Crazy Thanksgiving!!

Hello Everyone,

What a crazy Thanksgiving. We spent most of our time at the Chabots home for Thanksgiving. It was long, however we have found a bright little ray of sunshine this week. Karen Barrett.

Thanksgiving morning was great. We went to the park to play football with the ward and others. Elder Bell and I had invited some non-members to come too. There were 9 non-members including the Chabot kids. It was a tough game though. I had my shoes, which I bought my first summer in Tallahassee, and they were not up to par. In fact I don't think there was any traction on them at all. I was sliding around like crazy. It wouldn't have mattered, except for Chase Manwaring was the quarter back for the other team. So I was trying really hard to sack him. I was close multiple times. Then they changed quarter backs and Chase was on the front line. More trash talk was thrown so I had to show him up. I don't think either of us won. The ground was not good for support, but we still had a lot of fun.

We went home and changed after football and got ready to go to the Chabots. We got there at 2, met the grandparents, ate at 3, played games at 5 and didn't leave until 9. It was a long thanksgiving. I think that is how its going to be when I'm a parent. I'll explain why. When we first got there we were introduced to the grandparents. That only lasted for 2 minutes because Zack had my hand and was leading me towards the living room. There Zack wanted to play 'I spy'. While playing with Zack, Seth wanted me to watch him play his game. Matt felt like he wanted to be included so he started to play too. I was juggling their desires for attention. Sometimes I would drop one and they would pick it up and hand it back to me. 'Elder Call, Elder Call!' It was crazy. That was all before dinner too.

Dinner was great and Sister Chabot did a fantastic job in cooking. She had a huge turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, peas, rolls, sweet potato rolls, apple and cranberry, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and lots of pie. It was fantastic. Sister Chabot's parents, Brother and Sister Cain, were so cool. Brother Cain was so funny. He would pick on Allisha so much. She would make a comment and he would make a smartalic remark right back, even if she wasn't talking to her. Some of the sayings were so funny that Seth had to leave the table because he was laughing so hard. Then the kids would start to relay stories of their grandparents. Well, just about Brother Cain. Him and his brother were twins and got into a lot of trouble. After he did something his father would yell, 'Pork and Bill!' Apparently Brother Cain's nickname was Pork. haha.

After dinner we began to play games. Seth wanted to play Halo, but I'm terrible at Halo (and we aren't supposed to play video games). Instead we played Clue, Life, Spades, Skibo, Chess and Egyptian-Rat-Screw. It was less stressful, until they all wanted to play different games. At one point I was on a team with Elder Bell in Spades, while playing and teaching Zack how to play chess, and trying to have a conversation with Seth. All at once. I don't think I am able to split that many directions. It was hard, and again if I dropped the ball in giving them attention, they would pick it up and hand it back to me. Fun, but very tough. I was exhausted by the end of the night.

The Chabots are doing great. We are really pushing for Baptism with them. They are so close and all they need is some good support from their mom or grandparents. They're so close!!!

We also found a lady. Karen Barrett is her name. Last week we tracted into her. Well, kind of. We were walking down the street and she was working in her yard. We asked if we could help. We love giving service and finding ways to teach. She turned us down, before we could say anything. Sad. We went on our way to the street we were planning on tracting. There we found no one. On our way back to our car, excuse me, Van, we saw her again. This time she called out that we were too late to help her. We took a look at her yard, which still had a lot of work to be done, and told her that we would come back to help her. She didn't believe us, but she was willing to talk to us. We talked to her for a half hour. Nothing of our conversation included the Gospel or anything related to it. All we did was listen, say a few words here and there, and wait for her to open up. She did open up and agreed to have us come back to help her.

We went back on Tuesday, after meeting her on Saturday, to help serve her. She needed her shed moved. Don't worry, this shed is not like the two surrounding our home, nor is it like grandpa's. We moved her little shed in about ten minutes. We went to the front of her yard and asked if we could help her. She was so confused. No one has ever wanted to help before. So we helped her. Then she started to ask us questions. By the end of our service we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said we could come back on Friday. We did and we brought Brother Manwaring with us. We needed him because she wanted us to work inside. It was great. We helped her move her counter tops and put in the new ones. After we taught her more about the Book of Mormon and invited her to come to church. SHE CAME!!! It's been a while since someone came to church. Someone who we invited actually came to church. It was great. The members loved her and I think she really liked the members. I almost had to stay for Relief Society, because she was uncomfortable. That would have been a disaster. Luckily Sis Walker, a ward missionary, was there and willing to help us. It was great. We are going back to Karen's home on Wednesday to serve her and teach her. I'm excited. I really think that Karen is Prepared.

Serving a mission is so cool. Everyone who has a chance to serve should serve one. You learn so many things. I love it.
I love you all.
Elder Call