Thanksgiving

Dear Family and friends,

     It has been a pretty busy week with feeding the Elder's Thanksgiving Dinner, having Zone Conference for two days and to top it off a great Thanksgiving with all the trimmings including turkey.  Our Thanksgiving with the Elder's will always be remembered and this time next yr we will be home so we wanted it to be special.  They do not celebrate Thanksgiving here but we wanted them to experience the joy of giving thanks for all the many blessings that we all enjoy.  We told them we don't need a day of Thanksgiving, to give thanks but we need to give thanks to a loving Heavenly Father everyday.  That we all have so many things to be grateful for.   We all bore our testimony and it was so spiritual and wonderful.  We felt the spirit so strong and we believe that they truly got the meaning of it all.  We hadn't been able to get a turkey but we fed them 3 roasted chickens and dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and fruit salad.  The pies weren't the best.  But I did learn that pie crust is not flakey with how humid it is here.  They kind of reminded me of hockey pucks.  Anyway all went well. 

     Our Zone conference started with Elder Palmer picking up the President and his wife.  President and Sister Hicken and the AP;s at the airport.  I had to stay behind because of not enough room in the truck.  He delivered them to the Mombasa Branch and came back to pick me up.  We had a great day.  All the Chyulu Elder's arrived (8) and with our 6 we had quite a bunch.  The Elder's always bring in a special spirit to these meeting.  We ended the day taking them to the Serena Hotel in Bamburi and found they had reservations for us also.  Great to get away and the Hotel was beautiful.  Waking up this morning to the beautiful beach and beautiful flowers was really a treat for us.  We attended the Mombasa Branch again for 4 more missionary interviews and then off to the airport with them.  We hurried home to remember we had an Thanksgiving Dinner invitation from some Utah'ns.  Wow they actually had a turkey brought in which cost them an arm and a leg but we sure had a feast.  We came home with full bellies and so grateful for the wonderful wk.  Of course we missed our family and talked a lot about you all.  People are amazed of what a beautiful family we have and every chance I get I do a little bragging.  (a lot)

     We just want you all to know how much we truly love you and how grateful we are for all the lords blessings.  We send love to you all.  Love Mom & Dad, friend and grandpa & grandma