Week 44

Friday we went to Houston to attend the temple.  We arrived at about 5 pm, and with  Friday night and Saturday morning combined, we did work for 19 Kerr family names.  So lovely to be there and participate in those ordinances.

Going into the temple on Friday, one of our YSAs from Stillwater was waiting outside for her best friend, who had just gotten married. That was a fun surprise.  Inside, the mother of a former student (who we had seen on our first Houston trip) was there again, and it was good to see and visit with her. Then on Saturday, we saw a senior missionary couple from our mission--they were there with their granddaughter, who leaves next week for the Salt Lake City Mission.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Holocaust Museum Houston.  It was the grand reopening in a newly remodeled space.  To see a picture of the whole museum, click here:  Holocaust Museum Houston  You can't really say you enjoyed a museum about the Holocaust, because it is all so horrifying, but this was really well done and very informative.  The videos and displays were excellent and the focus a little different from other Holocaust museums we'd seen.

It is the nation's fourth largest Holocaust Museum, and: "works to build a more humane society by promoting responsible individual behavior, cultivating civility, and pursuing social justice."

Outside--replica of crematorium smokestack

Can't capture all the stones in one picture--see the link for a better view

Had never heard of mobile killing units, but were many of them

A pretty sobering exhibit 

But always, hope (viewed from below and from above)

Aside from the Houston trip, the rest of the week was just filled with our usual activities.  The temperatures were a bit cooler this week (mid- to high 80s) which was a nice break from the high 90s.  Humidity still high, but we're not outside a whole lot.

Week 43

Well, it was a quiet week in Alexandria.  We just had a couple of things other than our usual round of activities.  On Tuesday we made a presentation about the changes coming to the seminary curriculum and our new on-line seminary teacher to the bishops' training meeting.  Thursday we participated in a lesson with our Marksville elders--a man they've been teaching for a couple of months. Tonight we had the seminary/institute faculty training.  Those used to be once a month, but now the face-to-face meetings are just twice a year and the rest of the training consists of 5-minute micro-training on line every week or two.  Not all the teachers were there, but it was great to get together.  Such dedicated teachers, all of whom love the gospel and are committed to their callings.

We never did get much rain out of tropical storm Barry last week, but Marksville got over 12 inches,  Cottonport (a town in our branch) got 19 inches, and Oakdale (where the prison is) got 17.  In Pineville, some homes were without power for up to nine hours.  Kerby's barber lives in Pineville, and had an alligator wander into the yard just enjoying the water.

This is Grand Lake in Marksville on Thursday--still overflowing.

A little soggier than usual

When we arrived in September, the cotton was mostly ready for harvest.  It is sprayed with a defoliation agent to make the leaves drop off so it can be picked.  Therefore we had never seen a field of cotton in the growing stage.

Here are a couple of cotton fields before the bolls form:

Cotton fields

The other thing that happens to cotton in July is blossom formation. The blooms are cream or yellow on the first day, turn pink on the second day, then dry and drop off.  We pulled into a field near Marksville to capture these pictures:

Cotton blossoms

We're quite fascinated with cotton plants, so there will probably be more pictures to come documenting the growth and development of cotton. 

Week 42

What an interesting few days for Louisiana.  Tropical Storm Barry has been forming in the Gulf of Mexico, and it's primary land target is virtually all of Louisiana and Mississippi.  It was supposed to hit yesterday and move quickly North.  Instead, it got stuck at the coast and really hammered New Orleans, Baton Rogue, and other coastal areas with rain.  Though we've had rain almost constantly since 1 pm Saturday, it hasn't been very heavy and the winds haven't been bad. We still should get some heavy rain this afternoon.  Here's what the radar looked like this morning:

Church was cancelled in preparation for flooding and power outages, and Marksville did get a lot more rain that we did yesterday. All of the missionaries in the south part of the mission were evacuated, staying with missionaries farther inland.

On Tuesday we went to Marksville for visits, but also had our interview with President Varner.  He was interviewing the missionaries there (and the Natchez elders were also in Marksville), so we just all met at the church.  What a heavy responsibility mission presidents throughout the world have!  They need to interview each young missionary every six weeks, constantly provide guidance and encouragement, be aware of the health and safety of all missionaries, oversee Zone Conferences every six weeks and other special mission conferences, and numerous other duties.  Our mission includes all of Louisiana except the Shreveport area, all of Mississippi, and a little bit of Arkansas.  President and Sister Varner might be on the road away from the mission home for 7-9 days at a time. They are both wonderful!

Wednesday was "teaching day" with our prisoners in Oakdale and our institute class in Alexandria that night.  We both love teaching the gospel, and especially love the growth and insights that come from preparing to teach.

Zone Conference was in Monroe (2 hours north) on Thursday.   The theme was JOY, and President Varner's talk was wonderful.  He talked about five principles, and even though they were directed at missionary work, they apply to life in general as well.
    Principle 1: Feeling joy increases our desire to share the gospel
    Principle 2: Joy is a principle of power
    Principle 3: Joy is contagious
    Principle 4: Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause
    Principle 5: We can feel joy even in the face of opposition and rejection

It's always a neat experience to be with the young missionaries.  They have a lot of fun together, but they are also dedicated and intent on doing their best to share the gospel with others. Listening to their comments and testimonies is inspiring.

If you have ever seen the reality television show Duck Dynasty, you'll get a little thrill when I tell you that the Duck Commander store is in Monroe, so we stopped to see it before driving home.  If you haven't seen the show there is really no way to explain it, but suffice it to say these down home Louisiana boys with their flowing beards, sunglasses, and crazy lifestyle developed quite a following. It all started with making duck calls.

Don't know which one this is, but a fairly accurate woodcarving of anybody in the family

Duck hunting is really popular here, and we see often these blinds for sale 

On Friday we went to Pollock, about 30 miles north of us, to have our pictures taken for ID badges at the Federal Correctional Complex, Pollock.  We should start some time next week providing religious support to a member of the church incarcerated there who requested it.  Whereas Oakdale is a minimum security prison, Pollock is a high security prison.

Will begin here next week--there may be other prisoners joining us when they know there are Latter-day Saints coming

Last week we had the 65,000 mile service on our car.  That's 25,000 miles since we left home almost 10 months ago.  We're so grateful for comfortable, reliable transportation!  The last couple of days have cooled off, but for over a week, the temperatures have been in the high 90s and the humidity has been very high, as well.  The heat index most days was over 100 degrees--one day 110!  Again, so grateful for air conditioned apartment and car.

Week 41

We mentioned the storm and wind damage last week.  Kerby went to the dentist on Tuesday, and the beautiful lush woods usually seen from the dentist chair had suffered a bit:

Wind kind of spoiled the view

On Tuesday afternoon we visited in Marksville, and found a man that has been on the records for years, but no one in the branch had ever seen.  We had a wonderful visit with the man and his wife--turns out he's a project manager for a big company and they spend months (up to 18) in different locations working jobs.  He hadn't been to church since he was 14 years old, but had some fond memories.  We were so pleased to find him and know more about his story.

On the highway that leads to his place is this icon of Southern grocery shopping:

Southern icon

It's the only one we've seen since coming, though there are still 600 of them in the South and Midwest. 

With no mountains to block or interfere with clouds, we get some incredibly large cloud formations.  The clouds in this picture aren't very big, but they just looked interesting.  They did sprinkle on us, but spared us a downpour this time.

Dark clouds on the horizon

Pineville, on the other side of the Red River from Alexandria, held its 4th of July lake-side fireworks display on Wednesday.  We didn't go to all the pre-fireworks hoopla, but left home about 8:30 hoping to slip onto a little side road to watch.  Well, Pineville may be a small town, but when every resident is out to see the fireworks, it gets pretty crowded!  Cars were pulled over on the service lane of a highway, so when we found an open spot, we pulled in too.  We got out our lawn chairs and sat between the front of a big pickup truck and the back of our car, expecting the fireworks to be quite a way back on the lake.  When the first boom came, we were happy to see that the entire display was directly across from us.  We had the best seat in the house (or on the road. . . .).

On the 4th, we ate lunch at a place called Rosie Jo's.  It was absolutely fabulous Cajun cooking in a hole-in-the-wall sort of place.  The dipping sauce for the fried green tomatoes made eyes water and noses run--just delicious.  We'll definitely go back to sample more of the great food.  This sign hangs on the wall:

We kind of agree

We had five men in our study group at the prison this week--we really enjoy being with them.  Before our mission we often joked that we'd be called to teach institute at the prison in Gunnison, UT (it really is one of the mission options available).  After our experience here, we think that might have been a pretty good place to go! 

We had our second Personal Finance class this afternoon.  The class members are so willing to participate, the materials are excellent, and we have fun while learning.  Here's a picture of part of the class:

Most of the men were missing today

Our mission president invited the whole mission to read the Book of Mormon in three months, ending this week.  We finished it this morning.  What an amazing testament of Jesus Christ. Every reading brings new insights, increased testimony, greater gratitude for Heavenly Father's plan, and more understanding of the Doctrine of Christ.  What a great blessing the Book of Mormon is!