Count your many blessings...

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost
count your many blessings, name them one by one
and it will surprise you what the lord has done.


This is in my top five favorite hymns. I can't think of this hymn without thinking of Carmencita. A little old grandma in Argentina. She sat in a wheelchair. Lived in a one room shack built out of sheets of metal. She got her water from a pumped well outside of her house. I'm not sure where her bathroom was... probably outside.My missionary companion and I taught her grandson the gospel, and she listened in on the lessons. After he was baptized she liked us to keep coming around to teach her. She couldn't come to church because she mostly was in her bed, or in her wheelchair. But she dearly wanted to. We visited her once a week and she always wanted us to sing her this song. Sometimes we'd sing it to her when we arrived and again before we left. She always found a long list of things to be grateful for. Sometimes she would be grouchy because she didn't feel well, and we'd have to remind of the things she said she was grateful for the week before. Pretty soon she would be happy again.

It's amazing how being grateful can make us happy. We then realize how blessed we are and how little we really have to complain about.

I was thinking about this topic on my drive home from Alaina's today. (update: Roland had surgery for a ruptured appendix, I went to pick of Milo and bring him to my house to take care of him for tonight and tomorrow.)

Last night we had a Family HOme Evening on the first Thanksgiving. I told the kids about the pilgrims and their search for a land where they could worship freely.... all the story. Then today, Jacob was so excited because his teacher read them a story about the pilgrims and the mayflower. (He was a little more impressed with his teachers story,because she was able to answer his important question about how many sails the Mayflower had on it. Four sails, if any of you are wondering. I'm sure there was a picture in the book.)

so Jacob was telling me this and I was thinking during my two hour drive home of things I am grateful for.
First off, I was grateful that we had Family Home Evening last night and I taught Jacob about the first Thanksgiving before he learned it at school. For some reason I felt so proud of myself that he heard it from me first. I hope that he will continue to hear the important information from Chad and I first.

But the majority of my time was spent musing about how grateful I am to be a sister and to have sisters.
#1. I love my sisters and my brother. To be a sister to them is a blessing. I am so grateful I was able to bring Milo back and help out Alaina this way. Who else do you want your kids to be with if they need to be away from you (next to a grandparent)? You want them with one of your sisters! Thanks to Alaina, I left Jacob and Lia Belle with her for a week in Feb. of this year, when chad and I took a trip. She was the only person I could have comfortably left them with. Any of my sisters or my brother would have done that for me and I would do it for them.

#2. Hermana- the spanish word for Sister. From November of 96 - May of 98 I was called Hermana Belcher by the wonderful people of Argentina. What a blessing it was to be a sister to my missionary companions and to our dear investigators and friends. Each of my companions felt like a true sister. I would gladly drive two hours or more to help any of my companions out if they were in need. I would do it then and I would do it now. And I know they would do the same for me.

#3. My Relief Society sisters- I am so grateful for Relief Society. No matter where I go in the world, I can show up at a ward Relief Society and find sisters there who will be my friend, who will help me out and who will lift me up. When we moved to Vancouver, we didn't know a soul. We went to church and the Relief Society president said, "Ah ha, I see that you are about to have a baby, what can we do to help?" me: "I need someone I can leave my son with when we go to the hospital. Someone I can call day or night." (Alaina didn't live her at the time.) she: "No problem. Here are a list of names and numbers." In the next few weeks we called these sisters, had them over for dinner so we could get to know eachother. and I had not one worry about calling sister Shurtliff or her daughter, Heather at midnight to come and watch Jacob while we went to the hospital to have Lia Belle.

Soo I am grateful for sisters, to be one, to have many. To be part a worldwide sisterhood, and my familial sisterhood. If I had to count all the women I feel a sisterhood with, I would have a very long post. So, if you are reading this count yourself a sister to me.


Look forward to more gratitude posts this month.