Mormon Life - Mormon Helping Hands tag

New Zealand Mormons respond to children’s needs in Fiji

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:57:00 -0600

source: Newsroom.lds.org

As a young girl growing up in rural Fiji, Ledua Kollinisau had few books at her school. Today, she said, children's reading books are still scarce in the remote parts of Fiji.

“Because my village is on a remote island, the supply ships that bring essential educational materials arrive very infrequently,” Kollinisau said.

Thanks to generous donations from New Zealanders across the lower North Island, children in rural Fiji will soon be receiving a lot more books — 45,000 to be exact.

The books were collected for Fiji’s children during a month-long community book drive called Books for Fiji, organized by Mormon Helping Hands of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mormon Helping Hands clean in UK to celebrate 75th anniversary of Church Welfare

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:23:00 -0600

source: lds.org

Mormon Helping Hands projects to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Church Welfare Programme were fulfilled when over 300 faithful saints from the Greater London area turned out to work. We had dozens of youth there, building, instead of pulling down the community.

At each of the three sites friends were made and promises to maintain relationships were swapped. In particular, we proved to the Mayor of London's Office that on a weekday with short notice, the Church could mobilise significant numbers of cheerful, willing and able volunteers to serve with no thought of a return.

'Helping Hands' assist Irene victims in North Carolina

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:29:00 -0600

source: ldschurchnews.com

Mormon Life says: Kind of cool - the members helped the photographer who had been covering their story, and he was obviously impacted by the service. A photojournalist who covered the Sept. 3 Church-sponsored service project that was organized to help folks impacted by Hurricane Irene in eastern North Carolina learned first-hand of the generosity of the Tar Heel State's service-minded members.

The man was accompanying a local Church public affairs specialist on a tour of the various work sites. After finishing his work, the photographer pulled the member aside and mentioned that he had four felled trees in his own yard, then added that he'd been so busy covering the hurricane that he didn't know how or when he would be able to clear the debris. A short time later a dozen men from the Durham North Carolina Stake arrived at the man's front door, told him they were there to help and commenced to clear the trees from his yard.

With tears in his eyes, the photographer pointed to the Durham men sporting yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" T-shirts and said, "Those are men of God. They are doing the Lord's work."

Missionaries in Japan help restore sacred Shinto shrine

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:21:00 -0600

source: ldschurchnews.com

The priests at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo — a shrine of such importance in Japan that it can be compared to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. — recently invited Church leaders here to describe how Latter-day Saints conduct their humanitarian efforts around the world, but especially in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku.

Meiji Shrine is in the heart of Tokyo and was built in 1910 to honor the Emperor Meiji who re-opened Japan to the world in the 1860s. It is one of the three most important shrines in the Shinto religion and is a Tokyo landmark known to almost every visitor from abroad.

The invitation from Meiji came following an unusual — at least in the eyes of the Meiji priests — service project by Christian missionaries at one of their shrines in Tagajo, just outside Sendai. Missionaries from the Tokyo Mission of the Church rode the bus all night to spend the day cleaning the Yawata Shrine, one of the many Shinto shrines damaged by the tsunami. The Yawata Shrine is hundreds of years old and is designated as a Historical Legacy Site in Japan.