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.
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| Lindsay, Henry, and me |
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| Elders Allen, Riley, Haymore, and Dickerson; Sisters Martin and Parkinson |
Happy Thanksgiving
This one makes me tired just reading it. You are both amazing!! Happy Thanksgiving. :-)
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