LDS Chruch Sends Food and Medical Supplies to Haiti

On 13 January 2010 The LDS Church released the following statement regarding the earthquake in Haiti:

We express our sympathy and prayers on behalf of the citizens of Haiti following the recent devastating earthquake. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is immediately shipping humanitarian relief, including personal hygiene kits and supplies for newborns. Efforts are underway to determine further humanitarian response in coordination with government and disaster relief organizations. Donations for relief efforts can be made at http://give.lds.org/emergencyresponse.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been working diligently since the disaster to provide aid to the people of Haiti through its humanitarian aid program. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of relief supplies have arrived already, and more are being shipped.

In a statement published on the Church’s official Web site, Church President Thomas S. Monson and counselors Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf appealed to church members to help the people in Haiti, noting that more aid is needed. Thanks to those donations and the efforts of the Church, three air shipments of aid provided by the Church have arrived and are being used in Haiti included a total of nearly 225,000 pounds of relief supplies. The Church provided the transportation for one of those flights, and CARE and United Airlines provided transport for the other two.

Islamic Relief USA, has donated the cost of transporting additional supplies via the Dominican Republic to Haiti, and has also been distributing clean drinking water to Haitians in Port-au-Prince. These shipments will include another 160,000 pounds of supplies donated by the Church, including medical equipment, blankets, quilts, first aid kits, water filtration bottles, wheelchairs, and special kits designed to help with newborn and hygiene needs. Pallets of supplies specially designed for orphanages will also be in the shipment.

In addtion to the supplies, a team of Latter-day Saint doctors are already on the ground in Haiti assisting in the recovery effort, and 5,000 Haitians are being sheltered at Church buildings throughout Port-au-Prince.

It reminds me of Luke 21:11 were it says "great earthquakes shall be in divers places", as being one of the signs of the Latter Days.

Shall we partake of the "ism"'s?

A video from 1948, that at time time seemed far fetched, but today it seems to be happening:

Destruction of the Family

Neal A. Maxwell, “A More Determined Discipleship,” Ensign, Feb 1979, 69–73

". . . [future] events are likely to require each [church] member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. (See 1 Kgs. 18:21).

"President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life' (in Conference Report, Apr. 1941, p. 123). This is a hard doctrine, but it is a particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked . . .

". . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions . . . resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened . . .

"Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. . . Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, “summer is nigh” (Matt. 24:32). Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat!

". . . God, who foresaw all challenges, has given to us a precious doctrine which can encourage us in meeting this and all other challenges."

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The Family: A Proclamation to the World

". . . we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.
"We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society."

- Posted By S.J. Hollist

9-11, 7 years later

I was posed the question today as to what has changed in my life since the tragic attack on the U.S.A on September 11th, 2001. The more I thought about it, the more I started to realize that the events on that infamous day, as a singular event, did not have a big affect on me personally. Don't get me wrong, I was just as shocked that morning as the next person, and I'm certainly glad that we went into Afghanistan to break up the terrorist strong holds of Alkita and the Taliban. I just wish we'd spent more time finishing the job, instead of refocusing our efforts so strongly in Iraq. Don't get me wrong there either, I'm glad Saddam is out of the picture, but I also think it should have been handled much differently. Even while Bush was trying to make his case, I was glad to see the extra pressure on Saddam, but never felt we had a strong enough case for a full on invasion; however, there's really nothing we can do about that now, and I'm glad to hear my friends in the Military reporting that we are doing very well over there now, they did find mass quantities of chemical agents hidden in the ground at various locations, and even have the new Iraqi government working with us on an exit plan. Of course we'll more then likely keep a functioning military base in that strategic location that will be especially good for protecting Israel from Iran.

But to get back on the main topic, let me reminisce. . .

That fateful morning, I was sleeping in bed, as I worked an afternoon-evening shift. I was a bachelor at the time and had a few roommates paying the mortgage on my condo for me. They came and woke me up with an incredible story about terrorists flying plans into buildings. What a terrible plot to get me out of bed I thought. What's was going on in my condo!??

I must have sat on the couch in front of the TV for an hour; almost as if in a trance, not believing what I was seeing. I think I was in shock for the next few days, and never really felt all that angry about it, though I certainly observed a few people who were. I was probably this way because it was in a place thousands of miles away that I had never been to, and probably because I had known from my youth that great and terrible things had and would come to pass in these Latter-days:

". . . you also shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled, for all I have told you must come to pass; but the end is not yet . . . " - JST Mathew 24:23

There would actually be a number of other events to come shortly there after that would have a much greater affect on me. The first and biggest would be getting married the following year, and shortly there after the Enron scandal hit. I didn't think much of it at the time as I was getting a promotion and a big raise at work, but the events to from the Enron fallout ended up having a much bigger affect on my job then anything else that went on these last seven years. It was all thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). As if dealing with HIPPA regulations wasn't enough, we now had people scrabbling over, and over-reacting to, a law that really only requires you to document why you do things the way you do them.

One might say the affect 9-11 had on the economy affected Enron in a big way, but Enron was on it's way out one way or another with all the crazy, underhanded, and manipulative accounting they were doing. It's probably better they went under sooner, then waiting until latter when the fall could have been much greater; like the Fannie Mae issue we are seeing today.

What is for certain, the issues at work, along with many other things going on in my life at the time, contributed to my wife and I moving a couple thousand miles to Texas. That too had a very big affect on my life.

Here's some people who's life it has probably affected much more then mine:
http://happygilmores.blogspot.com/
http://gr8e.blogspot.com/

- Posted By Spaldam