It’s a wash

It’s important to know what your ministering families need. 

Sketchbook: Going in to overtime

There are some folks who attend church to fill a spiritual need. There are those who attend to also fill a social need. Our family knows that when regular meetings are over, we still have at least a half hour of socializing in the foyer — and that’s after the hallway and library visits are done. 

 

All the better to see you with

I tried a little experiment with this one. Remember the old, old pre-Photoshop days? Cartoonists used to use a film called zipatone or screentone to give their comics texture and shading. Charles Schulz, for example, used it for Franklin's skin tone. It occurred to me that I could get a similar effect using some of the features in Illustrator and Photoshop, so I thought I'd give it a try.

As for the cartoon, there are benefits to paying attention to your ministering families. You could save a life.
 

You have entered...the Zone

A long time ago, I shared a similar cartoon. I'm not sure which one is sadder!
 

Inclusivity

Christmas time is a great opportunity to include some of those who may feel they’re more on the fringe of things. 
 

As you were

No matter how home teaching/ministering has changed, one thing remains: the last minute clean-up before they get there!
 

The eyes have it

It takes a certain skill to be a good minister. And a good set of eyes.
 

Doing the check-in

There have been a lot of adjustments made to the regular church routine as a result of the pandemic. One of my favorites is doing temple recommend interviews over Zoom. But I do like how we can use social media to maintain contact with our ministering families.

Editor's Note: Yeah, this would have been more effective a few months ago, but it still holds true.

A minister by any other name

I still ask myself each month whether I've done my home teaching yet.

By their masks ye shall know them

A member of our ward popped up in my Facebook feed as a friend suggestion the other day. I looked and looked, and I thought: "I used to go to church with their family, but I haven't seen any of them for a long time!"

And then I remembered that I haven't seen anybody — in person — for a long time. Weird.

The whole hazmat armor

Instead of a plate of cookies, they're giving each of their families a package of toilet paper.

Sketchbook: Dumping grounds

As I've said before, a lot of my cartoons are based on real-life experiences. Some of them are a bit exaggerated. Unfortunately, this one is not.

A family close to me got a text from their ministering brother about how difficult they were. He was putting in for a change because they were so terrible.

I'm sure there are two sides to the story, but there are ways it could have been handled better.

The takeaway from this is: be kind and forgiving to everyone. You don't know what someone else is going through.

Spot the difference

I overheard some people saying that they didn't really understand the difference between ministering and home teaching. Here's to hoping that was because they were really good home teachers!

How do you know when you're done?

There are still many people who struggle with the concept of ministering.

My challenge has been in how to minister to the "Do Not Contact" people. Sometimes they're a little less receptive than one would hope for!

Extending and invitation

LDS cartoonists used to crank out home teaching cartoons hand over fist. They were a staple of Latter-day humor.

Ministering cartoons, not so much.

Maybe because it's a different approach, maybe because everything counts.

In the meantime, we LDS cartoonists are trying to adjust. It's a struggle.

Sketchbook: Identity crisis

I thought about saying "...Mormon Home Teacher..." but that seemed a little too much.

Everything counts

Technically, when Elder Holland said everything counts in relation to home teaching. But I'm pretty sure he'd say the same thing about ministering.

This never happened with home teaching!

With home teaching, it was pretty much straightforward: in the home once a month, Boom! You're done. With ministering, it may not be so clear cut. Of course, even with home teaching some people still got the wrong message.