November 27, 2009

Hey Family and Friends
I hope everything is going good back home. Tuesday we had Elder Oaks come and talk to us it was amazing he shared so much knowlegde and his talk was just so inspiring. Yesterday Thanksgiving we had an early morning devotional and Elder Holland came and talked to us at that and his talk was just as amazing we all wrote questions all 2,500 of us missionaries and he answered like 5 questions of all of them and one of them was my question they were anonymous so nobody knew it but me but it was amazing to know that my question was one of the few choosen and when he answered it I felt like we were just having a one on one and he was talking directly to me.

So how was Thanksgiving I hope you remembered to say a pray about everything your thankful for I didnt realize how thankful I was for being able to say all my prayers in the past in English let's just say my prayer took me about 30 min. just because I didnt know how to say what I wanted to say in French. Good thing the Lord can understand broekn/made up French otherwise he would have been very confused. So yesterday at the end of Thanksgiving we had a fireside and we were given time to say what we were thankful for and I had the opprotunity to say what I was thankful for and lets say 1 min wasnt enough even for English. Some of the things I said I was grateful for is first of course my family and how much they mean to me especially not being able to see or communicate with them at all on Thanksgiving I also mentioned how grateful I was for the people that donated money to my mission fund it means alot to me and makes me try even harder knowing that someone else is paying for this. I am also grateful for My Aunts and Uncles that are serving in Armeanea and Kiev and that if they can learn a language that doesnt even make sense then I can sure learn French (Which is going really good) I am also thankful for all of my friends and their influences on me for good and bad for had it not been for the good I wouldnt know what was bad and if not for the bad I wouldnt know the good. and lastly I am thankful for My Savior Jesus Christ who suffered and Died for my sins and knowing that no matter how far astray I was that he never gave up on me and because of his sacrafice I could repent and come back to him.

This next week we start teaching the First lesson in French ALL OF IT! pretty scary but I know as long as I trust in the lord and I am obedient he will help me learn the language and teach by the spirit. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and I would love to hear how everyones Thanksgiving was so drop me a letter on Dearelder.com I always reply but you need to send them to me first because I dont have alot of addresses...Yet... So send me a letter it doesnt even have to be about your Thanksgiving. It can be anything questions or experiences youve had. I love you all and hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving.

Love Elder Van Dyke