Dear Family and Friends,
We really didn't accomplish a lot this week. Last week our district leader said we had to take thirty seconds in district council and share a talent with everyone. Being a little hard pressed to come up with a talent we both had to fall back on our culinary abilities. Sister Owens made her caramels and I made a batch of toffee and we bagged it up to pass out to each member of the district on Tuesday.
Monday the temperature was 59 degrees when I went to walk in the morning and there were some very dark clouds that would have made me think we were in for snow back in Idaho. Then it cleared everywhere above me and was just cloudy on the horizon all around me. Before I finished though, there was a slight downpour but then it quit and I was almost dry by the time I started home.
Tuesday when I got up I thought I might wear my long sleeved shirt to walk but decided against it. MISTAKE. It was 54 degrees when I started and 53 degrees when I finished. When we went to pick up the sisters for district council they said they wore their winter coats to walk in the morning and got a block from home and decided to go back and exercise in the house that morning. It was sunny and warm in Tuscaloosa for district council. It was our last council meeting for this transfer so we took a district picture (attachment #1) and then went to lunch together as a district. Sister McCreath bore her testimony in district council because she is going home next Wednesday. She is the second missionary we have sent home from Demopolis since we came and it is not getting any easier. She has been here for six months and is one of the hardest working missionaries I have ever met. It is hard for us to say goodbye to her. She has done a marvelous job training Sister Allen and we are glad we get to keep her here for at least one more transfer. We went with the sisters to see Otis again Tuesday night. We reviewed the restoration with him because we want to make sure he understands the commitment he is making at baptism. He told us he knows all about baptism, he has been baptized before, but this is a lot of information and he thinks he needs to slow down and take some time to think about it. He is finally catching on that this involves a lot more than just being baptized again. He hasn't been keeping any of his commitments. He's not listening to the Book of Mormon CD we left with him and he is not praying to find out if the things we are teaching him are true, and he doesn't pray when he is in discussions with us anymore. He says he wants to pray about it when he is alone. He set another appointment with us for Friday but called and postponed it to next Monday. We went to see Tasha Kirk after our discussion with Otis. Since it was after eight o'clock she was actually home. Well she actually drove up about five minutes after we got there. She said she would go with Sister Owens on Saturday to get some ice cream so they could have a chance to talk.
Wednesday we made the rounds to inspect apartments in Selma, Camden, and Thomasville. The sisters in Camden have been dealing with a little mice problem since the weather has cooled off. So far they have killed about five of them. They hear them scurrying around the kitchen at night. The mice actually dragged a box of d-con under the stove. The landlord gave them some sticky traps and they caught two mice and had to beat them to death with a broom. We went and bought some mice bait for them before we left and Sister Owens shared the trick of stuffing aluminum foil in the mouse hole to keep them from coming into the room. We hope things will get a little better for them. We had our last coordination meeting with Sister McCreath that night. All these last meetings are getting hard for her.
Thursday at Book of Mormon class we told everyone it was Sister McCreath's last class before she goes home (attachment #2). They wouldn't stand for it. So we re-scheduled class next week for Monday instead of Thursday. They said they are actually going to get some catfish this time to feed the missionaries. Sister Owens said she doesn't care, she is not bringing cole slaw. I checked with Brother White at church today to see if he got the fish (he has to go to Union Town to get it). He had forgotten it was going to be on Monday). He said he is going to go Monday morning and get it. I told him he really doesn't need to get fish but he insisted that he is going to get it. I don't know how they are going to have time for Sister Nixon to cook it after he goes to get it and still have it ready for class. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
Friday we did some shopping for Book of Mormon class. It is interesting. They want to do something for the missionaries so they assigned everything out. They are going to have catfish (maybe) and Elder and Sister Owens are bringing mac and cheese, dessert crepes, and a salad (by assignment) and the sister missionaries are bringing lemonade. But its all good. We enjoy the time with them. I went to my favorite barber on Friday to get my haircut before transfers (don't want to look shaggy when we go see the mission president and bring back a new sister to the area). It has been nice not having to cut my own hair. Miss Rouser charges five dollars and does a great job cutting a flat top. Its going to be hard to go back to cutting my own again. Sister Owens is quite impressed that she trims eyebrows and nose hairs when necessary.
Saturday we inspected the Demopolis sisters apartment and then took them to lunch for the last time with Sister McCreath. Then we went to get Tasha to go with Sister Owens. She said she was tired and was hoping they could go tomorrow (Sunday). Sister Owens said they weren't going to do that, she would wait for her to get ready. She wasn't going to go until Sister Owens said they could get lunch instead of ice cream. Tasha got to pick where they were going to go and she picked McDonalds. Sister Owens said she could still change her mind if she wanted to, but she didn't. I dropped them off and went home and took a nap. Tasha said that was kind of weird, she never went inside to eat at McDonalds before. They had a good visit. Tasha said ours is the only church that actually cared about people. She told Sister Owens she knows she should come back to church and said she was going to try to be there this Sunday. The Morgans were scheduled to clean the building last week (conference week). They said they didn't even get over to clean it (he is over eighty years old and she is in her late seventies). She said they better clean it this week. We told her they got a by last week because of conference and good for them, they didn't need to clean it this week. We told her we would go ahead and do it this week. They print the bulletin each week. We looked at the bulletin when we got to church and noticed they scheduled themselves to clean the building next week. They shouldn't have a turn for at least a month.
This morning we got a call from our friend Vanessa Walker telling us she would like us to give her a ride to church. We told her we would be by to pick her up. Then Otis called and said he didn't have a way to get to church and wondered if someone could pick him up (I actually thought he probably wouldn't come this week). We told him we would pick him up. We have to leave Branch Council early so we can get them to church on time. Before we left Vanessa called and said she didn't feel well so she wasn't coming. Then just as we were leaving Otis called. He wanted to know if anyone was coming for him. I told him we were on our way. After the sacrament President James told us about when he had been baptized for about a week he was attending another person's baptism and the Branch President told him he wanted him to speak about baptism. He said he learned then that you should always have something prepared because you never know when a speaker might not show up and you might be asked to speak. Then he said this is one of those times. Our speakers from Tuscaloosa were not there (he didn't know if they just didn't make it or if they never were assigned – no one had ever gotten back to him with the names of those that were assigned). Of course Sister McCreath got to bear her testimony and we heard from our new high councilor and then from the Elders Quorum President. We lucked out and just gave the opening and closing prayers. It was a good meeting. Otis said he is still planning to see us tomorrow night. We are anxious to see how that is going to go.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day.
And study the messages from conference last week, they were awesome.
We love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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