Halloween & Hiking

Welcome to Halloween in AZ. 

Also, awkward angle of my body.

Well, it has been a pretty good but sort of average week. Nothing too crazy happened at least. We had two Ward trunk or treats that we got to dress up and hand out candy at. Apparently Brother Andersen sent you that picture, mom...? He is our evil Ward mission leader but he has been like eerily nice to us all this past week and we think that our mission president called him or something. Anyway, the activities were fun but I'm so ready to be done with candy and desserts! I have decided I'm not eating any more dessert (unless a member practically forces me after dinner) for the next two weeks. Hopefully once I hit two weeks it will be easier for me to keep it as a habit after that.

We went to Barnes and Noble last week and I just about died of happiness. I was completely surrounded by non-LDS media and I felt no shame. Of course I wasn't allowed to read any of the books but I bought a sweet coloring book and when we had been in there for a few minutes, they started playing a Beatles playlist hat went on for over two hours! Also, I really want a record player and I found an awesome one there! B&N is da best.

Anyway, I was super sick this week, all day on Thursday. I was throwing up all day and it was awful. The worst part was that the new sister in our apartment was also "sick" that day so our companions

made us go lie down while they went and planned together. Anyway, Sister Bauer (newbie) slept ALL day. Literally all day. I tried to sleep and it finally happened at around 10 pm that night which is when I normally get in bed....yeah, that was frustrating. Oh well, I'm fine now and at least I didn't upchuck in a random person's driveway!

I have found that birthdays and holidays are the BOMB on a mission. There's nothing else like 'em to break up the monotony. Halloween was a great day! Sis Williams and I got up a little early and went for an hour and a half long hike while the sun was rising over the valley. It was cool outside and it was glorious. When we got home, we got ready for the day and then just went out looking for people to help. No one wanted to learn anything or let us help but we met some pretty cool people by asking them if we could take pictures with their yard decorations. This one house was INSANE. The lady said she keeps a lot of her Halloween decorations up all year. That's how into it she is. Yeah, I'll send you all the pictures of that place. She even let us take some inside her house.

Such a great idea!

I got my Halloween package that day and I was super happy! Thanks so much mom and dad! You guys are the coolest and I loved that card. The dialogue in there was pure gold. I was also glad that Connor FINALLY wrote me back. I guess nagging for two months can actually pay off.

Fun facts this week:

last night, there was a 4.1 earthquake that hit the Phoenix metropolitan area! Oh no! Yeah, I didn't even wake up. I'll send you a funny pic I found of it. AZ doesn't do daylight saving switches so we are in the same time zone again! Yaaaaay! That doesn't affect us at all! But kind of interesting.

Also, we grilled our new greenie this week and I found out she is super nice but also EXACTLY the opposite type of person that I would ever hang out with. Also, we asked her why she came on a mission and she said, "because my parents wanted me to and I had nothing better to do with my life". Ouch. Let's see how long she lasts.

Anyway, now I have approximately 32,485 pictures to send you so I will get working on that.

LOVES

Hike pics

You can see the temple from the top...or anywhere else on the "mountain" since there are no trees....

Made it to the top