trip to louisiana

two sundays ago, we took a fairly impromptu trip to louisiana.  it was fabulous.  for one thing, i love road trips.  for another, we had a really great reason for going.

dave served his mission (2 year commitment 19 year old guys, and some 21 year old gals make) in louisiana.  ever since we've moved to texas, we've had intentions of making the trip over to visit.  we hadn't made it over, until last sunday (22nd of november).

in dave's first area, he taught a 12 year-old boy.  the mom was inactive, and the other members of the family weren't members.  the boy (cole), agreed to hear the discussions, and decided to be baptized.  later on, during dave's mission, he learned that cole's mom had started coming to church again, and was the relief society president.  cole and dave connected on facebook a while back, which was great, because that meant we received a wedding invitation to cole's marriage.  he got married in idaho, but also had an open house at his home in louisiana.

the open house was on sunday, and we decided that the four hour drive was worth it.  we packed up the car, and the kids :), and started on our way.  the kids are good travelers - made even better with some good audio books, paper and crayons, and a movie or two.  i hadn't ever been to louisiana before, so that was a lot of fun for me.  i even got to see a bayou!

we got there a couple hours before the reception, so dave had a chance to show us around.  we saw some of the places he tracted, where he lived, and spent some time down by the river.  it was beautiful, and really fun to see where he had spent so much time, and served so diligently.

being at the open house completely made the trip worthwhile.  a lot of people remembered him, and cole's mom was so excited to see dave.  she was super surprised, and touched that he would make the effort to be there.  we also learned that cole's stepdad had been baptized, and is serving as the elder's quorum president.  cole's younger sister was baptized, and the family was sealed in the temple in 2006.  dave was more excited than he's been in a long time.  it was a great experience to see how the conversion of a 12 year-old boy affected his whole family for good.  it was a wonderful experience, and i'm so glad we got to be there!

we left the open house at 8:30 for the four hour trek home.  the kids fell asleep before we had even gotten out of town.  dave and i had the whole four hours to just talk with each other.  we don't very often get a chance like that, so we really enjoyed the time together.  it was a great sunday.