Dear Family,
 
Mom, you're not old yet! Old is 50, remember? :) (I'm so glad I'm gonna be home for Dad to turn old haha)
 
So yeah, the whole debit card thing, that was a surprise and a half. We went to this Restaurant called The Cuban Grill. I've never had Cuban food before(to my knowledge) and wanted to try it. It was just okay. But anyways I went to the cash register to pay for it. I whipped out my trusty debit card and.... it wasn't there. That's weird. So I looked through all the other slots really fast, a red alert going off in my mind. I handed the guy my missionary card silently praying that our November allotment had come in early. It went through, hallelujah! So, we were on foot(short on miles) and as we were walking home I called President Merkley to tell him. He said he would call you. I was afraid you'd have a heart attack when you realized who it was. I'm glad you didn't. :) It's funny. On the back of the card it has a 1-800 number to call if it is lost or stolen(that's useful....not). My entire mission I've had this feeling that I needed to write down the phone number just in case. I didn't.
And look what happened. I'm just glad no one used it. What I'm fairly certain happened is that I didn't take the card when I used the ATM on Tuesday(I was getting cash to pay an alteration shop for fixing several torn pairs of pants). I believe those machines are programmed to "eat" the card if it is left there for too long. It's probably in the machine right now. Oh well. It's cancelled now. Maybe now I'll learn how to live on a budget for reals haha. Ya know, the other thing that has always been in the back of my mind is that my card would've expired a month and 6 days before I go home, which would be awful. That's when I would need it the most to send stuff home. [don't blog]I have always been worried I've been such a great financial burden on you. I guess not. You've redone the backyard and finished the basement. You must not be doing to bad. I wouldn't be surprised if you picked me up from the airport in a new Camaro, haha. :) [end]
 
Thank you for the package! I am excited to see the basement. :) I hope it's going well. But, why in the world would Bro. Warner do finish carpentry and THEN painting?
 
Also, you need to get a couch like the Pyle's have for the basement. It's perfect.
 
Last Friday there was a Halloween party/Chili cookoff for the ward here. We came wearing these REALLY wide ties for our costume. The Zone Leaders one-upped us though. They came as the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible. The got boxes, cut out holes for their faces and arms, painted them blue, and painted on the titles of the books on it. They were a big hit. It was a good idea, I gotta say. Then won the best overall costume award, I think. They also on the Spiciest Chili award. I didn't have our chili recipe and was too cheap/poor to make some, really. Plus we don't have a crock pot in this area. So, our entry was a can of Great Value Chili with Beans. We just opened it and sat it on the table next to all of the crock pots. :)
 
Saturday we played basketball with the other missionaries and some of their recent converts/less actives. It was VIOLENT. I'm still sore. See, I discovered something. I'm really really big. So I can just kind of.....tackle people, if I want the ball. :) And there's no fouls in Church Ball. Instead of Church Ball we should just call it smeer the queer. It was fun, at any rate.
 
Congratulations to Frazier! I'm not gonna have any single cousins by the time I get home haha. Oh, on that note, I'm trying to hook my companion up with Caitlin. We both wrote her a letter. She hasn't written back yet. You should tell her to. :)
I bought a copy of the Apocrypha at a Christian Book Store last week. I read a little bit of it. It was interesting. I read the First Book of the Maccabees. It mentions Jews recording events on Brass Tables. Hmmmmm..... :)
 
We also went to Parley P. Pratt's Gravesite last week. That was really cool. I liked it alot.
 
Well, I hope you all have a good week and that you take some time out of your busy schedule to go to the temple. :) Talk to you next week!
 
Love,
Elder Bracken