Strengthening Marriage: What To Do When Marriages Struggle

The Work of Salvation in Your Wards - Weekly Report By Email

By J. Weston Lunsford - Stake High Council, Missionary Committee (Zone Leader)

As most of you may already know, last Sunday in our Stake Missionary Correlation Meeting, we had a great discussion regarding the work of salvation in the stake.  We are so grateful for your faithful service in leading this work in your wards.  We can see that the Lord is hastening His work and trusting each of you to invite as more and more individuals are returning and making covenants with the Lord.  Thank you!  We pray that this spirit of missionary work you personally have will spread to the members of your ward and throughout the stake.  You are doing an amazing work with the Lord.  Please keep up the hard and rewarding ministry.  

Ward Mission Plan - Introduce

Ward Council Training

WARD COUNCIL TRAINING

Date: September 2013

RE: Pleasant Grove Manila Stake Ward Council

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

By assignment from Elder Craig B. Terry and under the direction of the Presidency of the Seventy, we have been asked to train each ward council in our stake in the principles of effective councils.

As a presidency we have felt guided in our preparations for this training, and are looking forward to the privilege of spending time in council with each of you. Each ward in our stake is led by wonderful bishops who devote untold hours as shepherds to their flock. One of the most important purposes of a ward council is to invite group revelation, leading to a sharing of the load carried by your bishop.

A member of the stake presidency, high council and stake council will be joining your ward council on September 15 at 8:30 a.m. for this training.  Prior to this date, we invite you to prayerfully ponder the teachings of prophets regarding the power and purpose of councils. The resources below are provided for this purpose. We urge you to take advantage of these inspired words and presentations. They will provide essential preparation for our training.

We love each of you. We feel the love our Father in Heaven and our Savior, Jesus Christ, has for each of you. We are grateful for your devoted efforts in furthering the work of salvation.

Sincerely,

Pleasant Grove Manila Stake Presidency

2014 PG UT Manila Stake Mission Plan

Our Vision: We will achieve real growth in the Pleasant Grove Utah Manila Stake by inviting all to come unto Christ through conversion, retention, and activation.

Our Goals: The Lord requires our faith to assist Him in hastening the work of salvation.  Therefore, we bind ourselves as stake and ward leaders to do the following as we exercise our faith in Jesus Christ.

Ward Boundary Audit

Sometimes it may seem that there is no missionary work to do in your ward, but there always is, as long as you can identify it. The following method has proved to be successful:

• assign a portion of the houses in the ward to each member of the ward council
• go to every home in the ward and find out who lives there (you may already think you know who lives there, but things change, and someone may be renting their basement unnoticed. Be thorough with this search)
• identify:
  • non-members
  • less-active members
  • members without their records in the ward
  • anyone else who could benefit from being taught by missionaries
• make sure to report on your findings and coordinate your work

This will help the Bishop identify:

• men who haven't received the priesthood (or need to be advanced in the priesthood)
• un-endowed members
• those who could be sealed
• those with expired temple recommends
• those without a patriarchal blessing

Once you have a list of those who you could potentially work with, prayerfully select those that you feel inspired to begin working with, and act.

note: These audits should occur every six months

How to contact

When looking for the people above, it is important not to be probing or intrusive. There are ways to find out who is in your ward without offending. Here are some ideas, but, as always, go by the spirit:

• talk with active ward members who live nearby to find out who may be there
• be neighborly and friendly. Have a genuine interest in those who live there and fellowship them
• in preparation for an emergency, ask everyone to share how many children, elderly, and those who require daily life-saving medicines live in each home

Ward Council - Training

Ward Council, See Yourself in the Work - A Resource for Hastening the Work of Salvation

• Read this PDF here: https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/english/wwlt/hasten/hastening-the-work-ward-council-eng.pdf?lang=eng

New Member Retention Efforts

The following ideas should be thought about and executed soon after your ward receives a recent convert or newly reactivated member

• baptisms for the dead
• speak in sacrament meeting
• receive priesthood
• patriarchal blessing
• receive a calling
• be assigned home/visiting teaching companion
• be assigned a home/visiting teacher
• family history
• get them attending Gospel Principals class
• teach New Member lessons. Focus on having members teach the lessons more after baptism (slowly switching from missionaries teaching to members teaching as lessons go forward)

Here is a form that can help you keep track of a recent converts progress: https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/english/wwlt/hasten/PD50020824-member-progress-form-eng.pdf?lang=eng

Progress Record

The progress record is an online way to see the progress of those we work with. It is also very helpful for coordination because the missionaries can add notes into the "help needed" section.

Everyone on the ward council should look over the progress record at least weekly. Doing this will help the ward council know who is being worked with and make sure the full-time missionaries haven't forgotten to make a return appointment with anyone.

This also allows all members of the council to bring inspired input to ward council meetings.

How to get there:

• go to https://www.lds.org/mls/mbr/missionary/progress-record?lang=eng
• sign in with your LDS account
• find the "other" button
• click "progress record"
• you may also want to click the X on the 2 week filter so you can see who we've worked with in a longer time period