Grateful for what I have

I wanted to share an amazing experience I had this week. This past Sunday I went to my mom's ward and there was a guest speaker in Relief Society. She was a woman who was born in 1930 in the Netherlands. When she was 8 years old she was right in the middle of World War II. Her and her family would spend day and night in their home watching bombs and airplanes fly over their heads and land on their streets. The Nazis forced them out of their home and took whatever food and supplies they wanted. If you went outside with more than 3 people in your group the Nazis would shoot all of you no questions asked. Her and her sisters and father would sneak out at 3 a.m. to go into the woods and cut trees for firewood and they would have to strap the tree to a bicycle with no tires on it and sneak back through alleys in the dark and watch for Nazis so they wouldn't get caught. They made friends with the neighbors they had only to watch them being hauled off in army trucks to the concentration camps. She almost lost a brother because he and a group of friends would sing and play guitar in the park. They would sing National songs and the Nazis would come and throw them in an army truck to take them away to serve in the Nazi regime. Her brother managed to escape. American soldiers came and shared their lunch with her out in the street and the next day she stood outside and watched them be killed. She met an Elder who was serving a mission there and ended up being baptized even though she was the only member where she lived. She ended up marrying the Elder after he had his dad sponsor her to come to America.
My heart just ached as she was telling me her story of growing up surrounded by all that. The war lasted until she was 15. It almost made me ashamed for all the times I thought I had it rough and didn't get the things I wanted growing up. She barely had a roof over her head, food to eat and a bed to sleep on, all the while watching dozens of innocent people murdered. At the end of her talk she professed how grateful she was to live in America and how we should be patriotic and stand up for our country and sing National songs and be proud of who we are and to teach our children and grandchildren how blessed we are to be where we are. I don't think I have been more touched by a talk than this one. I can't even imagine being that young and witnessing and going through everything that she did. What an example people like that are...to go through so much and still be brave and strong in their beliefs and convictions.
If no one else gets anything from me posting this at least it will be a reminder to me to be grateful for whatever I have and to be proud to be an American. No matter how crazy and scary this world is, I am so grateful to have my family, my Heavenly family, the gospel, my friends and everything else I hold dear to my heart!