Elder Cornish, Elder Gay, and Mike Murray

Elder Beecher, Brother Murray, Elder Cornish, and Elder Gay

          Cheddi Jagan airport at 5:00 a.m. on October 23rd.
Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 was a very exciting day for us.  Elder Cornish, the counselor over PEF from our area presidency, Elder Gay, who is over PEF for the church, and Mike Murray who is the vice-chairman over the PEF Committee came to Guyana to visit.  We just learned they were coming the weekend before.  We went with President Goodluck from our mission presidency to pick them up.  They arrived at the airport at 8:30 in the morning.  We took them to see the D'Oliveira's chicken operation.  Then went to IPED, where they give small business loans.  Then we had a luncheon for them with some of our humanitarian friends and friends of the church.  After lunch they visited with the church attorney, Nigel Hughes.  I went home to fix supper, and they went to the Republic bank to see about loans there.  Elder Beecher and President Pooran took Mike Murray to the cemetery to see if they could find any information about Brother Murray's great great great grandfather's brother who came to Guyana from Scotland in 1819.  He was a doctor.  He lived here until 1832 when he died at age 39.  They could not get any information, but on Wednesday we went again to the cemetery and to look for records.  We submitted a search for his death certificate.  Hopefully something will turn up.  We took pictures of where the records were kept, and looked at some old crumbling records.

The records were kept in a cement room with all the cleaning supplies.

Then they took the Brethren to the Pegasus where they were staying to check in.  They didn't have time for supper, so I took the supper, baked ham and cheese sandwiches, pumpkin bread and oatmeal cookies, and shadock (a giant grapefruit type fruit) to our PEF and Employment meeting where they came to teach us.  I am putting in the notes from our meeting.  We were taught the doctrine of Self-Reliance and it was wonderful.  Elder Cornish wanted Elder Gay and Mike Murray to come because we and our employment and PEF committee members were doing such a great job down here.

PEF/Employment meeting with Elder Gay, Elder Cornish, and Mike Murray

October 22, 2013

Moses 7:18  “ And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.”

When did the Gathering of Israel start?

Article of Faith # 10  “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.”

·        Gathering of Israel – started with Joseph Smith

·        Restoration of 10 tribes – is happening now with missionary work

·        Zion on the American Continent - throughout the Earth in the Stakes of Zion.

·        Christ will reign personally upon the Earth

·        Earth will receive its Paradisiacal Glory

Three requirements:  One Heart, One Mind, Dwelt in righteousness, and (then there will be)

No poor among them.

New Self-Reliance Program will:
1.      Help people get adequate jobs
2.      Educate them to get a job.
3.      Self-employment – They need hope and help.

This is an ambitious goal!  Can we take on this Initiative?

·        Moses gave the keys of the Gathering to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple in 1836.

·        Earth was divided into 70 nations at the time of the Tower of Babel

·        The House of Israel was gathered in Jerusalem, but didn’t keep their covenants and they were scattered again.

·        Joseph Smith in 1836 was given the keys to gather everyone, prepare them to receive their temple ordinances and prepare for the Second Coming.
D & C 88:73 “I will hasten my work in its time.” We have to sacrifice to become like the Savior. The Savior is all loving, merciful, perfect, self-reliant etc. We need these qualities to become a Zion People and to lift people out of poverty.

Personal righteousness is the key to lifting yourself out of poverty!
Joseph F. Smith said that if you cannot save members temporally, you cannot save them spiritually.  To Heavenly Father temporal and spiritual are the same.
Brigham Young had an amazing assignment.  He had to take a large group of people someplace else and they would know it when they got there.  (That is what needs to happen.  We need to take a large group of people from around the world.  Help them to become a Zion people and lift them out of poverty.)

Most of the inhabitants of the Earth are incapable of dictating and devising for themselves, not able to develop talent…  All those who are baptized are in a condition to be taught by Him.  He has raised up authorized teachers to do His work.It is our duty to teach our brothers and sisters how to live.  Barriers need to be knocked down; such as fear, poverty, low self-esteem, lack of motivation, discouragement, cultural traditions.

·        First step is to help members have a deeper conversion.

How to become Self-Reliant

Handbook of Instructions Section 6.1.1 Manual 2

“Self-reliance is the ability, commitment, and effort to provide the spiritual and temporal necessities of life for self and family.  As members become self-reliant, they are also better able to serve and care for others.”

HAVE A TESTIMONY AND FAITH THAT GOD HAS ALL POWER TO LIFT YOU.

What we can learn from Joseph Smith’s first vision.   His vision was a powerful opening to this dispensation. 

Joseph Smith was a young boy with a problem.  He went to the Sacred Grove to pray to find out which church to join.   He was attacked physically and emotionally (darkness so deep).   He prayed and light descended and he found himself delivered.  The Lord showed us and testifies that He has all power to deliver us.  He can help us physically and emotionally - in all ways.

We need to first teach spiritual self-reliance.  Before we can do this people Need Jobs.   No one has enough, or it doesn’t matter how much money you make, unless you can control your wants.

The challenge is to help every family to have enough by:

1.       Finding jobs for people (Two ways)

Talk to businesses and find out what they need.  They will appreciate the help.  Have a business round table and meet with the businesses once a month.  Help them fill their jobs.  (Get jobs for people from the top down – working with employers.)

2.       Job vacancy cards.  Find people jobs in their community, so they don’t have to travel so far.  Members can watch for jobs and share the information.  It will teach us to love and care about other people.  Best network in the world – Mormons – do it in love.

People need to figure out, what am I good at, what do I like to do.  Train people for a specific job.  Ask an employee exactly what he wants and train a person.  Sometimes training will be provided for free.

We have a special new training called the Self-employment Guide.

3.       Follow-up.  People need to know how to keep a job.  They need mentoring and follow-up.  

How do we get started?

1.      Every branch president and council needs to make a list of names of persons who need help to provide for the necessities.

2.      New training – 70 videos.  The curriculum is about jobs, starting businesses, and schooling.

3.      Twelve habits and doctrines to teach.

4.      Twelve lessons on starting a business.

5.      How to get a micro loan.

All this will be taught in Self-Reliance Services.

We need to be obedient, pay tithing, love our brothers and sisters, follow through and give support.

Our committee should meet at least once a month, and have frequent communication with the branches.

Elder Gay told us that he was called to serve in an Area Presidency in Guatemala.  The brethren also told him that they wanted him to think about PEF and what direction Heavenly Father wanted the church to go with the PEF program.  As he pondered and studied he realized that PEF alone was not enough.  The Lord wants His people to be self-reliant.  He worked with the First Presidency, and after a few weeks they called him to serve in SLC, and to expand the PEF program and incorporate employment which is evolving to be the Self-Reliance Services.  He called up his good friend, Mike Murray, out of retirement to be his vice-chairman.  Elder Gay has owned businesses and done work with finances all over the world.  Mike Murray was one of the top five people with Apple, and then with Microsoft.  He is very creative, passionate, and visionary.  Elder Cornish is our wonderful PEF advisor in our Area Presidency.

Elder Gay told us that when Elder Cornish suggested that he would like Elder Gay and Mike Murray to go to Guyana while they were doing training in the D.R. they told him that they could not fit it into their schedule.  Then when Elder Gay was in Kirtland Ohio he was at the Isaac Morley farm.  He learned that Isaac Morley wanted to help the early members of the church to become self-reliant.  When Elder Gay heard that story, he felt impressed that the Lord wanted them to come to Guyana.  He called Mike Murray and told him.  Then to their delight Elder Cornish decided that he would like to join them.  Elder Cornish told our PEF and Employment committee members that they were not going to tell them they needed to implement this new program.  He left it up to the committee to decide whether or not they wanted to put forth the effort.  He left it up to them. 

Our committee decided that if Heavenly Father loved them enough and had enough faith in them to send these three brethren to visit them and teach them, that they needed to move forward with faith.  The Spirit was present in abundance.

Brother Alvarado will come or send trainers to help us.

THIS IS A TEST OF OUR FAITH.

            November 5^th at 5:00 is our next meeting.

Additional scriptures:  D & C 104:14-17  D & C 130:20-21,  Moses7:18,  2 Nephi 2:26, Proverbs 29:18,  Malachi 3:10-11,  Elder Bednar’s conference talk on Tithing

Senior missionaries should be looking for NGO’s that train and help people find jobs, and give loans.  They then need to make partnership relationships with those NGO’s who help with job finding and training and schools and other training institutions.

They need to look for financial institutions who can help: IPED, Guyana Youth – which also trains people, Republic Bank.

Make sure jobs are Value-Based – we don’t want to find persons jobs where they have to work on Sunday or compromise other values!

People looking for a job need something that:  1. They are good at. 2. They like it – salary and schedule, and 3. It feels like their calling – they are meant to do it.  We will have formal testing for assessing skills. 

After the Brethren left the meeting, President Sobers told us that he had been praying about what God wanted him to do.  He felt like he had the answer to his prayer.  He said that if Heavenly Father loved us and cared about us enough in Guyana to send the three brethren to teach us we needed to have enough faith to move forward.  It was a sweet meeting.