Gratitude

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

     We had a great Thanksgiving week in Long Beach! We started off with leadership training on Tuesday, our school break started Wednesday, the rest of the week we enjoyed spending time with our family.
     Tuesday we had training with our zone leaders, district leaders and Cambodian speaking Elders. We served enchiladas, rice, beans and salad. The missionaries really seemed to enjoy it and I had to rescue some of the enchiladas for our office missionaries before everyone came back for seconds. Ted said the training went really well. We are all feeling the urgency of preparing for the many new missionaries who will soon be arriving in Long Beach.
     It was great to have a few days off from school and early morning seminary. Ben and Mari relaxed and spent some time with friends. Ben had fun at the ward turkey bowl (young men’s football game) but felt pretty sore for the next few days.
     The Boswell’s arrived on Thursday. We decided to not have a big dinner that day so we drove to the beach and had dinner at Denny’s! It was actually delicious and lots of fun. It didn’t feel much like Thanksgiving but we will always remember our casual celebration in Seal Beach for Thanksgiving 2012.
     One of our missionaries had a seizure Friday and had some serious complications. We are so grateful that after several days in the ICU he is improving. Ted spent many hours at the hospital with our Elder as well as on the phone with our Elder’s parents. This was definitely the scariest medical emergency we have had during our mission. We are grateful for good doctors and nurses and to be in a place where good medical care is readily available.
     Sunday we had a very simple Thanksgiving lunch with the Boswells. We made a chicken casserole instead of roasting a turkey, had most of the other traditional sides and bought Marie Calendar’s pies for dessert. It actually tasted like Thanksgiving without the hours of preparation.
     We finally took the Boswells to Signal Hill Sunday evening. Even though it was a bit overcast we were able to enjoy a beautiful view and sunset and most of all just being together!
I love this time of year. It’s wonderful to have such meaningful holidays that really help us to focus on the things that matter most; our family, friends and our Savior. I loved these thoughts on gratitude from President Monson:

Gratitude is a divine principle. The Lord declared through a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith:
“Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things. …

“And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things.” 

In the Book of Mormon we are told to “live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which [God] doth bestow upon you.”

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!” 

President Smith is telling us that a prayerful life is the key to possessing gratitude.

Do material possessions make us happy and grateful? Perhaps momentarily. However, those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us. Unfortunately, these are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for granted.

The English author Aldous Huxley wrote, “Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.”

We often take for granted the very people who most deserve our gratitude. Let us not wait until it is too late for us to express that gratitude. Speaking of loved ones he had lost, one man declared his regret this way: “I remember those happy days, and often wish I could speak into the ears of the dead the gratitude which was due them in life, and so ill returned.” 

The loss of loved ones almost inevitably brings some regrets to our hearts. Let’s minimize such feelings as much as humanly possible by frequently expressing our love and gratitude to them. We never know how soon it will be too late.

A grateful heart, then, comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. Often we feel grateful and intend to express our thanks but forget to do so or just don’t get around to it. Someone has said that “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”  


I am so grateful for each of you – thank you for bringing so much joy to our lives!

We love you,
The Long Beach Buberts