Wow!! This Self Reliance Program is AWESOME!!! and Inspired!

This has been quite a week! 

It started out with a bang as we sat in on our first  of many weekly training sessions on Skype with Elder Johnny Leota,  the Self Reliance Manager, and the 4 Self-Reliance missionary couples from Melbourne and Sydney. We loved "meeting" our future co-horts and hearing some of what  they have been doing.

I absolutely love to learn how these many programs have been developed to help lift and improve the quality of life of the members of the church and anyone else who wants to be involved. There are so many opportunities and more being developed. The newest is the Success in School Begins at Home. This one trains parents to help their children be ready to succeed when they attend school. I understand a new program on how to manage finances is in the works. Most of the booklets comprise 12 weeks of lessons/discussions. And there is a new booklet being prepared to help returned missionaries move forward in their lives after their 1 1/2 to 2 years in the Lord's service. 

Here are some of the current booklets:

My Path to Self-Reliance

My Foundation: Principles, Skills, Habits

My Job Search

Education for Better Work

Starting and Growing My Business

Success in School Begins at Home

Mum's Preschool

English Study Group

Study Buddy Group

Many of these are available to download on lds.org. Look under families and individuals, then self reliance to find the downloads.

There are so many things happening. We are now on the email list and seem to be getting 4-5 emails per day. We are learning so many things about how the self reliance initiative works. I think the idea is that we are to "hit the deck running" once we arrive in Sydney. Still hoping we are up to doing all of this and still very grateful we will be set apart and have the Lord's help when we do "hit the deck".

We managed to finish off a few of our projects. I am a list person and it makes me VERY happy when I can cross something off the list. Still packing boxes and will have another load going into storage  by the end of September. Then probably only one more load to empty the house the end of October so we can move out and clean the house.

Had some help learning a little about desktop publishing. A sister from our ward, Lydia, came yesterday and helped me unravel some mysteries of the programs I have been using and gave me courage to try out some of the options.

Still working on some family history projects and ready to start our writing and scanning projects.

It was lovely to take time out for a quick trip to Kelowna, BC to visit my sister and her husband, June and Dietz Nicolay. We had not seen them for awhile and wanted to touch base and get hugs before we leave the country for 2 years. It was just a short overnight trip but so worth the 4-5 hour drive! 

Update on the effort to become more physically fit: 

Steve's stitches are out and his hand is healing up pretty well. He has begun physical therapy for his hip which seems to help. In fact he has been pain free today :). Maybe he will soon be ready to go walking again. 
My exercise sessions are ongoing but they are HARD!! I have decided I am kind of lazy that way :( But I am more flexible - at least when I am not too sore. 

Hopefully we can get our major writing project competed this week. That would make me very happy.

Wishing you all a great week.