Singing Sisters

Today took me back, sort of, to my Girl Scout days. Sister Lyons (my supplier of jokes) and Sister Dixon came into the office to bring a car from one district to be given to another district and a few other things. They came into our little office, sat on the floor, sang and told Pokemon and Pikachu jokes. It reminded me of the song we sang in GS that said "The more we get together, together, together. The more we get together the happier we'll be. For your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends. The more we get together the happier we'll be." One of the songs Sister D sang and played was an original about some of our missionaries--very funny!

Why don't you let Pokemon in the bathroom with you? He'll Pikachu!
How do you get Pikachu onto a train? You Pokemon!

Then Sister Cleere and Sister Baird came in and joined in the fun before taking the singing sisters home. They're actually our Opelousas and Lafayette Sisters and live in the same apartment in Lafayette--about an hour from Baton Rouge.

Cool Elders & Cute Sisters

Elder Watkins, Elder Soper, Elder King, Elder Morrell & Elder Mapa. Can you guess which 4 are on their way to MLC?

Sister Allen and Sister Brady on their way home (to Thibodaux) from MLC.

Today's Serious Miracle!

If anyone doubts that prayers are heard and answered I will totally disagree! Much to my surprise, the 20 cases of books arrived this morning. Part of my surprise was because I never received an email that the books had been sent, which was a bit discouraging. So, happily, we are no longer out of copies of the Book of Mormon, and I will never let them get that low again!

It was actually a very quiet day today, so, after parcelling cases of books to companionships who almost didn't get them, I took advantage of the time to work on cards and summaries for the September transfer. I had another surprise this morning when we received notice of another sister coming in September. That puts us at 22 with only 10 going home.

So how fun was my afternoon when these 4 hermanos came into the office. Elder Glauser was on exchanges and brought his passport into the office for safekeeping. We usually collect all the passports at orientation, so I was surprised to see it, but glad. It's much safer for us to keep it under lock and key and lock and key and lock and key. Then they don't have to worry about it, especially whenever they're transferred.

Sister Jewett and Sister Bailey

I just love these sisters! They stopped by the office today on their way to Hobby Lobby. It's P-Day, and it must be kind of nice to do something a little different from the norm.  You've already been introduced to Sister Jewett and Sister Bailey, but here they are again. Notice the little bottles of hand sanitizer that they're holding thanks to Danielle. They were in the Bath & Body box and she suggested I share them. Great idea, since it's not likely that I can use 15! They were so excited.

Auf Wiedersehen, Sister Weidmann

I think I like words like Auf Wiedersehen, Au Revoir and Aloha much better than Good-bye. It's much less final to say farewell, till we meet again or see you later. Good-bye is just too final.  Sister W will fly back to Temple Square Wednesday morning, and she will be so very missed in our little Branch.

She's had a wonderful connection with the members and non-members alike. In fact, the women who work in the local public library threw a going away party for her. That must have been the quietest party on record! Sister W and Sister Hill have been doing weekly service in the library and have become close to the librarians. Last week these sweet sisters taught the Restoration, and this week they'll show the film, "Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration." I'd say their service is beginning to have some very positive results.

The Senior Social

President and Sister Hansen had the fun idea of getting the Senior Missionary Couples for lunch today, so 10 of us met at Prejean's in Lafayette. The Bibles are our newest couple who are Military Relations missionaries at Fort Polk in Leesville. They went to Oakdale and drove to Lafayette with the Hastings.

It was so good to meet the Bibles as we hadn't had that opportunity. They're at least 3 hours from Baton Rouge and haven't made that drive yet. The Kellers came up from Morgan City, and we drove with the Hansens. What a great idea that was. And I loved the food which, today, was pepper jack shrimp. Yeah, I know your mouth is watering. Here's the description: Three large shrimp stuffed with pepper jack cheese and Tasso (a spicy sort of ham that's a specialty in south Louisiana cuisine), wrapped with apple wood-smoked bacon, fried and served over crawfish cardinal sauce with rice dressing and corn macque choux. That's just a fancy name for sweet corn with the southern holy trinity and tomatoes in a tart shell. The corn was great. The tart shell is still in a little foil liner.

Here's a little about Prejean's. It's located in the heart of French Louisiana--Lafayette. The idea for what would become the world's first Cajun-themed restaurant began when the owner, Bob Guilbreau, visited several Mexican restaurants in California where "more than just Mexican food was served." Bob liked that they captured the joy of their culture with a combination of food, traditional live music, dancing and laughter. Traditional music is played by live Cajun bands and today we were introduced to Zydeco music. It's usually played with accordion, electric guitar, bass drums, and a corrugated metal rubboard.


As we were leaving these 2 adorable Opelusas Sisters popped in to drop something off to Sister Keller. Always fun to see our missionary family. (Sister Cleere and Sister Baird)

After lunch 8 of us went to Avery Island for the Tabasco tour and samples. The Bibles and Hansens hadn't been there yet, so it was a new experience for them. Something I hadn't noticed before were the beautiful trees covered with ferns! I've seen tree trunks and branches covered with a variety of growth but never ferns.

Good News! Bad News!

The good news is that we went through 1200 copies of the Book of Mormon last month and ordered 800 more.

The bad news is that the 800 copies didn't come, and we are now officially out of copies of the Book of Mormon--unless someone needs Spanish.