District and Presidency Meetings

We drove north to the St. Petersbury North District Meeting this morning.  The training was on the mission standards of excellence, teaching the restoration lesson in 4 minutes, and finding answers to questions using the Book of Mormon.  There was some pushback on the standards of excellence - 20 lessons per week, 5 investigators with baptismal dates at all times, 7 new investigators each week, and 2 investigators in Church meetings each week.  There were concerns that the expectations are too high, even though some missionaries are far exceeding them.  Other missionaries think they are unattainable, at least for them.  We had some discussion about them but not all of the missionaries were willing to commit to them.  I was reminded of the old adage, "It is better to shoot for the moon and miss, than to shoot for nothing and hit."  But I didn't tell them that.

Following the district meeting, we drove to the mission office for a presidency meeting.  In the meeting, President Cusick presented a program that has been used by stakes in southern Idaho.  They identified the part-member families, prospective Elders, and children of record over the age of 9.  Then, they had ward members and missionaries go to visit these people.  It was quite successful in reactivating some members and baptisms.

They tried a pilot program of this in one of the strong wards in our mission.  Unfortunately, the members accepted the assignments to make visits, but then they did not actually make the visits.  So President Cusick wants us to have some of our missionaries visit those on the lists as part of their contacting.  They can go to an area, attempt to find the member, and then tract in the area.  Some missionaries will not have much time to do this because they are too busy teaching.  Others will have time -- the ones who are not meeting the standards of excellence.