Self-reliance allows people to better focus on the Savior’s two great commandments, to love God and to love one’s neighbor.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers free self-reliance courses in more than 100 countries to help people develop skills and build self-reliance through education, employment, finances and other topics.
Courses are completed individually or in small groups and focus on combining spiritual principles with practical skills. Job seekers, displaced persons and prospective students can all be blessed through these courses.
Youth and adults are seeing the blessings of taking these classes through their stakes.
In Brazil, testimonials from Latter-day Saints in São Paulo are listed on the Autossuficiência Brasil website, which points people to how to find the courses and groups that meet in the area.
Yuri Oliveira wrote that the Personal Finances course helped teach his family principles such as establishing a budget, following it, and eliminating and avoiding debt. “This completely changed the way we worked on the financial side of things at home. The course was definitely a blessing for us.”
Rennan Andrade wrote that because of EnglishConnect, he was able to improve his conversation, speaking and reading in English.
Education for Better Work taught Tatiane Sales how to set goals and how to put into practice what she needed. And Daniel Villanova said, “During the Find a Better Job course, I learned several ways to connect with people in my network to find a job opportunity.”
Said Emerson Santos, “I testify to you, self-reliance changes people’s lives.”
Part of the culture in Liberty, Missouri
Self-reliance classes are becoming a part of the culture of the Liberty Missouri Stake, explained Lorin Walker and Jo Anne Walker, who were called about a year ago to form a stake self-reliance committee.
“We went about organizing and figuring out what self-reliance is; now it seems like it is our lifeblood,” Jo Anne Walker said. The Walkers created a vision for self-reliance that guides their steps and may be helpful for those who come after them in the calling.
Said Lorin Walker: “It’s not, ‘Oh this is a new program.’ It’s what we do around here.”
They brought a group of people to be facilitators and set them up with training. A devotional last August invited people to learn more about the self-reliance classes. The Walkers also automated the sign-up process for joining the courses, which they operate on a semester schedule, with groups meeting for the 10- to 12-week courses in the fall and then in the spring.

The stake right now is focusing mainly on three courses: Emotional Resilience, Personal Finances, and Starting and Growing My Business.
The emotional resilience course is by far the most popular, Jo Anne Walker said, and youth participants are leading the way in finishing.
“That was the surprise and joy,” she said. “We had large groups of youth at people’s homes or church buildings, and it was wonderful to see how groups evolved and how the parents as much as the youth were very much into what was going on.”
The stake plans to add Spanish-speaking self-reliance groups and young single adult self-reliance groups this year.
Lorin Walker said they are called groups or classes, but in them, people counsel together and the Spirit does most of the work. “This isn’t a class with a teacher standing up at the chalkboard, this is the teacher or facilitator being attentive to what the Spirit might want to come out in the group. People love that. People say, ‘The Spirit was so strong.’”
The self-reliance classes have become a vibrant part of ministering as well — as ward elders quorum and Relief Society presidents know which individuals or families might benefit from the classes. Ministering brothers and sisters draw closer to those individuals and families by taking a class together.
A bonding takes place in the group each week, Jo Anne Walker said. “We are helping people to be connected to each other and not be so lonely.”
Groups provide a safe, warm, supportive place to be, she explained, and participants make good friends. They also learn from the principles how to improve their lives, whether with their personal finances or their business plans or their own mental health.
Said Lorin Walker: “We tell people self-reliance is not the whole picture, it’s really reliance on the Savior. When we become reliant on Him, He helps us be self-reliant in terms of our other connections and responsibilities.”
Strengthening women in West Jordan, Utah

When Cary Johnson in the West Jordan Utah Westland Stake began attending an Emotional Resilience group with other women in her stake, she said several of the women didn’t know each other well. But then a few weeks later at a stake event, they immediately sought each other out and felt joy to be with each other. “We had become a family,” Johnson said.
The women in the group ranged in age from early 20s to 80s and had different life experiences. Yet they grew to love each other and found more similarities than differences.
Johnson said creating a welcoming environment in the weekly meetings and a texting group for the class were two things that made a big difference. The full title of the manual is “Finding Strength in the Lord: Emotional Resilience.”
“We talked about hard things. We shared our struggles. We shared our challenges. We learned to laugh together,” Johnson said. Many had experienced grief, loss, health challenges and other issues but learned through the class how to rely on the Savior.
“Our Emotional Resilience experience became like the Waters of Mormon for each of us — ‘how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever’ (Mosiah 18:30),” Johnson wrote to the Church News.
Being invited to a class with the words “emotional resilience” in it may make some people feel like there must be something wrong with them or they may have doubts about attending. But Johnson said besides learning personal lessons, there is a good chance a person might be able to strengthen someone else in the group because of their past experiences.
The self-reliance groups are building Zion among wards and stakes, she said.

Positive experiences in Brooklyn, New York
Members of the Brooklyn New York Stake have seen the way the self-reliance classes have blessed their lives.
Randy Castillo facilitated a Personal Finances class on Sunday afternoons of youth and high school students ages 14 to 18. He told them he knew they might think the class didn’t apply to them, “but when you’re my age, you’re going to be glad you did it.”
He adapted his course to include saving for college, buying a car, a phone or other things teenagers might relate to. The course also emphasizes staying out of debt, and the youth learned about how interest rates and credit cards work.
“Any money is life-changing,” Castillo said. “Budgeting and saving were the most important things I could teach them.”
The Personal Finances class also teaches the importance of paying tithing, and the group talked about why paying tithing first brings blessings. “These are things they need at the moment,” Castillo said. “They were not too young to hear these things.”
Kris Mickens remarked on how the classes built on a spiritual foundation.
“I think it is the key, the main ingredient,” Mickens said. He felt a desire to improve, saying that many parts of the class stuck with him after he was finished.
Trevor Farris just finished his fourth self-reliance class offered by the Church. “It’s such a positive thing,” he said.

The instruction, videos, group discussion, goal setting and personal commitments in the classes have had a profound influence on him.
“The class works with people at all different stages in life,” Farris said, adding, “People bring in their life experiences — it helps me understand others better.”
Farris said it is much easier to achieve goals and remain positive when involving the Lord in his life. And education is a continual process, he said. “It’s great to look back and see how far we’ve progressed.”
For others thinking about taking one of the classes, Mickens said, “Make sure your mind is ready to take a class, and have a strong desire to understand.”