Dear Family and Friends,
Last week we followed a vehicle to the post office. When we got there I got out and told the lady I really liked the sign on her back window (attachment #1) and asked if I could take a picture of it. She said, "By all means." Just an indication of how converted people are to the Savior her in the south. There just aren't very many of them that seem to be interested in the message of the restoration.
Monday I got up about ten minutes late to go for my walk and missed the chance to take a picture of a beautiful sunrise from the path where I walk. I stopped on the way to get a picture of it (attachment #2) even though it was a couple minutes late for a really good picture. Sister Owens had her RS Presidency meeting at the church Monday. Ollie's husband, Larry, called us and asked if we would come over and say a prayer for his mother who had a stroke. She is ninety-five years old and lives about an hour away from Demopolis. When we got there he asked if I would include a prayer for his disability claim against the government to go through for him. He has had a claim in for fifteen years and is hoping it will be resolved soon.
Tuesday we were supposed to have family history training at our district council meeting so we were supposed to be there a couple hours earlier than usual. We got to the sisters apartment to pick them up and they said they just got a text that the training was cancelled. The couple that was going to do the training had a flat tire on their motor home about 5:30 AM and wouldn't be able to get it repaired until about 8:30. They decided to have district council one hour earlier than usual so we went back to our apartment for an hour and then went back to get the sisters and head for Tuscaloosa. We ended up spending the whole day in Tuscaloosa since Sister Owens had an appointment for another scan on her lungs and then another breathing test and another visit with her pulmonologist. We had the sisters with us the whole time which made us feel a little bad because it kept them from working all day. We originally had family history training scheduled for Wednesday and were going to have district council that day so our doctor appointments weren't going to interfere with anything, but they wanted to accelerate the schedule for the training so it was moved up one day (then had to be postponed anyway). Sister Owens had a scheduled visit with her GP this Friday so she rescheduled the monthly RS meeting to the following week. Now the family history training has been rescheduled for the same day so RS will probably be canceled for this month and will not be until December. Scheduling isn't working out so well this month.
Wednesday we ended up at the church cleaning out the RS closet which is a large metal cabinet with five shelves. There were craft leftovers from projects and lessons from about the last fifteen years. It was quite an adventure. Then we had coordination meeting and President James came to sit in with us.
Thursday was a very rainy day (carwash rain as Sister Owens calls it). It made the trip to Greensboro pretty fun. Sister Jones came for the first time in a few months. She has been upset with us for some time and hasn't returned our calls. She just called today and asked if we were going to Book of Mormon class and wanted to go with us. It was like she has been going with us every week (I love Alabama). Of course there wasn't any catfish. Brother Foote brought a gentleman with him because they were supposed to have catfish. He took him to eat after class. This morning in Branch Council I told Brother Foote I didn't have the heart to tell him last week that they usually promise catfish about three or four times before they actually have some. He said it was good that I didn't tell him because that was why Brother Wilson decided to come with him.
Friday it was clear that Winter is on its way. I had to use the scrapper on the all the windows on the car before I went to walk (I usually just have to wipe off the dew with a towel). It was 30 degrees. The day kind of reminded us of home. I think we might be in for a little colder winter here than we had last year. We drove to Tuscaloosa again for Sister Owens' doctor appointment. It was a beautiful drive. The leaves are changing color here but so many of them are still green. There is really quite an assortment of colors as we drive down the freeway. We got four email reminders about her appointment during the past week. Each one was fifteen minutes earlier than the last one. Then they called us Thursday with another reminder and told us it was fifteen minutes earlier than the last reminder we had gotten. So we had to be there at 9:45 and at noon after forty-five minutes waiting in the exam room Sister Owens told them she couldn't stay any longer and she had to leave. So now we have to go back again in December and start over (I love Alabama). We went to help Ollie with her checkbook when we got back to Demopolis. The poor lady is being robbed by her care givers and there is nothing we can do about it. The lady that bathes her and does wash for her should get about $360 per month. She tells her she doesn't want a check every time she comes. Then she tells her how much Ollie owes her and Ollie writes a check for her. I showed Ollie that she had paid her $620 in the last five weeks and told her to pay her every time she provides any service so that won't happen. Her "driver" has things in his possession that are against the law and instead of keeping them at his house he leaves them at Ollie's or in her car. He left something in her car and she didn't know what it was and threw it away. He told her she had to pay him $35 for it because she threw it away. She just paid him because he said she should. He had her pay a bail bond for him and he didn't show up on his court date and she was notified that she would be charged $500 if he doesn't appear on the 25th. The poor woman is afraid not to do what these people want her to do because she has to have the help they provide and is afraid to make them mad because they might leave and she would not have the help.
Saturday we did our P-day chores and then went to the church to do some facebook stalking. I guess that's a popular way to find people you are looking for and we certainly have plenty of people we can't find here. While we were there the sisters came to work on their talks they were preparing for Sacrament meeting. They had a couple of pretty discouraging days the last two days. All of their appointments were falling through and the people they went to see were not home. It has been very cold and they were walking down the street, cold and a discouraged, and a lady stopped and gave them a cake and told them that Jesus loves them. They were so surprised. They had never had anything like that happen and they wondered if the lady thought they were homeless.
Today was a great day. The sisters both gave awesome talks in Sacrament meeting on the plan of salvation and making Christ the center of our lives. Sister Snarr shared an experience she had earlier in her mission teaching a man the gospel. He has had a degenerative bone disease for the last several years of his life. After he started learning the gospel his condition worsened. He decided he wanted to be baptized and he started having a lot of pain. It got to the point where it was so bad he couldn't dress to go to church or even to have lessons. He saw the doctor and was told that he should have surgery. If he had surgery he wouldn't be able to be baptized for a long time. He was experiencing extreme pain constantly. He couldn't understand why the Lord would let this happen in his life when he had accepted the gospel and wanted so badly to be baptized. He prayed about it one night for a long time and finally told the Lord that he would accept whatever His will was for him. Then he went to sleep. He woke up pain free the next morning, has been riding his bike every morning since and was able to get baptized.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day.
We love y'all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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