Is It Really November Already?

Ok- since I don't seem to ever have anything to post about, I have copied and pasted my email to Amy.
:-)



Dear Amy-

We got an email last week on Oct. 31st from you mission President saying they were having the missionaries stay in their apartments on Nov. 1st as there was supposed to be a demonstration against the church in some of the cities- was Podolsk affected?  I googled some words, but nothing came up, but googled again after the 1st and found a couple articles about it, though none of them mentioned how many people actually showed up to demonstrate, etc, only that they presented a big symbolic (fake) plane ticket one way from Russia to Washington DC outside the church's Russia head quarters (not sure if that was the mission office, a church or what).  Your mission is so much different than Cami's was- the only thing I worried much about with her was a- getting hit by a car while riding her bike or b- a earth quake-  You I have to worry about going to jail or being the target of a protest!  Seriously though, I know you are in the Lords hands and other than praying for you, don't fret much.  Evidently they are protesting the church because they know the CIA likes mormons and they say the missionaries are spies.  You know how people can leave comments at the end of internet articles?  Someone posted a comment that said something along the lines that spies don't usually wear name tags in public :-).  This reminds me of another funny I saw on Facebook- with the presidential election Tues (did you get to vote?) Mitt Romney and the church have had a lot of media coverage.  Evidently some of it was saying that the church is secretive, etc.  So the Facebook post showed two missionaries walking down a street with a caption something along the lines of : the Church of Jesus Christ of Later day Saints:  so secretive, they send out representatives to try to others who will listen about it.

Thank you for the lovely nose get well card- it took a while to come through the mail, but did make it.  And I am fine.

Halloween- did you get my small package I sent you? I had an email from the mission office letting me know they had received it.  The local update on Halloween goes something like this:  I had the better part of 8 costco boxes with hot cider mix- 60 envelopes per box.  I figure there was at least enough for 450, which got all passed out by 7:05 and had to shut off the light. I had started passing out at 5:30. I think it's the earliest I've ever turned off the porch light.  It was a pleasantly warm Halloween evening, so maybe we had extra kids due to the good weather.  I always feel a bit of a dilemma as to what my trick or treating responsibilities are- should I by a bunch of cheap stuff to have enough on hand for everyone, by a bunch of good stuff for everyone near and far, or do like this year where by I had a nice treat with what would see to be a reasonable amount for the neighborhood.  By the way, I saw Annette (daddy's old nurse) out with her kids/grandkids, as usual. 

Today the Navaro's were visiting in our ward for a baby blessing of one of their relatives, and since it was fast Sunday,  sister Navaro bore her testimony and mentioned the primary children's program as well, which the theme was I Can Choose the Right (which I told you about last week).  She mentioned that she has taught her children that choosing the right is kinda like shaving for men- it's not a one time deal and then you are done- you do it one day, and then the next day, there it is again waiting for you to act on.  Then someone else stood up and said that sometimes he's thought he might like to grow a beard!  Anyway, it was a good analogy.  Joey and his sister were there so I went up to say hi to Joey, because I know you guys were pals- he's at BYU Provo and his sister is at UVU .  He said to tell you hi and was telling me about the different activities/classes you guys had together.

Friday I left in the morning to drive up to Boise and picked up Carol and Chris.  The Boise temple is currently having a open house, so we thought we would go to that before driving up to the cabin.  It was about 1:00 Friday when we got there, but cars were lined up to pull in to park- we had to drive around the block to get to the back of the line due to the traffic. I was really surprised, as it had already been open about a week, so it wasn't the first day- I had sort of had the notion we would pull up and walk right in and just a few people would be there.  We were so impressed with all the organization and people there to make things move smoothly- I bet they had 15-20 people just directing the parking.  They had everyone go into the church prior to going into the temple, so there were people there to greet and direct you- when the room was about full, they had a host couple welcome us and introduce a short video (maybe 10 minutes max)  which was about temples in general, the history of the church in Boise and the Boise temple.  From there a host couple walked with our group from the church to the temple where there was a set route to keep the flow going smoothly.  Afterwards, they invited everyone to come back to the church and ask any questions (since the tour was more less silent- there were placards with info on what they were seeing, but we were asked not to talk in the temple, as there were a lot of other groups going through at the same time), fill out comment cards, etc. in the cultural hall, which was set up very nice with tables to sit and write and a lot of beautiful pictures of t he savior around the room, etc.  Anyway, I was really glad we were able to go, as I believe I hadn't been to a open house since before I was married!  From there we ate a early dinner in Eagle and drove up to the cabin.  We spent the evening playing games and talking, and the next day we got up and did some raking and winterized the house and drove back to Boise and back home.  So had a pleasant weekend.  I would have stayed and driven home on Sunday but they were trying to get back Sat. night for a friends birthday party (that's another story), but just drove back to Elko since it was just more unnecessary driving and it was winterized.

Don't forget to give us some ideas for Christmas- we will need to sent your package soon if you will be able to receive it before then!

Have a great week-

Love
Mom