But changes were made. These changes are a blessing! One of the changes was the assigning of ministering sisters and companionship.
Who would like to agree with me? Unlike before, instructions were rigid and more prescription. Now, it is more on relying on the inspiration from the Holy Spirit rather than on the instructions.
There were times that I did not do anything when visiting was changed to ministering. I felt frustrated. With all the struggles that I heard with sisters, I wonder if these changes could also change them. But I chose to continue to inspire my sisters because I want to be happy.
There is hope for the "new and holier approach" of ministering. I prayed with guidance and inspiration on making ministering assignments. I hoped and prayed that I will be able to assign the right sister for them by inspiration and that they will accept it with the willingness to do ministering.
How Did We Make Ministering Assignments?
Step 1: Secure a list of Relief Society members.
Ask for a print-out of your ward's Relief Society members from your ward clerk.
Or you may sign-in to your account at www.churchofjesuschrist.org.
Navigate through the following procedure once signed in:
Choose "Leader and Clerk Resources".
Next, "Organization". Choose "Relief Society".
Click "Member" where you can see all the sisters in Relief Society.
Then, "Print".
Step 2: Make an order agreed with your presidency. This is important.
With my presidency, and considering the number of sisters that we have, we agreed that each sister will be assigned with two sisters only. One active or less active sister and one inactive sister.
This way, we can feel it is more achievable than assigning too many sisters on their list.
We also have agreed that their assignments will be good for three months and we will reshuffle the assignments. After a quarter, we realized that most of the sisters were not able to minister. There was no chance that they become friends or know each other. So, we decided not to change the assignment by next year.
We will have to meet and plan again what is best to do. If it is necessary to change the assignment and for how long.
Make an agreement with your presidency and hear each other's ideas. This is better discussed during your Relief Society Presidency Meeting.
Step 3: Identify the active, less active, and inactive members.
I need to identify who was active and less active members because they are those, I presume, who can do ministering. Count the numbers.
I assigned inactive members to have ministered by active and less active members. Count the numbers.
I made a color-coding for these types of members for easy identification for the next step. I leave it up to you for the color-coding.
In our ward, we have 209 Relief Society sisters. I don't expect that all of these members will be assigned and will have ministered because some of them were not located.
Step 4: Start assigning.
Pray for inspiration to guide you in assigning sisters to have ministered.
Step 5: Write down in order, and check for duplication.
It is time to make sure that there is no duplication. I used a color marker to check names one by one.
If you want to use Microsoft Excel, it is easy to check for duplication by sorting out.
Step 6: Sign-in at www.churchofjesuschrist.org. to report these assignments.
This is important because the Bishop will check these assignments and it will be easy for him to see it online.
Also, this is where we make our quarterly report. Putting it early would be helpful later on.
Step 7: Make a ministering invitation.
The best way to invite sisters in their assignments is to give a ministering invitation card. It is okay to forget things and invitations card are reminders for us.
You can check on my ministering invitation card HERE.
How Did We Make Companionship Assignments?
My answer to this is, we did not make companionship assignments. Yes! You are right.
Why? Simple because our inspiration is to not make companionship.
Instead, each sister with a ministering assignment is the one to choose for her companion.
With the recent changes, we learned that companion can be:
- Ministering Sister with sister
- Ministering Sister with her husband
- Ministering Sister with young women
We, as ministering sisters, can choose our companion with flexibility. We just have to be sensitive with the promptings and inspirations of whom want to be the partner with. Also, we can choose whose companion we want to invite with us for a certain sister you need to minister to.
Anyway, I feel the important part of ministering is not on who is our companion during the visit. What is more important is who are we going to minister. Did we become part of someone's life and caring about her?
How Would We Able to Know their Companion?
We will know it during the ministering interview and we can record her companions by then. We would be able to know their spiritual experiences with different companions.
We then report that online.
Reporting online is based on the interview you did and not on how many sisters were ministered. I think it makes sense.
The inspiration that I received
When I was doing step no. 3, I received a comforting feeling that if each assigned sisters will minister their assigned sister, there will be many lives that will be blessed.
A sister who needs someone to talk to will find a friend.
A sister who has struggled with family problems, with husband, with a feeling of loneliness, with abuse, and other many challenges that each of us is facing, will find comfort.
It is my hope that when we think less of our own challenges or ourselves, we can better respond to other's needs. We can be a part of someone's life who cares!
May this post help you prepare your ministering assignments and companionship. Please comment below if you have questions and suggestions. I would be excited to hear from you! Thank you!
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