Week 33

This was missionary apartment inspection week.  In Alexandria, both elders were transferred out last time.  When we were setting our appointments last week one of the new elders said, "Sister Kerr, you are going to CRY when you see how clean our apartment is now."  He was almost right!  They had really transformed it.  The elders in Marksville have really improved since our first inspection there, as well.  (The sisters just remain stellar.)  We know apartment cleaning isn't the most important part of missionary work, but it is nice for missionaries to be in a clean environment.  We usually take a little treat and it's fun to visit with the young missionaries while we inspect.

We made our last seminary class visit of the semester on Tuesday in Natchitoches.  While getting up at 4 am is kind of fun, we can probably survive the summer without doing that.  This is a picture of the magnolia tree on the church grounds in Natchitoches.  Many trees are much bigger than this one:

Such beautiful trees

On Horseshoe Drive we pass a house that has a hedge of about 15 magnolia trees--they are a more columnar variety, still tall but narrower and bushy down to the ground. A nice way to hide your house from the road.

One of this week's activities was watching all of the missionary safety videos the Church just produced.  There are 12 of them, ranging from about 15 to 20 minutes in length.  The format is like a sports analysis show, complete with instant replay and analysis by the guys who do the BYU sports analysis program.  There is a lot of humor but each ends with a "let's get real" segment with true examples of things going terribly wrong relative to the topic.  Sadly, some are interviews with parents and companions of missionaries who died.  A couple are reenactments of sensitive topics.  All leave you realizing the rules and guidelines are there for a reason.  In a world with no guarantees, you certainly increase your chances of staying safe and sound by being obedient, situationally aware, and respectful (those are the points that come out in each video).  The Church takes missionary safety very seriously, and these are so well done.  All current missionaries were to watch at this time, in the future they'll be viewed while in the MTC.

When we went to visit members in Marksville this week, we went much farther south and out in the country than usual, and we passed acres and acres of sugar cane about a foot high.  The perfect rows are almost mesmerizing.  Later in the week we came across about 100 tomato plants over 18 inches tall.  The cotton isn't very tall yet, or hasn't been planted.  There are still lots of fallow fields.  

All around the Gulf Coast is an insect called lovebug.  They are really quite annoying, though they don't bite or sting.  Just pesky and get splattered on the windshield.  They get their name because they stay together for several days after mating.  Kind of weird to see this double bug flying around.

Our little cardinals have started to fly.  Yesterday one was clinging for dear life with its little claws to our window screen.  They are quite awkward, but they're learning.  Good life lesson--don't give up just because you're not good at something at first.  They seem to have moved out of the nest, but still live in the bush.  They can set up quite a chorus of chirping.  Here's how they looked earlier in the week while still in the nest:

Can't believe how fast they've grown--they don't all fit now

On Thursday McKell graduated magna cum laude from LSUA.  We went to the graduation--so tiny compared to all the BYU graduations I attended for 33 years.  The girls won the tournament last week, so this week they play in Georgia in the next round.  

This week I received these beautiful flowers from the grandchildren, but I suspect their wonderful mothers are responsible:

Friday was our 6th anniversary.  Our original plan was to go to Lafayette and Baton Rouge to do a swamp tour and tour some plantations.  However, severe thunderstorms were in the area both days, so we just stayed home.  Went to a place called Tunks for dinner.  It's right on Lake Kincaid, a very beautiful setting.  The food was very good, and had Cajun flair--alligator Parmesan for the appetizer (alligator tastes like chicken but with a firmer texture) [now we've had the big three unusual items--alligator, squirrel, and crawfish], I had snapper with shrimp and crab, and Kerby had crawfish fettucine. Gotta love that seasoning kick.

Lake Kincaid--about 10 miles east of Alexandria

After dinner we drove around for a bit and went to check out the Alexandria airport.  It is actually nicer than expected:

Small but nice

We decided to have crawfish for dinner on Saturday.  A lot of little "shacks" are just open during crawfish season, with names like Crawfish King, Swamp Daddy's, Heads or Tails, Crawdaddy's, and the one we went to, HotHeads.  You order crawfish by the pound, and one skilled eater will put away at least three pounds.  That's really lots of shell and very little meat.  We ordered a combo to share--3 pounds of crawfish, 10 shrimp, 2 potatoes, and 3 pieces of corn.  They told us they'd be pulling a batch out in about 10 minutes, so to just wait in the car and they'd bring our order out.  It come in a big plastic bag, tucked in another plastic bag, in a big paper bag.  We got it home, donned our aprons, and dug in.  So good!

You'd have a hard time finding a messier meal!

Kerby spoke in church today--he gave a wonderful talk about love and obedience relating to both the Savior and mothers.  They gave all the sisters a pretty corsage with a big red rose.