Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We spent the afternoon at Cedar Hill Farm, learning about chickens at the "country chicken coop" (puppets like chuck e cheese teach you about farm stuff), getting pictures taken of Kinsley, looking at animals at the petting zoo, watching the corn cob gun launch its ammo 300+ ft, pumpkin shopping at the pumpkin patch, etc. If Kinsley would have lasted another four hours, we also would have tried out the corn maze, the haunted trail of terror, and the hay ride (the fun stuff for big kids starts after dark). Kiley dared Eric to get "princess" painted on his face but he was too chicken. Eric argues that he proved his bravery the night before...






(tangent story about the night before)...

...The missionaries came over to share the new member missionary program last night. They showed us a short video that goes with Preach My Gospel and asked what thoughts came to our minds during the video. Kiley (the reverent/righteous one) shared her experience going on splits with the sister missionaries back home:

"After Eric left for his mission, I was thinking about going on a mission... until I went on splits with the Sisters. They took me tracting and I HATED it! So, if I didn't enjoy it, maybe other missionaries dislike tracting and maybe we, as members of the Church, should invite our friends and neighbors to learn more so that you (missionaries) don't have to knock doors."

"And Brother Pierce, what thoughts came to your mind?" asked Elder S.

(long hesitation) "uh... I don't know if I should say..."

"We want to hear" said Elder T.

"...I was thinking about how I could be a better member missionary and I thought of how different this area is from back home... here, the neighbors all come out just before sun-down and hang out on their porches. So, I pictured myself getting a stool and dressing up in my white shirt and tie (at this point, Eric has climbed up onto the coffee table and raised his arms into the air) and shouting, 'HEAR YE HEAR YE, REPENT AND BE BAPTIZED!! HEARKEN TO THE WORD OF THE LORD AND BE SAVED!!!'"

(on top of the coffee table, Eric hollered out what went through his mind during the video while the missionaries and Kiley laughed hysterically)

After a good 2 minutes belly chuckle, Kiley said, "The embarrassing thing is that I can see him actually doing that!"

So, Eric proved that he's NOT a chicken by demonstrating his spread-the-gospel plan.

** Kiley adds, perhaps Eric's missionary plan works because we had 3 of our neighbors and 5 of their children at church today! They all enjoyed it and said they would like to go again next week! **