Moroni5826

My wife would love that, she's the RS pres in our ward, lol.

Despite the title, I have nothing but respect for the wonderful older sisters of my ward. However, our bishopric (of which I am a member) are greeted every Sunday morning by a "representative" or two from the band of single senior sisters. These women are all advanced in age, widowed or divorced, and remain very critical of everything and everyone in the ward. Seriously had one complain the other day about the fact we had scalloped potatoes at the ward dinner when she wanted au gratin.I had to google the difference in our bishopric meeting because none of us knew. Just little nit-picky "problems" every Sunday, holding up our ward council meeting and holding our bishop up so that we can't even start on time. We do take every suggestion and complaint seriously, but when the same few sisters come in every week to lodge their complaints. It's been very detrimental to my spirit prior to our meeting. I come in uplifted and ready to serve, then feel lousy by the time we start. Our bishop is amazing and always very positive. He is so understanding and never gets down. Maybe the problem is with me. I just don't like coming into the building and being hit with negativity and complaints before I can even walk in the office. In general this group of sisters are all very unhappy and complain about everything. We've assigned them talks on finding joy and unity, we've given them assignments to get them to interact more with the younger members. We have a SA FHE for them. We have visited them at home and ministered any way we can. What ideas do you have to help these sisters find joy and comfort within the church? We want very much for them to feel at home, to feel loved and feel a part of what is going on. I think a big part of it is loneliness, depression in some cases and perhaps anger. (The divorced sisters constantly dog their ex-husbands, even though divorce may have been decades ago and no one remembers their ex's), and feeling left out when they see the young-mothers group, student groups or other cliques in the ward. We are a fairly young bishopric and lack experience, but these problems precede our administration. We hope to make a change for the better. I welcome comments from seasoned bishops, senior sisters or any others that may have ideas. Thanks