November 5, 2014, Halloween Fun and Moore!

Can it really be November?  Already?  I guess it is and I have to accept it!  Well, I guess it is one of my favorite months!  There are still warm days, and it's the month when it starts to snow and snow is exciting (the first few times at least!), and it's the grateful, thankful month!  That's the best part about November (besides all our happy birthdays of people we love)!  We celebrate Thanksgiving!  It's the best holiday because it's about being thankful, it doesn't require spending lots of money on presents and it involves delicious, endless amounts of wonderful, glorious food!  What's not to love about it?  Let the fun begin!

This past week has been a spiritual high for us!  We had a visiting general authority from our church here for most of the week, Elder and Sister Lawrence of the Seventy.  They spoke to us at our zone conference on Thursday and again at our stake conference on Saturday and Sunday.  We were richly blessed to attend all of those wonderful meetings.  It is a great time to be a missionary.  The Lord is hastening His work on the earth and bringing the gospel to people near and far at a faster rate than ever before.  There are approximately 88,000 missionaries serving throughout the world.  Even people in countries that don't allow our missionaries to come in and proselyte are being reached via the Internet.

The Lawrence's spoke about the gathering of Israel and how it is happening now.  It is a great time to be on the earth.  People like Andrea (see previous posts) are searching for the gospel and are ready to be taught and are ready to follow the Savior. 

Our mission president, President Packard, encouraged every person in our stake to go out with the missionaries once a month.  If everyone did that, the missionaries would be kept plenty busy every day of the month!  I encourage everyone who I know to do that as well!  It's pretty easy to go out one time a month to teach a lesson with them, or do service with them, or have them help you with your calling.  We can do it!  Everyone can be involved in missionary work, and it's a lot of fun! I know some of our friends who aren't members of our church read our blog and I hope that you aren't offended in any way by my enthusiasm about missionary work. Afterall, Elder Moore and I are full-time missionaries and we love it.  We would love for you to experience the joy of the gospel, but clearly we will always be your friend no matter what!

 These are pictures taken from our car on our way to our zone conference in Weston, MA.  It was a beautiful Fall day!

 Here are our Sister's Jones and Roy with some of the other sister missionaries from our mission.

After our wonderful zone meeting, which was actually half of the zones from our mission, the sisters and us went to dinner at some members of our ward, Kim and Mike Berkey.  We love their darling family.  These are their cute little two-year old twins, Jared and Rebecca.  They started calling Elder Moore and I Grandma and Grandpa!  Just what our hearts needed when we are missing our grandkids so much! We have truly grown to love the Cambridge 1st Ward in our short time here.  There are so many wonderful people here!

 Friday was Halloween!  What a fun day to get our zone together for some training and for a Halloween lunch/party!  I was in charge of the festivities and food and had made assignments the week before.  Everyone was awesome and all brought wonderful things to eat!

 Sister Roy and Sister Blair are frosting some candy corn cupcakes, while Elder Kerr and sister Jones are making my mummy dogs for me!  The missionaries are so helpful and would do anything for anyone!

 This group is working on setting the tables and decorating the room!

 Before lunch, we had a very spiritual training meeting by the zone leaders and the sister training leaders.  Everyone is super excited to make this a November to Remember!

 After the training meeting, Sister Fernando and Sister Merkley had set up a fear factor food station.  They brought some really nasty stuff and whoever was brave enough to try some of it, were put to the test.  There were a few shivers and gags, but nobody threw up!  Thank heavens!

 The lunch turned out perfectly!  We had things like taco soup, mummy dogs (hot dogs wrapped up in crescent rolls to look like mummies), these cute pumpkin oranges, banana ghosts, and lots of fun sweets!

                                                        The Cambridge South Zone!

 After lunch was over, we played some fun games, including several minute to win it games like who can wrap their companion in a roll of toilet paper to look like a mummy in a minute?! They loved all the games!

 Our Halloween event was a total success!  Did I mention that I love Halloween?

Sunday night after the conclusion of our stake conference, there was a special fireside at our chapel by two sisters from Utah, Lexie and Lindsay Kite.  They both have their PhD's and have started a company called Beauty Redefined.  They have a website and they go around giving firesides and workshops to young women and women on finding the real beauty within us and not focusing so much on the way the world perceives women.  It was really good and well worth going to.

We don't have to wait until we reach the perfect weight or look a certain way to do wonderful, important things in our lives!  I love that we all have power within us to do great things!

For our p-day this week, we didn't take a single picture!  Mike and Dale watched a recording of the Bronco-Patriot game from Sunday (boo Broncos!) and Nancy and I went to their mall and enjoyed some girl time.  It was a perfect day!  We met up with the guys later in the afternoon at Barnes and Noble.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are typically our days to plan and prepare for other more busy days.  We love to walk along the river and have been doing that for some exercise.  We hope to be able to keep doing that right up until we go home, even when the snow starts flying!  We will just need to bundle up and I need to buy a warm hat or some ear muffs!

 We are making the most out of our mission here in Boston!  We are making new friends and enjoying the beauty all around us!  We live in a beautiful world and we are most grateful for every experience which we get to share in!  We love you all and hope you have a beautiful, inspiring week!