Cupcake Soup & Other Halloween Horrors

Oh look, it's an unused parade float. I can't decide if that's supposed to be for Halloween or Cinderella.

One of the great perks of having an older sister who served a mission, is that I do excellent care packages. For Halloween I made each Cody and his companion a goody bag, which contained an expected amount of candy and games, but also useful stuff like sticky notes, pens, pencils & erasers. But the most important part of the package was the cupcakes. The pumpkin spice cupcakes I made and then frosted with cream cheese icing & rolled in orange sugar to make them look like pumpkins. Then I carefully placed them in the container, decorated with candy & held in place with more candy.
Unfortunately what Cody recieved was cupcake soup. Apparently it got really hot somewhere in transit and all of the icing melted off. This kind of makes me want to cry. I worked hard on these!

I guess he still ate at least one though.

I don't know if he was just trying to make me feel better, but he said the cupcakes tasted good. (Although they kind of look like what I regurgitated during my run today. I know, T.M.I.)

Well I guess you can't go wrong with PEZ. At least it won't melt.

In addition to candy and fun little toys, they each got a Halloween tie in their goody bags.

Cody wrote home that they got into a war with the sticky hands last week, smacking each other in the back of the head. Well, that's why I bought them.

Oh fun, they got to carve pumpkins! I'll bet Cody loved that. Now I'm anxious to see if he can con his companion into hiding Easter eggs for him next year.

I swear I sent way more candy than this! They must have eaten a lot of it already!

At least they looked festive in their ties!

WOW! Already?!?!?!?

So today I got another memory card full of pictures from Cody. He's getting better at this picture taking thing. Instead of posting all 108 photos that were on the card, I went through and selected some and I'll be doing more than one post to get them all. As usual, Cody provided no descriptions or explanations, so I liberally interjected my own thoughts and interpretations.

Ah District Meeting. That's about all I have to say about that.

And this looks to me like a typical Zone Conference.

At least they put up signs in California. In Europe you never knew when you might be acosted with nudity.

Ah how sweet! A missionary walking off into the sunset!

I'm guessing these are some of the Samoans who feed them now and then.

Well, if you can judge by his planner, they're keeping busy alright. (Hey my brothers-in-law, remember when your missionary planner was just a cardstock sheet you had to fill out each week to keep track of numbers & stuff. This thing looks a whole lot nicer! Of course maybe I'm just jealous because it's so full. I still have some of my plan sheets that show 10 hour days of nothing but tracting. Yeah.)

So are these the 29 Palms that gave the city it's name?

Well that's one way to park in the shade.

Oh maybe the town got it's name from the Inn.

"Oh wait, fix the hair, we're getting photos taken!"

So Long Elder Potter (Not Harry)...

...Hello Elder Jackson!

I take it they were chill-axing with the ZL's that day...

Don't know what this dude is doing.

According to his last letter, this is Elder Whimpy, the Zone Leader. He's either doing an air guitar or trying to strangle something.

I'm guessing this is P-Day at the Library

Do you suppose this could be the old guy they live with?

Well this is pretty cool!

I take it, this was a pretty windy day...

Wow! Looks like he's actually going to get to ride is bike!

Not sure what he's scrubbing, or why it was photo worthy, but oh well.

Wow! They sure didn't have those for transportation in my mission. Must be a California thing!

Will we still love him if he comes home fat?

For those worried about Cody getting fed, don't. He sent a copy of last month's Dinner Appointment Calendar. The crossed out week was the week the Samoan's had them and to hear him tell it, they feed the missionaries better than anyone.

So freaking spoiled!

Pictures 10/26

So in his letter to me this week, Cody included a few hard copies of photos. Anyway, enjoy.

New Pictures

So here are the pictures and letter I got from Cody last week. There were so many I put them in a slide show. Enjoy! (PS The slide show is super long! Cody had over a hundred pictures on that card!)



Dear Cali,



Thanks for your letters and encouragement it is much appreciated. All is well here. I am sending some pictures now, so just to give you background on them, they start the day I leave the MTC and go into the mission field. There are lots of scenery pictures of Riverside, Yucca Valley and Twenty Nine Palms and just about any other place in between I felt like taking. And lots of pictures of my district, which consists of Elder Whipey and Peadon (the zone leaders), Elder Potter (the district leader), and myself, Elder Giles and Elder Schmidt. And some pictures of my zone. That's about it...I bought a jump rope and a stretch band this morning so I should get better work outs now since I don't have a gym in my garage like the zone leaders do. As a matter of fact, I don't even have a garage. Well anyway...I love you and I'm glad all is well.



Sincerely Your Missionary,

Elder Cunningham

Cody's Letter Dated 10/12

So last week I got a letter in the mail from Cody. In that letter was his memory card full of pictures. However, due to computer complications this past week I haven't been able to download the photos yet. So for now, you'll just have to make due with the contents of the letter and I'll post the pictures very soon!


Dear Cali,

I just found out that I can't check my email today because it is a holiday and the library is closed. So feel free to email any of this letter to the family, if you would please. All is well here in Twenty Nine Palms and at the end of the week I will have been out for one transfer. The time here has flown, it feels like I just got off the plane which compared to what's ahead I really kind of did just get off the plane and am just getting started. I had the privilege of going to a triple baptism. The other two companionships in our district had baptisms on the same day. There were three of them one right after the other and by the time the 3rd one came around my heart was so full it was awesome. As for me and Elder Potter we have been so fortunate God has truly led us at every turn and the Spirit has moved us to where we need to be. At the moment we have 6 what I feel to be pretty firm investigators and 1 or 2 others that are not quite as firm. But thanks be our Father in Heaven for leading us to them and for giving us the power to teach. I see His Hand in this wok at every moment, without Him we would truly be nothing. It is the Samoans weeks to feed us again so all is well on the food end. And the ward members here help us so much and give us ideas of who to teach all the time. We actually got the opportunity to teach Elder's Quorom last week about missionary work and the Restoration. So we're hoping to get some referals out of that, so we will see. well I love you all and wish you the best.
Elder Cunningham

A Letter From the Missionary

Hello,
It's been good to hear from you as always. It's nice to know you are finally getting into warmer weather. It was 106 here yesterday and I loved it. My comp isn't a big fan of the heat though, but that doesn't make him any less of an amazing missionary. I learn so much from him everyday. And his first name is not Harry, it's Riley actually.

Well, the work is going good. We have been having a few struggles because we are right next to a Marine Base so a lot of our investigators have been deploying for the battlefield, but there are those few who stick around and those who are not Marines, so it's all good. I find that because this area is military oriented people are very kind and open to religion and even though they don't accept sometimes they are willing to hear us out. It's amazing the people who are willing to listen. I really understand now why we talk to everyone, because everyone deserves to hear the gospel and you never know who will listen. For example, one night we were tracting down a less active family and we found out they moved, but next door there were two Marines sitting on their porch having a smoke and a drink. They were big, strong guys. Guys with Tattoos, and I am thinking "No way they're going to be interested in the church, but one of them was and said we could come back. His name is Dave and turned out to be a really cool guy and one of our more promising investigators. He loves having us come over and talking with us. He asks a sorts of really good questions and is a really deep person. ...... We have visited him several times now so all is well.

Yes, I do live in a trailer but compared to some of the apartments some of the other missionaries live in it is really nice and very clean. We live with the High Priest Group Leader, Brother Gray. A shorter older guy that's missing a couple of teeth and rides a motorcycle, but one of the nicest men I have every met. He is a lot of fun.

Well, I gotta run. Love you all,
Elder Cunningham
P.S. I will turn over every stone and throw them out of the way in the process. Well, I will try. With God nothing is impossible.