Week 97: It's dang cold here, we're anxious for the southern Idaho banana belt

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday morning it was 31 degrees when we went for our walk.  I think Alabama is trying to make us happy about leaving.  This isn’t the southern climate we have grown accustomed to.  We have a little more time to look for members of the branch with the sisters gone.  Unfortunately we still don’t have much luck finding any.  We did confirm that a couple of them aren’t here anymore though, so we have moved their records out.

Tuesday we found the Nursing home in Tuscaloosa where Deborah Bolden is staying.  She is the non-member that came faithfully to our Book of Mormon class in Greensboro until her family ignored her to the point that she was no longer healthy enough to come out of her apartment.  The state took her family to court and forced them to put her in a nursing home (she has had both her legs amputated above the knee).  When we saw her in the hospital she said she only wanted to go to the nursing home long enough to get better and then wanted to go back to Canterbury Manor.  We had heard that she was very happy at the nursing home.  We found her and went to see her Tuesday (attachment #1).  We told her we heard a rumor that she was happy there and thought we better come and confirm whether or not it was true.  She said she is very happy and doesn’t want to leave.  She loves the staff and they take very good care of her.  She loves the other patients and has made a number of friends.  Her family comes to visit her often and takes her to visit her mother occasionally.  They took her to their home for Thanksgiving dinner.  The neatest thing is that she gets to eat three meals every day.  Her daughters gave the management at Canterbury strict instructions that she was not to eat when they served meals in the community room.  Being wheelchair bound it was very difficult for her to prepare meals for herself and she was hungry all the time.  We would send a lunch home with Brother White after church and he would always take it home and share it with Deborah.  We were so pleased to see that she is happy where she is.

We finally got to go to the temple with our district Tuesday night.  It has been a long time since we got to go.  They changed from going as combined zones to just going as districts a couple transfers ago (12 weeks).  We didn’t really get to go the first transfer because of the transition to missionaries having their own temple clothing (they all had to get their clothing).  The last time when they had a session for the combined zones Sister Owens was to ill to make the trip so it has been a long time.  We were so happy to get to go finally.  It looks like it was our last trip before we go home.

Wednesday we had our District Council which is usually on Tuesday but it was changed because of the temple trip.  We got to the building in Tuscaloosa about two minutes before the meeting started and there was no one there.  We waited a few minutes and decided to call the DL.  Just before we did the phone rang.  It was the DL wanting to know where we were.  I told him we were at the Northport building and were just going to call him and see why they weren’t there.  He said they were meeting in Fayette and apologized for not getting the word out.  Since Fayette is more than an hour out of Tuscaloosa we told him we weren’t going to make the trip as the meeting would be almost over by the time we got there.  We had gotten a couple of prints made for Deborah and went to drop them off to her and had a short visit and told her goodbye and then took the Champions to lunch for Elder Champions birthday.  So the trip to Tuscaloosa wasn’t a waste.

Thursday we had Book of Mormon class.  Two women and two men is all that were there this week besides ourselves.  One usually would not be there but Brother Whites son gave Thomas Harris Brother White’s motorized wheelchair.  He has sores on his leg and is very heavy and has a very hard time walking so he usually stays in his apartment instead of joining us anymore for class.  I’m a little worried that his condition will just get worse with the chair because he has even less incentive to try to loose some of the weight now. 

The stake was planning the second tornado cleanup for Saturday so I started to see if I could get a reliable count for the lunch for the crew.  They finally told me it looked like we should plan on about twenty “so far.”  That wasn’t so good since they originally said they were going to get fifty people for the second round and I had already purchased the meat for that many.  Then I started getting texts telling me how many would be there from different wards.  I told them I was confused now and didn’t know if the texts were about additional people coming or if they were just part of the twenty they said to plan on.  They said it was part of the original twenty and they were just confirming the numbers.  That meant thirteen were confirmed compared to the original fifty or the revised twenty.  So I only thawed two thirds of the meat I had purchased.  Friday night I got a text saying it looked like there would be about thirteen.  I replied that I hoped they came hungry.  Saturday morning as we were starting to assemble the sandwiches I got a text saying they had thirty-five people and more were on the way attachment #2 and #3).  I told them they would have to share as it was a little late now.  Marvelous how the Lord takes care of things.  We had a little loaves and fishes experience.  We figured we had enough meat for about twenty-five people.  We had purchased forty buns.  We used all the buns and still had meat left.  We went to get more buns and ended up with sixty sandwiches.  They said there were about forty-five people there all together.  We didn’t run out of food but there were only a couple sandwiches left when they had finished lunch and they were quickly spoken for.

Today it really hit us how short our time is here.  After today we will only attend church in the branch two more times.  In Branch Council President James said with the sisters gone and now with the Owens leaving it was going to be up to them to find people to bring into the church.  He said they might have to baptize a branch president, they might have to baptize an elders quorum president or a relief society president.  We had our twenty-seven regulars attend church again today.  A drastic difference from the seventy-three we had last week for branch conference.  President Smith, our Elders Quorum president, gave a great follow up talk on tithing after the invitation President Lewis gave everyone last week to pay an honest tithe and a generous fast offering.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day.  And pay your tithing and fast offering.

We love y’all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 96: Our first week of lasts

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I went to my last Doctor appointment before we go home.  Wednesday we attended our last Zone Conference.  The Hursts came out a year ago last August.  They served eighteen months so they are going home in February as well.  They are actually going home a week before we leave.  In each Zone conference they have departing missionaries bear "extended" testimonies (everyone bears testimonies but they ask that we limit it to thirty seconds).  President Allred announced that we were having some departing missionary testimonies.  He walked over to where we were sitting next to the Hursts and he looked at the Hursts and said, "You didn't know that I knew you are leaving, did you?  But I know."  He said we would hear from them and then Sister Hurst said, "The Owens are going home too, a week after we leave."  Then the President turned and looked at us all wide eyed and said, "You're going home too!?"  Forgotten in Demopolis, I guess.  When we bore our testimonies sister Hurst told us to go first, "Age before beauty!"  We also made our last trip to Costco to have our tires rotated.  Sister Owens went to her last hair appointment for her cut and perm (which is good, I'm not sure we could afford another one of those).  Friday we had our last weekday RS meeting before we will leave to go home.  And today was our second and last Branch conference for our mission.  It was nice.  We had seventy-three people in attendance.  I'm sure at least thirty of them were stake visitors (they always come and bring their whole family).  The youth met during second hour and filled their room.  There was probably about twenty there.  Six of them were members of our branch.  We did have several people from the branch come that usually don't.  Hopefully it wasn't just for the pot luck after the meeting.  In Branch Presidency meeting President Lewis talked to us about Brother White and said how much he thought of him and how much he misses him.  He said how wonderful the funeral was and how kind the members of his mother's church were to us to let us use their building.  He was impressed that it was such a bonding experience for all of us from the two religions.  President James mentioned that Sister Owens had made a friend of one of the ladies in their church.  Then I told everyone that whoever stayed for the pot luck after church would be eating chicken that the Baptist church cooked for us.  The lady met us at the Walmart parking lot Saturday night and delivered the chicken to us.  They told us earlier in the week that they would only accept cash, that we couldn't use checks or credit cards.  I have to admit I felt a little shady  reaching in to my pocket and pulling out a bunch of cash and giving it to the black lady in the black Malibu there in the parking lot in the dark.  I was afraid someone was going to think a drug deal was going down.  The chicken was awesome and everybody at the dinner was really impressed.

Our busy week didn't turn out to be quite as busy as we anticipated.  Just as we were gearing up for the three meals in three days on the weekend we found out Thursday night that the tornado clean up planned for Saturday was postponed another week.  We were thinking it might be, with all the rain we have had this week.  They are arranging to have a lot of heavy equipment this time to move the big trees.  So we just had chicken enchilada soup for RS on Friday (see attachments) and then got to spend Saturday getting ready for the pot luck on Sunday.  Our attendance lately has been pretty consistently below thirty.  We thought we might have as many as sixty with all the stake visitors.  We were a little overwhelmed with the seventy-three people that were there.  We had tables set up everywhere for the dinner and used all the paper plates we had in the building.  We did have plenty of food for everybody and there were seven pieces of chicken left when it was over.  All the stalwarts usually bring two dishes instead of one to the pot lucks.  There seems to be plenty here that just show up to be fed and don't really contribute anything to the meal.  The Morgans had to leave right after the meeting and weren't able to stay for the dinner.  There was enough chicken to take some to them so they could have some for supper.  They did make a change in the Branch Presidency in our conference today.  Brother Morgan was officially released as first counselor.  Brother Borden was sustained as first counselor and Brother Morgan was sustained as second counselor.  President James said they are probably going to have to call someone from Tuscaloosa to come and serve In the branch as clerk after we leave.  Sister McCleskey has started coming back to church lately and she might be a candidate for Sister Owens' replacement as RS President.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 95: We found something more prevalent in the south than Baptist churches; A road trip for Ollie and Beth

Dear Family and Friends,

The taxi service got another call on Monday (actually it was a text).  I have to quote it so you can appreciate it (by the way, I love Alabama).  "I hate to ask you, but is there any way you can take Mama to pay her loan today by Dollar General?"  Next Text: "Good Morning."  We told her we could come by at 10:00.  Then we received this text: "She needs to stop by another loan place to borrow some money to pay back that loan and then stop by the bank to get the money out."  Next text: "To pay the loan back."  I knew she wasn't going to get a loan but they were totally shocked when they turned them down for the loan to pay back the first loan.  So we drove them to the original loan company so they could talk to them about making arrangements to make payments.  They agreed to accept payments each month for the next four months until the balance was paid.  Then we took them to the bank to get the money for the first payment to take back to the finance company.  On the way to the first loan company she told us this caught them by surprise.  She had already splurged and spent her money and now they are behind (???? IT WAS JANUARY 6^TH).  These poor folks!  We helped them move the first weekend we were here.  They have moved a total of five times in the past twenty-two months.  We don't know if they will be allowed to stay where they are until after we leave to go home or not.  The branch members are the ones that move them every time.  They are related to one of the richest white families in the area and they have basically disowned them.  There really are more quick cash loan institutions here in Demopolis than there are Baptist churches.  And that's a lot.

Tuesday we thought we had a doctor appointment in Tuscaloosa.  Luckily, I checked the calendar Monday night to confirm the time and found that it wasn't until the next week (that explained why we didn't receive a text reminder of our appointment—which we did receive on Wednesday). We were going to have a discussion with Morris but he forgot he was meeting with us and was out of town. We had a couple of dry days so we took advantage of the opportunity and emptied out the wash tubs that Sister Patterson loaned to us last spring to grow some tomatoes in (nothing ever grew).

Wednesday was transfers.  We don't find out if they need us to transport missionaries until they call us to tell us on Tuesday.  We didn't get a call so we didn't have to go.  We had some meat mix left over from the pot luck last week so we made some burritos and took them over to Ollie.  She was excited to get them.  They sat down and ate them right after we left and finished them off the next day.  We had a good discussion with Morris after our coordination meeting with Brother Smith.  Morris seems to be very sincere.  After he said he wanted to join the church a couple of weeks ago in second hour combined meeting, President James explained that he needed to learn all about the church and the commitment he would be making and then he could be baptized if he wanted to.  He was very excited to get the Book of Mormon and to learn about the restoration.  He currently attends the Church of Christ and sings in the choir and writes music and poetry for the church.  He gave the closing prayer after our discussion and was very sincere. He committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and about the restoration and the prophet Joseph Smith, and said he wanted us to pick him up for church Sunday (another one without a car—sigh).

Thursday we went to another funeral.  A lady that went for dialysis treatments on the same shift with Brother White past away last week.  Her sister is a member of the branch.  It was a Baptist funeral and was quite different than Brother White's funeral.  The choir consisted of three women (probably the only members of the choir that attended the service).  The congregation sang along with them when they sang. There were three pastors. One read from the Old Testament and one read from the New Testament and one gave the eulogy. He got so loud during the eulogy that he made the baby in the congregation cry.  A couple of the family members were so distraught that they couldn't be consoled.  They were weeping uncontrollably.  After the service Ruthie (the sister that is a member) didn't go over to the cemetery (next to the church) because she isn't in to going to gravesides, so we got to visit with her for a few minutes before we went to Book of Mormon class in Greensboro.  Class just isn't the same without Brother White. There were five of us there and we decided we were going to start over because Come Follow Me is on the Book of Mormon this year.  We had gotten to the middle of Alma.  We read the introduction and the testimonies at the front of the Book this week.  The manager of the facility came in at the end of class and brought us a Danish ring from Panera Bread.  She said she wondered if we would keep coming after Brother White died and she was glad we still came.  We had been wondering if they would still let us come since only one person from the facility actually attends.  We bring all the rest of them with us.  Everybody that lives there scatters when they see us coming, even though we invite anyone to stay and read with us that wants to.

Friday we arranged to take Beth and Ollie down to Thomasville to their favorite Chinese Restaurant for lunch.  They were both so excited to be able to go.  Beth lives alone so she is always happy to go anywhere.  Ollie goes crazy with all the men that live in her house and is just as anxious to go anywhere whenever she can.  They both seemed to be having the time of their lives and appreciated it so much.  We were a little worried for a while because the bad storm was forecast to be here sometime Friday but it didn't show up until Saturday.  Ollie doesn't like to try to go anywhere in the rain because she always has to get in and out of the car from her wheelchair.

Saturday was hunker down day.  Friday we got emails and texts and facebook messages from the Stake President and the Mission President and the Zone leader all warning of the severe weather coming to our area.  The radar showed the entire state being overrun with the storm coming from the west.  It was supposed to start during the night Friday but didn't actually start until around noon Saturday.  There were tornado warnings all around the state including here in Demopolis.  We thought maybe we were going to experience some pretty severe weather before we leave for home.  There were three people that were killed outside of Tuscaloosa and we heard that someone was killed up in the Huntsville area.  We were very protected here.  As far as we know there wasn't any damage or injury in this area.  No one in the branch was hurt.  It was our turn to clean the branch building and we thought we would be there through most of the storm but we actually got finished before the storm came.  All we had here was a terrific downpouring of rain for a few hours.

We got up to mostly cloudy skies this morning but by the time church was over the sun was shining. Thunder storms are forecast for the next several days and then light rain on Friday (the forecast seems to always change as the days go by).  We got a text early from Morris advising that he wouldn't be able to attend church today because he has to sing in the choir in his current church.  We were disappointed and told him we would miss him but are looking forward to meeting with him tomorrow night.  We didn't get a response but are hoping things are still good. Our speaker today was from Tuscaloosa.  She shared her testimony with us and told us she was just baptized a few weeks ago in December.  Then we realized she was the one our zone leader had been working with for quite some time and was asking all of us in the District to pray for.  It was neat to hear about it from the other side. Since the only men in the branch today, other than myself and President James, were our high councilman and our speaker's non-member friend, we decided to combine Priesthood and Relief Society.  It was Brother Smith's turn to teach Priesthood but he had to work so I was taking a turn and Sister Owens was supposed to teach Relief Society, but she ended up conducting the meeting and left most of the teaching to me.  She said she was going to make lots of comments but she really didn't.  There was a lot of good participation from those who attended, though.  We discussed Elder Bednar's message on being watchful unto prayer.  We have our branch conference next week and President James said he wants to have a pot luck.  So we have lunch for RS meeting Friday, lunch for another clean up crew from the tornado a couple weeks ago on Saturday (which is supposed to be a bigger crew than last time).  And then the pot luck on Sunday.  Busy week coming.  We have to tell you: we were so impressed with the baked chicken they had at Brother White's funeral we wanted to find out where the Baptist ladies got it so we can order some for the pot luck for Branch Conference.  We contacted the lady that was in charge of the food and found out that a lady in the church baked it for them.  Sister Owens asked if she might be willing to bake some for us.  We haven't heard back yet.  We both had the thought that the Baptists will have the chance to get rid of the entire Mormon congregation if we aren't careful.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

--

Rob and Suzie

Week 94: FATS is gaining popularity but soon to close its doors; A sweet Homegoing Celebration

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday we drove to Tuscaloosa to visit a couple that served a mission here in Demopolis a few years before we came.  They are now serving as self reliance missionaries in the Stake (I believe I already mentioned that).  They heard about Brother White's passing and wanted to give some money to help with the funeral costs.  They didn't want to give it to the family as they thought it might get spent and not go to the funeral home. They said they trusted President James to get it to the right people but he needed it before the funeral. We had to check on a death date from a couple years ago at a funeral home there so we told them we would pick it up and get it to President James.  They offered to take us to lunch while we were there.  They took us to two of their favorite exclusively Alabama restaurants and both of them were closed for some reason.  We ended up going to Red Lobster (not really so Alabama-ish, but very good).

Tuesday we had our first video conference District Council.  It was the last meeting of the transfer and the last meeting of the month and all the elders and sisters were out of miles on their cars so they couldn't make the drive to Tuscaloosa for the meeting.  It was an interesting experience.  Those who had assignments to present something participated, but it took a little while and a lot of coaxing before they got any comments from any of the rest of us.  But eventually people were making contributions to the meeting.  Later we met President James at the branch building to give him the money for the funeral.  While we were in the parking lot a person pulled in and asked who was the branch president now.  President James was right there and he said he was.  She said, "I know you."  She was in the branch thirteen years ago and was in the Young Women as a teenager with Sister James as President and President James as Branch President.  Sister James was there in another car (they were driving young women home to different towns after a young women activity at their home in York).  They were both there in the parking lot right when this woman happened to drive by and they got to see each other.  The lady is living in Texas now and was only in Demopolis for three days seeing friends for the holidays.  That was the second time we saw that happen.  Last time was about a year ago when a man that served his mission here twenty years ago when President James was President.  He had his wife and family with him and was wishing he would have a chance to see people he knew when he was here.  Five minutes earlier or later and no one would have been there.  It's so neat to witness the Lord's tender mercies.

New Years was quiet for us.  We undecorated our Christmas cotton tree and cooked the ham the couple in Tuscaloosa also gave us for Brother Whites funeral.  We talked to some of the family and enjoyed the video texted to us of the kids singing happy birthday to Tami.

Thursday was our day of good deeds.  Our Free Alabama Taxi Service (FATS) is increasing in popularity.  Another less active member of the branch has found out about us and called us to ask for a ride to the bank to cash a check so she could get groceries for her and her children.  We went to get her to take her to the bank and she had a friend with her.  She asked if we would take her to the bank too.  Of course we were happy to.  After they finished at the bank they asked if we could stop at the Walmart so they could get a few groceries.  Luckily the groceries for both of them fit in the back of the car.  Then they wanted us to stop at a gas station to get something (I guess Walmart didn't have just what they wanted).  Then they just needed us to stop by the only other grocery store in town so they could get some cans of pop out of a pop machine.  She barely made it back to the car without dropping the armful of cans.  It was quite interesting that when we dropped the neighbor off at her house she told Sister Owens how much she appreciated what we did and said when she gets her food stamps next she wants to take us to get some food.  Of course Sister Owens told her we wouldn't accept that and we were glad to be able to help her.  Then when we went to the less active members home her boyfriend was standing on the porch waiting for her (it was raining all day, by the way).  He walked in the house and waited for her to bring the groceries in.  She didn't even say thank you when she left the car.  We are not complaining, we are here to serve.  We are just making some interesting observations. We cancelled Book of Mormon class.  Sister Borden was in the hospital in Tuscaloosa. Then we picked Beth up to take her home to Linden.  She spent New Year's eve and New Year's day with Ollie after doing the same over the Christmas holiday.  Then we picked up a ham donated by another sister in the Branch for the funeral and sliced it up and got it ready to go.  Another sister in the Branch went in with us to get some fried chicken to take.  They were planning on feeding 150 people.

Friday we had "carwash rain" again for most of the day.  Andrea called to see if we could take her to Walmart for groceries.  The poor girl, she bought over eighty-four dollars worth of OTC medication for her mother and then picked a bag full of prescription drugs.  Sister Owens in pretty sure they are both over medicated, like most of the poor here.

Beth and Ollie had asked us for a ride to the funeral but we had to pack the back of the car with food so there was no room to put Ollie's wheelchair.  So she had to pay her driver to drive them to Greensboro to the funeral.  We took another sister from the branch with us.  First we had to go to Linden to pick up Beth and bring her to Ollies house.  Ross would have charged her extra to go to get Beth besides charging them to take them to the funeral.  Of course he was driving Ollie's car and using Ollie's gas and he went joy riding while they were attending the service (sorry, just making another observation—that's code for "I love Alabama").  After two days of rain it was a beautiful day for the funeral, although it was a little bit chilly and a bit of a wind came up when we went out to the grave site (right behind the church), but it was still sunny.  President James presided and conducted the funeral which was held at the Union Grove Baptist church.  That was where Brother White first confessed hope in Christ at a very young age.  His mother still attends there.  President Lewis (our Stake President) came also.  I don't think he was expected to be there so technically I guess he was presiding though it wasn't indicated on the program. President James gave the Eulogy and then a "spiritual talk."  He explained the importance of the sacrament in the church and told them how much Brother White loved it.  He told how Brother White insisted on getting there so he could take the sacrament no matter how much pain he was experiencing.  He said it always made him stronger.  The church was packed.  Eight of us were white with seven of the eight being from the Branch.  They had all of us from the church sit up in the front of the chapel to the right of the family (who was seated in the center). After President James spoke about the sacrament and what it meant to Brother White, they made time for President Lewis to speak and he began his remarks addressing everyone as brothers and sisters and explained that he did so because we are all brothers and sisters in Christ and he considers all of them his brothers and sisters.  Then he told about how Brother White touched his life and made him want to be closer to Christ because of Brother White's example.  Then he challenged everyone there to pick one thing they could do the next day that would help them come closer to Christ.  There were a number of "amens" and "yeses" during his remarks and he received quite an ovation when he finished. I noticed that we "Mormons" need to learn how to use the low gain mics they use in Baptist churches.  The Pastor and others put their mouths right up to the mic and their voices boomed throughout the building, but when President James and President Lewis spoke they stood back from the mic, as we all do in the church, and it sounded like they turned the mic off and it was a little hard to hear them. The choir was awesome.  They sang three songs.  It kind of puts you into a trance.  Sister Owens was having a hard time fighting the urge to dance.  Brother White played drums and was part of three different singing groups during his life.  I just can't imagine what he thought when he sat in our meetings listening to the thirty of us in the congregation basically destroying the hymns we were trying to sing each week. Just one other interesting "I love Alabama" observation:  After the service President James was talking to one of the sons who pointed to another gentleman and said, "I guess that's my brother, I never met him before today."  Brother White had six children and we never even knew he had any until he brought two of his sons with him to church last year on Fathers Day.

Today we got to church about twenty minutes before Presidency meeting.  When we came in President James was already there and was on the phone with the Pastor from the Baptist church.  He was telling President how nice everything was yesterday and that they would love to be together again.  President James told him he would like that very much but hoped it wouldn't be for the same reason.  That was when we found out that Brother Whites other sister had not died during the service.  I have always been impressed with how the sacrament is so important to Sister James.  We found out in Testimony meeting that she gained that appreciation for the sacrament from Brother Whites example.  He was an awesome man and it is really hard getting used to not having him with us in Sacrament meeting.

Attachment #1: Brother White's Funeral Program.

Attachment #2: The chapel before the service, President Lewis walking up to the stand.

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

We Love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 93: Merry Christmas; Parting sooner than expected

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was pretty much a week of taxi service and preparing (or eating) meals.  Monday we took a less active sister in the branch over to Linden to check on the status of her food stamps and then on the way home she asked us to stop at McDonalds so she could get some food (breakfast or lunch or both) for her and her daughter.

Tuesday we stopped in Greensboro to drop off a check to help with Brother White's rent but the manager's office was closed.  We went on to Tuscaloosa for District Council.  Before we left Tuscaloosa we decided to stop and have our traditional hamburger Christmas eve dinner for lunch.  We were both pretty disappointed.  We got back to Demopolis and drove to Linden to pick up Beth and bring her back to Ollie's so she could spend the holidays with Larry and Ollie.  Then we decided we should try for a better burger and went to Sonic to have another Christmas Eve meal.  BAD IDEA.  The had two for one burgers and we each got two instead of one and shared an order of onion rings.  The burgers were better than the ones we had for lunch.

Wednesday we spent the morning cooking ham and cheesy potatoes (funeral potatoes out west) and rolls and had Sister Patterson over to share Christmas dinner with us (Attchment #1).  We delivered some food to a couple families in the branch before we ate ours (not quite as warm as we had hoped).  The Morgans were sure we would be hungry again by 6:00 PM and insisted that we come over and share Christmas dinner with them.  It kind of brought back memories from my first mission when my companion (Seth Beal from the Idaho Falls Temple presidency) came home stuffed from having Christmas dinner with two families in the ward and were greeted by our landlord who had been wondering when we were going to get there.  We had forgotten that we told them that we would have dinner with them.  I put a slice of ham on my plate and stared at it through the whole meal and Elder Beal actually could eat again.  Anyway, Sister Owens was excited because she was finally going to get some roast beef (Sister Morgan is famous for her roast beef).  When we got there she told us she didn't cook a roast because she didn't have any soup mix and she called all over town to get some and no one had any.  So she had left over turkey ☹.  We had ham at home because Sister Owens could not stand to eat turkey again.  Needless to say, she was a little disappointed.  Luckily the company couldn't have been better and it made it all worth it.  We watched a DVD with them after dinner of several Christmas carols by the Tabernacle Choir.

Thursday was the worst day of our mission so far.  We drove to Greensboro and picked up Sister Borden to take her to Book of Mormon class.  We got to Canterbury Manor and the manager's office was still closed and the community room where we usually have class was locked.  Only one person was there for class besides us and Sister Borden.  We called Brother White (Attachment #3) but he didn't answer.  That usually means he had a rough session at Dialysis and is sleeping and we don't bother him.  We read in the second floor lobby and before we were through the custodian came and told us the manager was going to be back any time.  So we waited for about twenty minutes until she arrived and gave her the check to help pay the rent for Brother White.  She told us he had a pretty hard time at Dialysis and they had to call his nephew to come and help get him up to his room.  We left and were about half way home to Demopolis when we got a call informing us that they found Brother White had died in his apartment that afternoon.  It kind of put a damper on the holidays for us and the branch.  It's pretty rough on his mother.  They just buried his sister last week.  Brother White is the only one in his family that is a member of the church. First they pulled the sisters out of the area and now Brother White has died.  It has kind of turned things upside down for us here.  We are happy for Brother White, though.  No more pain, no more dialysis, and no more wheelchair.  Sister Owens said he is probably dancing all around paradise on both legs.  We messaged Sister McCreath to let her know he had died.  She said now all the people in the spirit world get to hear his sweet testimony.  He will be a great missionary there.

Friday we made burritos for the Branch pot luck we are having after Church.  A couple from Tuscaloosa (the Champions) used to be senior missionaries here.  They are serving again as self reliance missionaries in the stake.  He is a veteran.  The veterans assembled food boxes for Christmas and delivered them to families in the area.  There were pictures on facebook of the operation and it looked like they had hundreds of boxes.  They called us earlier in the week and said they had something for us and wanted to come over.  We were pretty sure it was going to be a pie, but they brought in a huge box of food.  It was more than we will be able to eat in the six weeks we have left here and we are not going to be able to eat what we have already by then.  It turned out just right.  Sister Nixon found her fiancée dead in his bed the day the Champions delivered the food to us, so we took the box over to her as she is in need of help right now.

Saturday we did our P-day chores and had to make a batch of cinnamon rolls for the pot luck (I don't want to forget how).

Sunday we picked up Andrea and her mother for church.  Her boyfriend wanted to come to church so we went to pick him up as well.  Tight quarters in the back seat today.  In second hour President James shared the branch goals for next year with the whole branch.  He must have been pretty inspiring.  Just before we had the closing prayer Andrea's boyfriend raised his hand and said, "I want to join!!"  So now that the sisters are gone and we have spent all but six weeks of our mission going along with the sisters and sharing our testimony it looks like we are going to teach the lessons to Morris.  We dropped him off at his house and set an appointment for Tuesday night.  We got home and realized that is New Year's eve.  We texted him to tell him we would be happy to come anyway but in case he forgot as well and wanted to reschedule we would be happy to come another time.  He said he wants to meet next Tuesday instead.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  We did.  It was just the day after that wasn't so great.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

PS attachment #2 is the Tornado site when the crew arrived.  A little different than it was when we got there with the lunch.