The pretty leaves before they were blown away in the storm.
Kevin and Karissa with the most creative costumes at the Halloween party.
My favorite display at the trunk-or-treat, for obvious reasons.
Ashley, Bill, and Dawn. Ashley is really enjoying Young Women's. (Yay!)
The scariest trunk-or-treat.
Our apartment and it's new, fun Halloween decor!
A small handful of the wood we hauled on Saturday.
The Bishop carving into one of about fifteen to twenty big trees we hauled away in chunks.
Family Dearest!
This week was just crazy! Indoors for so long, then out of doors for so long since we couldn't use our car! We finally took the plunge to get in a gas line the other day. We woke up at 6 am and called the nearest gas stations. No gas with the first call, but on the second we hit gold! The lady didn't even wait for me to say hello, she just answered with, "We've got gas and there's a line." We only had to wait about a half hour in a line that went way down the street, through a light, and around a corner. Apparently they're rationing it now by letting people with odd numbers ending their license plates go on odd days, and evens on evens. And if you go on the wrong day you don't get gas.
There isn't a lot of damage in our town, but in surrounding areas there are lots of trees down. The Bishop called us on saturday and we spent that day with the Ward hauling wood out of people's yards. The menfolk used the chainsaws to chop up HUGE trees, and then we stacked them in trailers to take to people for firewood this winter. It's nice that there's something people can use it for! At one man's house we were moving limbs and joking and having fun whilst doing it. He said, "You guys know how to work and still have fun!" And later after we'd finished said, "Thank you so much, you make me want to become a Mormon!"
We've done lots of walking and it has been fun. Some people won't talk to us, but we've gotten a few who will and we gave out our last Books of Mormon. It's weird not having those on us, I feel so... unprepared. Oh, we saw our recent converts Dawn and Judy this week! They've taken in another stray cat, making the cat population in their home eight. We watched Finding Faith in Christ. Judy told us she'd been harboring ill feelings toward God for twenty two years because her son passed away. But when she first stepped into the Church she felt forgiveness and love and knew she'd see her son again. I love the Spirit!
So, we had another incident in the woods. I don't know what's with me and the woods. Most New Jersey missionaries have experiences with gangs and guns and such, but my iffy experiences always happen in dark woods. We got gas and were driving to a family a member told us to try. The gps took us into the woods on a road that most certainly wasn't the right one. We were sitting on the dirt road, looking at the gps and deciding what to do when I looked over to reply to something Sister Torgerson said. Out her window I saw a man standing right next to our car. I screamed the most high pitched, girly scream you could think of and my companions followed suit. We did this for about ten seconds. Then I rolled down the window a sliver. Laughing, he asked us if we were looking for Halsey Road and if our gps got us lost. We said yes, and he told us this happens about fifty times a day. He gave us directions, we thanked him and gave him a card, and found the house soon after. The people said if they had questions they'd ask their member friends.
Another scary thing that happened was that a less active lady asked us to come over and do her dishes and vacuum for her, so we did. But whilst doing so she had the last fifteen minutes of Jaws on and every time I'd turn to dry a dish I'd see scary shark attacks. Right when she finished watching it, another show came on and I immediately asked if we could show her a video about Christ while we cleaned. Thank goodness she said yes, and the Spirit came and she was much happier than when we first got there.
Oh, also, during the hurricane we watched some of those Animated Scriptures videos by Nest. They are so amazing! I cried in every one, especially the one titled "Lord, I Believe." If you know anyone who has those, borrow them and watch them because they are so inspired. My faith has grown by watching those cartoons. It's also grown because our new monthly goal for the mission is to read the whole Book of Mormon by January first. That's roughly ten pages a day. It has been a blast! I would challenge each of you to try it out and see how your testimony grows in the next two months!
I love you and hope you're safe! Squeeze the children for me!
Sister Meeso
