New Orleans 1st Ward

We attended our meetings this morning at the New Orleans 1st Ward--an older building that's been beautifully renovated. It may have been since Katrina, but I'm not sure.  There are four sets of missionaries that attend there even though they don't all serve in the same areas.  We didn't get as much time as I would've liked to visit but had a few minutes with 2 of our California sisters, Sister Hafford and Sister Hild.  They love serving together because they understand "California Culture!"  Sister Hafford is from Pleasanton and came into the mission on our first transfer, and Sister Hild is from Monterey Bay and has been out about 9 months. Sweethearts! Aren't they all? A PS on Sister Hild--Wed, April 2.  Sister Hild spoke to Pres Wall last week so I was anticipating her phone call.  She's going home a few weeks early so she can start one of her graduate classes at Cal (Berkeley).  I had no idea she'd even graduated from college.  Anyway, as I think I mentioned before, we can't change release dates more than 30 days in either direction so I was a little concerned.  I told her I'd check and get back to her thinking that Pres Wall might need additional approval.  What great luck!  The requested date to be changed was 29 days.  Good for Sister Hild!

After church we took a quick drive through the Garden District, which is the area where the chapel is and is also the area we'd plan on seeing yesterday on the trolley.  Unfortunately there was a parade (these people love their parades) and the trolley couldn't go on most of the route because it was also the parade route.  I took some pictures of homes in the area but know nothing about them, so here they are from a moving vehicle.