Primary Ignored


Kidney58
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9 minutes ago, Kidney58 said:

My wife is a primary teacher and has been for the last two years. It seems like she has been ignored especially by relief society. How can we involve primary leaders and teachers more? Especially now with the new Come Follow Me curriculum?

It sounds like the new curriculum will help her integrate with Relief Society more easily since she will now be able to meet with the group twice a month.

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In what way has she been ignored by the RS?  Has she gone to RS activities (if they're held)?  Does she have a ministering assignment (and does she minister)?  Are sisters assigned to minister to her, and do they come, and does she invite their ministering?  Are there other ways in which she wishes interaction with the RS, but doesn't receive it?  What has she done to initiate change?  What have been the reactions to her efforts?

Edited by zil
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Just now, Carborendum said:

It sounds like the new curriculum will help her integrate with Relief Society more easily since she will now be able to meet with the group twice a month.

No, Primary happens every Sunday, they will still not interact with RS / EQ (ETA: on Sunday).

Edited by zil
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2 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

It sounds like the new curriculum will help her integrate with Relief Society more easily since she will now be able to meet with the group twice a month.

Primary still meets every Sunday.  

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2 minutes ago, zil said:

No, Primary happens every Sunday, they will still not interact with RS / EQ.

Just now, pam said:

Primary still meets every Sunday.  

OK! OK!  I get it.  Sorry.

Hmmm.  I guess I got that wrong.  Well... I'll try again.

How about ask the RS Pres for the name and contact info of the ministering sister assigned to her?  Then she can go visit the woman who is supposed to visit her.

Seriously, I had a home teacher who would visit maybe twice a year.  So, I made it a point to drive by his house once a month so he could home teach me.  We became friends.  He's now our bishop.

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3 minutes ago, zil said:

In what way has she been ignored by the RS?  Has she gone to RS activities (if they're held)?  Does she have a ministering assignment (and does she minister)?  Are sisters assigned to minister to her, and do they come, and does she invite their ministering?  Are there other ways in which she wishes interaction with the RS, but doesn't receive it?  What has she done to initiate change?  What have been the reactions to her efforts?

She has found it difficult to integrate this is a new ward, she's never been visited by anyone

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1 minute ago, Carborendum said:

How about ask the RS Pres for the name and contact info of the ministering sister assigned to her?

At some point, LDS Tools was supposed to give everyone the right to see who their assigned ministering sisters / brothers are, but that doesn't appear to be the case (at least not on Android).

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3 minutes ago, zil said:

At some point, LDS Tools was supposed to give everyone the right to see who their assigned ministering sisters / brothers are, but that doesn't appear to be the case (at least not on Android).

It would sure be nice if that could be rectified both ways, viewing who is assigned to you and who you are assigned too on lds.org too for those of us who prefer not to have a cell phone.

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1 minute ago, Kidney58 said:

She has found it difficult to integrate this is a new ward, she's never been visited by anyone

Has she gone to visit?  Has she contacted her companion?  I know we all expect that the "already there" people should welcome the newbie and our ministering sisters / brothers should reach out to their assignees first, but if that's not working for you, take the initiative - find out who your ministering sisters / brothers are and invite them.  Find out who your companions are and contact them.  Find out to whom you minister and contact them - if no one, contact the presidency and let them know you want an assignment.  Invite someone else in the ward for lunch or dinner or something.

Yes, that can be difficult, but the alternative, apparently, is to accept whatever happens without you taking initiative - and no program, policy, or instruction at an organizational level will solve this problem - all that stuff has been done, the people just aren't implementing it fully, so help them out. :)

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7 minutes ago, zil said:

At some point, LDS Tools was supposed to give everyone the right to see who their assigned ministering sisters / brothers are, but that doesn't appear to be the case (at least not on Android).

 

2 minutes ago, SpiritDragon said:

It would sure be nice if that could be rectified both ways, viewing who is assigned to you and who you are assigned too on lds.org too for those of us who prefer not to have a cell phone.

I can see my ministering members

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Just now, SpiritDragon said:

It would sure be nice if that could be rectified both ways, viewing who is assigned to you and who you are assigned too on lds.org too for those of us who prefer not to have a cell phone.

Technically, I don't have a cell phone anymore - but I do have an Android device that looks and acts like a cell phone in all ways except it doesn't have phone service. :D  (I also have an Android tablet from years ago.)  But I hear ya - the web site lags in this way.

Still, contacting leadership will get you the info too - any member of the RSPy, EQPy, and Bishopric (including membership clerk and executive secretary) can get you all of this info.

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Just now, SpiritDragon said:

on lds.org?

 

LD S Tools

Just now, zil said:

The ones to whom you minister, or the ones who minister to you, or both?

Android or iPhone or Windows Phone?

And are you in a presidency / bishopric?

Both

iphone

no

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1 minute ago, zil said:

Technically, I don't have a cell phone anymore - but I do have an Android device that looks and acts like a cell phone in all ways except it doesn't have phone service. :D  (I also have an Android tablet from years ago.)  But I hear ya - the web site lags in this way.

Still, contacting leadership will get you the info too - any member of the RSPy, EQPy, and Bishopric (including membership clerk and executive secretary) can get you all of this info.

The worst part is when I've asked in the last few years I've been told to look it up in lds tools and then met with astonishment that I don't have such a thing. They do eventually come around to emailing me some names.

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Just now, Fether said:

iphone

I'm thinking that's the key.  The Apple development teams are always ahead (because for whatever reason, the Church standardized on Apple devices).  Android claims to have this feature, but as far as I can tell, it comes and goes, or maybe was never there.

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Same here, along with a bunch of other information. About an hour ago my Elders Quorum President showed me some of the reporting features of LDS tools as well, this will make it much easier than expected to keep track of ministering interviews.

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13 hours ago, SpiritDragon said:

It would sure be nice if that could be rectified both ways, viewing who is assigned to you and who you are assigned too on lds.org too for those of us who prefer not to have a cell phone.

I can see both on iPhone, but not online.  It would be nice to be able to tithe through the app, also.  

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15 hours ago, Kidney58 said:

My wife is a primary teacher and has been for the last two years. It seems like she has been ignored especially by relief society. How can we involve primary leaders and teachers more? Especially now with the new Come Follow Me curriculum?

Nothing is more heartbreaking than being ignored by your ward. I'm so sorry this is happening to you. I can't offer any advice, but know that I'm praying for you. 😞

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My ward got permission from our bishop to meet as a group  separate from primary,  so what we are doing where the 3rd block used to be, every 1st and 3rd Sunday we will meet to do the come follow me, so that we can have interaction with other adults and keep up whats being taught in sundy school class. Also the 3rd sunday we will have a potluck after, like a munch and mingle type thing.... so somthing you could maybe ask your bishop to do simlar in your ward.  We thought of doing it Wednesday nights but its just more convenient at the church and on sunday, plus im pretty sure the apostle who spoke on this new church  schedule thing ,said we could get together with other families or singles etc if we desired.   Hope you find a solution and good luck. 

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16 hours ago, Kidney58 said:

My wife is a primary teacher and has been for the last two years. It seems like she has been ignored especially by relief society. How can we involve primary leaders and teachers more? Especially now with the new Come Follow Me curriculum?

In our new ward, we were put into primary right away making it difficult for us to naturally meet others and build relationships. So instead we invited people over. For about 2 months we had couples over at our apartment for board games every weekend. Some of our closest friends now are people we invited over.

The fix to this is to simply invite others to your home. 

I recognize that for some this is difficult, but it is that or keep being lonely in hopes someone will notice.

Edited by Fether
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On 1/5/2019 at 3:43 PM, Kidney58 said:

My wife is a primary teacher and has been for the last two years. It seems like she has been ignored especially by relief society. How can we involve primary leaders and teachers more? Especially now with the new Come Follow Me curriculum?

This is a very common problem.  It was even worse before the internet.  There are a lot of primary teachers in her same boat.

My wife was in nursery for a four years straight when we were new to the ward.  She never got any visits from the Relief Society and would never know when the activities were since they would change almost every time in that ward.

I would talk to the Bishop so he can bring it up in the group meetings.  This would be better than going to the Relief Society President herself.

It isn't on purpose, but people in primary and nursery often get forgotten.  

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13 minutes ago, Scott said:

This is a very common problem.  It was even worse before the internet.  There are a lot of primary teachers in her same boat.

My wife was in nursery for a four years straight when we were new to the ward.  She never got any visits from the Relief Society and would never know when the activities were since they would change almost every time in that ward.

I would talk to the Bishop so he can bring it up in the group meetings.  This would be better than going to the Relief Society President herself.

It isn't on purpose, but people in primary and nursery often get forgotten.  

When my wife and I were newly weds we moved into a ward where we were shuttled away into primary which made it difficult to get to know other ward members. I didn't seem to be getting a home teaching assignment and didn't know who the EQP was to ask. I finally tracked him down, but I'm not sure he even knew who I was either, even though I explained my name and situation. He did not have an assignment for me. A few months later one of his councilors was reaching out to me to find out why I hadn't been home teaching and then spent the next few months trying to "reactivate me" as if I hadn't been coming to church, only I had been faithfully serving in my primary calling where I was somewhat lost to the rest of the ward. It took 6-9 months but I found who I was home teaching and was able to go quite consistently thereafter. 

Edit: I love these men dearly and admire there desire to serve and help. I don't want this to come across as a criticism of anyone, simply showcasing that is easy to be forgotten about when serving in Primary. 

Edited by SpiritDragon
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