Happy Thanksgiving Week

Hi everyone!

This has been a wonderful week, all of them are usually wonderful! Just like every week we have some bumps along the way but when you are doing your best and on the Lord's team, it works out!

So we had a slow start to the week and weren't really able to get into to many homes. This week we saw a lot of less-actives and are seeing some progress with some! There is a less-active we are working with whose kids aren't members and we were able to sit down with her and the kids and teach a restoration lesson to them! They seemed pretty interested and we should be taking them on a church tour tomorrow, so that will be great! We are hoping to have the Branch Mission Leader and his grandkids, who are the same ages as the la kids, come with us! We are trying to get some fellowship over there! It will be good.

It was really cold at the beginning of the week but we endured and spent some time tracting out in the elements...I don't really like tracting but we need to do it so we do...even though we have lots of awkward things happen! Hey, the awkward makes the best stories I suppose! We met a couple cool potential investigators that we will hopefully be able to meet with soon.

Our Friday was a little rough....we were just sitting there finishing our companionship study when the elders called. They were wondering if we were coming to district meeting. We told them yeah at 11, we will be there since that was the usual time we had it. Then they decided to inform us that it was at 10. Everyone else in the district was there waiting for us...luckily the meeting was in Greencastle and not Plainfield so we weren't as late as we could have been. Sister Munoz and I were both a little angry about it and it was pretty hard at the beginning of the meeting to pay attention. After sneaking away to pray for some help, I was able to focus more and actually get something out of the meeting. To add to it all, we were apparently supposed to bring a lunch to the church to all eat together but we didn't get informed about that either...we were feeling pretty good about ourselves after that meeting! (Sarcasm in my voice) Everything worked out though and we were able to still have a fun time together and learn lots. It was a bit of a struggle though.

We had a really cool experience on Saturday to go down to Terre Haute and help out with a service opportunity! :D I was super excited! The zone leaders down there called on Tuesday or Wednesday morning to see if we would be able to come help out at the NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships! So we headed down and got there a little too early, another miscommunication. So since we were an hour early and I was in my old area, we went down into town more and got Square Donuts! :) It was such a great feeling to drive through Brazil and Terre Haute again! I was able to talk to the elders in the great Honey Creek ward and get the update on everyone! It was pretty fun! They didn't really have us do anything until after the races were over, so we basically stood around and watched....let me tell you that cross country spectators get about just as much running in as the participants! I had no idea that it was such an intense thing! People were running all over to be able to watch their people run by! I was a little scared for a bit but we survived just fine! It was fun to see the teams from Utah playing! There were some from BYU, they were excited to see missionaries, and I even saw some SUU Thunderbirds out there running! :) It was a fun experience. WE walked around the course at the end picking up trash left behind....that took a while! It was super fun though!

The talking in Sacrament Meeting yesterday were all on gratitude and during the second talk I did a lot of thinking about what it means to be grateful! He shared a story about a man in the world's largest garden show. He was a gardener and was super excited to see the world's largest flowers. He spots some of the flowers and starts running over when he gets cut by a giant thorn. He see's all the thorns around and grabs a branch and starts cutting down the thorns. People gather all around and are staring at him. He is all done when he realizes they are looking at a sign that says, "World's Most Beautiful Rose Bush." He was blinded by everything else and missed out on the beauty around him. The speaker then talked about how we all have the opportunity to notice the roses or the thorns in our lives. Our attitude shapes us. If we chose to be grateful for the thorns we face, like our trials and hardships, we will be able to better see the beautiful roses at the end of it. So I want to encourage all of you to keep this in mind throughout your lives. You chose what to be grateful for. In True to the Faith it says, "You cannot be bitter, resentful, or mean-spirited when you are grateful." Having a grateful heart really is the best thing to help you become more Christlike! It is something that should occur all year, not just this week! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am thankful for you all and the love and support you give me!

love,

Sister Abbie

PS I failed at taking picture this week so here are some that we took during studies this morning !:)