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.