"Hastening the Work" in the Provo Utah Sunset Stake

“Hastening the Work” in the Sunset Stake Wards

August 2014:

Sunset 13th ward...

-For the families who are ok with us contacting them (there are a few who have asked for zero contact if it has anything to do with church), we have one of us in the presidency drop off a note or make face-to-face contact each month with the children not attending.  We used to include a small treat when we did that, but we didn't want them to feel like they were getting rewarded for not coming, so now we only do it every once in a while.

-We meet periodically with our teachers for short discussions on how their classes are going, and one of the main things we talk about is their students...particularly the ones not coming.  We encourage the teachers to make contact, either by themselves or with other children in their classes.  We feel like the teachers are the ones who really get to know them during class time, so they're a great resource.  The only downfall is that ultimately it's up to the teacher to make contact.  Some of our teachers are amazing at it, but some simply don't do it.

-We've started preparing a simple family home evening packet that the children get to take home one Sunday of every month based off of the month's theme and what they've learned in sharing time.  For the children who don't come, we have asked the teachers to deliver the packets.  So far it's worked well, although sometimes that means that there's no actual contact and the packet is just left on the door.  But at least the children are getting a FHE...and hopefully they're at least curious enough to look at it!

-Although they're not required anymore, we still do activities.  Some are centered around the theme, but some are just for fun.  Yesterday we had a back-to-school splash party, and we had 6 children come who never come to anything!  We were so excited!

-Our Activity Days and Cub Scout leaders are amazing at getting the less/non-active boys and girls to come to their respective activities.  I think these groups are 2 of our greatest assets as far as contact goes.

That's all I can think of at the moment.  The children are always on our prayers, so we hope that between that and our other efforts that we're at least planting the seeds for these children to one day have the desire to come to church.

Thanks,

Jen Beckstrand

Sunset 5th Ward

-We started mentioning the temple and covenants more, and helping the kids get excited about turning 12 so they can go to the temple. We emphasize covenant keeping in our sharing times. We have noticed a change, and the kids are thinking more about the temple.

-We are visiting each of the primary families to get to know them better, and be aware of needs, and give them information about the different programs they are involved in. This has been good so far, and has helped us be more in touch with, and aware of families.

-We have tried harder to connect with the children when they first come in to primary.

-We have a family history activity next week that we are praying will help families take the next step in turning their hearts to their fathers. We are excited to follow up with a 60 day challenge after the activity, where our ward will do as many acts of "turning their hearts" as they can in 60 days, then we will display the results on a family tree on the wall at our annual soup pie and chili night. The kids will hang a green heart on the tree for every act of turning hearts that our ward completed.

-We try to give the children opportunities to really think, and teach, and take part in sharing time, so they will be prepared for the youth curriculum.

Sunset 3rd Ward
-The children are a great way to reach out to our less active children in our ward.  
-We noticed that we needed our teachers to visit- not just the presidency because the children have been surprised that when they finally come to church that it is not us they will be going with but someone else that they are not familiar with.  We decided we needed to ask our teachers to visit the children in their class that don't come to church.  And also to invite a teacher to our presidency meeting to report on their visits.  We had some success so far - one teacher visited a boy & his family (he has many siblings).

-We had our pioneer activity on August 9th.  As a presidency, we made a point to visit all our less active children to invite them personally to the activity.  We had a good turnout- even though the weekend we chose was horrible as so many families were on vacation.  We had one family come that is inactive & one family that are not members but live in the neighborhood.  A few of our active families brought cousins so that was great too!  We compiled a list of children who were not able to be there & we are preparing kits of the crafts & instructions so that the children can know they were missed & also experience some of the activity.

-As a presidency, we also wanted to prepare a very small "missed you in primary" treat that the teachers could take from a basket & bring to their missed primary child.  For example, a gummy bear with a note that said "we miss you beary much".  We didn't want to give anything larger for fear that children would stay home just to get a treat!  We thought if it was already prepared by us that it would make things easier for the teacher to be able to take it & go to the child.  Finding time to prepare them has not been easy but it is high on our priority list.

-Our scouting program has several inactive members & some non-members that attend regularly.  Pack meeting has been a great way to reach out & extend friendship to those families.

-One thing we need to do as a presidency is to have a sort of welfare meeting.  Not to discuss temporal needs but specifically the welfare of their souls. I think it may be a helpful thing to have an extra meeting dedicated to the spiritual welfare of all our little ones in primary.

These are the things we are working on.  

Sunset 9th Ward Ways we are working to hasten the work... -During sharing time each week one of my counselors or I are challenging the kids to go home and do something with their family that week to strengthen the unity of their whole family and hasten the work for parents that may be less active and children. For example 2 weeks ago we challenged them to read scriptures as a family and last week it was to pray together as a family. We will randomly reward them every once in awhile to encourage them to complete these things, since they won't know what week they will be rewarded. We plan to continue this each week with new ideas, like teach a FHE lesson, learn an article of faith together, sing a primary song, read an article from the friend/ensign together, complete an assignment from your faith in god booklet, etc. -We have also reached out to our cub scout and activity day leaders to encourage these things to happen also as we have several girls and boys that attend these activities but do not attend church. We have given the leaders direction to send home assignments that can be completed from their faith in god books together as a family to help strengthen the whole family! -We had an end of summer party a few weeks ago before school started and challenged each primary kid to think of one friend in their neighborhood that they could take an invitation to that does not come to church and most of the kids were able to take invites to deliver and a few families and non member friends came to the neighborhood party! -We are having the children in each class make birthday cards for the kids in their class that don't come to church for their birthdays and then having their teachers deliver the cards to them at their homes and introducing themselves as their primary teacher. 11th Ward Brooke Barnes -We worked with an active boy in our ward to get a boy from a part member family (only the mom is a member and attends church) coming to cub scouts. The boys were friends and we asked the active boy to invite his friend to scouts each week and it worked. He comes to scouts most of the time and hopefully feels positive about the church. -I have been making a better effort to get to know all of the children in our neighborhood, not just the members. -I invited a nonmember girl to be a part of our activity days group. She and her parents still haven't decided if they want to do it but at least she knows she's invited. -I visit all new families with primary age children who move into the ward whether they are members or not. -We had a mini trek and invited all the kids one Saturday in June. We got dressed up in our pioneer clothes, ate pioneer food, did a little trek with wagons, and learned about pioneers. The kids love this tradition and we always get a great turnout. Thank for this information. I know that there are many other acts like these going on in your wards in our stake. All of you are doing things to "Hasten the Work" in your wards. Please send me what you are doing (have done) and how it has worked for you in your ward. We now have a way of sharing them with all of you. When we share, we all benefit, as one idea sparks another one. Thanks for your dedication and service.