We gather together to ask the Lords blessing; He chastens, and hastens his will to make known; The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing. Sing praises to his name; He forgets not his own. Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, Ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine; So from the beginning the fight we were winning; Thou, Lord, wast at our side; All glory be thine!  We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant, And pray that thou still our defender wilt be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation; Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free! Hymns 93 So there isn´t really Thanksgiving here. But for some reason I feel impressed to share some things I´m thankful for. The first thing that comes to mind: Big shout out to the guy who runs the cybercafé here. We´re trying a new place that the hermanas said was a better cybercafe, it was a bit out of the way to get here, but we did it. I try uploading photos, but the computer has problems reading my card. This isn´t new, the majority of cybercafe´s have this problem. The guy working here sees me struggling and he says, Oh, hey, need help? Come over to my computer that I use to work, and use this. Kudos to him. I´m thankful that Sunday, yesterday we had a great, great day. Several less-active families and recent converts that hadn´t been coming came. We had four investigators in church, including a reference from our Elder´s Quorum President that he invited and brought on his own initiative. Two missionaries in our ward spoke yesterday for the last time, as they´ve finished their missions and have gone home. One of them, Elder Perez, who was my first Zone Leader in Argentina, was called as an assistant, and finishes as our zone leader and our neighbor. At every point in my mission, he´s been one of my leaders at one degree or another. He´s going back to Mexico City, and he shared a powerful testimony. I´m thankful that Lydia, our investigator that has kept almost every commitment we´ve thrown at her but for some reason doesn´t want to commit to be baptized until she´s sure that the Church is true, is making such great progress. We´ve been praying for her and she´s feeling more and more sure about it. I´m thankful that Hermano T is going to be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood this Sunday. He´ll make an excellent addition to the Quorum and will make a great leader. I´m thankful for the awesome, awesome temples that Elder Trujillo makes. He´s an architecture student and in his free time, he makes these incredible, INCREDIBLE temple replications out of paper and cardboard. He´s made replicas of some really, really complex temples, including that of Asuncion Paraguay, Mexico City, San Diego, and Mount Timpanogas. He has a ton of talent and it´s amazing to see them progress. I´m thankful that the Lord is helping me be honest with myself and letting me see the things that I do well and the things that I need to improve. And I´m grateful for the Lord´s inspiration as He gives my his inspiration as I prayerfully seek his guidance as to what plans I need to make to improve. I throw a bunch of ideas at the wall, and the Lord helps me to know what will work and what will not. Revelation is cool that way. I´ve learned so much about it and planning and goal-setting in the mission. I´m thankful for the time I have to simply think, ponder, and record ideas. I never knew there was so much good that can come out of it. Before my mission, every second was filled with some sort of activity to divert my mind. It was really fun! But I missed out on a lot of things that I could have done. I´m glad that in the mission I have time to do these things, and I definitely plan on keeping it a part of me in the future. I´m thankful that I have a great family that supports me and loves me back at home. I´m thankful for everything they´ve taught me and for their guidance and constant contact. We begin almost every lesson we teach with a brief explanation as to why families are important and why God is invested so heavily in protecting them. Without my family and the support they give me- the sometimes chaotic support, but support that is needed- I do not know where I would be or what I would be doing, but it´s a safe but that it would not be here nor would I have anywhere near the same priorities. I´m grateful to be alive at this time, here, today. I´m grateful to be alive at a time when the priesthood and restored gospel are on the earth. I´m grateful to have a body and the gift of agency to choose what I want to do and who I want to become. I´m grateful for the tools of prayer and for the scriptures. I´m incredibly grateful for the sacrament. I am grateful that there are so many temples on the earth. I´m grateful every day and for every hour for the chance to be a missionary. Above everything, I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I have the chance to be cleaned and purified of every mistake that I have made on the condition of repentance. I have strength that I do not have given to me when I ask for it and I can overcome challenges with strength totally beyond my own power. I am grateful that everything in the world that´s unfair or that is not right will eventually be made right. Knowing that it´s there and knowing how it works has made me a different person. I hope to keep changing to have what I believe reflect in what I do. I have a long, long way to go to learn and progress, but the tools to get there are given to us, all thanks to the Atonement. Happy Thanksgiving Elder Flake I love letters! Make a missionary happy! [email protected]
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 22:17:28 +0000
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