Thanksgiving Week!

Hello my family!  Thanksgiving is upon us..again!  Are you going to do anything fun? I hope so:) We will be going to help the Rivers family cook that afternoon, then go to another family's house to eat din din and then another family hopefully for a party.  It was really cold today too- I hope it fades.

 

This week we were able to enjoy an Indian Feast prior to thanksgiving at a ladies house named Hitha.  She and her family are good friends with some members in our ward and invited a few people over for dinner.  THERE was so much food.  But it was so neat.  The few neighbors she invited  were really interested in talking to Sister Petersen and I.  I am thinking to myself all the while, "If this happened because we knocked on your door, you would have told us to go away!" Ha.  But these families asked all about missionary work, our church, and were very impressed with what we were here in NC doing.  One man and his family told us that we should stop by their house the next time we were in the area and chat with them.  YES! That is exactly what we were hoping would happen!

Sunday we had an Early thanksgiving dinner with the Strange family who is in the Morrisville ward.  It was a great time and it gave me a chance to reflect on what I am truly grateful for before we even sit down on the 26th and go around saying what we are thankful for.  I love my family, country, education, my Savior, the gospel, the sun and so many more things. Ha.

Another highlight was when we went grocery shopping with Cathy who isn't a member but has taken somewhat of a maternal role over us and wants to make sure we are okay:) We tracted into her and she has been someone we visit every so often.  But she was SO kind and bought all of our groceries for us.  IT was such a tender mercy! I just love the hospitality here.

Here are a few thoughts that I have had this week and wanted to share!
Belief and faith require our personal faith and action. We are all trying to run to the end of our missions, to sprint to the tape, and complete these years with honor.  "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?  So run that ye may obtain." (1 Cor. 9:24)  The decision to believe is the most important choice we ever make.  It shapes all our other decisions.  Belief and testimony and faith are not passive principles, they are things we actively choose to believe.  On our journey as full time missionaries we are constantly working, or running, to receive the blessings, rewards and benefits that lie ahead of us.  Just because our peers and the elders and sisters around us are moving on in a forward direction doesn't mean we can sit back and expect the current to catch us and bring us along as well.  We need to make the choice to believe, act, and run so that we may receive our prize at the end of our lives; the prize of eternal life.  The finish tape isn't at the end of our missions, this is only the practice.  The finish is when we meet our maker.  I love the gospel and my Savior, and I know that through Him we will find strength to run.

Sorry it was rather short.  But I am looking forward to the up and coming week!
Lots of Love,
Sister Golden :)