Yesterday I had to deliver letters to two 18-year-old students informing them that the Church had been unable to pay the school fees for their third terms due to their lack of attendance at church and at institute.  The boy and the girl had each come from other islands to attend a boarding school in Luganville.  They had each contacted the local branch president to ask for the Church’s help, inasmuch as they did not have the money to pay their school fees.  They signed an application wherein they agreed to faithfully attend church and institute if the Church gave them this financial assistance.  The help they have received amounts to around $200 per term, an almost impossible amount for Vanuatu families to come up with.

The girl came to institute twice after we paid her school fees.  I’m not sure that I ever saw her at church.  The boy came to institute and to church sporadically, but I have not seen him in the last two months.  They are not holding up their end of the bargain, so I, therefore, did not pay their fees this term.  The school will soon be sending them notices that they will be suspended from school or will not be allowed to take their final exams if their fees are not paid.

When such notices go out, what typically happens is that word gets to me that the student has been suspended, and I go to the school and take care of the problem.  This time, however, my hands will be tied.  There will be nothing that I can do to help this girl and this boy because they have not put forth the effort to do what they agreed to do.  Their problem is likely a matter of laziness.  They’re both good kids, but going to church or to institute just required more effort than they wished to put forth.  There were more interesting things to do.

The delivery of my letters will be a sobering moment.  It will come to them in a rush that there is no way for them to be able to finish their school year.  Neither they nor their families will have the necessary funds to pay the fees, and now the source that they took for granted is cut off.  They will wonder what it was that was so interesting that they chose to do instead of keeping their commitments.

This is the same moment that half of the current Church membership will experience.  There are millions of people who have gained testimonies of the restored gospel, and who were baptized, but who have since found more interesting things to do than to attend church each Sunday.

The Savior has promised to pay the debts of all who come unto Him through baptism.  Each baptized person has promised to follow Jesus, and to keep His commandments.  Half of them are not doing so.  They are taking their church membership for granted, and have forgotten their commitments.  At some point they will receive notices that their debts are unpaid.  There will be no way for them to pay.  They will wonder what was so interesting and so important that made them unwilling to keep their commitments.