We've been pretty busy this week, but I wanted to write about our church meeting yesterday that was particularly touching. Three men from our area were life flighted to Salt Lake City last week due to carbon monoxide poisoning. They were on a hunting trip with their sons and had put a propane heater in their tent. The boys found their parents unconscious and- because of their scouting training- had recognized what was wrong and new exactly what to do. They dragged their parents out of their tent and ran down to an area where they could call 911.

At Salt Lake, the intensive care doctors that were working to help them said that Randy (who is from our ward) was at the top 10% worse he's ever seen. A doctor in our ward told us that to have a comatose patient after carbon monoxide poisoning was very grim at best. His wife was told to expect the worse.

A miracle happened and Randy survived. It was so sweet, especially to see Randy there at church and here how touched he was. His wife and friends were so grateful that his life was spared and you could see how much everyone loved him. They really thought he was going to die and were so grateful he didn't. I thought of some council President Monson recently gave:

"The loss of loved ones almost inevitably brings some regrets to our hearts. Let’s minimize such feelings as much as humanly possible by frequently expressing our love and gratitude to them. We never know how soon it will be too late.

A grateful heart, then, comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. Often we feel grateful and intend to express our thanks but forget to do so or just don’t get around to it. Someone has said that “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

I love that last quote he shares, so I thought I'd share. Pictures soon to come about our painting fiasco!