Week 26

Well, the most interesting news of the week is that today we ate squirrel at the pot luck after church.  It's actually quite good!  On Thursday we visited the Petch family.  He loves to hunt squirrels and I said I wasn't leaving Louisiana without eating squirrel.  He said he'd bring some to the pot luck if I promised to eat some, which I did.  Very tasty--squirrel gravy is prepared with sausage and slow cooked after browning the squirrel (in case you want to try some at home).  There wasn't a drop left in the pot by the end of the meal.

Also at the Petch place on Thursday, he brought in a one-week old bunny for me to hold and a one-day old chick for me to pet.  They have guinea hens, chickens, and rabbits.  Way out in the country--very quiet and peaceful.  Brother Petch is a counselor in the Branch Presidency, and joined the Church with his mother when he was about 17.  Sister Petch joined the Church after they were married.  Both are Cajuns, and grew up speaking Cajun French at home (he's still a little hard for us to understand sometimes, but much easier than when we first got here).  They have four grown daughters who, with their families, make up a large chunk of the branch.

Since I started this week's post with Thursday, I'll just finish that day's doings.  We left home at 5:25 am to visit seminary in Dry Prong (north), came home and did a few things here, visited the Petch's in Marksville (actually they live in a town called Fifth Ward) [south], and drove from there to Leesville (west) to visit the institute class.  We got home at 9:30 pm. On the way home, the moon was rising--a giant red-orange orb on the horizon.  Absolutely gorgeous!

Also gorgeous were the giant dogwood trees that just randomly pop up in the forest on the way to Leesville.  The dogwoods are about 20 feet tall, and dogwood blossoms just seem to float on the branches and look quite ethereal in the dark woods. The picture below is a pretty small dogwood in the yard of a home we pass almost every day.  It's not as grand as the ones in the woods, but gives the idea of how pretty they are.

The Alexandria Ward had a Relief Society Birthday Party on Tuesday, and invited the Marksville Branch sisters.  It was just lovely--the decorations and favors were beautiful and springy, the food was good, the little get acquainted activity was fun, and the program about five former and current RS General presidents was well done.

Then on Saturday the Marksville Branch had a RS get-together--again fun decorations and fun activity.  It's good to meet with these good people.

The other interesting news from Sunday is that Kerby was called to be the First Counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency.  There haven't been any counselors the whole time we've been here, so hopefully he'll be able to really help the president carry the load.  The stake had to clear the calling with our mission president, but of course it was all right, because we're here to serve wherever needed.

Here is a picture of our little YSA home evening group--McKell on the left and Siearrah next to me:

For Christmas Kerby's kids gave us a subscription to Audible audio books.  During our many hours of diving, we trade off listening to books (so far several histories and biographies) and conference talks.  We just finished listening to Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup (in a February post there was a picture of an historical marker in Marksville about him). It was so interesting to us because much of the story takes place in Avoyelles Parish, including Marksville.  Some of it is very hard to read because of the horrible treatment many masters inflicted on their slaves, but it is a fascinating autobiography.

This picture is of the Alexandria and Monroe Zones at our combined Zone Conference last week: