Happy Thanksgiving, Universe!
I might be a few days late, but at least I got to say it! Anyways, hello friends, family, and beloved comrades in the battle we call life. 'Tis I once more, the great and hilarious elder from South Jordan, Elder Z.S.Weber, here reporting in once again on a wonderful week spent out here in the Colorado Fort Collins Mission. Now, normally, I go through every day of the week (or at least most of them) and explain the wonderful and fantastic things that happened over the course of the past seven days. But, to be completely honest, this week was mostly a blur. I mean, you know how it is with weeks that have holidays right in the middle of them! It just seems as though all days preceding the event are a mixed blur of colors that you can't quite clearly remember.
So, rather than struggle to remember what we actually did over the past week, I've decided to just skip straight ahead to Thanksgiving morning, and spend the bulk of my email there. Here we go!
So, Thanksgiving morning was honestly one of the greatest mornings on my mission so far. The first reason was because we were invited to have breakfast at the Taysoms, a senior missionary couple that serves in the Mission Office, and breakfast was going to be pie! So, we quickly got dressed and headed out to go when we saw the second reason that morning was so great. It snowed! Finally! I can't recall all the number of times Yahoo and other weather services had predicted snow and had been wrong, but there were a lot of them. To see the white fluffy coldness all across the yard and driveway, even while knowing we'd eventually have to shovel it clear, brought a familiar happiness to my heart.
After we scraped the ice off of the car and eased our way out of the snow-covered drive, we quickly made our way over to the Taysoms, at about the same time that the Zone Leaders, Elders Shawcroft and Lete (Leh-tay), got there. While we waited for the other Elders to show up, we decided to give the Taysom's son and grandson, who were over for the holiday, a hand in shoveling their drive-and-walkways. Elder Oaks also lent a helping hand in getting their Christmas tree up and spruced up (heh, get it, spruced! 'Cause it's an artificial pine tree, and spruce is a pine tree, and...yeah). After the lights were all strung up and the drive was clear, a few more companionships (Elders Hancock, Lester, and Murphy from Big Thompson, and Elders McMillan and Thompson from Longview) showed up, and it was finally time for breakfast.
Oh my gosh! There were so many different types of pies out! There was Razzleberry (I practically dove to claim that one), Pumpkin, Apple, Lemon Meringue, something delicious made of coconut milk and chocolate! It was awesome! After everyone was done with their pies (I had about four slices...bad decision), Sister Taysom asked us if we thought we had time for a game. Seeing as none of our dinners started until about noon that day, and there was no way you'd be able to get any of us to work in that frozen wasteland outside, we quickly cleared the table and started an interesting Domino game called Mexican Train.
Mexican Train is a lot like Chicken Foot, if you've played that, where in the center of the table you place a double Domino (six-six, five-five, zero-zero), and you play off of it. Each player had their own chain of Dominos they played off of, and there was a separate chain of Dominos called the Community Train, which anyone could play on. If you couldn't play on your chain or the Community Train, then you had to put this little plastic train on your train chain, which wouldn't come off until you could play on your chain. If you had a train on your chain, others could play on that chain as though it was the Community Train chain. The first person to use up all of their Dominos was the winner. I know, very confusing to explain in writing, but it was a lot of fun, and we played quite a few rounds of it (probably around ten or twelve...they were fast-paced rounds, though, so...).
After we were done with our last round of Mexican Train, we all decided it was probably a good idea for us to get back out into the snow once more and get on with the day. Bidding the Taysoms and fair farewell, Elder Oaks and I got into our car and drove off to our dinner, which was only a five-minute drive from their home. While most of the other missionaries had several dinners throughout the day (some had six!), we had only the one. But, with pie for breakfast, and a long day of shoveling our member's mile-long driveway awaiting us, having just the one dinner was fine by me. And it definitely was great. We had dinner with the Harris', an older couple that had served as a senior couple in the Mission Office when I first came out into the mission. The dinner was wonderful, a very classic Thanksgiving dinner with chicken and stuffing and yams and mashed potatoes...it was great.
...Well...mostly great.
As we were finishing our dinner and began sharing our Thanksgiving message with the Harris', I was suddenly overcome by this terrible stomach-flipping feeling in the pit of my stomach. Most likely, I just over-ate, and ate way too much in a short amount of time. Whatever it was, though, it was incredibly troublesome. Once we got home, Elder Oaks told me to just lie down and get some rest. I would've fought him on the subject, saying that he needed help shoveling the driveway, but my stomach spoke louder than my mind, and so for the rest of the day I pretty much just laid out on the couch and waited for my stomach to settle. Thankfully it did, and so the rest of the night was spent at the home, studying and playing the board games our members had lent us.
So, yeah, that was my Thanksgiving this year. Pretty awesome, if you ignore the whole eating-so-much-I-got-sick part. But, yeah, this year's Thanksgiving was great. Plus, with that time at the end of the day, I was able to get some good studying in, which means I've got a great Spiritual Message today! Hope y'all like it!
Recently when I've been doing my studies, I've been reading General Conferences from the last few years. Something surprising to me is that a lot of the brethren speak about being 'grateful in our circumstances'. In the Doctrine and Covenants (as well as other bodies of scripture), we are asked to "thank the Lord (our) God in all things" (Doctrine and Covenants 59:7). In the Book of Alma, Alma the Younger counsels his son Helaman to "let thy heart be full of thanks unto God" (Alma 37:37). These prophetic counsels from the ancient prophets are echoed to us in our day, yet the desire to be filled with thanksgiving unto the Lord is hard to find. Many of us face trials in our lives that are hard and burdensome. This world is a hard and burdensome world to live in, and as such, it can be hard to see what we have to be thankful for.
May I share a story with you of how we can be continually thankful? The story is one you all know well (if you're members, that is). It is the story of Nephi and his family traveling across the seas to the land of promise. After they had been sailing for a while, Nephi writes, "behold, my brethren and the sons of Ishmael and also their wives began to make themselves merry, insomuch that they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak with much rudeness, yea, even that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding rudeness.
And I, Nephi, began to fear exceedingly lest the Lord should be angry with us, and smite us because of our iniquity, that we should be swallowed up in the depths of the sea; wherefore, I, Nephi, began to speak to them with much soberness; but behold they were angry with me, saying: We will not that our younger brother shall be a ruler over us.
And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel did take me and bind me with cords, and they did treat me with much harshness; nevertheless, the Lord did suffer it that he might show forth his power, unto the fulfilling of his word which he had spoken concerning the wicked.
And it came to pass that after they had bound me insomuch that I could not move, the compass, which had been prepared of the Lord, did cease to work." (1 Nephi 18:9-12)
Now, here I will break for a moment. Keep in mind all that Nephi has done for his family, as according to what the Lord has commanded him. He reclaimed the Brass Plates from Laban. He made a bow of wood and went hunting to save his family from starvation. He built the boat that they were currently using to sail to the Promised Land. And yet after all of this, his brothers continue to scorn him, even to the point of binding him to the mast of the ship.
Most of you should know how the rest of this story goes. Because of his brothers' selfishness and stubbornness, even their binding of their younger brother—in short, because of their wickedness—the Liahona stops working. A storm rises, tossing the ship to and fro for four days. Finally, on the fourth day, Laman and Lemuel repent of their actions and free Nephi, who helps them sail through the storm to safety. Now, what stands out the most to me in this story is the attitude of Nephi, who says, regarding the whole event, "I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions." (1 Nephi 18:16)
Throughout that entire experience, Nephi didn't murmur once. He didn't even pause to wonder, "God, why must I suffer this?" He didn't say anything like that. Instead, he praised God. He knew in his heart that all would be right. He was able to look past the terrible conditions he was in, and praise and thank the Lord. Even in his terrible conditions, he was able to see the blessings the Lord had previously given him, and continued to give him. He was able to take a step back and say, "I understand, Father. This is a moment for me to prove myself to you. Thank you for trusting me that I can overcome this."
This is the counsel I give us all, including myself as I know I still need to work on this. If we only take the time to look past our trials and see the blessing of God around us, we can find our lives filled with happiness. You can start small if you need to. You have families that love you, friends to support you. You have the love of the most supreme and powerful being in existence to strengthen you. You truly are blessed. Be of good cheer, and praise the Lord, for his goodness surrounds all of us. There is much to be grateful for in our lives, regardless of our situations. We just have to open our eyes to it. This I say in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!
—Elder Z.S.Weber
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