Minister of Change

When I was called to be the Relief Society president in September, the responsibilities of the role were well-defined. The Relief Society president, her counselors, and her secretary(s) arrange the spiritual lessons and music for each Sunday, plan quarterly Relief Society activities, and teach a lesson of their own choosing once a month. They assign each sister in the ward at least one "visiting teacher" who checks in with her and learns about her needs. Each month, they put together a report for the bishop that shows who has been visited that month. In other parts of the nation or world, the presidency might be responsible for teaching things like literacy or good hygiene, and in a family ward they would prepare a lot of food and offer a lot of support for births, weddings, and funerals. We don't do a ton of that in my ward, though, due to the nature of a ward made up entirely of single individuals.

Not long after I accepted the calling, changes to the way we run things began to be handed down by the First Presidency. My counselors and I no longer teach lessons on first Sundays; we guide council meetings with the members of the Relief Society where we discuss things we want to improve, do better at, or act on. As of about a month ago, we're no longer doing visiting teaching. Instead, we're doing "ministering," where the number of visits are no longer tracked. The girls in the ward are responsible for knowing what's going on in the lives of one another, but they can connect with those they're asked to help in just about any way. My secretary doesn't create a report for the bishop; now I just tell him each quarter about the needs of the sisters and how they're being addressed. These administration changes have filled some gaps we were seeing in the lives of the sisters. Pretty neat.

It's not normal to have this many changes in such a short period of time, though. In the ten months I served with Madam President, we never had one, much less two, large organizational changes to implement. In short, this is an unusual time to serve in a Relief Society presidency. I feel honored and privileged to be in a calling where I get to help these things unfold. It's a huge blessing.