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.
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