Ministering brothers and sisters will have a ministering interview with their local leaders at least once each quarter.

These quarterly interviews will be focused on individuals and families.

The purpose of the interview, as President Russell M. Nelson has explained it this morning, is to counsel together about the well-being of assigned families and individuals. Present Nelson, again, has stated something of what the agenda might include. I copied off the questions he said would typically be raised in a ministering interview. How are the families and their individual members getting along temporally and spiritually? What are their challenges? How are those challenges being met, and how can we help? Are there current efforts and long-range plans moving them closer to the Lord? That really distills the essence of what we're wanting to talk about, counsel together about in this ministering interview. So the focus will be on individuals. It'll be on that kind of issue or progress, I guess we could say, in their lives and the challenges they face and what we can draw upon, what resources can we draw upon to help them move forward. It's really an effort to seek divine guidance together on how best to minister in the Lord's way.

Simple as that sounds, my friends, those interviews are absolutely crucial. Without that information, the bishop will have no way to receive the information he needs regarding the spiritual and temporal conditions of his people. One of the other benefits is the opportunity to encourage ministering brothers and sisters, to teach them, to help them to see ways that they can minister differently and more effectively. That's an opportunity that the leaders have that can also benefit everyone. The frequency of ministering interviews will vary considerably, but they should occur as often as needed and as circumstances reasonably permit. Once per quarter is a floor, not a ceiling. Brothers and sisters, I fear that if ministering interviews are not held routinely and as envisioned, we could well end up making the situation worse and that the added flexibility and scope that we envision for ministering could result in less attention rather than more. "Have you done your home teaching?" could be replaced by "Did you have any contact? What? Oh, sure, a text is good enough." Those ministering interviews, when quorum and Relief Society leaders hear reports and provide counsel, may come to seem to you like the return of the sons of Mosiah, when they shared joy in seeing what the Lord had done in their missionary service. Those periodic reports can be sweet highlights in the leader's service.