Week 32

On Tuesday we visited the early-morning seminary in Leesville, and then we decided to look around the town a little before coming home.  There is a very small art park, and we snapped Elder Kerr enjoying a statue.

Just Thinking

We then ate breakfast at a New Orleans style restaurant--beignets, cheese grits, spicy smoked sausage, etc. 

About 15 minutes after we got home, there was a knock on the door.  That's usually the FedEx guy, but when Kerby answered the door, a woman said, "Hi, I'm Margaret Hammond's sister and I sometimes come to Louisiana (from TX) on business.  When I told Margaret I'd be in Alexandria this week, she asked me to bring you some flowers."  What a totally unexpected and delightful surprise!  Joy's sister, Margaret, was one of my students and has become a dear friend over the years.  Joy sells social studies programs to school districts and was in Alexandria and environs for a couple of days.  We had a lovely visit and she left these great spring flowers from Margaret:

Also on Tuesday we saw more activity near the cardinal's nest.  The papa was coming around, so we were pretty sure the eggs had hatched.  When the parents had flown off Kerby hurried out to take a peek, and here are the three little fuzzy red babies:

Our window ends just below Kerby's desk, and the ledge outside is where the birds do their food trade-off.  Papa will come and whistle for mama; she comes out of the nest to the window ledge, and he gives her some food.  She then flies into the nest to feed the babies.  Once in a while papa goes directly to the nest to do the feeding.  It has been so fun to watch this little bit of the natural world with one of my favorite birds in the world.  One of these days we should see little red fledglings having their flying lessons.

I've mentioned before that the drive between here and the prison is great because of all the nurseries.  One of the towns we pass on the drive is Forest Hill, the nursery capital of Louisiana.  This little tiny town has over 60 nurseries and business from all over come to buy wholesale plants.  And it's not the only town along the way that boasts nurseries.

So much green!

And speaking of flowers, the big beautiful white magnolias are starting to bloom.  Some of these trees are immense and they are all over the place.  A fabulous state flower.

At the prison this week we had the five members of the Church and an investigator.  After a good and spiritual discussion and the closing prayer, one of the men said, "Well, brethren, back to prison."  I said to him, "I hope this hour does feel different."  and he said, "That's why I said it--while I'm here I can forget I'm in prison."  We are coming to love these men and our discussions with them.  We ordered some "Come Follow Me" books for them (there was only one plus the teacher's manual before).  They had to be registered and stamped before the men could have them, but now they each have a manual and we'll be following the schedule as prescribed.  One guy was glad because he calls his 7-year-old daughter every week and now he'll be able to talk about the lessons with her. 

Wednesday evening we went to the home-study class in Many.  These kids are just great and we love getting to know them as well as support/work with the teachers.

Our plan for Thursday was to help a family in the branch set up and decorate the cultural hall in Alexandria (the wedding was going to be in their yard in Marksville, but the high chance of thunderstorms changed that).  However, they didn't  come until about 7 pm (they'd done a lot on Wednesday, but we couldn't help then), so we only helped for a couple of hours.  The wedding was on Saturday evening, and we were so happy to see Ryan and Tiffany get married.

The softball tournament was moved from Texas to Alexandria this weekend because of bad weather in TX. That meant we could go see our girls play in a couple of games on Friday.  They won the first one and lost the second later in the evening.  Everything was rained out yesterday until a game at 8:45 pm, which they won (but we didn't see).  They won the first game this afternoon and are playing right now.  If they lose today will be their last FHE and meal with us.  If they win they'll be around a little longer.  We just love McKell and Siearrah and will miss them terribly when they leave us.

On Friday we watched the live streaming of two session of BYU/Relief Society Women's Conference--the Sister to Sister event in the morning with all three auxiliary presidents answering questions that had been submitted, and Elder and Sister Christofferson's remarks at the closing sessions.  Grateful for what technology can bring right into the living room.  Both sessions were uplifting and insightful.

Kerby is displaying surprising talents.  Last February he volunteered to lead the singing at our seminary in-service meeting.  I had no idea he knew how to do that.  Then a few weeks ago he became the substitute branch pianist!  But he can't play, he pushes buttons.  Since we lost our pianist at the end of December, Brother Moss pushes the buttons on the electronic piano.  But when he's not there, Kerby fills in.  It's harder than you think, because the button is broken, and he has to push a pencil in a little hole at just the right time to keep the hymn playing. I had no idea I'd married such a musical man.