First Snow!

We haven't had too much exciting to blog about lately, but we did have our first snow this weekend. It snowed for a while yesterday, but didn't stick and today it has been snowing all day. The ground is still pretty warm, so I don't think it will stick, but I'm thankful we are flying down to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving so we don't have to worry about driving on snowy roads. We are so excited to be with the Cardon's. Taylor will drive down on Tuesday from Provo with some friends. It will be so fun to all be together. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I love Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday. You get to be together with family and eat yummy food and just be thankful and count your blessings. Plus, you don't have the stress of buying presents. For our visiting teaching message this month, I chose to teach from President Monson's talk on Gratitude. It seemed a very appropriate message for the month of giving thanks. I gave each of my sisters an "Attitude of Gratitude" journal to write everything they are thankful for. I wrote all my blessings down last year for Thanksgiving and I love that my list went on and on. My prayers are too often prayers of "asking" and not enough of "thanking". It is so nice to look at my list and add to it because we do have sooo much to be thankful for. I love this quote from President Monson: "Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings. This is a wonderful time to be on earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good. There are marriages that make it, parents who love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach. Our lives are blessed in countless ways.
We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that “gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
How can we cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude? President Joseph F. Smith, sixth President of the Church, provided an answer. Said he: “The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil. Love overpowers jealousy, and light drives darkness out of his life.” He continued: “Pride destroys our gratitude and sets up selfishness in its place. How much happier we are in the presence of a grateful and loving soul, and how careful we should be to cultivate, through the medium of a prayerful life, a thankful attitude toward God and man!”
We had a great Relief Society activity this week in the YSA Branch where we made caramel apples. They turned out so delicious! I'm thankful to the Branch RS leaders who did so much preparation to put the activity together. We each made at least 3 apples and we also dipped pretzels. YUM!