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

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We love y'all.

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 68: Elder Owens gains worldwide notoriety; Sister McCreath goes dancing

Dear Family and Friends,

What a week of firsts and we have been out well over a year already.  Tuesday we drove the sisters to Bessemer to the stake center and the whole zone lined up in the hallway at the church to meet and shake hands with the new Mission President.  He was Stake President in Grantsville, Utah.  He is going to be a great mission president.  He kind of looked through each of us as he shook our hand.  Then we all went to the chapel and he spoke to us for about an hour.  He shared some neat things about when they received their call.  He talked about how all of us were foreordained in the premortal life to serve here together at this time in this place.  He said he is sure President Sainsbury was there as well.  It was a neat experience.

Wednesday we spent time working in our branch callings.  I did some clerk work and got some reports done and Sister Owens worked on revising the ministering districts in the Relief Society.  Then we had our coordination meeting with the sisters and Brother Smith.

Thursday the entire zone volunteered to help at the American Village in Montevallo (attachment #1 some of the group).  They have several buildings representing the colonial era and do various reenactments of events throughout the history of the country (attachment #2).  They had us cover three different two hour shifts.  Each of us worked one shift and got to tour the facility during the other four hours.  We were assigned the last shift (5:00 to 7:00).  We got some lunch and then went to see Ben Franklin (attachment #3).  Sorry, I can't really tell you much about what he had to say.  You see, they had a packed house and it was very hot.  The A/C couldn't really keep up with the heat and the open doors because of the crowds.  As Brother Muck (formerly President Muck, councilor to President Sainsbury) put it, I am now internationally famous for having stole the show at the Ben Franklin Reenactment when I passed out and had to be carried out of the assembly room.  Two of the men that helped carry me out were both named Scott.  Sister Owens thought that was interesting.  I did thoroughly enjoy the attention I was getting as I was waking up in the middle of the floor outside the door with about fifty people looking on.  They were pouring water all over me and put a nice cold water bottle behind my neck which felt really, really good.  After a few minutes they helped me stand up and walk outside and over to the Oval Office where I sat on a chair in the lobby (much cooler there) and the paramedics came to pay a visit.  They took my vitals and told me to stay there until they came back in about an hour to see me again.  While I was there President Truman arrived for his scheduled press conference and visited with me for a few minutes before he went in to the conference.  I was still there when he finished.  As he came out I told him he sounded really good in there.  He thanked me and wished me well before he left. Then a driver showed up with a shuttle to chauffeur me over to our assigned building (all you have to do is pass out and you get all kinds of special privileges).  Our assignment was at the colonial chapel for the Colonial evening prayer service (an actual religious service) and then Patrick Henry giving his "Give me Liberty or give me death" speech.  We didn't get to hear his speech because we had to stand out in the lobby and keep people from coming in after it started.  We had to hold the door shut because people were ignoring the "Do not enter, program has started" sign hanging on the outside door knob (attachment #4).  My phone rang while we were in the lobby and it was Sister Hurst telling me they had the whole army there (all the senior couples and some of the elders).  She said they were there if I wanted a blessing.  I told her I was fine and we were holding the door shut because the program had started.  She said we were doing a very good job.  They had been outside trying to come in to give me the blessing.  For the most part, it was all a really special experience.  We have to try to get back there sometime to actually see some of the events. As we drove home we learned from the sisters that they had gone to the Ballroom during their "off time."  Several of the elders were there as well.  All of a sudden a nice old man came up to Sister McCreath and asked her to dance.  She told him she couldn't.  He kept pressing her and she told him she was a volunteer and her shift was starting and she had to go.  He asked her when her shift started and she told him 4:30 so she could leave.  He told her she still had two minutes so there was still plenty of time and was dragging her onto the dance floor.  It got to the point where she was making a scene trying to resist him, so she just went with him and danced.  Her companion got all of it on video.  She was really embarrassed.  We had just found out our interviews were scheduled with our new president for this Saturday.  I told her she was going to have to tell him about it.  Then I said, "Actually, you probably won't have to, because the rest of the zone will probably have already told him."  She was really embarrassed about the whole situation.  She and her companion are Sister Training Leaders responsible for helping to train the sisters and split with all the sisters in the zone to give them training.

We had a great district council Friday.  Sister Owens just got put on her third round of anti-biotics for her bronchitis (she is getting pretty tired of it).  She asked for a blessing after our council meeting.  We had all the elders in the district stand in for the blessing.

We spent quite a bit of this week on the road.  Bessemer Tuesday to meet the Allreds, Thursday to Montevallo for the American Village experience, Friday to Tuscaloosa for District Council, and Saturday back to Bessemer for Interviews with the President.  We had a really nice visit with President Allred.  He told us to call the office Monday and check his schedule and get a Sunday for him to come to our Branch to speak.  We are excited for that.  Saturday was Sister McCraney's birthday so we stopped on the way home from interviews to treat her to lunch.  We had lettuce wraps for an appetizer and I was distracted by something as the waitress was taking the plates off the table.  She gasped and said how sorry she was and I looked and saw the sauce from the wraps was splashed across the table and there was a puddle of it in front of me.  Then she said she would get me some soda water.  Then I looked down and noticed that the sauce was also splashed all down my white shirt and tie.  Unfortunately the soda water didn't really do much.  I couldn't help but wonder what everyone thought as I walked by them on our way out of the restaurant.

It was neat at church this morning.  President James and I walked out of his office about ten minutes before Sacrament meeting was supposed to start and the hallway was full of people (I say full, there were probably ten people, but that's a lot here).  They were all visiting. When we got in the chapel everyone was sitting quietly, waiting for the meeting to start.  They had remembered our discussion from second hour last week about Elder Holland's Conference message.  We got a break after our self reliance class today.  A lady offered to take Beth home to Linden, and Ollie wasn't feeling well and didn't come.  If Andrea's cousin hadn't let us down this week (he has come to pick her up the last two weeks), we would have had no one to take home today.  But Andrea just lives here in town, so it was pretty nice. After the rest of this week, we actually came home after class and took a nap ("senior couples get to do anything they want").

Keep the commandments and read your book of Mormon everyday.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 67: A trip to the Twilight Zone

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 66: Out with the old; In with the new.

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday we were without the car all day long again.  They asked us to bring it in early in the morning so they could replace the lug and nut from our little incident at Costco during our tire rotation.  After 92 degrees on Sunday and noticing it took about an hour for the car to cool down, we asked them if they could check the AC since they just replaced the compressor in March.  We kinda thought it ought to be work a little more efficiently than that.  They said they would change the oil for us also.  We called at noon and they told me they had replaced the lug and nut and changed the oil and had started to check the AC but needed to go to lunch.  She was going to call us when it was ready.  We waited all afternoon for them to call us and finally called them at 4:50 and, like last time, they said, "Oh, you're all ready, Hon, sorry I forgot to call you."  I was glad I called since they closed at 5:00.  They added two pounds of coolant because the core in the fill port was lose (we weren't charged for it).  They said it was probably due to the age of the car and to keep an eye on it.  We might have to replace the line if we still have problems.  So far it's working pretty good.

Tuesday we had a new experience.  All three of the Smith boys had their Eagle Board of Review in Tuscaloosa and they needed some one to go with them to serve on the board that were not members of their family.  With limited transportation in the Branch, we were pretty much the only ones that could go.  The man that was released as the High Council representative for the Branch the week before we came also said he would come (he lives in Tuscaloosa).

We were up bright and early Wednesday to go to Zone Conference in Inverness.  Our cruise control has not been working most of the time we have been here, which is very irritating on long trips.  As we drove out of town I noticed it was working.  We used it all the way to and from the conference and the next day it quite working again.  On the way there I realized in our prayer that morning we had prayed that the car would function properly.  Another tender mercy.  It was a special Zone Conference.  It was the last one we will have with President Sainsbury.  We change Presidents and realign the mission boundaries July 1^st.

Thursday was happy birthday to Sister Owens.  We made a cake and took it to Book of Mormon class but we couldn't mention the birthday because we had overlooked a few birthdays in the Branch while Sister Owens was dealing with her Bronchitis. Sister Owens doesn't think her funeral will be as nice as her birthday.  There were too many kind wishes and nice things said by so many people.  Thanks to all of you who sent her special greetings.

Friday three of the sisters in the branch took Sister Owens to Lunch at the Mennonite bakery.  She thoroughly enjoyed the dozen shrimp she had for lunch but the cake wasn't really all that great.  They didn't get to use the private back room because of a family reunion that was having lunch there, so they had to make do with a table among the Cowboy church folks that were there for lunch.  A truly unique experience.

We had a special pot luck for all the senior couples in the mission on Saturday night with President and Sister Sainsbury  and then another pot luck for the branch on Sunday so we made cinnamon rolls for both of them.  Due to a slight miscalculation on my part, there were only half as many as I intended and they were extremely bready and really didn't have that much cinnamon in them.  I should have divided the dough before I rolled it out and I just didn't do it.  They did get eaten though.  It was the last time we will see the Sainsburys on our mission.  We are going to miss them.  He has been a great President.  He has been encouraging the missionaries to support and sustain the new President when he comes.  He shared with us, at zone conference, how he was duped by a zone leader when he was brand new.  The elder told him he had hurt his back and that the equipment at golds gym would help him in his recovery. President said he thought if you can't trust a zone leader, who can you trust?   So he gave him special permission to use the gym.  A couple months later he noticed that all his missionaries were walking around like they were pushing wheelbarrows and he was getting letters from all the parents wanting to know why they were having to pay for memberships at Golds Gym.  The zone leader had told everybody that the president had given them permission to get memberships at the gym. He put an end to that and had everyone cancel their memberships.  He said if anyone tried something like that with the new president he personally would hunt them down and shoot them.  All the elders now in the mission get to have two exit interviews.  President Sainsbury had the elders meet with him during conference and the sisters with Sister Sainsbury.  He said since he didn't get to talk with them when they leave to go home he was going to share some things with them there.  So he gave all some very sound advice for when they are released from their missions that will help them for the rest of their lives.  I hope they paid attention.

We had another little tender mercy Thursday night.  We happened to see the red hornet between the sheet and the blanket on our bed as we were turning down the sheets to go to bed, rather than discovering it during the night when one of us got stung.  I'm glad the Lord is watching out for us.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day ("for the rest of your life until you're dead,"—President Sainsbury)

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

PS.  We got a group picture of the Zone with the Sainsburys and one of the senior couples with them but we didn't take them.  We hope they will be posted on the mission facebook page before long so we can download them and send them with our next email.

Week 65: One for the books

Dear Family and Friends,

Other than a persistent cough, Sister Owens seems to be getting quite a bit better.  This was a very busy week and she went through it like a real trooper.  Of course it was probably the cut and perm she got Monday that made all the difference.  We had the sisters over for pizza at lunch since we were taking Sister Weaver to transfers Wednesday.  It was a little unnerving making pizza for a Chicago native, but she said she liked it.  The pulmonologist said Sister Owens should take an antihistamine in addition to the Flonase she is taking every morning, so today she took one of the Zyrtec pills that I got for my pneumonia shot reaction.  It didn’t sit with her any better than it did for me.  We think she is allergic to the active ingredient in it.  Her cough got worse and her air way tightened up.  Now we still have three more of the pills we need to figure out what to do with (man, they’re expensive).

Tuesday Sister Owens had presidency meeting to plan out the rest of the year for the monthly RS meetings.  Then we went and did the shopping for the luncheon for the meeting this Friday.  Neither of us recording anything for that day and we can’t remember anything else about the day so there is nothing more to tell.

Wednesday we drove to Gardendale for transfers.  Sister Weaver had more luggage than any sister we ever transported from California, and I let her know it.  We couldn’t have stuffed one more thing into our car for that trip.  As soon as we arrived at the chapel Sister Hurst came over and asked us if they had talked to us about bring a third sister back with us and dropping her off in Tuscaloosa.  No one had said anything to us so we did not bring our car top carrier with us.  I told her we could make room for the sister but we only had room for luggage for one sister.  We got our new sister.

She is Sister McRaney from (you guessed it) California.  Then I was sure we would not have room for any luggage for the third sister. Now our missionaries in Demopolis are Sister McCreath and Sister McRaney.  Sister McRaney is a Temple Square missionary.  She has been out about a year.  About half way through their mission they have the opportunity to go to another mission and serve as a proselyting missionary.  She came to our mission last transfer and is now in our area.  She seems like another really good missionary.  We felt bad losing Sister Weaver.  She had been in Demopolis for six months and is a super missionary.  We still have two really great sisters to work with here. We loaded Sister McRaney’s luggage and I was flabbergasted.  She had one Suitcase and one bedding bag.  We laterally had half the luggage area still empty.  We got all of the third sister’s luggage in except for one big box.  She insisted on holding it on her lap for the hour ride to Tuscaloosa.  I was surprised she and the box both actually fit in the back seat, besides the other two sisters sitting with her.  Then, of course, we stopped at Costco on the way home to get lunch and it was time to have the tires rotated.  They called me just as they finished the rotation to advise me that one of the lug nuts seized half way onto the lug when they were putting the wheel back on the car.  Now we have to take the car into the shop tomorrow morning to have that repaired.

Thursday we were just sitting down to eat our lunch and our Branch President’s wife called to say one of the sisters in the branch had been in intensive care since Sunday and they just released her and needed someone to pick her up and take her home.  She couldn’t go because she was at work so we told her we would go get her (we assumed she would be there waiting for us).  We got there and I waited in the car at patient pick-up and Sister Owens went in to let them know we were there.  They told her they were getting her dressed and had to check her blood pressure once more before she could leave and I couldn’t park where I was. I would have to move.  So I went and parked in the sun for twenty minutes with the A/C on which really wasn’t doing much to cool the car.  Then I finally saw Sister Owens come out and I started to pull up to the door.  She shook her head and motioned for me not to come to the door.  She came out and said they were still getting her ready to come down and that she was probably making sure that she got her lunch before she left.  Sorry, but I was a little put out by then and told her to tell them that we would leave and they could call us when she was ready and we would come and get her.  Sister Owens disappeared back into the hospital and I waited another fifteen minutes in the sun and by then the A\C was really not keeping me cool.  I assumed they told her she would be right down any minute so she decided we would just wait.  I decided I was going to go park in the shade at patient pick-up and wait until they came and told me I had to move, and then I would tell them to have my wife come out and we would go.  About five minutes later they wheeled her out and got her in the car and we had to go to the pharmacy and buy her medication for her before we took her home (I love Alabama).  On the way to her apartment she said she hoped her son was home because she didn’t have her key.  He wasn’t home so we left her at her neighbor’s apartment and about an hour and a half after we left our apartment we headed home to eat our lunch.  Before we left, she asked if she could give us some money and we could bring her some dinner on our way home from Book of Mormon class.  We only were about twenty minutes late for class by the time we got there.  After class we went to HR again to report elder abuse.  The non-member that meets with us each week is still living in deplorable conditions and is not being treated right by her daughters.  This was the third time we have been in to talk to them about it.  We aren’t really seeing where it is making much difference for her (I do love Alabama).  After we delivered dinner to Sister Jones and got home we made the taco salad for the luncheon the next day and then went down and set up for the meeting at the church.

Bright and early Friday we fired up the taxi and headed for Greensboro to pick up sisters for Relief Society.  The meeting was a success.  A sister from the other end of the branch did a class on flower arranging (see attachment #1).  After we got the sisters back home to Greensboro and straightened up a bit at the church we texted the sisters who were at a mission leadership meeting all day and asked them if they were going to be back to Demopolis in time for dinner.  They said they would just be getting back about 6:00 PM.  We told them we could bring dinner over to their apartment so they could eat when they got there.  They said that would be great.  We got there at six and they weren’t there.  We realized we had the spare key to their apartment in our car (several sisters back they kept locking their keys in the apartment and had to keep calling their landlord so they asked us to keep the spare for them). Just as we were putting the leftover taco salad on their table they texted and said they were almost home.  We told them we left it on the table and they could eat when they got there.

We had gotten a call Wednesday night and were asked if we would speak in church for Father’s day.  We set aside Saturday to devote to making cinnamon rolls (attachment #2) for the dads in the branch and finish preparing our talks.  We decided that was our plan for Saturday and we wouldn’t commit to anything else until that was done.  So Friday afternoon we got a call from the substitute housing coordinator telling us that the senior couples decided they were going to go Saturday to see the Civil War battlefield in Shiloh Tennessee since in two weeks it will no longer be in our mission. They are re-aligning the boundaries when they change mission presidents on July 1^st.  We told him we had a pretty busy day planned and would have to call him back to let him know if we would make it.  It was an opportunity we really didn’t want to pass up so we called and said we would be there.  Then after we got dinner to the sisters we went home and started the dough for the cinnamon rolls and got them made Friday night so they would be ready for Sunday.

Saturday morning we had to leave Demopolis at 6:00 AM to get to Birmingham by 8:00 AM to join the other couples and go in the van for three hours to Shiloh.  We went all the way to northern Alabama and then through part of Mississippi and into Tennessee to get there.  It was a long, but beautiful, drive. We didn’t really have time to do much when we got there but we did tour the visitor center (Museum) and watch a 45 minute film explaining the battle that took place there.  Then we got to see the national cemetery they have there (attachment #3).  We stopped at a famous restaurant nearby, The Catfish Inn, but the wait was forty-five minutes to get a table (at 2:20 in the afternoon) so we headed home and stopped to eat on the way at Jack’s (a bit of a disappointment).  We finally got home about 9:00 PM.  Sister Owens went to bed and I worked on my talk until after midnight (I really wasn’t expecting to have time to give it anyway).

Sunday morning President James started the meeting and mentioned that we had a new sister missionary and said he would have Sister McRaney introduce herself later in the meeting. So for the meeting we were going to have the sacrament (which is actually about seven minutes, tops, in the branch).  Sister McRaney introducing herself, a message by Ollie about fathers, a message by Sister Owens, a congregational hymn (I looked it up; “Oh My Father”), and then a message from me.  Sure enough, when I stood up there was ten minutes left in the meeting for me and the closing hymn.  It didn’t matter a bit because Sister Owens gave an awesome talk about how the Savior set the perfect example of honoring His Father by being perfectly obedient to Him in all things. I bore my testimony and we closed the meeting.  Brother and Sister Morgan invited us and the sisters to their home for dinner today and then we got to come home and talk to the kids for father’s day.  It was a great day.

We hope all you fathers had a great father’s day.

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day

We love y’all,

Elder and Sister Owens

Week 64: The saddle is still slipping a little

Dear Family and Friends,

We scheduled our three apartment inspections for Monday and the Housing coordinator called us and asked if we could inspect the sisters apartment in Camden also.  They just re-opened the area after several years without missionaries.  So we went to see the sisters in Camden.  They have a very small branch there with about fifteen members that come each week.  The sisters were so excited to be there.  They told us how "they" got into their apartment before they arrived and decorated the walls with welcome notes and stocked their pantry and put up signs.  We asked if it was the Branch that did that.  They told us it was the Vicks.  I said, "Is that a family in the branch?"  They said it was.  By the time we were leaving to come home we had found out the Vicks are the branch.  It is just one family and extended family.  Their son is on his mission right now.  The sisters told us the whole town came to his farewell.  Everybody in town knows the family. They go tracting in the town and ask people if they know Stone Vick.  They tell them yes, and then they say "We are doing what he is doing right now."  It seems to be a good approach for them to use.  Anyway we did our four inspections and it made Sister Owens pretty tired.  Kind of a long day for her.

Tuesday we didn't do much other than recuperate from the day before, except for taking our sisters halfway back to Camden to meet the other sisters so they could do their exchanges for the transfer.  They trade companions and each set works in one of the areas for twenty-four hours.  We did go with the sisters in the evening for an appointment with a single male.  It was a no show.  So we went to check on some less active members we have been unable to contact and still couldn't find them home.  We did get to see a recent convert (baptized a few weeks before we came)  who has never been to church since we came.  He avoided us for a long time and his brother told us he moved to Tuscaloosa a few months ago.  We had never met him but saw someone outside his apartment some weeks ago and I just went up and asked him if he was Johnny Braxton.  He was too surprised to say anything but "yes" and he wondered how I knew that because he didn't know me.  Anyway, his door was open Tuesday night so we went to see him.  His kids were there visiting so we didn't stay.  We just told him we would love to see him at church someday.  In typical Alabama style, he told us he loved the church and he would be coming.

Wednesday we took the sisters back to get paired up with their companions again.  Last week Sister Owens told the Book of Mormon class it was time we had a treat again (it has been a while) so we had to pick up some stuff and get a cake made to take with us Thursday.  We had coordination meeting with Brother Smith and then we were going to go to the appointment with the sisters to see Marquise who we had a discussion with on Sunday evening but he called them and said he would have to cancel.  It was kind of exciting for the sisters because usually they just aren't home when they go for appointments.

Thursday we took Sister Owens to Tuscaloosa in the morning to have her consultation with the pulmonologist.  I had to go in with her to make sure she didn't leave out any of the important stuff.  She seems to have a hard time telling the whole truth when she talks to doctors.  The doctor wasn't to excited to hear that she is coughing up some colored mucous again and put her on another antibiotic.  So we get to go through that routine again for another ten days.  She scheduled her for a CT scan in August and a follow up appointment.  Sister Owens says she is never getting sick again because it makes her too tired and depressed.  Of course, she might be right.  If she doesn't start following orders and getting the rest she needs she won't ever get better this time and then she won't be able to get sick again.  We did have a good Book of Mormon class.  I cut the cake and Sister Owens said I cut the pieces too small.  She was the only one that complained though.  We had enough left to give some to the sisters and to one of the sisters in the branch that wasn't feeling well.  She felt bad because Sister Owens missed her birthday and didn't bring her a cake.  That was the week we were seeing all the doctors in Demopolis.

Friday was our last District Council for this transfer.  The District Leader changed the time from 11:00 AM to noon so the sisters could go to lunch before the meeting because he said the elders were going to go to lunch.  A few months ago the President asked us to discontinue the occasional practice of going to lunch as a district with the elders and sisters together after District Council.  So for some reason the DL thought it would be alright to go to lunch before the meeting but not after.  He was right about not having the elders go with the sisters but there wasn't any reason they couldn't go after the meeting at lunch time, as long as they didn't go together.  Anyway, we drove in early so the Demopolis sisters could meet up with the sisters from the rest of the district and we got to have a nice late breakfast with them before the meeting. Then we took our traditional district picture since it was our last Council meeting (see attachment).  We got home in time to pick up Ollie and take her to the church to work on her finances again.  She had her hair done in the morning and just as we left the church we had some "car wash rain" as Sister Owens calls it.  We had lots of fun getting her into and out of the car and back into her house and still save the hairdo.

Our P-day was Saturday this week because we did inspections all day on Monday.  We just did our shopping and chores around the apartment.  We had our standing appointment with Joe Davis in the evening.  He is trying so hard to give up the coffee but his body is putting up a real fight about it.  We had a good discussion and then brought up President Nelson's conference talk, "Come Follow Me" on his computer terminal.  He made it about five minutes or less and went to sleep, but the four of us enjoyed the talk.  He felt so bad when we woke him up at the end and he apologized about eight times in the six minutes we were there before we left.  He is seventy-three and works about twelve hours a day on his farm during the week and then all night Saturday and Sunday at the Trucking terminal.  He told us he was coming to church though and he was there and stayed for Sacrament meeting and Priesthood meeting.  He would benefit from any prayers offered in his behalf to overcome his coffee.  He will be baptized as soon as he can stop.

Sundays are really renewing each week but they have been pretty long as well since we have been having the Self Reliance class after meetings and then we get everyone home after class.  Today was an easy day since the one from Linden didn't come and Elder and Sister Champion, who come from Tuscaloosa each week to facilitate the class, offered to take Timothy home for us because it was on the way back to Tuscaloosa.  They will be doing that now for the rest of the time we have the class.  So today we just had to take two people home that live here in Demopolis.  The guest speakers that came down from Tuscaloosa commented on how glad they were to be back in Demopolis again to attend our meetings because there is such a special spirit here in our building.  It made us remember how we felt the first week we were here for church when we got here last March.  Everybody that comes here always says that about being here.

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

We Love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens

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

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon everyday.

We love y'all,

Elder and Sister Owens