Who's my home teacher? Where's my home teaching assignment?

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
davesudweeks
Senior Member
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 9:16 pm
Location: Washington, USA

Re: Who's my home teacher? Where's my home teaching assignm

#11

Post by davesudweeks »

JohnShaw wrote: But seriously, if you are... ...being visited you know who they are - or a quick call to the EQP will tell you which might be a good phone call for the EQP or HPGL or RSP to receive?
With very much respect, I beg to differ. I have experience with families who "claim" they have "never" had a Home Teaching Visit when I knew for a fact that their HT made regular visits. Some people just either have short memories or don't recognizing Home Teaching as such.

That said, I am also one who prefers the "personal" assigment change rather than an e-mail that the recipient may or may not get. Many of our members don't have e-mail and many others don't check it regularly - hence the automated method will break down just as quickly as any other way. In today's world, we are moving to less and less personal interaction and I believe that more personal interaction is vital to success of HT/VT.
drepouille
Senior Member
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Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:06 pm
Location: Plattsmouth, NE

Re: Who's my home teacher? Where's my home teaching assignm

#12

Post by drepouille »

IMHO, HT/VT routes should be assigned in person in a PPI. Visits should be reported in a PPI, not an e-mail. If quorum leaders see from visit reports that certain families have been consistently missed, perhaps they could follow up.

Disclaimer: I have never been an EQP or a HPGL. I have seen newly-called quorum leaders start with PPIs with all their members, but quickly taper off to zero.
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
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johnshaw
Senior Member
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Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:55 pm
Location: Syracuse, UT

Re: Who's my home teacher? Where's my home teaching assignm

#13

Post by johnshaw »

davesudweeks wrote:With very much respect, I beg to differ. I have experience with families who "claim" they have "never" had a Home Teaching Visit when I knew for a fact that their HT made regular visits. Some people just either have short memories or don't recognizing Home Teaching as such.
And there are just as many who report home teaching that don't actually visit either. This serves to prove my point. A larger issue exists if there is ambiguity around this process. Automated email or phone call or hallway conversations all lead to a similar issue. Other than a new or returning member, there just is no excuse to claim ignorance that HT/VT is a program of the church or that someone doesn't have a good understanding of what HT/VT are.... right...
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”
― Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Gary_Miller
Senior Member
Posts: 1222
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:42 am
Location: Emmett, Idaho

Re:

#14

Post by Gary_Miller »

zulugrid wrote:I understand your concern, but the spirit of the program isn't being fulfilled at all if the members don't know who they should be home teaching or who their home teachers are.
The spirit of the program is for leaders to interact with members. Its the leaders responsibility to provide this information to those who need it. Automating the process takes the personal interaction out of shepherding the flock.
zulugrid wrote:In my experience, it is very common for members that don't attend EQ meetings (YM leaders, primary teachers, etc) to have no idea what their route is.
If this is the case there is a much bigger problem in the unit. Its called out of sight out of mind, which should never be accruing. MLS provide an easy print out that leader can give to members which identify who they are responsible for when it comes to HT/VT visits.
zulugrid wrote:Automating this logistical element of the program would make it much easier for everyone to focus on the spiritual elements of the program.
While automating for purposes of keeping track of routes and visits are a good thing. Automating for the ease of making assignments so that there is no interaction loses all focus of the spiritual elements of the program.
FlintCrump
New Member
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:09 pm

Re: Who's my home teacher? Where's my home teaching assignm

#15

Post by FlintCrump »

Wow! Looks like a lot of great insight given here over the past year. So many times Elders would ask me as secretary for a second copy of their previously handed paper assignment with the excuse that they didn't get it done yet because they lost it. It's hard to loose an email copied with a text. My idea is just going to help the process not hurt it. I live in a family ward with student families and poor areas with many transient families. Some EQPs don't get their job done when faced with frequent assignment changes on a monthly basis and the work suffers from lack of assignment or changes delivered. So some info is better than no info in my humble opinion while serving as an EQ secretary who does have to enter the numbers. I have to enter something for our report. Email and text automation is a way to increase communication not decrease it.
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