Halloween in Alton

     So I have some sad news...... one of my sons left!!!!! His visa came really early which is sad but also nice because now I can focus on just one elder. Well, that is great that Tutu is doing so well. (Tutu is his ukulele teacher in Hawaii, that we visited last week.)
    Training a new missionary isn't really hard but you get to grow a lot and be blessed. Now white washing a dead area with almost nothing going on and trying to find out where to direct the work, now that is the hard part. So today Lynn a "freaking sweet" member, (am I allowed to say freaking?) is going to take us to see some historical places today and we are going to a Halloween parade. (The thing with floats and stuff)
It is the second oldest Halloween parade in the world. Oh and Alton is one of the most haunted cities in the United States. This is because of an old Civil War Prison was here in Alton. Almost all of the prisoners that were held here died from a small pox epidemic. When the prison was closed down it was torn down and the building materials were used in all of the old buildings in Alton. So, hopefully I will have some cool pictures next week.
     My son is from the North Salt Lake area. So going from Fredericktown and having 23 investigators, 8 baptismal dates to Alton having 4 investigators and 0 dates is kind of frustrating, but the ward mission leader said this is a really hard place for missionary waork. I do not want to fall behind on my goal, so I am going to do all that I can and hopefully we can find those people that are prepared. So I have one great story for you, we were in the ghetto's of Alton visiting a less active part member family. This little black kid about 6 goes " what are you" and I kindly replied "missionaries" and then the little kid says, "well you are one UGLY missionary"! I was laughing pretty hard.
    So along the river there are cliffs. I haven't seen cliffs in 6 months! I miss the mountains. I don't have  much to write about because I have been in leadership meetings and training meets in St. Louis for half of the week. I am so proud that you are reading the book of Mormon! Tell dad that I want him to read all of the standard works before I get back. Anyways I have got to go!!  I Love you and I'll write more next week.    Love, Elder Campbell