Gonna be a missionary for Halloween?

Here we are approaching a second Halloween in the mission field. No more after that. I asked Tab what he was going to be for Halloween. A missionary maybe? His reply was, "Seriously, people think we dress up as the missionaries from the Book of Mormon play - haha!" Everything about his letter this was random but we take anything we can get!

Hi Mom! and family,

So I figured out a good christmas present. You could just send me printed pictures of the stuff I or you have taken pictures of. I used to go to Walmart and print them out but now Walmart is so far that we don't go there anymore. Not a big deal though. I don't really like Walmarts here - they have terrible produce. And they are expensive!!

Our week was alright, kinda similar to last week but a little bit better. Our weekend was pretty lame again. Sadly, we weren't able to see any of our progressing investigators this week - it's like a curse! Kidding, but we didn't see Comfort or KC or Raymond. We saw Michael (haitian) and he is doing well but it's been really hard to teach him because nobody in the ward that can translate has time to pick him up and take him to the church. So, our lessons with him are with his brothers and it's difficult to teach them all at the same time. Anyway, we've decided to not get too preoccupied with people that don't choose to progress or don't have time to meet with us. We'll still go over there when we have an appointment, but we won't waste time trying to stop by at random hours of the day every day. The hard part for us is finding new investigators who don't live in Newark. We're trying to make use of the area which we have, but nobody I've met yet in Maplewood or South Orange really want to change. It's a different approach to missionary work that I'm not used to.

I remember doing a project on the Bill of Rights... I had to write a paper about one of the amendments. Have you done that yet? What is your constitution project like? As for a religions class, it would have been nice to take that World Religions class before my mission haha. Then I would know how to better help people. But it is what it is.

The Gospel is good news, isn't it? Some people don't get that. I tell them there is a prophet who lives - and they get upset. That's a good thing! They should be excited to find out for themselves if that is true, but for some reason they aren't. The effects of the apostasy are annoying. But, I do what I can.

Yes, please send me pictures of Brazil. I'm sure Elder Priest would like to see them. I haven't really learned the lesson of not procrastinating for myself yet, but I feel like I have gotten better. The problem with my calling is that I don't know whether I should be spending study time or proselyting time or what ever time to prepare for district meetings and filling out forms and what not. And with training, it is somewhat the same. I have a few things I have to do and we don't have free time to do them. Don't worry, I am not complaining, even if it sounds like it. But it is a predicament I think a lot about. If I had advice on how to help Colby and Rorie, I would give it to you. I think the biggest thing that helped me in college was if I had lots of homework, I would just stay on campus in the library or something like that. That way there is no distraction and there really isn't much else I can do besides do homework. And they don't have computers, so it would be even easier for them. Tell them to study and work hard!

I bought some black vans. Not the ones you are thinking of though. I like them, but I have to admit it was somewhat of a rash decision. I like those nikes I saw even more and they are the same price - $40. I still have the old shoes. I like the way they look and they are in good enough shape that I use them for service stuff. 

I can't find them on the website but tell Colby to get these: 

http://shop.vans.com/catalog/Vans/en_US/style/sdi9sp.html?categoryId=91108

They're funny looking but cool - or any vans OTW shoes are cool.

I am sad to hear about Cameron - I knew him really well, actually. I worked with him a lot in the grill. And I played a lot of rounds with him too. You can leave him a nice message in my name :) He will be missed.

OK, it looks like that's about it. I'll respond to your other letters if there are any.

Say hi to everyone for me. Apologize to dad because I didn't take time to write back to him. I hope his trip to Brazil went well. I love you all!

Love you!

Tab

p.s. Rorie has adult teeth!