OLIVIA IN NC

grateful

Last year, at this time, I was farther away from home than I'd ever been—
in Seoul, Korea.

This year, I was far from home again—
in a crazy place where the finest foods are prepared in trash bags:

But the cool thing is that despite the distance; despite the food-preparing-methods,

it didn't feel far from home.

Not this year; not last year.

I guess it's true that home is where the heart is. Isn't your heart most often with people?
(Really, Papá, can even YOU argue?)
And not just any people, of course, but family people—whether by blood or not.

I guess that's why I didn't even feel too far from home during Thankgsiving on my mission.
The main event of the day was not cooking nor parade-watching, but instead a
basket ball game. (Not my choice of activity...)
But it hardly mattered—because I was simply thrilled just to be with my people;
these people that had my heart; the people that had become family.

{ This is where I would post a picture

of the people who have my heart in NC;

the people that made this Thanksgiving

"close to home." But you'll just have to

see them there because we were too busy

having fun together to snap a photo of our own. }

So, for my turn-around-the-table, this is what I chose to be grateful for:

that even though I am far from my home, 

(Meaning my Mom/Papá/Sean/Calvin/Josie/Carmen/Maya/Ashton,
& extended families & non-blood families, & even my Provo)
I feel right at home with these people. I love it here because my heart is with them!

(And let me just say this trash-bag food was perhaps the best thing on the table.
Oh how I wish we'd stolen some leftovers that I could devour right now!
That's OK, though—who ever said Thanksgiving was about food??)