Being grateful

       Well just to clear up some confusion real quick. Last week the beer we drank was 100% Alcohol-free!! No worries, I'm still keepin the word of wisdom! As far as this week goes though, it was great! The biggest thing I learned this week was to always be grateful!! I had a couple experiences in the last few days where I realized not how ungrateful I have been, rather how not grateful I have been. There is a big difference.
       By not being grateful we realized that we should be grateful, but we keep ourselves from showing how grateful we are. When we are not grateful we are simply clueless to the idea of expressing our attitude.
       Elder Bahr and i had the opportunity to meet two separate people that live in refugee housing. This first one was a single mom and her three girls all under the age of 10. They are just trying to live a better and happier life away from what they ran from. The mom is already a member and she smiles all the time and laughs when she talks! She is amazing! Currently she is struggling to receive a visa to be able to stay in Germany, so we happily gave her a blessing that she had requested. She was so happy and so grateful for the blessing and our visit. Although she had nothing, and even tried to give us food, she was so happy and proved that she was grateful. Not once did I hear her complain.
       After that, we met with one of our African investigators and his best friend. They are two of the coolest guys I have met!! We talked to them about the first vision and the Book of Mormon. They said that they have to read the Book to find out if it's true, which is incredibly right! Like I mentioned earlier, they also live in refugee housing and their apartment is even worse off. They each had the own "apartment" that was just smaller than a shipping container on one of those huge ships. Which means enough room for a bed, a small fridge, and a small rug. He had a couple bags with clothes in them and that was just about all he had to his name. These two guys taught me a huge lesson!! Just like the lady I just talked about, they were always grateful! Yes, they mentioned that life was hard. But they never complained once. Instead, they would say, "We thank God."
       As I left their humble homes I walked home feeling guilty and pretty embarrassed at how I had not been showing how grateful I should've been. I hope that we can all realize how much we are blessed. We all have so much, so be grateful! No complaining. Yes, we all have our own trials and our own hardships, but whining about never got anyone anywhere. I've challenged myself and I challenged everyone that reads this to do what the Spirit of the Lord tells you to. Act on impressions, don't complain, just simply do as the Lord commands!
       Before I dip I thought I would just finish it with a quote from our outstanding Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson: "My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."
       I'll catch you all next week! I hope we can all be a little bit more grateful! I know that as we do, we will truly recognize more and more blessings every day because we are pointing out our blessings! Why would you waste your time whining about your wants, when you could be helping someone with their needs? Think about that!
Elder Rogers