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.

fitness, projects, opposition, continuing to learn, time is quickly passing

The clock is ticking and the days pass so swiftly. We now have only 85 days left until we report to the MTC in Provo, Utah. Some days I worry that we will not have everything finished in time to leave. But we are moving forward. I actually packed  4 more boxes this week in between working on projects.

We were able to check off a few of the little projects on our list and today we will try to outline and calendar some of the remaining items.

It was so nice to take out a little time and visit with our friends Lola and Allen Jensen. Lola has been my friend since high school - well over 50 year ago.

Working  through our preparations we came to the realization that we are not in the best physical shape. It occurred to us that we should be more fit and have more stamina to be most serviceable.  Not much point in going all the way to Australia if we do not have enough energy to do what is needed. So a course correction was in order.

I felt like I needed someone to help me know what to do, like a personal trainer, and signed up for a 12 week class with Anytime Fitness. It is nice to have someone who is kind and patient help me navigate the procedures for the various exercises. I really do not know what I am doing!!! I attended 2 classes last week which was a good experience.  I plan to attend 3 classes a  week until  mid October and then 4 classes per week. I immediately felt improved range of motion in my hips. Wahoo! Hopefully by  the end of my last class in November I will feel more fit and have enough stamina to serve the Lord as needed.

Steve decided that his best bet was to walk. He has had some difficulty with his hip and will soon begin some physical therapy. Sadly as he was walking the other day his feet would not cooperate with the rest of him and he fell. After getting up and walking a few more yards he fell again. That is when he called  me to pick him up. He looked a bit bloody and sad  but he is OK. A blow to his pride, a lesson learned about "not running faster than he could walk", a few stitches in his left hand and random bruises were not the desired result of his effort to be more fit. But with more "wisdom and order" he will move forward and find the best way to improve his stamina so he can feel more fit.

I guess it is to be expected that there will be some opposition along the way of our mission preparation. We certainly have our ups and downs in this process.

Tomorrow will be the first of our Skype training sessions. We received an outline of the various topics. Tomorrow we will discuss a lot of basics to help us prepare: what to bring, living conditions, local culture and customs, etc. We will also be a part of the weekly training  by the self-reliance missionaries in Sydney and Melbourne. A new program called "Success in School begins at Home" is being rolled out. This initiative will help parents learn to be better parents. I look forward to jumping in! This whole self-reliance program is very exciting! The more I learn the more excited I get about being a part of it all.

There is a Sydney Self Reliance group on Facebook. We have also  read a newsletter from the self reliance group. It is so great to learn some of the things that are going on. The success stories of those participating in the self reliance program are inspirational.

I guess one of my responsibilities after we arrive will likely be to prepare the newsletter that is issued every other month. This means I need to put into practice the idea of continuous learning and learn some desk top publishing skills in the next 85 days. Don't know how to do that yet. I found some classes online. Hopefully I can be an effective student. 

On the Facebook page for the Sydney Self Reliance group I found the following quote by Elder David A. Bednar.

"You and I are here upon the earth to prepare for eternity, to learn how to learn, to learn things that are temporally important and eternally essential, and to assist others in learning wisdom and truth (see D&C 97:1).
Understanding who we are, where we came from, and why we are upon the earth places upon each of us a great responsibility both to learn how to learn and to learn to love learning.
Learning to love learning equips us for an ever-changing and unpredictable future. Knowing how to learn prepares us to discern and act upon opportunities that others may not readily recognize. I am confident you will pass the test of learning what to do when you do not know what to do or how to proceed. I pray your love of learning will grow ever deeper, ever richer, and ever more complete."

I love that  there are so many wonderful things that have been said by our church leaders that help us understand what we should be doing. Our future is certainly "every-changing and 

unpredictable".

So, onward and upward. We have much to do this coming week. Wishing you all a great week!