Dear Family and Friends,
Other than a persistent cough, Sister Owens seems to be getting quite a bit better. This was a very busy week and she went through it like a real trooper. Of course it was probably the cut and perm she got Monday that made all the difference. We had the sisters over for pizza at lunch since we were taking Sister Weaver to transfers Wednesday. It was a little unnerving making pizza for a Chicago native, but she said she liked it. The pulmonologist said Sister Owens should take an antihistamine in addition to the Flonase she is taking every morning, so today she took one of the Zyrtec pills that I got for my pneumonia shot reaction. It didn’t sit with her any better than it did for me. We think she is allergic to the active ingredient in it. Her cough got worse and her air way tightened up. Now we still have three more of the pills we need to figure out what to do with (man, they’re expensive).
Tuesday Sister Owens had presidency meeting to plan out the rest of the year for the monthly RS meetings. Then we went and did the shopping for the luncheon for the meeting this Friday. Neither of us recording anything for that day and we can’t remember anything else about the day so there is nothing more to tell.
Wednesday we drove to Gardendale for transfers. Sister Weaver had more luggage than any sister we ever transported from California, and I let her know it. We couldn’t have stuffed one more thing into our car for that trip. As soon as we arrived at the chapel Sister Hurst came over and asked us if they had talked to us about bring a third sister back with us and dropping her off in Tuscaloosa. No one had said anything to us so we did not bring our car top carrier with us. I told her we could make room for the sister but we only had room for luggage for one sister. We got our new sister.
She is Sister McRaney from (you guessed it) California. Then I was sure we would not have room for any luggage for the third sister. Now our missionaries in Demopolis are Sister McCreath and Sister McRaney. Sister McRaney is a Temple Square missionary. She has been out about a year. About half way through their mission they have the opportunity to go to another mission and serve as a proselyting missionary. She came to our mission last transfer and is now in our area. She seems like another really good missionary. We felt bad losing Sister Weaver. She had been in Demopolis for six months and is a super missionary. We still have two really great sisters to work with here. We loaded Sister McRaney’s luggage and I was flabbergasted. She had one Suitcase and one bedding bag. We laterally had half the luggage area still empty. We got all of the third sister’s luggage in except for one big box. She insisted on holding it on her lap for the hour ride to Tuscaloosa. I was surprised she and the box both actually fit in the back seat, besides the other two sisters sitting with her. Then, of course, we stopped at Costco on the way home to get lunch and it was time to have the tires rotated. They called me just as they finished the rotation to advise me that one of the lug nuts seized half way onto the lug when they were putting the wheel back on the car. Now we have to take the car into the shop tomorrow morning to have that repaired.
Thursday we were just sitting down to eat our lunch and our Branch President’s wife called to say one of the sisters in the branch had been in intensive care since Sunday and they just released her and needed someone to pick her up and take her home. She couldn’t go because she was at work so we told her we would go get her (we assumed she would be there waiting for us). We got there and I waited in the car at patient pick-up and Sister Owens went in to let them know we were there. They told her they were getting her dressed and had to check her blood pressure once more before she could leave and I couldn’t park where I was. I would have to move. So I went and parked in the sun for twenty minutes with the A/C on which really wasn’t doing much to cool the car. Then I finally saw Sister Owens come out and I started to pull up to the door. She shook her head and motioned for me not to come to the door. She came out and said they were still getting her ready to come down and that she was probably making sure that she got her lunch before she left. Sorry, but I was a little put out by then and told her to tell them that we would leave and they could call us when she was ready and we would come and get her. Sister Owens disappeared back into the hospital and I waited another fifteen minutes in the sun and by then the A\C was really not keeping me cool. I assumed they told her she would be right down any minute so she decided we would just wait. I decided I was going to go park in the shade at patient pick-up and wait until they came and told me I had to move, and then I would tell them to have my wife come out and we would go. About five minutes later they wheeled her out and got her in the car and we had to go to the pharmacy and buy her medication for her before we took her home (I love Alabama). On the way to her apartment she said she hoped her son was home because she didn’t have her key. He wasn’t home so we left her at her neighbor’s apartment and about an hour and a half after we left our apartment we headed home to eat our lunch. Before we left, she asked if she could give us some money and we could bring her some dinner on our way home from Book of Mormon class. We only were about twenty minutes late for class by the time we got there. After class we went to HR again to report elder abuse. The non-member that meets with us each week is still living in deplorable conditions and is not being treated right by her daughters. This was the third time we have been in to talk to them about it. We aren’t really seeing where it is making much difference for her (I do love Alabama). After we delivered dinner to Sister Jones and got home we made the taco salad for the luncheon the next day and then went down and set up for the meeting at the church.
Bright and early Friday we fired up the taxi and headed for Greensboro to pick up sisters for Relief Society. The meeting was a success. A sister from the other end of the branch did a class on flower arranging (see attachment #1). After we got the sisters back home to Greensboro and straightened up a bit at the church we texted the sisters who were at a mission leadership meeting all day and asked them if they were going to be back to Demopolis in time for dinner. They said they would just be getting back about 6:00 PM. We told them we could bring dinner over to their apartment so they could eat when they got there. They said that would be great. We got there at six and they weren’t there. We realized we had the spare key to their apartment in our car (several sisters back they kept locking their keys in the apartment and had to keep calling their landlord so they asked us to keep the spare for them). Just as we were putting the leftover taco salad on their table they texted and said they were almost home. We told them we left it on the table and they could eat when they got there.
We had gotten a call Wednesday night and were asked if we would speak in church for Father’s day. We set aside Saturday to devote to making cinnamon rolls (attachment #2) for the dads in the branch and finish preparing our talks. We decided that was our plan for Saturday and we wouldn’t commit to anything else until that was done. So Friday afternoon we got a call from the substitute housing coordinator telling us that the senior couples decided they were going to go Saturday to see the Civil War battlefield in Shiloh Tennessee since in two weeks it will no longer be in our mission. They are re-aligning the boundaries when they change mission presidents on July 1st. We told him we had a pretty busy day planned and would have to call him back to let him know if we would make it. It was an opportunity we really didn’t want to pass up so we called and said we would be there. Then after we got dinner to the sisters we went home and started the dough for the cinnamon rolls and got them made Friday night so they would be ready for Sunday.
Saturday morning we had to leave Demopolis at 6:00 AM to get to Birmingham by 8:00 AM to join the other couples and go in the van for three hours to Shiloh. We went all the way to northern Alabama and then through part of Mississippi and into Tennessee to get there. It was a long, but beautiful, drive. We didn’t really have time to do much when we got there but we did tour the visitor center (Museum) and watch a 45 minute film explaining the battle that took place there. Then we got to see the national cemetery they have there (attachment #3). We stopped at a famous restaurant nearby, The Catfish Inn, but the wait was forty-five minutes to get a table (at 2:20 in the afternoon) so we headed home and stopped to eat on the way at Jack’s (a bit of a disappointment). We finally got home about 9:00 PM. Sister Owens went to bed and I worked on my talk until after midnight (I really wasn’t expecting to have time to give it anyway).
Sunday morning President James started the meeting and mentioned that we had a new sister missionary and said he would have Sister McRaney introduce herself later in the meeting. So for the meeting we were going to have the sacrament (which is actually about seven minutes, tops, in the branch). Sister McRaney introducing herself, a message by Ollie about fathers, a message by Sister Owens, a congregational hymn (I looked it up; “Oh My Father”), and then a message from me. Sure enough, when I stood up there was ten minutes left in the meeting for me and the closing hymn. It didn’t matter a bit because Sister Owens gave an awesome talk about how the Savior set the perfect example of honoring His Father by being perfectly obedient to Him in all things. I bore my testimony and we closed the meeting. Brother and Sister Morgan invited us and the sisters to their home for dinner today and then we got to come home and talk to the kids for father’s day. It was a great day.
We hope all you fathers had a great father’s day.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day
We love y’all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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