November 24

Mom,

I can't believe Thanksgiving is coming up so quickly either! Yes, we are still going to the Gruette's home for dinner and then we'll also be going to Tiffany and Lyle's home and we've also been invited to eat with all the senior missionaries from the Bluff Fort so we'll be stuffed just like the turkey this Thanksgiving! Brother Gruette worked for the oil industry for a long time in Montezuma Creek/Aneth area here in Utah and also in Bloomfield, NM but he is retired now. I'm not sure what Sister Gruette's background is. Cottonwood Steakhouse closed in mid-October I think, and Elder Vicznesky and I actually saved up money and went there and got ribs, it was heavenly. The ribs fall right off the bone!

Tiffany made it to church yesterday and is on track to be baptized this Saturday! Woohoo!!! Nelia is either 80 or 88, I can't remember. We are hoping that someday in the future we can use those wireless headsets to translate the Navajo service into English for all the visitors so that the people here can learn and teach the Gospel in their native tongue! We'll find out what happens with transfers this Saturday, so it'll be interesting to see what goes on.

That's awesome that you're listening to The Undaunted, I've heard a lot about that book. I'll have to read it when I get home. Las Vegas sounds like fun and I'm glad you got to see Donny and Marie's show for the third time. Elder Vicznesky's mom loves Donny Osmond also, hahaha.

Sounds like a lot of house hunting! If I stay here in Utah much longer on my mission then pretty soon we might have the whole family in Utah even before I get home from my mission! When I left, everyone was out of state, and around the time I hit my 18-month mark we might all be back in Utah, eh? Glad to hear that Jackie and Trevor will accompany me to go to San Francisco when I get back!

I hope Thanksgiving goes well for you all this week! I would like to give you all a Thanksgiving challenge, either before or on the day of Thanksgiving I would like you all to think about a principle of the Gospel such as prayer, repentance, faith, the sacrament, continuing revelation, temple work, etc. that you are most grateful for and find a scripture (or scriptures) out of the Book of Mormon or any of the other standard works along with a testimony of that principle! I would love it if you all could send it to me sometime this week or next, either by email or Pony Express. I'll try to get one written up by me and mail it off you to at home! I wish I would have thought of this earlier so I could send it off today so it could be there by Thanksgiving, but that is unlikely. So hopefully by Saturday or something haha. I love you all!

"[H]umble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you." - Alma 34:38

President Uchtdorf's talk from April Conference:

"Being grateful in our circumstances is an act of faith in God. It requires that we trust God and hope for things we may not see but which are true.⁸ By being grateful, we follow the example of our beloved Savior, who said, “Not mywill, but thine, be done.”

True gratitude is an expression of hope and testimony. It comes from acknowledging that we do not always understand the trials of life but trusting that one day we will.

In any circumstance, our sense of gratitude is nourished by the many and sacred truths we do know: that our Father has given His children the great plan of happiness; that through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ, we canlive forever with our loved ones; that in the end, we will have glorious, perfect, and immortal bodies, unburdened by sickness or disability; and that our tears of sadness and loss will be replaced with an abundance of happiness andjoy, 'good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.'"

I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Elder Schaelling