9th Week in Spokane

Well, this coming week will be an eventful one, my birthday on Wednesday and thanksgiving on Thursday! Wednesday should be pretty fun, we are having dinner at a members house, then we are teaching a family about prayer and having daily prayer with each other as a family. Then right after that we are teaching at a missionary fireside for all the 16-19 years old in our ward. Then after that we are going to another members house for cake and ice cream! Then to be honest, I’m not looking forward too much for thanksgiving cuz we've got five different dinners to go to throughout the day!! I will more then likely end up puking before the day is over haha!! So this past week went pretty good, we found four new people to teach, and a couple of them have been really interested so we are really excited about that! well unfortunately I really don’t have much time today, but we have been focusing our lessons this week, whenever we talk to anybody, on thanksgiving and getting into the spirit of it. Elder Bednar in the October 2008 conference challenged each of us to offer a prayer, individually and as a family, asking for nothing, but giving only thanks. Because absolutely everything we have came from God and I know that I am definitely grateful for all that He has given me. I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity to be on a mission to be able to serve Him and to teach His gospel full time for the next two years! I'm also grateful for all that I have learned, I have come to a new understanding of why I’ve come to the earth when I have and what my purpose here is, its a wonderful feeling. I'm grateful to have a wonderful loving family who supports me back home, and to have the friends that I do. Each one of you have had an impact on my life in a way that has led me here and I will be forever in your debt. I love you all and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. So to reiterate Elder Bednar’s challenge, I challenge each of you this thanksgiving season to offer a prayer to our God and ask for nothing but to give only thanks to the many things that He has given you. I promise that as you do you will feel the true spirit of thanksgiving and upcoming Christmas and you will feel God's love for you.