Sister Shiffert in Hong Kong : Thanksgiving at the MTC

So in case you're wondering what Thanksgiving at the MTC is like, here it is!

The first thing we did was go to a devotional with a general authority a.k.a. an apostle! It was really funny because everyone wanted to get the closest seats possible because who doesn't want to sit near an apostle? So everyone started lining up like 30+ minutes before they opened the doors (our district included lol) and someone likened it to Black Friday because they predicted the minute the ushers opened the door, the mob of people would rush to the door and start shoving so they could get good seats. Hahaha! I will say that were very civil missionaries lol! So the apostle that spoke was Elder Dallin H. Oaks! He is so awesome! I don't have time to go into the specifics of his talk, but it was mostly about the history of Thanksgiving and how we should be thankful to God for everything, including our trials and adversities. We should give thanks for our adversities because it gives us to opportunity to turn to God and grow. If we are thankful, He will bestow even more blessings upon our heads (D&C 78:19). He also had his family there who performed musical numbers throughout the devotional. Jenny Oaks Baker and her family performed a beautiful arrangement of "Love Is Spoken Here." Look up the family's music video on lds.org and I promise you won't regret it! The instrumental talent in that family is amazing!

Instead of a Thanksgiving dinner, we had a Thanksgiving lunch so the workers could spend Thanksgiving dinner with their families (which is totally understandable!). I was pleasantly surprised by the food because it was really good! Nothing like the food at home, but I was still so grateful and so much I thought I would explode. We had super tender turkey, real mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and rolls. And dessert was pumpkin pie with legit vanilla bean ice cream which was to die for. I am so thankful to the workers were willing to spend part of their Thanksgiving serving us a meals instead of being with their families!

So I was asked to give the opening prayer for our humanitarian devotional which was a little nerve wracking because I was saying a prayer on behalf of 1,500 people. However, the Lord was with me and I think it went well! We learned about our service project during this devotional which was such an amazing experience to be a part of. We made meals for families in Utah and packaged and boxed them up to be sent off. The meals consisted of lentils, rice, dried vegetables and rink Himalayan salt. fun fact: the pick Himalayan salt is the healthiest salt on earth and this meal is the cheapest and healthiest meal you could have. One bag about the size of a quart baggie can feed a family of six. Each table had a goal of 13 boxes with 48 meals in each box. Our table ended up doing 16 boxes with 35 meals left unboxed because they ran out of boxes for our group. We found out later that night we exceeded our goal of feeding 350,000 people and ending up making enough meals to feed 357,947! That is so awesome! I am so blessed I got to be a part of such an amazing project.

I mentioned that we didn't have a Thanksgiving dinner, but that's okay because we had sack dinners and everyone in our zone ate in the hallway together. It was a lot of fun and I feel like our zone is one big family so I can say that I had a family Thanksgiving dinner :) After dinner we watched "17 Miracles" which was about the pioneers so so watch it if you can! It's sooo good!

Our Thanksgiving devotional was awesome. There were speakers, video clips, performances, and singing, and I just loved all of it! It was organized by "Gratitude for..." so some of the topics were family, music, the gospel, church membership, the Savior, etc. The Spirit was SO strong throughout the whole devotional!. I think one of my favorite parts was our closing hymn "I Believe in Christ." We were singing and about halfway through the third verse, people started standing up. By the beginning of the fourth verse, we were all standing and singing "I Believe in Christ!" The Spirit just overwhelmed everyone. The power of music never ceases to amaze me.

I hope all of you had an amazing Thanksgiving! I know I did!