Back to Armenia #14

We are grateful for the Thanksgiving holiday we enjoyed and the opportunity to reflect and share with others the things we are grateful for. We are grateful to our Heavenly Father every day for our many blessings. Here in Armenia, they don’t have this holiday. We do miss our country and those familiar things that surround Thanksgiving, but wherever we are, we can thank our Heavenly Father for his goodness to us.

Elders Thylin and Zebley, Sister Siranush,

Our missionaries, lunch at Center

Sister Peterson playing cookie game

We actually had a double celebration of Thanksgiving. The young missionaries organized a lunch and while we didn’t have turkey, it was delicious anyway. We celebrated with our District and one other district and another senior couple, so there were 14 of us. Our Swedish missionary prepared meatballs and our Armenian mini missionary prepared Dolma. One missionary prepared 4 liters of gravy and another cooked and mashed a huge amount of potatoes. We had roasted chicken, jello salads and corn and rolls as well. I made a couple of pumpkin pies and a deep dish apple pie, and another sister made a buttermilk pie…so we weren’t lacking for food. We were supposed to eat around 12:30, but finally sat down closer to 2 p.m. We took time to go around the table and share with one another things we are grateful for…sort of like a tradition we had at home with our own family. We played some fun games and enjoyed the time together.

Thanksgiving lunch at Center

The second part of our Thanksgiving began at 6 p.m. when we gathered with the other senior couples for a dinner at the Marriott Hotel…and this time we did have turkey…two whole turkeys. So, we had some leftovers (that is always the best part, but no homemade cranberry sauce so not quite as tasty as it would be at home). We also had dressing and gravy and carrots and brussel sprouts (made me think of some of my children who were also enjoying brussel sprouts on this day). It was good, but two big meals in a 4-5 hr time period is a lot so we were stuffed. 

Our young adults had wanted to have a Thanksgiving party, so we sort of did it a few days later, along with our regular class. After the lesson, we went around the room giving thanks for a gospel principle that relates to family and eternal marriage. Everyone brought something to share (pot luck), so we ate and played the same games as with the young missionaries and then had some music and dancing. It was Geghetsik’s birthday so we celebrated that as well.

We want to express gratitude to all our friends and family who are such a support to us. It’s wonderful to be able to serve God’s children and God has been good to us, so now it’s our turn to do something for someone else. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Here's a couple of extra shots of our Turkey trip and all CES couples that we received after our posting.