Thanksgiving

Because there's so much to be thankful for.

Well if you live in a cave and just so happen to have a laptop that can only see my blog, today is Thanksgiving Day. I got to go to my grandparent's house and eat there. Thanksgiving is honestly the only day of the year that I can somehow find room in my stomach for food even though there is no room for more food whatsoever. Needless to say, Thanksgiving Day is truly a glorious holiday.

After we ate dinner, we visited my mom's Uncle Peter and Aunt Anne. Uncle Peter is an LDS film director, who made films like "A More Perfect Union" and "Mountain of the Lord". Also there is my Aunt Ruth who is fighting cancer. Since I'm leaving on my mission soon, that may be the last time I see her. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm so grateful for the knowledge that no matter what happens, today was not our last goodbye.

Thanksgiving is such a good opportunity to reflect on all of the things we have in our lives to be grateful for. It's such a shame that it takes an annual holiday to remember all  of these things. In a perfect world, we would always remember those things in our lives that we're grateful for. Personally, I'm grateful for my family, especially good parents who have raised me so well. I'm thankful for my brothers and sister and that we have such a good relationship. I'm grateful that I live in a country with so many freedoms and such a great way of life; I think all to often we complain about the problems in our government, but we frequently forget the simple freedoms that we do have that most countries don't have. This land has been foreordained as the promised land, and we are all truly blessed to live in it. I'm also grateful for the great living conditions I have, a nice home (and dorm for now), food, clothes, etc. I am grateful for the good education I've had in my life. BYU is such a great place to learn, and not a day goes by that I'm not grateful for it. 

I'm grateful especially for the gospel in my life. Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has made me who I am today. So many of the choices I made were based off of what I've learned from being Mormon. I frequently forget how blessed I am to have been born into the church. I'm so grateful for a Savior who has literally saved me. I would not appreciate the Atonement had I not felt its influence in the darkest moments in my life where all I can do is drop to my knees and plea to my Father in Heaven for His arm of support. He has never failed me, and I know he never will.

Before I go off on a wild tangent about all of the things I'm grateful for, suffice it to say that we are all so blessed in our lives and I'm glad I had the chance to reflect on that over a hearty meal today! In my book, once Thanksgiving has been eaten, my hands-down, absolute favorite time of the year has begun.

I bet you can guess what tomorrow's post will be about...

AMS