Ministering Tool

Hello,
I am not sure if I am posting in the right place, but I figured out of all the other's this looked like the right spot. I am the RS secretary at my branch. I have been assigned along with a brother to update our ministering information within the tools on lds.org. We have two questions/issues.

1. What are the districts for and do we need them all or can we just use one district, we are a super small branch?
2. With the way ministering is now, we are able to assign couples to another couple, but for some reason, we cannot add this into the database. It will only allow you to add sisters to sister and brothers to brothers. Are we missing something that could override this?

Thank you so much!
Sister Sundee Holliday
Lanett, AL Branch

Districts are for organizational purposes only. You can have many or few districts, depending on your situation (I think 1 minimum is required).

To add couples, Relief Society would add the sister first and then add her husband as her companion.
Elders Quorum would add the brother first, then add his wife as his companion.
If a couple is ministering the same families for both organizations, both organizations need to add them as listed above.
Then (after the companionship is set up), you go and add families to them to minister.

Thank you so much!!!

As a branch clerk in an Alzheimers unit I cannot get my quarterly report to post because under Sisters ministered it is blank and will not let me put a number for quarter 3. I did not have any companionships set up and now it will not allow me to set up anything. The brothers defaulted to 0 and is not a problem and I wonder why the sisters did not default to 0. Any help would be appreciated

We have a similar situation where a small branch had no ministering districts set up for the 3rd quarter so there are no interviews reported and the clerk is unable to submit the quarterly report as a result.

davesudweeks wrote:Districts are for organizational purposes only. You can have many or few districts, depending on your situation (I think 1 minimum is required).

To add couples, Relief Society would add the sister first and then add her husband as her companion.
Elders Quorum would add the brother first, then add his wife as his companion.
If a couple is ministering the same families for both organizations, both organizations need to add them as listed above.
Then (after the companionship is set up), you go and add families to them to minister.

I am the elders quorum president and I was previously able to create companionship with married couples but am not able to now. Did something change with the newest update?

You should post feedback from the Ministering assignments page. Though you may not receive an individualized response, feedback is routed to those who set the priorities for the small group of programmers. Things posted here on this user-to-user help forum will not get to them and no one here will likely be able to answer your question.

kitchen wrote:I am the elders quorum president and I was previously able to create companionship with married couples but am not able to now. Did something change with the newest update?

It doesn't seem to be working for me either. I don't see anything about such a change in the Release Notes.

This should be fixed with an update that was released today.

I am trying to report how many Ministering Brothers were interviewed during the third quarter for the quarterly report that is due next week; however, the third quarter information on Member Tools is completely absent now that it is the fourth quarter. So, how do I get the previous quarter's information? I would love to have my ward's quarterly report for the third quarter finished on time by October 15th.

Recording interviews for the previous quarter cannot be currently done through Member Tools. You can record the interviews for the previous quarter in Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR).

I am serving as the Relief Society president in a large ward. We have divided ministering into 3 districts so that each member of the presidency can oversee one district. Is it possible to search a sister's name and quickly find out which district she is in? This function would help us be more efficient in delegating services for sisters in need. Currently, we pull up the ministering list and go through the list of assigned sisters until we find who we are looking for.

Don.blackburn wrote:I am trying to report how many Ministering Brothers were interviewed during the third quarter for the quarterly report that is due next week; however, the third quarter information on Member Tools is completely absent now that it is the fourth quarter. So, how do I get the previous quarter's information? I would love to have my ward's quarterly report for the third quarter finished on time by October 15th.

Notice the forum this thread is in the Ministering Tool for Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR). While Member Tools does not show the previous quarter ministering information you can enter the previous quarter ministering online using a web browser. Sign into churchofjesuschrist.org and select LCR > Ministering > Current Assignments and then select Previous Quarter.

tammyhulse wrote:I am serving as the Relief Society president in a large ward. We have divided ministering into 3 districts so that each member of the presidency can oversee one district. Is it possible to search a sister's name and quickly find out which district she is in? This function would help us be more efficient in delegating services for sisters in need. Currently, we pull up the ministering list and go through the list of assigned sisters until we find who we are looking for.

There is a text entry field above the ministering list in Leader and Clerk Resources. Type the sister's name in that field and it will limit the list to assignments involving that sister.

My question is related to this. Can only certain callings see the ministering assigments in LCR? I have a sister that is called to a compassionate service calling, and she can no longer bring up the ministering assignment report, but she used to be able to. Is there a way to give her access to this, or is it only related to the calling she is in?

devfarr wrote:or is it only related to the calling she is in?

Correct. There is no way to grant access, just via calling.

Sometime before the end of the year something changed in being able to assign husband and wives as a companionship for special ministering needs. This is still not working for us. Is it working for others? If so what am I missing in how to get the assignments made. I can only select from the unassigned members of the Elder's Quorum and the Priest and Teacher's Quorum. I still do not have access to the sisters database to be able to assign the wife.
Would appreciate any helpful direction on how to get this done.

ksp7spr8 wrote:Sometime before the end of the year something changed in being able to assign husband and wives as a companionship for special ministering needs. This is still not working for us. Is it working for others? If so what am I missing in how to get the assignments made. I can only select from the unassigned members of the Elder's Quorum and the Priest and Teacher's Quorum. I still do not have access to the sisters database to be able to assign the wife.
Would appreciate any helpful direction on how to get this done.

It is working just fine for me tonight (counselor in EQ Presidency).
For EQ: you must select the husband first, then you select his wife as his companion. Then you add the families they are assigned to minister to.
For RS: the process is the exact reverse (select the wife first, then select her husband as her companion).

I am the elders quorum secretary and someone was previously able to create companionship with married couples (my wife and I are companions), but I am not able to create additional husband/wife companions. Sisters do not appear on the list of companions.

When printing a single page for a ministering companionship, telephone numbers are not being printed unless it is a personal phone number. If a family has only a family phone, it is not printed for the ministering brother and/or sister.

DMLofgreen wrote:I am the elders quorum secretary and someone was previously able to create companionship with married couples (my wife and I are companions), but I am not able to create additional husband/wife companions. Sisters do not appear on the list of companions.

Did you try the previous suggestion of selecting the husband/wife first, then searching the list for the corresponding spouse? I found that works for me.

When I searched the list of those that I could add for a companion, I only got a list of male members, no Priesthood, Aaronic Priesthood, and Melchizdek Priesthood. Do the sisters come after all of these?
Thanks for your suggestions.

DMLofgreen wrote:When I searched the list of those that I could add for a companion, I only got a list of male members, no Priesthood, Aaronic Priesthood, and Melchizdek Priesthood. Do the sisters come after all of these?
Thanks for your suggestions.

When I tested this last evening, I entered my last name in the search box and selected myself. Then for the companion I entered my last name again in the search box (my wife was listed). I was able to select her as my companion. Then I canceled it before adding any families since I did not want to complete setting us up as a companionship. I am a counselor in the EQ but I believe EQ Secretaries have the same access for the Ministering tool.

I did not look down a list, I entered names in the search box. I don't know if that has any bearing on the discussion.

I tried as suggested and got a husband/wife companionship. What I could not get was a second brother to be a companion to the husband so he could meet and minister to those they were to be assigned to. We have a lot of seasonal members, and would like to be able to provide some continuity when the husband and wife are gone for the summer. I guess we just have to make this additional companion assignment "off of the books" so we can provide for his type of situation.
Thanks
Dale M. Lofgreen

DMLofgreen wrote:I tried as suggested and got a husband/wife companionship. What I could not get was a second brother to be a companion to the husband so he could meet and minister to those they were to be assigned to. We have a lot of seasonal members, and would like to be able to provide some continuity when the husband and wife are gone for the summer. I guess we just have to make this additional companion assignment "off of the books" so we can provide for his type of situation.
Thanks
Dale M. Lofgreen

I don't believe you can have a "trio" for ministering. If you want to have a 3rd person assigned in the system to minister for continuity, you would have to set up two companionships:
One with the husband/wife companionship and another one with the husband and another brother for continuity (if EQ).
You should be able to assign the same families to both companionships.

davesudweeks wrote:You should be able to assign the same families to both companionships.

Can you? I thought that came up before and it was a no-go.

davesudweeks wrote:I don't believe you can have a "trio" for ministering.

To be clear, you can have 3 brethren or 3 sisters as a ministering companionship but if you have a husband and wife, then you can't add a 3rd.

russellhltn wrote:

davesudweeks wrote:You should be able to assign the same families to both companionships.

Can you? I thought that came up before and it was a no-go.

Yes, you can. I just assigned a sister to another companionship (so she had 2 sets of ministering brethren - or more correctly her current married couple ministers and a set of brethren also).

davesudweeks wrote:Yes, you can. I just assigned a sister to another companionship (so she had 2 sets of ministering brethren - or more correctly her current married couple ministers and a set of brethren also).

Ok, that seems to be something new. Although, looking at the dates, the "old" may have been the relabeled HT/VT instead of true ministering. I don't see the changes in the release notes, but there's a few places it might have happened.

Either way, good to know.

davesudweeks wrote: Yes, you can. I just assigned a sister to another companionship (so she had 2 sets of ministering brethren - or more correctly her current married couple ministers and a set of brethren also).

I just attempted to add a sister to a second companionship and was unable to do so, I get the message

This Household has already been assigned to <companionship>. Saving this assignment will reassign them to this companionship.

I'm guessing that the Married couple Ministers are set up in the Relief Society

I was working in EQ assignments only. Now I'm curious so will try again during my lunch break today.

kd7mha wrote:I'm guessing that the Married couple Ministers are set up in the Relief Society

Married couple ministers can be set up in either Elders Quorum or in Relief Society. The only restriction is the first member of the companionship must be a member of the organization setting up the companionship. For example: when the EQ is setting up the companionship then the first companion selected must be a member of the Elders Quorum before the sister (spouse of the brother) can be added to the companionship.

kd7mha wrote:

davesudweeks wrote: Yes, you can. I just assigned a sister to another companionship (so she had 2 sets of ministering brethren - or more correctly her current married couple ministers and a set of brethren also).

I just attempted to add a sister to a second companionship and was unable to do so, I get the message

This Household has already been assigned to <companionship>. Saving this assignment will reassign them to this companionship.

I stand corrected as noted above. When I tested this, I did not attempt to "save" the change (as I did not want to save the change). The system allows you to assign someone to another companionship but does not allow you to save that assignment without it releasing them from the other assignment.

jdlessley wrote:

kd7mha wrote:I'm guessing that the Married couple Ministers are set up in the Relief Society

Married couple ministers can be set up in either Elders Quorum or in Relief Society. The only restriction is the first member of the companionship must be a member of the organization setting up the companionship. For example: when the EQ is setting up the companionship then the first companion selected must be a member of the Elders Quorum before the sister (spouse of the brother) can be added to the companionship.

the context was a married couple AND Ministering Brothers assigned to a sister

jdlessley wrote:

kd7mha wrote:I'm guessing that the Married couple Ministers are set up in the Relief Society

Married couple ministers can be set up in either Elders Quorum or in Relief Society. The only restriction is the first member of the companionship must be a member of the organization setting up the companionship. For example: when the EQ is setting up the companionship then the first companion selected must be a member of the Elders Quorum before the sister (spouse of the brother) can be added to the companionship.

Out of curiosity, do priesthood office restrictions apply? – for example, normally a deacon can't be given a ministering assignment in the system. If you start a new companionship with the sister, then attempt to add her husband, if the husband has the office of deacon (or no priesthood office), will it let you add him to the companionship?

sbradshaw wrote:Out of curiosity, do priesthood office restrictions apply? – for example, normally a deacon can't be given a ministering assignment in the system. If you start a new companionship with the sister, then attempt to add her husband, if the husband has the office of deacon (or no priesthood office), will it let you add him to the companionship?

That would be a really unusual situation. Typically, adult males with any activity level whatsoever would be at least a priest. That includes new converts.

sbradshaw wrote:Out of curiosity, do priesthood office restrictions apply? – for example, normally a deacon can't be given a ministering assignment in the system. If you start a new companionship with the sister, then attempt to add her husband, if the husband has the office of deacon (or no priesthood office), will it let you add him to the companionship?

I doubt the system would let you add a husband that is not at least a teacher.

Even though I see where I'm supposed to be able to add a spouse as a ministering companion to a brother the system only brings up a list of brothern to add as a companion. How do I get to a list of sisters to add?

it sounds like you are looking in the right place
I just tested to verify

1. the spouse MUST be listed as spouse on the membership record
2. the spouse MUST be the second ministering companion (you cannot add a spouse as a third companion)

I don't have access, but I seem to recall you may not be able to pick the name off of a drop-down list, but have to start typing it.

russellhltn wrote:I don't have access, but I seem to recall you may not be able to pick the name off of a drop-down list, but have to start typing it.

It is easier to start typing the spouse, but I found the spouse shows up on the drop-down list you can scroll if she meets the requirements (I just tried to enter myself and wife as a new companionship to verify).

Can we add more than 2 assigned ministers? I thought I could have several youth but I'm not longer seeing that feature.

drjenson wrote:Can we add more than 2 assigned ministers? I thought I could have several youth but I'm not longer seeing that feature.

It sounds like you want to add a 3rd person to the ministering assignment. To do this:
Select the companionship, then click on the 3 dots on the far right side.
Select Edit and you will see the option to add a 3rd individual as a minister to the families.