Our Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went down to Michael & Tanya’s there in Lehi. It was so nice being there with them. We originally planned on leaving Wednesday morning but Karl started down with a bad cold Monday evening and he was still miserable Wednesday so we waited until Thursday morning to leave. He started taking Airborne that Monday evening and altho’ it still got bad it didn’t last as long. It was so nice being there with them and their children. Their little girls are so cute. Up to now Abbie hasn’t wanted anything to do with me. She would smile at me across the table but wouldn’t get any closer. This time she gave me hug after hug. She’d run at me and throw her arms around me. It was so neat. Kendra didn’t want to get very close tho’. But Abbie made up for it. We got down there about 2:45 or so. We had dinner around 4:00 so we were there in plenty of time. We played games and more games while we were there. We of course played Pinochle. Tanya even got a double pinochle dealt to her!! The first time ever! The men have gotten so many more double pinnaclesys than the women there is no comparison. I think we have had five now and they have had at least 15. It is still fun playing tho’. We also learned to play The Settlers of Catan. It is so much fun. Each game is different because of the way to place the cards which make up the board. Karl played one game with us. After that he said he had much more fun just watching us play. Six of us can play that at a time so Natasha and Collin played too. That is the first time I have seen a sullen side of Collin. After awhile he was back to his happy self tho’. We went to church with them and had some very enjoyable meetings. We had dinner Sunday with my mother. She had gone to Soda Springs to my sister, Joy’s, with my other sister Bonnie and her husband David. She got back Saturday evening. It was good to see her. Kim & Kimberly came to IF to have Thanksgiving with her parents. We saw them Sunday evening also. We left Monday morning to come home. We stopped in Far West by Ogden to pick up Karl’s mother and took her to Grace. She spent Thanksgiving at Stan & Kathy’s in Roy. They took her over to Jewel’s Saturday evening. It takes longer to come home by way of Grace but since it was in our general direction of travel it didn’t make sense for others to make the extra trip up and back. We stopped and saw Karen & Kent too. Shani and Macie were there too and of course Kylie. It was good to see all of them. It was about 7:15 pm when we got home. It was a long day. It was sooo good to be home and sleep in our own bed. It gets more and more that way as we grow older.

Wednesday at the FHC I helped three patrons. I helped three other people also….other missionaries. I helped one sister with the digital microfilm copier. I had been shown how to do it a couple of times before but the last time was in July and since I hadn’t used it since I couldn’t remember anymore about it. Since no one else knew anymore than I did I got out of my comfort zone and she and I together figured out the written directions. I prayed while we were doing it and my prayer was answered. I was able, with the help of the Lord, to help her figure out how to do it. As I was looking for someone more experienced than I, I realized that there were only about three other people who had been there longer than we have. I still feel so new that I was surprised to realize that we are now veterans of the place. J A little later a sister came in who wanted to learn how to research and what you do to find someone in Scotland. He was born in Scotland and died in England. I was out of my comfort zone again. I uttered another prayer for help and felt the Spirit guide me as I led her on her search. We were unable to find him…the census records don’t go back to 1830 there in the UK. They don’t start until 1850 or so and since he died in 1833 (he was married in 1830) we could not find a record of him. But I told her about some of the patron classes that are held and got a class schedule for her. There is a class on research in Scotland within the next two weeks. I felt that I was prompted to tell her about that. It is such a neat feeling to help others. The third person was a young woman that I helped put her grandfather and uncle’s name thro’ Temple Ready to make the Temple Submission Disk. (Now that was in my comfort zone.) She was expecting her third baby in March and her oldest won’t be three until May. I told her that I had had the same situation. She seemed to be comforted to know that someone else had been in her same situation. I felt that I had had a good worthwhile shift. Saturday, altho’ I didn’t help any patrons (I did help Karl) I did some indexing online and also helped index the obituaries that need to be done by the end of the year. There are thousands and thousands that need to be done. I’m not sure how many I did but I went form the Sh’s to the end of the S’s in the Ashton Cemetery. It took two or three hours. I felt good about my accomplishment. I now have 800 names to my credit on the indexing online. I do enjoy doing it. Karl helped one of the missionaries there with PAF Insight. I thought that was neat. It didn’t seem to register with him.

Today our meetings were special. We had a good sacrament meeting filled with the Spirit and a good Sunday School lesson on God is Love and a good RS lesson too on pretty much the same thing. Oh, I forgot to mention that we tied a quilt Tuesday morning for the humanitarian effort. Our Stake (I really think it is region because other women I know in other stakes are doing the same thing.) has pledged to make hundreds of crib quilts for the humanitarian effort. Karl helped me tie it. It was fun. It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would. We had taken it down with us so Michael, Tanya, Natasha and Collin could help us too. But we had too much fun playing games. Karen called and said that she would come up and we could all go over to Shani’s and have a quilt tying party. But by the time Karen got here, it was all done. So we didn’t go. If I had another one to do (if I’d known how easy it was I may have had another one to do.) I would have gone over. It was a relief to get it done tho’. Our ward donated 70 quilts…we led the stake we were told.

That’s about all for this time. I’m so grateful for my health and for the opportunity that I have of serving as a service missionary. I’m grateful for my family, my husband, children and their sweethearts and grandchildren and great grandchildren. I’m so very thankful to be alive at this time when the gospel has been restored and so many good things are happening. I’m thankful for the knowledge I have about the Plan of Salvation and to know that I have a loving Heavenly Father who gave us the greatest gift of all, his only Begotten Son, so that we may return to Him. I’m grateful for what Jesus Christ has done for me that I may return to my Heavenly Father. I’m thankful for the guides that the church and gospel gave me in raising my children. I have so much to be grateful for.