"This will probably make my hair have more volume!"

Quote by Sis. Soza when tracting in 70mph winds. Always looking on the bright side. :)

no joke yesterday, the wind was so intense. trampolines were blowing into other people's yards and we were getting mauled by inflatable halloween decorations in people's yards as we went out to share the gospel. but there is no bad weather! if it's miserable to be out, at least it means that someone might have enough pity to let you in. :) (sis soza and i also thought possibly that the "wind-blown" look might be alluring enough to get us in a few more doors. :) plus, there was a 92 yr-old woman out there too, going on a walk. but see, she survived the "winter of '36" so this was nothing.

A COUPLE THREE THINGS ABOUT IOWA
First of all, they say "couple three" all the time. It's amazing! Also, the place where Field of Dreams was filmed is nearby. Scott, i'm gonna take you there. The weather is getting chilly but we just keep hearing, "it'll only get worse" and "girl, you better get you a coat." :) actually, i have one to borrow but i figure the longer i put off wearing it the less severe the real cold will seem.

9PM MIRACLE
so the colder and darker it gets, the harder it can be to stay out till 9. but the Lord sure blesses us when we do. I'm scared to ever go in early because it means there's someone we won't find. Last night we had like 8 min but we went out contacting anyway. first we had a pretty awkward exp. where i tried talking to these guys in their car. i wasn't quite sure what to say or what excuse i had to talk to them so i just ended up studdering like an idiot (that whole "given to you in the very hour what ye should say" promise wasn't quite working.) luckily, they spoke mostly protuguese so i tried to just look at them like it was the language barrier's fault that they couldn't understand me. after we sheepishly walked away and they drove off, we started talking to their friend. sis soza and him talked in spanglese (get it? spanish + portuguese) and set up an appt to teach him tonight. :) see the blessings?! so cool!

"DO YOU LIKE my PRETTY DRESS?
"This is just another delightful quote. this was by brock, the 2-yr old we live with when i complimented his sisters on her sunday dress and brock stood there prouldy in his plaid sweater and pants. :)

TRUNK-OR-TREATING WITH THE REVEREND
so we were going to the ward trunk-or-treating. i was worried it would be a waste of proseylting time if people didn't bring friends and it was a ways out of our area. we said a prayer that we'd have teaching opportunities. turns out one of the women in our ward is on some board of churches and brought a baptist minister guy. Rev. Quay. we ended up talking with him the whole time and leaving him with a copy of the BOM cause he wanted to read it and also giving him a tour of the church bldg. it was so delightful! and the members were right there helping and explaining and testifying. yay for halloween!

ANDREA JEAN CARTWRIGHT
so have any of you ever googled your own name or anything? yeah, fascinating to find people with your same name. but even more fascinting to tract into them!!!! what the? we were in the trailor park adn started talking to this woman who was outside. when we came closer she looked at my tag and was like, "oh! we have the same last name!" way weird. then she looks at sis soza and said, "actually, i got a piece of mail for you two." yeah, no joke. she'd gotten my mail. anyway, we talked a lot aobut the gosp and taught what we could and then when we were leaving i asked her first name. yeah, Andrea. says it different from me though. i freaked out. then found out our middle names were almost the same too! we got a pic together.

LUCKY NUT
we met a random guy in front of his house and got talking. he ended up telling us he has a lucky buckeye nut that he carries with him. turns out they're pretty rare but you can rub them and they become shiny. he also happened to have a bunch in his yard so we got to pick out our very own "lucky nut". i'm expecting many more miracles because of this.

GOTTA RUN...but i love you all. i'll leave you with a scripture. Alma 39:17-19. i'ts about why the Lord would want us to have a prophet today. we are precious. we are His children. I know He loves us and that he would and has called a prophet today. I know Thomas S. Monson is His prophet and that the most important decision we can make is the one to find out if Christ's church has been restored to the earth today and then to act upon that knowledge through baptism.

Love you all!
--Sis C