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.