Week 28

Another pretty quiet week.  We still go to the food bank for a couple of hours each Monday (or sometimes Tuesday).  I've mentioned before that the ones who do the heavy lifting and supervise what we do are inmates of Rapides Parish Department of Corrections.  The fellow we work with is just a sweetheart.  I asked him how he was doing, and he said, "Oh, I'm just staying focused, reading the Bible, and praying."  I don't know when his sentence is over, but the food bank (and we) will really miss him.  The younger missionaries also work there during the week, just not the same time we do. 

On Tuesday we went visiting in Marksville, and ate lunch with Sister Misner.  She is an amazing little lady, raised in South Carolina.  Her family rented their house from a sharecropper, and the way they payed some of their rent was for Sister Misner and her brother to work in the tobacco and cotton fields.  Listening to her stories is like something from another era--hoeing or picking from sun-up to sun-down all summer.  She cooked for her family from the time she was little, and still loves to cook.  Her husband died about eight years ago, and she craves company.  We've gone to see her several times (it was at her place that we backed into the ditch in December). 

When it was time to leave, she said something we hear a lot:  "Fix ya a plate to take."  That's just what you do when you visit or even at the potluck meals at church every month.  We were even visiting a family a while back and left before dinner, but he said, "Now, do ya want to fix ya a plate to take?"  I told Sister Misner the food would get too hot in the car, so she threw in a cooler and ice!

We visited the new institute class in Many on Wednesday.  It's small, but the lesson was great and hopefully a few more will join as time goes on. 

Thursday afternoon we drove to Vidalia, just across the river from Natchez, so we could visit the seminary class there on Friday morning.  The rain was torrential, and I was scared almost the whole two hours it took to get there.  Our motel was right on the banks of the Mississippi River.  After seminary the next morning, we came back to Vidalia for breakfast and reading.  The day was still misty and the fog made the river and the other bank look spooky.

Looking at Mississippi from Louisiana

A barge going under the bridge (it's almost invisible on the right of the top picture, pushing its cargo)

Plowing has been happening a lot the last couple of weeks and we can even see little tiny cotton plants poking up through the soil in places.  The field below is right next to our apartment complex. We don't know for sure what is raised there since it was already harvested when we got here last year, but it might be sugar cane. 

The fence in top picture separates our apartment building from them

After the two wonderful General Conference sessions on Saturday, we hurried down to Marksville where there was a get-together meal for the elders before the Priesthood session.  That's just a long time and long distance to be separated from my companion, so I went and hung out in the branch president's office.  They had wild pork stew prepared by one of the brothers.  I watched the proceedings on my i-pad.

I understand Utah is sunny today, but we got the General Conference rain storm here--started pouring between sessions.  Just about ready to go in and watch the last session.  Aren't we grateful for a living prophet and apostles?  It's an exciting time to be alive.

Week 27

For about two weeks our car has been covered with a thin layer of pollen.  We've washed it twice, but more pollen just keeps coming--looks like yellow chalk dust.  Poor Elder Kerr's hay fever is going crazy and his eyes just itch and itch. 

We see wisteria all over the place, and some of it is in nice discreet mounds.  However, we also see great tall patches where the wisteria has used trees as a trellis and towers overhead.  Don't know if it was done deliberately or just the nature of the aggressive plant, but these tree-trellised plants are very common.

At least 20 feet tall

This was a fairly quiet week.  We visited one early morning seminary class and did three apartment inspections.  After the inspection on Thursday, we took the Alexandria sisters (one from Idaho and one from Tennessee) to lunch at Steamboat Bill's, known for their Cajun seafood.  The shrimp etouffee is fabulous. We took the Marksville elders (both from Utah) to lunch after their inspection on Friday, but the scheduling of the Alexandria elders didn't work with lunch, so we owe them a meal.  So great to visit and work with the young missionaries.   The whole system of missionary work throughout the world is nothing short of a miracle.  Mission presidents and their wives serve such an important role in the lives of the young sisters and elders, and they truly operate on inspiration.

Friday afternoon we went to the LSUA softball double header.  They played the Houston Victoria Jaguars, ranked number one in the conference and also nationally ranked in their division.  They beat LSUA 4-3, 3-2 (and 5-3 in 8 innings on Saturday).  McKell pitched the second half of the first game and they didn't get any more runs.  Siearrah hit an out of the park home run and scored again in the first game.  Beautiful weather for the games.

Siearrah and McKell

I've mentioned before that this is crawfish season.  Again, local stores cater to the needs/wants of the community:

The "boil" is serious business

Week 26

Well, the most interesting news of the week is that today we ate squirrel at the pot luck after church.  It's actually quite good!  On Thursday we visited the Petch family.  He loves to hunt squirrels and I said I wasn't leaving Louisiana without eating squirrel.  He said he'd bring some to the pot luck if I promised to eat some, which I did.  Very tasty--squirrel gravy is prepared with sausage and slow cooked after browning the squirrel (in case you want to try some at home).  There wasn't a drop left in the pot by the end of the meal.

Also at the Petch place on Thursday, he brought in a one-week old bunny for me to hold and a one-day old chick for me to pet.  They have guinea hens, chickens, and rabbits.  Way out in the country--very quiet and peaceful.  Brother Petch is a counselor in the Branch Presidency, and joined the Church with his mother when he was about 17.  Sister Petch joined the Church after they were married.  Both are Cajuns, and grew up speaking Cajun French at home (he's still a little hard for us to understand sometimes, but much easier than when we first got here).  They have four grown daughters who, with their families, make up a large chunk of the branch.

Since I started this week's post with Thursday, I'll just finish that day's doings.  We left home at 5:25 am to visit seminary in Dry Prong (north), came home and did a few things here, visited the Petch's in Marksville (actually they live in a town called Fifth Ward) [south], and drove from there to Leesville (west) to visit the institute class.  We got home at 9:30 pm. On the way home, the moon was rising--a giant red-orange orb on the horizon.  Absolutely gorgeous!

Also gorgeous were the giant dogwood trees that just randomly pop up in the forest on the way to Leesville.  The dogwoods are about 20 feet tall, and dogwood blossoms just seem to float on the branches and look quite ethereal in the dark woods. The picture below is a pretty small dogwood in the yard of a home we pass almost every day.  It's not as grand as the ones in the woods, but gives the idea of how pretty they are.

The Alexandria Ward had a Relief Society Birthday Party on Tuesday, and invited the Marksville Branch sisters.  It was just lovely--the decorations and favors were beautiful and springy, the food was good, the little get acquainted activity was fun, and the program about five former and current RS General presidents was well done.

Then on Saturday the Marksville Branch had a RS get-together--again fun decorations and fun activity.  It's good to meet with these good people.

The other interesting news from Sunday is that Kerby was called to be the First Counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency.  There haven't been any counselors the whole time we've been here, so hopefully he'll be able to really help the president carry the load.  The stake had to clear the calling with our mission president, but of course it was all right, because we're here to serve wherever needed.

Here is a picture of our little YSA home evening group--McKell on the left and Siearrah next to me:

For Christmas Kerby's kids gave us a subscription to Audible audio books.  During our many hours of diving, we trade off listening to books (so far several histories and biographies) and conference talks.  We just finished listening to Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup (in a February post there was a picture of an historical marker in Marksville about him). It was so interesting to us because much of the story takes place in Avoyelles Parish, including Marksville.  Some of it is very hard to read because of the horrible treatment many masters inflicted on their slaves, but it is a fascinating autobiography.

This picture is of the Alexandria and Monroe Zones at our combined Zone Conference last week:

Week 25

Monday was a joint Zone Conference with the Alexandria and Monroe Zones, held at the Alexandria Stake Center.  Elder Kerr helped inspect missionary cars before it started.  One of the blessings of being on a mission is associating with the wonderful young elders and sisters.  It's great to see their enthusiasm and dedication.  In one segment, several missionaries role played telling the Father's story (the plan of salvation) in one minute.  (That terminology comes from the hymn Called to Serve, which includes the line, "Far and wide we tell the Father's story. . . .")  Anyway, it was amazing to see and hear missionary after missionary teach and bear testimony so differently, quickly, and effectively. Kerby and I were both young missionaries when the lessons were memorized, so it's marvelous to see such a change in approach to teaching the gospel.

We got to substitute teach in institute on Tuesday, and we always enjoy that very much.  The class is studying Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon this semester. 

Thursday, at long last, we had our volunteer training at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex.  They only have the training every two months.  The first time we planned to go was in November, but we learned the very day of the training they had changed some of the application forms so we couldn't go.  The next training was in January, during the government shut-down, so training was cancelled.  Finally, we got in this week.  We were fingerprinted and photographed, and have to wait a couple more weeks for all of that to be processed.  Then we can begin working with the seven Latter-day Saint prisoners there, who meet as a group every Wednesday afternoon.

Even though we tried to visit a few people in Marksville on Friday, we didn't find anyone home.  On the way back to Alexandria, we stopped to see our YSA softball players in action at LSUA.  It was a double header, and Siearrah played in both games.  She's the right fielder and we saw her make a few base hits, steal 2nd, and catch quite a few fly balls.  McKell pitched the second game.  It was fun to watch, especially since LSUA won the first game 5 to 0, and pulled out the second game 3 to 2 by scoring 3 runs at the bottom of the 7th inning.   We dashed home between games to change into warmer clothes because 60 degrees got to feeling pretty cold sitting in the bleachers.

Go LSUA Generals!!

We spoke in church today, the third time since we've been here.  It was also Sunday School today, so I got to teach that as well.  We still love our little branch.  They are just some good, faithful people. 

Spring continues to spring.  We see gorgeous deep pink, purple, and red azaleas everywhere.  Some of the bushes are well over six feet tall, and in many places they form big hedges.  The picture below is just a little bitty thing by our mailbox.  We also see wisteria, bridal veil, and lots of flowering trees.  Things just seem greener all of a sudden, and many of the fields are being plowed in preparation for planting. 

Week 24

Entered MTC six months ago today!

Because schools were closed for Mardi Gras Monday and Tuesday (and a few had all week off), we decided it was a good time to go to the temple in Dallas.  No seminary or institute classes to visit.

On the way we stopped in Shreveport with the Blackburns to meet the Gibbons--they are the new  couple working with seminaries and institutes in Northern LA, part of Arkansas, and part of Northeast Texas.  His father is a cousin to Brother Gibbons in our Orem ward.  Anyway, we had a nice lunch and nice get-acquainted visit with them.

We then proceeded to Dallas (in total, a 4 1/2 hour drive from Alexandria).  Our first stop was in downtown Dallas to see the cattle drive sculpture.  It is located in Pioneer Park next to a very old cemetery, which we wandered through.  In the cemetery is a very large Confederate memorial that was erected in 1896.  It is scheduled for demolition as part of the plan to remove Confederate structures all over the south. 

Cemetery top, the last longhorn below

The cattle drive sculpture is AMAZING--49 6-foot high bronze longhorn steers and three trail riders.  The steers are coming down a hill and crossing a stream.

You almost feel like you're part of the action

Monday was Kerby's birthday, so we celebrated with a very nice dinner at Salt Grass Steak House in Dallas.  He also got to talk with his sisters and his kids.  Having a loving family is one of life's great blessings.

We had a very pleasant day in the temple on Tuesday, after which we went to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza.  This is in the Texas School Book Depository, the place where Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy.  The museum was very interesting and very well done.  Also quite sobering.  Across the street is the Kennedy Memorial.

JFK Memorial and the famous photo

On Wednesday we returned to the temple.

Dallas Temple

On the way home we stopped at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.  It's too early in the year for it to be blooming in all its glory, but it was very beautiful and lots of bulbs were open.  It was a beautiful, if a bit cool, day for walking around the gardens.  It had gotten down to 24 degrees in the night and a few of the flowers didn't appreciate that, but most seemed to weather the cold OK.

Even the Bard likes the Dallas garden!

Thursday we visited folks in Marksville, and most of Friday was spent at the dentist and having the 55,000 mile service on the car (it was at just 40,000 miles when we left home in September!).

Week 23

Mardi Gras celebrations are in full swing.  One of our LSUA softball players (who comes for FHE every week) was in the LSUA Mardi Gras parade on Wednesday, so we went to see her (middle girl on the tailgate).  Suddenly we recognized a woman from our branch who is the band director at the school in Marksville--her band was marching in this parade.  Even though this parade wasn't big and fancy, every float/wagon that went by was throwing beads.  That seems to be the main purpose of the parades (at least the family friendly ones don't have another agenda).

Our "bead haul" from LSUA parade

For the big parades around the state, floats are created by KREWES.  A krewe is a social group with a membership fee.  It can be a very large fee and those krewes pay parade/costume designers to make their floats for Mardi Gras parades. New Orleans has lots of that kind of krewe, and some of them are quite famous.  Or it can be a smaller fee and they build the floats themselves.  The krewes also have Mardi Gras balls and other celebrations throughout the season.

On Saturday we went downtown to the Alexandria Children's Parade.  This one is in the day, and the children of the krewe members are the ones throwing the beads, cups, toys, and candy (with help from some adults).  It was actually very fun and kids come with bags or baskets to collect all the items they catch.  Most of the floats are playing jazzy music, and there were the requisite number of bands and dancers.  Pictures below of that parade.  At the end you'll see me wearing that day's catch of beads, and we weren't ever trying that hard to snag them.  Next to me is a pile of uncaught beads someone pushed into a pile.  (The adult krewe parade was today, so we didn't go.)

To end our first Mardi Gras celebration ever, we went to the parade in Natchitoches Saturday night.  It was much smaller than the Alexandria parade, but it was at night, so fun to see the floats lit up.

Got a few more beads in that parade, so here is a picture of all our Mardi Gras beads in one pile:

Never could find out significance of beads except that they are fun

Tuesday is the last day of celebration, followed by Ash Wednesday, then 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter. 

In case you wonder if Home Depot caters to its customers, this is on display in our local Home Depot:

It's a crawfish table--the garbage can for shells goes under the hole in the middle

Behind the crawfish table is a bucket of either wood or metal seafood paddles to stir your crawfish or other seafood.  Behind that are either 80-quart or 120-quart seafood boiling pots.  By the way, crawfish season has started.

We were in Home Depot to get some things to do some repairs in the elders' apartment.  We also went over to help them clean mold from the showers this week.  I mentioned we are now doing apartment inspections in three apartments, and this one had some pretty scary mold issues.  They hadn't had an inspection for many months, and lots can happen in that time.  Hope it's under control now.  We inspect every six weeks. 

We still enjoy working at the food bank each week.  We visited an early morning seminary in Leesville and an evening home study one in Alexandria this week.  Our Addiction Recovery Program may go on inactive status if no one comes next week.  Programs go on inactive status after four weeks of no attendees.  The person who was coming for five weeks has stopped and that makes us very sad.  For our Marksville visits this week we decided to include the new branch president and his wife.  They actually live in Pineville.  It was really fun to visit with them.  He was a project manager for a few companies, and they lived in 11 states and six foreign countries during his career.  Their home is full of wonderful treasures from all over.  They are both Louisiana natives, he south and she north, so they came back here to retire (in the middle) about six years ago. 

Week 22

Monday afternoon we went to Magnolia Plantation.  Apparently we missed the part on the website about it being closed on Presidents' Day, but we wandered around a little anyway.  We'll go back when it's a bit warmer, and when it's open, because there is a cotton gin demonstration we want to see.  It was really quite blustery on Monday.

Part of Magnolia Plantation

This week was transfer week and we had an elder and a sister from our district going home.  So the Greens (the sisters live in an apartment at their house) treated the district to DELICIOUS red beans and rice and southern banana pudding for dessert.  They always serve a Louisiana/Southern specialty for these dinners, and Brother Green is the cook.

We visited the seminary class in Rosepine on Wednesday.  A new military family moved in the week before, so a delightful young lady has joined the class.  Rosepine and Leesville wards both have lots of people who are stationed at Fork Polk (or who ended their military careers there and stayed in the area).

A new seminary teacher was called in Natchez, so on Friday we went there to train her.  As mentioned in other posts, Natchez is in Mississippi, and I don't care how often I cross the Mississippi River, it gives me a little thrill every time.  This teacher was the stake young women president prior to this call and one of the students is her daughter.  Seems like she'll do a really nice job.

We got home just in time to get back in the car and drive to Marksville for the branch Valentine's party.  Yes, it's a little after the fact, but it was fun.  We had a spaghetti dinner  then played Pictionary.

On our drives this week, we saw so many soggy fields.  It rained quite a bit this week and we were even in a tornado watch on Saturday.  The high temperature was 77, and that warm front hitting colder air creates some potentially dangerous weather.  Nothing happened here, though there were tornadoes in Mississippi and Alabama.  Even though this is normally the rainy season, it has been wetter than usual. 

Soggy fields--way too wet to plow and plant

The redbud trees are blooming all over the place.

Church was interesting today.  Two investigators (mother and daughter) who go to the Pentecostal Church sat behind us, and in the back row a member and her Baptist mother sat.  All four of them were really into the first speaker, and we heard lots of "Amen" all through the talk.  When she finished her talk, the four of them started applauding.  It kind of startled her.  Then her husband, the high councilor, spoke.  He didn't get any "Amens" or applause, so after meetings I told him he has to try harder next time!