Tithes and Offerings

I’d Rather Be Blessed!

By Richard M. Romney

Church Magazines

Willingly pay a full tithe. Attend tithing settlement. Obey the law of the fast.

In Guyana, a country located in the northern part of South America, Latter-day Saint teens are talking about tithes and offerings.

“I’d rather be blessed!” says Simeon Lovell, 14, during a seminary lesson at the Prashad Nagar meetinghouse in Georgetown. The class has just read Malachi 3:8–12, which warns that those who rob God by not paying tithing will be cursed but promises that those who do pay tithing will have blessings so great they can’t be measured.

“Look at all that is promised,” says classmate Xiann Kippins, 16. “You will be protected. You will prosper. The windows of heaven will be opened to you.”

Clint Callender, 17, of the Garden Park Second Branch (also in Georgetown), says, “Everything on earth is from Heavenly Father. He asks for only a little portion of it back, to help us show our gratitude. So I am happy to pay tithing. I am happy to fast once a month and donate to provide for the poor. And when I see all the Church does when there is a tsunami, hurricane, or other disaster—all the clothing and food supplies provided by the Church—it makes me happy to think I can be part of that by being generous with my offerings.”

Elsewhere in the West Indies Mission, 17-year-old Curfew Ali of the Arima Branch in Port of Spain, Trinidad, explains to Mark Mangray, also 17, that even though she earns only a little money, she pays 10 percent of her increase as tithing and contributes to fast offerings too. “That way, I know the Lord is free to bless me,” she says. She talks to Mark about tithing settlement and how great it feels to be able to declare that she has paid a full tithing.

Mark looks at a blank donation slip, reads it, and says, “You’re right, Curfew. I’m bringing my tithing to church tomorrow.”

Photographs by Richard M. Romney