The leaves are turning

I'm a little late on this blog post so I'm going to include several stories from last week on it. The leaves are starting to fall here and for the past several weeks it has been really beautiful outside. I love the fall and Virginia is a great place in the fall, especially the University of Richmond campus. I think that the leaves in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island are still superior, but it's a really nice place to watch as things change.
So, speaking of that change, I am very happy about our new president-elect. I think that just in terms of how the world perceives us, he has already been a huge success. I had the great opportunity to work for the Obama campaign's voter protection program on election day. So, to be a poll watcher I had to be at Glen Allen Elementary School by 5:00 am, and I didn't leave until they called in the election results at about 8:30 that night. VERY long day. But it was a great opportunity and really inspiring to watch democracy at work. Glen Allen ended up favoring John McCain by about 400 votes, and by 3:00 PM we had nearly 80% voter turnout in that precinct.
Working with the people who gave their days to be poll workers was also pretty amazing. It was really funny because there were some high school students who were volunteering as well, and some of the older women at the polls started talking to me about how cute one of them was. Quickly realizing that I am a little out of high school one of the women said "yeah, but she would be jail bait for him." I barely stopped myself from laughing out loud at hearing a woman in her early 70s say the word jail bait. Even after that they didn't stop the conversation, going on to debate how they would feel as the parent of a 17 year old girl if a guy my age were trying to date her. At first they all agreed that they would not be comfortable with that, until one of them pointed out "well, he is going to be a lawyer." I stopped listening at that point, so I'm not sure what they concluded. As for my own conclusion? I'll stay away from 17 year old high school students, thank you very much.

More on the leaves turning. First, I need a camera. I've thought a bit about buying a camera, but maybe I should save my money. Around here somebody always seems to have a camera and they all have facebook accounts, so usually I just steal their pictures. It would be nice to be able to photograph all of the things I've been able to experience though. On Saturday my friend Mike and I spent the day with his family going to a place called Belle Isle, here in Richmond. It's a beautiful little island on the James River with a lot of history. Mike's sister-in-law Debbie took a lot of pictures of us, so I'll try and post some of those if I ever get them.
Mike called me up Saturday morning to see if I could help our relief society president move apartments, so I headed over there and Mike, Joseph, and I helped April, Natalie, and Jessica make sure Natalie's move from one side of the hall to the other went off without a hitch. Somehow, I think that we did more playing dress up than we did helping move. Luckily my quirkiness is matched by other people around here.

I gave a talk about the Prodigal Son on Sunday and that went really well. A lot of people seemed to really appreciate it. I also got to teach the lesson at Family Home Evening on Monday night, I taught my lesson based on a training I did back on the mission about avoiding weariness. That also seemed to go well, although not as well because we had FHE at a park and some people were cold. We went on to play a game of ultimate spoons and then headed back to a member's home for some hot cocoa and Krispy Kreme.