So Begins The Third Decade!!

Familia!

Much to say, and not much time!  First off, thank you so much for all the packages and letters.  I really appreciate it!  Everybody in my district keeps reminding me of my birthday; I'm going to be OLD!

So this past week we continued with our focus on member missionary work.  There are some amazing members in this area, and I've really grown to love them as I've been here.  We've been trying to help them develop their own family mission plans, strengthen their testimonies, and teach them how to be effective member missionaries.  We've also tried to focus a lot on the less active members here as well, and the Lord has blessed us so much!  We had a couple that hasn't been to church for over 6 months come yesterday, and another couple has started becoming interested again after nearly 4 years of inactivity!  Super amazing!  Go Dayton Spanish Branch! 

This past week I learned an important truth.  Where there are many trees (Ohio), there are bound to be many leaves (Ohio).  There are so many leaves here!  We've done a little bit of raking, and there is definitely more to come...

We had a few awesome finding experiences this past week.  We went out for pizza after our district meeting, and the guy at the register started asking us about our name tags.  We talked to him a bit, and he told us that he wasn't really interested in learning anymore.  We went to sit down, and he started playing with a deck of cards really obviously at the register.  We finally asked him if he knew any magic tricks, and he got super excited and came to show us a few.  He reminded me of Kevin a bit...  After his tricks, he sat down and talked with us for a bit.  We ended up teaching him about the Restoration, and he was really interested in the Book of Mormon.  We left him a copy, and when we came back the next day, he had read the whole intro. and the first 4 chapters!  He doesn't speak Spanish though, so we'll have to pass him off to English Elders, but still, awesome!  We also met a guy named Dennis while street contacting.  He told us about the many times that his life has been saved by the Lord, then told us of his ability to hear the ancestors of a person and read that person's past and future.  So yeah, I had my past and future told by an old biker guy named Dennis on his porch in the middle of Ohio.  I'm not too sure if I trust his abilities...

We got to go carve pumpkins the day before Halloween with a part-member family, and it was great!  I didn't have the pumpkin-carving skills to make anything Gospel related, so I made a traditional pumpkin and a vampire from a stencil thing.  Halloween itself wasn't too exciting.  It rained the whole day, so trick-or-treating was canceled in some areas, and in others the kids had to show some serious determination to get their candy.  We had dinner with a member family, and their daughter dressed up as the pokemon lickitung!  Awesome!  Really the only spooky part of Halloween was driving through the streets of downtown Dayton after dark...

We had a Dia de Los Muertos dinner thing after church on Sunday.  It was pretty cool; I learned a lot about the traditions of the day, and my knowledge that Mexican food is the best food ever was re-affirmed...

Thanks again for everything; I hope all is going well at home!  Let me know how putting up the Christmas lights goes!

Let the third decade begin!

Love,

Elder Foote

A Birthday Package

Birthday Confetti!

Carving Pumpkins

Elder Foote's Masterpiece

Hostess Anyone?

Scary Vampire Pumpkin

Skeleton Cookies

Two Great Missionaries!