We had gone with the District President and a Branch President to visit a family in very difficult circumstances.  As we drove home through the night, the District President began talking.

Our people don’t really lack resources. What they really lack is knowledge about resources.

We thought of a young lady that we met shortly after we arrived here in the Philippines. She told us about her early life.

My family was poor—but not really poor. We could still eat every day.

We thought of a young mother with a baby in her arms and another child holding to her skirt.

We have a big problem, Elder. We have no food.

The District President continued to talk.

Our people need to look ahead. They need to set goals and plan.

It is difficult to believe what we cannot see. Prophets have told “great and marvelous things unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not.”[i]

People just need two 5-kilo rice containers and two money containers. They can eat the rice from one, then rotate to the other while they refill the first.

How will that help?

Well, that will keep their rice fresh.

That is a good thing…

But the money jars are important. One is taped shut. It holds 170 pesos. That is enough to buy 5-kilos of rice. The other is empty.

How is empty important?

The first money jar is disaster insurance. It is only to be opened when there are absolutely no other resources for an extended period. The “empty” jar is where the family puts money enough to replace the rice they use each day. If they use 2 kilo of rice, they put 80 pesos in the jar.

Two kilo only cosst 78 pesos.

See, they are learning to save a little extra, too. The time to prepare is every day. If the money has not been replaced at the end of the day, that is the time to counsel with the family, find to something to sell, to find some work to earn a little money, to cut expenses, or even to cut rations. It is an emergency until the 80 pesos has been placed in the jar.

So the emergency is only a little, temporary emergency?

If problems are solved every day, they never become big problems.

Is that why it is important to pray and read the scriptures every day?

We need to refill our spiritual “money jar.”

“…treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.”[ii]

We can receive exactly the knowledge and understanding we need to solve our problems each day.

Pay every day. I am beginning to see!