Launched

Today I finally launched the self-reliance class I have been pondering and working on since last March. The Bishop and I came up with this as an additional offering in Sunday School. We identified six basic principles of self-reliance - finances, education, employment, home storage, health, and spiritual strength.

We started with finances. I developed a simple lesson covering four basic principles: paying tithing, saving/building a reserve, avoiding/eliminating debt, and self-discipline in day-to-day money decisions. I went ahead and taught the class, given my financial education and experience.

I was most worried about getting the word out. I've been doing fliers and having them announce in sacrament meeting, but if people are anything like me their church memory sometimes only lasts about five days. So when they didn't include it in the sacrament meeting announcements this morning, I started to get worried that no one would come. So I actually had to take a note up to the counselor before the last talk asking him to do a quick reminder of the class before closing the meeting.

And the turnout was good! I think we had about 12 attendees and the participation was good. So I'll teach the same class for three more weeks and then we'll move on to the next topic after stake conference.

I'm hoping to be somewhat less involved in the lesson development and teaching with the next topics than I was with finances. Honestly, I haven't even really started to think about the next one.

But I am excited to finally have this thing off the ground.