1st week of transfer 2!!! Email From Jenny, Mon. Nov. 21 8:27am

Happy Thanksgiving!!! :D I hope all of you enjoy eating turkey and sleeping in...sleep in a little for me, will you? haha where does the time go? I feel like I just emailed yesterday! We have really been trying to work with the ward members to further the work here in Zionsville, it's tricky because we want to be effective with what we ask, so we don't feel like a burden to the members. We are teaching a young girl who's family is in our ward but not super active. She has 7 siblings, so you can imagine the chaos of trying to teach her... not to mention they were putting up the Christmas tree in the same room we were teaching (I know, people are super ambitious about putting up Christmas decorations, Thanksgiving hasn't even happened! haha it's great though because it's making me even more excited for the holidays) she was pretty smart though, and knew a lot of stories in the scriptures :) her mom even commented that her daughter may even know more than her!! You could see the wheels turning in her head as everything we taught started to fit together like pieces to a puzzle :)

We visited the town of Sheridan, and did service and was able to visit with some sisters :) Sister Blue tells us the most random things. For example, did you know there are 7 meats on a turtle you can eat? or that there is a brown lady bug imported from Asia (I think that is what she said) that bites? haha definitely increasing my knowledge of random facts. That night though it started pouring rain! It was crazy because it was super warm that day and the day before! But, out of nowhere there was a downpour like no other! Buckets of water and tons of lightning! It was awesome!! But now, because of this, it is freezing cold. Maybe even colder than the winters in Las Vegas :) haha 

I wanted to talk a little bit about gratitude in honor of Thanksgiving :) We had some great talks in sacrament about gratitude and I wanted to share some things with you. Remember the classic story of the 10 lepers and how only one thanked Christ? He says that his faith made him whole, but what if it was the act of gratitude that made him whole? To show gratitude is an act of faith after all. Gratitude focuses on the present moment, the here and now and can change your perception of life in a miraculous way. Turning to God to thank Him for our blessings shows Him that we are accepting His divine hand in our lives, and elevates our lives so that we can be closer to Him. Having an attitude of gratitude effects everything in your life, no matter the circumstances or challenges. It is all about how we react to life and not what happens to us that really determines who we become. I invite you all to say a gratitude prayer this week before Thanksgiving and thank God for a solid amount of time. Take time to recognize the little blessings and tender mercies you don't normally pay attention to, and God will bless you more and you will be able to recognize them more and your testimony of God's love for you will grow. Ever have someone not appreciate a gift you've given them? It's awful. Please don't do that to God.

Update: Brian, wasn't able to meet him last week because he was out of town, hopefully this week though! 

Dawn, (the new investigator we found) wasn't home when we went to visit, but we are going to try again this week :)

Thank you for all your prayers!! I love you all!!

Serving with a smile :)

Sister Bradley

-Mural at Lions Park- pretty fierce right?