Dear Family and Friends,
After getting home at 8:30 Sunday night from Stake Priesthood meeting we had to get up Monday and go to Greensboro to pick up Brother White to take him to Birmingham to see a spine surgeon. His surgeon in Tuscaloosa made the appointment for him and wrote the time and address on the back of a card for us. The time was 2:30 PM. We didn't know what traffic problems we would run into and how easy it would be to find the office so we left plenty early. The trip went pretty well and we arrived at the office at 2:00. We went to check in and they said our appointment was at 3:00. So we sat in the waiting room with the eighty other patients (according to Sister Owens' count—she quite counting at eighty). They took him back for a cat scan and mentioned that they were running a little behind. At 4:00 they called him back and I went back with him. After quite a wait in the exam room we talked to the surgeon for less than ten minutes. He told us he definitely had a problem and he wasn't sure what they needed to do without an MRI and he would have to get established with a general physician and get his diabetes, high blood pressure and other health conditions under control before they could consider surgery. He said they would make some calls and line up a family doctor for him and schedule the MRI. He told us to wait because they had some paperwork to fill out. We waited for at least 30 minute and then the surgeon opened the door and was surprised to see us. He said, "Oh, you are still here. Yah, wait just a minute and we will be right with you." And backed out and closed the door. After another fifteen minutes Brother White opened the door and said, "I think they're all gone home." I stepped out into the hallway and startled a young nurse that was standing there packing her purse to leave. She was surprised to see me and asked why we were there. I told her they were supposed to be getting some paperwork for us. She didn't know anything about it and went down the hall to the surgeon's office where he was shooting the breeze with three other colleagues and asked him. He said to her, "Oh yah, we need to get them a general physician and schedule an MRI." She came out of the office and said to me, "You don't have to wait for that, we can call you. You can leave." So at 6:00 we went back out to the waiting room to see if Sister Owens was still there. She was, and the other seventy-nine chairs were empty (they were closed). If I hadn't stepped out when I did that nurse would have been gone within 30 seconds. The next person we would have seen would probably be the custodian (I love Alabama). Needless to say we got home a little late to try to get last week's email out that night.
Tuesday was District Council (just a short jaunt to Tuscaloosa). Training was supposed to be a discussion on the characteristic of patience. We took so long with the other portions of the meeting that we didn't get to have the discussion. That tried Sister Owens' patience. We met with Otis and the sisters in the evening. He was so excited after Stake Priesthood meeting. He told the sisters he wanted to get ready and be baptized. They set a date for him for the end of September. Then he told us about the time he got baptized three times in one day. And he got a ring and a watch for it from the pastor. The sisters have a lot to teach him in the next month.
Wednesday we kind of took a breather from all the traveling we had been doing. We had coordination meeting with Brother Smith and the sisters. We are all pretty excited about Otis. And there is another young girl with a baby son that the sisters have been meeting with quite a few times. After the meeting we went to the drug store to pick up Sister Owens' prescription for "fossil-max" (according to her text to our daughter). The doctor was not really pleased with the results of her bone density test. Sister Owens spent the evening trying to follow up with the sisters that said they wanted to go to the Women's Conference on Saturday.
Thursday we were off to Tuscaloosa again for Sister Owens to get an ultra-sound of her liver. They noticed a cyst on it when they did the cat scan of her lungs. The technician told her she just had a small cyst about the size of her litter finger tip. She doesn't have to worry about it (in her professional opinion, I'm sure). We got a call from the pulmonologist after she saw it and were told to call her family doctor and see him right away. Sister Owens is getting a little tired of seeing all the doctors lately and has decided her appointment in November is plenty soon enough to see him. You know, she's so patient and all. We got back to Greensboro in time to visit with Sister McCleskey for a few minutes before Book of Mormon class. She shared with us the experience she had in the hospital a week ago that prompted her attendance at Sacrament meeting last week. She woke up a few times during the night and each time there was an older lady with white hair sitting on the stool next to the computer in the room just looking at her but not saying anything. The last time it was an older gentleman with white hair instead of the lady. That was when she decided to get up and go out and stay in the waiting room the rest of the night. She related the experience to the nurse on the floor and was told not to tell anyone in the hospital about it or they would be checking her into the Psych ward. Anyway, she didn't really know what to think of it but decided it was time to get caught up on her tithing and start coming to church. She said she would be at Sacrament meeting again this week.
Friday we did laundry and prepared our talks for Sacrament meeting this Sunday. We had an appointment with Otis in the morning but he called the sisters and said he was called in to work and couldn't meet with us.
Saturday Sister Owens had to be at the church at 7:30 in the morning so the sisters could get to the Stake Center in Bessemer by 10:00 for their Women's Conference which lasted until 2:00 and then they made the two hour trip back home. The sisters called us in the evening and said they called Otis to see if he would need a ride to church. They asked us if we could call him. They thought maybe he blocked their number by mistake. I called him and our number was blocked as well. It was a real downer. We spent the evening wondering what had happened. Then we got a group text from President James that said, "I won't be in church Sunday. Take care of things" I started to wonder if our Branch President was apostatizing, now. Sister Owens called Sister James to see if something serious had happened with her mother or something. Their son answered the phone and explained that they were on a business trip and were delayed getting home (whew). We were just feeling bad all night for the sisters. They have been working so hard and it was looking like Otis was going to actually be baptized.
Sunday morning we got to the building an hour early. Branch Council was scheduled and nobody said we weren't having it even though President James wouldn't be there, but apparently we weren't because nobody came (it would only be Brother and Sister Smith anyway). The sisters were the first ones there after us and they came in smiling and happy and Sister Owens complimented them on how they just always stay positive, no matter what. Then they told us they went by to see Otis before they came to the church and he said he has to go to Walmart and get minutes put on his card so his phone will work again (I was puzzled, because he has a land line and not a cell phone and I didn't know you have to get minutes on a card for a land line). Anyway, he can't come to church because he has to help his mother today and he is looking forward to our next lesson on Monday night (Oh, we of little faith). I guess everything is just fine. We did feel a little bad that the fellow we met at the pharmacy last week who told us he was coming to church didn't come. But that is really not that uncommon here. Sister McCleskey was there again this week, though. We are hopeful for her. She told us Thursday that it is really hard to be motivated to come when it is thirty minutes away. It used to be right down the street from her when they had the branch in Greensboro.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day.
We love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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