Week 31

First of all, the Mission Miracle.  On Thursday morning at 2:00 am, the elders in Ruston (about two hours north of us--home of Louisiana Tech, Karl Malone's alma mater) woke up because they were hot and could hear strong winds.  They quickly looked outside and saw it was windy, but had no impression that they needed to do anything or go anywhere, so they went back to sleep.  About half an hour later, a member living a few miles away called them to see if they were alright.  They said yes, why?  He told them a tornado and come through town.  They looked out their window and saw total destruction across the street.

The elders quickly dressed and went outside, where they saw total destruction across the street, behind their apartment, and on both sides of their apartment, but their apartment was totally without damage except for a slightly loose shutter!  Emergency vehicles were coming as fast as they could get through (in one spot an entire tree had been uprooted and plopped upright in the street and other trees were lying across the road) and residents were coming out to start cleaning up.

Sadly, in the neighborhood where the member called, a mother and son were killed in the tornado, but that member had virtually no damage to his home.  The elders spent the day helping with cleanup and also were able to talk to quite a few people about the gospel.  There were a few other miraculous details in the story, but that will suffice to testify that missionaries are protected.

We were in Monroe, an hour east of Ruston for Zone Conference on Friday, then went to Ruston for a farewell dinner with Blackburns.  We ate at a restaurant outside the hardest hit area, but this tree was blown over just up the street:

Uprooted in the tornado

We'll miss the Blackburns, who go home next week

Zone Conference was especially good.  Aside from hearing about the tornado miracle, President Varner (who was a BYU football defensive end during four seasons and four bowl games) used a football analogy--which actually he seldom does--to teach that confidence comes when you know you've prepared well.  Sister Varner talked about how angels can assist us and gave some very touching examples from her family experiences.  The new area mission medical director, who is on his way to where he'll be stationed in Florida, and the doctor he's replacing, a female orthopedic surgeon, both gave some good health information along with spiritual insights about our physical health.  Elder/Dr. Bair was an OB/GYN in Portland and has delivered over 10,000 babies in his career.  As we did about six months ago, every missionary in turn stood in place and bore a short but sincere testimony of Jesus Christ.  Powerful.

We also learned we've been breaking the law since we got here (unknowingly, but still....).  Every Zone Conference there is driving and biking safety training (think of all these 18-20 year-olds behind the wheel or biking on roads with no shoulders).  Well, we've wondered why people don't move into the intersection when getting ready to make a left turn, because it's rather annoying.  The answer is that that is called nesting, and it's illegal in Louisiana.  You cannot move into the intersection until you can actually make the left turn.  It will take some careful attention to undo that 50+ year habit on our part!

On Thursday we spent the afternoon in Marksville and had some wonderful visits with members.  Elder Kerr has become quite the cinnamon roll baker, and we took some freshly baked rolls to them all.  When I say we go to Marksville, branch members actually live in lots of little towns around Marksville.  I think the town names are fun and/or interesting:

Bunkie

Center Point

Cottonport

Effie

Fifth Ward

Hessmer

Mansura

Marksville

Moreauville

Pineville

Simmesport

It's rare that anyone we visit has a paved driveway or a sidewalk.  Many have an acre or more of land around their home or trailer, and most of the drives are beautiful because of all the green trees and fields.  Much as I love city living, these folks live in a peaceful part of the world.

This was the crawfish boil display in our Walmart Neighborhood Market this week:

And this is the Alexandria Ward annual crawfish boil on Saturday:

Five big pots; lots of propane, seasoning, and stirrers 

Each table has a "bin" of crawfish plus corn, potatoes, and sausage--the pile on
bottom left is Elder Kerr's shell discard pile

Fun for the whole family

A crawfish up close and personal--you only eat the tail, but
lots of people suck juice out of the heads after tearing off the tail

It was so fun and we really like crawfish!  The potatoes, corn, and sausage were also delicious--all very spicy.  It's a lot of work to get your little piece of tail meat out, but that's part of the fun.  The season only goes through June or July, so we hope to have crawfish a couple more times before they're gone. 

For the linger longer after church today, President Hazelwood had deep fried a couple of turkeys, and people brought, as always, an assortment of great food.  Love our little branch!

Week 30

Our second bedroom is the office, and Kerby's desk faces the big window.  On Monday he told me to come look, and there were a mama and papa cardinal on our windowsill.  They would fly away, come back with twigs, and disappear into the bush that practically touches the window.  On Wednesday we peeked in and saw a perfect little nest.  When we came back from Houston (details below), we peeked in and saw three beautiful little eggs.  Won't peek any more until the babies are hatched, but can hardly wait to see what happens as they hatch and grow!

Should hatch in 11-13 days

Monday night was the volunteer recognition dinner at the prison.  Even though we'd only been there one time, we went to the dinner.  We were so glad we did for two reasons.  First the warden spoke for a few minutes and we were very impressed with his remarks.  He said that people were in prison for a reason, and some of them should not and would not ever leave prison.  But many of them would make positive changes in prison and part of the work of volunteers is to help them have contact with "normal life" and prepare to reenter society.  He reminded us that not one prisoner volunteered to be there, and the staff all get paid to work there, but the volunteers represent goodness and caring to the prisoners because they come to make a difference.  His whole speech was very interesting.

The second reason we're glad we went is that we sat by a man from Crowley, about an hour south of the prison, and the rice capital of Louisiana.  He told us all kinds of things about rice fields and crawfish.  Rice farmers don't plant rice in all of their fields/ponds every year.  In the fields that don't grow rice, they "grow" crawfish.  Both crops need lots of water, and the crawfish may be the more lucrative of the two.  He told us what to watch for--a rice field with little PVC pipes poking up with sort of netting around them.  The crawfish back into the traps, but can't climb up the pipe to get out.  The farmer then drives a shallow boat through the rows to harvest the crawfish.  We saw them all over southern Louisiana and Texas on our trip.

Crawfish trap

Crawfish traps in rice field

We visited folks in Marksville on Tuesday, and saw these pretty flowers.  They look like crocosmia, but have never seen pink ones.

Wednesday was our second visit to the prison.  This time there were three people who had not been with us the week before and two of the three who had.  It was actually a wonderful experience, and we are looking forward to becoming more familiar with the process as well as getting to know the men better.  We're gaining new appreciation for Matthew 25:36  " . . . . I was in prison, and ye came unto me."

When we left the prison, we began the drive to Houston.  Because this week was spring break, we didn't have any classes to visit or seminary/institute work to do, so we met the Blackburns in Houston for a temple trip.  As always, it was so good to be in the temple.  The Wednesday night session was in Spanish, so we wore headphones--had never done that before.  We did initiatory and sealing Thursday morning, went to the Houston Museum of Fine Art in the afternoon, then returned to the temple for a final session that evening.

The museum was very lovely.  In the sculpture garden was a fantastic piece called Cloud Column by the same artist, Anish Kapoor, who created the famous 'bean' sculpture in Chicago.

Cloud Column Front and Back

Some Rodin and Matisse

Friday we came home via miles of refineries along the coast.  Houston and environs are really oil towns.

Bridge and Refinery at Baytown, TX

Our last stop before home was Avery Island, LA.  That's where Tabasco is made, and we went on that tour in November.  This time we went to the Jungle Garden.  Edward McIlhenny, who created Tabasco sauce, was also a conservationist.  He developed a fabulous area that saved the egret from extinction in LA and also highlights other native birds, creatures, and plants.  The island is actually a salt dome that extends 8 miles beneath the earth's surface. Quite fascinating and beautiful couple of hours.

First of several alligators we saw--he's reading his own warning sign!

300-year old Live Oak tree, top; Resurrection Fern grows on live oak limbs, bottom

Spanish Moss on the beautiful Live Oak trees

Hundreds of Egrets nesting (would have been more a month ago)

Man-made Bayou and an egret among the cypress knees outside the restaurant

Today is Easter Sunday, and I taught the Sunday School lesson.  Cannot express the gratitude I feel for the Savior of the World, for the Father who gave His Son that we might find comfort and healing through His grace in this life and immortality and eternal life in the world to come.

Week 29

Way back on January 6th I posted a picture of the Red River water level after we'd had a lot of rain.  The level was between the 25 and 30 (meaning that many feet between water and the bridge).  We've had a quite a lot of rain lately, but here it is last week; the level is much lower than in January.  The top picture shows the draw bridge.  Rather than split and rise from the middle, the whole section of bridge is raised by the pulleys and counterweights.  We've never seen it happen.

On Tuesday evening we substituted in the institute class, and really enjoyed that.  We'll be teaching the class this summer and we're looking forward to it.

Wednesday we FINALLY got to start volunteering at the prison in Oakdale (about 40 minutes south of us).  It took us months to get in (but the best news is they let us out).  We met with three prisoners who are members of the Church, and there are two more who might join us.  It will take a while to get used to the men, the process, the terminology, etc, but we're hoping its a great experience for them and us.

The drive to the prison is amazing because there are dozens of wholesale nurseries lining both sides of the highway.  We've never seen anything like it--so beautifully manicured and things are really growing now.  A few are open to the public as well as selling to nurseries, but most are strictly growing to sell to nurseries.

From Oakdale we took the back (and scenic) way to Rosepine to visit that home study seminary.  The stake center in Alexandria is a full size building, but all of the other units in the stake meet in sort of mini-buildings.  They're fully equipped but everything is little (small chapel, small gym, etc).  Here is the building in Rosepine:

Thursday and Friday were the last home games for our LSUA softball players.  We enjoyed the Thursday double header in perfect softball weather.  Even better, we got to meet McKell's parents, who flew in for Senior Recognition day.  On Friday, the rain was torrential (a word I often use to describe the rain here, seldom use in Utah).  The game was postponed then finally called off.  The recognition took place in the campus cafe instead of on the field.

McKell's Family

Horrendous weather was predicted for central and south Louisiana on Saturday (high winds, rain, tornadoes).  We needed to go to Baton Rouge to help with the 5-stake seminary bowl in the afternoon, and I was really worried about the weather.  However, we left before the storm hit Alexandria (which it did with great force--there was even a tornado that tore down the foul ball netting around the softball stadium at LSUA), and got to Baton Rouge with only high winds, no rain.  While we were at the seminary bowl it rained very heavily, but we timed our exit (after one slow dance together) to miss the worst of the storm.  Except for about 5 minutes of downpour closer to home, we made the trip with no problems.

Listening to instructions top, building Zion activity bottom at Seminary Bowl

Sister Misner brought this beautiful bouquet of flowers to church today, then sent it home with me.  They are amaryllis from her yard--a native wild amaryllis that we've seen quite often in yards this week.  Who knew amaryllis could grow outside??

Tonight the girls brought one of their teammates for FHE, and it was fun to get to know Karsen.  We'll miss our weekly meal and FHE when the girls go home!

On Tuesday the mission started a 90-day Book of Mormon Standard of Excellence Challenge, so we just backed up from where we were and started back at the title page.  We're to focus on and mark The Doctrine of Christ throughout the book.  Love the Book of Mormon more every time we read it.  We're using the Study Plans feature on the Gospel Library App.   It's easy to use and pretty fun to create a reading schedule to fit anything you're trying to do in the scriptures. 

Week 28

Another pretty quiet week.  We still go to the food bank for a couple of hours each Monday (or sometimes Tuesday).  I've mentioned before that the ones who do the heavy lifting and supervise what we do are inmates of Rapides Parish Department of Corrections.  The fellow we work with is just a sweetheart.  I asked him how he was doing, and he said, "Oh, I'm just staying focused, reading the Bible, and praying."  I don't know when his sentence is over, but the food bank (and we) will really miss him.  The younger missionaries also work there during the week, just not the same time we do. 

On Tuesday we went visiting in Marksville, and ate lunch with Sister Misner.  She is an amazing little lady, raised in South Carolina.  Her family rented their house from a sharecropper, and the way they payed some of their rent was for Sister Misner and her brother to work in the tobacco and cotton fields.  Listening to her stories is like something from another era--hoeing or picking from sun-up to sun-down all summer.  She cooked for her family from the time she was little, and still loves to cook.  Her husband died about eight years ago, and she craves company.  We've gone to see her several times (it was at her place that we backed into the ditch in December). 

When it was time to leave, she said something we hear a lot:  "Fix ya a plate to take."  That's just what you do when you visit or even at the potluck meals at church every month.  We were even visiting a family a while back and left before dinner, but he said, "Now, do ya want to fix ya a plate to take?"  I told Sister Misner the food would get too hot in the car, so she threw in a cooler and ice!

We visited the new institute class in Many on Wednesday.  It's small, but the lesson was great and hopefully a few more will join as time goes on. 

Thursday afternoon we drove to Vidalia, just across the river from Natchez, so we could visit the seminary class there on Friday morning.  The rain was torrential, and I was scared almost the whole two hours it took to get there.  Our motel was right on the banks of the Mississippi River.  After seminary the next morning, we came back to Vidalia for breakfast and reading.  The day was still misty and the fog made the river and the other bank look spooky.

Looking at Mississippi from Louisiana

A barge going under the bridge (it's almost invisible on the right of the top picture, pushing its cargo)

Plowing has been happening a lot the last couple of weeks and we can even see little tiny cotton plants poking up through the soil in places.  The field below is right next to our apartment complex. We don't know for sure what is raised there since it was already harvested when we got here last year, but it might be sugar cane. 

The fence in top picture separates our apartment building from them

After the two wonderful General Conference sessions on Saturday, we hurried down to Marksville where there was a get-together meal for the elders before the Priesthood session.  That's just a long time and long distance to be separated from my companion, so I went and hung out in the branch president's office.  They had wild pork stew prepared by one of the brothers.  I watched the proceedings on my i-pad.

I understand Utah is sunny today, but we got the General Conference rain storm here--started pouring between sessions.  Just about ready to go in and watch the last session.  Aren't we grateful for a living prophet and apostles?  It's an exciting time to be alive.