Week 90: Just when you thought you've heard it all; Life flight attendant cold conks parade spectator

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday we did our P-day chores and transformed our Thanksgiving cotton tree into a Christmas tree (see attachment #1) and put up our handprint reindeer wall decorations so we are ready for Christmas. I even put the lights on the tree and it isn't even Christmas Eve yet.  I'm sure that's a bit of a shock for my family.

Tuesday Sister Owens worked on ministering reports and I did some clerk work for the branch. Then we did a few more things to get ready for Christmas. We usually have District Council on Tuesday and we were told it would be on Wednesday this week.

Wednesday we drove to Tuscaloosa for District Council without the sisters.  It was a little weird for us.  We are missing them (as is everyone in the Branch).  After our meeting we met the Hursts for lunch. We are missing having them with us in our District Council meetings.  We had lunch just around the corner from the bakery where they make Dave's Killer Bread.  We used to eat it until it got too expensive for our taste, but we stopped and got a picture anyway (see attachment #2). We did some follow up on Brother White's doctor situation since they have never contacted us.  We found out they decided not to accept him as a patient but never bothered to inform us of their decision.  We got the name of another doctor and picked up their paperwork to submit to see if they will take him.  We stopped in Greensboro on the way home and checked on the lady we found a couple weeks ago that has been inactive for almost 20 years.  She was gone but we had a nice visit with her husband and she got home before we left.  She told us she intentionally did not complete the survey that we left with her because she did not want to put her experience in writing because it just hurt to much.  She then shared with us what happened the day she was baptized that upset her so much she has never been to church since and has no intention of coming again.   Sorry, but it would not be appropriate to share the details in this email. We had coordination meeting in the evening without the sisters.  It was a little different.  We mostly spent the time planning the Branch Christmas activity.  Brother Smith is also the Elders Quorum president and his wife is the Primary president so she came to the meeting also.

Thursday was a pretty busy day.  We made a batch of Turkey noodle soup out of Thanksgiving leftovers to take to Book of Mormon class.  Before we went to Greensboro we stopped to help Ollie with her finances and wrote some checks for her to pay her bills.  It saved about thirty dollars that Ross would have charged her if he had written the checks for her.  When we got home from Book of Mormon class, there was a package in the mail from someone in Mesa, Arizona.  We were both wondering what it could be.  Turns out that Sister Allen's parents sent us a Christmas countdown calendar and a gift card with a nice Christmas card thanking us for supporting their daughter during a difficult transition as she started her mission here. There daughter is an awesome missionary and certainly was not in need of support from us.  We miss her a lot and know she is going to do a great job the rest of her mission.  Sister Owens went with Sister Morgan to the Baptist Women's Christmas dinner.  They have more than a hundred women there and a speaker after dinner (it was Sister Morgan's granddaughter's mother-in-law this year). It is kind of like a Stake RS meeting back home compared to the nine or so people that attend our RS meetings here.

Friday we had some pretty heavy rain most of the day.  We decided it would be better if these old folks stayed in the house on the rainy day than to spend the next week in the house recovering after being out in it.  So we got some Christmas cards ready to mail and did some planning for the coming weeks. Sister Morgan called and asked if we would go with her and Brother Morgan to the COTR (Christmas on the River)parade on Saturday.  Brother Morgan is getting very weak and we were pretty sure she just didn't want to be there alone with him.

Saturday morning she came to get us alone.  She said Andy got up and got dressed and then said he wasn't going to go and for her to go without him.  So I got to tag along as they visited all the craft booths (what fun!!).  We sat on the bleachers in front of City Hall for the parade.  My jacket had slipped off my lap onto the sidewalk and I just decided I would get it when we left.  The nice lady in front of us looked down and saw the jacket and told her husband to retrieve it for me.  Just then one of the people on the Life Flight float cut loose with a rolled up 3X T-shirt that landed square on the lady's head and then fell into Sister Owens lap.  The lady thought someone behind her had hit her.  We told her she deserved the shirt and gave it to her.

Sunday was a good day.  Our imported speakers from Tuscaloosa were a father and daughter.  The daughter spoke about how she had grown closer to God during her parents divorce.  The father spoke about finding joy in adversity and depending on God when you need answers to life's big questions. The lesson in RS and EQ went right along with their topics as we discussed Elder Christofferson's message on the Joy of the Saints. There was only eight sisters in RS and six brethren in EQ including myself and the high councilor.  It always seems like the ones that can benefit most from our discussions are the ones who aren't in church.  We went after church to see the Kirks and invite them to the First Presidency Devotional.  They would not answer the door.  They didn't sound like they were in a very good mood.  We left a note on their door and went to the branch building and the two of us watched the devotional.  Some of the members watch it on BYU TV but I'm sure most of them didn't take the time to watch it.  It is a little discouraging to see the way so many of them suffer so many hardships when the gospel would help them so much if they would just give it a chance.  They all just keep asking us to pray for them, so we do.

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 37: Invasion of the lady bugs, and ministered to by Elder Costa

Dear Family and Friends,

The weather has driven the lady bugs indoors.  They are like flies in Idaho except they just fly around a while and then die and we sweep them up and throw them away.  Brother Smith told us they are not indigenous but have been brought in to the state and don't have any natural predators.

We started the week with a senior couple activity for December.  We toured the only Hyundai manufacturing plant in the United States (attachment #1).  They manufacture 1350 automobiles every day.  It was a fascinating tour.  We also visited the White House of the Confederacy in Montgomery and the Alabama State Capital Building.  Attachment #2 is all the seniors in the lobby of the Hyundai plant.

Tuesday we attended our last District Council for this transfer.  Attachment #3 is a picture of our unique district.  All sisters except for two senior couples and the District Leader and his companion.  On the way home we stopped in Eutah and treated the sisters to lunch at West End Grocery.  It is actually a service station with a quick stop grocery and a kitchen ran by a member of our branch.  She teaches Relief Society once a month.  She does all the cooking and serves lunches over the counter.  President James says she has a following.  Whenever she changes employers most of the customers start going wherever she is.  We have eaten there twice.  She makes an awesome chicken pot pie and Tuesday we had hamburger steak with rice and beans.  The steak was a little salty but very very good.  I don't think the sisters were really excited to eat at the little cafeteria tables in the service station but they did say thank you.

Wednesday we put Light the World posters in the Post Office and the City Library.  We get to do some secret Santa things for members of the branch.  We enlisted the help of the Librarian, Miss Connie, to deliver a gift card to one of the members.  She said she is always happy to play Santa Claus.  She is a really neat lady that knows several people in the branch and has known several sets of missionaries and is a self proclaimed good friend to our church, but is a very staunch Baptist.  We just keep working on her.  Later we went to read from the Book of Mormon again with Larry and Ollie.  Larry is a Viet Nam war vet with PTSD and has some really difficult challenges, but he really loves us to read to him (he doesn't read).  We are reading with him at least once a week now and still wreak of tobacco when we leave but we hope it is doing some good.

Thursday we went and helped Ollie set up auto payment for several monthly bills and took her to a couple places where she had to do some paperwork.  Then we did her grocery shopping for her at Walmart.  Sister Owens says it was the most frustrating time she has ever spent in Walmart.  We don't know if anyone was a little surprised that the missionaries for the Church were buying coffee.  At least we didn't have to get cigarettes for her hired help.  In spite of the frustrations, I think we saved her about $60 that her driver would have charged her to take her to the power company, the credit card company and to do her shopping for her.  We were a little pressed for time to get the cole slaw and fish taco fixins ready for the Book of Mormon class.  Sister Borden said she was bringing catfish so we thought we would introduce them to a new way to eat it.  They all tried it but one.  I'm not sure how many of them would do it again but a few of them said they really liked it.

We had to make a trip to Montgomery Friday and Sister James called us early in the morning and said she had a check for Sister Rogers to help her with her down payment on a car.  She was hesitant to drive out to her house on the river and asked if we would be willing to take it out to her.  We told her we would and she brought it to us.  As we were leaving we called Sister Rogers to make sure she was home.  She was across the street from us at the car dealership.  We took the check over just as she was completing a test drive with the salesman.  She was able to complete the purchase with the check from the James and we didn't have to go to Eutaw before we went to Montgomery.  Neat how the Lord works.  We met a member of the National Guard a few months ago in Walmart that is a member of the church.  They are from northern Alabama but his doctor is here in Demopolis.  We told him we would love to have him and his wife over the next time she came with him to Demopolis.  When the day came we had to cancel on them because they scheduled a Zone Conference that day.  He called us Thursday and said the Guard was doing toys for Tots and they had a few toys left over and wanted to do something for Demopolis.  We forwarded the names of about eight children that we got from Sister James and told him we had more if he needed them.  He said, "No, that's plenty.  I wasn't expecting quite that many names."  He said he would get right on it and get back to us.

Saturday we left at noon for our two hour training meeting with Elder Johnson (the area seventy that was our previous Stake President) and Elder Costa.  Elder Johnson spent the first hour giving us training on ministering and then told us a little bit about Elder Costa.  They both had joined the church when President Kimball was the prophet.  He told us Elder Costa has been a general authority longer than anyone other than President Nelson, President Oaks, President Eyring, President Ballard, and Elder Holland.  Then Elder Costa spoke to us for the last hour.  The meeting was for Bishops, Clerks, Elders Quorum Presidents and Relief Society Presidents from six stakes.  It was an experience we will always treasure.  It was one of those times when the general authority just talks to us and shares several personal experiences and teaches so many things on a personal level.  He will be given emeritus status in just a few months when he turns seventy.  He told us when we minister the way the Lord intends for us to minister and we truly get to know the people to whom we minister that we actually become more like Christ.  He pointed out how Christ knows all of us so well. He knows our very soul.  When we get to really know people, that is when we start to truly care about them, and start to pray for them and to put their names in the temple.  One of the things Elder Johnson told us is that effective ministering leads to the Temple and begins with love.  Elder Costa said several miracles are happening in the church  because we are becoming more like Christ.  That is one of the reasons for our ministering assignments.  It is such a privilege to be able to listen to the servants of the Lord.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon everyday.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 36: Our First pot party, and the Christmas season officially begins

Dear Family and Friends,

Truly there is a prophet in Israel. What an awesome message from President Nelson in the Christmas Devotional tonight.  We hope all y'all got to hear it.  The whole meeting was tremendous, as it is every year.

We thought you might be interested to see Sister Owens' entry in her Journal for Monday:

"Sunny and cold this morning.  Went to the church to take down the "Be Thankful" bulletin board.  Sister Patterson is helping me do one for "Light The World" for December… We spent three hours this afternoon helping a sister write checks for her bills and balance her checkbook.  We wreak of tobacco and marijuana.  Her husband, her care giver, and her son all smoke something.  Our clothes really pick it up and so does my hair.  I have to shower when I come home.  For home evening and companion study we read the first few pages of "Come Follow Me for personal and family study."  It is marvelous.  It will be so fun to study the gospel this way.  We are hopeful each of our children will study each week with our grandchildren.  It will bless and strengthen them.  We can't bear the thought of losing any of them."

We went to District Council on Tuesday.  The sisters have always been between five and ten minutes late coming out of their apartment regardless of what time I tell them we need to leave.  Last time was Zone Conference. Sister Owens politely told them it is not in good form to be late.  One of the sisters responded by saying they had total faith that I would get them there on time.  Well, since I decided not to break the speed limit that day, we got to conference about seven or eight minutes late.  The sisters got a call from one of the President's assistants exactly when the conference started.  He was wondering where they were.  So we arrived at the sisters apartment Tuesday morning to pick them up for District Council and they were stranding on the curb waiting for us.  They told us this time, no matter what, they were going to be early.  We'll see if they are early this next week or if it is like when the Bishop stands up and tells the congregation we need to be more reverent in Sacrament meeting.

Wednesday was a very frustrating day for us. More than a month ago we promised a member of the branch that we would reserve the day for her so we could take her to her doctor appointment (it was even going to be in her car, she just needed someone else to drive).  So that morning she called to tell us we wouldn't have to take her because her sister would take her.  It has been frustrating lately because no one could decide on a definite plan to participate in the Christmas on the River celebration this Saturday.  President James finally just told us the branch wouldn't do anything. Having a booth on the square would have been a little expensive for the branch but we talked about inviting those who wanted to (out of the 25,000 people who come for the event), to come to the branch building and have a free cinnamon roll and hot chocolate while they warm up for the nautical parade that evening.  We entertained the idea of asking him again if we could do it but decided against it since he already said we shouldn't.  It was hard to approach him about it when he had announced to the branch that we would keep our meeting time the same next year (9:00 AM)  because he wanted families to have the extra time later in the day to spend studying together.  Then in our implementation meeting with the Stake the Stake President said he wanted all of the stake to meet at 10:00 AM.  Even though he disagreed, President James announced the next week that our meeting time will be 10:00 AM because he intends to support our leaders. So we never did decide on a way to be of service on Saturday.  After Coordination meeting we were going with the sisters to an appointment to deliver a Book of Mormon to a single man.  The sisters were on exchange (for 24 hours) with the training leaders and the sister here with Sister Tennison was one of the Spanish speaking sisters (she is not Spanish).  When discussing the referral in coordination meeting, Brother Smith asked who it was, thinking it was a person the sisters had taught about a year ago.  It was a different person but the sisters decided we would try to see the other person as well.  We had to call the referral to get his address and he did not answer his phone, so we went to the other family that had been taught previously.  We had just stopped in front of his house when he drove up behind us.  We went to the door and Sister Womeldorf started talking to him in Spanish.  He invited us in and we made a couple comments about his beautiful Christmas tree and he just looked at Sister Womeldorf and she told him what we said.  We and Sister Tennison didn't say anything for the next fifteen minutes while he and Sister Womeldorf spoke with each other.  When we got back in the car I told Sister Womeldorf I thought it was amazing that she could do that.  She said it had to be the spirit because she hasn't spoken that much Spanish for a long time.  He told her they had gone to church a couple times before and they would be interested in having the missionaries come back and teach them again (Brother Smith speaks Spanish and can be there for the discussions). We called the referral they had and he still didn't answer his phone.  It is neat to see how the Lord works and has the right people in the right place at the right time.

Friday morning Sister Owens went to put up the new bulletin board (attachment #1) with Sister Patterson and we decided I would stay home and make some cinnamon rolls (attachment #2) and we would go and deliver them to people with a Light the World pass along card and encourage them to do service to others this month to honor the Savior. Our next door neighbor who just moved and left a plant and some area rugs which they said we could use just moved around the corner from us (so we thought; he did back up to the garage and unload a couch).  There was just him and his mother so we brought our little plate of four rolls and went to the back door (here if you go to the front door they think your are a politician or a salesman).  When we walked up the driveway we noticed a man sitting at a table with the porch light behind him so we couldn't see his face.  I assumed it was Josh and set the rolls in from of him and we started  visiting with him.  Well, he wasn't Josh and Josh and his mother didn't move into his house.  I asked how many people were in his house and he said "about fifteen right now."  His name was Frank and Josh was his nephew and Josh's mother was his sister.  They actually moved around the corner and down the street from him with Josh's brother.  They were moving the couch into Frank's garage because they didn't have room for it where they were moving.  To make a long story short (well not as long, anyway) Frank lives in that house.  His mother lives with him.  He has five siblings and most of them live in the same neighborhood.  We went home and got another dozen rolls and brought them back and were invited in.  We got to visit for a while with all of them.  They are a really neat close knit family.  Their dad died about fifteen years ago.  They were so gracious to us.  Sister Owens is going to get their mom's chili recipe and we need to find a way to introduce them to the gospel.

Saturday it rained in the morning during the COTR celebration, but the rest of the day was well over 70 degrees. Interesting how inspired our Branch President is about not having hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. It was shirt sleeve weather for the nautical parade on the river at night.  We can't tell you how that went, we didn't go.  We cleaned the Branch building instead.

The Reed family (father, mother, and three children) have been meeting with the sisters for a few weeks.  At their last meeting the sisters asked when they could meet with them again and they said they weren't sure but they were coming to church with us this week.  The mom and two of the kids were there.  Their dad was gone with the national guard. Their nine year old boy is in class with one of the Smith children from the branch.  In class they were talking about scriptures.  They said they have the Bible. Clarisa explained that we have the Bible and the Book of Mormon.  Bryant (the Reed boy) went to Clarisa and said, "Do you believe in the Book of Mormon?"  Clarisa told him yes and he said, "So do we! The missionaries are teaching us."  Clarisa asked who the missionaries were and Bryant told her their names and Clarisa said, "Those are our missionaries."  Bryant always has to pray when the sisters come to teach them.  He insists.  They only stayed today for testimony meeting.  Just observing them, Bryant and his younger sister seemed to me to be more engaged in the meeting than their Mother did.  They seem like a really neat family.  The sisters say when the kids ask questions during the lessons their mother explains it to them and tells them exactly what the sisters just taught them.  We hope we will get to meet the father next week.  This evening we got to watch the First Presidency Devotional at the branch building with the Sisters.  It is broadcast on BYU TV and most of the members do get that so they don't come back to the building for the devotional.  It is quite a long drive for them.  We are going to download it and show it to those who didn't get to see it.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon

And serve others this Christmas season

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

PS.  We volunteered to come and read the Book of Mormon with the pot smoking husband each week.  We aren't sure who will develop a new habit first.  We hope it will be him.