Thankful

"The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil." --President Joseph F. Smith

I don't express my gratitude for all the wonderful things in my life enough. So, here's my list of 100 things (in no particular order) I'm thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! :)

1) My family
(Almost all of us...Just missing Charbel, Lyla, and Baby girl Ford :)
2) The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the huge part that it plays in my life.
3) Roommates


4) My job
5) Being able to attend such an amazing University (which I take for granted far too much)
6) A relatively cheap, good place to live
7) A car that runs. Even though it's a piece of junk, I'm so happy to have something I can drive.
8) Music. All kinds of it....I don't know if I'd like life so much without music. Especially songs like this.
9) The Marriage and Family classes I have taken here at BYU.
10) The Ensign
11) Patriarchal Blessings
12) The power of Prayer.
13) Feeling God's hand directing my life
14) Having a temple only 5 minutes away from where I live and being able to do baptisms on a weekly basis there.
15) The job I had this summer that made it possible for me to make it through another year with no student loans.
16) Journals
17) My amazing nieces and nephews, who constantly amaze me with the things they say and do.
"Yea, even babes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things; and the things which they did utter were forbidden that there should not any man write them."(3 Nephi 26:16)



18) Blackjack Tacos (I am addicted, yesssss)
19) Zupas!
20) My sisters.

21) My brothers.

22) The Mountains and that I can live so close to them.
23) Skype
24) Target.
25) The Wii: For bringing families together!

26) Mario Kart on the Wii, and the Barker-Barker combination ;-)

27) Pictures and Photography.
28) Eternal Families.
29) The amazing brother in laws and sister in law that I have. My siblings sure know how to pick them :)
30) Being raised by parents that have strong testimonies and have given me such a wonderful life.
31) Homemade meals.
32) Sleep.
33) Being able to go Skydiving this last summer, and Brandon for encouraging me to do it.

34) Deep conversations.
35) Missionaries.
36) Hymns at church.
37) Pianos. Even though I can't play it, I love hearing others.
38) People who are so musically talented and are willing to share that talent so those of us (me) who aren't so musically inclined can enjoy it.
39) Having a gym close by.
40) Visiting Teaching.
41) Musicals :)
42) Quotes from the Prophets and Elders of the Church
43) Opportunities to volunteer at the MTC
44) Curling Irons
45) LDS Gems
46) The BYU Bookstore
47) My texbooks only costing about 60$ next semester.
48) Experiences from my teenage years that were hard at the time, but have taught me lessons that I probably couldn't have learned otherwise.
49) Emails from my niece that brighten my day :)
50) Letters in the mail (hint hint!)
51) Hoodies and sweatpants!
52) My fleece blanket that Diana made me almost 10 years ago.
53) Creamery Ice Cream
54) The fact that my mom knows how to text message :)
55) Friends! New and old ones :)
56) One word: Nyquil
57) Despite that fact that I've driven my car on empty for several days at a time, my car has never run out of gas.
58) That I had early morning seminary to prepare me for those days that I wake up late and only have 5 minutes to get ready, and still attempt to look semi decent to the world.
59) That BYU extended the class withdrawal date til November 9th this year. Let's just say that was an immediate answer to one of my prayers :)
60) Living somewhere that I am able to hear the Prophet and Apostles speak regularly (live!)
61)Cute purses
62) That I outgrew this phase
63) That someone has a little bit of humor and publishes cards like these to be sold in the BYU Bookstore

(It says: I Would Like a Date With You: If You keep this card, you owe me a date. If you hand it back, you owe me a kiss. If you throw it away, you have to marry me. If you destory it, you have to do all three. When do I collect? (NON-Transferrable). hehe. And no, I don't give this to guys)

65) Babysitting :)
66) Long talks
67) My young women leaders that were all such amazing influences
68) Smiling!
69) Snuggies! And that I SO had one before anyone else did ;-)
70) Cookies (I get a lot of crap for this one....haha)
71) Clorox wet wipes that seem to make a room so much cleaner!
72) Boys that put on cologne so people (i.e. me) can enjoy it. Really, guys, wear cologne.
73) Bath and Body Works and that they have such amazing deals (I mean lotion, body spray, 3 hand sanitizers, and a mini lotion for 15$. Can you say deal?)
74) Midnight pomegranate body spray
75) The guy at T-mobile who felt bad for me when I started crying in the store and he showed mercy to me.
76) That my big brother Daniel and his wife Charbel will be back in Provo this next semester. Just in time for American Idol and 24...I've missed our cooking nights!

77) Dairy Queen drive thru....just for those times when I really am craving ice cream on the way home from work and don't want to get out of my car (not that I"m lazy. I just don't like getting ice cream by myself!)

78) That Jeremy and I broke up (ha...didn't think I'd find myself saying this a few months ago :P)

79) MLIA.com. Just proof that other people get as much joy in seemingly pointless things as I do

80) My laptop...no matter how much trouble it gives me, I'm grateful to have one for school :)

77) Both sets of my Grandparents
78) Cooking and being able to do so well :) (next foodnetwork stars, anyone?)
79) Brother Stanley Johnson--the teacher that I have had for Book of Mormon and New Testament. I don't think he could ever understand how much his teachings have strengthened my testimony and helped me through some hard times.
80) Brother Livingstone. He is my LDS Marriage and Family teacher, and absolutely amazing. I wish he taught more classes at BYU. He is extremely blunt and tells it how it is, and I'm so grateful for that.
81) Mormon Messages
82) That Kristalyn and David live in Provo so close to me, and Cindy and AJ are in Salt Lake :)
83) Brick Oven.
84) My dad for being so giving and kind, and being the best dad ever.

85) My mom for always being there for me, even though sometimes I don't like her advice. She's the best mom in the whole entire world and I miss her so so much.

86) Obvious mistakes that provide me humor
87) My awesome bishopric (Bishop du Preez is amazing!)
88) Pictures of Lyla that Cindy sends through text :)

89) That I get to be with almost all my family this Thanksgiving

90) Even if I can't play a single instrument, I can carry a tune quite nicely.

91) Cell phones

92) Black Friday...I hate it, but love it at the same time. And, it brings about a good story every now and then.

93) Academic advisors who actually care and want to help you figure out your life

94) That I was able to go to Mexico for my big brother's wedding this past summer.

95) Adoption. This might seem kind of silly for me to say, as I've never had someone I know adopt or place their child, but I think it's absolutely amazing. I'm addicted to reading the stories of those adopting/placing, and I can't help but feel grateful it.

96) President Monson

97) YouTube.

98) Laughter

99) The miracle of forgiveness and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I can't even explain how grateful I am for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that I have (and will be) been forgiven for mistakes I have made. This video explains the Atonement beautifully.

100) That I live in America. While I may not completely agree with the government on everything, I do feel extremely blessed to live here and have the freedoms I do. This most definitely is the chosen land.

Enjoy this video from Mormon Messages. I think anyone from any faith will enjoy it :)