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 89: I guess things have changed now; We just had a rare thanksgiving

Dear Family and Friends,

Sister James finally got back to us about a family we were helping for Thanksgiving.  It seems the mother doesn’t really share much with Sister Owens so Sister James was reaching out to her to find out what she and her family wanted for Thanksgiving.  Turns out they just wanted a small turkey to cook and some frozen mac and cheese and something to drink.  So that’s what we took over to them.  The sisters called us that evening and told us that they were both being transferred.  We were all pretty sure Sister Allen would stay one more transfer just so they could familiarize the new sister with the area.  She said she asked the Zone leader several times if it was a joke, but he assured her that she actually was leaving.  We were a little bummed and started wondering if they would send sisters or elders or would possibly not replace them at all.

Tuesday was P-day for the sisters because of transfers being on Wednesday.  Sister Snarr is going home and has never had catfish yet.  We decided to pick them up and take them to Greensboro (the catfish capital of Alabama) to have catfish before she went home (attachment 1).  On the way there we asked them what they thought would be done with the area as far as missionaries to replace them.  We talked awhile about it but of course nobody knows until they tell us at transfers.  We were a little concerned about how we would get luggage and bikes for two sisters to transfers and the same for two coming back.  We bought a little cartop carrier several months ago when they asked us to take luggage back for another sister in Tuscaloosa but ended up not needing to use it.  So we were going to find out if it would do the job.  On the way home the sisters received an email that said if they were receiving this email no missionaries will be replacing you in your area and you will need to do some additional things to the apartment before leaving for transfers.  That answered our question about who might replace them.  We are now without proselyting missionaries in Demopolis (things do change).  Neither of them had ever been to the Gaineswood Mansion (attachment 2), and neither have we, so we took them over and went on the tour of the home before we took them home to pack.

Our luggage problem was solved.  Since no missionaries were coming back to Demopolis the sisters had to drive their car to transfers.  Since there was no one to bring back, there really wasn’t any reason for us to go.  We have been planning to go since the beginning of the transfer because we knew Sister Snarr was going home and we intended to see some Elders and Sister that we have known who are going home so we decided we were going anyway.  We told the sisters they didn’t have to worry about fitting everything into their car because they could put some of their luggage in our car.  We took one suitcase for each of them in our car and Sister Snarr had a big bag of clothing she was not taking home that she left with us to take to the church or the second hand store along with a couple boxes and some shoes that a friend gave to them a few days ago. We just kept it in the car while we went to transfers. It was a good thing we went.  Sister Allen was transferred to Clanton to be in a trio before one of the sisters there goes home next week.  They did not come to transfers and there was no way for Sister Allen to get to Clanton.  They asked if we would be willing to take her to Clanton before we went home.  We were happy to do so but we did not bring our bike rack so they had to have some elders drop her bike off for her.

Thursday we were going to have the sisters over for Thanksgiving dinner so we just spent the morning preparing the meal for us and a Sister in the branch and her son who we were bringing plates to.  We cooked the turkey in our borrowed roaster for as long as the instructions said to for the weight of the turkey.  We got the plates ready for Sister Jones and her son about 1:30 and carved the turkey and were lucky enough to find enough of it that was actually cooked to take to Sister Jones.  Then we came home and microwaved some for us to eat for dinner and we will cook the rest of it some time in the next few days.

We left Friday for an overnight senior couple activity.  The Hursts that used to be in the same district with us invited us to go down to Pensacola, Florida to see the Naval Aviation Museum (attachment 3) and the ocean—of course (attachment 4).  Their son from Utah called them and said he was coming to see them for Thanksgiving but he wasn’t going to get there until 9:00 Thursday night. Hursts have a daughter that lives in Florida so we thought we were going to be kind of intruding on their family holiday and told them we didn’t need to go.  They weren’t going to see their daughter (she is actually in another city quite a ways away) and they assured us they wanted us to come.  So their son chauffeured the four of us for the whole trip.  It sure was a change of scenery for my walk on Saturday morning (attachment 5).

Sunday there were quite a few of our members out of town for the holiday and several that probably didn’t  get up after Alabama lost to Auburn yesterday.  The fourteen of us that were there had a very nice testimony meeting.  After President James stood up to close the meeting three more people excused themselves and said they wanted to bear their testimony.  Sister Morgan told Sister Owens that the spirit she felt today was the spirit she felt when her dad took her to the Mormon church the first time.  That was the reason she joined the church.

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

We love y’all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 83: Fond farewell and happy reunion

Dear Family and Friends,

Linda got her new tooth Monday and all went well.  We made some mac and cheese and jello salad to take to Book of Mormon class.  We still didn't know if we were going to have any fish with it.  When we got there we found out that Brother White did get the fish but Sister Nixon didn't have any cornmeal or oil so she didn't cook it.  So we needed to go to Piggly Wiggly and get the cornmeal and oil and she went to cook the fish and the rest of us watched the first two or the new Book of Mormon videos and then listened to a chapter of the Book of Mormon instead of reading it.  Brother Borden came with us this week and he doesn't read or write so we all just listened this week.  Sister Nixon came down with the fish and we ate and were only an hour later than we expected but we were okay because Otis postponed the appointment that we had scheduled for that evening.  We took some pics (attachment #1) and Sister McCreath said her goodbyes to the Greensboro folks.

Tuesday we had to do a little laundry and then we went to the church to do a little clerk work and some Relief Society stuff.  Brother Smith called and said Kirks were having their power turned and wanted us to go see them and see what we could do to help.  I felt the priesthood leader was the one that should visit with them rather than the clerk but we went anyway later in the evening.  Cedric and Tasha weren't home from work yet but their daughter was there with all the lights on and watching TV, so there must not have been a problem with the power.  We found out the next day that a friend had helped them with the payment. We made some cinnamon rolls Tuesday night for the sisters to have on the way to Transfers in the morning.  We are still trying to find out what Sister Allen really likes.

Wednesday was a hard day for us since we had to take Sister McCreath to transfers to go home.  We really miss her but we are happy she gets to go home.  We asked for her home address and she couldn't give us one because she doesn't know where she will be living.  Her parents are in process of getting divorced.  She said she will probably live with her grandmother for a while.  It is amazing that she has been such an outstanding missionary when she had so much going on at home for the past several months.  Sister Soctomah was there.  She is also going home.  She had her twin brother in the adjoining mission and he was transferred into our mission when they were combined.  The two of them were in the same district after the missions were combined.  We are hoping to meet her brother before we go home.  She is going home along with Sister McCreath.  We got a pic of the four of us before they left (attachment #2).  Then we got the good news that Sister Snarr is the new sister to take Sister McCreath's place in Demopolis.  She was trained here by Sister Humphreys about a month after we arrived.  This was her first area and will be her last area.  We will be taking her to transfers in six weeks to send her home.  We seem to be welcoming new sisters or bidding farewell to those that are going home most of the time here.  By the way, Sister Allen isn't that crazy about cinnamon rolls.  She says they are okay.  I guess we'll keep trying.  There were some left to take to Costco after transfers to eat after our hot dog (we had to get the tires rotated).  Sister Snarr said she liked them.  We really can't tell anymore if they really like something or if they are just really good missionaries and don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Thursday the Morgans took us on a drive to see Payne Lake.  It was a beautiful drive and is a beautiful lake and camping area (attachments #3 and #4).  They took their family there every year as their sons were growing up.  They are a great couple and such an inspiration to us.  They are excellent examples of enduring to the end.  Sister Morgan made potato salad, baked beans, lemonade, and cookies and they stopped on the way and bought fried chicken.  She insisted on doing it all herself and would not let us bring anything for the meal.  After lunch they took us for a walk on a nature trail there.  It was very beautiful.  We got home in time for our appointment with Otis and the sisters.  Otis is quite puzzling to all of us.  He won't do anything we ask him to do to gain a testimony but he keeps having us come back to teach him and he comes to church more regularly than most of the members here.

Friday we had a really great Relief Society meeting.  Of course we started the day with our trip to Greensboro to pick up Sister Borden and Sister Nixon.  On the way out of Greensboro a FedEx van passed us and the car behind us and was going quite a bit over the speed limit.  Then a county deputy passed both of us with his lights flashing.  We were a little pleased that the FedEx driver was going to learn a lesson.  Then the deputy went around the FedEx van also and sped on down the highway.  We were pretty sure the FedEx driver did a little soul searching for a few seconds at least.  We passed the deputy a few miles down the road at an accident scene.  Anyway, there were fourteen sisters who attended and they listened to the first presidency's messages from the women's meeting at general conference.  Everybody was happy to see Sister Snarr back and there were two non-members there.  One of them was a lady Sister Snarr taught when she was here last time.

Saturday was Elder Owens' birthday so we went to Tuscaloosa to try the ribs at Dreamland and invited the YSA senior couple to join us.  The ribs were the best we have had since coming to Alabama but they just didn't measure up to Slow Bone in Dallas.  We finally had banana pudding that everyone here raves about all the time.   We weren't really impressed with that.  We did taste fried green tomatoes for the first time.  They were very good.  I really do like fried okra and fried green tomatoes.  We had another appointment with Otis but he called and postponed again.  We met with him Sunday.

Sunday was a good day.  Everybody was happy to see Sister Snarr again.  President James had her bear her testimony.  He said he guessed she didn't get enough of Demopolis the first time and had to come back again.  Nobody has the heart to tell him she is probably back again so he can learn how to say her name.  He has always called her Sister Snare, and still does.  We met with Otis tonight.  He didn't get to church today.  He attended the Baptist church where his nephew was baptized.  He is two and a half months old.  The sisters gave him a copy of the illustrated Book of Mormon stories to see if he might read that.  He said he was going to start reading it and would call us tomorrow and let us know what he learned from it.  The sisters asked him to say the closing prayer and to ask for help understanding the Book of Mormon.  He said he would and then stopped and said one of us should pray.  We assured him he could pray and he did but said nothing about the Book of Mormon.  He never asks any questions in his prayers.  He just prays for strength to keep doing right.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 72: A great zone conference and Cole Slaw ad infinitum

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday we went to the church and did clerk work and Relief Society work.  The taste of the south we got from Sister Morgan the night before proved to be more than Sister Owens could handle.  She learned for herself that she can't eat more than four fresh figs in one sitting.  We didn't wander too far from the restroom Monday.  The sisters came and told us the schedule for Zone Conferences this transfer.  They and we had arranged our schedule for District Council on Tuesday (we didn't have one last week because it was transfers).  The schedule for conferences had ours first and it was this Wednesday (two days notice).  We always seem to be first, I think because we are the Bessemer zone and that is at the front of the alphabet.  Anyway, suddenly we had nothing planned for Tuesday because we don't have district council on the week we have zone conference and we all had to free up Wednesday for our all day trip to Birmingham for zone conference.

Sister Borden called us and said the Book of Mormon class was going to have fish (catfish) for everybody this Thursday and so we needed to make "whatever that is that [we] make and bring it."  So Tuesday we made cole slaw to have with the fish and tried a recipe for double lemon cheesecake bars (attachment #1) to take for a treat.  We had offered last week to chip in to buy the fish and they insisted that the missionaries not help this time.  It was their treat to us.  Sister Owens had RS presidency meeting in the afternoon.  She still gets tired pretty easily because of the persistent coughing that she still is experiencing.

Wednesday started pretty early.  We were up at 5:30 so we could get ready and pick up the sisters and get to Birmingham by 8:45 for Zone conference.  It was a great conference (attachment #2).  The Sister Training Leaders provided training on developing Christlike attributes.  The Zone Leaders gave excellent training on the language of the spirit and the pattern of prayer and how to receive and recognize personal revelation. I am amazed at the maturity and ability of the young missionaries we have today.  A few weeks ago our zone leader told us how he really didn't do anything in the church before his mission.  His family is not active.  He started thinking about whether or not he should go on a mission and felt he should go so he got his life in order and came out.  It was am.azing to hear him teach in conference.  President Allred shared a few experiences he had in his youth when he received answers to prayers and was guided by the Lord.  Sister Owens was really excited when they stayed on schedule and were only thirty minutes late ending the meeting at 2:30.  It was nice leaving earlier than 4:30 or 5:00 like we used to.  We got to Costco by 3:00 and the tire rotation was finished by 4:30.  Sister Owens had to get some frozen yogurt for her and one of the sisters and her card didn't work again because she forgot her PIN.  She came to get my card and when she got back to the register it was a different cashier.  She filled a yogurt cup and Sister Owens noticed that the sisters were holding two already.  The cashier said they should just take that one because they would have to throw it away anyway.  Sister Owens tried to give it to the nice little man behind her but he declined and was grinning and chuckling about the whole ordeal.  She was a bit upset with him for laughing at her.  We seem to have a pretty good thing going.  That was the third time we have gotten free food because Sister Owens couldn't make her card work.

Thursday we filled the cooler with cole slaw, tortillas, onions, cilantro, and salsa for anyone that wanted to make tacos with the fish, and cheesecake bars for desert, and when we got to Borden's Sister Borden came out and said we are going to have fish next week (I love Alabama).  She called to tell us they were having it so we need to bring our stuff but then when they decided they weren't having it they didn't bother to let us know that.  So we just left everything in the car and now we have been eating cole slaw and refried beans everyday since (the cole slaw bowl still seems full every day we open it☹).

We spent the afternoon Friday working with Ollie on her budget and paying bills.  We checked with the home nursing providers this week and got some bad news.  She applied several months ago and they came to the home to evaluate her needs and felt it would be unsafe in the home for their workers so they did not accept her as a client.  One of the employees knows Ollie personally and knows how much she needs help and hoped they could do something for her.  They considered her application and said they still feel the home is unsafe for their workers and they feel she needs so much assistance that she needs to be in a nursing home.  Ollie wants to stay in her home as long as possible but that is only going to be until March of next year if not sooner.  She will have no money left to pay all the people that are helping her now.

Saturday we helped one of the sisters in the branch clean the church and decorated the bulletin board.  Then we took some of the lemon cheesecake bars out to Greensboro to Deborah (the non-member that attends our Book of Mormon class)  It was her birthday.  She didn't answer her door.  We don't know if she was home or not.  We left the bars with her next door neighbor.  She said she would get them to her if she sees her.  Otherwise she will probably just eat them, like the dinner we took for her a few weeks ago.  We saw Brother White while we were there.  We thought he would be asleep since he had his dialysis treatment that day.  He is now having to pay fifteen to twenty dollars each way to get someone to take him to dialysis three times each week.  The manager at the apartment complex we are trying to get him into in Demopolis has stopped communicating with us.  It is getting quite frustrating, like so many things here.  Sister Borden called us on Saturday asking if we could pick her up for church.  Her husband (the only driver in Greensboro since Brother White wrecked his truck)  had a swollen foot and couldn't put his shoe on.  We had to tell her we couldn't because I had an appointment with the Stake Auditor for the quarterly financial audit an hour before church.  So the four members that usually come from Greensboro (including Brother White) couldn't come to church this week.

In Fast and Testimony meeting today Sister Owens was compelled by the spirit to stand and testify to the four non-member primary children that always sit on the front row how important an opportunity they have at this time to learn about the Savior as they attend primary and that it is important that they listen as Sister Smith teaches them each week.  Because it will make such a difference for all of them when they get older and they can remember the things they learned while they were here.  When she sat down she wondered if she should have done that or not and she said she couldn't remember anything she said.  I told her that is how it works.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 71: Other than the weather, not such a great week; except for the Eagle Court of Honor

Dear Family and Friends,

We are so sorry for all you folks up there in Idaho putting up with the 100 degree weather.  When we went for our walk Thursday morning it was a balmy 59 degrees.  It was great.  Of course President James was right last week when he said not to talk about it.  I told Sister Owens yesterday that we should hurry and have a pancake breakfast for the branch before the weather heats up.  When we got out of church at noon today it was 96 degrees and climbing. Ixnae on the eakfastbrae, I guess.

Monday we took Brother White to his appointment with his neck surgeon.  The surgeon had seen the scans taken after the accident and wanted to see him as soon as possible.  We thought it was to make sure the pins were still okay that he had put in his neck.  The scans showed that his vertebrae had deteriorated much more than they had the last time he had seen him (I think in November).  He had recommended at that time that they graft some bone to the vertebrae below the ones with the pins.  Now he says his Dialysis treatments has affected his bones so much that they are disintegrating.  He has to see a surgeon in Birmingham on August 19 to consider transplanting four vertebrae below the ones with the pins.  Dr. McKenzie told him if he doesn't have the surgery he will be paralyzed because he will not be able to hold his head up and the weight of his head will pinch his spinal cord.  Wasn't the greatest news for him to get on his birthday (Myah was born on Brother White's birthday).  He hasn't wanted to have any more surgery since the first one he had to install the pins.  After his disappointing news from the Doctor we took him to Target to get his fourth cellphone in about a year.  The screens keep going out.  We tried to exchange it but their return policy only lasts three months and he purchased this one in February.  We got to get him a cellphone for his birthday (don't think we are too grand, it was only $30).  Then, so he could have one good experience for his birthday we asked him what he would like to eat for his birthday.  He kept saying anything would be fine.  It took a lot of coaxing but we finally got him to tell us he would like some fish.  So we got him a fish plate to take home and eat at his apartment.

We got a call from Brother Smith saying that the Kirks has been in an accident (about a month ago) and the insurance company was not settling with them and they are having to get an attorney.  I told him we would see him and went to see him Tuesday.  We found out that the company had settled and paid them for the car and had rented a vehicle for them for a whole month (which surprised me).  Cedric's boss picks him up for work and Tasha rides to work with her sister in law.  They will be looking at cars in August.  They have retained an attorney  because they were hurt in the accident (not seriously).

Ollie called us to tell us she had too many eggs (fresh from her son) and wanted to know if we could use some.  We picked up three dozen and took a dozen each to the ladies we brought to church last week.  We asked them if they would like to sign up for assistance.  A community program provides a sack of non-perishable groceries once a week.  One said her son helps her so she doesn't need to and told us we didn't need to pick her up for church because she is going to try the Baptist church (it is across the street from the branch).  The other lady, Vanessa, said she would like to sign up so we took her at 7:00 AM Wednesday morning.  They weren't accepting new applicants until September but they gave her an emergency sack for that day.  We took her home and told her to give us a call if she wanted us to pick her up for church.  She said she would, but we never heard from her.

Wednesday evening the sisters got back from transfers and we got to meet the new sister.  She is Sister Allen from Gilbert, Arizona.  She is the third brand new missionary we have had here since we got here and all three of them seem like they are seasoned missionaries.  It's amazing how prepared they are when they come from the MTC.  They both spoke in Sacrament meeting today and you would have no idea it was only her fourth day in the mission field.  They had set an appointment with the two ladies in York that we left the Book of Mormon with last week.  Sister Smith drove them out to the appointment on Thursday.  They had an awesome discussion.  They said the roommate was more engaged than Allieha was, who met with the missionaries a year ago.  Tania wanted to come to church so Sister Smith said she would come out to pick her up. So she drove 30 minutes to pick up Tania today and we made two trips here in Demopolis to pick up the people Sister Smith usually takes to church (in her Suburban).  Of course no one answered the door in York (I love Alabama) so she came back to church alone. 

Thursday afternoon was Sister Allen's introduction to the group at Book of Mormon class.  We introduced everyone to her and we said this is Deborah, she's not a member but she is with us every week and she loves to be with us.  Deborah said, "I'm Sister Bolden."  It was really neat.  We read a couple chapters from Acts for Come Follow Me and then read a couple chapters from the Book of Mormon.  We read about how the Lord had preserved the Nephites from their enemies and Sister McCreath asked if anyone wanted to share how the Lord had preserved them.  Brother White bore his testimony about how the lord preserved him from any injury in his accident.  And Sister Owens told everyone that she knew the lord loves everyone there and she feels such a great love for all of them as well.

Friday the branch had an Eagle Court of Honor for the three Smith Brothers (attachment #1).  It was really neat to be there.  It was pretty cool to see three brothers receive the rank at the same time.

Sunday was a little discouraging.  The lady Sister Smith drove to York to pick up didn't come.  Neither of the ladies we brought last week came this week.  President and Sister James weren't  there because their nephew had passed away last week.  Several members who are usually there didn't come this week.  Sister Smith's sister was here for the court of honor and stayed for Church with her children.  We thought it would really boost the count for Sacrament meeting.  There were so many that didn't come that our count was only 34 for the week anyway.  18 of them were adults or youth and 17 were primary children and 5 of the children were non-members (of course their parents have nothing to do with the church). This evening Sister Morgan called us and asked if we like figs or muscadines.  Sister Owens said she didn't know.  She came by to bring us some of each (Attachment #2).  She wanted us to have a taste of the south.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 69: Gonzo is back (yeah); nourishing the body and the spirit

Dear Family and Friends,

We had another week with two p-days.  We had to do chores Monday because of interviews with the President last Saturday and this week we had to get everything done on Saturday because we have apartment inspections tomorrow and we will be on the road all day.  So Monday night about 9:00 PM Sister Owens was startled by a strange noise coming from the neighbor's apartment on the other side of our wall.  She thought they were grinding coffee or churning ice cream.  Then I reminded her that Gonzo came that day.  The Smiths left town for vacation and we ended up tending their hedge hog again (this time for ten days, ugh).  He got started on his exercise wheel a little early (it usually isn't until three or four in the morning).

Tuesday we did some more branch calling stuff at the church.  Sister Owens got the Ministering lists finalized and I was able to finally access our Staples account and get the toner cartridge ordered for our printer.  It's a little difficult keeping up with user names and passwords for all the different accounts when the clerk is usually a senior missionary that left before the next one is called.  I couldn't find any information in the office and nobody in the branch seemed to know anything about it.  Our last clerk was called from the Northport ward to serve in the branch for a couple years.  He was released the day we got to the mission.  I called and left a voice message for him to see if he could help me.  President James later told me I probably wouldn't hear from him for a while.  He was probably in Japan or somewhere.  He travels a lot.  I never did hear from him but we found a shipping box from Staples from five years ago and Sister Owens found our account number on the label.  We found a phone number for Staples and got the cartridge on its way within about fifteen minutes and now have the username and password written in the catalog (the 2016 catalog, that is).  The sisters called and asked if they could come over so Sister McCreath could have a blessing.  She is such a confident, hard working missionary.  It is amazing what some of these young missionaries struggle with at home and still are so valiant in the work.  Her father has been mostly inactive all of her life.  He got active and baptized her and then within a few months went back to inactivity.  Her parents are in the process of finalizing their divorce right now.  Sister McCreath will be going home in October.

Wednesday we cooked up a batch of beans for the Pioneer Day Relief Society meeting this week.  We only had one package of beans and worried that there wouldn't be enough, so we bought another package and doubled the recipe.  Then we got a call that one sister couldn't come and that took out two more that would have been riding with her, so we thought we had way too many beans.  Brother White really likes the butter beans so we took a big bowl of them out to him and actually found the house of a member we have been looking for now for almost a year.  Of course she was at work in Tuscaloosa and wouldn't be home until about 2:00 AM but at least we know she is actually there.

Thursday we had another good Book of Mormon class in Greensboro.  We found out that our reporting of elder abuse we have been doing now for a few months is finally bearing some results.  We were deciding it was pretty much a waste of time.  Nothing was really changing for Deborah.  In fact her daughters were being even more mean to her and no longer allow her to come to our class.  Brother White told us since our last visit to Human Resources her daughters have been coming out about every other day and her apartment is much cleaner and they are keeping her clean and her hair combed.  They are pretty sure the reason is that if they don't HR will step in and require that she be put in a nursing home and then all her money will go toward Deborah's support and they won't be getting it anymore.  We tried having RS at night for the summer.  Thursday was our first crack at it.  We started at 6:00 PM.  It saved us one trip to Greensboro because we just took Annie and Bernice back with us from Book of Mormon class and then took them home after the meeting.  The lady that said she couldn't make it ended up coming along both the sisters that rode with her.  We had twelve sisters in all that attended.  There was enough beans for one of them to have seconds and another one of them let us know she felt pretty badly that she didn't get to have another bowl.  One of the sisters in the ward that has a pretty good reputation for her cooking came out and asked what spices we used in the beans.  When Sister Owens told her we just followed the recipe on the bean package she just burst out laughing.  We had them watch "17 Miracles" at the meeting.  Sister Owens shared some thoughts after the movie.  As they were leaving, Sister Morgan's sister who is not a member of the church said we make a fine pair.  I nourish them physically and Sister Owens nourishes them spiritually.  It was a good meeting but we were quite late getting back from Greensboro after taking Annie and Bernice home.  We went to the church to clean up and found that the tables and chairs had all been put up and the floor was vacuumed.  All of the sisters were gone when we left for Greensboro.  Someone came back to do that for us before we got back.  It was much appreciated.  We got some feedback the next day that several of the sisters liked meeting in the daytime and didn't want to have it at night anymore.  Only one of the working sisters came anyway and they left half way through the meeting because she had to drive thirty minutes to get home.  It was probably our last evening meeting.

Friday we picked up the sisters and went to District Council in Tuscaloosa.  It was our last meeting as a district with all of us together (attachment #1).  We found out Sister McCraney is going back to Temple Square to finish her mission.  She has to leave a week earlier than the rest of the missionaries are being transferred.  So she and Sister McCreath are driving to Clanton this next Tuesday and Sister McCreath will stay there and work for a week with Sister Weaver (her companion came from Temple Square and is going back a week before transfers as well).  So Demopolis is going to be without sisters for a week before Sister McCreath gets a new companion and comes back to town.  The President told her in her interview last week that she was probably going to be training this next transfer.  That will be the third new sister to be trained here since we came last year.  It is a pretty tough area, but I guess they don't really know that until they get transferred.  The last two have turned out to be pretty good missionaries.

For part of our P-day we had the sisters over for lunch since Sister McCraney is leaving.  We got to make pizza for them.  They said they liked it, so hopefully they did (attachment #2).  We thought it was pretty good. Sister McCreath likes salami on her pizza but Sister Owens isn't so crazy about that.

This morning was really a neat experience at Sacrament meeting.  We had to leave Branch Council meeting to pick up a sister and bring her to church.  When we got there and went in to sit down I noticed how quiet it was and looked up at the clock thinking they were about to start.  It was still five minutes before ten.  The chapel was full (all 30 of us) and everyone was sitting quietly ready for the meeting to start.  The Smiths were out of town with all of our Aaronic Priesthood and we had two brethren seated behind the sacrament table and two brethren seated and ready to pass the sacrament and the meeting wasn't even started yet.  It made such a difference for the whole day.  We had our last self reliance class today after church.  They all had opportunity to share their testimony and tell what the class has done for them.  Hopefully it has had as much impact in their lives as many of them said it did.  Tropical storm Berry made landfall yesterday in Louisiana and today after church the sky opened up just as we ended our class. Walking to the car with an umbrella was an experience.  We came back to the door with pants and shirts soaked to the skin, but at least our head was dry.  After our first trip taking Andrea home we came back to the church to pick up Beth and Ollie (Ollie in her wheelchair).  I wasn't going to try to get her in the car without rain gear on so I went home to get my togs.  As I was driving back to the church, the rain stopped and we put Ollie in the car and took her home and got her in her house and the rain started again as we were driving home.  Another tender mercy.

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

We love y'all.

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 67: A trip to the Twilight Zone

Dear Family and Friends,

First, if anyone is concerned that the email for week 66 is missing, it really isn't.  It just got labeled erroneously as Week 65 so there were two with the same week number.  This is week 67.

Monday Brother White needed us to take him to his doctor appointment in Tuscaloosa because he didn't feel strong enough to drive that far.  We picked him up at 11:50 to get him to his appointment at 1:00.  We didn't get out of the office until after 4:30 (I love Alabama).  We had no idea we would be there that long.  We were sitting in the waiting room watching staff members go home and started to wonder what they did with Brother White.  When he finally emerged from the exam room he was exhausted.  I went to get the car to come around and pick them up at the door.  Then the fun began.  I used my $270 remote device to unlock the car door and absolutely nothing happened.  I tried several times with no success and then decided to just use the key.  MISTAKE!  It set off the alarm and the horn started honking.  The door did unlock and everyone that was in the parking lot getting into their cars to go home were staring at me.  I thought I could just push the lock button on the door a couple of times and the horn would stop.  NOPE! I tried to start the car and it would not start.  I calmly got out and shut the door and left it with the horn honking to get the other $270 remote device that was in Sister Owens' purse (which I had just used the day before when I locked mine in the car).  As I got almost to the door of the Doctor's office the horn stopped honking.  I considered going back to try again but, assuming the same thing would happen, I just kept going to get the other key and use it because I knew it was good just the day before.  So I got back to the car with Sister Owens' $270 remote device and pushed the button to unlock the car and NOTHING happened again.  I couldn't believe both devices died on me at exactly the same time.  Neither one would work to lock or unlock the car.  So I used the key to unlock the door again, set off the alarm, and while the horn was honking steadily, with onlookers galore, I got in the car and proceeded to study the owners manual to find out how to disarm the alarm.  What a fun experience.  I think the office kept their doors open late so that I could pick up Brother White and Sister Owens at the entrance, although they did make them wait outside in the 90+ degree heat until I got there. We stopped and got Brother White some fish for dinner and picked up his prescriptions and then took him home and got home to Demopolis about 6:30.  Funny thing, I had Sister Owens stay in the car and I got out and used the $270 device to lock the car and it worked just fine, and unlocked it as well.  Then I checked her $270 device to see if it would work and it did also.  Go Figure.

Tuesday we did our regular P-day chores since we spent the day Monday with Brother White in Tuscaloosa.  In the afternoon we went to Greensboro to try to get some addresses from a couple of inactive sisters so we could get accurate information on their daughters' records and get them to the right units.  It was the second try for both of them and we actually caught one of them home this time.  Neither of them bother to return my calls when I leave messages for them.  We missed her sister by one day.  She wasn't getting back from Mississippi until the next day.  We hope to make contact with her this next week.

Wednesday got used up pretty well with a Doctor appointment for Sister Owens in Tuscaloosa and then Correlation meeting with Brother Smith and the Sisters when we got home.

Thursday we had a really great Book of Mormon class.  Brother White asked if he could say something after we had read four chapters, then he bore his testimony and basically called the two inactive brethren that attend the class to repentance and told them they had to start coming to church.  He promised one of them that if he would start coming to church and taking the sacrament that his foot would start to heal (he has diabetes).  He said they needed to start inviting their friends to the class so the missionaries would have some one to start teaching.  Deborah, the non-member that always likes to read with us, wanted to be there and her daughter told her she could not come to the class.  Brother White had bought chicken to feed the missionaries because he appreciates us coming every week to help them read in the Book of Mormon.  He told everyone to notice how much better they can read since they have been coming to class.  And he told them how important it is to study what is written in the Book of Mormon.  He said, "It is really deep stuff."

Friday we had district council in Tuscaloosa.  We might be better off with an apartment in Tuscaloosa instead of Demopolis and just come here for church on the weekends.  Actually that wouldn't work either since we would just have to come here to get people to take them there.  After we got home we spent the afternoon with Ollie at the church working on her checkbook.  While we were there the service bell rang and we went to the door and met Brother and Sister Bass that were here as missionaries ten years ago when Brother White and Brother and Sister Borden were baptized.

Saturday we did P-day chores since it looks like we will be pretty busy with Ollie on Monday checking out some assisted living units.  We made some taco salad for our self reliance class on Sunday after church.

We had a great sacrament meeting today.  They had a youth conference the past three days and President James had the youth that attended bear their testimonies.  It was a really great conference from what they all had to say.  There was almost 900 youth there which was a really great experience for the recent converts that have only seen church meetings at the branch with 30 to 40 people in attendance.  Brother and Sister Bass bore their testimonies and Sister McRaney was the concluding speaker.  She told about several experiences she had serving as a temple square missionary and taking people on tours and ending at the Christus and how overcome people are with the spirit there.  President James taught the fifth Sunday class about Elder Holland's message from conference on the Lamb of God.  There were some really good suggestions from the members about how we can improve the reverence in our sacrament meetings.  Then we had a great self reliance class after church.  All in all it was a very good day except for the discussion we went to with the Sisters in the evening that fell through.  He rescheduled, though, for next Saturday.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Fwd: Week 63: Back in the Saddle again (with a vengeance)

Dear Family and Friends,

Sister Owens has been feeling better every day so we decided to start venturing out this week.  Monday she stayed home and did a little laundry and I went without her to the church and did some clerk work.  Then we took the sisters out to Greensboro in the afternoon and evening.  We had a couple of sisters we had to follow up with for addresses on their daughters and the sisters had an appointment with a single man at a park that evening.  He is a member who knew the elders when they were in Greensboro and they had a branch there.  He and his sister are on the branch list and we had tried to locate them before but could not find the address.  We were excited to find out where they lived and he was pretty excited to meet with the sisters.  Neither of the ladies we wanted to see were home (it was a holiday).  Neither of them would return my call I had made previously.  We all went to the park and waited for Jonah for twenty-five minutes and called him once and texted him twice with no response. We finally left to come home and on the way he called and asked if we were still at the park.  He said he was sorry but he was asleep and didn't wake up.  So we had a nice test run for Sister Owens but didn't really accomplish anything as far as the work goes.  It did tire her out quite a bit.

Since we tired her out pretty good we decided to keep her home Tuesday to get ready for Wednesday when we had committed to take a sister to get a medical test in Birmingham.  So other than some of our P-day chores she just spent the day resting.  Wednesday we had to leave at 6:20 so we could pick up Sister Borden in Greensboro by 7:00.  We were a little apprehensive about going to Birmingham because they have closed all the freeways into downtown to do some major revamping of the roadways into town.  We found out the test she needed was actually being done at a facility in the outskirts of town so we didn't have to deal with that at all.  On the way home we got a call from a sister in Greensboro and told her we would stop and see her after we dropped off Sister Borden.  We visited with her and found out she has been off work for a few weeks because of blood clots and heart problems and she was going to need help getting her rent paid for June.  We didn't get home until 4:00 and Sister Owens was too tired to try to go to Coordination meeting with the sisters and Brother Smith so we called and told them we wouldn't make it.  When we don't get there Brother Smith has to meet with them in the parking lot because he can't be in the building alone with the sisters.  It is starting to get pretty warm now so that isn't really very fun.  We discussed the rent situation with President James and he said we could use fast offering funds to help her.

Thursday morning we picked up Ollie and took her to the church to help her with her checkbook.  We can't take Sister Owens in their house anymore because of the heavy cigar smoke from her husband's smoking.  In the afternoon we went to Book of Mormon class in Greensboro.  Brother White was there after having his dialysis in the morning.  He looked really good.  Sister Owens told him he forgot to bring his pillow down  He said he wasn't going to use it.  He sat up in his chair for the whole class.  They removed a stint in one arm that has not been used for quite some time and placed another one in his other arm.  If it works they will be able to remove the port they currently have in his chest for his dialysis.  It should reduce the amount of pain he has been experiencing everyday lately.  After class we went to find the sister's landlord to give him the check for rent and get a receipt.  It was a very frustrating wild goose chase.  I've never known of anyone that makes it so hard to find them to give them money. We drove to his home, his daughter's home, and an employee's home trying to get a phone number for him.  We finally got his wife's phone number and didn't get any answer.  We finally told the sister to tell him to call us and let us know where we could meet him to pay him and left to come home.  He showed up at her house about ten minutes after we left and nobody ever called us.  I just decided if he wanted the money he would call us and I wasn't going to worry about it until we heard from him.

Friday we picked up the sisters and went to Tuscaloosa to District Council.  We have been planning to take Timothy to the temple to do baptisms but as yet he did not have his recommend.  President James was going to be in Linden for work and said he would come over to the church if we could get him there for an interview.  So we picked him up in Forkland on the way home from Tuscaloosa and brought him to the church.  We thought we would probably have to stop in Greensboro to deliver the check but nobody called us so we didn't worry about it.  Timothy had his interview  and we took him and the sisters home and then we got a call from Greensboro.  They said the landlord would be there at 4:00 for us to give him the check.  Since it was 3:45 we told them that wouldn't work but we could be there by 5:00.  Then we only had to wait about twenty minutes for him to show up and we finally got that done.  We had one more appointment at 6:30.  President James wanted us to go visit a recent convert who had sent a letter to the church asking to have her name removed from the records.  Her cousin and his wife live with her and are very hateful toward the church.  They have been pressuring her to remove her name.  We were supposed to find out if that was really what she wanted of if she had changed her mind.  We had to meet with her outside on the porch and his cousin was hanging around us the whole time listening.  Finally a lady that was living there came over and interrupted our conversation and accused her of lying to us and not telling us what she had been telling everyone else.  Everything went down hill from there pretty fast.  Her cousin called the Landlord and asked if it was private property, which it was, and he said those dang Mormons are here again and he wanted to call the police and have us removed from the premises.  He was being extremely rude and had the landlord on speaker.  It kind of backfired on him.  The landlord said, "Man, you don't want to call the police on a Mormon.  If you want them to leave just go out in the front yard and start yelling obscenities and they will leave."  Then the cousin said, "Yey, I have you on speaker, they're hearing everything you say."  We asked the member to give it some thought and address a letter to President James and let him know what she had decided and excused ourselves. It was definitely not a fun way to end the day.

The next morning we left about 7:30 to pick up the sisters and Timothy to take him to the temple in Birmingham (see attachment).  After stopping on the way to get gas, we arrived at the temple and drove into the parking lot and just happened to pass a group of people walking from their cars to the temple.  Sister Owens said, "That is our son-in-law's parents."  I thought that was crazy.  It might have been someone that looked like them but it couldn't have been them.  They live in Pocatello.  I hurried and followed them to the side of the temple were they were going to have some pictures taken and sure enough, it was them.  They were there for a niece's sealing.  Had we not driven into the parking lot at that precise time neither of us would have known the other was there.  It was such a perfect tender mercy from the Lord that just seemed to give us such a boost and made us so happy after the experience we had just had the night before.  Then we got to top it off with the opportunity to see Timothy baptized for the dead.  It has been two weeks since he was baptized.

Today we had an awesome testimony meeting.  Sister Weaver bore a beautiful testimony.  We and she knows she is leaving this transfer, but no one else in the branch does (except her companion).  She will be going a week from this Wednesday.  We are really going to miss her.  She is an awesome missionary. After we got everyone home following the Self Reliance class the sisters texted us that they had an appointment with a single male tonight and wondered if we could go with them.  We were pretty tired but told them we would go.  They had met his neighbor and had been invited to her home but had gone three times to see her and she was never there.  Marquise lived next door and opened his door every time they knocked on the neighbor's door.  Finally the third time they told him they were missionaries and they gave him a Book of Mormon and set an appointment to meet with him tonight.  It was a really good discussion.  He seems very sincere and says he has been thinking lately that he wants to get closer to God and find a church that is right for him.  He hadn't started reading the Book of Mormon but he said he was going to start reading it tonight before he goes to bed and he said the closing prayer.  We are excited to meet with him again this Wednesday night.

It is so neat to know the gospel is true and see the Lord's hand in the work.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon everyday.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 57: A new hat (housing Coordinator); and an anniversary of sorts

Dear Family and Friends,

So after we got the Kirks settled into their new apartment a few weeks ago, it seems we are going to try to relocate Brother White as well.  We went by the Riverside apartments to see Sister Hunt who is the manager of several apartment complexes around the area (she was baptized a couple years ago but hasn't been to church since we came to the branch).  We never met her face to face when trying to contact her as missionaries but seem to be fairly successful when it comes to lining up potential clients.  She told us once that she was going to come to church on Sunday (the Alabama polite thing) but never shows up.  She said the same thing to the sisters when they were able to catch her at home, but still didn't come.  Anyway, I digress.  We saw her Monday morning and told her about Brother White in Greensboro wanting to get a place in Demopolis and she said, "Oh, you mean Blue.  I know Blue."  She said she thought she would have an opening soon and would be happy to meet with us to have him fill out an application, so we made an appointment to meet her at the complex she manages in Greensboro to complete the application for a unit in Demopolis.  That would mean only one trip to Greensboro instead of two if we had to bring him to Demopolis.  He has dialysis on Tuesday and Thursday so we set the appointment for Wednesday.  Then Monday afternoon we went to Linden to get Beth and back to Demopolis to get Ollie and took both of them to the Hospital to attend a class on Diabetes and food safety.  We went back after the class and picked them up and took them both to Ollie's so Beth could visit with Larry and have some fruit and ice cream then we went back to get Beth and took her back home to Linden.  Yes our taxi service is still going strong.

Tuesday we took the sisters and went to Tuscaloosa for interviews with the Mission President and then a late District Council meeting.  Great, as always, to have a chance to visit with President and Sister Sainsbury but the late meeting burned up most of the day. 

Wednesday we went to Greensboro to get Brother White and take him over to meet with Sister Hunt and the office was closed.  It should have already been open for an hour.  The Maintenance man showed up while we were there and said they called her to another complex that was about an hour and a half away and she would be working there for the whole day.  He called her for us and we rescheduled the appointment for Friday so we would have to bring him to Demopolis after all.  We came back to Demopolis to meet with Larry and Ollie to read the Book of Mormon but Larry was asleep.  Keith, a childhood friend of Ollie's, was there.  He sang for everyone at her seventieth birthday party last summer.  We asked him if he wanted to join us to read, which he did.  Since Easter was coming we read a couple of different chapters that talked about the atonement of Christ. He was a little familiar with the Book of Mormon and had a copy of it at home.  We hope it might have sparked a renewed interest.

Thursday we had Book of Mormon class in Greensboro.  We finally had Brother White there again.  He seemed to be doing really well.  He was riding his electric wheelchair around the halls like it was a racecar.  We had more people there than we have had for several weeks and the management had scheduled an Easter activity for everyone using the common room where we always meet.  The manager came down the hall and saw us and felt really badly because she had forgotten it was the time we meet.  She apologized and we assured her it was quite alright.  We all went up and had class in the main lobby on that second floor.  We lasted for a couple chapters but it got really warm and we had to bring it to an end.  Angelinia came to class (she isn't usually there, she is in a wheelchair).  Her oldest son was coming home from Juvenile detention that day and she had asked Sister Owens to bake a chocolate cake for her to welcome him home.  We had an awesome thunder storm in the evening.  It is the season again.  We love the thunder storms here. We found out Brother White couldn't go the next day to see Sister Hunt because he had to go to Tuscaloosa to have a venogram to get ready for a procedure he has to have on Monday to try to correct a problem he is having with his dialysis port.  He also told us he didn't know how he was going to get there.  The man that usually helps him out with transportation was going to be out of town.  We told him we would make sure he got there. 

So we cancelled the appointment with Sister Hunt and ended up getting up at 4:45 AM Friday morning to get Brother White to Tuscaloosa by 7:00 AM and surprisingly were finished at the hospital by about 9:30 AM.  We had planned to be in York (at the other end of our area) to pick up things for our Branch Easter activity from Sister James at 11:00 AM and had texted her that we would be late because of Brother White's appointment in Tuscaloosa. We got finished so quickly that we actually got to York right at 11:00. We got back to Demopolis and stuffed 150 plastic eggs with starbursts and skittles for the Easter egg hunt then we went home so Sister Owens could work on her talk for Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and I went back to set up the building for the activity the next day.

Last year our first day in Demopolis was the day before Easter.  After being unable to locate our apartment anywhere in the town and not being able to reach our landlady we finally made contact with the Branch mission leader, Brother Smith, and found out they were just finishing up at the Branch building after the Easter egg hunt and we found the building and went there to meet him.  We can hardly believe it has been more than a year since then and this year we were in the middle of everything for the activity Saturday.  We didn't really know how they did everything last year and assumed they would just move along the way they did before.  But after about an hour with nothing happening Sister Owens took charge and they got the egg hunt started with the children.  After they found all the eggs and came inside to count their take, Brother Kirk (famous for being late for everything) showed up with his sedan full of about twelve of the Kirk cousins ready to hunt for eggs. We had to do some scrambling (no pun intended) to get some eggs stuffed with candy to give to the late arrivals.  Gordon and Julia Loveland from back home in Idaho (Idaho Falls) showed up during the activity and are here to stay with us for a few days.  It was exciting to have them meet some of the people that we have been writing home about over the past year.  It was also kind of nice to have their help cleaning the building for Sunday (since it was our turn to clean the building again).  Saturday night we had a meeting with Joe Davis.  He was committed for baptism next Saturday.  He told us he didn't think he was going to be ready to be baptized.  He said he had a lot of personal things he was working on and had to get taken care of.  We were all a little disappointed and he ended up saying he would pray about it and find out what Heavenly Father wanted him to do.  He said he would come to church on Sunday.

I think Sunday was about the most beautiful day we have seen since we came to Alabama.  We couldn't have asked for a better day for Easter.  Brother White brought his two sons and daughter-in-law and three year old grandson with him.  Right at 10:00 Joe Davis walked in and sat down and one other sister that is currently being taught came in and Timothy that came for the first time last week was also there.  Sister Weaver and Sister Owens were the speakers and Sister Beaugez played a hymn on her violin between their talks.  It was an awesome meeting.  We came home and enjoyed a Sunday dinner with the Lovelands.  President James had a fund raiser at work and purchased a cooked Boston Butt and gave it to us at the Easter Activity which we had for dinner.  We went for another appointment with Joe Davis in the evening.  He told us after he prayed he felt he should tell us what was on his mind because he knew he had been on all our minds.  Since right after Christmas it seems that a certain lady with two children has been showing some interest in him which caught him totally by surprise.  He was divorced thirty years ago and has always been very fond of family life but had come to accept the fact that he will probably finish out his life single.  He is not sure now how this is going to turn out, but feels he is supposed to see what happens with this possible relationship before he proceeds with his baptism.  He wants to approach his new friend about the church and see how she feels.  So it looks like it will be a while yet before he is going to be baptized.  The church is still true and we will still keep working with him, at least as long as he is living here.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens