Thanksgiving "break"

Thanksgiving

Sister Huskey and I got to play in the Turkey Bowl. I think we irritated everyone a little bit because they had to make it two hand touch instead of tackle just for us, but it was so much fun. Elder Loomis, the one who is playing for the U when he gets home, had a little too much fun I think. He was like a little kid on Christmas. I even managed to run the ball a few yards, how about that?

By the time we were done playing, we were exhausted and ready for that Thanksgiving binge. We showed up at the McClellans' home, where Sister McClellan was running around the kitchen all by herself, preparing dinner despite the fact that it was one of her "sick days" (she has been fighting cancer and is more often than not tired, achy and dizzy). That woman is an angel! We told her to go lay down while we and her 14 year old son Evan finished cooking. Despite a pressure cooker explosion and an extra cup of milk in the pumpkin squares, everything turned out really well! Both sets of elders showed up for dinner and we had a blast eating dinner and going around saying what we were thankful for until we ran out of things and devolved to naming every food item we could think of.

This Thanksgiving, I was most thankful for the opportunity to feel at home while on a mission. I imagine that not every missionary gets to spend the holidays in a warm home with a family that treats them like their own children, carrying on the holiday traditions of their childhoods, and eating familiar foods. I feel so blessed to be able to have all of that.

Doris Houston

One of my absolute most favorite people to visit and teach is Doris. I think I may have mentioned her before, but she is an older woman who lives in a rehabilitation center because she has no legs and very little use of her hands. Even though she is confined to her room most of the time and can't usually get to church, she has one of the sweetest and most optimistic personalities I know of. When we share lessons with her, she usually ends up teaching us more than we teach her and is always willing to bear her testimony of the church to us with so much conviction.

Well, this Sunday, she got to come to church! One of the nurses that works with her agreed to drive her this week. She was so excited. A few days before, she picked out her outfit and everything. When she got to the church, she was immediately greeted by what appeared to be every single old lady in the ward. They all remembered her from when she was actively attending church. Doris was thrilled. It was so humbling to see how grateful she was for such a simple blessing.

The Morgan Family

On Friday we got a call from a less active woman in our ward named Barbara Davis, saying that her grandson, Gabriel, was in a bike accident and needed a blessing. She was near hysterical. We called the Elders and hopped in our car to make the drive over to the hospital in Fort Smith that Gabriel was in. When we got there, we called his mother, Sister Morgan. She answered, sounding frantic, and said"

"Sisters, I can't talk right now. Things are really crazy. My son had a bike accident and is in the emergency room."

Sister Huskey: "Sister Morgan, it's okay. We're at the hospital right now with the elders and they're going to give your son a blessing."

Sister Morgan asked if we were serious and began to choke up. Their family is not very active in church and I don't think that Sister Morgan would have ever thought to call the missionaries to give her son a blessing. We met her outside the emergency room and followed her in with the Elders, who laid their hands upon Gabriel's head and blessed him with a full recovery and the ability to trust in Heavenly Father during his trials.

Gabriel is a 13 year old little rebel and probably wouldn't admit that that blessing had any sort of impact on him. But the look on his face as he shook Elder Loomis' hand said otherwise. I really believe that the simple act of Barbara Davis calling up the missionaries for a blessing might have softened the hearts of their entire family. Even though I can't physically hold the priesthood or give blessings, I have been able to witness firsthand the huge blessing it can be for everyone that has the faith to ask for it.

I'll wrap this email up with a scripture Sister Huskey showed me that I love.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to aseparate us from the blove of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.