LDSVALLEY

he I learned the importance of secretaries when I was Ward Clerk via the online clerks training. The before mentioned items are part of the role. The Ward Clerks are supposed to also train all auxiliary secretaries in reporting to the clerk. Most often it is not leadership who first hear or notice issues with members but diligent secretaries. A diligent secretary is more vital to a presidency then a councilor. But too often Wards or at least ours looks at a secretary as a nice luxury but not hugely important. Below is the example I used when I trained secretaries on the vital need of their role. Typical situation. Brother Smith gets offended during the recent ward activity. He continues to come to sacrament for several weeks but stops attending Sunday School. After 3 weeks of that he stops going to Priesthood. Two months later he no longer is coming to church. Over time maybe six more weeks someone gets around to noticing Brother Smith is not coming anymore. No one knows why so the Leadership gets into PEC talks about it and they send in the Home Teachers to see what is wrong. At this point even if he is willing to talk about what happened weeks have gone by and the hurt over not being noticed and the anger festering make it very hard for him to return. Proper Secretary Brother Smith is offended at a recent ward activity. The Sunday School Secretary notices he has not been coming to Sunday School after the second week so the third one he confirms that Brother Smith is in sacrament so he goes to him and invites him to class. Brother Smith makes an excuse and does not come. The next week Brother Smith does not go to EQ or Sunday School. This time the Sunday School secretary mentions this to the Sunday School President and the Ward Clerk. The Ward Clerk checks with EQ secretary and see's he skipped the last weeks preisthood. He then mentions the concern to the EQ secretary. The next week the Ward Clerk, Sunday School secretary and EQ secretary all make an effort to get Brother Smith to class with no luck. At this point it is very clear there is an issue. The three discuss the time line and realize it began immediatly after the Ward Activity. The clerk then takes this to the Bishopric meeting, and the Eq secretary to the EQ President. Therefore the best leaders to corrct the issue are made aware of the problem and given actual information to help find the exact cause. In Bishopric someone remembers Brother Smith stormed out after talking to Brohter Jones. A leader then goes and visits Brother Smith, but goes with knowledge. "We noticed after you talked to Brother Jones at the WArd activity last month that you seemed upset. And we are concerned that your attendance is dropping off. Can I ask what happened so that we might help get things on track for the good of the Ward body. WE care about you and want to help." People tend to test the waters before doing something. We will often pull back slowly to see if anyone notices. Even if he left all at once, in part he wants to see if anyone cares. In the first example because secretaries were not monitering the members and looking for signs of issues things had to progress to where the leadership noticed and they had no information to plan a way to help. The second example shows Brother Smith he is noticed, cared for and loved. The Leadership did not have to focus on minor issues until it became clear it was a serious one and then they had at least most of the information they needed to go in with a plan and an understanding. Do not underestimate the role you have. I am currently a councilor in EQ and we have no secretary. The Presidentcy is temporary in any Ward but the Qurom is not. The secretaries role is to insure the continuation of the Qurom from its foundation until it is disolved. The secretary must insure the Qurom stays within the guidlines of the church for the Qurom. It is very easy for Presidentcies to get off track without realizing it. I hope your Ward apprciates the importance of your role. More important I hope you do not forget your importance in that calling. Don't underestimate the vital responsibility you have. Do not fear your worthiness or ablity to do the task as the Lord will help you learn and grow. I would suggest going to the online training for clerks, secretaries and Qurom president's so you understand the interrelationship of them.

My father was addicted to alcohol from around 12 until 62 my parents were divorced because of it. He only got sober because I fought the Government for 2 years to commit him for alcoholic induced dementia. And that was after he was diagnosed with it! While he is a parent not a spouse I believe the following might apply realizing every person and situation is different. Dad and Mom tried off and on for many years to get him to stay sober. With him it was stress that caused it. When things went bad he hit the bottle as a way to cope. At one point Mom took us and left, it shocked Dad into going into rehab voluntary. He was doing very well but we kids hated being at a relatives home, she was staying away to enforce her position, we kids ganged up on her to allow us home. Shortly later he came home because she lost the leverage she had. That was the last time, he stayed sober for two years then after three they were divorced. My point is be firm, let him know clearly what you will tolerate and won't and be firm and quick with the consequences. Let him know you will help him work on it but he is in charge of what consequences result from his choice. Let him know if he is really trying but slips up once in a while and confesses to you immediately and works to overcome the mistake that you will continue to support and help him. ( Addicts have a hard time staying completely clean so this gives them a chance to remove guilt and keep going. But don't let him take advantage of it. Make sure it comes across as separate from the consequence of final choice otherwise it appears you are not firm in the end result and he can not be firm in his attempts.) Show him the receipt and tell him you expect him to give you his temple recommend for a month and access to the bank accounts again. Since this is not the first time this road has been gone down you should not worry about a large volume of evidence to the contrary. It is up to the two of you to decide to go before the Bishop or not for more formal paths. If it was a one time weakness you want to be firm but loving to help him overcome the guilt and get on track. If it has slipped into a hidden problem again and has happened more then the one receipt then the church needs to take appropriate steps. Last thing is we found out with my daughter that ADD runs in the family and most often it transfers from the Male genes. I scoffed at that until I was tested, since I argued my daughter was the same as me and I don't have ADD they said I should make sure. Dad's dementia was advanced enougth it was pointless to test him but he has all the symptoms of it as did his father. Alcohol is often used as a coping method for people with ADD or ADHD in dealing with stress. If in fact he is only drinking to cope with stress you might want to suggest having him tested for it. Pray often for help, what ever you decide to do, do it as soon as possible the longer it takes the harder it will be to correct. Remember to seek help for yourself as well, it is hard to cope with.

Welcome I'm a 44 year old male member from Nova Scotia, Canada. I was just released 3 weeks ago as Ward Mission Leader, best calling I ever had. Which is odd since I spent my 11 previous years of church membership wanting nothing to do with Missionary Service. You should find this is a good site with as a majority members but many who are non members.

I suggest you meet with the Missionaries first, sacrament is 1 hour, then Sunday School is 1 hour then Priesthood\Relief Society is 1 hour. While you don't need to stay for all three the first two are important. But it is easier to understand what is going on if you get the basics from the Missionaries before you attend services. They usually prefer to meet in the home to get a better understanding of who you are but it is not required. They will work with you to meet in the most preferred format for you. Just a word of advise Missionaries come in all shapes, sizes and attitude. They are transferred around every few weeks because some personalities work better with different people. Remember to evaluate the Gospel not the Missionaries teaching it. Just as some members live the Gospel closely and others more loose. Ultimatly it is about the Gospel and coming unto Christ not about the people you encounter although that helps when people are kind and friendly which most are.

Welcome back to the church. No you do not get baptized again, we had a returned member come back after 12 years, she neglected to mention she was starting over and had been a member, she took the lessons got baptized and after mentioned she had already been a member. We had to recall the old records and toss out the new ones. Her records show her membership from 12 years ago not now. As a just released Mission Leader I can tell you it is common for people who have been inactive for some time to have it suggested that you retake the lessons and usually attend the Gospel Principle class for a time. Both are to 1 reconnect your memories with the gospel teaching because it is very easy for anyone who has been away to misremember some things. 2 it's like starting at the shallow end of the pool when you have not been swimming for years. If you dive into the deep end right away you might drown before you remember what you need to do. If you start at the shallow end you have support until you can get back up to speed, then you can easily venture from the shallow supported end to the deeper end supporting yourself. If you find you are tiring as you move deeper it is easier to get back to the shallower area until you are stronger. Jump in the deep end and your only hope is to try and hold onto the edge and see if you can work up the courage to go back out, but it is harder to get stronger when your holding onto the edge of deep water then splashing around the shallow area. 3 If someone was not living the standards of the Gospel then they have not had the Holy Ghost as a constant companion for some time. They need to be given an easier path back to the straight and narrow path and guided around the rough patches until the Holy Ghost has reestablished a communication with the person in a manner the person can notice again. 4 Satan loves us when we weaken our testimonies of the gospel. It can and does happen to the strongest people. I considered myself deeply anchored yet four years ago seriously attempted to leave the church to protect my faith in it (don't ask I'm still not sure it ever made sense even to me.) I was blessed enough that my anchor was strong enough to refuse to let me do it. One advantage it gave me is I passed through a test and am stronger for it. When someone tries to come back Satan will work at every crack to prevent it. He will tempt your children, work at every weakness you have, use others to put the church down, maybe have you see harmless comments by members as a personal attack, etc. He will work very hard to stop you. Reviewing the basics provides the armour of God to help shield you faster and stronger then going into the deeper doctrine of regular classes. 5 Living the Gospel is a choice and a habit. Habits take time to form, the more complex the longer it takes. Starting with the basics is the easiest habits to form then they can be built on. Feel blessed you have a wise Ward, I have seen others where people who come back are treated either as lepers who will just leave again. Almost as bad is when you go to a Ward who simply accepts you back into the fold without any transition time. I have seen people return from years away, stand in testimony meeting and announce their desire to return, immediatly they are put into the regular mill like nothing ever happened, given callings etc. Most often they are gone even before the next testimony meeting. I admire your courage and desire to return. It is never easy to right a mistake made. But realize that if you stay the course you will be stronger for your experience, you will be in a position to help prevent others from taking the same path you did and helping those others who return to undergo the transition because you understand far better then those who never experience that trial. At times the road will be rough, sometimes steep, sometimes like trying to walk through knee deep mud. You might see other roads that are smooth flat and easy walking. Remember it is always easier to walk down hill then up. But we grow stronger from the exercise!

Welcome to the Forum. My wife and I joined 13 years ago when I was 31. Our first child was 1 when we joined, we wanted something beyond the worldly rules to help us raise our family. We both believed in God but had no religion, never baptized before etc. I am a very distrustful person and look for the angles behind what people are telling me. What is in it for them. I never expected when I told the Missionaries they could meet with us that I would join. I looked at it as a challenge to find the hidden agenda's etc. I'm now 44 my age doesn't bother me, the past I led is the past and I have a road map for life thanks to the teachings of the church. The gospel is perfect those of us on Earth in it are not. But if you keep chugging away, ignore the faults of others then it works out. For me the logic of this church makes too much sense not to come from God. Enjoy the journey of discovery no matter what form you take or what time frame it takes you. Laugh at the mistakes or misunderstandings you will have, the negative comments from those who don't understand the Gospel. And revel in the spirit as you learn of your Father in Heaven. This is a good site, I searched for a year for one that provided discussion, thought and interest without people hammering at each others beliefs over and over again. Feel free to ask questions, that is the only way to find answers.

Hi Can't answer the first as I was never baptized before LDS, I was 30 when I joined the church. These are short answers cause I have to leave in 10 min for work so they are not detailed and more subject to misunderstanding. #2 When Christ died the ministry limped along for a time, note that new apostles were called after Christ left the Earth. But the ministry feel into splitter groups trying to keep things going as best they could in a day without copiers, phones, cars etc to allow for communication. Some local leaders purposely and some intentionally distorted the truth. It would have been almost impossible for things to stay on the strait and narrow path. So many different groups got big or small parts of the gospel but they could not hold onto the entire picture. Even today if it were not for the Prophets of our church we would not be able to maintain the whole fullness of the Gospel I see the misunderstandings of it from members often and Leaders must be careful to keep things on course. #3 Some people I am sure this is a problem but we are anchored in the knowledge of the Gospel, we study it in church adn at home. Emotion does play a part, that is often how the Holy Ghost works through us but we are to study things out in our own minds. we are also to take everything to the Lord. I find for me that when I study something out the logic has to flow or it can not be from God. Hope this helps some I got 2 minutes to get ready. Bye.

As Mission Leader I was very upset when we lost our Sister Missionaries in our second area. As a direct result of changing to Elders we lost all but one Investigator and all the Less Actives they had made such progress with. Blessed are we with Sister Missionaries!

I never assumed an offense was present with regard to the "calling" business. Besides if someone is going to put out a blanket statement like that we should be expected to know the source. With my calling I was at the hump, I had just finished telling a Stake leader that we were at the crest and once we got the mission over it then I was done. The Lord gave me a 4 year plan, I knew I was done in 2010 when I was called in 2007. I was lucky that God gave me a clear set of goals to achieve. I managed most of them. If it was not for that long range vision I would have burned out a long time ago trying to deal with the petty and annoying little stuff that members should have known better. I don't envy you yours, working with Investigators and New Converts is much easier then dealing with Home Teaching or Welfare Issues! AS for the clerk issue I felt it was not spiritual, then I got frustrated, took the online training prayed for three days and then Heavenly Father tied it all together for me. A Bishopric is in place for a particular period of time and to do specific things then they are done. They are temporary. A Ward can live past a bad Bishop. The Clerks role is continual, from the moment a Ward is formed until it dies each clerk is to carry out the same tasks. It is the check against the Bishoprics to insure the Lord's church stays the course no matter what a Bishopric might do. The Clerk looks after the long term welfare of the church unit. And if you think about it clerks are to keep records. What is the book of Mormon but a group of records someone kept. Was Mormon, Alma etc Clerks in the Lords eyes? haha. Don't worry about your next calling it will come in good time. As for the progression I understand what you mean, I am going from being a leader to a councilor back in the Auxiliary I was a councilor in before WML. I warned the President it will take time for my mind to shift out of a leadership gear. Good luck and keep the faith.

I hate being called on something, I don't have a specific source on the not refusing callings issue, I am fairly sure talks have mentioned this but to be honest I don't have the time to go on the church website to confirm that opinion. I do know that we are taught that we must sustain our Leaders and when they are inspired to offer a calling many consider we are not sustaining them because we are refusing to follow their inspiration. But I stand by what I said about it matters exactly what is and in what perspective a calling is prayed about. Some individual Leaders might indeed black list you. I have seen a bad habit (while serving as one of those clerks you don't care for) where when Leaders are trying to think of who to pray about for a calling they rely on their memories of names to pray. Someone who was an issue a few years or months ago might be ready now but they are not in the collective mind for a calling and so are over looked. Like in the work place some people come to be relied on and Leaders can forget that those people have limits. Someone who is unreliable in a calling asks to be released it is no big deal because the expectation is low. When someone who is outstanding and reliable does it is almost treated like a betrayal. With the Mission Statements I have several. A main one for my life in general and individual ones for different callings, jobs, periods in my life etc. I firmly believe more leaders should take the time to create one. If we get buried in the day to day stuff and are not working toward a planned goal then a calling becomes a daily grind of never ending work where the only reward is to do a little good here and there and survive to be released. While I did not achieve all that the Lord wanted because I had the vision of my calling (goal) and the blueprint to get to it (mission statement) I was able to advance things the proper direction and to look back and see how far we did go. It made the day to day stuff minor and temporary instead of my entire focus. I liked what you did with the checklists and quarterly reviews. In our Ward the Leaders don't involve the general membership. When I was in EQ last time I suggested the same thing and it was shot down as too much work. I kept notes on the ideas in a binder in case I was ever called as president. Now that I am back in EQ again as a councilor I already sent the idea to the new President and we will see tomorrow if it works this time. Our Bishop is new and in attempting to be efficient he is upsetting many members. I talked to him about effective is better then efficient and in the long run more efficient anyway. From what I got out of what you put you go more for the effective. It is more effective to train someone into being a good priesthood holder one on one then it is to do a mass instruction to the entire group. BTW When I was called as Clerk I thought i was the most nonspiritual calling you could have. I mean it's all paperwork. I did what I was taught by outgoing clerk, the Stake who was supposed to train me never put in an appearance. After about six months I decided to take the online training and was amazed. A clerk is a very spiritual calling and responsiblity and is key to a well run ward. But most clerks never take the time to see this, and most Bishops don't understand how much easier their calling would be with a well trained clerk. Actually that is the biggest problem I see in the church, we don't take enough time to train people. Christ's ministry was about teaching and training, yet we don't take the time to train new members, we don't take the time to train people in callings, we don't take the time to bring people to the spiritual importance of their calling. When called to Sunday School Presidentcy the president told me councilor was an easy unimportant calling the worse thing I'd have to worry about is teaching once in a while at short notice. Great uplift for a new calling! Feel free to move back to Canada, Nova Scotia would be great when you are ready for callings again! I was lucky as Ward Mission Leader to work with auxiliary Leaders who were willing to work together for the collective good once I helped show I wanted to help and needed theirs. I can see that I would have been as lucky if you had been in our Ward. Thank you for your service, in or Ward or yours you helped further the Lord's work to bring to pass the eternal life and immortality of man. Don't rest too long as your strength is needed where ever you are to continue the Lords work.

Actually you can eat money if it's bills but would not be filling or healthy. As with all things we require balance, expecting to rely on money or credit is the way the world prepares for things. We are taught to provide for food, drink, supplies, etc. A small cash reserve is simply a component of our storage. A week after a disaster your bread is moldy, if you are transported out of the disaster area and used your 72 hour kit, you will have to rely either on the government to sustain you or whatever funds you can access.

You know your situation better then anyone else. We are not supposed to refuse callings but we are also not supposed to go faster then we are able. I just was released as WML after 2 1/2 years, I needed a few more months to finish what God wanted of me in that role but I have noticed a difference already. I will not accept a calling if I have not prayed about it and gotten confirmation from the Lord. I firmly believe all or most leaders get answers from God before extending a calling offer to someone. However I know without question that the manner it is prayed about is a big factor. In my case the Lord told me I was to achieve some specific things, after a huge effort over the years they were all there just needing a few months to ingrain them as a habit on the leadership and I was finished. But I was released and made a Councilor in EQ. Does that mean my revelation and continued inspiration is wrong? Does it mean the EQ, Bishop and Stake Leaders are wrong? No to both. I had not finished the Lord's work with Missionary Service, I should have had those few more months to complete the work as he wanted. And Yes the Lord told the Leaderships that I was a person for that calling. Did they pray about others, we only have 8 active and I'm the only one who has not just had a new calling, so they had no one else to pray about. The Lord told them I would be good for that position. I never asked but based on experience with other Bishoprics I would be surprised if they then prayed if I should remain where I was. Sometimes we have to do as the Lord directs us, not because our Leaders are wrong but because they are very busy and don't always ask the right questions of the Lord the same as each of us. If you are very burned out from your previous calling you won't be much good in another one until you regroup. So asking for a break is not horrible. But be warned that it can open a crack to weakening your testimony, if your like me the guilt of not taking one on will eat at you and for me my calling creates a special relationship with Heavenly Father that I can't have any other way. One suggestion I have is the first thing I did when Called as WML was to draft a personal Mission Statement. Every once in a while or when I felt life was off kilter I would refer to it (first page in my church binder) It helped orient me. I was given my new calling last week, I had a rough draft of a new calling mission statement done two days after. (Still don't know my role yet, hope to find out this week.) It reminded me that I was first a Father and Husband, second an income provider, third an Elder in the Priesthood, forth a Home Teacher and fifth a Ward Mission Leader. That gave me the priorities to stick too no matter how urgent church things got I would see I was trying to do to much and neglect 1-4 so I'd back off. I had to deal with upsetting many members who looked at the Missionary effort either as their personal playground or hated anything to do with it. Not everyone appreciated my efforts either and on occasion got nasty about it. As I have told people my calling is between the Lord and me, I am responsible to do what he directs, keeping within the command and rule structure of course. I appreciate praise, I don't like complaints but both are secondary to the Lord's work. If you know you did what the Lord wanted then that is the only measure you should worry about. Every one elses comment about your calling including other leaders is simply their opinion and has no bearing on your salvation.

We have several levels of Emergency readiness. We have 72 hour kits with basics we can be out of the house with in under 5 minutes. There are some items like prescriptions (non life threatening) more photo's etc that would take is 15 minutes to get out with. If we have 20-30 minutes we have 4 totes of camping gear we use each year prepacked which includes not only a huge tent but a 30*40 tarp that can cover an entire camp site (that is what my pic shows) and two coolers stored by the food storage that can be packed. Everything can be quickly loaded into our van. With 1 hour of notice we can have a utility trailer attached with enough supports loaded to support our camping area with a free standing tarped structure that has withstood strong winds. (2*4, 2*2 and 1*3's) Now having proven how organized we are a couple of big oops that I have to fix is 1 we never included a waste disposal system for bodily needs, I assumed digging a hole or trench but we might be in an evacuation area that we can't do that so we need a more flexible way. 5 gallon bucket, bags and odor suppressor. 2 we have not updated our 72 hour kits in two years, while the cloths were bought extra large for everyone and in bright colors to be noticeable at a second hand store we need to check if they still fit and rotate the food items. Batteries replacement is also a must. 3 I used to keep enough gas in cans for one refill of our van and two propane tanks so I knew one was full. One propane tank is out of date and with the price of fuel and our finance. I have less then 1/4 a tank of gas in store and have to rely on our one propane tank left. 4 It is easy once you get a good level reached to coast and think your where you need to be. I have to find time very soon to get it in gear yet again. My advice You will drive yourself crazy if you try to do everything at once, or put yourself in the poor house. All the other advice given is excellent. Start food storage slowly ( it can be done for free or almost free and once you reach critical mass it actually can save you money.) , begun a 72 hour kit, work do pay down your debts, put a few cents away each week in bin etc, keep a small reserve of cash in the house. One of the easiest, inexpensive and important areas that should be done immediately is communications. As a Father who lost touch with his family for 24 hours told me once, the most horrifying part of his experience, fire evacuation, is it happened when the family was apart and they had no plans on how to get in touch. He didn't know what happened to them for 24 hours. You can't rely on cell phones, land lines, or internet. Have three meeting points, one close by, one about an hours walk away and one several miles away. Have a place people can leave messages outside of the house on your property for each other, especially if the house is unsafe to enter. I helped out a few years ago with preparedness in the Ward and quickly realized at least in our area good intentions aside we are on our own up here. The nearest Bishop storehouse is 1500km away, we have 1 highway into the valley and one rail line from the storehouse to a point 200km from our Ward. Our Ward has no generator, no communication other then telephone and no emergency shelter, the chapel needs electricity for everything inc water. Our boundry is about 60 by 60 miles. Good luck, go slow and steady and alter for your local conditions.

Often times in our quest for knowledge about some things we get into the can't see the forest for the trees issue. We spend so much time trying to insure we understand each aspect that we lose the basic simple answers right in front of us. I used logic to guide me into the church at first, I received an answer when I prayed about one aspect of the church, the Book of Mormon. I liked the concept of Home Teaching but didn't get an answer about it. I didn't get anything about tithing, Joseph Smith, Prophets etc. But logic told me a youth who made up the story wouldn't keep saying it was true when getting attacked for saying it. Prophets on Earth today made sense because logic said God would love us as much as those in ancient times etc. If I had a testimony of one thing then everything else had to be true as well. Read page 435 BOM, its in 3rd Nephi vs twenty something. Seek ye first the kingdom of God.... I figured if God did not exist then when I die I;ll never know I was wrong, if he does it would suck to not have done what I should have to be with him. Testimonies are living things, they take time and effort to grow. Some grow slow others fast, but once you get a small one about something the rest will come. Remember God loves you.

Hi back, lots of discussions go on. So it's a good place to be for them.

The week before I was asked to be a Ward Mission Leader I could not sleep one night because the Lord kept giving me Missionary stuff. Something I never wanted to be involved with ever. The next day, Sunday, as an EQ 2nd C I ended up meeting with the Stake visitor and he held a special meeting with EQ, RS, HP on his role as High Councilor over Missionary work! And he reviewed what the Lord had given me as how we should deal with new members. That week at a baptism the Bishop asked to meet with me, going in I knew why. When he offered the calling I was able to give him a four year mission plan from the Lord. 2.5 years I have held that calling a new record for me, I had been down to an average of 8 months duration with a calling. Two weeks ago I submitted our Mission Plan for year 4 which is next years. After 2 1/2 years of hard work it was almost all there. I was at the point where auxiliary leaders were seeing we needed to do things the Lord's way even if it takes longer at the beginning. The programs I had been pushing had almost broken down all the resistance. My goal from the start was to not just change how I did things to bring our retention rate from 25% to it's current 80% but to get the Lord's plan installed in the Ward's collective mind set so it would sustain itself after I was released. I just finished telling a Stake Leader that 3-6 months and my role was done. I was released yesterday. My replacement is one of the ones who fought against what I was trying to do. He believed it was the Mission Leaders job to find people, baptize them and then it was tossed to the Ward to deal with retention. I am now a councilor in EQ, I am replacing the person who is now going to be WML. He was a high Priest who was serving because there were no other EQ available. We only have 10 active Elders, most of the Ward are high Priests. The new Bishop decided he could no longer serve in EQ because he was a high Priest. 3 EQ are already serving in the EQ leadership, 3 are unreliable, 1 (in his 70's) refuses callings, 2 have just been called to Young Mens three months ago. Lets see that leaves me. I was told the Lord wanted me there. But he gave me a plan to fulfill that was not completed yet. It is hard to not look at the fact switching the two of us satisfies an administrative issue. I do not disbelieve that I was prayed about and an answer was recieved. But I have learned from experience that the manner something is prayed about makes a difference on the answer received. But I am left wondering why I am never left in a calling to finish what the Lord wants. I keep hearing about how people are stuck in callings for years. With the latest my average of holding onto a calling is back up to a year. I throw as much energy into my callings as I can because I am accountable to the Lord for what I do. But it gets harder to care every time this happens. I know why so many in the Ward don't care about callings. I know I did many good things and helped keep many in the Ward but it stinks to once again not finish what I was to do. So my question is how do you keep caring enough when you can't seem to achieve any lasting difference with a calling? Or do you just do the day to day items and not worry about fulfilling the larger mission of the calling? My new calling with such a small EQ it would be very easy and tempting to just coast, do what I am asked and not worry about it.

Welcome from Canada. That is some conversion story. Hope you enjoy the site.

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Read 7 habits of highly effective families by Stephen R Covey. Who is a church member but it is not a church book. After reading it several times, buying many copies and giving them to others I found it works. I am not smart enough to apply it always but when things get rough in my marriage i pick it up again and things get back on track. Until you read it follow this advice from it but based on my memory of what it says. Love her. Love is a verb and a noun. When we are active in loving then the spirit of love returns or grows. We must first love then we become in love. It is hard to do but I have learned to force myself to repeat love her over and over again when I am trying to get us back to where we want to be. I ignore the digs, and comments and talk kindly and loving. I go out of my way to do little things for her, wash dishes without asking, sweep the floor, give extra hugs or kisses even if they are not encouraged at first. After a week of forcing myself to do it then it becomes natural. Usually at two weeks she is doing it as well and things are good again. After going through this routine a few times my wife often starts the process herself without having read the book because she sees that it works. It would be better if I could keep in this frame of mind but life gets in the way and I neglect the habit and things go down again. The idea marriage is 50-50 is a farce. Sometimes it's 90-10, 60-40 etc. 50-50 is not marriage but a divorce settlement. I don't make promises lightly ever but I have experienced this habit enough that I will promise you things will be better if you read it and apply it. Even better if the two of you can read it and apply it together. But even one is enough.

Yes it was two years. We started with the basics. Our past Ward Mission Leaders spent much time going out with the Missionaries and working with getting people Investigators. Once baptized the last one would look at EQ or RS Leaders and say quote "They are baptized now they are your problem." When called as WML I put the important point not on a baptism but on retention. I don't spend a huge amount of time going with Missionaries but huge amounts with the administration end. Working out plans to help nurture others in the gospel. At first I spent lots of time working with other leaders to create a team environment. Once our Missionary group started trying to help other leaders they started helping us. Now we don't require anyone person to be a lead, all the leaders look at Missionary work as a way to make their callings easier not harder. If we work as a group now there are less problems later for them to deal with. Just this week we started a leadership visitation plan so that when a baptism occurs leaders of the appropriate auxiliary take 15 minutes to sit introduce themselves in an official capacity and explain what role the auxiliary has in the persons life and how the person fits into the auxiliary. Next step which we hope starts next week is having the assigned Home or Visit teacher sit with the new people and appropriate leader and have them explain what home teaching is and what they will do for the new person. It increases accountability. In Gospel Principle class I spend 10 minutes prior to the lesson to explain some aspect of church life or review something that might cause confusion from a talk in sacrament. We explain that the only dumb question is the one they don't ask. That the GP class is theirs not members, without them it does not exist. When baptized they have an equal "ownership" as a member who has been there for 80 years. It amazes me how much leaders opinions have changed about this, not that we don't still have issues of course, but the cooperation is huge. We had an issue about trying to teach Home and Visit teachers to teach new member lessons, took it to Ward Council and the Priesthood and Relief Society Presidents volunteered to use the first Sunday lesson over 6 months to teach why and then each lesson from the Preach my Gospel book. We are making more effort to seek out Less Actives and encourage them to return, to take the time to work with new members and help them plant gospel roots, and to get to know and help those who investigate the gospel. We have coloring pages and crayons for Investigators who bring children for the first time to help them be settled. We created an LDS-English Dictionary to help explain things, I put my email and phone number on the board each Sunday and let the class know they are welcome to contact me, Relief Society has a folder for new Sisters. Lots of little things that are adding up to be a big thing. We are not perfect at it, I still thing I should do much more, but we are being rewarded for it. The single biggest thing is training leaders and each other on what we are supposed to be doing and helping each other to do it.

Ward Clerk is responsible to train auxliary secretaries in keeping attendance and reporting attendance concerns to him when they come up. One of his roles is to investigate these concerns and bring them up in PEC or Bishopric meetings. Secretaries should investigate first to see if it is just a sickness, or work etc. The purpose of this is when leaders learn of someone not showing up they can make contact with having some back ground info. Often people will stop going to classes before they stop going to sacrament. having a time line can help figure out what is up. Leaders can get bogged down with squeaky wheel issues and the quite ones get overlooked. Also leaders and members can be so concerned about offending someone that they don't ask the questions that show they care. What's up, why are you not coming, etc. Remember that leaders have no special training and most simply do the best they can. Two years ago our Ward retention level was 25% because everyone focused on other issues. Now it is 80% and many less actives have come back to activity because we switched focus, took months to slowly train members to watch out for each other, to help teach leaders how to look out for those who don't come. Mostly that it was a shared responsibility not something put on any one auxiliary.

WOW!!!! I thought our Sunday services lasted forever at 3 hours! :)

4th mission of the church is tied into the 14th article of faith. We will hold many and all meetings, we need to meet as often as possible in order to further discuss the same things discussed in other meetings. This is to cover those who don't write things down from the first five meetings something was said in and for High Priest how fall asleep after 10 minutes. Any time three or more members are within 5 miles of each other a meeting shall be called. In order to better prepare for meetings members who attend meetings will receive training from a meeting training teacher. Pre meetings to discuss what will be discussed in meetings will be encouraged as will post meeting meetings to review the things covered in the meeting.

As Ward Mission Leader I am also our Gospel Essentials teacher. No your position is not obsolete. It will still be taught in GE class as well as RS & PrstHood classes. Only 2 lessons per month will be taught in the other classes so it will take two years to go through it. While a few will get double doses of lessons I expect that they will be treated differently. GE class will continue to present the information from the perspective of the needs of new members or investigators. The RS&PrstHood will take a more in depth look at the same information. I think it will be good for long term members to get reminded of the basic doctrine. Last year we had an adult seminary class one per week. I started bringing the GP book with me to correct members understanding of basic doctrine which had gotten misremembered or confused by some individuals over the years. This year the class is much more on track and I have only had to bring it out once. Also it might remind members that new comers don't have an understanding of many things they take for granted and they need to be more aware of this. The biggest concern I have is when members attend GE class with an investigator or new member I have to keep reminding them to not go past the depth the manual is designed to teach. With more depth of the manual being taught it will be harder to keep members from going deeper then they should. Our supply came in and I looked at them, they are the same as what we have been using other then the question for discussion is before the section instead of at the end and the chapters are no longer divided into units. They took out the hymn's but put in many more pictures which is nice. I didn't go through each chapter word for word but I skipped around and compared the new to the old and found no content differences.

Welcome Just a suggestion but if your husband is not in favor of church try and find out when the local LDS chapel is holding events like special choir nights or activities. It is a good way to ease someone into the out skirts of the gospel.