Grateful

November 26, 2016

There is a lot to be grateful for this week, as there is every week, but I will share just a few of the things that I am grateful for this week.

Zone Conference

I am grateful for gluten free food. This week we had zone conference on Thursday, which I´ll talk more about below, after zone conference we had pancakes as a zone. I am grateful for Elder Stulen, a new Elder from Norway who is also gluten free, and that we could share our Thanksgiving feast of toast and Nutella together. Over the past couple of months, we have been able to become good friends as we bring each other different gluten free foods to zone and mission activities. I am grateful for gluten free friends. After our zone conference the missionaries in our ward went for pie at the mission home. When we got there, we were given plates of real Thanksgiving dinner to take home for lunch the following day. Then they pulled out the pies, and Hermana Pack, amongst all the other things she had done and cooked for her family that day, had made one of the pies with a gluten free crust so that I could enjoy it as well. 

While we were at the Pack´s home we talked about some of the things that we are most grateful for. I thought about something that I had been reminded of in Zone conference that morning, focus on the people, they matter the most. I had made a list of some of the people that have most greatly impacted my mission, and as I thought about these people I realized how much I have come to love them. It is hard to express what it means to have seen the atonement work in people´s lives and create bonds and then have to leave those people. I love the Spanish people, their culture, their food, their personalities, their faithfulness. I am grateful to be serving with them here in Spain. I have been very blessed to be taught by them as we have sat in discussions together talking of things that are of the greatest importance.

After the Pack´s I had the opportunity to Skype my family. (I was given special permission to change my skype date because I will be going home two days after Christmas.) I am very grateful for that opportunity that I had to talk with my family through video calls. I am grateful for the technology that we have that makes communication over long distances so much easier. During that call I was impressed by the strength and power that radiated from my family. There is very little for which I can be more grateful than the family that I have. Parents who honor sacred covenants and who taught me the ways of the Lord. For an older sister who has finally found me a brother, and who she will marry in the Temple sealing themselves together for not just time but eternity as well. I am grateful for two wonderful younger sisters who radiate virtue and love in a world that scoffs at morals. I am grateful for my family.

I am grateful most of all for the love of a Heavenly Father who is my constant companion. I am grateful that I have the Holy Ghost to instruct me and to guide me. I am grateful for the power that comes from a constant daily scripture study. There is no way to have joy in this life if it is built upon anything other than having a close relationship with our Father in Heaven. I am grateful for the mistakes that I have made. They allow me to see with more clarity and help me not to fall in the same places again. I love my Savior and could never express sufficient gratitude towards Him for His sacrifice.

I love you all,
Elder Gustafson