Dear Family and Friends,
Monday we got to minister to President and Sister James. They were out of town for two weeks. They went to California to see their son and then when they came back their nephew (age 45) passed away unexpectedly. His mother was too upset to do anything so Sister James had to plan the funeral and take care of the family meals after being gone for a week. She is also the caretaker for her invalid mother. Linda was impressed Sunday that we should take some meals in to them and just called her Sunday night and told her we were bringing them Monday. We fixed chicken tacos with beans and rice and jello and some cheesecake for desert, and fixed a pot of beans for them to have for another meal. When we took the food to them Sister James was so grateful. Both she and President James had had about four hours of sleep in the last twenty-four before church Sunday. She said on Sunday she was thinking she just did not want to have to cook on Monday. We were so glad we got to do something to help them. They always do so much for the members of this branch. That evening we went over to Ollie's to help her fill her pill box with all her prescription medications. Her son usually does it for her but he was unable to do it this week. She has so many pills she has to take Sister Owens was wondering how she makes room for food. Ollie said she wonders if there are any calories in her pills. It was quite confusing since she said she takes the ones in the PM side in the morning and the ones in the AM side in the evening. We asked her why she does that and she said she isn't supposed to take her water pill at night and she doesn't know which one is the water pill. We checked the prescriptions and identified the water pill for her and she said not to change it because she didn't want to get mixed up (I love Alabama).
Tuesday we had District Council. We had to take the sisters with us to the doctor's office because Sister Owens had an early appointment. It wasn't supposed to interfere with District Council because we had changed the council meetings to Friday and then after we had the appointment scheduled they changed the meeting back to Tuesday. The sisters said they could do their study in the waiting room as easily as they could in their apartment so they could come with us early. The appointment was at 9:15, we arrived at 9:00 and she got in to see the doctor at 10:00. At 10:55 she was still in with the doctor so I had to take the sisters to the meeting and come back and get Sister Owens. A nice older Pentecostal woman was talking to a patient. As soon as the patient was called in to see the doctor the lady immediately began talking to me.
She was telling me about all the wonderful experiences she has had over the last twenty-eight years with God in her life and all the gospel singing she has been able to do to influence so many people. When Sister Owens came out from seeing the doctor and stood by us the lady looked up and said, "Oh, is this your wife? Just let me finish telling him this story." Then she went on with about three more stories before we could get an word in to tell her we were late for a meeting and had to leave (I love Alabama).
We had coordination meeting Wednesday. The sisters are so busy. But all the teaching they are doing is coming from their tracting. They don't really get any help from the members here with finding. Sister McCreath says they witness so many miracles. She says she sees it like the tide on the ocean. Teaching opportunities just come rolling in so fast they can hardly keep up with them. Then they all just roll back out after a couple discussions and the people just no longer have much interest when they find out there is more expected than just coming to church for an hour on Sunday to listen to a sermon. They are really staying positive though, and she is doing a great job training Sister Allen. Sister Borden called us Wednesday night to say she wouldn't be to Book of Mormon class because her husband was taking her to the doctor in Tuscaloosa and she would have to stay overnight for observation in case she developed an infection. She didn't know if she would be back in time for Relief Society Friday or not.
Thursday morning Sister Borden called again to let us know we could pick her up for Book of Mormon class. The doctor rescheduled her appointment. Deborah (Sister Bolden) didn't come to class and there was no answer at her door. Nobody seemed to know anything about her. We had a good class. We read from the Sunday School assignment for the week in Romans as well as a couple chapters from the Book of Mormon. After class Brother White started talking to me. He talks so quietly and between that and his southern accent and my loss of hearing I hardly ever understand anything he says. I only ask him to repeat it once or twice and then just let it go because I still don't understand most of what he says. He kept talking and was driving his chair toward the door so I followed along. Then I understood something about how he missed sacrament meeting last week (Brother Borden had gout and couldn't drive) and he just hated not being able to go where he needed to go. He said something about seeing something in somebody's back yard and then told me he spent his entire disability check and bought himself a car and pointed to in in the parking lot. My heart sank a bit wondering when he would wreck this one and if he would be as lucky as last time. All the while trying to be happy for him and encouraging him to be very careful if he had to drive it. He said he would be to church this week no matter what. After class we went to the church to set up for Relief Society on Friday (all three six foot tables).
Friday it turned out we only needed two tables instead of three. Only eight sisters showed up. We were so excited that we might not have to take the trip to Greensboro because of Sister Borden's doctor appointment, but it canceled so we got to go after all. Sister Nixon came anyway, even though her leg was bothering her. Sister Owens gave a good message on ministering and then they had a game day and all the sisters played games for the rest of the meeting. Sister Owens was at one table and taught them how to play nines with rook cards and I was at the other table keeping score while the sisters learned to play Farkle. Then Sister Borden and Sister Nixon (they are sisters) played dominos. Everyone brought their favorite snack to share except for the Greensboro ladies (we have to work on that). It seems they just come to partake but never seem to contribute. Sister Owens says I am the best Relief Society councilor she has ever had. I told her she is the best Relief Society President I have ever been councilor to. She also wants you to know that we took tuna with smoked almonds on cucumber slices to the game day. She thought that was quite elegant. We found our from Sister Nixon that Deborah was taken by ambulance to Tuscaloosa and is in intensive care with blood sugar issues. That was why she was not at Book of Mormon class. Sister Owens says it seems they just let people get to the brink of death here and then get them to the hospital and get them better and start over again (I love Alabama).
We felt so bad giving away the cilantro lime chicken taco fixings to the James without getting any ourselves, we decided we better make it again and have the sisters over Saturday for lunch. Of course we had to make another cheese cake too. Just our luck, Sister Allen doesn't care for cheesecake. They both really love street tacos, though, so it went pretty well. In the afternoon a fellow named Otis Collier called us and said he got our number from a couple of young ladies who told him we would pick him up and take him to church. I told him we would be happy to do that. He hasn't met with them yet. He just met them on the street but he would like to come to church. I told him we would pick him up at 9:45. Then we got a text from Brother Smith telling us that his son had to meet with President Lewis to be interviewed to be ordained an elder so he can't pick up Timothy and asked if we could go get him. Things always seem to turn upside down between Saturday and Sunday here.
Sunday morning at 7:30 Otis called and asked what time I said we would pick him up for church. I told him 9:45 and he said, "Alright, I'm getting ready right now." Then we left ten minutes early to get Timothy so I could stop at the church and make some copies for the priesthood lesson. We had gotten a text from Timothy saying he would be ready at 8:00 and we responded that 8:30 would be plenty early and we would be there then. We ended up getting there twenty minutes early. Just as we arrived we got a text from him saying good morning. We asked if he was ready yet and that we were just driving up. He came out the front door and we got back to the church by 8:30. We hadn't planned to be there until 9:00 for Branch Council. We walked in and saw that the chapel hadn't been set up for Sacrament meeting and had plenty of time to get it ready before Branch council. Then I left early from Branch Council to pick up Otis. He was there for meetings and a young mother and baby the sisters have started teaching were there as well, so it was a good day. After church Clarisa (Smiths 11 year old) asked Sister Owens why her hair was green. Sister Owens didn't know why it looked green but she said, "Green is fashionable these days and maybe green is better than grey." Sister Smith looked at Sister Owens and said, "I still need to work with her a little bit." Timothy was interviewed for his patriarchal blessing recommend and will be getting his blessing next Sunday and Elias Smith was ordained an elder today. He will be getting ready to go to the temple and on his mission soon. It was a very good day.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day.
We love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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