Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we fed twenty-two missionaries a nice dinner.  It can be a tough time of the year - particularly for those away from home for the first time.  We made turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy...the missionaries brought dessert and drinks.  The desserts were pretty good!

It takes a long time to feed people here...time to travel to the grocery store, time to cook everything because our oven is really small and time to take the food from our house to the activity center and then set up the tables...etc., etc. The missionaries were very grateful and we told them how grateful we are to them for allowing us to have Thanksgiving as well.  Otherwise we would be home alone and that's no fun.

We played Thanksgving Pictionary...we had each missionary write down something unique that they are grateful for.  Then I picked a few and had them draw a picture on the blackboard.  A few of the unique things they are grateful for include: the applause when an Aeroflot airplane lands, the rolling hills of Oklahoma, crayons, feet, cold weather, yarn, fuzzy kittens and mom...you get the idea.  We then had them write down something they have received that they are grateful for and the the name of the person who gave it to them and what they did to thank that person. They all shared those things with the group.

To top off the day the mission driver left the mission home at 02:30 this morning to drive here with packages so everyone who had one could get it today.  We got a package with lots of fun stuff we asked Hannah to send us...card games to play with students, 200 book rings for scripture mastery cards, socks and knee high nylons and lots of other stuff.  

We are so grateful to be here doing what we're doing.  Tomorrow we get a nice turkey sandwich with homemade cranberry sauce on fresh hot-out-of-the-oven bread.  The new store - that opened here makes the best bread...just like baking it yourself and it's 19 rubles a loaf...like 59 cents or so.  Tomorrow is game night so we'll play our new games...Spoons, Yathzee and Skipbo!