I didn't see any reports from the relief society perspective so I asked my TBM Mom about the new format and she gave me the low down from her ward (outside of Utah). She felt very uncomfortable about the assigned topic. In my mind, I thought she was going to say combating porn or how to be a better missionary. No, the assigned topic is How to Friendship the Young Women. She told me that she felt disappointed that their assigned topic is not very spiritual.

So the sisters rounded up their chairs into that tight circle. They started to ask for sister's opinions about how to friendlier to the teenagers and answers were written on a whiteboard. Somme of the suggestions were for RS sisters to "smile" at the YW while passing in the hall. This suggestion actually bothered my Mom because they are supposed to report back next week about their "smiling" reports. My Mom lamented the fact that there was nobody in the hall at the conclusion of the meeting. The PH/RS is the last meeting of their mind numbing 3 hour block.

Another suggestion is that the RS sisters need to be "pals" as well. So the RS has an open invitation to attend the YW activity night. My Mom barely remembered that it was on Wednesdays and she hasn't the slightest clue as to what the YW will be doing. Next week, the sisters will be reporting about how many girls did they smiled at.

Now here's the newest wrinkle. At the beginning of the RS meeting, the YW are corralled and marched into the RS room so they can do a pledge together. They all rise and recite the YW code of ethics. My Mom is rather clueless because she never served in the YW leadership and was a convert. So she had to squint to try to read the pledge that was hastily written. An opening prayer follows a song and then the YW retreat back to their classroom.

She was informed that they are losing the youth when they transition out of the YW. This is a church directive to make RS more "YW friendly".

Messygoop's mother is right. The assigned topic is not very spiritual.

It has nothing to do with God or Christ or Charity.

Both the RS and the HP "councils" seem phony and manipulative. Their motive is to coerce members to stay, and not leave Mormonism, even after they discover it's a lying cult.

Pitting the RS against the YW and the HP's against the Elders is rather Gestapo-like. People gossiping about each other and ratting each other out, will only make Mormonism even worse than it already is.

It seems that the only way to not become a target, if you choose to be more relaxed about Mormonism, is to formally resign. Those who attend once or twice a month, or don't pay a full tithe, or skip out on the last two hours, or evade callings, even evade VT and HT, will be judged, targeted, and ganged up on by their own neighbors, friends, and families! People will be "assigned" to you, and granted power and jurisdiction over you! Chaos!

Obviously, Mormons no longer believe in the power of prayer, in love and understanding, patience, free agency, trusting in the Lord, or anything spiritual. It's all about people policing and manipulating each other.

I really feel that these new directives are evil, and money-driven. Love and joy are not even on the page, here.

RESIGN NOW! ITS THE ONLY WAY TO ESCAPE MORMON GOSSIP AND HARASSMENT!

The cult of obedience demands smiles. What's really bizarre is that they want to count the smiles and record them. They even want a record of the responses to the recorded smiles. The rats run round and round the maze, but the cheese moves faster than they can scamper after it.

they had a conversation, and this is what they said.

Readers can now fill it in.

Ewwwww.

That is going to turn more people off. I hate the circle thing and smiling thing.

This sounds like some kind of corporate "team-building" BS activity.

Possibly this will further weed out the lone thinkers and maintain the ones who are looking for a social group. The ones who are there for the social support overlook a LOT of doctrinal problems.

It's funny how they think that forced interactions with YW will create a "friendly" atmosphere. The fake-smiling will just seem creepy to teen girls and probably make them less likely to attend RS.

If young women are escaping the clutches of RS, it could be because they don't have time or patience for things like mind-numbing lessons, enforced visiting teaching, and the incessant focus on husbands, babies, and homemaking -- not to mention they might actually have issues with the cult itself and figure the transition from YW to RS is a good time to make a clean break.

Wow. As soon as the YW figure out that those "smiles" are an ASSIGNMENT for the RS, what do you think their reaction will be? Phony smiles won't cut it, folks. In fact, it almost seems kinda creepy.

The church is all about being phony. Many years ago, I called out members of the Relief Society presidency, saying visiting teaching was phony. I mean, the only reason they came to visit me, usually on the last week of the month, was to check that little box. They didn't actually care about me.
And this new ward council is the same thing. I remember hearing about this ward council thing on exmormon several months ago. I didn't think much of it, till my mom mentioned one day, that in Relief Society they put their chairs together in a circle to have a discussion. I knew right then and there what she was talking about. Their 'ward counci'code for gossip circle.

I had no idea they had to be taught.

"WE ARE DAUGHTERS of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him. WE WILL “STAND as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places” (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:

Faith • Divine Nature • Individual Worth • Knowledge • Choice and Accountability • Good Works • Integrity • and Virtue

WE BELIEVE as we come to accept and act upon these values, WE WILL BE PREPARED to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation."

About 4 or 5 years ago when I was still an active tbm (although had many doubts) they young women would stay after sunday school and relief society would come in and we all would say the Young Women's Theme together. Because many RS sister including myself had forgotten part of the theme RS president wrote it for us on the board so that we could read it.
After we said the Theme they YW were excused to go to their classes.
Interesting we did not need to smile back then but maybe they have added that to it now.

Let us stand and recite our pledge to die for the Church.

subeamnotlogedin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "WE ARE DAUGHTERS of our Heavenly Father, who
> loves us, and we love Him. WE WILL “STAND as
> witnesses of God at all times and in all things,
> and in all places” (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to
> live the Young Women values, which are:
>
> Faith • Divine Nature • Individual Worth •
> Knowledge • Choice and Accountability • Good
> Works • Integrity • and Virtue
>
> WE BELIEVE as we come to accept and act upon these
> values, WE WILL BE PREPARED to strengthen home and
> family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive
> the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the
> blessings of exaltation."

Shouldn't that be ".....enjoy the blessings of "our husband's" exaltation"?

What do Mormon women have to look forward to in heaven? Eternal pregnancy to provide the children for the world her husband-god will rule over. Of course, her children won't be allowed to know or speak her name.

not logged in Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Of
> course, her children won't be allowed to know or
> speak her name.


BOOM! Oh my gawd, you hit that one right between the eyes with a 2x4, nli. You are now my hero. Peace. -edz

Creepy creepy creepy. Oh did I mention creepy. Not to mention so very phony

So glad I am out

If I were a teen, those ladies would represent everything I would want to run from, fast. The Stepford wives mentality, lack of freedom and individuality, are scary.
As a teen, I remember those smiling faces looked like a steel jawed trap, ready to spring if I so much as lightly stepped on the bait. Even today, the thing that makes me avoid them is that I want to march to the beat of my own drummer. I do not want to conform. I can't grow and be happy if I am put in a little box like that.
Of course the girls run away. The church closes off the world, censoring everything, restricting free speech, thought, and exploration.
I find that people want to talk and have close relationships. But they need to feel accepted as they are,no matter what. The girls could be drawn in if they could trust.
But you cannot trust Mormons when they have an ulterior agenda. The girls know they will be called names like "liked cupcake," etc. Why would they ever trust a Relief Society woman?

What does it say in the lesson manual regarding the proper response when confronted with the knowledge that the expressed emotions are 'assigned', not genuine? Will they actually advocate deception?

They are that dumb, you know, when it comes to the perceived superiority of mormonism.

Does it just not cross any TBM's mind as to why tscc is continually telling them stuff like this?? If the TBM's had the "pure love of Christ" to begin with, "making friends" with ANYBODY should be a no-brainer, so why spend time that would probably be better spent worshipping God (or Christ or whomever) trying to get the TBM's to "make nice" with each other?

"[This instruction is coming from SLC] so it MUST be true and inspired!"

Meh...

If the church and the RS was really a "service" organization that was busy serving and helping in the community, and they involved the YW to work with them on projects that benefit the entire community, that would give the YW some incentive to stay involved and even to possibly get to be friends with the RS ladies. Like how you become friends with coworkers over the work you do together.

However, sitting in a classroom, in a tight circle, discussing how to retain YW with "smiles" and not really doing anything else for anybody probably won't cut it. If that's all the YW see they have to grow into with the church, they'll bolt!

When I was a leader in YW YEARS AGO, I wanted to be able to do fun things with the girls. I had been a sports director in my early 20s and the girls and I had SO MUCH FUN. And I'm not even good at sports.

So I always wanted to be in YW. We were not allowed to have fun. We were supposed to make everything about their goals (although we had no goal books at the time as we were between programs--showed me how much they valued the girls).

I arranged a YW/YM activity to go ice skating. I made sure my 23 girls all had ice skates so it wouldn't cost anything. The other teachers didn't do so well, so the activity cost $32. We had more kids turn out for that activity than they had for years. The leaders were angry that it cost $32.

I arranged for my girls to go to the Festival of the Trees. Then the rest of the YW wanted to go, so I made sure we had discount passes for the event. I had to arrange all the rides because none of the other leaders could be bothered to go. The girls I had in my van and I stopped in Ogden to get my kids portraits and the girls had their picture taken with Santa Claus. The next day I got called on the carpet by the YW leader and the bishop for not driving straight home.

I actually did become friends with most of the girls. For years, their mothers and them would tell me how much they missed me. Even when I had been inactive for many years after my ex left, I was asked twice to work in YW again.

The YW leave at RS age BECAUSE THEY ARE OLD ENOUGH to be leaving home and they don't have to go to church.

You can't win friends and influence people by smiling at them in the hall. Teenagers aren't stupid. That is how mormons treat them. They are only shooting themselves in the foot and good for them.

And if you think resigning will make it so you aren't discussed in these councils, you would be wrong. When you resign, you are still a missionary project.

"The YW leave at RS age BECAUSE THEY ARE OLD ENOUGH to be leaving home and they don't have to go to church."

Yep, that's the bottom line. The youth who are leaving have figured out that the church offers them nothing except the opportunity to clean for free and a 10 percent decrease in pay.

how are they going to get them to look up from their phones long enough to smile at them?

Well, I hope you're happy! Kids do live a great deal of their lives on their phones, so...

... You may just be the spark that lights the fire that will be ghawd's very own new app: BeYeTherePerfect(dot)com. Download the app and be guided in righteousness!

I'll leave all the details to the programmers

Hey, I know...have the RS ladies friend them on FB and then give them "likes" with little heart emojis on their posts. Don't the suits know that is the new way to communicate with that age group? Gees, they are SO behind the times. ;)

Here's an idea for RS women wondering how to stop the exodus of young adult women from the church. Make women's involvement in the church more meaningful than smiling all of the time and baking cookies and all that it implies. Of course IF they ever had such an idea they would have to sell it to the men, because they are the only ones with any power at all. Which, circling back, is why the young adult women are leaving.

Per reports of exmos, there was a time that the RS had some power to organize activities, raise funds, and spend the money as they pleased. Pre-correlation, they also decided on their own lessons. If the Mormon church wants to retain its young women, maybe it should make the RS a more interesting organization (once again.)

before and after correlation, you can't make R.S. interesting enough!!!