Dear Family and Friends,
We scheduled our three apartment inspections for Monday and the Housing coordinator called us and asked if we could inspect the sisters apartment in Camden also. They just re-opened the area after several years without missionaries. So we went to see the sisters in Camden. They have a very small branch there with about fifteen members that come each week. The sisters were so excited to be there. They told us how "they" got into their apartment before they arrived and decorated the walls with welcome notes and stocked their pantry and put up signs. We asked if it was the Branch that did that. They told us it was the Vicks. I said, "Is that a family in the branch?" They said it was. By the time we were leaving to come home we had found out the Vicks are the branch. It is just one family and extended family. Their son is on his mission right now. The sisters told us the whole town came to his farewell. Everybody in town knows the family. They go tracting in the town and ask people if they know Stone Vick. They tell them yes, and then they say "We are doing what he is doing right now." It seems to be a good approach for them to use. Anyway we did our four inspections and it made Sister Owens pretty tired. Kind of a long day for her.
Tuesday we didn't do much other than recuperate from the day before, except for taking our sisters halfway back to Camden to meet the other sisters so they could do their exchanges for the transfer. They trade companions and each set works in one of the areas for twenty-four hours. We did go with the sisters in the evening for an appointment with a single male. It was a no show. So we went to check on some less active members we have been unable to contact and still couldn't find them home. We did get to see a recent convert (baptized a few weeks before we came) who has never been to church since we came. He avoided us for a long time and his brother told us he moved to Tuscaloosa a few months ago. We had never met him but saw someone outside his apartment some weeks ago and I just went up and asked him if he was Johnny Braxton. He was too surprised to say anything but "yes" and he wondered how I knew that because he didn't know me. Anyway, his door was open Tuesday night so we went to see him. His kids were there visiting so we didn't stay. We just told him we would love to see him at church someday. In typical Alabama style, he told us he loved the church and he would be coming.
Wednesday we took the sisters back to get paired up with their companions again. Last week Sister Owens told the Book of Mormon class it was time we had a treat again (it has been a while) so we had to pick up some stuff and get a cake made to take with us Thursday. We had coordination meeting with Brother Smith and then we were going to go to the appointment with the sisters to see Marquise who we had a discussion with on Sunday evening but he called them and said he would have to cancel. It was kind of exciting for the sisters because usually they just aren't home when they go for appointments.
Thursday we took Sister Owens to Tuscaloosa in the morning to have her consultation with the pulmonologist. I had to go in with her to make sure she didn't leave out any of the important stuff. She seems to have a hard time telling the whole truth when she talks to doctors. The doctor wasn't to excited to hear that she is coughing up some colored mucous again and put her on another antibiotic. So we get to go through that routine again for another ten days. She scheduled her for a CT scan in August and a follow up appointment. Sister Owens says she is never getting sick again because it makes her too tired and depressed. Of course, she might be right. If she doesn't start following orders and getting the rest she needs she won't ever get better this time and then she won't be able to get sick again. We did have a good Book of Mormon class. I cut the cake and Sister Owens said I cut the pieces too small. She was the only one that complained though. We had enough left to give some to the sisters and to one of the sisters in the branch that wasn't feeling well. She felt bad because Sister Owens missed her birthday and didn't bring her a cake. That was the week we were seeing all the doctors in Demopolis.
Friday was our last District Council for this transfer. The District Leader changed the time from 11:00 AM to noon so the sisters could go to lunch before the meeting because he said the elders were going to go to lunch. A few months ago the President asked us to discontinue the occasional practice of going to lunch as a district with the elders and sisters together after District Council. So for some reason the DL thought it would be alright to go to lunch before the meeting but not after. He was right about not having the elders go with the sisters but there wasn't any reason they couldn't go after the meeting at lunch time, as long as they didn't go together. Anyway, we drove in early so the Demopolis sisters could meet up with the sisters from the rest of the district and we got to have a nice late breakfast with them before the meeting. Then we took our traditional district picture since it was our last Council meeting (see attachment). We got home in time to pick up Ollie and take her to the church to work on her finances again. She had her hair done in the morning and just as we left the church we had some "car wash rain" as Sister Owens calls it. We had lots of fun getting her into and out of the car and back into her house and still save the hairdo.
Our P-day was Saturday this week because we did inspections all day on Monday. We just did our shopping and chores around the apartment. We had our standing appointment with Joe Davis in the evening. He is trying so hard to give up the coffee but his body is putting up a real fight about it. We had a good discussion and then brought up President Nelson's conference talk, "Come Follow Me" on his computer terminal. He made it about five minutes or less and went to sleep, but the four of us enjoyed the talk. He felt so bad when we woke him up at the end and he apologized about eight times in the six minutes we were there before we left. He is seventy-three and works about twelve hours a day on his farm during the week and then all night Saturday and Sunday at the Trucking terminal. He told us he was coming to church though and he was there and stayed for Sacrament meeting and Priesthood meeting. He would benefit from any prayers offered in his behalf to overcome his coffee. He will be baptized as soon as he can stop.
Sundays are really renewing each week but they have been pretty long as well since we have been having the Self Reliance class after meetings and then we get everyone home after class. Today was an easy day since the one from Linden didn't come and Elder and Sister Champion, who come from Tuscaloosa each week to facilitate the class, offered to take Timothy home for us because it was on the way back to Tuscaloosa. They will be doing that now for the rest of the time we have the class. So today we just had to take two people home that live here in Demopolis. The guest speakers that came down from Tuscaloosa commented on how glad they were to be back in Demopolis again to attend our meetings because there is such a special spirit here in our building. It made us remember how we felt the first week we were here for church when we got here last March. Everybody that comes here always says that about being here.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day.
We Love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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