Popular Post ksfisher Posted January 31, 2018 Popular Post Posted January 31, 2018 9 minutes ago, CA Steve said: Was the "putdown" because you think I said something false or something true? Because you went out of your way to criticize President Nelson when the thread has nothing to do with him. 6
Popular Post Duncan Posted January 31, 2018 Popular Post Posted January 31, 2018 21 minutes ago, Okrahomer said: I wish I could speak Canadian! Today is your lucky day!!! 5
Scott Lloyd Posted January 31, 2018 Posted January 31, 2018 (edited) 4 hours ago, HappyJackWagon said: Yes, this is a thing. They've had this policy in our area for a long time. They now call them "team ups" so the companionship is teamed up with a member...instead of splitting. I think it's based on the assumption that companionships will teach better as a team and the member is there, not as a chaperone exactly, but to add the personal, local flavor and spirit of the church and to build a bridge for the investigators between the missionaries and the local congregation That's how we did things when I was on my mission in the mid-'70s. I never heard of "splits" until years later when I was a ward mission leader. Edited January 31, 2018 by Scott Lloyd 1
RevTestament Posted January 31, 2018 Posted January 31, 2018 26 minutes ago, Duncan said: Today is your lucky day!!! Garburator??? Is that Canadian or Martian? Just kidding.... I love our Canadian neighbors. 2
Duncan Posted January 31, 2018 Posted January 31, 2018 5 minutes ago, RevTestament said: Garburator??? Is that Canadian or Martian? Just kidding.... I love our Canadian neighbors. not that many houses have them, but some!!!
mfbukowski Posted January 31, 2018 Posted January 31, 2018 6 hours ago, HappyJackWagon said: I agree. It's been that way for a Looooong time. Missionary work has been a litany of program after program after program. Set a date challenge. Church visits/open house etc. etc. But lets be honest. How efficient were splits anyway? I can't even count how many times I picked up a missionary for a team up only to have them look at me and say, "so...where should we go?" It was rarely time well spent. Our problem was always getting missionaries to show up and getting the brethren to show up. Guy gets home from work, showers, shaves, does the suit and tie thing and no missionaries. Missionaries show up and nobody there,. And even if they get together, no pre-arranged appointments because the usual "planning" consists of "Show up Tuesday night at 7". What DID work is what we would call a "Blitz" where ALL the Priesthood is invited to show up on a Saturday morning and whoever showed up was paired to go out and visit a few people on a pre-arranged list of inactives. "You go there and there, we will go here and here" And we included missionaries. Those worked. We would catch people at home and just have a discussion at the door since we had not pre-arranged appointments- but at least we got a lot of open doors and a chance to catch folks who had not had a church contact at all in a long time. The objective was to set an appointment for a follow-up and then we had something to work with. Pretty effective. 3
Jeanne Posted January 31, 2018 Posted January 31, 2018 7 hours ago, rongo said: Our elders told me that Church-wide, missionaries have to stay together and cannot split up and go with different priesthood holders to double their access. I asked them if they were sure this wasn't a mission policy, and they said, no, this is worldwide now because of "things that have happened." I was trying to set up splits for them. Any WMLs or other priesthood leaders who have been told this? I have a really hard time believing this, and will be stunned if it's true, but for now, our missionaries tell me that they can only have a chaperone come with both of them. Thanks! You know...(I don't) but ...kind of a shame..I think it is good for companions to take a break from eachother.
Hamba Tuhan Posted January 31, 2018 Posted January 31, 2018 (edited) 10 hours ago, HappyJackWagon said: How efficient were splits anyway? I can't even count how many times I picked up a missionary for a team up only to have them look at me and say, "so...where should we go?" We have two kinds of splits in our ward. The regularly arranged kind (which happen tonight) absolutely involve the members taking missionary companions with them to engage in their (the members') ministering visits. (We actually try to have a full-time missionary involved in all ministering visits by ward members, but 'splits night' is set aside each week so that everyone will know it's happening and can jump in: first in, best dressed.) So the question an Elder in our ward would have asked you would have been more along the lines of, 'So, where are we going tonight, and exactly how do you want me to help?' 7 hours ago, HappyJackWagon said: If I were a betting man, which I'm not, I'd wager that the need for splits is rarely because there is "too much work to do" and more often because young missionaries struggle to schedule effectively. The other kind of splits we have happen in our ward is precisely because there is too much work to do. It is not at all unusual on a Monday evening, for example, for there to be one Elder at our bishop's house teaching someone he (the bishop) has arranged to be there whilst the other Elder is at my house doing the same thing with someone I've arranged to be there. This probably happens 1-3 times per week for our Elders, and it is virtually never a result of effective scheduling 'struggles'; it's because of demand by ward members. 3 hours ago, mfbukowski said: Guy gets home from work, showers, shaves, does the suit and tie thing and no missionaries. I often wear a suit when I go out with the missionaries but only because I wear a suit and tie all day at work. If it's a Saturday or a public holiday, or if I've been working in the electorate instead of the office, I just go out in whatever I'm wearing that day, usually jeans and a T-shirt. My impression is that full-time missionaries never quite seem 'real' to many people, and if I can be the real bloke for them, all the better. I also don't expect those who come to our splits night to be in suit and tie (or dresses), and they almost never are. Quote And even if they get together, no pre-arranged appointments because the usual "planning" consists of "Show up Tuesday night at 7". As noted above, our members understand that the work of salvation belongs to them (with the missionaries providing assistance), and so the members arrange the appointments. Easy. Quote We would catch people at home and just have a discussion at the door since we had not pre-arranged appointments- but at least we got a lot of open doors and a chance to catch folks who had not had a church contact at all in a long time. The objective was to set an appointment for a follow-up and then we had something to work with. Pretty effective. We have members who do this too. They might approach me on Sunday, for example, and say, 'I don't know whom to visit yet, but I feel impressed to go out ministering this week', so I slot them in. Then sometimes they show up still unsure of where to go, but they'll have a list of people in mind (less-actives, former investigators, non-member friends), and they (member and missionary together) seek guidance through prayer, and that almost always leads to a good visit and then follow-up visits that can be more formalised. Edited February 1, 2018 by Hamba Tuhan 2
filovirus Posted January 31, 2018 Posted January 31, 2018 Just released as WML three weeks ago. Yes, companionships can no longer split up. However, once a week we do Ward Mission visits to those we feel are less active or part member families. Our full time missionaries would still split with us to do these visits. They would not split on other occasions. 1
Avatar4321 Posted February 1, 2018 Posted February 1, 2018 12 hours ago, hope_for_things said: I can't wait until Elder Uchtdorf wields his mighty Chair of the Missionary committee powers, and all with be righted in short order! Not sure what airplanes have to do with splits 1
Bernard Gui Posted February 1, 2018 Posted February 1, 2018 (edited) On 1/31/2018 at 5:34 AM, rongo said: Our elders told me that Church-wide, missionaries have to stay together and cannot split up and go with different priesthood holders to double their access. I asked them if they were sure this wasn't a mission policy, and they said, no, this is worldwide now because of "things that have happened." I was trying to set up splits for them. Any WMLs or other priesthood leaders who have been told this? I have a really hard time believing this, and will be stunned if it's true, but for now, our missionaries tell me that they can only have a chaperone come with both of them. Thanks! Handbook 2:5.1.6 addresses this and seems to be generally ignored. Duly called Ward missionaries could be the solution. Quote Normally, full-time missionary companionships are not separated to work with ward members. However, they may be separated to work with members when necessary to fill a large number of teaching appointments. In such cases, the ward mission leader ensures that those who work as companions to full-time missionaries understand and accept mission rules. He instructs them that they must never leave a full-time missionary without an authorized companion. Edited February 1, 2018 by Bernard Gui 1
Bernard Gui Posted February 1, 2018 Posted February 1, 2018 On 1/31/2018 at 7:27 AM, rongo said: Yeah, I had a dud junior, and the other companionship in the city had an amazing greenie with a dud trainer. I and the greenie became de facto companions, and our two companions rotted together in their apartment. Best of both worlds, because we wanted to work, and they didn't, and nothing was going to change that. I even went to midnight mass with the greenie on Christmas Eve (with MP permission). The duds did manage to design an elaborate board game version of RISK, using the mission as a map, and with zones and cities, with their time together. Yep.
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