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August 4th Sunday: Ministering to others

For our fourth Sunday lesson on ministering this month, we had the opportunity to hear from our ward Young Women president. The recent change from visiting teaching to ministering affects not only Relief Society sisters who had been visiting teachers but also Young Women aged 14 years and older, who now have the opportunity to serve as ministering sisters alongside the adult women in the ward. What a wonderful way to be able to learn from each other and help each other grow as individuals and as part of a ward family! In our discussion today, we talked briefly about what ministering is and why we're asked to do it, but our main focus was how to involve the Young Women in our ministering efforts. Below are some of the thoughts that were shared during class; please share any other thoughts or ideas you have in the comments below or contact Kelley Seebeck or Emily Leatham if you want to be more involved with the Young Women!

  • What is ministering?
    • A more flexible way to care for each other than visiting teaching was, which makes it more possible to focus on and meet individual needs.
    • A way to know that you're known, which can be very important in such a transient ward. Ministering involves getting to know people and developing relationships, providing a buddy system to support each other and a sense of accountability.
  • Why are we asked to minister?
    • It helps us become holier. To be a good minister, we need to be in tune with the Spirit to learn the needs of individual sisters and receive guidance on how to best meet those needs; we need to pray often for the sisters we are asked to minister to. We also still have a responsibility to care for the spiritual well-being of each sister and share the gospel with them.
    • Ministering builds unity. As we interact more with each other and get to know more about each other, we develop friendships, a stronger support system, and a sense of belonging to a sisterhood. Ministering allows us to move beyond a temporary assignment to something more lasting.
  • How do we involve the Young Women?
    • We can provide guidance and wisdom gained from experience about how to continue growing and developing as people and how to navigate the often difficult and awkward teenage phase of life.
    • Interactions with Relief Society sisters can provide the Young Women with more examples of righteous women and additional mother figures in their lives.
    • We can help Young Women feel more comfortable with ministering by giving them assignments with sisters they are already familiar with. We can also try to get to know them better so they are more familiar with Relief Society and don't feel alone or like a stranger.
      • We can invite the Young Women to Relief Society activities or have specific mother/daughter activities.
      • We can meet and become friends with their mothers.
      • We can invite Young Women to babysit and get to know more families.
      • We can get to know more about the Young Women and find common interests.
    • Most of our current Young Women are inactive. Fun activities could be planned that they would enjoy attending and that would allow them to meet other people. The activities could be planned regularly and farther in advance so the Young Women have something to look forward to. Additionally, learning more about each Young Woman and her interests and family life will allow activities to be planned that will be of interest and that won't conflict with family schedules.
    • Relief Society sisters could sometimes attend Young Women activities, perhaps by hosting an event or sharing a hobby or talent or teaching the Young Women a new skill.

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