**Penny's 2 Cents**: Light the World

One day we took the boys to the Temple Visitor Center to look at all of the Nativity Sets that they had on display and one of the sister missionaries was holding onto a green card that had a star on it that said Light the World. She talked to us the whole time and just held onto that card. I looked around to see if anyone else had cards. No one did. So I thought it must be her own personal thing, not something that they were handing out. We were there for at least 45 minutes and as we were getting ready to leave she handed it to me and asked if I wanted this ornament. I had no idea that it was an ornament. It was awesome! I didn't put in on my tree right away. I figured it was more like a pass-a-long card. In fact the next day we actually took it over to a less active family to give it to them but they weren't home. David was glad because he wanted it on our tree. I wanted to share it but it didn't work out so I put it on our tree. It was so pretty on our tree, but I felt bad that it wasn't going to help raise someone else spirit somewhere. I took a picture of it and put it on Facebook to share it that way. Little did I know how many more people it did help than it would have if we would have given it to that one family. One of our dear friends in Miami who has helped keep an eye out for Sophie for us commented on it and asked how he could get one. Unfortunately, their temple does not have a visitor center. Not many do. In fact out of the 159 temples that are currently being used only 21 have visitor canters. We are just one of the lucky few. So, I decided I would go back to ours and ask if I could get one to send to him to say thanks for all he's done for us. I wasn't even sure if they had any more because it was a week before Christmas and I didn't see anyone else with one while we were there. Well, when I got there this sweet older lady asked how she could help and I explained everything to her and how I'd love to Light the World in Southern Florida. She smiled and handed me one from behind the counter. Now, on my way to the visitor center I had another person in mind who I wish I could give one too but I knew I was pushing my luck even getting one. Our friend Freddy, Sophie's Elder Quorum President, helped me through Hurricane Irma. He would text me or send me a video of what was happening there everyday. His family spoke Spanish so I only understood half of what he said because he'd talk to me and then them and then me. It was pretty funny. So, when this cute temple worker handed me this green card that had an ornament on it you can imagine my surprise when I looked down and noticed that it was in Spanish! My heart leaped. I showed it to her and asked if she had one in English also and then held it to my heart as she tried to get it back from me. I explained my predicament and since there was no one around she quickly handed me an English one and told me that she wasn't supposed to give any out. I quickly thanked her and ran out of the building before she changed her mind. Then I thanked my Heavenly Father in the front seat of my van and drove to the post office to see if I could get these to Florida before Christmas. I will forever be grateful for that experience. It definitely helped to Light My World.

David did a lot of service raking leaves for his Light the World. The leaves in our neighborhood are crazy. They will pile way up and you'll rake them up and then the rest of them will fall 2 weeks later. He raked everyone's up the first time for service and then they all hired him back for the 2nd time and he bought Christmas presents for everyone with them. He made $50! This year, as a family we raked up a part member couple's leaves. They hired David to do it originally. It was WAAAAY to big of a job for him. It ended up being over 50 bags of leaves. FIFTY! We loaded them onto a trailer and the guy hauled them out to the dump. Oh yeah, did I mention that they had ZERO grass. The front yard is all ROCKS! The back yard that is as big as Grandpa and Grandma Shelton's has 2 big trees right on the middle of it and no grass just dirt.