Diary of a Brown Eyed Girl: November 2011

I have always been so very grateful for everything that God has blessed me with in my life. I feel so very fortunate to have all the things I do. We are here to not only worry about our own well-beings, but to most importantly lose ourselves in the service of our God and to help and care for others around us. I believe and know that when you are in the service of others, you really start to find out who you really are as a person and as a daughter or son of God. When we give service and show others that we care, that is when you can truly feel the love of God in your heart and soul and its the best feeling ever!!

Howard W. Hunter

"We need to be kinder with one another, more gentle and forgiving. We need to be slower to anger and more prompt to help. We need to extend the hand of friendship and resist the hand of retribution. In short, we need to love one another with the pure love of Christ, with genuine charity and compassion and, if necessary, shared suffering, for that is the way God loves us....

"We need to walk more resolutely and more charitably the path that Jesus has shown. We need to 'pause to help and lift another' and surely we will find 'strength beyond [our] own.' If we would do more to learn 'the healer's art,' there would be untold chances to use it, to touch the 'wounded and the weary' and show to all 'a gentle[r] heart'" (Ensign, May 1992, 61).

Some people...well a lot of people are not as fortunate. Its heart wrenching to think of all the many many people out there that have very little or nothing at all for that matter. The Thai Refugees are just a small tiny fraction of people who are not so fortunate like we are.......

There are an estimated 11-12 million refugees in the world today. The refugee problem is a serious one; there are so many people around the world who need so much help and there's just not enough resources to help them all.

Hundreds of refugee families are fleeing from their countries because of the well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion persecutions.

Our church just did a service project last week for the Thai Refugees. Hundreds of them left their country to come here. A mass number of them ended up by the Salt Lake City Temple in Utah. Our church has provided food, clothing, shelter and have been teaching many of them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These Thai Refugees literally have NOTHING. They came over with NOTHING.... just the clothes on theirs backs. They have no idea what a bed or a toilet is. They cannot speak any English.

This breaks my heart in so many ways. It makes me want to do so much to help all of them but I know I can't. All I can do is my best and God will do the rest. I know that this is the Lords work and that He is bringing all of them to the church to hear the Gospel. I know that the lives of the families who receive these gifts will be touched and know that the Lord is looking out for them.

Take a peak below at what we did to help out.......

We tied 21 no-sew baby fleece blankets. We finished all 21 in a little over an hour! Wahoo!!

We also collected Cub Scouts Uniforms, educational/learning materials, and all the necessities to make Newborn Kits (diapers, binkies, bottle brushes, baby wipes, onesies, bottles, etc.)