Thanksgiving Week

I can't believe Nov. is almost over. This month marks the halfway point for both us and Cami. Now that is unbelievable.

This Thanksgiving week has been hard. Most of our kids have gathered at our home in Ione. I'm glad tradition has continued. It sounds like they had a great week.

Things here have been pretty much the same. The day after Thanksgiving we put on a Branch dinner. Now many members came, but we felt good about giving them a chance to come join us. We and the missionaries had a great time.

We've had our first snow of the year. It lasted a couple days, but now it has warmed up a little.

We are thankful for our family and friends. Also the new friends we have made and the faith the Lord has entrusted in us. Our prayer is that the work will move forward and we may do our part.

Love to everyone

Day of the Dead

This holiday Nov. 1st is the Day of the Dead/All Saints Day. What a bustling week it has been. They say Varazdin is City of the Flowers, but I didn't know there could be so many flowers. All week the were flowers on every corner being sold and well on the street of every village. Traffic was so heavy all week. So much going on.....cleaning the cemetery and whatever else they were doing. The kids were out of school Thurs. and Fri.

Thurs. the town was so empty...well, everyone was at the Cemetery. They say we have the prettiest Cemetery in Europe and the 3rd in the world. Who knows. We went to the Cemetery that evening with a NM couple. You take a candle and put it on your families grave or leave one by the Crucifix for anyone else that has died. There are no lights in the Cemetery but it was so lite up from the candles. Pretty cool.

Then we went out to dinner. These were some of the choices on the Menu:
Grilled Sucking Pig Liver
Grilled Sucking Pig Onion Fried.
Black Pudding with Potatoes and Sauerkraut
Frog legs
Fried Squid
Grilled Minced Meat Fingers
Smoked Neck
Dried Tongue
Sasha said this wasn't the most authentic restaurant, but his wife from Italy didn't like the other one. We had a great time.

We are doing great and loving to share these new traditions. Of course they don't celebrate Thanksgiving so the Christmas decorations are starting to come out.
Love to everyone.

Hello everyone,
Things haven't been to different. We did have a Chinese Night Activity and about 25 came. They said it was to American, but I don't know what else we could have done. We fixed Chinese food and had Chinese words everywhere.

We had Zone Conf. which is always fun to get with the other couples. We even played a few hands of card with another couple at the hotel after dinner. Now that was a treat.

We went back out to Erica's house and the ride was incredible. I hate to see all those pretty leaves fall.

Halloween wasn't much. We had institute and then had everyone stay for Chili. It was fun to visit with the few that were there.

The Branch is still moving slowly. I finally got the Elders tracting over here in our neighborhood and we took them out to one of the villages. The got 18 contacts. This will be great if they will all let them back in. One in my neighborhood came over for lunch on Sunday. Very nice lady. Her daughter wouldn't come being embarrassed. I'll have to go over and meet her so she will feel comfortable.

Hope you are all well and happy. Keep in touch with us.