I feel grateful.

Sometimes my heart becomes so overwhelmed with gratitude that I yearn for some way to say thank you to everyone and everything that I am so grateful to and for. Like with people, I wish I could send every person I have ever met a thank you note telling them how they have impacted me. Right now though, is one of those days that I feel like my insides are just going to explode if I don't express the thoughts that I have. Sometimes we hear that the Spirit comes as a flow of intelligence, and we ought to write those thoughts down when that happens. I think that is one of the ways that I feel the Spirit the most, and I think right now is one of those times. So, I would just like to tell you some things I feel so incredibly thankful for. I hope you can be thinking of some you would put on your list as well. :)

• I am thankful that my spirit is a daughter of a divine being who knows, loves, cares about, and will take care of me if I will ask him.
  
• I am thankful for commandments. I don't have to wonder if something will hurt me and mess around with it to find out, inspired prophets have already told me what I need to do and what I should avoid so that I don't have to go through the mistakes myself.
  
• I am thankful for the blessings that come from keeping commandments, and that the Lord set it up that way that we get blessings from those tests of faith. It's a beautiful idea. D&C 130: 20-21.
• I am thankful for BYU info. It's probably the best job I have ever had (I only say probably because I really enjoyed decorating cakes at coldstone). It is a great job, I learn so much, I can work on personal work while there, and I love my coworkers. A lot.
  
• I am thankful for bicycles. Riding down the street with the sun shining, the leaves shaking in the wind, and flowers blooming is like the cherry on top of a good day.
  
• I am particularly grateful right now for Katy, Jessie, and Caitlin. They are absolutely wonderful.
  
• I am thankful for bishop lynn pack, as well as bishop jim pack. Yes, both of my past two bishops have been bishop pack. crazy huh? They have both been men who have changed my life.
  
• I am thankful for the scriptures. I love them. I am lucky to be one of the few people on earth that owns a book of mormon, and has read it.
  
• I am thankful that the Church has our back. No matter what question you run into, what situation you get yourself in, you can always find an answer. Whether it's through the prophets words, the scriptures, your visiting or home teachers, or even through personal revelation that we know about because of this gospel- your problems in life can be solved. Your back is always covered because the Lord looks out for you through all those mediums. You never EVER have to feel alone, because you NEVER EVER are. I am very thankful for that.
  
• I am thankful that my body works. I have no handicaps, I have all my limbs, both of my eyes work fairly well (and the rest is made up by contact lenses which I completely am thankful for), I can hear, I have hair, I have fingernails I can paint, and all my innards seem to be functioning how they are supposed to! No how many people in the world can say that!?
• I am thankful for tithing and fasting. Both require giving up something that is important to you, but both bring extremely wonderful blessings. I have a firm testimony of tithing and have had some awesome experiences with it. When you pay your tithing, your finances will work out somehow. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and I have had times where it was a leap of faith to pay it, and then I was humbled by the unique ways that the Lord took care of me. Take the leap of faith and pay it, I personally promise you you will NEVER regret it. Fasting has been hard for me too because I love food too much! But I know that fasting brings the spirit, it helps you gain self control, and it brings blessings often in cases where you feel you can do nothing else yourself about something.
  
• I am thankful for BYU. I have learned more and more why I was supposed to come here. I changed all my plans of USU last minute for BYU, and I hoped it was the right thing. Well, I have learned that it is. The Lord brought me to the right place.
  
• I am thankful for journals. it's amazing to see how I have changed, grown, and to look back on funny experiences and be able to laugh about them. I love keeping a journal.
• Last of all for this list, I am so thankful for each and every individual experience, trial, spiritual moment, and friend that I have had in my life that has shaped me into who I am. I am so lucky. I am lucky to have experienced all the things I have, and I can look back and see how each experience, good or bad, has shaped me in some way, or taught me something that has integrated into my personality. I love my life, and I feel so lucky to have gone through everything I have. The good times have brought a joy to me that will never wear away. The friends and people have taught me how to live better and to take all of their great qualities and incorporate them in my life. The hard times seemed impossible at the time, but by enduring and paying the price of staying strong throughout them I have truly come to know Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ, and that they live, and love and know me. That is something I can never doubt again in my life. and I would never trade that for anything.