Good-bye to Sister Hill

Love our Spanish Elders! They pop in every once in awhile. Apparently they came by 3 or 4 times last week to pull their little prank, but I wasn't there. So today Elder Crook, right, tried to hand me a receipt and ask if Elder Lauper could reimburse them for their pool pass. Hmm. Swimming pool? Pool table in a pool hall? I couldn't think of any pool that they could "legally" use so I told them NO with a smile. They were so disappointed because I rarely turn them down for much. Nice try guys. The receipt they were using was and old one for gas or something.

Kind of a sad day today. We found out that sweet Sister Hill, from our Plaquemine branch, will be honorably released tomorrow for medical reasons. She's been struggling for at least 2 months trying to find foods that she can eat without causing stomach pain. She's had a whole battery of tests but, as is so often the case, they can tell her what it isn't but not what it is. So, at about 4, I quickly put together a go-home packet for her to take for herself, her parents, Bishop & Stake President. Then we dropped it off at the Hansen's for the President can sign when they return home from New Orleans this evening.

President Hansen sent an email out to the mission sharing some missionary experiences from a few of our Elders and Sisters. These kinds of things are happening all around our mission and every other mission throughout the world. I know LABRM is doing their part to take the gospel to "every nation, kindred, tongue and people."

-----the spirit was touching this lady’s heart. She sat there and just cried. It was like a burden that had been there for years was being lifted from her. She stopped us in the middle of the lesson and said "will you please explain to me what is this feeling I have right now. I have never felt peace like this in my life. WHAT IS THIS FEELING? I want it to stay forever." So we testified to her again that is the spirit and we bore our testimonies that she is feeling God's love for her. It was amazing and it was hard for me to keep the tears in. I almost started crying myself because the spirit was so strong in this women's tiny little house. She also recognized the spirit and how strong it was and told us so. We invited her granddaughter who lives with her to participate in the primary program at the end of this month and the granddaughter was so excited. We got her part from the primary president at church yesterday and are going to give it to them tonight. 

Excerpt from a letter about an investigator on an oil rig:
He was only reading because his computer had broken and stopped working. Other wise he would be watching movies on his computer instead of reading. And he said that everything just got cleared up for him! He sent his wife a message saying to her, "If I could, I would get baptized RIGHT NOW!!!! "

-----The N family (Asian family) are doing really well! It has been the hardest teaching them for sure because of the language barrier. In one of the lessons with their family last week we taught them the plan of salvation and everything just clicked for them. WDS commented and said he never understands when he goes to English class, but when we teach him he said it all makes sense. 

A Trio in Plaquemine

We have a new elder in Plaquemine for a short time, because his companion recently received a medical release. Elder Baker, in the middle, has only been in our mission since May, and he's already been in 4 different areas. That's more than some missionaries see their whole mission. I was hoping he'd be one of the speakers today, wanting to hear his conversion story. Sister Hansen was telling us that he's only been a member for 2 years but has a powerful story to tell. Looks like that experience will have to wait.

One of the speakers in Sacrament Meeting today started off talking about bees but then moved from buzzing bees to President Hinckley's "B's." It was such a good reminder of the B's he introduced 13 years ago. Really! Thirteen years? How's that even possible.

I'm not going to even attempt to recreate his talk, because you can read it on lds.org in the January 2001 Ensign's First Presidency Message. He actually presented it on November 12, 2000 to youth and young adults in the Conference Center as a satellite broadcast. What an outstanding message. So here are his B's.

Be Grateful
Be Smart
Be Clean
Be True
Be Humble
Be Prayerful

Then, in 2004 in a CES manual, he added a 7th B--Be Happy! And our speaker added an 8th which was Be Repentant. There's today's mini-sermon.

The Louisiana State Flag

After 2 seriously slow weeks and trying to do as much as possible to get ahead, I gave up manufacturing things to write about. No one was in the office last week as the Assistants and Office Elders were all attending all of the Specialized Training Meetings in the mission. This week started off slow and never picked up, so today I've decided to do a little history lesson about the Louisiana state flag.

On July 1, 1912, after 100 years as a state, Louisiana's legislature adopted an official state flag. The pelican became the central image on the flag because it was the central image on the state seal. In Louisiana's second year as a state, in 1813, the legislature passed an act stating that Louisiana was to have an official state seal and that the governor was authorized to determine what that seal would be.

Gov. Wm C. C. Claiborne was familiar with the mythology of the mother pelican tearing flesh from her breast to feed her young. The image, representing self sacrifice, was common in Catholic and Masonic art. Louisiana's citizens were mostly Catholic and Claiborne was a Mason. That, plus the fact that the pelican was common to LA coasts possibly contributed to his choice of the iconic symbol of sacrifice as the central image in the state seal.  (Sadly, pelican mothers will not tear at their own flesh to feed their young, but the legend may have stemmed from a misunderstanding of normal feeding behavior in which the parent holds its bill down against its breast to enable the nestlings to reach in to feed from the parent's pouch.)

While LA was still a territory and Claiborne was the territorial governor, the official seal was Claiborne's personal seal which featured an eagle. Sometime before the legislature called for an official state seal, Claiborne had begun using a seal featuring the pelican.

The first seal had 10 chicks in the nest. The seal also included scales of justice, 18 stars and the phrase "Justice, Union & Confidence." Over the years, the arrangement of pelicans, stars, scales and motto changed. Soon after the adoption of the seal, flags started to appear with the state seal on them. Both the flags and the seals varied over the years.

In 1902, Gov. Wm. Henry Wright Heard formalized the state seal with this description: "A pelican, with its head turned to the left, in a nest with three young; the pelican, following the tradition, in act of tearing its breast to feed its young; around the edge of the seal to be inscribed, "State of Louisiana.' Over the head of the pelican to be inscribed 'Union, Justice," & under the nest of the pelican to be inscribed 'Confidence.'"

At this time, a flag with a blue field and the seal as described came into common use, but there was no legislative authority for this flag. That was remedied in 1912 with these words: "That the official flag of Louisiana shall be that flag now in general use, consisting of a solid blue field with the Coat of Arms of the State, the pelican feeding its young, in white in the center, with a ribbon beneath, also in white, containing in blue the motto of the State, 'Union, Justice and Confidence,' the whole showing as below."

The Assistants

What could be more fun on a Saturday afternoon than an unplanned visit with 2 Elders? Not much! We haven't seen Elder Morrell or Elder Mecham since we met last Monday, because they've had specialized training with all the zones this week, which means lots of travel and long days for them.
Our new area doctor was in town and met with each of the zones/combination zone meetings. The Assistants and the Office Elders all had training to present, so they weren't in the office all week--at least not while we were there. It was a pretty quiet week!

So Elders M & M asked if they could come and visit. Well, twist my arm! We weren't sure when they were coming, but when they arrived I'd just taken a fresh tray of Shara's Chocolate Chip Cookies out of the oven. Great timing. After a brief visit we fixed lunch for them. Good thing I had some fresh bread. Anyway it was good to just sit and talk for awhile. Love these guys!

Sister Wily and Sister Hoskins

Sister Hoskins is on her way back to Gonzales with Sister Wily after a companion exchange, but they stopped in the office to get some commissary. For some reason their order didn't get to me last week, so I'm glad we had what they needed.

Evidently, President Wall is on face book and posted some "Punology" last week. Here are a few of the, but certainly not all.

~I tried to catch some Fog. I mist.
~When Chemists die, they barium.
~A soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
~I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop anytime.
~How did Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.
~I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.
~This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.
~I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I can't put it down.
~I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
~Class trip to the Coca-Cola factory. I hope there's no pop quiz.
~I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.
~What to you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A Thesaurus.
~What does a clock do when it's hungry? I goes back four seconds.
~I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me!
~Broken pencils are pointless.

It must be really slow in here today!

Sisters and Sisters

Sister Bailey and Sister Black popped into the office today and spent a few minutes visiting before heading off to a lunch appointment. I think I've mentioned before that Sister Bailey is a talented musician, interested in going into medicine, already has a CNA, and is a sweetheart. Sister Black is equally adorable, the 2nd of 10 children and wants to be a high school biology teacher. She's from Provo, attended BYU before her mission and is also an accomplished pianist.

A few hours later Sister Lindstrom and Sister Hoskins stopped by on their way home for lunch. Sister Hoskins is serving in Gonzales with Sister Wily, but she's on exchanges, so it was fun to have her in the office. Sister H has a beautiful voice. She and Sister Hockemier sang an arrangement of "I am a Child of God" that I hadn't heard before at the last transfer meeting. She used to serve in the Vidalia/Natchez district with Sister Stennett, the violinist. For awhile they performed weekly with the Natchez Elders at the old Grand Hotel in Natchez. They'd sing/play and entertain in the very Grand Lobby of the Grand Hotel. President Wall said they were an outstanding foursome. Sister H completed 2 years at BYU before her mission, and I think she's a vocal performance major.

Another Answered Prayer

Today was one of those really great days when a dilemna was resolved and prayers were answered. Now I'm trying to decide if I should go from the beginning to the end or the end to the beginning. I guess the former. This will all come together eventually.

Three weeks ago 23 new missionaries and 22 bikes arrived in the mission. Elder R's bike, which had been ordered several weeks before his arrival, never came. After numerous phone calls and emails between Elder R, Elder's mom, Elder's dad, bike shop and me, the bike was "resent" and arrived at the office, in need of being assembled, yesterday. I won't go into the details of the missing bike except to say that the bike shop finally found the invoice and said it was shipped, but they didn't know where it was shipped to. Really? An expensive bike and no tracking number? Hmm. Mom thinks it just wasn't sent. So, a replacement was sent and is now here in the office.

Elder L's cousin contacted him about 2 weeks ago and said that he and his brother were planning on flying out to visit for a few hours on Saturday, Sept. 13. They both worked for, and retired from, United Airlines and can fly free but always have to go stand-by.

Sister Astle, our sweet St. George sister now serving in the West Bank (New Orleans), has a birthday on Friday. Elder L & I talked about going to NOLA to take her and her companion, Sister Jewett, out for dinner. Just a quick trip on Friday and back Saturday morning--in time to visit with the cousins.

Email from cousins yesterday saying that they're coming in Friday and leaving Sunday if there's a flight, so could we get together for dinner Friday night or breakfast on Saturday, just in case they can't get a Sunday flight and have to leave early Saturday afternoon. Sure.

Scratch Friday dinner and anytime Saturday. How about Monday to NOLA. Not a good idea, because Elder R's bike really needs to get to him and we're the obvious ones to take it since we're going there already. And, he just happens to be in the same district with Sisters A and J. In fact, the elders live just a few blocks away. Easy drop off. So why can't he wait another week for his bike? Because they're in a biking area with no access to a car, and the bike he was borrowing just broke.

This morning Elder L & I were still trying to figure out how and when to go to NOLA. We can't go tomorrow, because he and Elder F are going to DeRidder to look at apartments. DeRidder is about 3+ hours away from Baton Rouge and the opposite direction from New O. They'll be lucky to get back to BR by 4 or 5. Leaving at that time to drive to NO would be insane. Maybe we could run down there tonight.

Then, at about 10:30 am, the office door opens and who should walk in? Sister Jewett and Sister Astle. NO WAY! What on earth are they doing here? Sister J had to drive all the way into Baton Rouge to pick up a prescription. Hooray! It was so good to see both of them and find out that they had to wait to pick up the Rx, and yes, they had time to go to lunch. So off we went to Longhorn Steakhouse with Elder Trainor, Elder Steele, Elder Fontenot, Sister Astle and Sister Jewett. So how's that for a very happy solution to all of our concerns.

They're now on their way back to the West Bank with Elder R's bike happily attached to the bike rack on the back of their car. Happy, happy day!