Week 99: Homeward bound

Dear Family and Friends,

II John 1:12

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

We Love Y'all

Elder and Sister Owens

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

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We love y’all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 96: Our first week of lasts

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

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

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

--

Rob and Suzie

Week 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 88: Things haven't changed much in the last 130 years.

Dear Family and Friends,

"We have held 18 meetings here in about two months and have some more appointments out.  We have quite a number of good friends and have been treated very well by them, often have 150 present at a meeting.  Yet, some of the over-righteous people who do not come to our meetings say that we are very bad men; having a beam in their own eyes, they try to pull the mote out of others, but it is all for the best for none but the honest in heart can receive the true
Gospel and they are very scarce in these parts.  There is a great many that will take us in and do all they can for us, but the Gospel is too strong for them.  They want the good old-time religion (the broad road) so that no matter what they do, it's all right if they only pay the preacher.  But they help the Elders to gather out the righteous and tis better for them to remain in their present condition than to receive the gospel and then turn away.  Our doctrine is not popular enough, and although they cannot disprove it by the Bible, yet they think it would  be impossible for the majority to be wrong.  It reminds one of the Pharisees and scribes of old – Mathew 23, and ere long they will fare the same fate, if they do not repent and obey the Gospel and live up to its teachings."  We ran across the foregoing in a letter that my great grandfather wrote home to his mother 130 years ago while serving his mission in the county directly to the south of us.  A few generations have passed but the traditions are holding on very well.  We both thought it portrays the current state of affairs here in Alabama.

Monday Sister Owens went to lunch with the sisters that serve with her in Relief Society to celebrate another one of their birthdays (I really don't know why I wasn't invited—she did tell me I'm her favorite counselor).  Then President James had us track down a power bill for one of the branch members that we never see at church (except some of the times we have a pot luck after our meeting).  It is too bad they never come to him until they threaten to turn off their power.

Tuesday we picked up the sisters and headed off to Bessemer for Interviews with the president.  Then since it was our last district council for the transfer, we went to lunch as a district and then went back to the chapel for district council.  It is a little different for us.  We have been assigned to a different district this transfer.  We are used to more sisters than elders and for more than a year now have had another senior couple with us in the district.  Now we are in a larger district with more elders than sisters and the other senior couple was kept in our previous district.  We miss seeing them once every week at district council.  We also took our district picture as we always do in our last meeting before transfers (see attachment #1).  It was a pretty long day by the time we got back to Demopolis.

With Thanksgiving coming next week, we spent Wednesday planning and shopping for those in the branch that will probably need a little help.  The sisters scheduled an appointment for the same time that we usually have Coordination meeting so they decided to change coordination to Thursday.  Then they texted us and said the appointment fell through and we could have coordination.  Then they texted us and said Brother Smith said to just have it on Thursday.  Then we went with the sisters to another appointment with Otis.  We got there a few minutes before the sisters arrived.  Otis was very cool and standoffish.  The sisters shared the story of Enos from the Book of Mormon with him and we invited him to come to Stake Conference this weekend (it would be broadcast to our building in Demopolis, finally).  He said he has a lot of things coming up and he wasn't sure if he would make it to church.  He told us we didn't need to worry about him.  It isn't really that serious, things are good.  We definitely felt he was separating himself from us. He seems to be happier with the "broad way."  He wouldn't pray and we asked him to kneel with us to have prayer before we left.  It was very awkward but he said he would and then we all kneeled and he scooted forward on his chair but didn't kneel. 

Since Sister Snarr is being transferred home next week we planned to have Pizza for them Saturday but they told us they will be in Linden for the day Saturday and wanted to do pizza on Friday.  So we kind of spent the morning grating cheese and preparing toppings for the Pizza for Friday.  Then we went to Greensboro for Book of Mormon class.  After class we tried to contact the lady that we found last week but she wasn't home this time.  Sister Borden (who seems to know everyone in Greensboro) told us she works at the Hospital.  So now we know where to go looking for her the next time she isn't home.  Then we came back to Demopolis for coordination.  Brother Smith was excited to hear what the new vision is for our mission, combining reactivation, temple and family history work, and sharing the gospel with non-members.  The missionaries are taking on a much more versatile role in all of the units now.

Friday we had the sisters over for Pizza for lunch (attachment #2).  Then we were supposed to take Andrea and her mother to look at a possible new apartment.  We found out that Sister Smith took them in the morning but Andrea called and said they had to have a ride to Linden to get their background check for the new landlord.  So we drove them to Linden and, of course, the people who do the checks weren't there that day (I love Alabama).  I guess it was all for the best anyway, because we found out today that they are moving to a different place where they have lived before.

Saturday was the leadership session and the adult evening session of stake conference.  Both were very good.  I went to the training session for clerks and Sister Owens went with the EQ and RS Presidents to receive training from the Stake President.  In the clerk training two clerks showed up, myself and the other senior missionary in our stake.  We are both going home in February.  It wasn't quite as effective as the stake clerk had hoped.  In Sister Owens' training the president asked for input on the challenges we face in each of the units in the stake.  Sister Owens told him our hardest challenges are poverty, transportation (lack thereof), and illiteracy.   President acknowledged her comment and said we just have to take baby steps.  The Brother sitting behind her worked in our branch and was released the Sunday we got to the branch.  He said when he was in the branch his biggest challenge was that the people he worked with just didn't want it.  That truly is what we face with so many of the less active saints here.  It gets a little discouraging at times.

Sunday the general session was broadcast to our building for the first time since we have been here.  We actually had 33 people in attendance.  That is better conference attendance than we have witnessed since we've been here.  The last conferences we have only had about ten people go because of the lack of transportation.  We can pick people up for meetings at our building (usually one or two trips for those who have cars—we made two trips today), but you can't do that when the meeting is two hours away.  When we got there Otis was waiting in his car.  I just can't figure out what is going on with him.  We really didn't think he would be there.  I shook his hand after the meeting and told him I was glad he came.  He asked me if that was the end and I told him it was.  He said, "Okay, I'm leaving now."  The sisters came over to see us tonight.  Sister Allen asked if I would give her a blessing.  This is such a hard area for the missionaries.  Sister Weaver and Sister McCreath are among the best we have had and they were both here for six months each.  Sister Allen started her mission here and has been here for three transfers.  We are pretty sure she will be here at least one more since Sister Snarr is going home this transfer.  The end of next transfer will mark six months for Sister Allen.  She was trained by the best and is an awesome missionary, herself.  I'm sure she is learning some hard lessons in this area that will serve her well for the rest of her mission.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 85: This was the week that wasn't; too many doctors here

Dear Family and Friends,

Sister Owens got up Monday morning feeling quite poorly.  She thought it was just because the day before was such a long day with the training meeting in Tuscaloosa after church.  She took a nap hoping she would feel better and when she got up she was pretty sure she was coming down with a bad cold.  We were going to take the sisters and a lady they are teaching over to the church for a church tour and then go have a discussion with Otis.  We had to call and cancel.  She went to bed early hoping she would feel good enough to go to District Council on Tuesday.

We are in a different district now than before.  We no longer have the Hursts (the YSA senior couple) in the same district.  We are a little bummed about that.  We only see them at Zone Conference now.  Our new district meets in Tuscaloosa still, but at a different building which is a little farther away.  At Zone Conference our district leader told us we would meet at 10:30 instead of 11:00.  So we picked up the sisters and left about 40 minutes earlier than usual Tuesday morning.  As we drove up to the building and saw no cars we were a little worried if we had the right place.  The sisters said it was the right building but they had gotten a message the night before that the meeting would be at 11:00 instead of 10:30. We didn't get the message because we don't have internet at our apartment.  For some reason they send all the important messages on FB Messenger instead of sending out texts (??).  Our Zone leader is in our district now.  At 11:00 we were still waiting in the parking lot for the elders.  The sisters from Fayette were also there waiting.  We decided to walk around the building and found that the elders park on the other side of the building.  We went in and the ZL and his companion were there waiting for us.  The district leader still wasn't there.  He and his companion had an earlier appointment and didn't get there for about another twenty minutes.  Anyway, Sister Owens was feeling a little better and she asked our new district leader to give her a blessing after our meeting.  When  we got home we got a call from the pulmonologist telling us that Dr. Simpson had advised her that he saw no reason to consider a biopsy at this time.  So she wants Sister Owens to come in next week to have a high density CT Scan and another breathing test.  We are pretty sure the breathing test will be much better than her last, as long as she gets over the cold she is having now.  We went to meet with Otis and he said we were going to have to hold off on meetings with him for a while because he has to be in deep prayer for his mother.  She was in the hospital for a day or two and is back home now.  We told him we would prayer for her.

Wednesday she stayed home and nursed her cold until it was time to go to Coordination meeting.  We talked about how Brother Smith and Sister Owens have to counsel together and plan everything for the branch so we can take the load off President James and he can devote his time to the youth.

Thursday Brother Foote drove down from Tuscaloosa to attend our Book of Mormon class with us and get to know the members in Greensboro a little better.  He is the high councilor that has been assigned to our branch.  He was pretty excited when Sister Borden said we were going to have catfish next week.  We were a little surprised since we just had some a couple weeks ago.  We didn't have the heart to tell Brother Foote how many times they say that before we actually have some.  Thursday night the sisters had us over for dinner at their apartment (see attachment).  All the missionaries have to be in their apartment for the evening by 6:00 pm on Halloween.  They made chicken spaghetti for us which was really quite tasty.

Friday was my semi-annual check up with the Dermatologist in Tuscaloosa.  He assured me nothing had to be cut off today.  I was quite pleased about that.  No more doctors to see now until Sister Owens' CT Scan and breathing test next Tuesday and her check up with the GP next Friday.

Saturday we took our turn cleaning the branch building and then did our P-day chores.

Sunday we had a good Fast and Testimony meeting.  They seem really short now that they are only an hour long.  Brother Morgan had his eightieth birthday Friday.  We took a pan of cinnamon rolls over for them to share with their boys.  We were sure they would be coming to see them.  They asked if we would come over Sunday afternoon so we could meet their grandkids.  We went over and took a family picture for them.  They have such a neat family.  Three boys.  They have all been baptized but only their second son is active.  He is in the Stake Presidency where he lives in southern Alabama, and  all of their children have been on missions (one in Boise several years ago).  They brought their youngest son with them this weekend.  He just got home six weeks ago from Taiwan.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 84: Good news from the Doctor and a different focus for the future in the mission

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday we took Sister Owens to a cardiovascular and thoracic specialist as directed by her pulmonologist.  He was going to explore the possibility of a lung biopsy because of the persistent infection and cough she has had since May.  I guess it would be a pretty involved procedure if they decided it would be necessary.  Thanks to the prayers and faith of many of you the doctor didn't seem to feel that anything is really necessary at this time.  She actually has been showing some improvement in the last couple of weeks and he looked at the scans she had done a few months ago.  He said what he saw does not seem to be anything serious enough to consider a biopsy at this time.  He suggested considering it again in about six months if she is still having problems.  We did take some sandwiches and salad with us to Tuscaloosa and stopped at a park to have lunch before her appointment (attachment #1).  I think it helped to relieve her apprehension about the visit with the doctor.

Tuesday we had to catch up on P-day chores and we worked on RS and EQ lessons for Sunday.

Wednesday we worked on bulletin board ideas and got some logos printed at the print shop.  The branch council is trying to find a way to enlist the help of the non-member parents of all the children that come to church most weeks.  We want them to support their children in their personal goal setting in the four areas of improvement in the new child and youth program.  We want to have some kind of activity this fall that the non-member parents will be encouraged to come to and then we hope to convince them that it will be in their best interest as families to support their children in their goal setting.  We usually have more non-member children in primary than we do members and the children have no gospel learning or support at home during the week.  The branch has several serious challenges among which is the two deep leadership with all the youth and children.  There are only about five sisters in the branch that would be considered qualified to serve in leadership positions with the youth and children and they are utilized as presidencies and teachers already.  Sister Smith is struggling with major challenges with the primary in that the age range of the few children that attend is from two to eleven and right now she is the only adult in the primary.

Thursday we picked up the sisters at 6:45 AM and headed to Bessemer for our Zone Conference.  President and Sister Allred just got back from training with Elder Bednar and had several things to share with all of us.  The mission is shifting focus to working a great deal with prospective elders, less active, and part member families.  A huge emphasis from the mission, going forward, is going to be in the area of family history.  A senior couple is here on their third mission to help with family history.  They will visit each district in the mission to give us training and we will go back to our areas to train the members (and non-members) so they can submit names to the temple.  The missionaries will get to go to the temple once in every transfer (six weeks) and will take names that have been found by the members of the wards and branches if the people do not have recommends to go themselves.  Sister Snarr (who was trained here and is now serving her last transfer before returning home) and Sister Allen (who was just trained by Sister McCreath) are the Sister Training Leaders for our Zone so they are doing exchanges with the sisters throughout the zone.  They split with another set of sisters and we took Sister Snarr and Sister Woods (from Bessemer) back with us to Demopolis so they can work together for a day.

Friday we drove out to visit a less active member to see if he would accept a visit from the Stake President this Sunday but he wasn't home.  We started getting some pretty good rain from the storm they are having down on the coast.  There were several tornado watches issued for counties just south of us.  We went in the afternoon to help Ollie again with her Bank statement.  It was raining quite a bit so we didn't want to try to get her into and out of the car to take her to the church.  We just sat out on her covered patio and worked on her statement.  I wish our counsel and advice would make a difference but it doesn't seem to.  She just keeps giving money to anyone that asks her for it.  She knows she doesn't have the money to keep paying so many people, but they offer to do any little thing for her (defrost the freezer, put drano in the sink, etc.) and she says they did work for her and pays them $20 or $40. 

Saturday was laundry day for Andrea and her Mother and for us.  We went and picked them up with their two huge bags and two laundry baskets of dirty laundry (I really didn't think it was going to fit in our car) and drove them to the laundro-mat. Then we went out to see Brother Harbin again (the one we tried to catch on Friday)  He was home and we had a good visit with him and his wife.  He said he would be home and the Stake President could come and visit him on Sunday.  Then we stopped to see the Kirks on the way back and they agreed to a visit as well.  Andrea and her mother weren't quite finished with their laundry so we got to go home and get ours started.  Then we went back and took them back to their apartment.  When we got home we got a call from Ollie.  Ross had a bit of a tantrum and walked out after he splashed drano all over the sink and she was worried about the sink and wanted us to come over and check it out.  Her husband had been quite rude to her and the lady that comes to bathe her and the lady said she was never coming  back as long as he was there (she later relented—I think she realized she was cutting herself off from some really easy money).  While we were there to check the sink Ollie asked if I would give her a blessing and asked if I would give her husband one as well.  I said I would if he wanted one.  He said he would like one.  That was an interesting experience!  He is a drug addict, compulsive gambler, and abuses his wife (and just about everybody else that comes to their house except his supplier and his bookie).  But the Lord did have a blessing for him.  We will see if things get better.  It is hard here.

Sunday we thought the Stake President was visiting the branch.  We got there and it was the entire Stake Presidency plus the Stake Clerk, Executive Secretary, and our High Councilman.  I had told Brother Harbin and Brother Kirk that the Stake President would like to visit them and that President James would come with him.  When I told them what appointments I had for them, President Lewis said, "Great, we can go see them as a group!"  I hope it went well.  Sister Owens went to a training meeting in Tuscaloosa after church along with the rest of her presidency and the EQ Presidency (which is Brother Smith and Brother White).  So Brother White stayed in Demopolis until it was time to leave for the meeting.  We had him come to our apartment for lunch and a little rest before they left (attachment #2).  I went to the church to work on membership records while they were gone to their meeting.

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

--

Rob and Suzie

Week 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 82: Fall has finally arrived (we hope); that's not so good for the Camden sisters

Dear Family and Friends,

We really didn't accomplish a lot this week.  Last week our district leader said we had to take thirty seconds in district council and share a talent with everyone.  Being a little hard pressed to come up with a talent we both had to fall back on our culinary abilities.  Sister Owens made her caramels and I made a batch of toffee and we bagged it up to pass out to each member of the district on Tuesday.

Monday the temperature was 59 degrees when I went to walk in the morning and there were some very dark clouds that would have made me think we were in for snow back in Idaho.  Then it cleared everywhere above me and was just cloudy on the horizon all around me.  Before I finished though, there was a slight downpour but then it quit and I was almost dry by the time I started home.

Tuesday when I got up I thought I might wear my long sleeved shirt to walk but decided against it.  MISTAKE.  It was 54 degrees when I started and 53 degrees when I finished.  When we went to pick up the sisters for district council they said they wore their winter coats to walk in the morning and got a block from home and decided to go back and exercise in the house that morning.  It was sunny and warm in Tuscaloosa for district council.  It was our last council meeting for this transfer so we took a district picture (attachment #1) and then went to lunch together as a district.  Sister McCreath bore her testimony in district council because she is going home next Wednesday.  She is the second missionary we have sent home from Demopolis since we came and it is not getting any easier.  She has been here for six months and is one of the hardest working missionaries I have ever met.  It is hard for us to say goodbye to her.  She has done a marvelous job training Sister Allen and we are glad we get to keep her here for at least one more transfer.  We went with the sisters to see Otis again Tuesday night.  We reviewed the restoration with him because we want to make sure he understands the commitment he is making at baptism.  He told us he knows all about baptism, he has been baptized before, but this is a lot of information and he thinks he needs to slow down and take some time to think about it.  He is finally catching on that this involves a lot more than just being baptized again.  He hasn't been keeping any of his commitments.  He's not listening to the Book of Mormon CD we left with him and he is not praying to find out if the things we are teaching him are true, and he doesn't pray when he is in discussions with us anymore.  He says he wants to pray about it when he is alone.  He set another appointment with us for Friday but called and postponed it to next Monday.  We went to see Tasha Kirk after our discussion with Otis.  Since it was after eight o'clock she was actually home.  Well she actually drove up about five minutes after we got there.  She said she would go with Sister Owens on Saturday to get some ice cream so they could have a chance to talk.

Wednesday we made the rounds to inspect apartments in Selma, Camden, and Thomasville.  The sisters in Camden have been dealing with a little mice problem since the weather has cooled off.  So far they have killed about five of them.  They hear them scurrying around the kitchen at night.  The mice actually dragged a box of d-con under the stove.  The landlord gave them some sticky traps and they caught two mice and had to beat them to death with a broom.  We went and bought some mice bait for them before we left and Sister Owens shared the trick of stuffing aluminum foil in the mouse hole to keep them from coming into the room.  We hope things will get a little better for them.  We had our last coordination meeting with Sister McCreath that night.  All these last meetings are getting hard for her.

Thursday at Book of Mormon class we told everyone it was Sister McCreath's last class before she goes home (attachment #2).  They wouldn't stand for it.  So we re-scheduled class next week for Monday instead of Thursday.  They said they are actually going to get some catfish this time to feed the missionaries.  Sister Owens said she doesn't care, she is not bringing cole slaw.  I checked with Brother White at church today to see if he got the fish (he has to go to Union Town to get it).  He had forgotten it was going to be on Monday).  He said he is going to go Monday morning and get it.  I told him he really doesn't need to get fish but he insisted that he is going to get it.  I don't know how they are going to have time for Sister Nixon to cook it after he goes to get it and still have it ready for class.  I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Friday we did some shopping for Book of Mormon class.  It is interesting.  They want to do something for the missionaries so they assigned everything out.  They are going to have catfish (maybe) and Elder and Sister Owens are bringing mac and cheese, dessert crepes, and a salad (by assignment) and the sister missionaries are bringing lemonade.  But its all good.  We enjoy the time with them.  I went to my favorite barber on Friday to get my haircut before transfers (don't want to look shaggy when we go see the mission president and bring back a new sister to the area).  It has been nice not having to cut my own hair.  Miss Rouser charges five dollars and does a great job cutting a flat top.  Its going to be hard to go back to cutting my own again.  Sister Owens is quite impressed that she trims eyebrows and nose hairs when necessary.

Saturday we inspected the Demopolis sisters apartment and then took them to lunch for the last time with Sister McCreath.  Then we went to get Tasha to go with Sister Owens.  She said she was tired and was hoping they could go tomorrow (Sunday).  Sister Owens said they weren't going to do that, she would wait for her to get ready.  She wasn't going to go until Sister Owens said they could get lunch instead of ice cream.  Tasha got to pick where they were going to go and she picked McDonalds.  Sister Owens said she could still change her mind if she wanted to, but she didn't.  I dropped them off and went home and took a nap.  Tasha said that was kind of weird, she never went inside to eat at McDonalds before.  They had a good visit.  Tasha said ours is the only church that actually cared about people.  She told Sister Owens she knows she should come back to church and said she was going to try to be there this Sunday.  The Morgans were scheduled to clean the building last week (conference week).  They said they didn't even get over to clean it (he is over eighty years old and she is in her late seventies).  She said they better clean it this week.  We told her they got a by last week because of conference and good for them, they didn't need to clean it this week.  We told her we would go ahead and do it this week.  They print the bulletin each week.  We looked at the bulletin when we got to church and noticed they scheduled themselves to clean the building next week.  They shouldn't have a turn for at least a month.

This morning we got a call from our friend Vanessa Walker telling us she would like us to give her a ride to church.  We told her we would be by to pick her up.  Then Otis called and said he didn't have a way to get to church and wondered if someone could pick him up (I actually thought he probably wouldn't come this week).  We told him we would pick him up.  We have to leave Branch Council early so we can get them to church on time.  Before we left Vanessa called and said she didn't feel well so she wasn't coming.  Then just as we were leaving Otis called.  He wanted to know if anyone was coming for him.  I told him we were on our way.  After the sacrament President James told us about when he had been baptized for about a week he was attending another person's baptism and the Branch President told him he wanted him to speak about baptism.  He said he learned then that you should always have something prepared because you never know when a speaker might not show up and you might be asked to speak.  Then he said this is one of those times.  Our speakers from Tuscaloosa were not there (he didn't know if they just didn't make it or if they never were assigned – no one had ever gotten back to him with the names of those that were assigned).  Of course Sister McCreath got to bear her testimony and we heard from our new high councilor and then from the Elders Quorum President.  We lucked out and just gave the opening and closing prayers.  It was a good meeting.  Otis said he is still planning to see us tomorrow night.  We are anxious to see how that is going to go.

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

And study the messages from conference last week, they were awesome.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens