Thanks to the Giving

This week was great!

This week was also crazy, we had meetings ALL day on Tuesday which
kind of killed my buzz at around 3 o'clock on that day but then we had
interviews with our Mission President, so that brought things back up
to speed. It was another different week but again so full of many
little miracles, sweet and simple.

a few of them....
On thanksgiving day we had a lot of places to go and eat. That had
mixed emotions in itself because of how much food we had to eat. But
anyway, after trying to find some things to do ,because they asked us
not to proselyte as we normally would, we were going back to the
apartment to grab something before going our first dinner. We saw two
people moving a bunch of things in to our very same apartment building
from a Uhaul. We insisted that we help even though they said no they
were fine and we moved all their couches for them. They in the end
were very grateful and it turns out they they are our new across the
hall neighbors. It felt so good to serve a little bit to start the
day. We have resolved to go to a soup kitchen on Christmas day or
Christmas Eve. It will be the best.

Last night after our appointments had fallen through we were zooming
around an apartment complex talking to people and trying to find
someone willing to act on our message we knocked on the door of Alex.
He didn't really at first want to talk to us and told us being in the
military he had talked to missionaries all over the place. When we
asked him where he said, "well.. Connecticut, new jersey, north
Carolina, Virginia, oh! and south Carolina, new York and yeah,
Massachusetts too." We insisted that we deserved another chance and
long story short he did! He has had a rough go of it in life but has
recognized God's hand throughout his time. We were able to connect
with him through that, and even though he wasn't screaming to have us
back he knew what we were about and said that it would be okay if we
came by next week to talk to him again. He is puerto rican (they might
be my favorites)

Last but not least another family who has been less active for YEARS
came to church again. The wild part about them is the Dad was a
Bishop, the son was a missionary etc. etc. We had a brilliant and
brief discussion about the atonement on saturday and the week before,
and they came back. The truth is though that we are just lucky enough
to see them take the step. They have been prepared for years by God,
and we just followed a prompting.

Something all these experiences have in common and something I have
been thinking about over the last few days is one of favorite
scriptures in Spanish. (it is also great in English)
Matthew 25:31-40 ending with the following...
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me.

I am so grateful to serve and for all I have learned. I am grateful
for you and for God.

Be grateful always! life is better that way.

Love//

Elder Bigelow


Here are some photos of our first Thanksgiving. It was 100% Bolivian
and soooo good. Our second was American made by Guatemalans our third
was also made by Guatemalans but they made some of their own food. I
seriously almost vomited at the end of the night, I was contemplating
forcing it I felt so full. Anyway, pictures