Thanksgiving Dinner with the Senior Missionaries

There are 14 Senior Missionaries in our mission, and we decided to do a Thanksgiving dinner at the institute. We had to wait until 3 p.m. to close up the building before we could really start cleaning and bringing down the dishes from upstairs. We had them nearly all washed and dried when the Westons came. After getting the tables set ( I should say the ping pong table) and the serving table ready, we put the final touches on the food. Everyone began arriving at 5:00. Some had a 2 hour drive and had a hard time finding the building. Side dishes included mashed sweet potatoes with a coconut, pecan topping, a raspberry cream cheese salad, a waldorf salad, brioche, hand dipped chocolates, fruit & cheese platter, and fresh vegetables. The only negative was the cost of the turkey--75 pounds. Americans aren't used to paying that kind of money for a turkey. It wasn't a bit better than our "free with $50 of groceries" turkey.

I thought we would play cards and pool and have a good time, but by the time we got things cleaned up, it was 10:30 and everyone was bushed. It was a very nice day. I have to say that even though we didn't have our own dishes and serving pieces and tablecloths from home, we did our best to make it look nice.

As we went around the table saying what we were thankful for, it was a tender experience to hear how good Heavenly Father has been to all of us in so many different ways.