Week 70

Happy Chinese New Year!!  Even after over 40 years, I still have such great memories of celebrating Chinese New Year twice while on my mission in Taiwan.

We spent our Martin Luther King holiday exploring history.  First we went to Poverty Point in far northeast Louisiana (the near-by town is Epps).  This World Heritage Site has amazing mounds and C-shaped concentric ridges formed by a civilization from 1650 to 1100 BC.  It was especially unusual to have such a large area of building created by a hunter-gatherer people rather than an agricultural group.

Here is a description from the web-site:

Centuries ago, when Stonehenge was built and Queen Nefertiti ruled Egypt, American Indians were building earthen monuments in north Louisiana. Hand by hand and basketful by basketful, men and women shaped nearly 2 million cubic yards of soil into stunning landscapes. The result was a massive 72-foot-tall mound, enormous concentric half-circles and related earthworks that dwarfed every other earthen monument site for 2,200 years.

The amount of forethought and organization needed to build Poverty Point without the aid of modern instruments, domesticated animals or even wheeled carts must have been staggering. And for what reason? We still do not know, but clues are constantly being revealed. Archaeologists have much to work with, as millions of artifacts were found at the site. Domestic tools, human figurines and tons of stones from up to 800 miles away have led to speculation that Poverty Point was an ancient residential, trade and ceremonial center.

Arial view and graphic of the area

Mound A--the largest and most elaborately shaped of the mounds on this site

Stairway to top of Mound A and markers for one of many circular ritual sites

Some of the artifacts recovered at the site

It was really very interesting and it's always amazing to get glimpses of life so long ago.  From Epps we drove to Vicksburg, MS to the Vicksburg National Military Park.  We had been there about a year ago, but had only time to see part of the park.  This time we toured the whole park and really enjoyed our time reviewing Civil War history.

During the Civil War, the Mississippi River was critical to the success of the North or the South, and until Vicksburg fell, it was helping to keep the South's two halves together.  Abraham Lincoln said  Vicksburg was "the key!! The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket."  From May 18 to July 4, 1863, General Grant led a siege on Vicksburg that finally ended in the city surrendering . The memorial park includes a 16-mile drive that takes you through areas held by either the Confederates (noted by red markers) or Union forces (noted by blue markers).  The park is full of monuments and regimental markers.  It's staggering how many men lost their lives in this war.

Some of the monuments erected by states to honor their dead

Of the 17,000 Union soldiers buried here, 13,00 are unknown--some veterans of Spanish-American, World Wars I and II, and Korean Conflict are also buried here; Confederates who died during the siege are buried in a cemetery near-by

The Cairo

Within the park is the USS Cairo Museum.  The Cairo was one of the Union's gunboats, an ironclad warship.  In 1862 it was going up the Yazoo River, north of Vicksburg, to destroy Confederate batteries when it was sunk by two quick explosions.  No crew members were hurt, but the boat sank almost immediately and was encapsulated in silt, mud, and sand.  The crew had no time to gather any belongings, so the goods stayed in the boat until it was salvaged in the 1960s.  Those artifacts are fascinating, and much of the original gunboat is preserved (and the rest reconstructed) at this museum.  Another enlightening and educational day in the South!!

Tuesday we had the eight young missionaries in our district over for dinner because the transfer was Wednesday.  We lost three elders and gained three--two in Alexandria and one in Marksville.

It was great to see our men in Oakdale prison again on Wednesday after the lock-down the previous week.  Pollock prison was on lock-down again this week, so we couldn't see that inmate.

Week 69

An exceptionally quiet week.  Both prisons were on lock down all week because of computer system upgrades, so no visits there (it's hard to even imagine how dreary lock down is, especially for that long).  Did have an interesting bit of news about our former inmate who was deported.  He actually ended up in Pecos, TX, and the missionary couple working with LDS Correctional Services in Salt Lake e-mailed to say he would like to write us a letter and to hear from us.  It's pretty tricky, because you can't give addresses, so everything has to go through a mission office or some other third party.  But it made us happy to know where he is and that he'd like to communicate.  We really love him.

Our Temple Preparation class is very enjoyable to teach because the couples attending are so very interested and excited about the gospel.  We did the three missionary apartment inspections this week, all on different days, and took the elders to lunch and the sisters to breakfast after the inspections. 

Last evening a sister in the branch called to see if I could speak in sacrament meeting in her place as she wouldn't be able to.  So I did that, as well as teach Sunday School.  Then this evening we had our stake seminary and institute faculty training meeting, so we both had things to present there.  All of the above went well.  This was our last faculty training. 

On Monday these irises were blooming outside the food bank:

Irises on January 13

Today on the way home from church we saw this magnolia tree blooming.

Magnolia tree on January 19

Yesterday afternoon we had a really heavy rain.  It moved on south to Marksville, be we were rewarded with an exceptionally beautiful sunset.  The sunset background on the blog is a stock photo but it is from Louisiana.  We've sure seen some spectacular sunsets here.

Week 68

We had a great time in Ohio visiting Kirk's family.  We got to Columbus Thursday afternoon.  On Friday the boys went to the Ohio State Basketball game and the girls had a girls' night out at Cheesecake Factory.  The Christmas lights were still up at the enormous mall where the restaurant was, and they were fabulous.

Seb with the Chick-fil-a promotional cow before the game

The boys at the game

We had a lot of fun reading books and playing games.

Cute grandkids

The highlight of the visit was having Seb receive the Aaronic Priesthood and become a deacon.  He's so excited and is going to be a great asset to his Deacon's Quorum. The strangest part of the visit was attending church in a regular church building and meeting with so many people.  Didn't realize we'd grown so accustomed to our little triple wide trailer and tiny branch. Got back home about 10:30 Monday night.

It was so good to meet again with our men in the prisons.  I've mentioned this before, but one of the men said again this week--"This is the only hour of the week when I can forget I'm in prison."  We are going to miss these inmates and the warm and uplifting experiences we have with them.

Thursday we resumed our Temple Preparation class in Marksville (after a December break).  It is such a good experience to be part of helping these couples prepare to receive their temple blessings and be sealed as families. 

Before our class we had some time, so we went to see this old cane mill in Cottonport.  Not much to see and no explanatory material, but here it is anyway.

Dora Plantation sugar mill ruins

The weather took center stage again early Saturday morning.  Our power was out for a couple of hours starting just before 5 am, and we had a fantastic lightening show and some heavy rain.  Up near Shreveport, however, tornadoes killed three people.  All week our temperatures had been in the high 60s and up to 75 degrees.  When the cool air from the north came in Friday night, the weather turned nasty.  Yesterday and today the highs are in the 50s--not bad by snow-covered western standards, but cool for us.  A new addition to the flowers we've had all winter, we are already starting to see daffodils in bloom.

Today was our Branch Conference followed by a linger longer meal.  We sure do enjoy our stake presidency; just delightful, good men.  President DeFord spoke about the blessings of the temple, the blessings that come from paying tithes and offerings, and preparing ourselves to meet the Savior.  He told us that from our stake there are 55 temple ordinance workers (five from our branch alone), and there is a stake much closer to the temple with only two ordinance workers. 

With the Monday college football championship game, excitement is high around here.  Even though LSU is 2 1/2 hours away in Baton Rouge, there are tons of grads and fans in Alexandria.  Geaux Tigers signs are all over the place, cupcakes with deep purple and bright yellow frosting are for sale in the grocery store, and even the soda pop display boasts its support for LSU!

Week 66 1/2

Happy New Year!  Today was great fun--Sister Ferrington, the stake seminary/institute supervisor we work with, invited the missionaries to join her family for a Southern New Year's Day lunch.  It was so good!  We had rice and gravy, cabbage fried with bacon, fried chicken, black-eyed peas, and cornbread.  The cabbage, black-eyed peas, and cornbread represent prosperity, luck, and health for the new year.  For dessert there were two southern favorites--coconut cake and pecan pie.  Also a delicious frappe to drink.  Sister F is a good cook and the food was wonderful.

Traditional Southern New Year's Day meal

More of the family with the cake, pie, and frappe

Bella the whippet in her LSU sweater

Tomorrow morning our plane leaves at 6 am.  We're going to Ohio to be with grandson Sebastian as he receives the Aaronic Priesthood.  We missed his baptism while on our last mission, but thought we had timed this mission well, since Seb doesn't turn 12 until August (after we're home).  However, recent changes have young men receive the priesthood in the January of the year they turn 12.  Rules for senior couples have relaxed a bit, so we're able to make a quick trip for this important event.