Dear Family and Friends,
Monday was basically a recovery day after the pot luck we had at the church on Sunday. We had to finish some chores we didn’t get to Saturday because of preparation for the pot luck, then we went and did a little clean up at the church. Then sent some thank you notes to people that helped at the pot luck. Then we rested our tired old bones for the rest of the day.
Tuesday we picked up the sisters and went to District Council. For the last half of the meeting we got to watch the BYU devotional with President Nelson as the speaker. He told about five important truths he wanted all of the young adults in the audience to be aware of. It was an hour well spent. I don’t know if it is still on the church website but if it is you should all watch it if you haven’t already.
Wednesday we had coordination meeting with Brother Smith. Then we had a discussion with Otis and the sisters and taught him the word of wisdom. Sister Allen said Otis just keeps surprising her. She thought the word of wisdom would probably break him but he accepted it and said he was going to quit everything the next day. The sisters were overly helpful offering to make a calendar and line him up with a friend for support, etc. I told Otis that they sounded a little doubtful but I believed he could really quit. He said he was sure he could. After our discussion I told him we wouldn’t have any meeting at the church Sunday because we are having a special conference in Birmingham. I explained the purpose of the meeting and he said he would like to come. I told him we would have to leave by 7:30 AM and wouldn’t be home until 4:30 PM thinking he would change his mind but he said he would still like to come. We asked President James to check in Meridian, MS for some rental prices for minivans. Here in Demopolis they make us rent them for three days on the week end. We can’t rent them for just one day. We were a little hesitant after renting a 15 passenger van a month after we arrived here and after having it booked up for every seat we ended up taking five people to conference. But, we thought if people want to go they should have a way to get there.
I got a call from Otis Thursday morning during my walk. He said he prayed about the word of wisdom and he felt he needs to “ween himself off.” He thinks it is going to be a little hard. I told him that was great as long as he does just a little better each day. We decided we would have to get a van. We originally were going to take the sisters with us so they wouldn’t have to drive but they said they could drive if they needed to. I won’t go through all the details but it was up and down, go and no go, all week as far as who would or wouldn’t go to conference. At Book of Mormon class we found out President James was going to drive Borden’s van and they could take everyone from Greensboro so we just had to worry about people from Demopolis and Linden. Oh yeah, and Sister Owens broke her molar in half eating her Hershey bar Thursday (kind of added to the frustration of the day).
Friday we confirmed the reservation for a minivan to pick up on Saturday afternoon. Then we did most of our P-day chores since we were picking up the rental in Meridian on Saturday. We had a couple of appointments with the sisters in the afternoon, one with Henry and one with Otis. Otis called and postponed until Saturday afternoon. We drove up to the appointment with Henry (the one we met last Sunday evening). He was sitting at the picnic table in the yard where we have our discussions with him. He waved at us as we drove up. When I got out of the car and turned around he wasn’t there anymore. The sisters came walking up and we told them he was at the table but must have gone in to get his books. They went to the door and we heard his mother yell “NO.” The sisters came back from the door and said, “Today is not a good day for him.”
Saturday we went to Meridian to get the rental. We got there early enough to stop for lunch. We looked at the list of restaurants on the GPS and decided on a seafood deli that was part of a grocery store. We got there and it is now a church. We looked at the list again and saw Pappy’s BBQ close by and thought that would be a good place to try. We got there and it is now a Red Lobster. We only had about forty minutes by then before we had to get the rental so we decided to go for seafood after all. So the attendant at the rental office asked us if it was going to work for us and I told her it was actually one seat short (we had six people committed to go and the sisters would have to drive because we only had room for one more person). She told us she had a Suburban with seating for eight for ten dollars more per day. We upgraded and texted the sisters telling them they could ride with us. When we got home a sister that was riding with us called to tell us another sister that had been sick and wasn’t going was better and wanted to see if we had room in the van. We said yes and called the sisters and explained that they would have to drive after all (unless we have cancellations again like the last time).
Naturally nobody cancelled, which is actually good, but the sisters ended up having to drive (they can only use so many miles each month). Otis came for all nine hours. He called me just as we were on our way to pick him up and asked if I could take time to take a picture of him and me with my phone before we go. I told him we could do that (Attachment #1) The meeting was a special conference involving five stakes but mainly the Birmingham and Bessemer stakes to create a third stake out of the two. Elder Stanfield and Elder Johnson were there from the Seventy and called three new stake Presidencies. Elder Johnson was our previous Stake President. We got to meet him the day he was released and made an area authority seventy. He was sustained as a General Authority Seventy at April conference. Elder Johnson was eating lunch with another general authority and Elder Holland came and sat down with them. He said they are going to send Elder Johnson back to Alabama. Elder Johnson said he thought, “Oh no, what have I done!” Elder Holland put his hand on his arm and said, “Not for good.” Then Elder Johnson went to his office and opened the letter from Elder Ballard assigning him to come here and participate in the organization of the new Gadsden, Alabama Stake. Otis called me this evening to tell me he wanted me to know he cried about seven times during that meeting. He didn’t know if it was the Holy Ghost or not. I assured him that it was.
So, we brought sandwiches and chips and cookies to eat after conference before we came home. What could be simpler than entering “park with pavilion” in the GPS (just about anything). The one thing I did not want to do while here is end up in downtown Birmingham with all the reconstruction of all the freeway bridges they are doing. So I selected the closest park (about five miles away). It took us right to the heart of downtown Birmingham to the PARKING GARAGE for the UAB Hospital. Of course the sisters were following us all the way there. Sister Morgan said she thought there was a little park right by a statue that was up a hill from where we were so we turned toward it and drove a ways away from downtown and noticed the sisters were no longer behind us. We parked on the side of the road and called them and told them where we were and they found us. Assuming I had somehow selected the wrong destination, I entered “park with pavilion” again and there was one just five minutes away (of course we thought it was the one Sister Morgan mentioned). We followed the GPS and ended up back at the parking garage again (duh). We drove down the street until we found an empty parking lot and stopped to reconnoiter with the sisters. Sister Morgan said she thought Avondale Park was around there somewhere but she couldn’t tell us how to get there. I had a sudden stroke of genius and thought I should enter “Avondale Park” in the GPS. It was only five minutes away. There it was, ponds, ducks, geese, pigeons, and all. It even had a pavilion and tables. Actually I just wanted everybody to be good and hungry when they ate their lunch. They were (attachment #2). I will bore you with the story of getting out of Birmingham with all the freeway bridges under construction some other time. Right now we are kind of tired and need to get to bed so we can get up in the morning and get Sister Owens to the dentist and then go to Meridian to return the Suburban.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon everyday.
We love y’all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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