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.