I am so full of gratitude right now. (I guess that’s better than plenty of other things I could be full of!) I am grateful for such talented writers who have contributed so much collected wisdom in this magazine. There is enough wise counsel that if followed, it could change all of our lives for the better.

I’m grateful that I have had the chance to read and absorb this counsel already, and it will be preserved in one place for me to use as a reference volume on gratitude.

I am also feeling grateful for family. I am so thankful for my sweet, funny husband Dave, and my five crazy kids. We are all wildly imperfect, but I am thankful we’re in this together. I’m thankful for a good mother who gave all that she had to give in raising me to be a healthy, competent adult, and who now loves my kids with all her heart.

Today, though, I’m especially grateful for my mom’s dad. He spent his whole retirement doing family history, carefully preserving in organized form the results of his work. I was able to take his years of hard work, and input his information into a family history program in one day, and the next day do 82 baptisms for his mother’s family. When this work is complete we will have sealed together over 35 families! The best part is I have another binder with the records of his father’s side of the family.

There are not words to express the feelings that come from performing saving ordinances for your own family. What a blessing it was to bring my grandpa’s binder to show the youth of my ward pictures of the people for whom they were being baptized!

The Lord is so good to us. Indeed as the trials of the last days become more intense, we must return continually to the One source of joy and peace. He can help us find gratitude in the journey down the rockiest of roads.

All the best,

Editor@DesertSaintsMagazine.com