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Posted by: lazylizard ( )
Date: April 01, 2018 04:30PM

Instead it's "ministering." I wonder if it has to do with the chutch numbers shrinking?

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Posted by: BYU Boner ( )
Date: April 01, 2018 04:33PM

I just heard Mrs. Boner excitedly tell the kids. Wow, isn’t it great to be led by a living prophet! What’s next, letting men and women sit next to each other in the temple?

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Posted by: Lethbridge Reprobate ( )
Date: April 01, 2018 07:42PM

About 40 years to late for me. Wish I could unremember that torture in endured as a HT.

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Posted by: Badassadam1 ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 10:45PM

Lethbridge Reprobate Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> About 40 years to late for me. Wish I could
> unremember that torture in endured as a HT.

Torture is a light word for it.

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Posted by: Anonymous 2 ( )
Date: April 01, 2018 04:36PM

Hooray! Maybe my TBM dad will spend more time with his family at home! My sister, my BIL, my 7 month old nephew, 2 year old nice and me!! And our furbaby POncho as well!!

When he went Hometeaching he'd be gone for hours on Sunday..

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Posted by: abby ( )
Date: April 01, 2018 04:52PM

My experience was most men didn't do their assignments. I had one HT in over 10 years at my current residence. He was actually a good guy who actually would do anything to help out. The women seemed to do slightly better. I told the VT's to stop coming. Every time new ones are assigned, the cycle continues.

I DO NOT like this idea of ministering.

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Posted by: Mother Who Knows ( )
Date: April 01, 2018 05:04PM

What is "ministering"?

That sounds far more menacing than "home teaching."

We know that the Mormons like to change the names of things. Maybe only the name has been changed, but I can't believe the Morg will ever stop spying on its members and escapee-members.

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Posted by: presleynfactsrock ( )
Date: April 01, 2018 07:14PM

I must admit I am surprised to see the cult cut HT and VT.

Is this a reaction to members not getting the visits done, or complaints of time restraint from a survey or ????. Seems like there are tons of cuts that would make more sense to come before this one.

Cuts like 2 hour-Sunday-Block, hire real janitors, and 3/4's of the meetings that are called.

Just saying.....

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Posted by: Amyjo ( )
Date: April 01, 2018 07:37PM

Isn't it hard enough finding willing volunteers to clean toilets each week/month?

LOLOL.

Priorities matter. ;-)

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Posted by: dagny ( )
Date: April 01, 2018 07:41PM

I hope it isn't like the "ministering" I see around here in Alabama.

From what I can tell, when they say ministering, they mean spreading the "Word" or witnessing to anyone unfortunate enough to be in their space.

It will be interesting to see what exactly this word means in practice for Mormons.

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Posted by: Elyse ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 12:53AM

Seems they finally realized the HT/VT is a waste of time, and they probably did not have enough people willing to do it either.

So they are watering it down for now and eventually it will be phased out altogether.

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Posted by: Pooped ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 01:32AM

My mom's "assigned" friend will be so glad to hear this news. She volunteered to be my mom's VT because she could go do her job cleaning and driving for people (getting paid) at the retirement center where my mom lives and then drop in to see mom as if that was her only reason for being there. Since the people who hired Mom's VT have since died, she no longer has a primary reason to go. I noticed the visits, or visiting teaching, had dropped off considerably. Her "devoted" home teachers made one visit and never came back. I think Mom's devoted friend will never be seen again. Funny how fragile friendships are among Mormons. I also doubt anyone from LDS, Inc. will bother to tell Mom that VTing and HTing have been done away with.

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Posted by: lazylizard ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 01:25AM

Pooped Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My mom's "assigned" friend will be so glad to hear
> this news. She volunteered to be my mom's VT
> because she could go do her job cleaning and
> driving for people (getting paid) at the
> retirement center where my mom lives and then drop
> in to see mom as if that was her only reason for
> being there. Since the people who hired Mom's VT
> have since died, she no longer has a primary
> reason to go. I noticed the visits, or visiting
> teaching, had dropped off considerably. Her
> "devoted" home teachers made one visit and never
> came back. I think Mom's devoted friend will never
> be seen again. Funny how fragile friendships are
> among Mormons. I also doubt anyone from LDS, Inc.
> will bother to tell Mom that VTing and HTing have
> been done away with.

Interestingly, my wards never gave a single holy poop about me. They all figured I was a good devoted mormon due to the amazing charade I put on from 13-18. I ended up leaving completely and only had three vists from my single VTs during all that time.

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Posted by: Badassadam1 ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 03:24AM

Hated home teaching. Everything they did was to mind-f#ck you and suppress you and make you feel like a spy.

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Posted by: Badassadam1 ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 03:27AM

The badass has been a big time lazy lizard today by the way and i will not apologize for it haha.

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Posted by: lazylizard ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 01:23AM

Badassadam1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The badass has been a big time lazy lizard today
> by the way and i will not apologize for it haha.

Yaas Adam. Being lazy can be a good thing.

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Posted by: Badassadam1 ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 10:54PM

lazylizard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Badassadam1 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The badass has been a big time lazy lizard
> today
> > by the way and i will not apologize for it
> haha.
>
> Yaas Adam. Being lazy can be a good thing.

I like myself more when i am more chill and like a lazy lizard sitting on a rock in the sun haha. Can't be a pissed off badass all the time though like i was today. Finding a new place has been stressful as f#ck.

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Posted by: oneinbillions ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 03:37AM

I'm worried that now we'll get bothered again. For the past year or so my parents' Home and Visiting Teachers learned not to bother; the parentals are still believers but inactive and uninterested in being bothered by people.

With this restructuring into "ministering" we'll probably get assigned some people who don't know not to come by... I don't look forward to answering the door again and insisting that we're not interested.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2018 03:38AM by oneinbillions.

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Posted by: Southern ExMo ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 03:45AM

This is just a fancy way of covering up the fact that almost nobody does Home Teaching or Visiting Teaching.

Notice -- no more reporting monthly stats?

Why not?

Maybe because all those big, fat ZEROes looked so bad?


And as for the word "ministering," that is the word that the real Christians use when they service others. We all know that TSCC wants to be accepted more by outsiders. This is just another move to make it APPEAR to be more "christian."


All window dressing, my friends...

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Posted by: kilgravmaga ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 04:42AM

I am confused. So, does this mean no more people coming to your house once a month during the last few days of the month? Or is it the same thing as before just renamed "ministering"?

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Posted by: summer ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 05:49AM

Members will still be assigned people, but they can meet up with them anywhere -- their homes, church, a café, etc. The implication is that any sort of contact will count as well (call, text, email, etc.) Members will be interviewed quarterly by the EQP or the RSP to gauge compliance and compile data. I believe that ministering can also be done by married couples.

My take -- the HT/VT program was badly outdated, so this is an effort to modernize, and to acknowledge that the HT/VT wasn't working very well in terms of numbers. It also is a nod to the global church where members may not be able to easily visit with each other in their homes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2018 05:50AM by summer.

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Posted by: DARLA ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 12:17AM

the way i understood it was that pretty much we will still have the same ht and vt we have now but they don't have to do much unless they see a need and since they don't have to have much contact they will never know if there is a need. it will sort of separate the wheat from the tares. if a ht or vt is good and really cares they will keep in contact. if they are among the tares they will disappear. the only reporting will be at ward council from the higher ups if they know of any needs to report. this is just the way i took it. i am inactive so it won't matter to me. i spent way too many decades doing the spy activity and being used by the so called needy.

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Posted by: readwrite-LO ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 11:32AM

They couldn't spell Monitoring so they use (Mistering)/ MinisteRING instead.

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Posted by: MexMom ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 02:34PM

Good one readwrite-LO! : )

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Posted by: elderolddog ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 05:49PM

If I was a newly minted mormon minister, I'd text my stats in every quarter and everyone would be happy happy happy because they'd be good stats, quality stats!

And any questions that might come as follow up, I'd just reply, "read the stats!"

And thus there would be no more HT or VT!!!

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Posted by: nomoremon ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 10:04PM

It sounded to me that it is just a name change but with a few adjustments. I should point out that this is just moving farther in the direction they were already headed in with the changes in home teaching. They were already starting to count more things as home teaching, and they were already getting rid of the first presidency message before this announcement.

They are making visiting teaching more like home teaching in thathe the young woman will also be called to "minister" with their mom. For the men it will be more like visiting teaching in how it actually gets done. For example, now a letter or a plate of cookies will count.

Couples without children might also be "ministering" companions. The other change they made was combine the elders and high priests into one elders qurom. Like how the relief society is one group and not two.

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Posted by: Free Man ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 10:36PM

Three time EQP here. I finally concluded Home Teaching was BS.

You go give a message to a guy who gave the message to his families.

I was in Utah while in the Air Force and had trouble getting my elders to home teach, though I found they could make time for ward picnics.

In the interest of stats, Stake pres told me I had to visit any family missed by the HTers. So I spent most nights away from my young family.

He invited EQPs individually to come to his office and offer ideas to improve the stats. I suggested setting aside a week for HTing, as I'd noticed the elders found time for other ward activities. After repeatedly explaining, he yelled, "We're not going to have a DAMN week for HTing!"

There ended my enthusiasm. Two weeks later my counselor said in a Sandy, UT stake, they were creating a "gospel essentials" week for HTing, etc.

Anyway, it is all a joke. Mandatory friends.

Use the third hour at church for a social and visit with the actives and forget home teaching them.

Spend your visits on the needy.

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Posted by: Pathfinder. not logged in ( )
Date: April 02, 2018 11:49PM

https://www.lds.org/church/news/first-presidency-announces-restructuring-of-melchizedek-priesthood-quorums?lang=eng

it's really about combining the two into one effort of stalking, snooping and better control of the members.

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Posted by: spiritist ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 12:06AM

According to my TBM relatives, they are taking this as no more ht, vt, or 'ministering' by non leaders even though assigned families.

Sure they may see them in the neighborhood or at church and say hi, how are you doing ---- but no reporting is no need to do visiting.

They are TBMs, tithe payers, but really shun any major callings even though one spends 4-8 hours each week at the family history center.

Their kids have noticed how they 'avoid' callings and challenged their 'sincerity', they get pissed at their kids ------ I only laugh inside. What a joke, pay but refuse to do anything but what they want to do.

I can't see how they can rationalize they are 'TBMs' but I don't really care. They seem to truly believe they are doing all they 'need' to do and will be in the CK!!

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Posted by: darla ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 12:08AM

Ya think? YES!!!

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Posted by: moremany ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 12:26AM


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Posted by: blind mule ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 12:18PM

Meh, its just rebranding. Instead of reporting every 30 days, you report it every 90 days. and I bet the EQP will have to put a gun to most companionships head to "get their numbers" This means that you will get a visit at the end of the quarter instead of the end of the month.

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Posted by: David A ( )
Date: April 03, 2018 01:32PM

Someone reported a few weeks ago that the First Presidency Message in the Ensign would be discontinued. Looking back, that was a clue leading to this announcement.

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Posted by: OK? ( )
Date: April 07, 2018 04:48PM

I am again confused does this mean that instead of my HT never coming (in almost 50 years as a Mormon I have had a total of ZERO HT visits) that I will now get zero ministering visits? I thought that the job of the Bishop was to shepherd the welfare of all members of the Ward. When was the purpose of this calling changed? So it seems that as an adult member I have no one on earth to go to for advice, or for strength and support during just plain hard times or what about an actual crises in my life. It feels that the Church has officially cut off my limb. Does this mean that besides my de facto not mattering I now officially don't matter. I seem to learn very disturbing things about my seemingly tenuous (this is the Church's devision not mine)relationship with the Church. For indtance, despite my being very open about some of the symptoms of my mental health disease (these symptoms are not voluntary they are compulsions dictated by the disease) the Bishop talks of them as if they are choices. The one in mind is varying degrees of anger. My onetime HT/HPGL has, a number of times decided that the anger is about to display itself (isn't that judging?) and cuts me off. The Bishop says that is one brother correcting another. (I tried to explain to this Brother what was going on in my head as a courtesy to my Priesthood leader, his response was that he didn't want to hear it) I see this as self imposed ignorance and his attacking my disability. So this guy attacks me and my disabilities and the Bishop sees it as being well and good. I went to this guy for a blessing to maybe be healed of some or all of my disabilities. He told me that it was not a possibility because every bad thing in my life is the result of something that I have done. I thought that we believe in the power of the Priesthood being able to heal anything. This bothered me so much that I called SLC and talked to someone in the Priesthood department. I was told not only was this not Church doctrine but that the Brother had never heard of it before. Isn't this the definition of heresy? I talked to the Bishop. This heretic is now the Ward Clerk. I guess that if you are the right kind.of Mormon you can teach any old heresy with no repercussions. I have been told by the Bishop that this Brother has problems with things that I have said. The Bishop did not cite any heretical teachings that I have said.Confused, confused, confused.

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