Thanksgiving for Daysssss!

Hello everyone! This week went by speedy fast.

Let's see, what did we even do before Thanksgiving? I don't even remember much besides talking about Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, and making grateful posts on Facebook. I liked seeing everyone's posts! It was a little bit hard at first, but I enjoyed it.

Oh yeah. We also got a new district leader and basically a whole new district. They are pretty great. Every companionship except ours has a brand new missionary, so that's fun. It's weird to look at how they teach and remember that's how I was when I was brand new. They either over explain things, or don't say anything at all. We're going ice skating next week for a district activity! It's going to be so fun.

Last time I wrote about how our YSA ward mission leader was talking to us about Thanksgiving.. Well, he and another member in the ward were asking about our plans for Thanksgiving like a lot. On Tuesday she called us and told us to look outside our door. We were greeted with 3 bags of groceries! She said she called the mission office and asked specifically what the rules were and so she ordered us groceries for Thanksgiving! We had already got food the day before but we are going to save it for Christmas instead, I guess.. Well we were really pumped up about that! The next day she called us and talked to us for half an hour about how to cook everything. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes. I've always preferred box stuffing and so this stuffing was a surprise because it was actually really good. I also surprisingly liked the cranberry sauce as well.

I told her about my idea to make 12 mini pies with premade graham cracker crust and pudding and she was not impressed. She said it sounded sad. Well then I made them and they were honestly the best. I am a pie genius. My pie-q is very high (I'm sorry). I made banana cream, chocolate chip, vanilla, raspberry, blueberry, and chocolate peanut butter out of one box of vanilla pudding, a container of cool whip, and all the things to mix in. Every mini pie was about the same size as one slice of regular pie.

We are getting ready for our baptisms on Saturday and Sunday! Jake and Firas are both doing so great. Our lessons with them are turning more into question and answer sessions, answering questions Firas has about the Book of Mormon (He's almost done!) and discussions about what we have already taught about and why it's important to them personally. It's really great to see them grow so much on their own. We're going to have to wake up at 5 to fill up the font on Saturday but it's going to be so worth it!

I've been listening to a lot of Nathan Pacheco lately. Here are some of the lyrics to my favorite song of his, Forever.

"Now death where is your sting? Our resurrected King has rendered you defeated. Forever He is glorified. Forever he is lifted high. Forever he is risen, He is alive, He is alive."

I listen to a lot of songs about Jesus but this one is my favorite because of how strong and poetic it is. Death is defeated by Jesus Christ, both physically and spiritually. I highly recommend listening to it.

One of the ways that I feel the Holy Ghost the most is when I listen to music. Some of my most spiritual experiences have been when I was listening to a hymn. It just brings in the spirit in a unique way. We teach a lot of people about the Holy Ghost and the most interesting thing that I've come to realize and teach people is that the Holy Ghost speaks to different people in different ways, because everyone is individual. I've come to recognize that this gospel and this church very much emphasize a personal relationship with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Prayer is personal. Scripture study is personal. Feeling the Holy Ghost and receiving answers is personal. I love it. I started to realize this when we started teaching Jake. He came from a background with rote prayers and a more distant relationship with God. He would comment every time we taught that he loves how personal everything is, and how much more powerful that is.

Yesterday was Sunday, and Sundays are kind of tiring because we have a bunch of meetings for our two wards. It is great though. We are finally able to sing in our YSA ward (with our masks)! I love singing hymns.

There's nowhere else I'd rather be! I love this.

Well I guess that is everything I was going to write about! I hope you all have a great week!

Sister/Hermana Smalley








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