#GiveThanks

Here is a very brief rundown of our week. 

• Monday - Mission Devotional, work, Great Family Home Evening
• Tuesday - Zone Devotional, work, Game Night and Pizza with some missionaries
• Wednesday - Great PSD Department meeting with an awesome video presentation from our Caribbean area, Team meeting, a little work, and an early evening at home
• Thursday - Zone Devotional, a little work, Section meeting and lunch where I scanned two missionary photo albums that Curtis got from previous missionaries. They needed to be returned early the next day so I scanned them through the whole meeting using my portable scanner. And last of all we went to the Temple. The Merrells were the Witness Couple and the Linfords and Venky were on our session too.
  
• Friday - Elder Wilcox's birthday, we spent the whole day putting together small gifts for both Thanksgiving and Christmas for the Interpreters that will be coming in on both of those holidays to interpret for the MTC Devotionals. We are cooking them breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. It will be so fun. Friday night we went to the Bells at Temple Square Christmas Concert for Steve's birthday. It was really nice.
• Saturday - Stayed home. Worked a little on HawkSoft. Also did some Church work. And spent some time chatting with Sara and working with her on her family history. So FUN!!!
• Sunday - Church and a relaxing day of rest
  

What I really want to focus on for the remainder of this blog is Thanksgiving. In 2020 President Nelson started a campaign to flood the world with giving thanks. He asked us to post something on social media every day up to Thanksgiving with a hashtag of @GiveThanks. He felt it could be life changing. It certainly was in the lives of those who took up the challenge. It also was for many people who read those posts. Hearts and lives were softened.

For years, I have kept what I call a "Thankful Journal". Every night I write a single sentence of something I am thankful for during that day. The blessing this has been in my life is hard to describe. Some days it is easy to see the Hand of the Lord in my life. On some of the hard days it stretches me to look for the Hand of the Lord in my life and it surprises me that I can always find something. It helps make those "hard days" not so hard after all. And it always turns my attention to the Lord. He never leaves us alone. He is always there to help us if we turn to Him. I would like to share a few of the posts I shared in 2020 of things I am most thankful for as well as some new things in my life that I am thankful for. I hope you will ponder your life and make a list of things you are thankful for as well. Then you can share them with your loved ones. It will not only bless your life and you see how blessed your really are, but it will also bless the lives of those you share them with.

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Friends are so important. I want to pay tribute to some very special "best" friends. Your friends should make you want to be better than you are. They should strengthen you and uplift you. You, in turn, should do the same thing for them. These friends did that from the very first moment I met them. I wanted to be the very best person I could be around them. They made me reach for something higher in myself. I drew closer to my Heavenly Father because of them. I learned to excel in everything I did because of them. I developed Christlike attributes because of them. I wanted to be perfect because of them.

First and foremost,  my very best friend is my eternal companion,  Steve Wilcox. To me, he has been my savior on Mount  Zion. (Note the small "s" in savior.) He saved me by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with me.  That changed my life forever. I am so very grateful for him. 

I met the next one on December 28, 1972. He made me a mother for the first time. Douhet was the perfect first child as he was so good and easy to care for. Because of him he has siblings! He is a GREAT big brother and always so willing to help.

Season came along on April 18, 1975. Although he looked just like his big brother, he was much more active and sometimes even challenging. He was always trying to keep up with his brother and that sometimes-caused frustration for both of us. His heart is as big as the great outdoors. He was always thinking of things he could make for his siblings. He didn't like being told what to do; but, IF it was HIS idea he would do anything for anyone else.

Finally, on February 18, 1977, we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. She was the first granddaughter born into a hoard of boys and so she became the princess in every sense of the word. Her name, MyLiege Elite even means Elite and Royal Lady. She delighted us with her acting and fun personality. She was all girl.

And Sierra rounded out our little family when she arrived on November 8, 1978. She was the smallest of the four and such a little angel. Her best trait is as a peacemaker. She never like hearing anyone argue and would do whatever she could to help them stop. She didn't like to see anyone sad either. I remember several times when she was little and I was so overwhelmed with 4 little children that sometimes I would be ready to explode. She would grab my hand and lead me to the rocking chair and sit me down and climb in my lap and say, "rocky time Mama". She knew that was what I needed to calm down.

They taught me what I needed to learn to become the person I am today. They continue to teach me as adults as they raise their beautiful children. They have fulfilled the definition of a true friend to help me to strive to be a better person than I am. I am better because of them and I am better for them.

Thank you all for making me who I am.

#lighttheworld2020 #givethanks

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I am so grateful for my Savior and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ. Words cannot say how much I love Him. I try to show my love by being obedient to His will. I want to be like Him. I want to treat others as He would. I fall short, but He forgives me and encourages me to keep trying.

Satan wants me to be consumed with my shortcomings and failings. He is constantly in my head telling me I'm not worthy or I can never change. He emphasizes my weaknesses and tries to tell me that it is too late. That I'm a lost cause.

But, the Holy Ghost constantly reminds me that Jesus Christ gave His life for me so I could repent and be cleansed NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I MESS UP. I can start over AGAIN and AGAIN. He tells me I am of worth and that Jesus loves me more than I can possibly imagine. As I grasp on to that feeling it grows stronger and stronger. I come to KNOW that I am a daughter of God and He loves ME just as I am. He recognizes my efforts and gives me strength to continue in the Covenant Path. He reminds me that I AM good enough and reminds me of all the things I am doing right. He builds me up and tells me He is pleased with me and my efforts to please Him.

I have come to better understand the Godhead and the role they play in my salvation. Heavenly Father loves us so much He sent His only begotten Son to come to earth to suffer for our sins and die for us that we might live again and return to live with Him again. As a parent I can't imagine how hard that was to do knowing how much Jesus would have to suffer. I thank Him for loving us enough to give His Son to us for our salvation.

Jesus Christ is our EVERYTHING. I can't imagine all He had to endure to bring about the great Atonement for each one of us. I have come to realize that just as every ordinance is performed for us individually, the Atonement is also an individual ordinance. He suffered for me and for you because of His great love for us and His 100% obedience to His Heavenly Father. There are not words to thank Him enough.

The Holy Ghost sacrificed having a physical body so He can be with us spiritually. He is a personage of Spirit so He may dwell with us. He is our constant companion to guide and direct us if we but learn to recognize His still small voice. He testifies of the Father and the Son and reveals all truth. I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost in my life.

I love the Godhead!!!

#givethanks

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I remember one night many years ago when we were living in Ogden Utah. I was pregnant with our third child. Steve was working nights. After I put the boys to bed I was studying the Book of Enos in the Book of Mormon. It starts out with his wrestle with God. He prayed all day and all night.

I thought about that. My heart and mind were heavy and I determined that I was going to pray all night, if necessary, until I got an answer to my prayer. I had basically two questions. The first was about forgiveness. I wanted to know for sure that I had been forgiven for my sins. I wanted to know that the Atonement was real.

My second question was about the Book of Mormon. I wanted to know beyond a shadow of a doubt if the Book of Mormon was true. I believed it was. I knew parts of it were true because I had felt the Holy Ghost sometimes when I read it. But did I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Joseph Smith had translated it from the Gold Plates and that it was written for us in this day? That it was written for me?

Well, I got on my knees and began to pray. I poured my heart out. I cried. And I prayed some more. I don't know how long I had prayed but I did not get the answer I was seeking. It had probably only been 30 minutes or so even though it felt like all night. I thought about giving up, thinking God was not going to answer my prayer. Then I thought about Enos again. He poured out his heart out ALL day and ALL night. I had barely scratched the surface. I reminded myself that I was going to pray until I got an answer.

So, I continued on my knees. I continued praying and crying and talking with my Father in Heaven. I may have even dozed a time or two. Finally at some time before dawn I got my answers. I did not hear a voice or see a vision; but, I did experience a peace and joy beyond description. I KNEW my sins had been forgiven. I KNEW Heavenly Father loved me, warts and all. I knew He knew who I was and He loved me. I had been carrying baggage around with me for years and it was all washed away. I have never looked back on those sins again. They are gone forever.

I also know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in a grove of trees in Palmyra, New York to usher in the last dispensation of the fullness of times. I know that a few years later the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph and told him of an ancient record written on gold plates that was deposited in the ground near Joseph's house. That record told of the ancient inhabitants of the American continent and their prophecies about the Savior Jesus Christ. I KNOW their record is true. I know it is another testament of Jesus Christ and is a companion to the Holy Bible. I know all of this because of my wrestle with God one night many years ago because I wanted an answer to my prayer.

#lighttheworld2020 #givethanks

You too can find out for yourself the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. You don’t even have to read the whole book to know if it is true. Just read it and then pray to ask God if it is true. And He will manifest the truthfulness of it unto you! Just scan this QR code to get your own copy of the Book of Mormon and you can know for yourself if it is true.

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I would be ungrateful if I did not express my thanks for the blessings, we have received by serving a mission for our Lord and Savior. Even though we are not serving a proselyting mission where we get to teach and testify, we are still doing the Lord’s work. We are helping to provide the word of the Lord throughout the world in the native tongues of the people.

Doctrine and Covenants 90:11 says, “For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I testify that this is true, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

May you have a Blessed Thanksgiving with your loved ones and remember to whom you owe your greatest thanks: even our Father in Heaven who has given us everything, even life itself!

May God Continue to Bless You,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Leslee

Elder and Sister Wilcox