Week 25

Monday was a joint Zone Conference with the Alexandria and Monroe Zones, held at the Alexandria Stake Center.  Elder Kerr helped inspect missionary cars before it started.  One of the blessings of being on a mission is associating with the wonderful young elders and sisters.  It's great to see their enthusiasm and dedication.  In one segment, several missionaries role played telling the Father's story (the plan of salvation) in one minute.  (That terminology comes from the hymn Called to Serve, which includes the line, "Far and wide we tell the Father's story. . . .")  Anyway, it was amazing to see and hear missionary after missionary teach and bear testimony so differently, quickly, and effectively. Kerby and I were both young missionaries when the lessons were memorized, so it's marvelous to see such a change in approach to teaching the gospel.

We got to substitute teach in institute on Tuesday, and we always enjoy that very much.  The class is studying Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon this semester. 

Thursday, at long last, we had our volunteer training at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex.  They only have the training every two months.  The first time we planned to go was in November, but we learned the very day of the training they had changed some of the application forms so we couldn't go.  The next training was in January, during the government shut-down, so training was cancelled.  Finally, we got in this week.  We were fingerprinted and photographed, and have to wait a couple more weeks for all of that to be processed.  Then we can begin working with the seven Latter-day Saint prisoners there, who meet as a group every Wednesday afternoon.

Even though we tried to visit a few people in Marksville on Friday, we didn't find anyone home.  On the way back to Alexandria, we stopped to see our YSA softball players in action at LSUA.  It was a double header, and Siearrah played in both games.  She's the right fielder and we saw her make a few base hits, steal 2nd, and catch quite a few fly balls.  McKell pitched the second game.  It was fun to watch, especially since LSUA won the first game 5 to 0, and pulled out the second game 3 to 2 by scoring 3 runs at the bottom of the 7th inning.   We dashed home between games to change into warmer clothes because 60 degrees got to feeling pretty cold sitting in the bleachers.

Go LSUA Generals!!

We spoke in church today, the third time since we've been here.  It was also Sunday School today, so I got to teach that as well.  We still love our little branch.  They are just some good, faithful people. 

Spring continues to spring.  We see gorgeous deep pink, purple, and red azaleas everywhere.  Some of the bushes are well over six feet tall, and in many places they form big hedges.  The picture below is just a little bitty thing by our mailbox.  We also see wisteria, bridal veil, and lots of flowering trees.  Things just seem greener all of a sudden, and many of the fields are being plowed in preparation for planting.