Presentation "2012-A Year of Preparedness" Part 1

Welcome to our 5th Sunday presentation.  

“Signs of the Second Coming are all around us and seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity.While we are powerless to alter the fact of the Second Coming and unable to know its exact time, we can accelerate our own preparation and try to influence the preparation of those around us.We need to make both temporal and spiritual preparation for the events prophesied at the time of the Second Coming."       Dallin H. Oaks, Preparation for the Second Coming, May 2004 Ensign

Are events increasing in frequency and intensity?  Yes, according to USA Today.

2011 was costliest year in world disasters
By Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
Jan. 4, 2012
The USA had company as it suffered through devastating weather and climate disasters
 in 2011. The entire world endured its costliest year ever for losses from natural disasters at more than a third of a trillion dollars in damage, according to a report released Wednesday.....

Will things get better?  Not according to Elder Henry B. Eyring.  

“Change is also accelerating in the world around us.....(and) much of the acceleration in the world is in troubles long prophesied for the last days. Each time you watch the evening news, you see stark evidence of that....The giant earthquake, and the tsunamis it sent crashing into the coasts around the Indian Ocean,is just the beginning and a part of what is to come, terrible as it was.  “Raise the Bar”, January 25, 2005.

If our prophets have prophesied that disasters are going to get worse...

We better get prepared for disasters.

What do most disasters have in common?  No power, no city water, no stores open, loss of heat, loss of services, loss of communications, loss of transportation.

Our bishop has been inspired to help us get ready.

O

Bishop B.'s instructions to me (the ward provident living specialist):

1. Make challenges for the ward to do, to help us learn emergency preparedness and food storage skills.

2. Challenges must be do-able.

3. Challenges must NOT be surprises.

The challenges:   

are voluntary.  

  

will give you skills 

   

can be done on another day if you cannot  do it as scheduled.

The Calendar:

We have challenges scheduled for the next 12 months.

First, we are going to prepare.

Next, we are going to PRACTICE disaster situations.

Disaster scenarios have been broken down into bite-sized pieces.

Feb. 2012- Practice having no heat in your house for one night.

Rules:

You can turn off the heater down to 40 degrees all night, OR

You can leave on the heater for the children, and just block your master bedroom door and open the bedroom windows.

Goals: For you to find  out:

if you have enough blankets

If you have enough warm clothing

If you have an emergency heater.

Do you have any type of an approved indoor heater?

Kerosene and Propane heaters are available.

Never use an unapproved heater indoors.

Conserve body heat by setting up a tent in your warmest room, and sleep inside of it.