This is Halloween

Dear Family!

This was a pretty good week! We went over to the church to help set up for the ward Halloween party. Holy Cow, I have never seen an LDS church decked out so much, especially with Halloween stuff. They take Halloween seriously here in Wisconsin. I think they like it here more than Idaho. A lot of people decorate and like all the scary stuff. It was a sweet party though. We had an investigator come and bring her boyfriend and sister. It was funny watching them, they said this is the first clean party they have ever been to and enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up. It was funny because the boyfriend is your typical gangster type with the piercings and chains and questionable clothing choices. The Elders thought he was dressed up for Halloween but that is usually how he dresses. But it was good. I found out one of the ward members graduated from Skyline! It is a small small world!

We raked some leaves this week. There are SO many. You rake them to the curb and the city has a vacuum that sucks them all up. So the roads are just lined with a bazillion leaves. We ate dinner with some sweet members this week. That was fun, Wisconsin is just full of some really cool people. It is pretty diverse. 

Our ward mission leader's wife likes us again, so that's good! She gave us several church ASL books and taught the Elders a lot of signs. They were having way to much fun telling each other to go into bondage. Silly Elders. 

On actual Halloween we went to the Bishops house and ate dinner there. They have a tradition of making gross looking food to creep each other out. Now I have to tell you, eating at the bishops house is a feast every time and they invite lots of people! So all their family was there and neighbors and TONS of food. It was super fun. I sent you some pictures it was pretty funny. At the ward Halloween party there was the cutest set of kids costumes. There were 3 families who each had babies between 1-2 years old. One child was Ignacio, the other Escalito and then Encarnacion. It was way too cute! Nacho had on a monk robe, fake mustache and a big gold cross. Half way through the party they took of his robe and he had the tights and cape. Classic!

Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference. Which is weird because my first Sunday out here was Stake Conference and I am in the same stake so I got to see all my Sun Prairie peeps! It was great to see them again! It was so cute, they had Bishop Hatch's son (from Sun Prairie) give a talk about baptism and he is just this cute little 8 year old. It was a great talk! He talked about choosing to be baptized because he now knows how to choose right from wrong and how important it is because Jesus got baptized! Too cute! Our mission president spoke as well talking about how we all need to be member missionaries and how we can do so. It was good. 

Today we went to a funeral for the former stake president. President Buchanan. Wow, it was good. I was biting my lip so hard so I wouldn't cry because I knew I would lose it. When he was bishop he started a tradition of when every time someone leaves on a mission all the men (is an Elder and all the women if sister) got up and sang "We'll Bring The World His Truth". So they had all the men get up and sing that to send him off on his new mission. Wow! So sweet and tender. I have never seen such a well attended funeral either. They had to use the overflow. That many people don't even come to church. It was a fantastic service. I also got to see Sister Schroeder there, turns out that is her step family. She is just my favorite so I was thrilled to see her! 

I can't believe it is already snowing there! I am waiting for the snow here. It hasn't come yet. It is cold enough though! I can't believe Sister Sorenson got released then called to the Stake! Oh man! She is one busy lady! You should tell her hi for me! I just love her, she was the best Sunday School teacher! We were so lucky to have her before the Relief Society stole her. I am glad BYU won dad :) I bet you are thrilled. Mom, you are so funny and not too old ;) I am so excited you put up the Christmas tree! That's my mom! We have one in our closet that I want to sneak up. I don't know how much my comp will appreciate it. I mentioned that now we can all put up our trees at members house after Halloween, oh boy did I get the death look! There is no reason we can't celebrate Jesus with Thanksgiving. We should be thinking of both things all year long!

Here is my epiphany of the week that is entirely mine, it partially is. We were at a members house reading the Book of Mormon and her visiting teacher came. We are reading in 2 Nephi with her and her visiting teacher got talking about the Isaiah chapters. Mary was knew Jesus was to be the Christ so she probably raised him the best she could. She probably tried to keep her home a cultivating learning environment. Jesus probably grew up reading or hearing about Isaiah and could have learned of some of his ministry and mission through his writings. He even quoted Isaiah to announce that He was the Son of God. He loved the words of Isaiah and in 3 Nephi tells us to study them. Could be just maybe one of the reasons He loved it. That could be totally wrong but I like the idea and it kind of gives a fresh outlook on Isaiah. So there is some food for thought!

Well I love you all and hope you stay warm and see lots of snow this week! Thank you for the package mom! It was the best and I was not expecting it! Thank you! I appreciate it a million!

Love you more than all the fishes dad has ever claimed he caught ;) 

Anne