Member Voices
The Glorious Principle of Self-reliance
What we do today to implement the principle of self-reliance will bless us and our families—today and tomorrow.
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said, “Taking action is the exercise of faith”.1 The most important step in self-reliance is to begin. Even amidst the challenges of COVID-19, we can do something! President Russell M. Nelson said in the April 2020 general conference, “the Lord loves effort.”2 And the promise is that “the Lord will magnify our small but consistent efforts.”3
Small steps in self-reliance now can result in great leaps later.
Sister Puati T. Odile from Kinshasa, DRC, saw this principle unfold in her life. After completing a self-reliance course, she says “I had the idea to expand my Congolese restaurant.” She decided to take a cooking course. “I deepened my knowledge of gastronomy, so I learned more about international cooking. I can now offer Asian, American, European, and African cooking,” says Sister Odile. “The class helped us because we can earn more money.” Nowadays, “We are autonomous; we lack nothing. We pay our tithing and offerings and help all our families,” she says.
Brother Berhane Belay Wendem, shares that through a program offering free seeds, he prepared the ground, planted, and tended the plants which grew and produced food for his family. He prepared for the nutritional needs of his family.
Sister Marceline Kukalukila Kunangika, from Kinshasa, DRC, is the wife of the Kinshasa Stake patriarch, Simon Lendo Vandam Wamande. When asked what her family did to be faithful, prepared, and worthy to receive the sacred calling of patriarch from the Lord, she said, “We always placed the Lord in the number one position in our lives. We accepted all callings from the Lord and magnified those callings in every way we could. We taught our family to live gospel principles no matter what and to be worthy examples to each other and in society.” Thus, when the call came, the family had built up their spiritual self-reliance. They were prepared.
Although she came from a family with few resources, Sister Patience Ngalula, from Kananga, DRC, had a passion to be a journalist. She finished her secondary studies and then volunteered to work without pay at a radio/television station. She learned many things, and after one year she was hired at a radio station. She then had funds to help her family and to complete her professional studies. “I now have a very good job at a radio station in Kinshasa whose content is especially dedicated to children. I remain positive, ready to serve and have great concern for the well-being of others.”
Sister Elysee Buzangu and her husband, Jean Claude, live in Kinshasa. Both are returned missionaries; they decided to start early in their married life to prepare financially. “We both have jobs, and we have two apartments to offer for rent,” says Sister Buzangu. “In 20 years of marriage, we have made enormous sacrifices so that our children would be able to get an education and be able to serve missions. The secret of our temporal and spiritual blessings is paying our tithing every time and working hard.”
As these Saints have testified, our efforts today, whether large or small, help us all look happily to the future as we are obedient to this glorious principle of self-reliance.