Happy Thanksgiving! (11/22/10)

Hello Family!!!!!!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! and then the next holiday will be CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!! and then i will get to call you! woot.

okay, this week was really good -- a LOT of meetings. we had sisters conference on monday and it was all about family history and journals. good thing i actually have kept a journal for my mission or else i would feel bad -- kinda like feeling bad about not ever keeping journals before the mission :) oops. but it was really really fun to see all of the sisters. i saw Sister De La Mare and i LOVE seeing her! she is always so sweet to me and so concerned with how i am. i LOVE my companions (all three of them - including the MTC) really, it's cool to share so much with one person and be able to build such a relationship with them that they are one of your biggest helps when times get a little rough. and what is REALLY awesome is how much Heavenly Father is there for us and always sends us the angels we need at the exact moment that we need them. and it is really really cool to be able to have the spirit in our lives and be that angel for someone else.

that is kind of the theme for the week - we taught several people that are really struggling right now, so many people are faced with the chance of losing their home right before the holidays and they still have to get up and face their kids, not knowing what is going to happen. and we were blessed to have hopefully just a touch of inspiration to give them a message of hope and let them know that we are here and willing to help. another lesson came just at the time that a boyfriend called to break up and we had the message from april's conference of President Uchtdorf's "Happily Ever After" and we got to tell her that we are daughters of God and He knows exactly EXACTLY what is happening and that the grace and wisdom and character that is built by going through trials cannot be built in any other way. it is absolutely incredible. and prayer works. I am amazed at how much the spirit is a true comforter to us, Heavenly Father has the power to make any hurt a little more bearable and any pain sufferable.

and the rest of the week, we had a LOT of meetings. we had zone conference this week and sisters conference and district meeting. but it was really good. President Nelson and Sister Nelson are the sweetest people in the world. they are SO inspired and they are so concerned for us. we love them :)

we are so pumped for christmas!!!!!! we found out that one of the couples in our mission got the world's best teen violinist and his two sisters who are in juliard right now to come and play a Christmas devotional for us and we get to bring all of our investigators!!!!! woot.

blaise is doing awesome. AWESOME. he switched his work schedule so that he could come to the ward thanksgiving dinner -- he ended up working all night on saturday just so that he could come -- and he still showed up for church on sunday! he said he wants to get baptized really soon - so we are hoping that he will be baptized before christmas.

aight family. i have to go. i LOVE you and i love you and i love you. i cannot even begin to express how grateful i am for such an incredible family and friends. we all have SO MUCH to be thankful for -- i know i sure do! especially the gospel. yep, biggest blessing of my life. God lives. He loves us all. He has given us so much and i hope you all have so much fun at Thanksgiving! and i love you.

love

sister mich smith