Love you dad!!!
1910-2008
President Hinckley had a true love for people, member and non-members! He spent a large amount of time assisting others in times on need.
The Mormon Church has sent service workers and material relief to victims of over 150 disasters since 1986 alone. Service and aid are provided regardless of any consideration, including religion, ethnicity, and nationality, and is valued in the tens of millions of dollars annually. In the last 20 years, 200 million pounds of food, clothing, and medicine were donated in 147 countries, almost all to members of other faiths. Service is offered to countries where Mormon missionaries are banned by law. The Church is able to send relief quickly because there is no need to wait for donations or purchase supplies. Mormon Church members donate their service and resources regularly, and supplies are stored at Salt Lake and elsewhere, ready for distribution. The LDS Church also works with and donates extensively to other, "non-Mormon" charities. While the Church's specific humanitarian service programs are too numerous to list here, here's a few highlights:
*In 2001 the Church established what it calls the "Perpetual Education Fund." Low-rate college loans are made to impoverished students in the developing world, students that could not otherwise obtain a good education. Over 10,000 loans have been made to date, and the project is expanding.
*The Mormon Church played an important role in the 2004 Asian-tsunami service relief efforts. After working to address the population's immediate needs, the Church began working towards long-term progress, including livelihood restoration, health-care improvement (including operating-room construction, medical-equipment supply, and trauma counseling), and the reconstruction of community buildings (including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques). In all, millions of dollars have been invested in this type of long-term aid.
*The Mormon Church has an extensive vision program in the developing world, where service missionaries provide local health-care professionals with the necessary training and equipment to treat vision problems. Under this program, 20,000 individuals have received eye treatment at a cost of only one million dollars.
*Because world-wide only one percent of all who need wheelchairs have access to one, the Church has distributed over 100,000 chairs to the disabled in developing nations at a cost of $6.8 million.
*The Church has helped 1.8 million people in over 1,000 communities gain access to clean water at an average cost of only $2.50 per person. This service has included digging wells, providing water storage and delivery systems, and installing water purification systems. Mostly local labor was used, and local community leaders were trained in how to maintain the new facilities.
*At a cost of $3.5 million, the Mormon Church has sent service-missionary doctors to developing nations to train local health-care professionals in neonatal resuscitation. Neonatal deaths due to breathing problems cost one million infant lives a year.
*Working with international service partners (the American Red Cross, the United Nations Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United Nations Children’s Fund, World Health Organization, and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), the Church donated $3 million to work towards providing measles vaccinations for 200 million children in 40 African countries.
*Church members donated 10,000 days of service to assist Hurricane Katrina victims.
*The Church offers small-business loans to the impoverished in developing countries.
This list goes on and on. He also tried to bridge the gap between religions. He truly saw the BIGGER PICTURE!!!
Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish, Episcopal Diocese of Utah
Hearing of President Hinckley's death this evening I find it difficult to imagine the world and its faith communities without him. Leading the LDS Church for decades, he has been its heart and soul to many millions — members and nonmembers alike. Like so many others, I have been deeply touched by his generous wisdom, kindly voice and delicate humor. In my youth and when I returned to Utah to lead another church, he has always been the quintessential “good neighbor.” I pray for his family and close friends who must feel this immediate loss so keenly. His journey here was long and his faith so strong, that his very presence made us all want to embrace life as fully and well as he did.
Thomas Frank Cudd - March 24, 2002
There aren't many things that breath life into this body more than....
We had Kyla's Pediatrician Appt today. (For those of you in the states, the way they do it in Canada is; everyone goes to the family doctor even the babies and the moms for their girly stuff. Then if there is something out of the ordinary, they can refer you to a specialist ie; a pediatrician etc...)
All I have to say about the inappropriate portrayal or the LDS church in the media is...
Happy birthday to one of my very best friends! Christy you are amazing! I am so glad to have met you and I am lucky to be your neighbor too! You continue to inspire me and make me want to be better. Your a very special person to me and so many others, too. I look forward to many more years of fun conversations, nights out with the girls and trips to your house for an egg or stick of butter :) Love you!!!
