Week 60

This has been a wonderful week.  At the prison we had another inmate join our group.  He had been working in foodservice and couldn't get off during our meeting time, but he changed jobs last week and so can come from now on.  That will make five regular attenders.  We are still surprised that going to the prison is one of the highlights of our mission.  Going to the other prison has been a bit more frustrating--we really enjoy meeting with the inmate when we do, but that prison has a lot more lockdowns that prevent us seeing him.  This week, however, the chaplain thinks he forgot to sign up for "call out" so when it was time to come he couldn't leave wherever he was.  Prison is called prison for a reason.  Freedom is so restricted, and frankly, it's a dreary life behind prison bars (and razor wire and gates, and guards, etc, etc).

After Oakdale prison this week we drove south and west instead of home to visit the Rosepine seminary.  The new teacher (who we trained several weeks ago) is very enthusiastic and does a wonderful job.

Thursday was the first of the seven-week Temple Preparation class for some couples in Marksville who are getting ready to go to the temple.  They are so excited and anxious to learn, and we had a wonderful discussion.  Before class, one of the brothers brought another some squirrel snares he had made.  They are great friends and love to hunt (just about anything).  The snares may not show very well in the picture, but it was very educational to learn how you trap squirrels!

Chris, Ryne, and the squirrel snares

On Friday we took four elders to Gonzalez, just outside Baton Rouge, to do exchanges with the elders there.  All the missionaries were to come to Baton Rouge or close by in preparation for the mission conference on Saturday.  The conference was in conjunction with the re-dedication of the Baton Rouge Temple on Sunday.

After we dropped them off, we drove on to New Orleans to see my old friend Lynn.  She and her husband have been mostly living in New Orleans for the last six years for his work as director of photography for the television show NCIS New Orleans.  He was working, but Lynn, Kerby, and I had fun visiting, riding an old streetcar, eating beignets and hot chocolate, and exploring the French Quarter.

By and on the streetcar and at Jackson Square

Beignets and hot chocolate at Cafe du Monde

Fabulous carnival masks at shop in the French Quarter (most are made out of leather--not your children's party masks)

Joan of Arc (the Saint of Orleans) and a lovely balcony

 To make the day even better, Kerby's son, Kirk, just happened to be in New Orleans for a meeting.  After leaving Lynn, we met him at one of my favorite restaurants in NO--Mr. B's Bistro--and had a lovely dinner and lovely visit.  After that we drove back to Baton Rouge (just over an hour away) for the night.

Saturday the whole mission gathered at the Baton Rouge stake center at 9 am to get into place for the picture with Elder Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve and Elders Duncan and Martino of the Seventy and their wives.  This is only the second time since we've been here that the whole mission has been together, and it's quite a sight to have all these dedicated missionaries, young and old, in one place.

The general authorities arrived at 9:30, and after the pictures were taken, they went to the back of the chapel, where all the missionaries walked by and shook their hands. What followed was two hours of absolutely marvelous instruction and spiritual uplift.  My notes here won't convey the majesty of the meeting.

First Sister then Elder Duncan spoke.  He referred to 2 Nephi 33:10 in relation to a recent poll that showed Mississippi and Louisiana (the two states in our mission) as being the number 2 and number 4 states in religiosity in the country.  "And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words. . . ."   They were followed by Sister then Elder Martino, who spoke mostly about becoming disciples of Christ not just through what we do, but the attitude and motivation with which we follow Christ.  Do vs Become.

Sister Cook led us in a fun and uplifting musical break with a variation of the hymn Hark all ye Nations.  She then spoke about the Christlike attributes discussed in Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel and how we can find hymns to support and enhance our use of each attribute.  She said that even though no one is perfect, we can all do perfect things each day.  Elder Cook gave powerful instruction about and testimony of the Savior. It truly was a spiritual feast.

After time to visit old companions/friends, we packed up our elders and headed back to Alexandria (by way of Canes--the best chicken fingers anywhere).  There's really not much room in the far back of the car, but they were good sports about the cramped conditions.

Elders Rowe, Stacey, Glade, and Alvey

This morning the re-dedication of the Baton Rouge Temple was broadcast to several church buildings throughout the temple district.  When this happens, the building becomes an extension of the temple, and only those with a regular or special use temple recommend can attend the meeting.  It was a treat to hear from the temple president and matron as well as the six who had addressed us on Saturday.  But today the focus was all on the temple and the part it plays in Heavenly Father's plan of salvation for all His children.  After the talks, Elder Cook gave the dedicatory prayer.  Another spiritual feast.

Now a dedicated temple

Some of our Marksville Branch members who attended the re-dedication

Week 59

Not that we're marking time, but four months from today we head back to Utah.  I'd say "head home" but we're homeless since we sold ours before coming on the mission.  Seemed like a good idea at the time, but now it's a little scary.

We finally started seeing fall color this week.  There are so many pine trees and live oaks, which don't turn color or lose their leaves, that we can drive long stretches between colorful hardwoods.  Always fun to see a little burst of red or spot of orange as we drive.

Proof that fall comes to Louisiana--eventually

While coming back from the prison in Oakdale, we took a little side trip to see Camp Claiborne.  This is the site of the birth of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions during WWII.  They had prominent roles in the war--82nd was involved in the invasions of North Africa and Sicily, and the 101st was in the Battle of the Bulge.  Not a lot to see now, but always good to remember the many who gave so much as we commemorate Veterans' Day tomorrow.

On Friday we went to the state fair in Shreveport.  It was rather disappointing as most of the livestock had been removed, and there were very few other interesting displays.  However, Kerby was transported to his teens when he saw the white tractor. It was just like the one he used to drive when spending summers on his uncle's ranch in Laketown, UT.

A blast from the past tractor bottom left--modern version on the right

When we first saw the "we buy pecans" signs last fall, we were quite confused--shouldn't they be selling pecans?  Then a sister in the branch cleared our confusion.  Many people have pecan trees in their yards that produce more pecans than they can eat.  Many places will buy those home-grown pecans and shell, clean, and sell them to distributors.  As this sister said, her trees produce "enough for the squirrels, enough for me, and enough to sell for a little Christmas money."  The variety of pecan tree that yields the thin shelled nuts we eat today was developed on a sugar cane plantation down near Baton Rouge.

Signs like this pop up all over

Yesterday there was a stake youth activity.  The first game was devised by the on-line seminary teacher, and we went to be judges/coaches.  It was based loosely on the game Cranium, and we had fun working-playing with the youth for about an hour.  They went on to have some carnival type games after we went home.

Doctrinal Mastery game

Week 58

From October 24-31 we were in Denver with the Marsh family--featuring new baby Doug. We were so happy that we could go and help out (as well as snuggle grandchildren).  There really isn't a lot to say, so here are the week's pictures.

Brand new Doug with mom and dad

Being grandma

Being grandma some more

Big sisters

Being papa (or horsey)

The weather (and altitude) were quite a change from Louisiana.  It snowed off and on for a couple of days, and when we woke up on Wednesday morning, it was 4 degrees.  Papa walked Wendy down the hill to school and picked her up each day.  School was cancelled on Wednesday, however, because it was so cold.

A cold walk

 On Tuesday the ward had a trunk or treat, but had to move it all inside because of the cold and snow.

Dad and the trick or treaters

Saturday my great niece Rachel got married to Jamas in the Salt Lake Temple .  A happy event we were sorry to miss.

Happy couple

We have no insights into why the chicken crossed the road, but we had to wait for these four to cross on our way home from church today.

And finally, one more picture of our new little grandbaby and his adoring sisters.

Week 56 1/2

The blog will be on hiatus this Sunday as we spend time with new baby Doug, his sisters and parents in Denver (where it's snowing right now--we don't actually remember what snow looks like!). 

We just got back from visiting the home study seminary class in Many, and we had a good class with our Oakdale inmates today.  Prior to that, we attended District Council.  Wednesday is generally our busiest day.

Yesterday we did one missionary apartment inspection and visited one less active member in Marksville.  He worked on an off-shore oil rig for 25 years until he injured his back several years ago (they work two weeks on and two weeks off the rig). 

It rained heavily almost all day Monday, and a couple of streets were completely flooded when we left the food bank.  Yesterday and today were beautiful and we even felt a hint of autumn in the air. 

And since we have no pictures of anything we've seen or done this week, here is the state symbol--the fleur de lis.  It shows up everywhere:

Week 56

The most wonderful news this week is the birth of baby Doug on Thursday night.  That makes grandchild number nine! He and mom are doing well, and the three big sisters are elated!  We'll be traveling to Denver this week (when he was due) to help (ok, and to snuggle).

Monday afternoon we went to Rosepine to train a new seminary teacher.  The new teacher and her husband are at Fort Polk--her husband is a pediatrician in the Army.

While we were driving to Rosepine Brother Green called to say they were making gumbo and sweet potatoes for supper and we were invited.  That fit our return schedule just fine, and so we enjoyed a good Louisiana meal with the Greens and some other couples--one the wife had served a mission here and the other the husband had served here.  He's back as an Army dentist at Fort Polk, the others were just touring the area.  Pretty fun, and Brother Green makes great gumbo!

On the way home from our prison visit on Wednesday, the Alexandria institute teacher texted to say she was going to have to work that night, so when we got home we hurried and put together an institute lesson.  Teaching institute is one thing we absolutely loved on our last mission and miss on this one, so we enjoy every opportunity to substitute.

Yesterday we went to a Louisiana State Historical site in Pineville, across the Red River--Fort Randolph and Fort Buhlow.  These two fortifications were built in the Civil War after the Confederate Army had defeated the Union in several battles on and near the Red River.  The forts were never really used because the war came to an end the next year, but were built in case the Union tried to come up the Red River again.

All this and Spanish Moss, too!

The forts are near where we check the depth of the river.  It's been a long dry summer, and we've never seen the Red River this low.  It was more than 15 feet higher last winter.

This is shrimping season (August to December for white shrimp), and the place where we bought crawfish is open on weekends selling shrimp boils.  We decided we'd better try it out, and were not disappointed--delicious and very spicy (lips tingling for a long time after eating).

A bag of shrimp boil--potatoes, corn, sausage, and shrimp

Because we're leaving this week, the only day we could do missionary apartment inspection in Marksville was today.  After church Kerby had an Elder's Quorum presidency meeting, then we took the sacrament to a sister who has had some health problems (Kerby also gave her a beautiful blessing), then went to the elders' apartment.  They had invited us to eat dinner with them--they had some homemade spaghetti sauce Elder Alvey had made.  They said this was the first time they'd ever fed the missionaries 😊.  It was good and their apartment was clean, too.

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!).

Week 54

Our stake is having an online seminary class for the first time this year.  It includes students from several wards (a few wards still have their daily or home-study classes), and it's been a learning experience for students and the teacher.  Things are smoothing out now, and we "attended" the once per week video conference classes this week.  There's one Tuesday mornings at 6 am and a repeat of that class Tuesday evening at 7 pm to meet all the kids' schedules.  It was pretty fun to see, and technology makes things possible that just couldn't have happened even a few years ago.

Wednesday was my birthday, so we celebrated by going to district council then to the prison (ok--that wasn't the celebration).  From the prison we keep driving south to Lake Charles, where we went to a fancy restaurant for dinner (that was the celebration).  We had a little over an hour in Lake Charles before going to the restaurant, so we drove by the lake and looked at lots of beautiful, big plantation-style homes on the lake front.  The homes were across a street from the lake, but right on the lake, each home had a corresponding boat house.  Lots of money in that neighborhood.

Plantation-style homes on Sea Shell Drive

And the boat houses

There is a lovely little park right on part of the lake and we enjoyed a little stroll there.

Millennium Park on Lake Charles

The restaurant was called La Truffe Sauvage (the wild truffle) and had good reviews for its fine dining.  It really was very good, and there was a surprise at the end.  We normally never tell a restaurant if we're celebrating a birthday or other special occasion, so I was very surprised when our dessert came out with a burning candle on the plate, and a birthday greeting in chocolate on the plate.  No singing, clapping, or carrying on, just a lovely message on the plate.  The dessert was a delicious chocolate souffle.

With my handsome date

Delicious and beautiful

On Thursday our weekly video conference call with the seminary/institute area coordinators and the other coordinating missionary couple was cancelled because of a meeting, the prison visit was cancelled because of a lock down, and our addiction recovery person texted to say he wasn't coming.  That means the only exciting thing in the day was getting our flu shots. 

Friday the Golds, the S & I coordinating missionaries in Ruston/Monroe came down and we had lunch together. Then we helped them with a couple of things for the mission assignment.  They're a delightful couple from Utah, and they've been here two months.

We thoroughly enjoyed General Conference.  We watched the Saturday sessions at home, but today we went down to Marksville to watch at the church.  Not many people came, since it can be watched at home, but it was fun to be with those at the building.  We even did a little seminary work between sessions with the young woman who was baptized last week.  Nothing like General Conference to get a spiritual lift!

I saved the agricultural report for the end this week.  Almost half of Louisiana is covered with forest, and logging is a huge industry here (of course only some of the forest is available for logging). We see logging trucks all the time and there are several paper mills as well as lumber yards around.

Lumber mill

 The cotton harvest is in full swing.  Louisiana isn't even close to Texas in amount of cotton produced, but about 200,000 acres of cotton are grown here.  That amounts to 420,000 bales [a unit of measurement], and a bale is 500 pounds.  And that amounts to about $270,000,000 in the state's economy.

The machine below is called, appropriately enough, a cotton picker.

It seems to go through the field once to get the harvest, but we're not sure what happens then--quite a bit of cotton is left behind, but we can't tell if it's re-harvested in a second pass or just plowed under.  The fields have varying stages of clearing.

Bottom left not picked yet, bottom right has been harvested

Cotton is put into modules (about 12-15 bales per module) by a module builder.  Each module weighs around 6 thousand pounds.

Modules on top, module builder on bottom

Kerby by a module

As we've mentioned before, the amount, variety, and size of agricultural equipment we see is mind boggling--and very interesting to a couple of city dwellers.