This week was pretty busy! Obviously it was Thanksgiving as well! Our Thanksgiving was great. We ate at a members home with a bunch of families in our ward, it was a party. It was kind of hectic, and we were late.... so I didn't get to take pictures but it wasn't really anything too crazy! Basically just a Thanksgiving pot luck! All the food was delicious and everyone loaded us down with leftovers! At one point we had four pies at our apartment....
And for the rest of the week we basically just ate nothing but leftovers, by ourselves and with members. So the title of this letter applies in two ways! A week full of thanksgiving dinner and a week full of thanks giving. This week, just like most Thanksgivings, we had the opportunity to really think about and be grateful for all our many blessing. And this year particularly it really struck me just how blessed I am and just how blessed a lot of us are. While on my mission, I've seen and experienced a lot of different aspects of life and been around people that have close to nothing. It hit me hard how good I have it and how good a lot of us have it, and how even if times are hard for some of us, there is always somebody out there that has it worse.
I think that because of that, no matter what, we should always try to be grateful for all that we have and all our many blessings and also try to be mindful and acknowledge all our blessing. And not only during Thanksgiving. Doing so will not only show gratitude to our Father in Heaven but also helps us all to be happier and remain humble. President Monson said in a talk titled "The Divine Gift of Gratitude"; "My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."So that's something that i'll be working on and something that I would challenge you all to apply to your lives as well because I know that It will bless our lives immensely and help us grow closer to Him.
On a different note, this upcoming week is Faith's birthday so a Happy Birthday shout out to her! A while ago she asked me a couple of questions and asked if I could answer them in my weekly email. I thought I'd save them for today and dedicate a portion of my email to her:)
Basically she just wanted me to kind of take some time and talk about the people here in Alabama. Currently I'm around an area of Alabama called Huntsville. And in Huntsville, because of the Arsenal and the Nasa center. There's a lot of people from all around the country/world living in and around Huntsville. Because of that there has been a lot of modernization that is different from the rest of Alabama. A lot of people say that Huntsville is just basically Utah in the south... So what I'm trying to get at is that Huntsville area isn't really like the rest of Alabama. So my experiences with "true Alabamians" has been a little limited. But I have definitely had them! Haha
Just like everywhere else, there are all types of people. There are the stereotypical red necks that drive huge trucks and chew tobacco but there are also the typical southern families that sit on their porch swing and are extremely welcoming and show a lot of hospitality. And at the same time there are a lot of just "normal" people, quite a few from Utah, that aren't really southern at all! It just all depends!
Random funny things about the people in Alabama...For some reason in the south, some black people will pronounce the letter "t" like a "c" in words. So for example we asked a guy for directions a while back and he told us "Oh man, its just scraight down the screet for a mile, you can't miss it!" haha so funny stuff like that make the people here pretty unique.
Southern Hospitality can be a very real thing though. Again depending on the person. But here in Alabama, its not unusual to greet/talk to random people and even help each other out in some way. I've had a lot of experiences where we'll be tracting and somebody will let us in, offer us food and water, let us sit and relax in their homes but not want to hear about the gospel because they are already strong in their own faith. But at the same time be so kind and show so much hospitality to us, its a beautiful thing.
Well that's all I can really think of to tell you about the people! Faith, I hope you enjoyed it and that you have a fantastic birthday, cause you deserve it! Love you:)
And to everyone else, make sure to wish her a happy birthday if you see her around and make her feel loved!
I hope you all have a great week! Until next time!
Love,
Elder Honn
Pics: The first is of one of my zone leaders. His name is Elder Faustin and he was born in Burundi, Africa! We had an exchange this week and were able to do a lot of awesome work!
The second is of a very stuffed Elder Larson post Thanksgiving! (sorry for the blurriness) haha too bad we couldn't take a post thanksgiving nap!
I apologize that I'm not present in the pictures this week, i'll try to get some for y'all for next week!
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