Dear Family and Friends,
We are kind of wondering what happened to this week. Sister Owens met with her RS presidency on Monday morning. The rest of the day Monday and Tuesday seemed to be used up doing some shopping we had to do to get ready for Christmas here.
Wednesday was our Christmas Zone Conference. We were combined with some other zones in the central portion of the state and met for instruction for four hours in the morning and then had lunch. After lunch they showed a movie—The Fighting Preacher (or parson as Sister Owens says). For those who don't know, the movie is base on the book, "A Lion and a Lamb." It is about Willard and Rebecca Bean who were called to serve a mission at the Joseph Smith home in 1915. It was supposed to be a five year mission to care for the property and try to improve relations between the local residents and the church. They were hated and persecuted when they arrived but stayed for 25 years and raised their family there. When they received their release from Heber J. Grant and left to return to Utah the community gave them a grand farewell to show how much they were loved and appreciated. It is a great book and a great movie. Our mission secretary was trying to obtain permission to show the movie in the conference. She called a number and the person that answered asked who was calling. She told him who she was and then asked who he was. He said he was T. C. Christiansen and wanted to know where she got the number because nobody every calls that number. She explained why she was calling and he assured her it would be fine to show the movie as long as they didn't charge admission. After the movie we had a talent show and then by the time we got home we were gone for more than twelve hours. Quite a long day.
Thursday Brother White called to tell us he wouldn't be to Book of Mormon class. His older sister died the day before and he was going to be with his family. He has been through a lot in the time we have been here. Sister Jones, who we usually take with us to class from here in Demopolis, has had blood pressure issues and also was not going to go. We would end up driving to Greensboro to read with Sister Borden and when we called her she said we could cancel for this week, so we did. Then I remembered our high councilor was going to try to be there this week and he lives in Tuscaloosa. So I hurried and sent a text to let him know it was cancelled. A while later I got a text back asking, "Who is this?" I told him and a while after that I got a call from Brother Foote asking if I intended that text to go to him. Turns out I have too Footes in my phone (or is that Feet). Anyway, the one I texted the message to has moved to Utah and works there for the University. So I hurried and called the other one and told him not to come to class because it was cancelled. I think I caught him in time. We went to a middle school band concert at the high school in the evening. Three kids from the branch are in the bands that played. It was good to be there to support them. We got a call from Ollie's son that Ollie was in the hospital.
Friday we spent most of the day getting ready for the branch Christmas party that would be on Saturday. Then went to visit Ollie in the hospital. She felt really bad because she planned to come to the party and her husband said he was going to come with her.
Saturday was the Branch Christmas breakfast. We had everyone come in and sit down and fill out their menu choices and then President and Sister James waited tables and served all the branch members. Sister Owens and I prepared the plates in the kitchen so everybody got to just sit and enjoy their meal and visit (attachment #1). After the meal two of kids from the band played their instruments for the group and we finished by showing the Light the World video about the birth of the Savior. It all seemed to go pretty well except for me trying to fry my finger along with the sausage in the morning when we were preparing the food for the breakfast (attachment #2). I have a couple of good blisters on my ring finger now that cover about the same area as the one in the picture. They didn't bloom until later in the evening. Then we had our turn to clean the building for the week. It was a bit of a long day as well. Turns come a little more often now that we no longer have sisters in the branch.
We have been looking forward to having President Allred speak in the branch this Sunday ever since he came to the mission in July. We found out at Zone Conference that he was not going to be able to come. With the combining of the missions we now have the whole southern part of the state in the mission and he is involved in Zone conferences down south this week and they couldn't make time for the trip back up to Demopolis and then back down south so they had to cancel. We were a little bummed because we don't know if he will be able to reschedule the visit before we go home in February. We also thought we would end up being the speakers in church since the sisters aren't here anymore. But the Morgans actually asked someone else, so we're good for a few more weeks. We were going to go see Ollie in the hospital but we found out she is home already (probably too soon). She is really tired and can't walk. She usually can get up from her wheelchair to move to another chair or get into the car and she can't even do that now. We hope she will get better.
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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