E-mail dated 11/30/09

Well let me just wish everyone a happy december because its the first tomorrow!!! Our whole apartment is getting very excited for Christmas. But let me first update you on this past week. For Thanksgiving day we had a normal day of proselyting until about 4. Then our whole zone got together at a school and we brushed their school yard for them. Yes all 14 of us were cutting bush with cutlasses for this school. After the service project our District went to the only restaurant in town and ordered a 20,000 le hamburger for our thanksgiving celebration, again.

The next day was zone conference in which we got fed again this time rice. For zone conference we were instructed by sister squires about being grateful, even for the difficult things in life. She told us a story that I'm going to try and share over email. A woman was going through a hard time during this years Thanksgiving season. It seemed as if everything in her life was going wrong. She had got in a car accident three months ealier when she was 6 months pregnant and the accident killed there child. (you can fill in the blanks with other difficult times that we all face). She went into a flower shop to order the usual Thanksgiving bouquet of flowers. She approached the clerk and the clerk greeted her, and she grumbled something back. They got talking and all of the things going wrong in this womans life made her a little ungrateful for what God has blessed her with. The clerk said "Oh, I have the perfect arraignment for you. Its the Thanksgiving special." "What's that?" the woman murmured in return. Just at that moment another customer came up and thanked the clerk for preparing the special for him. The woman was amazed when the clerk came out with twelve rose stems with the roses cut off. the woman couldn't believe that this man just paid for 12 rose stems. She asked "How is that the special?" The clerk replied that " we need to be grateful for the thorns in life, to make us better appriciate the roses." "How can I be grateful for all these bad things that have happened to me and ruined my life?" retorted the woman back. Just at that moment another customer came to pick up her pre-ordered 'thanksgiving special'. The clerk and the woman once again got into conversation and the clerk reminded her " If we aren't grateful for the thorns in life the roses won't mean anything to us. Let us remember that Jesus Christ suffered all of our difficult times for us and that it was a crown of thorns that they placed on his head in his hour of difficulty." At that moment the woman began to feel a burden lift off of her shoulder and for the first time in a long time her heart was touched. "I'll take one of those 'thanksgiving specials' asked the woman. The clerk replied "the first years always on me." (I just quoted that from memory. Maybe google it if you want the full extended version).

This story made me reailze that not only do I need to be gratful for the roses in my life, but also the thorns. for through these thorny times is when I have grown nearer to God than at any other moment. I'm grateful for all the trials I've had in my life and all the experiences I've gone through, because they really have made me who I am today.

On Saturday we had a District Conference for the Bo District. All 7 branches in Bo and the one branch in kenema met at our District center for this event. After the conference President and Sister Squires drove Elder Lamb and I back to freetown for us to attend a meeting there. So here I am in Freetown now. Today was one of those thorns I'm grateful for. Ironically Elder Lamb and I both woke up not feeling the best and we have both been staggering along all day. I'm also grateful for the priesthood as I've learned to always ask for blessings when I'm sick. It sounds kind of wierd back home to offer a blessing to someone with just a fever. Its as if we only offer blessings back home when we are on our death beds. I know the power of the priesthood will heal me from my sickness and we will go and do what the lord commands us. I love being out here on mission. I've gone through many thorny times and many rosy times and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.

Elder Degen
Rice is Life