It didnt really rain much over here.  I actually havent seen any rain since I got here.  There were a lot of people out trick or treating near the nice looking apartments.  We didn't go tracting though, haha that would have been weird. 

  What we did was that on tuesday, the day before halloween there was a trunk or treat activity at the church building, so we went to that.  There was also a chili cook off that people would vote for who had the best chili.  Some of it was hot.  A lot of people dressed up in costumes.  The bishop had this awesome sherlock holmes outfit.  On halloween was another trunk or treat activity but it was for another ward.  We went to both activities.  We got a lot of candy.  We actually couldn't get much missionary work done, frankly I don't care.  Elder Lacour wanted to leave though, I don't think he likes halloween.  Oh well.

  Its interesting how the origin of halloween has changed so much from how the U.S. celebrates it.  Halloween came from the Celtic tradition, it use to be called "Sow'een" which meant "hallows eve" or all-saints day.  It was believed that the day started with night and ended with the day.  It was the day out of the year where spirits would come and visit us from the spirit world and also we could visit the spirit world.  In order to invite good spirits, we would decorate our house and guide the pathway with jack o lanterns.  Plus, in order to save us from harm, we would blend in with the dead by dressing up in costumes.  Of course that changed now since you see people dressing up as captain america, or alladin.  But that was the tradition.

  I find it interesting how in spanish it called el dia de los muertos.  Because that is basically what it is meant for.  Nov 1st is hallows day, the day to think about your dead loved ones, or the dead in general.  Since many people here treat halloween as a party day, we don't really have a chance to segue the discussion to missionary work for the dead.  We did have fun nonetheless.

  This past week, I'm sorry to say, it was a really bad day.  We couldn't really do much on Tuesday or Wednesday because of the holiday.  My companion was getting stressed out about getting his birth certificate/ driver's license/ whatever that was needed to be able to go home on time.  He leaves on Nov 21st.  Good thing was that he got that done, we had to go to the dmv a couple times.  Thurs we continued to try working on this apartment we visited for the past 2 weeks and still far from being done.  We parked our bikes and some worker, i'm guessing a janitor or something, came up to us and asked us what do we belong to? We told him the church that we represented, and he told us basically that that is soliciting in our book, we are going to have to ask you to leave.  Me and my companion were thinking "soliciting?"  Soliciting means you are standing around for the attempt to get gain, money, the act of selling something.  We aren't selling anything, if any thing, we are giving stuff away.  Out loud, since we didn't want to argue, we told him ok so we left.

  So we got kicked out of that apartment.  The next day, sort of the same thing happened.  We were visiting somebody near home in an apartment.  We parked our bikes, and someone comes up to us and says, "unless you guys are visiting someone you are going to have to leave."  We said we did, and that we understood.  Luckily we already visited everyone in that apartment.  We sort of go by a missionary rule: keep tracting until you get kicked out. haha  The person we were visiting is pretty promising though, he had a lot of questions and wants to go to church.

  So we got kicked out of an apartment twice in a row this week.  It was odd.

  One of our investigators that we were teaching all of a sudden dropped us.  She said she enjoyed our discussions, and the philosophies of the church, she feels like she became a better person, just an overall good feeling.  " But I need time right now, there is just some things I don't agree with."  We said alright, let us know if you want to talk again.  She knew that Joseph Smith existed, she wasn't sure if he was a prophet though.  We were bummed out.  We were so sure that she was going to be baptized.  She is from Columbia, I connected with her, haha. oh well.

  In 1 corinthians 14: 10 it says something like,  there are many, as it may, many voices in the world. and none of them is without significance.

Everybody has a decision, there opinion is worth something, especially when you share it with somebody.  The investigators that we see may benefit from what we say, but the answers that they will get for their questions may be more powerful if it came from somebody that they trust.

  Elder Lacour and I had a rough week last week.  But I am still smiling.  Its good to point out the low weeks so that you can point out the high weeks.

your good friend,

Elder Jacob Miklich