Over the River: Pomegranates, family history, and Halloween buckets

Thank you! I got your box the other day (We sent a Halloween box with her snow boots, Count Chocula cereal, Reeses cups candy, printed décor, etc) - tell Katie thank you thank you thank you for the little figurine! I bonded with a new investigator over it. Pomegranate is shelled and I'll be grabbing a can or two of pears next week (pomegranate seeds, Jell-O, and pears make up a recipe she will miss for the holidays – we sent the pomegranate and Jell-O).

All is well here. Haven't yet taken a picture with my companion yet, and today she wouldn't let me because 'today is a no hair wash day' and she's dressed 'gross'. It's a p-day (preparation day – a day to do laundry, shopping, etc) . Of course we're a little lazier. Though her lazy day and mine are a tad different (I wonder what that means….).

She's been helping me re-evaluate a few things I do, like how I take care of my hair. My scalp's been dry for years, and between that and stress, well, I think this is the first time in a long time that I haven't felt an overwhelming need to scratch when I'm stressed out. So I need to pay attention to how I wash my hair and what I do it with.

We had our first fight the other day. A little tussle, misunderstanding and attitude check, but we recovered relatively quickly once we changed locations and purposes. (It’s tough to live / work with a complete stranger, 24 / 7, for weeks at a time, and NOT have a few misunderstandings….sounds like they’re both making it work!)

We've been looking more into family history stuff since I've been out. I don't know how much you guys have looked at it, but there's a couple of dad's lines that go clear back to Adam and Eve. Haven't looked though mom's (Moms family history has been extensively worked, but not back that far!). Lots of inter-marrying, though. There are some pretty cool names and ranks: Archdruid of Taliesin Gowrie, Grandmaster Boaz Anfortas Order of the Grail, Emperor Constantine, a couple of Grail Kings... Very high fantasy stuff. Makes me laugh. (royal blood in the veins of my children!)

Attached are some photos of different things. My gloves and hat (made by mom), the pumpkin pictures put up on one of our walls (sent as Halloween décor), tiny Saber (figurine that Katie bought for her), and some really cool decals they sell at the dollar tree.

ALSO OH. THEY HAVE THESE BUCKETS AT MCDONALDS FOR THE NEW MOVIE "The Book of Life". I wannnnnnttttt themmmmmm. (The animator in her was squealing about the movie before she left – we’ll acquire the movie for her…shhhh!) Could you get them for me for my Babylon Box? (The Babylon Box is where we collect new bits of “all the worldly goods she left behind”… new movies, games, art supplies, etc) I want them and the stickers they come with, but perhaps carrying around plastic buckets my whole mission isn't a good idea. (Her dad procured one – that was a sacrifice for him to eat there…. The store that mom visited was out of the buckets – THANKS DAD!).

We had our ward (church congregation) Halloween party, and definitely made me a little homesick. It was good though - two investigators and a couple of less-actives came with us. Hopefully that'll be a growing trend.

The work is going well- we're meeting a lot of new potential investigators and inviting many to baptism. The work goes quick sometimes, and other times it crawls... We have 3 new investigators, and 2 additional ones that dropped us this week. So our numbers are fluxing a lot. We've been doing a LOT of knocking, and it's getting progressively easier. It's a lot less traumatic than it initially was. We meet some pretty wildly crazy people.

Hope all is well! Love, Christine