Week 9

Busy week and long post to follow, so hang on!  Tuesday we visited at three homes in Marksville, and especially enjoyed visiting with the Relief Society President and her husband.  We had never met him because he suffers from leukemia and is too weak to leave the house except for his weekly blood transfusion.  But what great people and what interesting lives they have led.  We left with 18 fabulous brown eggs from their 9 chickens. 

We had quite a lovely little excursion starting on Wednesday.  The couple from Shreveport drove the two hours from there to our apartment, then we drove us all about an hour and a half to Lafayette.  We joined the couple from Ruston (also two hours north of us, but east instead of west) at the Acadian Cultural Center.  It is actually a national park, and had a very interesting movie about the history of the Acadians--the French Canadians who ended up in Louisiana and morphed into Cajuns.  I naively thought they left Canada willingly--they were forced out by the English, who were suspicious of their "Frenchness" and their Catholicism. First they went to New England, were they were not welcome, many went back to France, but didn't really fit in after generations in Canada, and finally migrated to Louisiana.

Just an aside--for the first time today we heard some of the older Cajun members of our branch speaking Cajun French to each other.  Any relation to the French spoken in France is coincidental.  It was fascinating to hear, and for most older Cajuns, English is a second language.  A fascinating heritage that is dying out.

Anyway, after the cultural center, we went to Avery Island where Tabasco Sauce has been made for 150 years.  The man who started the company was a banker, but after the Civil War, he couldn't get back into banking in the South.  He decided to make pepper sauce to add some spark to the very bland post-war diet, and the company has been going every since.

In Lafayette there is a lovely cathedral with an incredible oak tree and a very interesting cemetery (notice that most are above ground because of the high water table at sea level).

Several years ago I did some consulting at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.  I remembered the interesting feature of a swamp full of alligators in the middle of campus,  so we went to look at that.

A couple of 'gators on a platform on lower right

Thursday we drove to Baton Rouge to the mission home, where the Varners hosted several senior missionary couples, the mission nurse, and a woman who is being baptized tomorrow (and her two sons).  A lovely time with delightful people.  Then we and the other two couples in our group stayed the night (in three of the 6 or 7 guest rooms in the 5700 square foot home).

President and Sister Varner middle top--the mission home below

Friday we toured the state capitol (tallest in the nation [34 stories], built in 14 months, completed in 1932, and very impressive).  Huey Long, the governor who had it built and one of the most corrupt of politicians, was assassinated there in 1935.  There is an observation deck on the 27th floor.

Senate and House chambers, main hall, Huey Long

Then we went to the old state capitol.  When we walked in, we were greeted by four sister missionaries who do some service there every week.  What a fun surprise.

With missionaries on spiral staircase with stained glass dome above

We drove home from there.  

Today we had a Linger Longer after church.  This room is the chapel, we have Relief Society and Sunday School here, and it becomes the cultural hall for other activities.

The man across from me is 86 years old, and a true Cajun

We have much to be grateful for, and this was a wonderful week for reflection and learning.

Evolution of the word Cajun

Week 8

Wednesday we served a Thanksgiving dinner to our district after their council meeting.  Lots of cooking Tuesday and Wednesday, then transporting over to the church.  It was fun and the eight missionaries were very appreciative.

That night we substituted in institute because the teacher was in a car accident on Tuesday.  Her car was totaled, but she wasn't seriously hurt--just shaken up and sore all over.  Anyway, we always enjoy teaching.  A part-time Church Service missionary from Salt Lake was there taking pictures of us and the class.  He's employed as a business consultant, and when he travels, he also looks for opportunities to photograph missionaries in action for use on websites or other materials (that's his service mission assignment).  He had arranged a couple of weeks ago to come, but we just expected to be in a supporting role, not teaching the class. 

We started trying to make ministering visits at a local prison several weeks ago (there are seven LDS inmates there), but our messages were not returned.  Finally we got through to the chaplain on Tuesday.  He told us that the orientation and training (which is only held every three months) was on Thursday, and we needed two letters of recommendation each, an ecclesiastical endorsement each, and a set of application forms each by Wednesday.  Well, we scrambled, our friends and stake president scrambled, and we got the letters off on Wednesday morning and everything else scanned and attached to e-mails at 3:45 pm Wednesday (would have been sooner if not for the district dinner).  Then we waited to hear from the chaplain. Well, he had left work early at 3:30 on Wednesday, and was in Alexandria for meetings on Thursday.  He met us in a parking lot on his lunch hour, took our hard copies, took pictures of them to send to the person in charge of the training, and said he'd call us with the ok so we could go down later that afternoon.  Half an hour later he called and said there were now some new forms that he didn't know about, the person wouldn't let us fill them out in person at the training, and we'll have to wait until February.  I guess the bright side is we're first in line for next time.

This week we finally drove around the LSU-Alexandria campus.  We pass it every week on the way to and from church, but have never actually entered the campus.  It is tiny.  But on one side of the campus are some of the most amazing oak trees.  These pictures do not do them justice, but we've never seen trees like this at home. We see them a lot here, but not generally where we can pull over and take pictures.

We went to visit an early morning seminary class in Dry Prong on Thursday, and when we left here at 5:25 am, we actually had to scrape frost off the windshield.  We had a freeze!  The high was in the 40s that day and two others this week, then it was up to 70 degrees today. 

It's fun to learn people's stories.  We went to visit a young single adult on Thursday night, and met her wonderful family.  The YSA, her mother and two younger sisters came here from Honduras a few years ago.  The mom met a man at church, they married, and now there is a darling little toddler in the family as well.  The family treated us so well and invited us to come back at Christmas-time for the annual tamale fest.  We never could quite make out what brought them from Honduras to Alexandria, LA, but maybe we'll get the rest of the story later.

Friday we went visiting a part member family, and had a delightful time with them.  They live in a trailer on a 6-acre "compound" next to the wife's mother's house.  It is absolutely beautiful, and is bordered on the back by a branch of the Red River.  The river is full of alligators (which you seldom see in the day, but if you shine a light across the river at night, you see the glowing eyes--just like we were told a few weeks ago).  They have actually lost two dogs to the alligators!   The mom, who is a member, is a nurse and her job is to fly with illegal immigrants who are being deported.  Some regulation requires a nurse to accompany all deportations, and they fly several days a week, going to many countries with over 100 people per trip.  The daughter and her sister are both flight attendants on these trips.  Who knew there was such a thing??

To get to their house, we went through Pineville, very aptly named as we drove through mile upon mile of beautiful pine forests.

The Alexandria ward had a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night, so we went, and enjoyed it very much.  My former student sat at our table and we had a nice visit.

Lindsay, Henry, and me

Elders Allen, Riley, Haymore, and Dickerson; Sisters Martin and Parkinson

We had our second successful Family Home Evening with our two YSAs tonight.  We cooked dinner, they gave the lesson.

                                                            Happy Thanksgiving

Week 7

On Wednesday we had coordinating missionary (CM) training in Natchitchoches.  The Seminary and Institute Area Coordinator from Georgia was there, as well as the Area Director and support specialist from Kentucky and our Area Director and support specialist from Baton Rouge.  All to train the three coordinating missionary couples from Shreveport, Ruston, and Alexandria (us). It lasted from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm, and we got several ideas of some additional ways we can fulfill our role as CMs.  It was also just good to be together and feel the Spirit. 

Instead of going straight home, we drove to Rosepine to see the last seminary class in the stake--a home study group.  Now we'll start scheduling our next round of visits to the nine seminary and three institute classes.  Now we know the teachers and even the students a bit and hope we can actually be helpful to them. 

The next day we drove two hours to Monroe for zone conference for the Monroe and Alexandria Zones.  It went from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm, and was a wonderful day.  President Varner has a nice, easy rapport with the missionaries, and gave some good instruction throughout the meeting as well as his address at the end.  It was great to be with the young missionaries. So much enthusiasm, energy, and commitment.  The first speaker was the area vehicle coordinator, and his talk was fascinating--it's astounding how much money the Church spends on missionary vehicles and on keeping missionaries safe in those vehicles.  All to enhance spreading the Good Word. 

President and Sister Varner had been at a regional training for mission presidents and other leaders the week before where Elder Bednar did much of the training.  They told us a story he told:  Elder Bednar was asked by a friend of his to attend the testimony meeting at the end of a youth conference.  He said no, he wouldn't go, because those weren't testimonies, they were stories and dragged on forever.  Then the friend asked him to come and teach the youth how to bear testimony.  So he did--he taught them that bearing true testimony comes down to telling what you know in your heart to be true about the Savior and the gospel.  He said they didn't have to tell everything they know, they didn't have to name everybody they love, they didn't have to relate experiences; they just had to testify of what was important to them right then.  Then all of the 75 youth bore powerful testimonies in 20 minutes.  So, with those guidelines all of the 50 missionaries in the room (including three senior couples), in order, bore a short but sincere testimony of essentially one truth.  Marvelous!  A real highlight of the day. 

On Friday we visited a less active sister in Mansura--she suffers from bipolar illness and some other mental problems, but she finally let us come in for a visit.  She is in her 50s and lives with her parents and an older brother (frankly he is very scary looking).  Along one living room wall was an enormous gun case with about two dozen rifles.  Mostly for the squirrel hunt, but some for deer hunting.  After that we found a fabulous Lebanese restaurant in Marksville--quite a nice surprise.

We had a bit of surprising news at church today, but first the background:  The branch president and his wife came here from Utah on an MLS mission in Marksville four years ago, having sold their home before they came.  With six months to go on their mission they were praying about what they should do next.  They had the distinct impression that they were to stay in Marksville.  So, they looked around, bought a home, added on and fixed it up, and spent the last few months of their mission in their own home.  Two months after their release from the mission, he was called as branch president, and she's a counselor in Relief Society.

Well, today, they announced that they are moving to Idaho because of some pressing family issues.  Again, they had prayed earnestly to know what to do, and the answer was it was time to go back west.  Every sister in the congregation was crying because they love Caryl so much.  It will really be interesting to watch what unfolds, because the branch is severely limited in priesthood holders, especially experienced ones. 

In case you thought I was kidding in an earlier post about meeting in a triple wide trailer, here is a picture of our little branch building.

Our little meeting house

This evening we had our Seminary and Institute Faculty Training meeting.  It wasn't well attended, possibly because of the torrential rain forecast for later (and it came--we were absolutely drenched walking between the building and our car), and except for the Alexandria ward, everyone is at least an hour away.  However, we had a good meeting with those who came. We're so impressed with the dedication of these S & I teachers.

Temperatures have been much cooler this week; highs in the 50s and quite a bit of rain and fog. 

My great niece, Cayley, and husband Isaac had their first baby this week:  little Traeger entered the world on Tuesday.  

Week 6

Another fairly quiet but interesting week.  On Tuesday we went to the early morning seminary class in Natchitoches (nack-a-dish).  Since we were going to the institute class that night, we spent the day in the area.  After class we went to Many to see the actual town.  It had been late, dark, and rainy after the seminary class we attended there the week before, so we didn't hang around.  We drove back to it and along the way discovered this was really logging country.  We passed dozens of logging trucks and many areas of new forest growth as well as areas of active logging.

Typical rig 

Then we drove back to the church to do our studying for the day.  Every day we read three chapters from the Book of Mormon, two or three chapters from the New Testament (a Mission President invitation for the whole mission to read the New Testament between Oct 1 and December 31), a few articles from the Ensign (or a talk or two from General Conference), and an article or training module related to CES.  It really is a great part of being a missionary to have that time dedicated to gospel study. 

After study it was time for lunch and some exploring.  We ate at a famous little restaurant called Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant.  Meat pies are rounds of dough filled with ground beef and pork and spices, folded and sealed in half and deep fried.  They are popular and available in Central Louisiana--we each had one and don't feel a strong need to have them again, but they are pretty good.  We then wandered around the historic district, which has many blocks of buildings dating to the late 1700's or early 1800's.  Lots of Queen Anne-style mansions and French Creole homes. 

Selling horseshoes, cookware, and everything in between

The RiverFront is lovely and hosts numerous festivals through the year.  All along the walk were fun fall displays created by local groups.  The next night, Halloween, would be Witch Way to Main Street, with candy, games, and contests.

A meat pie replica, corn stalks accented with cotton, and one of the fun displays on RiverFront

We enjoyed the Natchitoches institute class that night, then made the hour-long trip home.  Louisiana doesn't waste a penny on street lights--I have never seen such long stretches of DARK roads.  I guess that's what happens in rural areas, and we are rural.

Wednesday we were supposed to substitute in Alexandria institute class, and would have done a fine job in anyone had shown up!  Halloween isn't the best night to schedule anything.  But we did have some excitement later that night.  We knew there was going to be a severe storm come through at about 1 am, but a surprise storm cell came through earlier.  At just after 11 pm we were awakened when both our phones started buzzing and showed we were in a tornado warning (a watch means they're possible, a warning means they have been sighted) and to seek shelter immediately.  That was accompanied by the most enormous lightning flashes and booming thunder claps we'd ever experienced.  I'd have sworn the worst of the storm was in our parking lot!  After about 40 minutes all was quiet.  Then at just after 1 am our phones went off again with the same message, but the storm wasn't quite as violent this time. 

Thursday morning we were later than usual going to the gym, and we didn't see signs of much damage along the way.  When we pulled into the parking lot at 7:30, we were the only ones there.  We walked up to the door, and the guy said that the lights had just come on 30 seconds before we drove up.  (The Alberstons grocery store next door to the gym lost huge refrigerated cases of goods because of the power outage--we'd only had a few flickers at our apartment.)

Thursday afternoon we went to visit a member in Cotton Port, and driving on a different road, we suddenly entered a war zone half a mile from our apartment.  A section of several blocks had broken and overturned trees all over the place.  Fences were down, and tree limbs were everywhere.  There didn't appear to be a lot of damage to homes, though there was some.  And we learned this sort of spotty damage had occurred all over town.  News reports varied on whether it was a small tornado skipping around or just strong wind gusts.  Either way, we were so grateful to have received no damage.

More about the Cotton Port visit.  The brother we went to see lives in what seems to be a low income retirement community.  His neighbor was there visiting him, and both of them had such strong accents we could only understand about half of what was said.  However, I thought this was interesting--the neighbor is 86 years old and was born east of Lafayette in very southern LA.  He grew up speaking French, and his father wouldn't let him go to school.  So he had to learn English later--combining the French and Southern accents was actually quite pleasant to hear, just hard to understand.  I attribute the difficulty of understanding the brother to just a strong Cajun accent.

A bird note:  Several weeks ago I saw a flock of about two dozen birds that looked like pink egrets in the pond across the street.  After that I would occasionally see one alone, and I wondered if I had imagined them.  Well, on the way to the brother's house was a pond with several of the pink birds, along with herons and egrets.  The pink birds are called roseate spoonbills. and are quite lovely to see.

We visited a sister in Center Point on Friday, and there were about five male cardinals in her yard--she said there would be lots more in the winter.  Quite a week for my little bird-loving heart!

A few trees are starting to show fall colors, but mostly the countryside is green and lush.  The temperature has been moderate--mostly 70s and 80s, but will get a little cooler weather later this week.

Saturday a family in the Alexandria ward invited us, the sister missionaries, and another sister in the ward over for dinner and family home evening.  It was very pleasant--and they have two YSA daughters who attend institute--one in Alexandria and the other in Natchitoches, where she goes to school. 

And, we officially launched our YSA FHE tonight.  Two girls came and it seemed to go really well.  It's not easy working with YSAs where there is so little structure in place, but we'll keep plugging along.

Finally, my great-nephew Brigham completed his Vancouver, WA mission and went home on Tuesday.  So wonderful to see the growth that occurs on a mission.  So proud of all my great nieces and nephews.