Water Storage

A gallon of water per day per person for your water storage is what is recommended.  That's 7 gallons a week, 14 gallons for 2 weeks, 28 gallons for 4 weeks (one month), 364 gallons for one year.  364 gallons per person!  For a family of 5 (that's how many in our family), you will need 1,820 gallons of water storage for a year.  That seems like a lot of water!  So, what should we do to store that much water?

Before figuring out how to store this much water, I had to stop and think if this was an accurate number.  Is this number based on just drinking water or will it include the other uses of water such as washing dishes, showers, washing clothes, cleaning, watering the yard, etc...  How much water do we use on a daily basis regularly?  On average, a person uses 80-100 gallons of water per day.  I used this calculator to see how much water my family of 5 (3 adults, 2 children) uses on average.  We use about 264 gallons per day.  That's 8,026 gallons a month and 75,555 gallons per year!  Don't forget your pets too.  Depending on the size of your pet, you are probably going to need up to a gallon of water a day for each pet too. We have a medium sized dog, so I'm thinking at least a half a gallon a day for him. 

Now, if you were in an emergency situation, you are definitely going to have to be careful about how you use your water that you have stored.  The 1 gallon a day per person is going to pretty much be your drinking water.  You are going to have to take less showers/baths, rarely flush the toilet if at all, wash dishes in a sink full of water instead of letting the water run to rinse your dishes and sticking them in the dishwasher, and find a way to recycle your water to do things like water your garden.   If you're in the desert like us, your grass is going to have to die.  I'm so sorry.

So, how on earth can we store this much water?  The minimum is 1,820 gallons for a year for my family.  We live in a little town house, so storing it inside is not something that can be done.  We decided to start small.  We first started with 72 hours of water storage for our family.  A case of 8 oz bottled waters (24 bottles) is a 72 hour storage for one person.  That's easy enough.  Cases of water are cheap.  I've seen them for as little as $2.50 each.  You can even be a little picky with brand at that price. 

Next we have worked on a two week's storage.  That's 14 gallons per person.  You can buy gallons of water at the store for as little as 78 cents each.  You might even be able to find them as little as 50 cents each.  Or, even better...  You know all of those 2 liter soda bottles and juice bottles that you throw into the garbage when you are done with them?  They are perfect for water storage!  You don't want to use just any plastic bottle.  You want ones that are food grade quality.  They will say PET(E) on them somewhere.  Do not use milk jugs or any that look like milk jugs.  THEY LEAK!  The plastic breaks down and it is a mess.  I speak from experience on this matter.  We bought water in 5 gallon jugs from the grocery store and went into our closet where we had them stored one day only to find soggy carpet and a huge mess!

Stackable 5 Gallon Container

For our family, this only goes so far.  It is hard to find the space to store all of these water bottles.  So we've begun looking into some other options for water storage.  Here is what we have come up with:

5 gallon water containers.  These are nice if you want to store water in the house or you want to move the water very often.  The last one is collapsible which is nice to travel with because it takes less space as you use more of the water.  

3.5 Gallon Stackable

I like the water bricks because they are stackable.  They only hold 3 ½ gallons, which makes them easy to carry and move.  They are pricey though.  I’m not sure if the convenience is worth the cost.  If you are looking for something less expensive that can be stacked, you might like the water boxes.  The bad thing about those is that you don’t want to stack them very high because the weight of the water will crush the boxes.  

My favorite water storage tank that I have found out there is the Super Tanker.  You have the choice of 125 or 250 gallons.  I like that they hold a lot of water and I like that they have 2 spouts on them including one at the bottom so you don’t have to worry about how to get water out of the bottom of the tank.  You don’t have to siphon your water out which is very nice.

Last, but not least is an option I’ve seen many people with.  That is the swimming pool!  This is probably the most fun option, but not necessarily the best option.  It really depends on where you are as to how well this will work for you.  First, they not only cost quite a bit of money and water to fill, but you do have to pay for upkeep.  Some people choose pools that have chlorine and other chemicals; some people choose pools that use salt.  Either way, you will have to purify the water before you can drink it.  With a salt pool, you will need to use a desalinator to take out the salt.  Make sure whatever purification system you have will purify as many gallons of water as you have.  You will also need a pool cover if the electricity were to go out because once the filters stop working, a beautiful green algae will grow in your pool.  A cover will help reduce this problem.  You can use a tarp if you don’t have a pool cover.  Everything I have read so far is that your pool should be used as backup storage, not primary water storage. 

Peach Freezer Jam

The recipe made 3 pints of jam

My friend's peach tree was bursting with peaches the other day and so I took a few off of her hands.  I finally got to them today and made some yummy peach freezer jam!  You might guess that I prefer freezer jam.  I think it just tastes fresher and holds the true flavor better.  I know how to do other jams.  I just like the taste of freezer jam better.  It is so easy to make too.  The last time I worked with peaches I blanched them.  The problem with this is that it makes them soggy and they fall apart and lose their shape.  I just didn't like that.  So this time I just washed and peeled them.  I used a peeler on the ones that the skin didn't just peel off easily with my fingers.  It worked beautifully.  I then chopped them up really small and added them to a big bowl of sugar.  I followed the direction in the Sure-Jell box.  I stirred them together, let them sit for 10 minutes and then made the pectin to add to it.  That's just pectin and water.  I then poured the pectin and water in and stirred and stirred.  When it looked like it wasn't grainy anymore, I stopped stirring and spooned it into jars.  I have one of those canning funnels that made it much easier.  And now I have peach jam!  Yep.  It's that easy!  My
picture shows the peaches I peeled, but didn't need.  See how good
they peeled with the peeler? 

Buzz off!

"Long" and scraggly hair on my son.

 I wish I had a better picture to illustrate how scraggly my son's hair was looking.  This is the best I could find.  But it was from a couple of weeks ago.  We were actually having to make him brush it. In our family, we like SHORT hair on our boys.  And this picture is not considered short in our book.  We like it buzzed off!  So, for such an easy cut, we have the choice of taking them somewhere and paying $10-$20 to get it done OR buying a simple hair cutting kit for about $15 and doing it ourselves. 

Simple, but adequate hair cutting kit

 You might guess that we opted for the hair cutting kit.  My husband cuts his hair with the #1 comb and we cut my son's hair with the #3 comb.  It takes maybe 10 minutes and is extremely easy.  My son has probably 4 or 5 cowlicks, so that makes a little harder, but once we figured out to just come at it in several different directions, that made it much easier.  We make it a little shorter around the ears and use no comb on the back to straighten everything out. 

Dad doing the finishing touches

Using the vacuum

Another trick we learned was using the
vacuum while we cut.  Our son hates the hair all over him and we went to a barber a long time ago that had the shaver attached to a vacuum.  Remember the Flowbee? Instead of going out and buying a Flowbee (which we couldn't find for a long time), we just bring out the vacuum.  Either he holds it or one of us holds it while the other one cuts.  This makes for much less cleanup when the job is done too. 

Handsome and ready for the summer!

As for the girls in our family, we still go every couple of months to get our hair cut.  We do our own trimming of the bangs and when it is long enough, I trim the back of my daughter's hair.  On my list of things to learn is how to do "girlie" short hair cuts.  Until then, we at least save money on the boys' cuts!

Gone to seed!

We have been gardening for a few years and one of the new things we are learning this year is how to collect our own seeds.  I thought this would be much harder than it has been. 

Dried okra pod and seeds

Last year, my daughter collected seeds from the dried out pods on my mom's okra bushes.  She loved that when you shook the pods they rattled and was even more excited when she brokethem open and found seeds.  We pulled out the seeds

Our new okra plants

and planted them
wondering if they would
really grow.  We've heard a lot about buying only heirloom seeds because the others would not produce seeds to grow new plants.  Well...  the verdict is in!  They grew!  Hooray!  We are going to have to thin them out, so many grew! 

Flowering lettuce plant with puffs

Separating seeds from other plant matter

We have also been saving seeds off of our lettuce.  Did you know lettuce flowers?  I didn't.  But it does.  It flowers and then it puffs!  Kind of like dandelions.  It also has a milky white, sticky substance that comes off of it when you touch it to take the puffs off.  We've also found that the flowers blossom in the morning.  We usually go out in the afternoon and look at our garden, but this morning we decided to go out in the morning.  We were greeted with hundreds of little yellow flowers.  To collect the seeds, you just cut off the puffs.  Then you squeeze it and little black seeds come out.  We were most successful separating the seeds and the other plant parts on a piece of paper.  It took a little while, but it is exciting to think about planting them next season.

Oh, this is spinach!

We were next going to collect spinach seeds.  We thought the other bush with similar yellow flowers was spinach.  WE WERE WRONG!  Can't help but laugh at myself about that.  I just thought they were similar plants and another plant that was growing was a different kind of lettuce.  Well, as we looked up how to harvest spinach seeds, we realized that the other plant was the spinach.  It looks totally different.  We also have to wait for it to die before harvesting the seeds.  So I will share more about that when the time comes.

Next year we will plant more

Carrot flowers take 2 years to grow and seed

One more seed we learned about were carrot seeds.   Carrot seeds take 2 years to grow.  Yes, you have to leave the plant in for two years before being able to get seeds from it.  Carrots grow flowers too.  We also learned
that the tops of the carrots should poke out of the soil when they are ready to pick.  We picked anyway and got smaller carrots, but they tasted good.  The ones that did look big enough got
eaten by roly polies (pill bugs).  We were sad.

Picking carrots

Roly polies ate our best ones!

Hindsight is 20/20...

Mile wide tornado that traveled through the middle of Alabama.

Rental house we considered.

A few weeks ago, tornadoes ripped through the south destroying thousands of homes and taking hundreds of lives.  An F4 tornado went right through the town in Alabama we lived in just seven months ago.  We had felt good about our decision to move back home to Nevada before, but now are extremely grateful.  The home we lived in and our old neighborhood still stands.  But we had spent months and months looking for a new place to live before we left with absolutely nothing feeling right.  We now know at least one of the houses we considered is completely gone.

Grocery store with no roof.

The other night, I got a phone call from one of our neighbors.  She told me about the devastation in the area.  She told me exactly where the tornado had hit.  Many, many houses in that town are completely gone.  The only grocery store there is shut down for at least 8 weeks waiting for a new roof.  The bank is open only a few hours a day because of utility problems.  For 2 weeks they had to drive to the next large town to pick up their mail.  Large trucks are everywhere cleaning up the mess.  You have to show your ID and prove you live in the area to be allowed to enter.  Or you must have a special pass given to those who are coming to help clean up.  And this is just one of the many towns in the south that has been hit.

Downed power and phone lines everywhere.

My first reaction to this tragedy was sadness and shock.  I worried about my friends.  I made phone calls to those I was closest to.  I watched on Facebook to hear reports of others.  The neighbor I heard from this week was the only one I was unable to reach as I did not have a cell phone number for her.  Their phone lines are still down which means her DSL internet is not working either.  We worried the first few days that they were hit, but fortunately friends who had been able to go back in the area let us know that the part of the street we had lived on had been missed.  About 10 houses or so down the street was completely gone.

CERT Team helping out at a friend's house.

As I felt sadness for all of those who had lost family members, friends, and their homes, I couldn't help but feel gratitude for our family's safety.  At the same time, I wanted to be there to help.  It was such a split feeling inside of me.  Recently my husband and I went to CERT training.  It helped prepare us to deal with such tragedy and trained us to do search and rescue and to be first responders.  It was a free course and worth every minute we spent taking it.  It would have been very useful to have the information in this kind of situation in an area that that took a long time for rescue teams to get into.  There was a story about this here.  Basic training in first aid and search and rescue not only prepares you to help your own family, but
also prepares you to help anyone in a tragedy.

Downed power and phone lines.

As I mentioned before, not everyone lost their house.  I'm not sure how you could prepare for losing your house other than having a bug out kit with 72 hours of basic supplies in it that you keep with you at all times.  But what about for those whose houses were still standing?  How did this tragedy affect them?  First, they had no power almost immediately.  Power lines were down everywhere.  I know several of our neighbors already had generators as losing electricity happened often in that area.  To be prepared, having gas to run these generators would be very important.  A few organizations brought in generators to help people out.  But as you know, generators can only do so much and only last for so long.

Causes of Power Outages

What do you do to preserve the food in your fridge and freezer(s)?  If the appliance thermometer stored in the freezer reads 40F or below, the food is safe and may be refrozen. If a thermometer has not been kept in the freezer, check each package of food to determine the safety. Remember you can’t rely on appearance or odor. If the food still contains ice crystals or is 40F or below, it is safe to refreeze. Refrigerated food should be safe as long as power is out no more than 4 hours. Keep the door closed as much as possible.  According to the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service food in your fridge will stay cold up to 4 hours.  Food in your freezer will stay cold up to 48 hours.  When electricity comes back on, you will determine the temperature of your 
food.  If it is more than 40 degrees F, then you 
need to throw it out.  Worst case, remember the 
old adage: "When in doubt, throw it out."  This  
link is to a pdf with more information about what 
to do in case of a power outage.

Charcoal Grill

Fire pits are handy!

Your freezer/fridge should not the only thing you should be worried about.  Electricity is not the only thing either.  As I talked to my friend, I learned that after the tornado passed, they had lost electricity and phone, but still had gas.  Unfortunately, because so many houses had been destroyed, there were gas leaks everywhere.  So the gas was completely shut off.  Without gas, you have lost your source for heat and cooking inside your house.  If it is cold out, it is important you have another source for heating your home with proper ventilation.  If it is hot out, open up your windows and go outside.  Your house needs ventilation running through it.  The newer your house is, the more important this is as with all of the "energy efficient" improvements, your house will not "breathe" and can cause unforeseen problems, even death from lack of oxygen.  You can cook on a grill outside or build a fire pit.  If you have never cooked over an open fire, it would be a good idea to learn before a disaster occurs and practice often.  It is fun and tasty to grill outdoors.  You will probably also use your outdoor cooking to boil water for safe drinking.

Boiling water on a grill.

A boil alert had been sent out to many areas of Alabama.  I read on a Facebook post about how silly that was if you had no way to boil water.  However, there are ways.  Remember the grill and firepit I mentioned above? According to the Wilderness Medical Society, water temperatures above 160° F kill all pathogens within 30 minutes and above 185° F within a few minutes. So in the time it takes for the water to reach the boiling point, all pathogens will be killed, even at high altitude.To be extra safe, let the water boil rapidly for one minute, especially at higher altitudes since water boils at a lower temperature.

3 days drinking water storage for one person.

If you are lucky enough to have water still coming to your home, there is a good chance that it will have all kinds of unsafe particles in it.  It will be important to purify the water before drinking it.  Having two weeks of water on hand is the minimum suggested for those trying to prepare for emergencies.  Many people find that safe drinking water is hard to come by in a disaster, even if the disaster is a flood.  Know how to purify water ahead of time and be prepared with any supplies you may need.  I'll add a blog just about this at a later time.  Also, you may want to bathe before you have electricity and gas again.  I thought my friend was
smart because she filled up plastic trash bags with
water outside and left them sitting in the sun to warm.
Then they had warm water to bathe in.  Just make sure
that you have bags that are not pesticide treated.

Cell phone tower hit by a tornado.

I learned that my neighbor's phone was still out and even their cell phones had been unusable at first.  For a phone outage, cell phones tend to be very handy.  However, even cell phone towers go down.  If you can let family members know you are okay, that is good.  Otherwise, just focus on taking care of your family and neighbors until you can.  Do your best not to leave them hanging.  Friends and family will worry about you.  But remember, this is not your first priority.  Your first priority is to make sure you and everyone around you are okay.

PG Elementary

I told my neighbor how worried we had been about her and her family.  My children were good friends with her grandson and were sick with worry.  She assured us that they were all physically fine, but emotionally were struggling.  They visited the devastation on other streets and were shocked at the destruction.  Where forest used to be, there are just some broken trees.  There was a car up in a tree.  Debris was still everywhere even with as much as had been picked up already.  She talked about how great the schools had been, opening their doors quickly to the children and providing counselors to help them through this ordeal.  Instead of pushing academics on the children, they played games with them and did art and other 
fun activities.  At first, I was shocked that they 
could open back up so quickly again, but as I t
hought about it, I realized they were attempting to 
bring back some semblance of normalcy to these 
children.  Many had been displaced and many were 
suffering loss that will take a long time for them 
to feel peace and safety again.  Opening up the 
schools to these children was a good thing.  It also 
gave parents the time they needed to begin sifting 
through the remains of their homes or help their 
neighbors.  


The thing my neighbor was most thankful for was God.  She was grateful how He had protected her family in so many ways.  Her daughter's workplace was completely gone except for her desk which a coworker hid under as the tornado passed through.  She happened to be gone that day helping her father with doctor appointments.  Her grandson had been sent home early from school because of a power outage.   Their house had been missed completely.  Neighbors were seen out of their houses everywhere helping each other and talking to each other.  Churches were serving meals throughout the day and providing clothes and other items that people lost.  One of the churches even had showers for those who were unable to shower in their homes.  Families opened their doors to displaced family members.  And considering the severity and number of tornadoes that passed through Alabama that day, very few lost their lives.  Sometimes it takes a tragedy and loss of things like power to get us out of our houses and helping others.  It helps us to count our blessings and to be grateful for all that we have.  Some were angry with God, but most people there were just grateful for the goodness of God.  They were grateful for the knowledge they had been prepared with and for the help that came in to bless them in their time of need.  It was amazing talking to her and hearing her sweet testimony of the goodness of God.

As I have talked to each of my friends and have read their posts on Facebook, I have seen their good hearts and their willingness to help wherever is needed.  They have opened up their homes to friends and family.  They have spent countless hours helping with cleanup, preparing food, and delivering donations of items.  They are amazing people in Alabama.  They have good and giving hearts and are people that I am so grateful to God that He allowed me to know them even though it was for a short period of time.  I wish I could be there working side by side with them.  But for now, I hope that my blog will help someone out there start their journey of preparing their ark for any tragedies they may encounter in their future or perhaps just work to make their present just a little bit better by bringing safety and peace into their lives by being prepared for anything that might come along.

We Can Do Hard Things

The gathering and dinner the night after the walk.

We can do hard things. That was the theme of the Craig Ranch Relief Society for the first quarter of this year. They set a goal of walking from their church building to the temple which is 12.66 miles.  They also read the first 3 books of the New Testament and memorized The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles.  Many set their own personal goals of learning, working, and growing.  It was definitely inspiring to hear their testimonies last night after their walk to the temple.  Most were sore, but all smiled as they talked amongst each other during the dinner and then when bearing testimonies.  It was great to see the sisterhood amongst these women!

As I sat and watched them, I thought about the importance of friendship in our lives.  These ladies trained for the last four months to prepare them for their long walk.  They met together and walked and talked together and helped each other get stronger and stronger as they prepared for the long walk.  Many suffered blisters, a few suffered injuries, and all grew stronger in health and testimony.

Many ladies trained together every Saturday to prepare.

I was in this ward about 5 years ago and so I knew many of these ladies and I joined them for the walk.  Because of physical restrictions, I chose to walk from my house to the temple, which is 4.5 miles.  As the time came closer and closer, I had an internal debate about whether it was a good idea to make the walk or not.  But I committed when they first started this challenge that I would do it, so I was up at 4:30 am and at the church at 6:00 am to support them and join in on the journey.

After seeing them off from the church building, I got into my car and drove home.  I parked, grabbed my cane (I don't use it often, but thought it would be good to have extra support) and headed out.  I found that I made much better time than I had when walking with my children and the dog.  I listened to conference talks as I walked.  I had to laugh out loud as I noticed pain starting to set in at about 2 miles and one of the talks was all about pain and how it helps us to be humbled and also teaches patience.  Yep.  God is still trying to teach me patience and humility.  The talk was given by Kent F. Richards of the Seventy.  He quoted:

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.  - Elder Orson F. Whitney

I also learned from him:

Much of our suffering is not necessarily our fault. Unexpected events, contradicting or disappointing circumstances, interrupting illness, and even death surround us and penetrate our mortal experience. Additionally, we may suffer afflictions because of the actions of others. Lehi noted that Jacob had “suffered … much sorrow, because of the rudeness of [his] brethren.” Opposition is part of Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness. We all encounter enough to bring us to an awareness of our Father’s love and of our need for the Savior’s help. - Kent F. Richards of the Seventy

At 3 miles, I started looking behind me to see if any of the fast ladies had caught up with me yet.  I was surprised that they hadn't.  But looking at my watch, I could see that I had gone much faster than expected. I'm not used to being ahead of the pack.  Usually, I'm far behind everyone else.  I was always the one with the shortest legs and had been left behind on many hikes as a young woman and young adult.  I now have a bad ankle that I injured long ago and didn't heal properly at the end of one of my short legs.  I considered going on ahead and waiting at the temple, but I decided that I needed to stop and wait for my friend to catch up.  I wasn't sure where she was, but I felt it was important to wait for her since she had encouraged me to make the walk.

So I found a shady spot and waited.  My family drove by to check on me and say hello.  I was grateful to see them and have their support.  One of my former bishops stopped by too.  The lady who put together the support stopped too.  It was nice to have the support.  I learned later that there were quite a few support vehicles driving around checking on the women, giving snacks and water, and offering rides if anyone needed one (I think only 3 ladies did not finish - one diabetic and 2 younger women who decided not to finish the last mile).

Everyone had someone to walk with.

I finally saw white dots moving towards me.  At first, I wasn't sure it was them.  But soon I realized they were getting closer and closer.  They were on the other side of the road.  As they got closer, I moved to the other side too.  I hoped my friend would be in their group.  Just as I got to the other side, a bunch of them crossed the road to where I had been.  I started to cross the road again when I saw my friend waving at me.  I smiled and waited for her to come.  She walked confidently and quickly towards me  (They had been walking for 10 or 11 miles, I was surprised at how strong she looked and how fast she moved!).  I knew I was going to slow her down.

When she got to me, we started walking.  It was nice to have a friend to walk with and someone to talk to.  It definitely made the walking easier and more fun.  I fully expected her to go ahead.  I have to admit I'm a bit embarrassed by how slow I am.  After walking for a while, I thought she should go ahead with the faster walkers, but she insisted on staying with me.  I was appreciative of that.

The last hill.

Having someone to walk with is very unusual for me.  I've been left behind so often, that walking alone is something I tend to expect and am used to. I'll never forget getting lost on a hike once. I fell behind the group and they kept on going. I came to a fork in the road and took the wrong turn. I walked for about 30 minutes before I was sure I was going the wrong way. I said a prayer and sang some hymns to help me not be afraid and began walking back. The thing was that I was not alone. I felt comfort and safety because I knew that we are never left alone.


I thought of this memory as we continued to walk.  My friend at one point asked me what I had learned during the walk.  I can't say as I had any major epiphanies.  I'd done hard things like this many times before.  My main thought was just putting one foot in front of the other and a huge hope that I'd be able to walk the next day.  So I was trying to listen to what she had to say.

Physical limitations being overcome!

As we rounded the corner, she asked me to not use my cane.  I think of my cane more as of a walking stick.  It makes walking just a little easier and keeps my balance as I get more and more tired.  I don't use it very often and felt that it was entirely appropriate to use it for this walk.  She told me the story of the Eye of the Needle.

In ancient times there was a small gate cut inside the larger gate of the city through which one might enter after nightfall, when the city was closed. Although this small gate—termed the “eye of the needle”—could readily admit a man, a camel could enter only by first being relieved of its burden and then by walking through on its knees.

She compared this to getting rid of all aids and crutches in life and doing the hard part on our own.  I walked up the hill without my cane.  It slowed me down even more, but I made it.  As we walked up the hill I focused on the temple. That was my goal, and I was almost there.  We made it to the fence that surrounds the temple and I stopped.  I didn't stop because I was tired or because I had given up.  I stopped because the difference in what I felt inside was incredible.  I can't even describe it really.  It was just a peaceful feeling.  It was a feeling of energy and light.  It was a feeling of everlasting love.  And it started at the gate and it was a deliberate feeling that I felt right as the fence began.

Las Vegas, NV Temple

I knew that I would not have felt it if I had not walked up that hill.   It was just one more witness to me that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live!  The Holy Ghost truly did testify to my heart that They are as real as the large, beautiful temple that stood before me.  And the temple is a holy, sacred place where I want to serve often.

Friends and family waiting.

Being one of the first to arrive gave me the opportunity to experience something I had not before.  Waiting.  Waiting for others to arrive.  But I thought about it much like those on the other side of the veil waiting for us to return.  I wanted to stand up and have a personal party for each person who made it up the hill and reached their goal.  Instead, I called out that they made it and clapped with the others who were there with me.  The wonderful thing is that as each person arrived, the group grew bigger and bigger and the applause continued to grow.  Many families came to greet their moms/grandmas who were walking.  When it was reported that the last group was nearing the end, a truckload of women went back and encircled them and walked with them to help them make the last of their journey. 

When all were gathered, the bishop took some time to talk to us all and congratulate us for putting our very best and doing something so difficult.  Even he had found it to be a challenging task and he runs all the time.  

The bishop talking to everyone.

As I peered around at the sisters listening to the bishop and then again that night at the gathering and dinner,  I saw was true sisterhood.  Women supporting each other completely and fully.  While they were accomplishing their personal goals, they were also celebrating the accomplishments of others.   When gathered together, these women laughed easily.  They have seen each other's weaknesses and strengths and they have pulled together to make something hard easier because they worked together.  I was reminded of one of the messages from the April Ensign that I read while waiting in my shady spot.  It was called "The Purpose of Relief Society" by Julie B. Beck.  She wrote:

Relief Society Logo

We learned that the purpose of Relief Society as established by the Lord is to organize, teach, and inspire His daughters to prepare them for the blessings of eternal life.

To fulfill this purpose of Relief Society, the Lord has commissioned each sister and the organization as a whole to:

1. Increase in faith and personal righteousness.
2. Strengthen families and homes.
3. Provide relief by serving the Lord and His children.

As I listened to the women bear testimonies at the dinner, I saw that this project fulfilled all of this and more.  Women had worked together and with their families to accomplish this goal.  Their homes had been strengthened.  They had helped one another.  Their relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ was stronger.  It was an amazing experience.  I look forward to what these women do as they continue to grow and learn together.  I hope that I will soon be able to join them full-time instead of on occasion.

Free CPR Class

Free is always good!  This class normally costs about $40.  They are trying to get 1000 people there to learn  CPR.   Definitely a great thing to know and be prepared with.