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!