A day of Thanksgiving was initiated back in 1789 by George Washington who was urged by both houses of Congress to issue a proclamation reminding us that "it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor...and recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness"
(http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/?dod-date=1123)
The fourth Thursday of November was proclaimed to be our national Thanksgiving day by Abraham Lincoln. He intended for Americans "to have a day in which to show their appreciation for the treasures of our land, value the principles of our founding, and to reverently seek to live with integrity and humility in the face of all that our nation and our people have been given and to recognize the source from which they come."
All that we have has come from God, even our very lives. And we as an American people have been richly blessed. How ungrateful of us if we cannot take even one day to remember that Power on High which has given us so much. How much worse if we can't even say the word "Thanks" when we mention the holiday.
One thing I am thankful for this Thanksgiving is the many young men and women who are willing to volunteer 18 months to two years of their lives to leave their families, go abroad and share the joyous message of the gospel of Jesus Christ -- all at their own expense. There are 80,000 of them serving this year, and that number continues to grow. As some come home, others go out in their place. And why do they do it? Because they love God and they want all of His children to know the joy they have found in their lives.
In our family we have two nieces currently serving as missionaries. A nephew just returned from his mission. Many other sons, nieces and nephews have already served and returned home again. Their testimonies of God are strong and they have laid a great foundation for living lives of integrity and raising families to do the same.
My niece serving in Moscow and Nizhny Russia wrote:
"This Thanksgiving, I am most grateful for God's hand in not only my life right now, but the lives of the people who I have come to love more than I thought was humanly possible and who I have given everything to serve over the past year. His love is incomprehensibly present in this work right now.. and I"m so grateful to be in Nizhny with an amazing companion and to be meeting people who I keep feeling like I have met before. I know God's plan is real, and bigger than we can know - we are doing things that we have been preparing to do in the time before we even came to Earth. We are meeting people whose lives we had promised to touch. He is trusting us to live up to a potential that we sometimes lose sight of- but it is great and significant.. because He is great and He is our Father."
"We found a super awesome lady named Gloria this week! She and her family are Catholic, and when we first met her I was afraid it would go nowhere because most of the Catholics here are so stubborn about their faith, but she said she likes learning about other religions and wants to hear more of the word of God. We had another lesson with her this week and she said she had read the Restoration pamphlet that we gave her. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and explained what it is and she seemed super curious! She looked at every page in the front of the book and she said she felt good when we were telling her about it. We explained that that was the influence of the Holy Ghost. She said she would read the Book of Mormon and we left her with a specific chapter to read. She said she's been having some problems with with her husband because he drinks and that she's been hoping someone would come to help her. Now here's the really cool part: she told us that she had had two dreams in which she saw the image that's on the front of the Restoration pamphlet and had tried asking people what it meant but no one knew. She had forgotten about it, but when we gave her the pamphlet she remembered the dreams. Ah, she is chosen by God! I know she's prepared to hear our message! Her soul is hungering for the truth and we have the privilege of showing her where to find a spiritual feast. I'm so excited to see how our next lesson with her goes."
Thank you to all of these brave, unselfish, God-fearing young adults! They are the "salt" of the earth. May God bless them in their efforts to find "His sheep."
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