Temporal and Spiritual Self-reliance

While our stalwart Sunday School teacher, Colin, was at home perfecting his Darth Vader impersonations, we Rosny YSA gathered in our regular and regularly cold room for a bit of class discussion. After the announcements by Bek and the "YSA presidency," and hearing about everyone's week, the amateur Maz attempted a bit of class discussion, beginning with the Missionary Experience of the Week. It turns out that waiting a long, long time for a taxi late at night in Sydney can become a blessing when you discover the driver is one of the long-lost sheep of the fold, originally taught by two sister missionaries when he first came to Australia, baptised, but now with little knowledge or the church or where to find it. Luckily the Good Shepherd knows all his sheep and will always lead them back to the fold. Eric expressed earnest interest in being taught the gospel again by the missionaries and now he is able because the Good Shepherd led him to two Hobart Stake young single adults of the fold who could help him find it again. Now his wife and son, who were not around to hear the gospel when he was taught, will also have the opportunity to hear it.

The discussion then focussed on the only 2 pages of the reading that Maz had managed to do, about the welfare program of the church, which was also aided by Brother Eastwood's talk in sacrament meeting, about self-reliance. The ideas for temporal self-reliance which came from discussion by members of the class included working where possible, keeping a vegetable patch, living within our means and choosing wisely how to spend our money. Spiritual reliance was also discussed with great similarities, such as being accountable for our own spiritual learning and making the effort to fill and re-fill our own spiritual reservoirs instead of relying on leaders and programs of the church to fill it up for us. We are counselled in Philippians 2:12 to work out our own salvation, which implies a personal responsibility to seek learning and understanding and apply the principles of the gospel in our lives.