Stake Humanitarian Day
Thank you to the sisters who attended Stake Humanitarian Day. Many wonderful projects were in progress, as you can see in the pictures. Thank you to Judy Watt for her photography.
Visiting Teaching Changes!
Contributed by Sister Wendy Rawlings, Gig Harbor Stake Relief Society President:
Visiting Teaching Changes!!!! The reporting process for visiting teaching has changed. Instead of reporting HOW you visit taught your sisters, you'll be reporting how your sisters are doing: what they are up to, any needs they have, any service you gave. You report any type of contact you've had with your sisters. Any type. It doesn't mean you've given them the Relief Society message. It could mean a phone call, or service, or a ride to the doctor, or watching her children. It could even mean talking to her at the gym. We don't want to get sloppy about not going on visits and giving the Relief Society message, but if you haven't visited your sisters but know how they are doing because you've had other contacts with them, these contacts serve to let your Relief Society President and the bishop know how your sisters are doing. We're counting the caring instead of measuring your visiting teaching behaviors like phone call, face-to-face visits, letter writing, etc. If you have any questions, about how to report your visiting teaching, please ask your Relief Society President.
Sister Beck trained Relief Society leaders in this new way of reporting in April. Here's what she said:
"What we’re hoping is for the kind of watchcare described in Daughters in my Kingdom. Quarterly reports will change. What is coming up is, instead of how the sister has been contacted, you will just check whether she has been contacted.
"That makes a difference because what the bishop is interested in is whether or not you can report on every sister in the ward. It gives him very little help when a RS President says, “Well, we mailed five letters, and we did 50 phone calls, and 25 face to face visits.” What does that tell a bishop? Nothing of substance. What he needs to know is about 100% of the people in his ward. That’s your responsibility to find out how to give a report. Maybe a report is we couldn’t find 10 people, but at least it’s a report about people and not a behavior that you’re engaged in. So you’ll just put a check mark by the name of everybody you can give the bishop a report about. That’s changing right at the end of March and you’ll see that change immediately.
"That will affect how you report but it will also be a better help to your bishop because you’ll be able to say, “these 50 sisters are fine, we don’t need to worry about them; these 25 had some needs and we took care of them; and these 5 you need to know about.” Maybe there are a few we can’t find and we need the Ward Council involved helping other people but prepare a report that’s useful for your bishop. I don’t understand why we couldn’t have 100% report in every ward when we’re thinking in those terms. We might not get into 100% of the homes and give a message to 100% of the sisters, but we’re giving the bishop a report about all of the sisters in our ward and the status of what’s happening to them now and that’s what’s helpful to the bishop, so look for that change."
Sisters, we appreciate your service to one another. There's no way a Relief Society President or even her whole presidency could do the good that one set of dedicated visiting teachers can do when they serve and love the sisters on their route. Imagine MANY companionships of dedicated, in tune, visiting teachers blanketing the ward with charity, service, and watchcare. You can see how that ward would soon become Zion, can't you? Please be those kinds of visiting teachers. Thanks!
Visiting Teaching Changes!!!! The reporting process for visiting teaching has changed. Instead of reporting HOW you visit taught your sisters, you'll be reporting how your sisters are doing: what they are up to, any needs they have, any service you gave. You report any type of contact you've had with your sisters. Any type. It doesn't mean you've given them the Relief Society message. It could mean a phone call, or service, or a ride to the doctor, or watching her children. It could even mean talking to her at the gym. We don't want to get sloppy about not going on visits and giving the Relief Society message, but if you haven't visited your sisters but know how they are doing because you've had other contacts with them, these contacts serve to let your Relief Society President and the bishop know how your sisters are doing. We're counting the caring instead of measuring your visiting teaching behaviors like phone call, face-to-face visits, letter writing, etc. If you have any questions, about how to report your visiting teaching, please ask your Relief Society President.
Sister Beck trained Relief Society leaders in this new way of reporting in April. Here's what she said:
"What we’re hoping is for the kind of watchcare described in Daughters in my Kingdom. Quarterly reports will change. What is coming up is, instead of how the sister has been contacted, you will just check whether she has been contacted.
"That makes a difference because what the bishop is interested in is whether or not you can report on every sister in the ward. It gives him very little help when a RS President says, “Well, we mailed five letters, and we did 50 phone calls, and 25 face to face visits.” What does that tell a bishop? Nothing of substance. What he needs to know is about 100% of the people in his ward. That’s your responsibility to find out how to give a report. Maybe a report is we couldn’t find 10 people, but at least it’s a report about people and not a behavior that you’re engaged in. So you’ll just put a check mark by the name of everybody you can give the bishop a report about. That’s changing right at the end of March and you’ll see that change immediately.
"That will affect how you report but it will also be a better help to your bishop because you’ll be able to say, “these 50 sisters are fine, we don’t need to worry about them; these 25 had some needs and we took care of them; and these 5 you need to know about.” Maybe there are a few we can’t find and we need the Ward Council involved helping other people but prepare a report that’s useful for your bishop. I don’t understand why we couldn’t have 100% report in every ward when we’re thinking in those terms. We might not get into 100% of the homes and give a message to 100% of the sisters, but we’re giving the bishop a report about all of the sisters in our ward and the status of what’s happening to them now and that’s what’s helpful to the bishop, so look for that change."
Sisters, we appreciate your service to one another. There's no way a Relief Society President or even her whole presidency could do the good that one set of dedicated visiting teachers can do when they serve and love the sisters on their route. Imagine MANY companionships of dedicated, in tune, visiting teachers blanketing the ward with charity, service, and watchcare. You can see how that ward would soon become Zion, can't you? Please be those kinds of visiting teachers. Thanks!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)