Day 9:  Today we started our temple lesson by watching this video below called "Temples Are a Beacon" about a family that sacrificed a lot to get to the temple.

After the movie we talked about the sacrifices that this family made to get to the temple.  What faith it must of taken to be separated for 4 years and make the sacrifices needed to get funds to attend the temple.  This video really touched me as I thought of how blessed I am to be so close to a temple already (only about 30 minutes) and then to have one even closer when the Gilbert Temple is dedicated.  Even while living on the east coast and having the Washington D.C. Temple be about 3 hours away, it doesn't come close to the sacrifice made by so many around the world.  It reminded me of the Temple Patron Fund that the prophet shared with the world in the October 2011 General Conference.  I happened to be at that session in Utah and I was able to hear and see a prophet of the Lord give an inspired message to help others.  If you start at 4:36 from the Conference below you will hear this announcement.  We shared this part of his talk with the children as well. 

I then shared this story of some members in Africa and their journey to the newly dedicated temple in Nigeria back in 2006.  You can read about their story here.  I then shared with the kids the church's Philanthropy website and we talked about how we can help someone else get to the temple.  What a great opportunity to share with the children about how to give to others and serve them in this unique way.  I asked if anyone wanted to donate money to help other families get to the temple.  It was unanimous.  I thought it would be fun for the kids to each have their own temple fund bank to save money.  We could donate it to the Temple Patron Fund every few months as the kids saved their money and made the choice to give of the little they had.  We got paper, empty aluminum cans and crayons.  The kids colored a design for their banks.  Once they were finished, it was touching to see them race to their rooms and take money out of their own piggy banks.  Here's a glimpse of what we did tonight.