Preparedness Talk

This is a talk my sister gave in Sacrament Meeting about being prepared. I thought it was pretty good and wanted to share.


If Ye Are Prepared, Ye Shall Not Fear

If Ye Are Prepared, Ye Shall Not Fear. That scripture brings me great comfort.
Last fall we had a lesson in church about being prepared for times of trouble. My husband and I have always tried to be prepared, and we have our food storage. As Troy and I talked about the lesson and how well we were prepared, we decided we had a pretty good year supply, at least the basics and a few other things, but it was hard to actually know how effective our food storage was since we'd never actually had to live off of it.

As we talked, we decided the most responsible thing would be to try out our food storage and see if it really was good enough to live on. If you're not going to really eat it, why store it? So we called up a few people and issued the Thanksgiving Challenge, to live off of what we had on hand and in our storage until Thanksgiving Dinner. This was back on November 1st, and Thanksgiving was on the 26th, so 26 days without going to the store.
Day one of the challenge was a Sunday so we hadn't gone to the store first or anything, it was as much a surprised to us as it was to everyone else. Four families in total accepted the challenge. The first family found out they really didn't have as much food storage as they thought, they'd somehow forgotten to store wheat and milk. They had a lot of other things, including a bag of pre-ground wheat flour, but by week two, they were done. The second family also didn't have a lot of basics, but she is a coupon shopper and they did have two giant freezers full of frozen pizza and TV dinners. They made it two and a half weeks on frozen pizza and TV dinners. They said they could have gone on, but frozen pizza for breakfast lunch and dinner was wreaking havoc on their systems. Of the four families who started, two made it to the end, our family and my sister Christina's family. My sister lives on 10 acres and has a cow and chickens, and claimed through the whole challenge that it wasn't really much of a challenge. I admit by week three, her cow and chickens were a source of envy at our house, but milk and eggs aside, we did fairly well--- and the experience we gained was invaluable.

Day 1 of the challenge we were nervous, but ready for the adventure.
By Day 3, we were starting to incorporate food storage basics like dried peas and beans into our meals by Day 12 we had pretty much cleaned out what was in the fridge and were getting creative.

Throughout the experience I kept daily track of what we did and how it was going.
By Day 16, the rationed store milk ran out, and we broke out the powdered milk. The kids and I had actually been drinking powdered milk for a few days, but Troy is the ultimate milk critic. He likes milk from only one store, and it has to always be cold, never left out or he can tell, even the next day by the taste. You might say that for Troy, the Thanksgiving Challenge started on day 16.

On Day 17 I wrote in my journal: “I think personally that we were foolish to wait so long to start the powdered milk. I'd much rather have powdered milk than NO milk. Saving the store milk was mostly like having no milk.”

This is what I wrote on Day 19: “We are making bread daily and powdered milk daily also. We are eating more rice and beans, but it is all do-able. It is surprising to me how little we actually need to survive. More than just surviving, we're actually thriving. The memory of store milk is fading and the kids are happy with the powdered milk.”

By the end of the challenge, an interesting thing had happened. We found we had made the transition from one lifestyle to another, and once the transition was made, it was almost as if we'd always lived that way. It stopped being a contest of who could hold out the longest and became just another day.

Attitudes in our house changed. Food was no longer an unlimited resource to be wasted and taken for granted, it was valued and respected. The kids didn't pour lakes of syrup on the pancakes anymore, and the cheese block was never left out to dry. Not only are we not afraid to use our food storage anymore, but those basics have become like friends. I know that no matter what happens, I have the skills and the resources to feed my family food they will eat. Not only that but we totaled the money we saved at the end of the month, and it came to over a thousand dollars. It was such an eye opening experience to us that by simply changing a few things, we could have an extra thousand dollars a month any time we needed it. That is liberating.

It has been six months since we started the Thanksgiving Challenge, and we have yet to buy a loaf of bread. Some changes we made that month stayed with us, and home made bread is one of them. We also eat a lot more home made chili--- it turned out to be a great family favorite. Because food takes longer to prepare when you are cooking with basics, we spent a lot more time together as a family, working together in the kitchen and as a result, my kids also know how to cook with basics. If you have never lived on a shoestring budget, if you've never had whole wheat home made bread, or powdered milk, the mental torture involved at the prospect is much greater. This experience liberated us from that fear. We KNOW that we are prepared. We KNOW that we can do it, and WE KNOW the blessings that come from obedience to that principle.

Now I'm going to change gears a bit on this subject of preparedness and tell you another experience I had recently.

15 years ago as a student at BYU, I helped my great grandmother, Mary Olson Almond, write her life history. Two books of about 200 pages each. Her life, her challenges, her walk with the Lord and her testimony of him.

Last month I finished helping her daughter, my grandmother, Dixie Almond Smith, write her life history. 200 pages of stories and experiences. Her life, her challenges, her walk with the Lord and her testimony of him.

For a while now I've felt impressed that I ought to write the history, my history, of the last ten years of my life. For those of you who have known us in this ward, you may be aware that the last ten years, and the last five especially have been full of exceedingly sore trials. I've felt impressed to write that history, that chapter of my life--- my trials, my challenges, my own walk with the Lord and my testimony of him.

As part of that effort, I've spent the last month typing my journals into the computer. First because I value them like scriptures. Every priesthood blessing I receive, every inspiration from the Lord to me is recorded there, as well as my struggles and growth. My journals are precious to me, having only one copy is not enough. Second, because ten years is a long time, and I want to get the story right when I write it.

Brothers and sisters, there is nothing like systematically going through your life in fast forward. I relive these experiences as I type them, only this time, I know the end from the beginning. All my struggles, all my hardships, all my hopes and my blessings fly by as if they were just minutes and hours instead of years.

Four weeks ago I transcribed the journal where we discovered that we could not have more children biologically. Three weeks ago I transcribed the journal where we found out Troy had multiple sclerosis, and then cancer. Two weeks ago I transcribed the journal that detailed the adoption of our three sons, and the two year long struggle and blessing that was. Last week I transcribed the journals from the years we were foster parents, and this week begins the hardest one of all, the journal of finding our daughters and losing them again.

The last time I spoke in this ward was to bear my testimony. It was in Relief Society, in January of 2007. Things were going well for us, We were nearing the finalization of the adoption of four little girls and it appeared that at last our family was complete. We had struggled so long, but though we suffered and struggled, great were the blessings. I remember that day because I wrote about it later, and it is recorded in my journal. I don't usually stand and bear testimony, I am a great writer, but when it comes to speaking, I tend to get a little shy. That day I felt the spirit so strongly that I could not keep my seat, but stood, with my littlest, Carolyn, asleep over my shoulder and bore my testimony of the blessing of going through hard things. How the trials in my life had blessed me, and how my walk with the Lord had become sweeter and my faith strengthened from going through the hard things.

A little more than a month after that our littlest daughter, our Carolyn died of SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, returning to her father in heaven in her sleep, and as my family was ripped apart in the aftermath of that experience, the testimony I bore that day was severely tried.

Brothers and Sisters, there is a reason why preparedness has two sides, the temporal and the spiritual. Temporal preparedness will keep you and your family from physical death, which is a valuable thing, but spiritual preparedness can save you and your family from spiritual death. You may or may not ever need to live off of your year supply of food, but you WILL need your testimony because HARD TIMES COME TO ALL OF US.

During the sorest part of my time of trial, one of the hardest things for me was feeling like these trials were not what I had agreed to. The Lord had asked us, inspired us to grow our family, and here it was torn apart, turned upside down and inside out. This was not what I thought I signed up for.

As we went through this trial, our families went through it too. It affected all of us, and we all struggled. My mother, knowing my heartache, sent me a good talk from April 2002 called “For Thy Good” and there's one great quote I like:

“There are few of us, if any, who don't walk the refiner's fire of adversity and despair, sometimes known to others but for many, quietly hidden and privately endured. Most of the heartache pain and suffering we would not choose today. But we did choose. We chose when we could see the complete plan. We chose when we had a clear vision of the Savior's rescue of us. And if our faith and understanding were as clear today as it was when we first made that choice, I believe we would choose again.”

“Therefore, perhaps the challenge is to have the kind of faith during the hard times that we exercised when we first chose. The kind of faith that turns questioning and even anger into acknowledging the power, blessings and hope that can come only from Him who is the source of all power, blessings and hope. The kind of faith that brings the knowledge and assurances that we all experience is part of the gospel plan, and that for the righteous all that appears wrong will eventually be made right. The peace and understanding to endure with dignity and clarity of purpose can be the sweet reward. This kind of faith can help us see the good, even when life's path seems to be layered only with thorns, thistles and craggy rocks.

The last three years have been the hardest struggle and trial of my life. We had been directed by the Lord to continue to grow our family and it seemed that all those efforts had been destroyed, and our hearts with it, but today I stand to bear you that same testimony, that I KNOW the trials in my life have blessed me. My walk with the Lord has become impossibly sweeter, and my faith strengthened from going through the hard things.

It has taken me three years to fully get to this point, but I KNOW the Lord walks with me, he weeps when I weep. He does not forget me or leave me to flounder alone. As the scripture says, I am engraven upon the palms of His hands.

So many times during the last three years there have come the Lord's tender mercies to me to bear me up and give me understanding. One came in the summer of 2008. Julie Brian gave a Relief Society lesson where she referenced a talk she'd heard from President Holland on the incredible blessings that can come only through hard trials. It wasn't a conference address or Ensign article, but was only available in video form. He gave it at a CES fireside just a month or two before her lesson and she felt impressed to use it in her lesson. I am so glad she did. This talk spoke to my soul. It was one of the things I clung to. It made such an impression on me, that I made a word for word transcription of the entire talk, going line by line through the video, so that I could have it, and digest every word. It took me six hours, but was unavailable in any other format, so I did it. Since then it's been printed in the Ensign, so you may remember it.
In the talk, Elder Holland was speaking of the experience Joseph Smith had in Liberty Jail, and how those severe trials were a temple experience to him:

Liberty Jail –Holland CES fireside 2008
So in what sense could Liberty Jail be called a “temple,” and what does such a title tell us about God’s love and teachings, including where and when that love and those teachings are made manifest? In precisely this sense: that you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in any situation you are in. Indeed, you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life—in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced.
In one way or another, great or small, dramatic or incidental, every one of us is going to spend a little time in Liberty Jail—spiritually speaking. We will face things we do not want to face for reasons that may not be our fault. Indeed, we may face difficult circumstances for reasons that were absolutely right and proper, reasons that came because we were trying to keep the commandments of the Lord. We may face persecution, we may endure heartache and separation from loved ones, we may be hungry and cold and forlorn. Yes, before our lives are over we may all be given a little taste of what the prophets faced often in their lives.
But the lessons of the winter of 1838–39 teach us that every experience can become a redemptive experience if we remain bonded to our Father in Heaven through it. These difficult lessons teach us that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity, and if we will be humble and faithful, if we will be believing and not curse God for our problems, He can turn the unfair and inhumane and debilitating prisons of our lives into temples—or at least into a circumstance that can bring comfort and revelation, divine companionship and peace.
. . .
Whenever these moments of our extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers. He does hear us. He does see us. He does love us. When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry, “Where art Thou?” it is imperative that we remember He is right there with us—where He has always been! We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to pray and plead with heaven, even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away. He is there. Our prayers are heard. And when we weep He and the angels of heaven weep with us.

Looking back, I see the end from the beginning. I know the end of the book, or at least the end of this chapter. In a small measure, reading through these histories, I can see as the Lord sees. As I transcribe these journals and watch myself go through these pages full of struggle and questioning, I feel like telling myself “Don't worry! It's all going to turn out ok!” “Look, just 10 more pages until THIS happens. You can do it!”

When we lived in Boston ten years ago, I went in for a temple recommend interview, and the member of the stake presidency giving me the interview asked me if I requested priesthood blessings. I didn't remember this question being one of the ones on the list, but I told him no I hadn't really, unless I was very sick. He gave me counsel then that has blessed my life ever since, that I should ask for blessings of comfort and counsel, on a regular basis, and treasure them--- and if I did, it would bless my life. I have done that, and because I have been obedient to that counsel I have a written record of every blessing I've received in the last ten years. Reading those blessings now, I KNOW the Lord sees the end from the beginning.

As I was thinking this the other day, reading about some particularly difficult time we were going through, trying to understand and make sense of what had happened to us, I realized that my priesthood blessings echoed that sentiment. “Don't worry! It's all going to turn out ok, just a little longer, you can do it!” The Lord sees the end from the beginning. He knows what lies ahead for us if we keep on being faithful. No matter who the voice was delivering the blessing, the Lord's encouragement was the same, and the promises for enduring well were everything I'd ever wanted. Four priesthood blessings by four different mouths promised our family would continue to grow. Many other blessings and promises have also been given us, many of which we have already realized and some are still to come. Some blessings were obvious at the time, and some obvious only later.

We've had witnesses and experiences we treasure as a result of these trials in our lives.
Being spiritually prepared is being prepared to act as if we too could see the end from the beginning as the Lord does, even when we don't. It is believing him when he says to follow him, and things will work out. Being spiritually prepared means being willing to see your trials and earthly hardships with one eye in mortality and one in eternity.

The Lord has helped me see my life and my trials with one eye in mortality and one in eternity. And for me, that makes all the difference. It turns tragedy to hope, hope to promise, and promise to reality if we endure it well.

The other day I had the opportunity to go to the temple, to be close to the spirit and the Lord and I felt close to my little Carolyn there. I was able to bring her the news that after these three years, we will finally be able to have her sealed to us. Because her adoption wasn't completely finalized before she died, we had to get special permission to have her sealed, but we have that permission now and will be going in the next few weeks to have her sealed to us. The Lord knows the ending is good.

I know that the Lord walks with me. He weeps when I weep, and he will turn our most heartbreaking trials into precious eternal treasures.

Be obedient. Lean on him. Rely on him. He will comfort you. He will sustain you, and he will bless you beyond what we can now imagine. I know this by my own experience. Heaven is near, and our time here to grow is so short and so valuable. I pray we can prepare now to make the most of those experiences when they come. For if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.
And I bear my testimony of these things in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen