Following the Prophet

If you know me, you know I have an emergency preparedness hobby. I am so grateful that Kent loves me despite this quirk (and many others ha!) in my personality. Sometimes (like now) it is pretty consuming. Every day I think about it. I study about it. I talk with people about it. I help people around me to do it. And of course I do a lot of prepping myself! BUT this time around was different because Kent jumped on for the ride and even took the wheel a few times! It was SO FUN!! As I was thanking him for like the 100th time for doing this with me he just rolled his eyes and said "Yeah. Like I had a choice!" Yikes. I mean, I know he was kidding...sort of. But I also know that I have such a black and white personality that I take on a "get on or get out" mentality sometimes. Especially when it comes to stuff like this where it's a COMMANDMENT. I don't know what would have happened if we weren't working together, but I do know that I'm grateful we were on the same page! One of the goals we set at Happy MacKay Day was to have our food storage done by the end of the year. At the time, Kent didn't want to put a date on it because we have so many house projects to do and aren't sure of the cost yet. So I didn't write that timeline down, but let him know that if it were up to me I would do it all asap.    

I'm not one to sit on my hands. I do the things I say I am going to do! So I started to organize and inventory our food. I posted some pictures on fb in the hopes of getting others involved as well. It is great if we have our year supply because we would be following the prophet, but if no one else has theirs and starving children are showing up at my door... well it wouldn't last long! 

In this house we have a cold storage room and I LOVE it! I am so grateful for this designated em prep storage space!! Once I finished my plans and inventory and showed it to Kent he helped me to make an awesome spread sheet to keep track of everything. I am so grateful for his expertise! 

I priced out everything and figured out the rough estimate of what it would cost to get a year supply of food, and a three month supply of water and food that we normally eat. It took a long time!! But I felt like it was an essential step for us because never-ending spending isn't provident living! We have always had a budget and I am grateful that we are debt free. These two truths have brought us so much confidence, and I didn't want to ruin that! So I settled in for the long haul of purchasing supplies little by little, and decided to use my energy on gaining skills and helping others get involved.

I tried to have an Emergency Preparedness night at my house... and just one friend came. I really do want to help people! And sometimes I don't understand why people don't accept free help from willing hands. It made me sad. I went to bed early that night. 

I'm not sure if this experience of seeing me feel so genuinely discouraged spurred Kent into action, or if his spreadsheets being in the red did it, but Kent started to get more and more involved from that point on. He helped me enter everything into the laptop and change all the container measurement to be more uniform. 

We worked on it several nights and it was so fun to be together doing something so productive and fulfilling! The "Spirit of Joseph" as I call it strikes again! I love being united. I really is the best way to live!

Even the kids got involved helping me count and organize and estimate needs. 

Finally we had our needed items and totals and costs all in one place.

I posted again online asking how others were doing and offering our spreadsheets as templates. Lots of people asked for them! I hope they are using them! I again offered to help anyone who might need it, but again no one accepted. I guess the parable of the 10 virgins really is true, but in a different way than I thought before. You can't do for someone what they aren't willing to do themselves! Each person has to actively work on this or all the help in the world won't make them finish!

When I posted this picture saying that in our three month rotational supply we are storing chocolate chips so we can make cookies for FHE, one of my friends commented that it was "sickening" how prepared I am. ??? Wow. That made me sad too. I hope I'm not being a Debbie Downer, but it really does make me sad in a way nothing else can when people make fun of me for doing something right and good. I also feel bad for them that they won't get to make an FHE treat for their kids. ;0]

I try really hard to not let myself get scared, because the scriptures say not to be. But sometimes I read too much on the internet, and talk to too many friends who put too much store in books that aren't scripture and people who aren't prophets. At times like that I do tend to freak out a bit. (Ask me sometime about the EMP and tin-foiled walkie talkies.) It's a good thing I am married to Kent because he helps to ground me. The thing that was different about my freak out this time is that Kent went along with it! In a spreadsheet kind of way =o] I went to the bishop's store house, and to the Macey's case lot sale, and to emergency essentials, and we both went to Costco tons of times. 

The kids got really good at helping to carry stuff in from the car down to the storage room!

Natalie made us these emergency essentials name tags the night we filled all the buckets. 

And it's done!!

We also finished our three month rotational supply but I wont show you the pictures because I don't want to be a show off lol! I can't describe to you the peace and joy I felt as that last cell turned green!!

I SO loved getting to check that off on our goal board!!

When nothing earth shattering happened after all in September, I recommitted to putting my trust in the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and the living prophet of God, instead of random speculations other people have made. I started studying the scriptures a lot more fervently, which was comforting and fulfilling, but I still found emergency preparedness everywhere! And as Kent pointed out, he REALLY didn't think anything was going to happen, but it is a worthy goal that was doable for us within that time frame, so we did it and now it is done and it feels so good!

We also did an inventory of our supplies, but I didn't really plan on getting to finish that too because I thought our em prep budget was maxed out for the year. But then the other day Kent surprised me by ordering a whole huge box of stuff with his J&J discount! And as of this posting we are super close to being fully stocked for a year with everything from toilet paper and toothpaste to candles and cough drops! Yes we have had to make sacrifices as a family, but we have also been incredibly blessed with extra successes for Kent at work and finding awesome sales at stores. It has been humbling to see the Lord's hand guiding our efforts! 

I end with this scripture from Nephi that has taken on a whole new meaning for me: 

I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.