Spirit of Thanksgiving

I cannot believe it's Thanksgiving this week!! We have Zone Conference on Thursday and members have signed up to feed us, so I have a feeling that we may be getting at least one Thanksgiving dinner. :) Transfers were pretty great.  Guess what? Sister Garner and I got a new car! 2013 Subaru! I guess the mission has lost 5 cars in the past two weeks. Yikes.  So they give the Sisters new cars ;) It's pretty great.  Sister Rice headed back up to South Calgary with Sister Marchant, which she is ecstatic about.  They will probably be together until Sister Marchant goes home in February and then Sister Rice will probably train. I actually had a dream last night that I found out that Sister Rice was training, haha, so it must be happening.  Sister Garner and I feel that we will be together for two transfers as well.  This transfer is only five weeks due to Christmas. I will cry if I get transferred a week before Christmas. I will not dwell on that right now.

This week we had another lesson with Jen.  We watched Finding Faith in Christ.  Jen felt the spirit very strong and she said that the movie helped Christ become more real to her.  We think that her husband is still a concern and she's going down to Arizona for about three weeks in December...so hopefully we will be able to meet a few more times before she leaves.  I pray that we are teaching towards her needs and that she will have the courage to act and talk to her husband about meeting with us or possibly setting a baptismal date.  I guess all we can do on our part is pray and seek for inspiration for how we can help her.  Everyone has their own agency, we just have to help them use their agency correctly.

We have gotten two referrals from mormon.org.  Both of them said that they never went online to request missionaries. :( But we may have the YSA elders accidentally tract into them. :) Yeah, sometimes you feel like a complete stalker as a missionary, but it's okay.  We are out here to save souls! Sister Garner told me about a shirt that she say its says, "Fishing is my mission". Hahaha, I think every missionary should have that shirt.

Sister Garner is so great! She's super sweet and she has such a big heart! Believe it or not, I am the tall one in the companionship. ;) She is 4' 11 1/2" from Mesa, Arizona.  She has eleven siblings, all are adopted.  Her father passed away...five or so years ago.  So, her mom has been rising twelve children plus she does foster care.  I told Sister Garner that her mom is a saint.  Sister Garner loves musicals :) yeah! She plays the violin and has played in the orchestra pit for several shows and has been in a few.  She is trying to get into a nursing program.  I told her she should come to Utah. :) She has actually been thinking about it.  Hmmm...have we had any grand adventures since she has been here? I think things have been relatively quiet, for now.

It was the primary program on Sunday. I realized that I haven't seen a primary program in about five years.  The children were adorable.  There was one little girl who was a little firecracker.  She just zoned in on her parents and sister and was going to town singing and doing hand gestures with the songs.  How they did the program is they asked all of the children questions about what they have been learning about this year and then they gave their answers.  It was really neat to hear about how one family is going to be sealed in the temple soon.  It's always a good reminder to see children and how pure their testimonies are.  Yeah! We have another Primary Program next Sunday.  I really hope that Jen will come to church and that she will bring her 8 year old daughter. :) I bet they will love it!

The longer I have been out the more I have come to realize how essential the gospel is in our lives.  Just by doing the small things every day we have such safety and protection.  We may not be prefect at somethings, but just as long as we keep trying God will help us.  Doing simple things as having Family Home Evening, family prayer and scripture study will build a foundation for our children.

I just love being a missionary! And I love the gospel! Life is pretty great! Love you!!!!
-Sister Douglass