A stake service project

To commemorate the 75th birthday of the church's welfare program, President Monson asked all members of the Church to set aside a day of service, specifically for the commemoration. Our wonderful stake leaders made arrangements for our stake to serve at Liberty State Park. We arrived at 9:00 am to start our day of landscaping. The stake members broke off into different groups and went to work. One group provided child care for those with little primary kids, another group started preparing lunch for those of us who were doing the landscaping, and the rest of us broke off to do pruning, mulching and weeding of flower beds.

(me and Tracy Versluis)
It was so incredibly hot that day. It was well into the 100's...so we had a few that even provided us with water and Gatorade as needed. The entire project was very well planned and executed.

(Elder Frogley, Brian after his ice shower)
We worked so hard and so fast that the park rangers ran out of mulch for those doing mulch, they were very excited about this!

(Our family with the Statue of Liberty behind us)
Those who were weeding were done in record time.

(Hannah holding Lady Liberty)
And those of us who were lucky enough to be on the pruning team got to cut great amounts of bamboo off the wooden fence surrounding a natural vegetation area. (My hands are bruised from the clippers, bamboo isn't as easy as it looks to cut once it is over an inch thick!)

(Most of the group lining up to take a picture)
It was hard/hot work, but I really enjoyed myself! Its been too long since I have been able to do that kind of landscaping! I actually miss our landscaping company in Seattle! One can really derive great satisfaction in seeing a landscaping project completed...the hard work alone is worth it!

(Ethan, Tim Vandergast, and Brian enjoying a well deserved lunch)
I personally am so grateful to President Monson for inviting us to do this service! I got to meet some really wonderful members of our stake. Sadly our stake is so spread out that we really struggle to do much together, so when we do, I love to take advantage of it. It is so wonderful to meet other members of the church here in Jersey!

John and Beth Nelson, friends from our ward
I sincerely hope we make this an annual stake project (the only thing I would change is the month that we do it, cause June, July, August and September are just TOO HOT!) It was awesome to work together as a stake family! I LOVED IT!!!

a group of stalwart mulchers moving on to the next project.

(Lady Liberty from Liberty State Park, New Jersey)
I have a testimony that service is a Christlike quality and if we follow the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and serve others, we can find greater peace and happiness in our lives. I love the Lord, I am so thankful to be a part of his true church. I know it is true! I LOVE this gospel.

Moroni Ayala, one of our YM helping in the clean up of the pruning

RiLee McDonald and Maria Rylander...also from our ward

Ethan, Ysabel and Aaron Titus

Christian (just baptized last Sunday), Brian and Jerry (with two more of our YM)

a group of missionaries working their tails off

some of my pruning buddies

hard working mulchers

a little glimpse of the bamboo we were cutting back