Temple Details for Rome Italy

Temple Details - tempiodiroma.chiesadigesucristo.it

BEAUMONT BUZZ - Food Bank Drive

Last Saturday our church ward members were involved in a Food Bank Drive. We delivered flyers during the week to let residents know about it. Glen was the Captain for our northeast quadrant. We thought it would take longer to pick up food from each house but it went quite quickly actually. I had Sarah and Jami with me and I could tell they were having a lot of fun together.

Over the past few months I have noticed there are a number of places worldwide where church members are involved in service projects like this. They get to wear these special bright yellow vests that read "Mormon Helping Hands". One reason for that is so that the public know the activity is a legitimate one. I'm so excited that we have some of these vests for our activity too. Here you can see Jami wearing one.

We were surprised at how fast it went. We definitely would have liked to have had more donations but this is our first year doing this. We are already talking about how we can improve it for next year. We have learned we can assign bigger routes so that we are sure to get flyers out to all the homes in Beaumont next time.

All told we collected 5,000 pounds of food and I'm told that Shaw cable and Campbell's Canada will both match what we brought in. So that means we have 15,000 pounds of food going in to the Food Bank. I like the timing, right after Canadian Thanksgiving and apparently it was also World Day of Hunger.

I can't wait to do this again next year!

RANDOM THOUGHTS -The Great Escape

I've been watching the news tonight and I have to say that the most exciting thing happening right now is the ongoing rescue of the Chilean miners. All eyes were on the first successful return of the Fenix, the rescue pod that travels over 700 meters through the belly of the earth with one rescued miner at a time. So far the first miners coming up appear to be surprisingly healthy.

I am amazed at all the hard work, planning, safety and dietary precautions that have been made to ensure that every miner survives this 69 day ordeal. The entire country of Chile is cheering them on and church bells are peeling across the countryside as each man is returned to us.

All I can say is: Wow! What a day for the history books.I will fondly call October 12-13, 2010 the date of the real Great Escape!

TIME FOR FAMILY - Thanksgiving

Tomorrow our family will be celebrating Thanksgiving. It's going to be a noisy house once again and I am so looking forward to it. We have much to be grateful for this year. Linda completed her first year of University and is already immersed in another year of study. Amber and Tom visited family in China and moved into their first home right after their return. Glen, Karren, Jami and I participated in Trek 2010. What a memorable experience that was!!!

Karren was able to go to EFY this summer and my Mom came to visit with us for five weeks. Her visit included a camping trip all the way up to Cold Lake where we could visit with family. I also introduced my Mom to diamond willow and we were able to find a piece for her to take home. We concluded her stay with us by making a special trip out to the old homestead with Uncle Dave and Aunt Masie as our guides.

Then came our much anticipated vacation in California, just Glen and I. This year we wanted to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and I had suggested California. We had to wait until September for him to find the time to get away from work. We stayed in fancy accommodations in San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Los Angeles and finally San Diego. We had a GREAT TIME! It was so worth it. I hope to sort through all the photos soon so that I can post some. Karren and Jami did just fine on their own at home. They had lots of friends and families looking out for them too.

Brenda traveled to Salt Lake once again to attend October General Conference and on the way down the van she was travelling in had an encounter with a deer. Fortunately a rental vehicle was available and they completed their trip anyways. The only one who suffered was the deer. And just yesterday someone rear-ended Tom and Amber after they had done some grocery shopping - thank goodness they weren't hurt either. That's two accidents in the family in 8 days.

I have left a lot out but you get the idea. I am very thankful for my many blessings. I am grateful for the love and direction I receive from my Lord and Saviour. He gave me this wonderful opportunity to experience life.

Now that I have revamped my blog and changed how it looks I am hoping to keep it more up to date. And that's because I'm sure there are many more blessings and experiences coming my way. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!