down and one other sister that is currently being taught came in and Timothy that came for the first time last week was also there. Sister Weaver and Sister Owens were the speakers and Sister Beaugez played a hymn on her violin between their talks. It was an awesome meeting. We came home and enjoyed a Sunday dinner with the Lovelands. President James had a fund raiser at work and purchased a cooked Boston Butt and gave it to us at the Easter Activity which we had for dinner. We went for another appointment with Joe Davis in the evening. He told us after he prayed he felt he should tell us what was on his mind because he knew he had been on all our minds. Since right after Christmas it seems that a certain lady with two children has been showing some interest in him which caught him totally by surprise. He was divorced thirty years ago and has always been very fond of family life but had come to accept the fact that he will probably finish out his life single. He is not sure now how this is going to turn out, but feels he is supposed to see what happens with this possible relationship before he proceeds with his baptism. He wants to approach his new friend about the church and see how she feels. So it looks like it will be a while yet before he is going to be baptized. The church is still true and we will still keep working with him, at least as long as he is living here.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day.
We love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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