I know it's called ministering now, but what else is different? One of my relatives mentioned her visiting ministering sisters came to visit. Good grief, why all the word salad?

Is there still a lesson or spiritual thought or such given? Do the monthly deadlines still loom to "check the box"? Why was this changed anyway? It's silly.

when my daughter says, "I minister to that lady," as we pass a house.

My response,

O’ so you’re on the same cycle?

What?

Your menstrual cycle!?

No! Mom!!

Minister!!!!

Oops, my bad.

It's essentially the same thing as VT/HT, just called something different. There isn't a message from the Ensign that is supposed to be given. It's less formal. Dropping off cookies or bumping into those who you minister to in the grocery store "counts." I believe there are quarterly interviews to check up on ministering partners which also provides an opportunity to express any concerns (gossip) about a member to church leadership. In a nutshell, it's supposed to feel more like regular friendship, but it probably doesn't because it's still assigned.

It’s forced socialization. It will always feel fake because it is.

Since the official change in April 2018, my Mom says that she has had two visits. Nobody comes by (she has complained to ph leaders that she would like phone calls once in awhile) and nobody calls her either. Right now she has no idea who her "minister" is.

Oh I think they will go back to the more regimented way of doing things. The members actually like it that way. All my relatives are confused about ministering. It’s too vague. Mormons like detailed tasks they can check a box on. Mormons are not great at thinking for themselves. They take orders well.

The name changed and there is no monthly statistics recorded. There are interviews with the Elders Quorum presidency and Relief Society presidency where you are asked about how the ministering is going. There is no lesson either. So basically it’s more flexible and serves the same purpose of using the members to spy on each other and inform the church of what they see. It’s not ministering. It’s meddling.

My experience (for what it’s worth):

During my many years of being an active, involved TBM, I averaged about three HT visits a year (a couple of times, I had a home teacher who was enthusiastic enough to visit every month for a while, but often I wouldn’t see one for a year or more).

Once I quit attending (and it was obvious that I wasn’t coming back) I usually got one visit a year-usually during the holidays.

Since they started “ministering” I haven’t had a single visit.

Different names, no monthly visit requirement, solving two problems. The monthly stats were so poor, they simply stopped collecting the monthly visit stat. And the monthly ward traffic jams on the last Sunday afternoon of the month were distracting.

Ministering, visiting-ministering-sisters, menstruating, meddling,

I know three Mormon widows in the same ward, who were complaining to me that the VT's and HT's had been their only social and personal contact they ever had with any ward members. They aren't able to attend all the meetings, they aren't a "couple" anymore, they aren't "fun" and active, like they used to be. They are very sad about this change.

I said, "It seems like you have been "ministering" to each other, all along, the three of you, as friends. Real friendships like yours are permanent, and don't change on re-assignments. If any of you needs help, you all know who to call."

Mormons need instructions on "how to be a friend," instead of having to check boxes and make reports and give useless Ensign messages. My VT's used to drop in, usually unannounced, and they both would do all the talking--talk my head off with gossip about people I didn't know, read the silly Ensign VT message, talk about something that happened in their lives in relation to the VT message, beat their testimonies at me, etc. Sometimes one would bring a toddler or a child that was sick and missing school. They did not even ask how my children and I were doing--was that what they were supposed to do? Maybe they saw I was dressed and standing up and talking and the house was neat.

I got out of doing VT, because I worked during the day, and didn't want to leave my kids alone at night.

Is it true that the VT's are instructed to spy on people? The HT's used to go into my kitchen, to use my phone, before the days of cell phones, and they would look around. A few times they asked to use the bathroom, which I though was weird, since they lived only a few houses away. One time, I did get suspicious, and when one of the men went into the bathroom, I excused myself, and went into a room with an adjacent wall, and I heard the HT opening and closing drawers and the medicine cabinet. What was he looking for? I was a decent citizen, and active with my church callings, and my children were good kids. What was that guy thinking he would find?

Is that why they would always drop in unannounced? I think that's why!

They wanted to ambush the single divorced working woman, and catch her drinking booze in her bathrobe, to find a coffee pot in the kitchen, to find pornography spread out on the kitchen table, to find my little kids smoking pot, drugs in the medicine cabinet, birth control in the bathroom drawers? We never did any of those things, by the way, except for one. I drank my coffee at the office.

I'm glad they stopped these mandatory home-invasions.

We informed the bishop that we would not participate in the HT/VT programs. Our reasons were the same as yours, but we didn't offer any explanation. He was stunned, but after an apparently uncomfortable pause he consented.

And by the way, you are right to term the visits "mandatory home-invasions." The HT program originated in the Mormon Reformation and was intended precisely to ensure all Mormons were on board and ready to do anything the church demanded in the face of pressure from Washington.

Pity about that Mountain Meadows thing. . .