Elder Holland

[Jeanne]

As a former visiting teacher coordinator many moons ago...how I would have loved this..no "skin of my teeth" reports!!!

I am happy for you sisters in the RS...this is the way it should be..check..(please don't honk) share ..just be...and already a wonderful friend and example has be placed for a lonely sister..or tired..this is great!!

Edited April 1, 2018 by Jeanne

[The Nehor]

As a clerk who has to harass quorum and relief society leaders to get reports......agreed.

[Jeanne]

I was the "on the ball" person and I had sisters ticked off because I wanted my report!!  On the first and/or before!!

[Prof]

Agreed. At the first of the month, I have watched my mom try to reach the sisters she coordinates to get their reports. Often calls aren't returned. Glad to see that part go away.

[Jeanne]

3 minutes ago, Prof said:

Agreed. At the first of the month, I have watched my mom try to reach the sisters she coordinates to get their reports. Often calls aren't returned. Glad to see that part go away.

Woot...I know what your mom has been going through...and meanwhile, the ward clerk is going...do you have your report????

[Jeanne]

I feel like in the spirit world..my Dad is saying..."on NOW they do away with regular home teaching!!!"

Edited April 1, 2018 by Jeanne

[pogi]

2 minutes ago, Jeanne said:

The Sister gave a beautiful talk to...It reminded me of a personal story that I will share after conference.

It was a good talk.  I especially liked hearing that the young women will now be involved in ministering, and not just the young men.  How cool is that!

[Traela]

8 minutes ago, pogi said:

It was a good talk.  I especially liked hearing that the young women will now be involved in ministering, and not just the young men.  How cool is that!

Yes, that's a change that's long overdue.

 

[The Nehor]

7 minutes ago, pogi said:

It was a good talk.  I especially liked hearing that the young women will now be involved in ministering, and not just the young men.  How cool is that!

Matching Miamaids and Laurels to the responsibilities of Teachers and Priests is good. I would also add that if there is a long-term plan to give women the Priesthood this could be an early step. I am not saying it will happen but breaking down the barriers between Home and Visiting Teaching and The responsibilities of the Young Men and Young Women would be a good start.

I will shut up before I get struck by lightning.

[JLHPROF]

23 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

I would also add that if there is a long-term plan to give women the Priesthood this could be an early step. I am not saying it will happen but breaking down the barriers between Home and Visiting Teaching and The responsibilities of the Young Men and Young Women would be a good start.

Oh, it will happen eventually.

[The Nehor]

Just now, JLHPROF said:

Oh, it will happen eventually.

I suspect it will but am not as sure as you are,

[Bernard Gui]

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

Matching Miamaids and Laurels to the responsibilities of Teachers and Priests is good. I would also add that if there is a long-term plan to give women the Priesthood this could be an early step. I am not saying it will happen but breaking down the barriers between Home and Visiting Teaching and The responsibilities of the Young Men and Young Women would be a good start.

I will shut up before I get struck by lightning.

Now it’s time to find new names for the YW groups. M-Men and Gleaners went by the wayside. 

Beehives? MIA Maids? Laurels? Need updating. Suggestions?

(Also hoping to avoid lightning.)

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2018 by Bernard Gui

[Garlicllama]

As a Visiting Teaching Coordinator, this will be interesting. I assume that my calling is going away, or will be changed dramatically, especially as I just tried to log into the leader/clerk resources and it has the Visiting Teaching Report with a Ministering page, with no options to record visits.

[Garlicllama]

I also think that this will serve to tie the RS and YW organizations closer together.

There has been a divide between the organizations for as long as I can remember. I feel that I was blessed to go from YW, almost directly to a college ward, where RS was all sisters my own age and interests. I was able to, in a way, baby step my way into a 'real' Relief Society.

I have seen some younger sisters in my ward go partially inactive, or at least not come to Relief Society after leaving Young Women's, because they do not feel comfortable with all us 'older' sisters, and feel that we don't share their interests.

Hopefully this move will help the Young Women and Relief Society get to better know each other and serve and work together so that divide will not be so large anymore.

[CMZ]

The Church has long been trying to get home and visiting teachers to actually minister to the needs of the individuals and families over whom they were assigned. Despite all their efforts in this regard many members bewilderingly thought the Church was forcing them to visit individuals/families once a month and robotically read a message to them and say a prayer and leave and then report a cold, hard statistic. Those who actually paid better attention though realize what was actually being said. I just randomly picked the January 2018 Ensign and looked at the visiting teaching article in there and found this:

 

 

 

 

[CMZ]

And Elder Holland from October 2016:

There are many more (and older) examples.

[Calm]

23 minutes ago, Garlicllama said:

I also think that this will serve to tie the RS and YW organizations closer together.

There has been a divide between the organizations for as long as I can remember. I feel that I was blessed to go from YW, almost directly to a college ward, where RS was all sisters my own age and interests. I was able to, in a way, baby step my way into a 'real' Relief Society.

I have seen some younger sisters in my ward go partially inactive, or at least not come to Relief Society after leaving Young Women's, because they do not feel comfortable with all us 'older' sisters, and feel that we don't share their interests.

Hopefully this move will help the Young Women and Relief Society get to better know each other and serve and work together so that divide will not be so large anymore.

[jcake]

This new ministering approach is extremely similar to the way things are done in my sister's baptist congregation, and a friends evangelical congregation.  My sister loves their system. Her family has another family that does things with them and because my sister lives far from extended family, their ministering family includes them in Holiday meals and activities, etc.

 

[JAHS]

 

1 hour ago, JLHPROF said:

2 hours ago, The Nehor said:

I would also add that if there is a long-term plan to give women the Priesthood this could be an early step. I am not saying it will happen but breaking down the barriers between Home and Visiting Teaching and The responsibilities of the Young Men and Young Women would be a good start.

Oh, it will happen eventually.

It will not happen in this lifetime; the church would lose too many men to inactivity. Perhaps during the Millennium. 

[Maidservant]

By the way, reports may have been done away, but I don't think phone calls have been as far as continuing to check up on people and get information in the pipeline.

[rongo]

3 hours ago, Maidservant said:

By the way, reports may have been done away, but I don't think phone calls have been as far as continuing to check up on people and get information in the pipeline.

As far as reporting (that was my big question), after printing out the email, here it is, in a nutshell:

Companionships ( (men/men, men/boy, women/women, women/girl, married couple) are still assigned families. Quarterly, these companionships (either together, or only one of them) are interviewed by EQP or RSP members to see how their families are doing. Then, the EQP or RSP reports to the bishop how many interviews and which companionships reported. So, instead of families visited/not visited, it is simply reported how many companionship interviews (and who) took place. It is taken for granted that these interviews provide the information leaders need to have their finger on the pulse of these families. 

The takeaway: less "toxic shame" for the average companionship, but a whole lot more work for the EQP or RSP. It doesn't appear to me from the instructions that this can be delegated out to "supervisors, coordinators, or district leaders." 

 

[Tacenda]

I like the change or I think I do, it's a will see.  

[pogi]

12 minutes ago, rongo said:

As far as reporting (that was my big question), after printing out the email, here it is, in a nutshell:

Companionships ( (men/men, men/boy, women/women, women/girl, married couple) are still assigned families. Quarterly, these companionships (either together, or only one of them) are interviewed by EQP or RSP members to see how their families are doing. Then, the EQP or RSP reports to the bishop how many interviews and which companionships reported. So, instead of families visited/not visited, it is simply reported how many companionship interviews (and who) took place. It is taken for granted that these interviews provide the information leaders need to have their finger on the pulse of these families. 

The takeaway: less "toxic shame" for the average companionship, but a whole lot more work for the EQP or RSP. It doesn't appear to me from the instructions that this can be delegated out to "supervisors, coordinators, or district leaders." 

 

Yep, and instead of a simple “yes” or “no” reporting, there will be an actual interview.  I imagine it will be a fairly simple one such as “How is it going? Any successes to report?  What’s working, what is not working?  Do your families have any needs that I can report to the bishop? Anything we can do to help?” Something along those lines, but still much, much more work for EQ and RS presidents.   Instead if reporting a simple yes or no, it will also create more accountability on those ministering through the interview process.  It will be interesting to see how it actually plays out.

[Rain]

4 hours ago, CMZ said:

The Church has long been trying to get home and visiting teachers to actually minister to the needs of the individuals and families over whom they were assigned. Despite all their efforts in this regard many members bewilderingly thought the Church was forcing them to visit individuals/families once a month and robotically read a message to them and say a prayer and leave and then report a cold, hard statistic. Those who actually paid better attention though realize what was actually being said. I just randomly picked the January 2018 Ensign and looked at the visiting teaching article in there and found this:

 

 

To be clear, this came out after the "change" in visiting teaching this year. 

It's kind of intereating how it came out and makes me curious why things were schedule the way they were.

Most of the changes in RS were announced in November, including the ministering idea without the emphasis on the word "ministering".

Then we find out that there will no longer be a first presidency message for the HTers to give.

Then today we find out the men will be doing it that way as well, that the,YW are inclued, the name change and no monthly reports from eachurch companionship anymore. 

So this change has been happening for 5 months. 

 

[CMZ]

1 hour ago, Rain said:

To be clear, this came out after the "change" in visiting teaching this year. 

It's kind of interesting how it came out and makes me curious why things were schedule the way they were.

Most of the changes in RS were announced in November, including the ministering idea without the emphasis on the word "ministering".

Then we find out that there will no longer be a first presidency message for the HTers to give.

Then today we find out the men will be doing it that way as well, that the YW are included, the name change and no monthly reports from each companionship anymore. 

So this change has been happening for 5 months. 

 

Yes, that's all true. What I am getting at is all the people who think that up until today that the Church had been saying, "When you go home and visiting teaching you are supposed to give a lesson by robotically reading the First Presidency message, then saying a prayer and leaving. Then you can report that you did your teaching and get brownie points for the statistic," and who then act like in the last couple days the Church came to this wonderful epiphany that we're supposed to actually care about those that we're assigned to. It's rather disappointing to see that members of the Church have been so profoundly tuned out that they missed the myriad messages coming from the Church for decades that we are supposed to love and care for those we are assigned, that delivering a message is important but not the most essential thing, and that stats need(ed) to be collected but were never, ever more important than ministering to individuals.