Thankful

 

We are THANKFUL for a Prophet!  What an outpouring of love this conference has been for all of us. When President Nelson closed the conference with his words of love for each of us, we wiped our eyes and wondered how long we will yet be blessed to hear his warm words of warning and inspired counsel. Prophet words are profound. We do not take for granted the greatness of the gift he is in our lives. 

We are THANKFUL for our health and for this time we have to serve together. 

We are thankful for our family and for the miracle of internet and getting to watch Jase play football during a televised game til' 3 in the morning.  He was born during our mission to Porto-Alegre, Brasil, he was baptized as we were leaving for our mission to Cape Verde, and now as a senior in high school, he will be putting in his mission papers just before we get home from our mission in Portugal. Within minutes of his victory, we are able to send a virtual thumbs up and tell him that we are his biggest fans...and he  texted back that he is our biggest fan. He thanked us for serving a mission and for our example to him. What a tremendous young man to tuck us in that way.  We love the way our family supports each other and gets together whenever you can. 

We are THANKFUL to try to love and lift as we meet people and learn of their trials and faith. We took Inez with us for a few hours so she could introduce us to some of the young adults as well.  

THANKFUL that we could finally attend a concert where a sweet but reticent young woman in our branch, Vitoria, played her French Horn.  It started about an hour later than planned, but that gave us time to buy a sandwich for dinner from a street vendor, which also made us THANKFUL after a long day of going to find the libraries and archives on the island!  We were checking out FamilySearch possibilities for missionary work here.

We are THANKFUL for the beauty and variety of this earth.  One doesn't have to look very far to see the love-notes and patterns of wisdom all around us.  

The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. Alma 30:44

Carlos is a guard and so his hours change each week.  It takes alot of courage to quit a long time addition of smoking especially when you work around people who do.  But he has alot of faith.  He has known about the church for 7 years because of his friend Paulo.  Recently, the young elders have been teaching him again and he wants to be baptized.  Grandpa knows how important the Book of Mormon power is and asked Elder Phelps and Elder Broulim if we could go read with him during the week between their visits.  They were happy about that idea.  Each time we go read with him, we sense his desire to understand more about Jesus. We're THANKFUL to witness the Gospel Light in Carlos' eyes. 

During our last visit, after one of his turns reading a verse, he looked up and asked, "what does humility mean?"  We turned to the study guide and explained the best we could what it meant.  He said, "excuse me" and went into another room.  A few moments later, he returned with a pencil.  He wrote in the margins of the topical guide and returned to the scripture and underlined the word Humilidade. We watched him underline such a word as treasure; a word opposite of Pride. A word meaning 'listen to God'.  A word meaning we must never think our thoughts are more important than God's.  I hope my heart has memorized that moment.  

And...this week we are even THANKFUL for a sense of humor. Grandpa was putting his scripture bag over his shoulders and it knocked his glasses to the cobblestones breaking them in half.  This was just after arriving at an appointment with a lady who told us to come at 11 am only for her son to tell us that she was not home.  That happens.  But, then the glasses break.  But then, grandpa all of a sudden said, "So much for fixing the glasses!  Half of them are in the sewer!"  And he got in the car.  I circled the car to see why we were laughing.  Sure enough.  The right eye part of his glasses just happened to slip from his hands and there just happened to be a drain large enough to eat them whole!  Sometimes, somedays, you just have to laugh and drive all the way back home to get your backup glasses before you can continue on.  Laughing is a blessing.  Another thing that I am THANKFUL for is something that many may not even know about grandpa.  He quietly hums or sings at random times as we come and go, even sometimes in his sleep.  He always has a song in his heart it seems and I love that so so much.

We are THANKFUL for Heavenly Father and for our Savior, Jesus Christ, for The Plan of Happiness, for The Bible and Book of Mormon which testify of Christ, for The Holy Spirit and for Revelation. For People who Pray and who care about each other. We are THANKFUL for YOU!  

Please make a good Week. Be Nice. Be Grateful. Smile. Laugh. And say lots of Thank you Prayers...because there are Miracles all around us every single day.  

With great love, Grandpa and Grandma