Week 36

For several weeks, the roadsides have been flanked with black eyed susans--so very cheerful.  The crape myrtles have begun blooming. First the white ones opened, and now the various shades of pink, red, and lavender are blooming.  We loved them in Oklahoma, and we love them even more here (because there are more of them to love).

Cheery Black Eyed Susan all over the place

Crape Myrtle close up

Crape Myrtle can get quite big

To celebrate Memorial Day, we went to the Alexandria Zoo on Monday morning.  To be honest, I've always thought it would be a pretty dumb zoo.  We were delighted to find a very nice zoo with lots of gorgeous tropical birds, a pair of white tigers, a pair of lions, and many other great animals.  It is too small to have elephants, giraffes, zebras, rinos, etc, but we had an absolutely delightful morning exploring what they do have.  The white tigers and the lions were especially active and fun to watch (usually we've just seen lions sleeping).  The display of bayou animals was very interesting, as well.

The weather has been unusually hot for this time of year--lots of days in the 90s over the last few weeks.  After working at the food bank on Tuesday, we came home dripping wet.  These desert-dwellers haven't acclimated to the heat and humidity yet.

We had a very pleasant drive into Marksville environs Tuesday night to visit members.  The areas we went were very agricultural (as are many places we go here), and the variety, size, and volume of farm machinery we see is fascinating.  Many machines we've never seen before and have no idea what they do.

Our prison work is going well, and we appreciate that the inmates we work with want to learn and participate in the Come Follow Me discussions.  A few hours later, on Wednesdays, we teach institute.  Quite a contrast between a nice stake center and a prison, where every move is monitored and controlled.

We learned from the Alexandria bishop that the Addiction Recovery Program participant requested that we start it up again.  So on Thursday evening we began that program again.  Even though there is only one person, it feels so worthwhile and his struggle inspires us.

Elder Vern P. Stanfill of the Seventy came to Baton Rouge on Friday to be at a stake conference today.  Typically, General Authorities focus their attention on the young missionaries (and he did meet with district and zone leaders and the sister leader/trainers on Saturday), but Elder Stanfill had requested an evening with the senior missionaries.  So all but three or so couples went to the President's home for a lovely dinner Friday night.  After dinner, Elder Stanfill spoke with us for awhile, then opened the floor to questions.  He assured us that all mission calls, whether to young missionaries or to seniors, are inspired, and that missionaries are sent where they are for a reason--and not necessarily the same reason.  The responsibilities General Authorities have and the pace they keep is amazing.   It was informal, comfortable, uplifting, and fun.

Most of the senior missionaries and Elder Stanfill (2nd from right on second row up)

We stayed overnight in Baton Rouge, and the next morning we and Sister Moravec, the mission nurse, went to Oak Alley Plantation, about an hour south of Baton Rouge.  It is the first sugar cane plantation we've toured, and it was very interesting to learn about that crop.  The plantation itself is fabulous--with an alley of old, old live oaks leading from the Mississippi river (ok, from the street this side of the levee) up to the front door.  Spectacular!  This plantation has been used as a backdrop or the complete location for a lot of movies and episodes of television shows, as well as commercials and fashion magazine layouts.

Looking toward the house and toward the levee

Back of the house and massive oak tree 

Six authentic reproductions of slave cabins were used to teach about the lives of  the slaves (or enslaved persons, as they were referred to during the tour).  Originally there were 20 cabins housing about 200 slaves.  Apparently the sharp implements the slaves used to cut the cane were quite dangerous, as one display described medical care for the slaves.  It was easier to amputate than repair a broken or crushed bone, so the doctor held on retainer did a lot of amputations.

Slave Quarters--Two families of 5 per cabin

The slaves were able to raise some animals for food and grow gardens and even some corn to sell.  One interesting fact was that the plantation owner paid his slaves for corn for the animals because it was cheaper than buying it elsewhere.  That seems like a little bit of humanity in a horrific system.

The original owner was extremely wealthy, and that shows in the opulence of the home and surroundings.  We knew that cotton created a lot of millionaires, but apparently so did sugar cane.  A short video about modern cane production makes it even more incredible that it all used to be done with human labor.

Blacksmith shop and kettles

Sister Moravec and me by huge impatiens and huge oak