All Hallows

Our ward does a Trunk or Treat every year on Halloween.

This year posed a problem.
Halloween was on Monday night.

Why is that such a problem? you ask.

Here’s why:

Monday nights are reserved for family home evening throughout the Church. No Church activities, meetings, baptismal services, games, or practices should be held after 6:00 p.m. on Mondays. Other interruptions to family home evening should be avoided. An exception may be made when New Year’s Eve is on a Monday.

That’s straight from the Church Handbook of Instructions. No ward activities on Monday nights.

However, somehow our ward got special permission (from the Stake Pres? From President Monson?) to do the Halloween chili cook-off and Trunk or Treat on a Monday night! I think it helped that the entire partay is in the parking lot. And the fact that it’s probably one of the biggest non-member/less actives drawing event. Everyone in the neighborhood comes (and brings chili) – even people who never come to Church on Sundays (or any other day of the week). I also think that a lot of neighborhood kids who are in other wards come and start their trick or treating out in our church parking lot. It’s safe, fun, and you get a warm bowl of chili! Plus, we usually start at 6pm and it’s not quite dark yet.

Keeping with tradition, we were about 30 minutes late (last minute costuming, last minute chili preparations… you know, the usual).

Last year we made the mistake of taking the kids on our street after the Trunk or Treat. Duh – all the people at the houses were the same folks at the Trunk or Treat. So this year we got smart and went to the neighborhood on the other side of the main road. The kids made it up one side and down half of the other side of one street (probably about 1/8 of a mile – which is pretty good for little ones!)

Toward the end, J’s bucket got so heavy she couldn’t carry it anymore! And by the last few houses, Papai was carrying her. But she really enjoyed everyone doting on her and gushing over her costume. J the paper doll. A costume that cost under $1. Score.

We also had one of those scary car-almost-running-over-small-trick-or-treater experiences with V. They had just scored some candy at a house with a very big, but gentle, Mast-weiler (Mastiff/Rottweiler mix – one of the most beautiful dogs I have seen!) and we were headed back down his walkway to cross his driveway to the sidewalk when a chick comes ripping into the driveway. V was already making his way to the sidewalk. I don’t think she saw him, but we yelled at him, and he took off toward their garage, away from the car. We were all freaking out, but there were no injuries, and after some great big hugs, we were all fine.

When we got home and started getting ready for bed, I was asking J if she had fun trick or treating. Of course she had fun. Here is the rest of our conversation:

  Me: What did you say when you went to the houses?
J: Trick or treat!
Me: And what did you get?
J: Candy!
Me: And then what did you say? (expecting her to say “Thank you” – my favorite part about trick or treating is getting to practice manners!)
J: Strawberries!

Me: …

Okay. Well, we’ll work on that.

General Conference Prep

I played the Prophets and Apostles matching game with Vincente again today. He did really well remembering the names! He even got Elder Hales and Elder Scott straight (I really struggle with those two when I see them – hearing them I can differentiate, but their pictures look a lot alike, especially in black-and-white printer paper quality).

While we were playing, Vincente says to me, “I was the prophet when I was telling you what to do.” It took me a minute to remember what on earth he was talking about, but then I remembered for Family Home Evening last Monday we had Vincente pretend to be the Prophet, and Russ pretended to be Heavenly Father – Russ would tell Vincente something to tell me, and then Vince would come around the corner and tell me (“put your hands on your head” “sit down” “stand up” “fold your arms” etc). I couldn’t believe that Vincente remembered that lesson! He has been surprising me left and right with his gospel knowledge. I worry, because we attend a Portuguese ward, and sometimes I think he doesn’t understand what is going on in Primary. On top of that, he doesn’t have a long attention span and never looks like he is listening, so half the time I think we’re just talking to ourselves. But then he goes and says stuff like this, and reminds me that prophets talk to Jesus, and I’m just floored. Over and over again.

Anyway, I was getting excited for Vince to see the General Authorities at General Conference in April, and then I remembered that he has never really heard their voices. So I hopped on to LDS.org and looked up the “General Conference Highlights” and showed him this video:

He actually did pretty well naming them while he was watching.

The thing that struck me, though, was how quiet he was during the first clip of President Monson. I could tell that he was feeling the Spirit while he watched. After a minute, I started explaining what each apostle was talking about in Primary terms - “He’s telling us that we need to obey.” “He’s telling us that we can have the Holy Ghost with us to teach us.” “He’s telling us to be like the Savior.” “He’s telling you to keep the commandments so that you can have the Priesthood, which means you have the power of God.”

Then, on one of the clips of President Monson, Vincente says, “Hey, President Monson! Do you talk to Jesus?” And then, Vince changes his voice (to sound like President Monson, I assume) and says, “Yes, I do.”

It was a really humbling experience for me to listen to that sweet (if somewhat silly) testimony of my not-quite-four-year-old son, affirming that he knows that President Monson is a prophet, and that President Monson talks to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

When Elder Oaks talked about the two lines of communication with Heavenly Father, I tried to reinforce the testimony and explained that Elder Oaks was telling us that we can talk to Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father when we pray, and that we can also listen to the prophets because they talk to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and tell us what to do.

I plan on playing the matching game with Vincente more, and then also playing the “highlights” clip from last year’s General Conference. During the six months following April’s General Conference, I’ll play the new “highlights” clip for him every now and then. I think the “highlights” clip is probably the best tool yet for exposing little kids to General Conference. There is gentle background music, and the clips are short (1-2 minutes) and it’s only 16 minutes from start to finish. Vince was just about done at 12-13 minutes, but I tried to help him stick it out. It’s just perfect for his attention span – 4 two hour sessions is going to be entirely too much for him right now, but this will help get him ready to sit and listen to longer talks. And later as he gets older, we can play clips of the talks by the apostles in longer segments.

I think we will have him sit and listen when the Prophet addresses us. I haven’t decided what to expect out of him for the rest of it. We’ll try to get him and sit with us (by me explaining what the speakers are saying – in Primary terms), but I don’t know how much he’ll care to sit through, and I would like to be able to just sit and soak up one or two sessions. We’ll see how it goes.

Segue O Profeta

 
Last week for Family Home Evening, we made a matching game with the pictures of the prophets and apostles. I just printed the pictures from the November 2010 Ensign on cardstock (two copies) and then cut them out to make pairs of each prophet/apostle’s face. I had to resize the pictures of the First Presidency, but that was pretty easy.

Both of our kids love matching games, and this one was no different. At first it was a little hard for them, because there were 15 pairs (30 cards) and they are used to 8-10 cards. But Vincente still did really well, and Joseline even found a few matches on her own! Next time we will probably do them in smaller sets – 4-5 pictures at a time.

As we flipped over the pictures, we practiced saying the names of the person pictured. This was good for Russ and myself as well… I’m ashamed to say we’re not as good as we thought we were at remembering all the names. The leadership has changed so much since I was a teen! I still remember listening to Elder Maxwell and President Faust. It seems like it was just yesterday that they were speaking to us – but it’s been years, hasn’t it?

I hope that this will help our kids enjoy General Conference more when we watch it in a few weeks.