Several years ago there was a huge fire that raged through Colorado Springs. Literally the weekend before the fire happened, one of the bishops (or maybe the stake president) felt inspired to clean up the trees and the property of one of the meetinghouses. They scraped out a ton of dead needles and branches out of the numerous pine trees.

The fire destroyed everything in its path, including lots of neighboring homes and trees. The meetinghouse—including the trees—suffered no damage. One of the neighbors saw the members cleaning the church property and decided to do the same on his property. His house and trees survived, as well.

I drove through the area, talking to the Church’s facility manager over that area. EVERYTHING was burned…except for that house and that meetinghouse. It was crazy.