Week 80: A new tooth for Sister Owens and flash back to Princess Bride

Dear Family and Friends'

Monday we got Sister Owens in to see the dentist, Tom Whitaker (no relation to Tom) then we drove to Meridian to return the van we used to go to Stake Conference on Sunday.

Tuesday Sister Owens went with some of the women in the branch to have lunch together to celebrate the previous RS President's birthday.  Then we spent the afternoon with Ollie balancing her checkbook.  She can't write very well because of her tremors.  It is really hard to read her writing and she doesn't usually remember what she wrote since it is always several days since she wrote it when we meet with her.  She often has her son or her husband or her help write some checks and they are not very clear what they are for.  It is always quite a frustrating experience for us.  When we finished we took her home and had to sit down and talk to her husband with her about how they are running out of money in three months and will probably lose their house if they don't make some serious changes right away.  That wasn't very fun either since he is a schizophrenic Vietnam vet with PTSD.  It actually went better than we thought it would.

Wednesday we spent the morning at the dentist office getting Sister Owens' temporary crown and the afternoon at home while she recovered.  We had coordination meeting with Brother Smith and the Sisters that evening.  Elias Smith will be leaving on his mission in a few months and was just called to serve as the Branch Young Men President until he leaves.  He looks at things a lot differently than his father (Brother Smith) does.  It is quite entertaining to sit and observe the two of them as different things are discussed.  Elias always refers to his dad as "some random person" when he tells about things that happen that he does not agree with.  Then his dad explains that he is the random person that Elias is talking about.

Thursday was our joint Zone Conference with two other zones.  It was President Allred's birthday so we all sang Happy Birthday to him.  Elder Montoya of the Seventy was our visiting General Authority.  For all you Princess Bride buffs, the first slide in his presentation was a picture of him and the caption said, "Hello, my name is Elder Hugo Montoya, you came to conference, prepare to be edified."

It was a great conference.  Sister Montoya spoke to us in Spanish and one of the Spanish speaking sisters translated for us.  Then at the end of the conference Elder Montoya bore his testimony in Spanish and had one of the Elders translate for us. At one point he said something and the elder translated it and Elder Montoya looked at him and told him in English what he was supposed to have said.  Everybody chuckled a little bit.  It is always exciting to go to joint conferences.  We usually get to see other missionaries that served at one time in our area. We got to see Sister Weaver and Sister Beaugez and get a picture of Sister Owens with them and Sister McCreath (attachment #1).  At Zone conference the missionaries that are returning home at the end of the transfer bear their testimonies.  We felt kind of badly because our Sister McCreath bore her testimony.  We are really going to miss her when she goes home in two and a half weeks.

Friday we spent most of the day preparing for the joint Relief Society / Young Women activity we were having Saturday.  That night we had a lesson with Otis.  We had him watch the first Book of Mormon video that was released last week.  He said he loved it.

Saturday was the activity that Sister Owens had to accommodate the young women so they could do a project for their Personal Progress program (Attachment #2).  One of the young women wanted to have everyone bring a sample of their favorite family recipe and a copy of it that she is going to assemble into a book for everyone to have.  A few people brought samples but several just brought their recipes to share.  This was the first time we didn't go to Greensboro to pick up ladies for the meeting.  We asked if Brother Borden would bring them in to Demopolis, which he did.  The food was a little sparse and everything was eaten.  When Brother Borden came to pick up the ladies we felt bad because we didn't have anything to feed him.  But he jumped in and started helping put away tables and chairs.  I got the vacuum out and he came over to take it from me.  I told him he couldn't have it.  I would do it.  I told him he should take his wife home.  That night Sister Borden called us to tell us he was in the hospital, and was going to be kept overnight.  His blood pressure dropped quite a bit and the doctors were worried about him.  If he had something to eat after the RS activity it might have been different.

Today a senior couple (the Turnbows) that came out a week after we did came to our Sacrament meeting.  They have been serving in Clanton, AL.  They are on their way home to Denver, CO.  They served for eighteen months.  Second hour we had the video presentation that everybody had on the new children and youth program.  After church we called Sister Borden to see how her husband was doing.  His blood pressure was too high today so they are keeping him again overnight and he will probably go home tomorrow.  He is seventy-four and still works two jobs.  Both of his bosses came to see him today and told him he had plenty of sick leave and he should take a couple of days off.  Hopefully he will.  We got to go out to Greensboro to visit with them for a while this evening.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens