Week 55

Finally some cooler weather!  We had only one day in the 90s this week, the rest were in the 80s and today is 74 degrees.  A nice change from the 96 and higher temperatures all last week.  Monday was about the first time since mid-May that we didn't leave the Food Bank dripping sweat and sopping wet. We're ready to feel a little chill in the air.

We had great success seeing people in Marksville on Tuesday--everyone we tried was actually home!  Pictured below is a satsuma tree (sort of like tangerines) in the yard of one person we visited. They are very popular around here and lots of folks grow them.

First year to bear fruit

Zone Conference was Wednesday--we could only attend the first 90 minutes because we needed to go to the prison.  The focus was on temples in preparation for the Baton Rouge Temple open house to be held October 26 to November 2.  Sisters will be heavily involved as tour guides, and the Elders will hopefully be attending with people they are teaching and others in their wards and branches. The resources the Church has made available to help people prepare for (or just learn about) the temple are wonderful.

The conference started at 10, and our district had interviews with the President from 8-9 am.  So Elder Glade brought his lasso to practice roping in the the cultural hall (he was raised on a ranch) in the down time.

Elder Jackson standing in for a calf

We made him tuck pants into his boots so they would show

When we got to the prison we were so pleased that a man who hasn't attended with us for months came back.  We were so happy to see him--that made five men in our group, and we had a good lesson together.  We enjoy working with them so much.  The next day we finally got to see our prisoner at the Pollock Prison after several weeks of lock downs, etc.  Again, a good meeting, and something that we think makes a difference even if on a very small scale.

Wednesday night we got to substitute in the Alexandria institute class, something we love doing.  There is only one student this semester, but she hasn't missed a class all term and she's so fun to be with.

After running a few errands on Friday, we drove to Houston to go to the temple.  As mentioned before, it takes 4 1/2 hours to get there, and we can hardly wait to shorten the drive to 2 1/2 hours when Baton Rouge opens later in November.  But it is worth the drive and we had lovely sessions on both Friday evening and Saturday morning.  I served as a witness in the sealing, which was a very recent change in temple procedures.

Coming home yesterday, we saw an interesting phenomenon.  While heading east, the rising moon was at exactly the same point above the horizon as the setting sun was while going down behind us in the west.  It was a giant golden-orange orb in a beautifully colored sky (couldn't ever get in a position to take that picture--but here's how it reflected on our car).  The moon is called a hunter moon--the first full moon in October (while a harvest moon is the full moon closest to the fall equinox [in September this year]). Very pretty and unusual.

Moonrise above, sunset below

In our on-going agricultural education, we learned several weeks ago that soybeans aren't harvested until every bit of the field is dry and brown. Finally the fields that surround our apartment got brown (and ugly) enough to harvest.  There's just a little strip yet to get in the field behind us.

They wait 'til it looks dead to harvest

And finally, we pass this sign on our way to and from church--it was just put up a couple of weeks ago.  We do see lots of farm equipment on the roads.  The sign has sound advice (for both farming communities and life!).