New Member
Is this app available for members or is it only available to missionarys?
Area Book Planner
Community Moderators
It is an app only available to missionaries.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
Senior Member
Is there something specific in the Area Book Planner that you think would be helpful for you as a member to access? Some shared info is available via the Covenant Path Progress, but perhaps you're looking for something else.
Member
It's missionary only, but if you like the way the app works Google Calendar isn't too far off.
Christian Rogers
New Member
I'm currently serving in the Louisiana, Baton Rouge mission. There's nothing I want more than a member version of Areabook. I know, the app was renamed to "Preach My Gospel App" but the brotheren has highly suggested that members read PMG, so I think it's only fitting that members use the PMG app too!
In our mission, member referrals are 13 times more likely to be baptized than those we find and teach, alone. Most members who are sharing the gospel are only focusing on one individual or family at a time. Areabook will help them develop their teaching pool and track the progress of many of their non-member friends, not to mention the members they minister to! It'll be a place to take notes as well.
Yes, I'm aware, the members aren't the ones who are supposed to be teaching the lessons. That's for the missionaries to take care of. But introducing the missionaries is NOT the first step in member missionary work. It takes more time than that. It's often times best to Love, Share, and Invite first! These would be great steps to measure as part of this version of the app! Imagine a Key Indecator exclusive to members called "Taught by the missionaries"!
In our mission, member referrals are 13 times more likely to be baptized than those we find and teach, alone. Most members who are sharing the gospel are only focusing on one individual or family at a time. Areabook will help them develop their teaching pool and track the progress of many of their non-member friends, not to mention the members they minister to! It'll be a place to take notes as well.
Yes, I'm aware, the members aren't the ones who are supposed to be teaching the lessons. That's for the missionaries to take care of. But introducing the missionaries is NOT the first step in member missionary work. It takes more time than that. It's often times best to Love, Share, and Invite first! These would be great steps to measure as part of this version of the app! Imagine a Key Indecator exclusive to members called "Taught by the missionaries"!
Senior Member
Elder Jones, just to set expectations, the Tech Forum is primarily member-to-member discussion and help. It is unlikely that Forum posts like yours will be seen by anyone in an official Church capacity, who would be in a position to record and potentially act on the request.There's nothing I want more than a member version of Areabook
That said, I see definite progress towards a more unified members-and-missionaries approach, with the new Preach My Gospel subtitle changing from "A Guide To Missionary Service" to "A Guide To Sharing The Gospel Of Jesus Christ". Unfortunately, the Church rarely provides details about upcoming technology efforts, so it's challenging to know whether there are plans to move towards anything like you describe. And even if there were plans, they rarely provide timelines, and often any mentioned timelines are significantly delayed by months if not years.
New Member
I would love this as well, it would make the work of Ward Mission Leaders and Ward Missionaries so much easier to help plan the work. It would also be incredible if the app also allowed for ministering to be part of it with users able to report on each of their assigned families and then for EQ and RS presidencies to have access to those reports/notes. Then the presidencies could message or text he companionship and record those interactions as ministering interviews to make the logistics and the ability to respond to member needs so much faster. The easier it is for members to return and report in regards to their individual callings the less excuse they have to not do it. And from experience, had my ministering brethren been more diligent in doing their ministering I probably would not have been inactive as long as I was.
New Member
I am a High Councilor over Mission work in our stake in Helena Montana. I was speaking with our mission president for our area and he talked about getting reports from the ward clerk that the missionaries can add to their Preach My Gospel app, those reports being: Single Mother; Prospective Elders; Unbaptized Youth; Unendowed Sisters; Part-member families; recent move-ins. Apparently the missionaries can enter these in the app and once they do, if they are in an area, they can quickly use the maps to see if someone from one of these lists might live close-by, and they can quickly swing by to make contact. My question is, do the missionaries have to hand-enter these lists, or is there a way to add them electronically (like a csv file or something)? I asked another set of missionaries and they said something about it being laborious/time-consuming. Just trying to figure out if this is a good way to give them options to visit members, etc. If hand-entered, I assume each new set of missionaries will have to enter them every time there are Transfers? Hand-entering seems to me like it would negate the benefits we are trying to get by adding these lists to the Preach My Gospel app for the missionaries. Thoughts?
Community Administrator
That's a two-part question: Is there a way to export the list, and is there a way for the missionaries to import it. Both have to be there to be functional.briknelson wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 4:17 pm My question is, do the missionaries have to hand-enter these lists, or is there a way to add them electronically (like a csv file or something)?
The church has systematically been removing export functionality from LCR. So that part is doubtful.
If this were really a church priority, the information would be automatically be populated where they were assigned wards. So, either there's legal issues or the powers have bigger issues they want the developers to work on.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
Member
Unbaptized Youth (or Unbaptized with church record) and recent move ins are the only ones (Reassigned Records) that is automatically in PMG app. The other ones have to be entered manually. Transfers would keep the groups, but you would have to update it manually.briknelson wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 4:17 pm I am a High Councilor over Mission work in our stake in Helena Montana. I was speaking with our mission president for our area and he talked about getting reports from the ward clerk that the missionaries can add to their Preach My Gospel app, those reports being: Single Mother; Prospective Elders; Unbaptized Youth; Unendowed Sisters; Part-member families; recent move-ins. Apparently the missionaries can enter these in the app and once they do, if they are in an area, they can quickly use the maps to see if someone from one of these lists might live close-by, and they can quickly swing by to make contact. My question is, do the missionaries have to hand-enter these lists, or is there a way to add them electronically (like a csv file or something)? I asked another set of missionaries and they said something about it being laborious/time-consuming. Just trying to figure out if this is a good way to give them options to visit members, etc. If hand-entered, I assume each new set of missionaries will have to enter them every time there are Transfers? Hand-entering seems to me like it would negate the benefits we are trying to get by adding these lists to the Preach My Gospel app for the missionaries. Thoughts?
Christian Rogers
Senior Member
My "go-to" suggestion for cases like this with missionary work, is to speak with either your Bishop or the High Councilor assigned over missionary work. They can then bring this up with the Stake President, who could then determine if he wants to discuss this in his monthly meeting with the Mission President. Once the Stake and Mission are aligned on how best to proceed, they can then cascade that down to the local members and missionaries. At the very least, even if there's no changes in how things work, at least there will be more awareness of the limitations of the current system that we're all working under.
New Member
Keep in mind that in some cases, members may have specifically requested to their local leaders that they do not want contact from missionaries. The distribution of generated lists can take local leadership out of the loop. It would also seem beneficial in many cases to ensure that High Counselor and ward leadership be involved in the curation of such lists for coordination of effort and local member fellowshipping purposes at least.
Member
And there is a don't contact toggle in Area Book for said purpose.karlburk wrote: Sun Feb 11, 2024 12:21 pm Keep in mind that in some cases, members may have specifically requested to their local leaders that they do not want contact from missionaries.
Christian Rogers
New Member
That is good to know. So, if local leaders have access to toggle that or add notes (it sounds like they don't yet anyway), then this could help facilitate that communication between missionaries and local leaders.
With that shared access, then sharing lists would seem to me a bit safer. It would also be convenient for communicating notes from old to new local leaders similar to how they pass between full time missionaries assigned to an area.
With that shared access, then sharing lists would seem to me a bit safer. It would also be convenient for communicating notes from old to new local leaders similar to how they pass between full time missionaries assigned to an area.