askandanswer

I am prone to be much more charitable to the mission president, who after all was only trying to find a way to instill and (hopefully) quantify the obedience of his missionaries. I agree that his bean-counting method was suboptimal and perhaps counterproductive, but calling him Pharisaical seems overkill.
Also, the condemnation of the Pharisees was never that they tried too hard to be obedient to the law. It was that they were stinking, lying hypocrites.

What do you call a man with a rubber toe?
 
 
Roberto

Oh yes, terrifying, snarly, vicious creature!  You should fear for your life!
No, no, the dogs are there in case the gators don't finish you off.

" We are all enlisted til the conflcit is o'er"
(Hymn 250)

@zil lives next door to you?

" We are all enlisted til the conflcit is o'er"
(Hymn 250)

I realize that the intent and theory over the last few years was to move Home Teaching away from the one-size-fits-all model to more of a personalized approach.
However, as is typically the case, theory doesn't always translate into practice--in part because humans are somewhat resistant to change, and also I believe the Brethren recognized that there were structural element in the HT program that limited personalizing--not the least of which was the monthly messages published in Church magazines, the monthly reporting, etc.
From what I have gathered in researching the new Ministering program, there is a whole new structure in place that lends itself to personalizing. Not only have the monthly messages and reporting been eliminated, but other elements of personalizing, such as prioritizing assignments, have been put into place. 
I view it as similar to a hospital model, where, on the one hand, there are patients with varying degrees of spiritual sickness and health (some needing emergency and critical care, while others are robust and healthy and may only require a quarterly or annual visit along with a preventative health regimen), while on the other hand we have Ministering "medical staff"  with varied skill sets and levels of competency and commitment, from "specialized doctors" to "nurses aids" or "housekeeping." The new program allows the Elder's Quorum and Relief Society presidencies to tailor assignments to best meet needs. This way, teams of "doctors" can work frequently and relatively intensively with "patients" who require critical care, while "nurses aids" or "housekeeping" can provide modest and infrequent support to robust and healthy patients.
I think it is brilliant.
Thanks, -Wade Englund-

There's a lot of truth in this ^^ statement. A missionary who has grievously broken the law of chastity and sincerely repented is just as worthy to serve a mission as a mission who has not broken the law of chastity. We once had a missionary from our stake who, as an Aaronic Priesthood holder, had sex with his girlfriend. About 3 years later he was on a mission. The bishop of that ward worked with him for maybe a year, helping him repent. I believe that as a result of his sin, his application process took longer than usual although I'm not sure about that. I've heard that, probably as a result of his repentance, he now has quite a powerful testimony of the Atonement. Whether or not a young man decides to serve a mission seems to be at least partially on how much time the bishop is willing to spend working with them to help them repent and prepare. 

There's a lot of truth in this ^^ statement. A missionary who has grievously broken the law of chastity and sincerely repented is just as worthy to serve a mission as a mission who has not broken the law of chastity. We once had a missionary from our stake who, as an Aaronic Priesthood holder, had sex with his girlfriend. About 3 years later he was on a mission. The bishop of that ward worked with him for maybe a year, helping him repent. I believe that as a result of his sin, his application process took longer than usual although I'm not sure about that. I've heard that, probably as a result of his repentance, he now has quite a powerful testimony of the Atonement. Whether or not a young man decides to serve a mission seems to be at least partially on how much time the bishop is willing to spend working with them to help them repent and prepare. 

Don’t pressure me.  I still have that new car smell.  

There's a lot of truth in this ^^ statement. A missionary who has grievously broken the law of chastity and sincerely repented is just as worthy to serve a mission as a mission who has not broken the law of chastity. We once had a missionary from our stake who, as an Aaronic Priesthood holder, had sex with his girlfriend. About 3 years later he was on a mission. The bishop of that ward worked with him for maybe a year, helping him repent. I believe that as a result of his sin, his application process took longer than usual although I'm not sure about that. I've heard that, probably as a result of his repentance, he now has quite a powerful testimony of the Atonement. Whether or not a young man decides to serve a mission seems to be at least partially on how much time the bishop is willing to spend working with them to help them repent and prepare. 

So if we all added another 2 feet to the lightning rods on the tops of our chapel steeples, would that help to grow the church?

I remember the church in the Philippines being faced with exactly the same situation when I was on my mission there - rapid growth, poor retention and inexperienced leadership. In my first area, the Branch President had only been baptised 5 months before I arrived. I believe that Elder Oaks helped to fix a lot of these problems when he was assigned to live in the Philippines for a few years at about the start of the century. 

I am weeping to know that someone finally gets me.

Says the woman who got her children addicted!  At least I only go after responsible adults.

@Vort, surely it would be good for you to go. If you're a little short of funds, just ask @pam. She works for a multi-national ICT business whose only purpose is to do more good. 

I think it would be really interesting to see a breakdown of these figures by area. I suspect that in the areas where the church has been established for a long time, ie, North America, England, Australia and other places, the rate of growth would be very much slower than in areas where the church is newer, particularly South and Central America, the Philippines and Africa. If this is true, it might lend support to the conclusion that the prophecies in 3rd Nephi 16 are beginning to come to pass.
3rd Nephi 16: 10 Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them.
11  And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.
12  And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel.
13  But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel.

I think it would be really interesting to see a breakdown of these figures by area. I suspect that in the areas where the church has been established for a long time, ie, North America, England, Australia and other places, the rate of growth would be very much slower than in areas where the church is newer, particularly South and Central America, the Philippines and Africa. If this is true, it might lend support to the conclusion that the prophecies in 3rd Nephi 16 are beginning to come to pass.
3rd Nephi 16: 10 Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them.
11  And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.
12  And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel.
13  But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel.

Just popping in here to report that the church is exploding in the Philippines.  5 years ago, there's this one ward in this one ward building on this island the size of Manhattan with 1/3 the population.  Today, there are 3 wards meeting on that building and there are 2 branches spread out on the island.  The house I'm staying in now belongs to one of those branches and there are ~100 families in that roster but they don't have enough priesthood holders to make a ward - most everybody are newly baptized.  So, I don't know when it happened but they split the mission in this area to 2.  You see these white shirts and long dresses walking around everywhere.  It seems like there are quite a bunch of them.  Interestingly, a young man in our ward is currently in the MTC learning the language because he just got assigned to the mission serving this island!  Now that's like super coincidental it's freaky...

Well, I know at least one convert.  

If you feel a little uncertain or nervous about talking with your BIshop, if "your" missionaries are still nearby, perhaps talk to them first. They don't have stewardship over you but they probably know you better than your Bishop does, and you probably already have a good trusting relationship in place with them. Once you are feeling more comfortable and confident, then its time to talk with your Bishop.

There must be something wrong with my computer screen. It seems to be suggesting that @zil is advocating printing, rather than writing

Welcome, @SophJ!  If you are sincere in your desire that he have a successful mission (and I have no reason to believe you aren't sincere, I'm just stating that as a prerequisite to what comes next), then you should be able to write the following:
Sincere expressions of hope that all is going well for him and encouragement to continue on despite hardships Once there's a back and forth, you can comment specifically on any hardship he relates Regular reports of your daily life Perhaps leave out pop culture like what's happening on your favorite TV show and mentions of new songs Include what you are doing, why you're doing it, thoughts on your experiences, expressions of gratitude for good things and people in your life, etc. Things to leave out would be:
Expressions of doubt, criticism, or disagreement with what he's doing or Church teachings Things which are not appropriate for a missionary to be exposed to - bad language, discussion of things which violate various Church standards - I'm assuming you can figure out what these things would be I think just being able to relax and read news from a friend would be sufficient - you don't need to artificially include encouragement - whatever comes naturally from being a true friend who wants him to succeed and be happy should do the job.  Correspondence will naturally start out short - because there's nothing significant to report, and no topics of conversation have been established - but once started, each of you will begin to have news to relate to the other, and responses to the others' news, and thus the conversation gets longer.  It will ebb as a reports and responses reach a natural end, and flow again as new things happen.  Don't worry about that, just continue conversing.
And, to quote Ben Franklin:
If you can't think of anything to write to him worth reading, go out and do something worth writing.