Other AREA Temple and Family History ADVISERS have asked about working with more missionaries, Temple and Family History Leaders, and Ward members. We have been working in the background towards increasing communications between members with the collective thoughts focusing on the new member. We wanted to share some positive results.
We had a meeting with EACH Mission President and told him we thought that we could help the wards with their retention rate by using a technique that we had used previously for the past three years with a former Mission President. At that time, we contacted all of our Stakes and used a template format, asking them to give us their Family History Department, roster or directory, as it were.
I am sending a sample. It was nothing for their clerk to just pop the info in from his LDS tools, yet a herculean effort should we have tried the task
ourselves, for we do not have access to 8 stakes...only the 9th...ours.
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| familylocket.com is an excellent source for consultants |
Now, with those lists, we created a Convert Tracker for each ward to be put onto a onedrive.com ledge, using a "ward" Gmail which was only to be used as a login email for www.onedrive.com. Any leader in the ward, at any time, can see the progress of the Convert and then counsel with the TFHLeader to see if they could help with the "next step". There are certain steps that have to be done during the teaching process, before baptism, and after baptism, yet before 60 days for optimum chance of that member staying an active member for life; succinctly called "retention". I have attached a sample Ward Tracker.
So we wanted to activate a Ward to be prepared to be ready to accept a convert. Actively, eagerly awaiting....not just sitting back and saying, well, he's 11 - we'll let the Primary do it. Then the Primary saying, "Well, he 11, he is due to go into the YM....we'll let them handle this."
There is possibly nothing more downtrodden and disheartening as a couple of Missionaries who have poured their heart and souls into teaching, befriending, and capturing the spirit of a person in the process of becoming converted....only to hand them proudly to the Ward on Baptism day. What happens? The new person doesn't know who to sit next to, gets shy and ducks out after sacrament. The less he goes, the more awkward going becomes. The missionaries feel him sliding away and there is nothing they can do to intervene.
Enter our new idea. That list of all the people in the stake of family history now gets put into the back pocket of each Missionary couple. When they have someone interested, they ask them if they have ever wondered about their lineage...their family tree? They invite them to come to the Stake center on an evening then after the meeting, pull out that list and pray. Their prayer is, "Father, who would be the most compatible person to befriend the new person in the Ward family History Department?" Borrowing the quote from Gordon B. Hinckley, "Every convert needs “a friend, a responsibility, and nurturing with ‘the good word of God.’”https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/1999/02/every-convert-is-precious?lang=eng
So this presentation we had with the entire mission, which was pretty exciting. As we watched the zoom, we could see them nodding and putting their phones off mute to answer the questions. They really understood that success meant that a committed member would help find names and attend the lessons and get to know the person. On the 3rd visit, the Consultant would go with them all to the temple visitor's center and there, would find out the reason why we "gather the sheaves into the garners". "...And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted. Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listenth to carry them. (Alma 26:5-6)"
The Consultant goes to the Baptism, along with the Mission President, the Missionaries, the Temple and Family History Leader, the Ward Mission Leader, and the advisor of the Young Men, (or the same of the appropriate auxiliary). The Consultant proudly has printed out their combined work into pedigree charts and put them into a binder to give the new person (as the best possible baptism gift ever.....tickets to the Temple!) to see our way of organizing the data go to our Youtube channel and look for "FAMILY HISTORY FROM THE VERY BEGINNING"
After the baptism, the consultant continues to befriend the new person, keeping himself or herself clean to enter into the waters of baptism for proxies. If you have 200-300 names before you even enter the windows of baptism, you've got more than a year of temple trips already planned. Instead of scrambling on day 56 for a group of people, they are already prepared, on day one.
The thing we learned about this presentation was to really listen to the Mission President about how to reach the Missionaries. He mentioned that they were "young", eager and easily distracted. We needed to change it to only hit the most important concepts and add questions to guide them along. It turned out beautifully. Now, after watching that, their assignment from the Mission President was to go look up and talk to the Temple and Family History Leader, get a list of consultants for each ward they represent, then return to the President, who would challenge them to let us, the Stake Consultant and the spirits beyond help them in the process. Now, step two is the 2nd slide deck which mobilizes the ward to be proactive, helpful and considerate in befriending a person.
The whole meeting presented the spirit in such a way, it made me emotional during the end. I hope that they understood the magnitude of my testimony in this work. My husband, without skipping a beat, continued as the true partner in Christ he is. It was just so spiritually rewarding to be able to create that presentation and watch little lightbulbs up on the Zoom video boxes full of elders and sisters, all realizing just what the possibilities were or could be utilizing the "friend" system.
We will see how it turns out. They are getting us the list for the TFHLeaders/consultants, HC over FH for each ward. then we will show them #2 in a zoom.
Let us know what you think of this idea and possibly if you have any ideas of how we can further engage the missionaries and consultants to work together., let me know on your email to naswfamilyhistory@gmail.com.
Ted and Karen Meyer
Multi-Stake Temple and Family History Consultants
Laboring in the Scottsdale Coordinating Council
email: naswfamilyhistory@gmail.com
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Disclaimer: All of our ideas are just that, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but not paid for or commissioned to create on behalf of them. They are just inspired by the Lord through personal revelation. If you take one of our ideas and it springboards into something even more memorable, spectacular or noteworthy, we commend you on your own personal revelation with your heart attuned to the teachings of Jesus Christ for the betterment of others.
