(...not so subliminal message...)

Hi Family--

We really want you to read this article. It is straightforward and has great information and guidelines. We really like how it frames temporal preparedness and it's importance. We CAN do this. We MUST do this. Let's do it TOGETHER!

Love, Mom and Dad

“The Twelve Months of Preparedness” By Carolyn Nicolaysen

This has been the season to think of the Savior's love, sacrifice and example. It is the season for us to reflect on what we can give back to Him in the coming year. One of the greatest gifts we can give is a strong commitment to follow God's counsel to prepare and provide for ourselves and our families, to become self reliant.

While we celebrate the blessings of this season, we can set aside our fears of these perilous times, and focus on our faith and spiritual preparedness for the road ahead. We remember that anything is possible with Christ at our side.

Consider the Twelve Months of Preparedness we have seen in 2008 – where in every instance that faith was challenged by tragic natural disasters, there have been those among the rubble who were remarkably prepared for their challenge, who could not only protect their families, but provide for their neighbors as Good Samaritans. If you knew in January 2008 what you now know about 2008, what would you have done differently? Consider both natural events and man-made calamities, including the world-wide economic crisis. Surely all of us would have done something very differently, had we known the course of world events, and how quickly fortunes can be reversed. In one respect or another, we would have been better prepared had we known then what we know now.

Consider too, the remarkable natural disasters of the twelve months just ending, only a few of which I can include in this abbreviated almanac:

January 2008 brought a series of tornadoes caused by record-breaking temperatures to Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin.
February 2008 saw violent tornadoes rip through Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri.
March 2008 - it was Georgia 's turn to experience the violence of a tornado. Major flooding caused severe problems from Arkansas to Illinois, and in Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio. Even in Texas and Pennsylvania people were forced to flee their homes.
April 2008 - three horrific tornadoes struck Norfolk, Suffolk, and Colonial Heights, Virginia. At least 90 people were seriously injured.
May 2008 brought more twisters, this time to Oklahoma, Missouri, and Georgia. Twenty-one deaths were reported on May 11th, and Oklahoma declared a state of emergency.
June 2008 brought tremendous floods to the Midwest - Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin saw some of the most severe flooding ever recorded as storms caused already swollen rivers and lakes to overflow. It was also in June that a tornado killed four Boy Scouts and injured 48 others when it tore through the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in western Iowa.
July 2008 was a warning to Southern California residents that The Big One is overdue. A 5.4 Richter earthquake shakes the metro area, and people scramble to buy batteries, bottled water and supplies from L.A. supermarket shelves.
August 2008 - Tropical Storm Fay made landfall four times in Florida and Georgia.
September 2008 - Hurricane Gustav forces the entire city of New Orleans to evacuate, leaves more than one million homes without power, and kills at least 26 people in Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi. Tropical Storm Hanna strikes Haiti, killing hundreds of people and leaving many more injured or missing. September then produced Hurricane Ike in the Caribbean, which ultimately landed in Texas where it caused at least 50 deaths, and forced thousands more to evacuate their homes, and millions to lose power for an extended time. As Ike traveled inland, the storm weakened to a tropical depression, but torrential rain caused severe flooding and power outages in parts of Louisiana, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois.
October 2008 – A man-made crisis takes center stage: a financial crisis called the worst since the Great Depression began to unfold in September, and becomes Topic One in October, leading many to experience financial calamity, loss of their homes and jobs. Need we say more, as this still is unfolding…
November 2008 - Fueled by hurricane strength “ Santa Ana ” winds, three wildfires burned for several days consuming 40,000 acres of land, and causing thousands to evacuate their homes in Southern California. A state of emergency was declared in five counties.
December 2008 – In New England and New York at least 800,000 homes were left without electricity for several days during a severe ice storm. Canada, the Northwest, Midwest, and Northeast USA are blanketed by winter storms - residents of Washington State from the San Juan Islands to the Cascades suffer from blizzards, ice storms, and power outages. Also showing up on the radar screen in December – 150 cases of avian influenza in India are being treated, and medical teams from New Delhi have been dispatched, but so far no reports of the H5N1 virus have been verified. Since the virus surfaced five years ago, 200 people have died from it, and officials watch carefully that it does not become the next pandemic, which all nations fear.

As we look ahead to the next lap in life's journey, consider the counsel of modern prophets and apostles in declaring the value of self-reliance:

President Thomas S. Monson said, “ Self-reliance is a product of our work and under-girds all other welfare practices. It is an essential element in our spiritual as well as our temporal well-being. Regarding this principle, President Marion G. Romney has said: ‘Let us work for what we need. Let us be self-reliant and independent. Salvation can be obtained on no other principle. Salvation is an individual matter, and we must work out our own salvation in temporal as well as in spiritual things.'" (In Welfare Services Meeting Report, 2 Oct. 1976, p. 13. Thomas S. Monson, “Guiding Principles of Personal and Family Welfare,” Ensign, Sep 1986.)

Since President Brigham Young, every prophet has counseled us to become self reliant. President Marion G Romney also related the following as he emphasized the need for self reliance:

"Great flocks of Florida gulls were once starving amid plenty. Fishing was good, but the gulls did not know how to fish. Generations of gulls depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets, but then the fleet moved. The big birds, once so free, never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children how to fish. Instead, they led their little ones to the shrimp nets. People tend to be like these gulls. They see nothing wrong with picking scraps from spiritual, emotional, and intellectual shrimp fleets. The point is that ‘the practice of coveting and receiving unearned benefits has now become… fixed in our society… This practice, if universally accepted and implemented in any society, will make slaves of its citizens" (The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance , Ensign, November 1982, 91).

Church leaders have asked us to plant gardens, learn basic skills, get out of debt, and to store a supply of food and supplies for our household. The messages may vary according to the resources available and the challenges of the time, but the message has remained the same. We need to be prepared to care of our own.

In the face of a very uncertain 2009, both economically and in every other way, we stand together as brothers and sisters in the face of challenges that may at times seem insurmountable. Will we have compassion for our neighbor, and the resolve and humility to obey the Lord's many warnings?

“Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their year's supply of food … and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year's supply of debt and are food-free." (President Thomas S. Monson "That Noble Gift—Love at Home,” Church News, May 12, 2001.)

It has been my experience that spiritual preparedness is much more difficult when temporal preparedness has been ignored. As we have gathered with family and friends these past weeks, we can and should commit to becoming self reliant in 2009. Take photos of your family and friends and display them everywhere in your home. When we are tempted to spend money on trivial wants, we can reflect instead on our real treasures as we think about those closest to our hearts. Let these photos become a reminder of where those treasures really lie.

Let 2009 be the year we seek help to learn how to be self-reliant.

Let this be the year we focus on paying off debt and freeing ourselves from bondage.

Let this be the year we set-aside things that matter least, and give priority to setting our homes, our property, our gardens and pantries in order.

Above all let this be the year we demonstrate our love for our Savior by following good counsel and becoming temporally and spiritually prepared.