As the evening comes quickly to a close the fires still burn out of control in my home state, please continue to pray for a miracle! I am so amazed at the presence of prayer that has come across facebook today, it humbles me to see the fellowship and the unity! God bless you all and let us continue in this! As you all know I live in Utah and it is the land of the LDS church! When the latter day saints came to the Salt Lake Valley and it was proclaimed by their leader Birgham Young that "this is the place"
"the pioneers had the good fortune of a relatively mild winter. Although late frosts in April and May decimated some of the crops, the Mormons seemed to be well on their way to self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, swarms of insects appeared in late May.These insects, now called "Mormon crickets" because of this incident, are not true crickets, but instead belong to the katydid family. Having ornamental wings, they are unable to fly, but instead travel in huge devouring hordes. Mormon crickets eat all plant material in their path, but they also cannibalize any insects that die on the way, including their own species. They're known to cyclically swarm in some areas of the Mountain West, especially in Utah and Nevada. These insects threatened the livelihood of the Mormon pioneers; stomping on the pests did not dissuade them from entering farms as others would advance. This is a reproductive strategy similar to mast reproduction in oaks, overwhelming predators with sheer numbers allowing a percentage of the population to survive to reproduce. Mormons, prolific journal writers, often cast this disaster in biblical terms like the 8th plague of locusts. According to some pioneers' accounts, legions of gulls appeared by June 9, 1848. Many letters and diaries recount that these birds, native to the Great Salt Lake, ate mass quantities of crickets, drank some water, regurgitated, and continued eating more crickets. Some don't regard this as particularly unusual because the seagulls around the Great Salt Lake often eat insects in the adjacent valleys, but some pioneers saw the gulls' arrival as a miracle, and the story was recounted from the pulpit by church leaders such as Orson Pratt and George A. Smith (Pratt 1880, p. 275; Smith 1869, p. 83) The traditional story is that the seagulls annihilated the insects, ensuring the survival of some 4,000 Mormons who had traveled to Utah. For this reason, Seagull Monument was erected and the California gull is the state bird of Utah.
I love this story as it is such a story of hope and of miracles. We must not give up on hope that our Father in heaven will open up the flood gates and allow the rains to pour out from heaven, that he will command the water to pour until the grounds are saturated and the fires are no longer a threat! We must hold fast to our faith, cling to the robes of God and know that with his mercy this will happen!
God is amazing my friends, I stand witness to each of you that I see prayers answered each and every day, he is the beginning and the ending in my life. I raise my arms to the heavens and tell you that I know Jesus lives, that he is here to guide us in all of our undertakings and that only through him will we get into the kingdom of heaven. It is time for each of us to take stock in our lives, to rectify those things that are not right in their lives. I pray for you each day that you might feel his love and know his truth! May you be blessed abundantly, love in Christ!
