A Week of Thanksgiving

 We hope you all had the best Thanksgiving. We feel so blessed in so many ways.  We are honored to be missionaries serving in this area of God's vineyard. 

We had a good week.  We said goodbye to Sister Hafen who was transferred to Albany and welcomed Sister Erickson from the MTC. We had the Sisters for dinner on Wednesday and did a correlation meeting with them. It made me feel good to cook a “Thanksgiving” kind of dinner.  I fixed a ham, cheesy potatoes, fresh green beans, baking powder biscuits and brownies.  They were so happy to have a home cooked meal.

L-R Us, Sister Paige Hafen, Sister Gracey Curzon

We have the most amazing Mission Leaders who make this mission so memorable and fun.  At Zone Conference, they asked us to join in a family tradition with them. Each missionary was given 10 paper leaves and they asked us to write three things that we are thankful for each day on a leaf and then hang it somewhere where we could see it.  They wanted us to use our imaginations to build some kind of a display or "Thanksgiving Tree".  We found a branch in a pile of leaves one morning and we grabbed it and brought it home. Mike had the idea to add an iron rod and I had the idea to add him and me holding onto the rod.  We have loved having it in our dining room! Cool thing, we won second place!  We didn't even know they were judging the displays.  Wahoo!  Who knew that a branch and an iron rod could be so artistic.

I had wanted to make some puffed rice balls for my RS lesson on Sunday.  I was planning to teach Elder Pino’s talk where he talked about the traditions in other countries and then talked of the traditions we should make in our families that keep us on the covenant path. Mike had suggested the puffed rice balls. It's a tradition that has been in my family for about three generations, I think.  Finding puffed rice was not easy but we finally found it at a store not to far away.  Well, to make puffed rice balls you have to have clear skies. We don’t have many of those here so I hadn't made them. We went out for our morning walk on Thanksgiving morning and the sky was as clear as I have seen it here.  No clouds.  We hurried through our walk and got me home to try to make them. Luckily, they turned out great! 

We went to Golden Corral for our Thanksgiving dinner with our cute little friends that we met a few weeks ago.  It was a lot of fun. The daughter is vegetarian and gluten free.  She loved the variety of food she was able to eat. I loved that I could have shrimp, a chicken drumstick, and some fries. (I have to admit, I did try a little turkey and ham and a little stuffing but the shrimp was my favorite.)   Afterwards we came to our house and played Cover Your Assets and Golf.  They even tried a puffed rice ball and liked them. I shared the recipe.  They asked us some gospel questions and we talked with them a bit but not in depth.  We need to get serious about teaching them some lessons.  All in all, we had a great time.

We also spent some time creating a photo wall-which has been a long time in coming.  We love looking at the faces that we love best! We didn't use frames, we just used painters tape that comes off without taking the paint off.  We love how it turned out.

I made Mike a pie on Friday.  The pumpkin pie at Golden Corral did not hit the spot (he likes my pie the best) so I spoiled him.  I haven't made pies in a long time but it turned out really good.  I even made it sugar free and you can't even tell.

There are many decorations in this little town. They have lit up metal artwork in most of the parks and the houses are great.  Look at this cute building.  It’s the arts center but I think it used to be a house.  They have the bottoms of the windows filled with baubles and I completely love the tiles on the roof.  Doesn’t it feel like right out of a story book? Magic is in the air.  I might even find some lights on our little home.  Mike spoils me like that! Hey, and the lights were free.

We didn't have Book of Mormon this week and we missed it.  We did have our Primary Program in Sacrament meeting today.  Our 6 primary kids did awesome.  I taught RS and it was a wonderful discussion and the puffed rice balls were a hit.  We have had rain all day!  I love rainy days. And look at our cute tree!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We are so thankful for you and for your love and support.  We count our blessings all the time and we are blessed in so many ways.  We look forward to a new week and the opportunities that will open to us.  God bless you all!