Hermana Rebecca Gifford Serves in Oregon: Turkey

Hello Hello my fellow fans.

How was everyones' Thanksgiving? It was a great Thanksgiving here in McMinville and yet another great week!

For Thanksgiving we woke up, exercised, and did studies. Then the exciting stuff happened! I took a nap and then put up Christmas decorations haha. After that we had dinner with the West family and all their extended family. And thennnn right after that we drove to the mission home and had another Thanksgiving dinner with President and Sister Samuelian! Naturally they couldn't know I just ate 30 minutes prior so I stuffed my face at both places haha.

After that we went over and visited Rose, Carlos and their family. They had music blasting and people were doing nice Latino dancing. Obviously I felt super uncomfortable since we don't listen to any loud music. I started chewing my nails (I haven't chewed my nails in over a year :) woo I finally got over that habit. I bet that makes dad happy haha) and was shaking my legs. I didn't think I was being too obvious but Rose came up to me and said, "You seem really anxious what’s going on?" Needless to say we didn't stay very long haha :)

I may or may not be the typical "weird" missionary...But it was a great Thanksgiving! I was thinking about last years Thanksgiving how I was in Mexico and they tried to create a cute little Thanksgiving dinner for us.

At President's home we went around the dinner table and said what we are most grateful for. This time of year I am especially grateful for the Atonement. But to be more specific than that I am grateful for the power of change. The Lord is 100% on our side as we strive to become more like the Savior. I have realized a million weaknesses on my mission that I never knew I had but the Lord is right by my side helping me become a little more like Him every day.

Well we are preparing for the wedding and baptism for this weekend! Rose and Carlos will be getting married on Saturday at the church building. Sunday right after the First presidency Christmas devotional Rose will be getting baptized. We are holding off for a little bit with Carlos. He is still having some struggles with the Word of Wisdom so we feel it is best we wait a little until he has quit. Please keep them in your prayers! Hermana Wilde and I were the wedding planners so...hopefully it looks okay haha. We also got to go to the temple with their whole family this week. It was great. Our branch mission leader took all of us in his giant van. Rose and Carlos loved walking around the temple.

We weren't able to see Ana this week because she has been in Salem for Thanksgiving break but we hope to see her tomorrow! We had FHE with Christopher and his family in a members home and it went really well.

We had a great lesson with Yoselin! We are excited for the semester to end so that her schedule slows down. We had the lesson at the West's home and we talked about temples and family history. She really loved to hear about baptisms for the dead. She is an awesome girl. There aren't many 17-year-old girls out there that are willing to talk with us and learn more of the Savior. We have planned a bunch of temple trips with her but they have never worked so we are planning on going to the temple when she is on Christmas break from school.

Hermana Wilde and I have started listening to Christmas music. I never have paid a lot of attention to the words of the music. Christmas music is so powerful. I love being able to listen to music of the Savior every day.

Funny story.....Friday and Saturday were super busy days. When Sunday came around and we were headed to church...I noticed we were out of gas...and it were really out....soooo we got to walk all day! It was great to get out of our car and talk to people. It was 26 degrees so that was a little chilly but sometimes cars can be a little more of a curse than a blessing so we are going to work on walking more.

Well that about sums everything up! I hope you all have a great week. Listen to Christmas music of the Savior and listen to the words. He is the light, the light and the hope of the world!

Love you all!

Hermana Gifford <3