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!