Alright. Here's our goal, folks. Leading Saints is
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us.
So my name is Kurt Frankem and I
am the founder and executive director of Leading
Saints and obviously the host of the Leading
Saints podcast. Now I started Leading Saints back
in 2010.
It was just a hobby blog
and it grew from there by the time,
2014
came around. We started the podcast and that's
really when it got some,
traction and took off, 2016.
We became a five zero one c three
nonprofit organization and we've been growing ever since.
And now I get the opportunity of interviewing
and talking with remarkable people all over the
world.
Now this is a segment we do on
the Leading Saints podcast called How I Lead,
and we reach out to everyday leaders. They're
not experts, gurus, authors,
PhDs. They're just everyday leaders who've been asked
to serve in a specific leadership calling, and
we simply ask them, how is it that
you lead? And they go through some remarkable
principles that should be in a book, that
should be behind a PhD. They're usually that
good, and, we just talk about, sharing what
the other guy is doing. And I remember
being a leader just simply wanting to know,
okay. I know what I'm trying to do,
but what's the other guy doing? What's working
for him? And so that's why every Wednesday
or so, we publish these how I lead
segments
to
share.
I'm not gonna ask you straight up. Does
your elders quorum have a service
coordinator?
I mean, I bet your relief society has
a compassionate service coordinator,
but does your elders quorum have the service
coordinator? This is a handbook calling and there's
so many ways that this can really shift
the culture in your ward to be more
service oriented.
And I brought in just the guy to
talk about this. His name is Ajax Trueblood.
And down in Saint George, Utah, he's actually
had this role in two different wards in
different areas of Utah. And, this is gonna
be applicable for every elders quorum out there.
I know service and organization
and needs may look different word to word,
stake to stake, state to state.
But this is something that we can really
enhance our our culture and our ward and
make it a place where everybody can give
and really be sanctified
by these opportunities of discipleship to step up
and serve. And how does he do this?
How does he motivate people? How does he,
find the service assignments? Is it just move
ins that he's focused on? Well, we answer
all these questions, and he's got great answers.
So let's jump into it. Here's my interview
with Ajax Trueblood
teaching us on being a elders quorum service
coordinator.
Alright. Today, I have the opportunity to chat
with Ajax Trueblood.
Where where does a name like that come
from? Is it a common truth? Trueblood is
a real name that comes from old English
Quakers.
Ajax is my Air Force call sign. Oh,
nice. So I, my my real official name
is Roger, but, only the IRS and the
and the,
spam callers call me Roger.
But,
yeah, I've been going by Ajax for a
long time now. And how do you earn
such a name? And Oh, it's a long
dark history, and Okay. I might have to
kill you if I had told you.
Well, hey. That's nice. We'll get into that.
We're gonna have service.
So No. I wouldn't kill you. I'd let's
just tousle your hair a little bit. Okay.
Alright. Alright.
So I heard, I I shared another interview
you did over at Salty Saints around this
concept of a service coordinator. And, where's where's
a good place to start with this? Is
this a handbook calling?
Absolutely. It is. I didn't know that when
I took it.
So
I've been doing this now in two different
wards for the past seven plus years, and
I I think it's the best calling in
the church.
I I think that selfless service is the
center of the gospel.
And I could quote all kinds of scriptures.
Mosiah, bear one another's burdens. That's the one
that means the most to me. But, of
course, charity, you know, never faileth and that
kind of stuff. So it just seems to
me that
at the at the essence, at the core
of the gospel that Jesus Christ taught,
it's to reach out to others, help them,
serve them.
And,
I think often it gets lost in all
the other things that we do.
So for several years now, I've been pretty
passionate about this
and trying to magnify
my calling
as much as possible.
It wasn't until I had already been doing
it for a while that I actually started,
like,
you know, looking at the manual.
Yeah.
And there there isn't much there. There's not
much there. That's in section eight for elders
quorum,
and,
now I can't remember what the I think
it's 8503.
It just says,
core presidencies
can call
a service coordinator,
to help people. That that means very it's
it's like two a sentence
Yeah.
And and an assistant if so desired.
So in your experience, I think it you
you're currently in Southern Utah and Saint George,
Ohio. In Saint George in the Green Valley
Steak.
Okay. And then before, you served in this
calling up, in the
The Vineyard, which was, at the time, the
fastest growing community in The United States. We
with the ward split twice. I was there
for two years. The ward split twice. At
one point, it was up to 1,200 people.
And,
we had move ins constantly,
like, three times a week, three you know,
sometimes simultaneous moves. So,
it was a younger ward.
I reached out
to,
the the guys that I knew that were
willing, and we created
when I say created, I mean, basically, I
just gave it a a name that I
thought was catchy. Called it the QRF,
like, the quick reaction force. So so I
basically went to the elders corps president and
say, hey.
You need somebody to take care of this,
so let me do this. And he said,
yeah. It'd be great. He's a great elders
corps president to work with, and, we
we went to town. And,
it was
I guess, the key to that success
was
finding the people that wanted to do it
instead of making an assignment.
Yeah. Instead of saying, okay. You, you, you,
and you, you're gonna be the ones.
So I I just asked for volunteers.
So it wasn't it wasn't that they the
eligible president approached you with this calling, and
you then had to figure it out. You
saw a need for a lot of service
opportunities and said you're gonna spearhead this and
organize it. I had been in the elder
in the, the young men's presidency, and then,
we got released. And then, I I was
like, okay. I gotta do something. So,
I already knew the elders quorum president pretty
well and said, hey. What what about this?
Why don't you have me do this? I
didn't know there was such a thing in
the in the manual. Yeah. And,
but then then later, I found out, and
I go, oh, yeah. That's it. That's just
called the service coordinator.
Yeah. And so was it primarily, like, move
ins that you were seeing or move in
move ins? Up in up in Vineyard, it
was mostly move ins. There were a few
other,
people that needed particular help that, you know,
building shelves in their garage or something like
that,
for a single sister.
But, yeah, primarily, it was move ins.
Nice. Nice. And
and then that, led into some other service
opportunities from there? Well, then we moved we
sold that house and moved down here to
Saint George. And I I've been,
I would basically say I'm from Saint George.
I moved here when I was a teenager
and have we've been here for a long
time and then out and back and out
and back. So Saint George is is my
home. I've got family here.
So,
when we moved into this ward,
I kinda kind of
I I was patient for a while
and said, you know I thought finally, I
said, you guys aren't really using me. What
what if I, you know, what if I
took on this service coordinator thing? And that
and the telescore presence said, okay. Yeah. That's
a good idea. So let's do that. Nice.
He he basically thought I could just help
with the moves,
But, It's gonna default where we default. Right?
Right. Right. And that's, that is something we
could talk about is the the standard
elders quorum service that, most guys think about
is, yeah, moving pianos and washers and dryers.
And
and so there's some people that look kinda
look down on that. Oh, I hate that.
I did that I did that in my
thirties.
Done with that. You know? Yeah. That's one
one
aspect that people Well, let's just talk about
moving,
for for a moment here is because oftentimes,
there's this feeling of,
you know, just sort of the the role
of the elders quorum to lift heavy things
and to help members move in. But at
the same time, it that you know, moving
people moving furniture is actually quite dangerous. You
know, I've heard people mess up their knees,
you know, really have serious injuries
with with moving. So it is kind of
it's one thing to serve, like, at the
at the cannery, but a whole another thing
when you're you're moving. Yeah. Before we I'd
I'd say before we get into the nitty
gritty of that, I mean, we could probably
do a whole hour on
techniques and management of moves. But,
yeah, there's this
yeah. That's what elders do is lift lift
things. Yeah. But I I I believe there's
so much more to it. So,
the actual, you know, spirit of service and
reaching out, finding opportunities,
finding people that need things,
it can be as simple
as taking over a bowl of soup or
some bread or something,
a much more
emotional connection than moving somebody's piano or their
couch. Right.
So I I've been trying to magnify that,
and I found ways to
to do that in in other ways besides
moving. Now we still do move ins and
move outs. We still do that regularly,
but it's not the only thing we do.
And I'm I'm always on the lookout for
other opportunities and ways to to serve people,
and,
really, it's a it's another way of ministering.
So, I mean but but the moves can
be such that they can sort of be
the most demanding,
activity. Right? And so maybe just talk to
me. How did you how did you organize
that? If somebody's moving in or reaching out
or yeah. Let me, let me just mention
that there's two documents that you already have
loaded up on the what do you call
that? Your community on the In in Zion
Lab. Yep. We've built In the Zion Lab
in the elders quorum section. Correct? Yep. So
there's two two documents there
that I kinda use as as my,
operating instructions.
One is called the,
the movers and shakers squad,
which is what I call our group.
And then, the other one's on Soup Patrol.
So
we'll talk about Movers and Shakers first. So
Let's do that. When we when we,
came here, instead of calling it the QRF,
I called it the Movers and Shakers squad
or the M and S, which also
corresponds
to ministry and service. Right? Mhmm. So we
just call it the M and S list
or the M and S squad.
And, again, it's the volunteers that say, yes.
I wanna be on that list. I wanna
be
give me the opportunities to serve.
The other thing we there's a basic operating
principle that we use as small groups. We
don't do the
the mass gaggle approach of the you know,
just send out an email to the whole
quorum and then see who shows up. And
there's 12 guys, and there's really two guys
that unload the truck, and everybody else is
kinda
standing around. And that frankly, that's what you
talked about physically dangerous. I the more people
that are there that are not
actively, you know, moving things Yeah. Those actually
increases the the risk of things happening. Somebody,
you know, getting their
their knee hit or their, you know, fingers
pinched or something like that or tripping with
holding a heavy thing. So we we try
to work in small teams.
Team leader is is,
designated for each project.
Sometimes I'm the team leader. Sometimes other people
are the team leader.
There's not
in the other interview, they kinda misinterpreted it
like it was some kind of hierarchical
like, there's me, and then I got six
team leaders, and then they got their peep
no. It's not like that. It's just we're
all together.
And then for different projects that come up,
if there if there's more than two guys,
I'll
I'll just ask one person to be the
on scene team leader so he can kinda
make the on scene decisions. And that changes
from service assignment to service assignment. Yeah. There's
I mean, there's,
the other the other thing that came up,
last time was, well, how do you designate
these guys? How do you find these guys?
And I said, well, you probably already know
who they are. Any elders quorum presidency probably
knows who they're
their most,
willing, most most active members are. And the
ones that have
that are, you know, able to lift things
and do things and willing and, you know,
don't don't,
watch TV all day.
They're the ones that are the natural
beginnings of this, but then you start to
recruit. You start to to grow it.
And word gets around. People move in, and
then either you help them move and they
go, oh, that's great. You know? And they'll
say, okay. Would you like to help others?
And they say, oh, absolutely.
So today, we have about,
I'd say maybe 30 to 35 people. I
think I underestimated last time.
And I do everything
most of my work is on the phone,
on text messages.
Mhmm. Almost everything I do is coordinating just
with texts.
And
so,
you know, you're sending out opportunities.
Yeah. So you get word that the Joneses
are moving in, and then you'll approach a
specific individual, maybe hasn't, been the the the
lead on any the sign off the list.
First, I'll send out to the list. I
actually maintain three lists,
because I don't I I tried to keep
those lists,
you know, so they don't get unwieldly.
So, I'll send out, you know, hey. I
need I need, three let's say I already
know I'm going, so I need three more
guys. You know, we're gonna unload a U
Haul truck.
I need three guys
on Saturday at 8AM.
This you know, we're unloading a new member,
who can help. I mean, it's something very
short.
And then I also have a kind of
an ongoing
guidance that,
positive responses only, please. I don't I don't
need to hear why you can't come.
You know, that just Yeah. It,
it just junks up the system.
Because there's many reasons why people can't. There's
and good reasons. There's nothing wrong with with
not being able to come, but you don't
need to make an excuse for yourself. Just
And so that message goes out to the
entire core. The the message goes out to
those three lists. And then
within within I mean, our we're kind of
so forward leaning at this point that often
I get I get those first two or
three responses within
minutes or an hour. Mhmm. You know? Oh,
yeah. I can do it. You know? Somebody
will say, hey. I can't be there till
05:30. Can we do it at or or
till 08:30? Can we do it at 08:30?
So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. You know? So
then we then we just split that off,
into the team lead and the three other
guys and the people that are moving in,
and I'll make a new text group for
them Gotcha. And say, okay. Coordinate
the details among yourselves. Yeah. And and sometimes
they'll ask me a question. What was the
address again? And I'll fill it. But I
we don't we don't stay on the main
group and keep cycling through, so that actually
keeps the chatter down.
I mean, that's that's kinda nuts and bolts
technique, but,
you know, I'm not sure what you do.
These three lists that you have? What identifies
I just call it MS one, MS two,
and MS three. The third one is actually,
for young men leaders.
So the first two are just my regular
I'll call them regular Joe's in the oldest
quorum.
And,
and I just split that in two because,
I I don't wanna you know, I don't
want too big of a group. The third
one is for the young men leaders, and
and they're
often not often. Sometimes they'll they'll pitch in,
and sometimes, occasionally,
they'll say, hey. The the young men would
like to make this a service. Let's say
it's, you know,
trimming bushes in in widow Jones's yard. You
know? They'll say, oh, yeah. We could take
that on for the teacher's corps.
So Yeah. Yeah. Trying to work the young
men in is a is a ongoing
effort that I've had. There are some logistical
difficulties since I don't have their the young
men's phone numbers directly.
Mhmm. I go through the leaders.
So you'll first send out a blast to
that first list and see how many you
get, and then No. I go to all
three simultaneously.
Okay. Not simultaneously. Yeah. You hit them boom.
Boom. Boom. You know? Yeah. Yeah. And I
make sure that I have to manage those
lists to make sure people aren't on them
through, you know, different lists. And as people
move, I have to
reset it and Yeah. Gotcha.
But, yeah, those those those lists are essentially
the the
the guts of the system, if you will.
Yeah. Keeping who's on the list, who wants
to get the opportunities, and and the people
that are on it are now pretty well
used to getting
you know,
several times a week, they're gonna get something.
I need somebody like, we're working tonight on
setting up chairs at the for the trunk
or treat. Uh-huh.
Let let me make a point on that.
Yeah.
The setting up of chairs
and the the typical, you know, classroom setup
and I
personally, I don't consider that
service.
That's kinda like just
maintenance. It's running the ward. Right? Sometimes I
call it the self licking ice cream cone.
It's like, we're helping ourselves. Right? Uh-huh. So
I typically
in in the in the Vineyard Ward, I
actually
kinda put my foot down and said, hey.
Don't send me those kind of assignments,
to to work with my QRF. That that's
not what we do.
And I don't know. I felt I didn't
feel like that went over so well. So
I I accept those from my current elders
quorum president, and he'll send me those. And
I take them on, but I don't It's
not what I focus on. That's not what
we're really
we're not really about setting up chairs and
tables
for the next
activity or whatever. We'll do it. Funerals, we
get involved in funerals,
but there's kinda other mechanisms for that. Yeah.
So we're we're focused on just helping people
that need help. And it doesn't have to
be,
members. It doesn't have to be active members.
It doesn't even have to be in the
ward boundaries.
We've had some projects outside our boundaries.
Got helping somebody either move
from a different place into our
you know, go and pick their stuff up
and bring it in, or in a couple
times, just another ward needed help. And I
asked around, say, hey. You know? Who can
help out the the 7th Ward? You know?
They need they're in a pinch. They need
a couple guys who can help. Yeah. So
it's not just 3rd Ward. It's
so to me, it's like our whole area.
Does that make sense? And then once you
get, you know, people saying, hey. I can
help. Then out of that group, you pick
someone to sort of lead out?
Yeah. I'll I'll ask them. They'll just send
sometimes just the first guy that steps up.
But I, you know, I know all these
guys, so I I know who's who's got
the So what's the the lead's general responsibility?
It's pretty loose.
And,
you know, I'm I'm ex military, so I
have I have my own version of
how a leader should behave. Yeah. And it
might be a little more a little more
energetic than other people's. But, basically, I just
want I wanna hand that off and go,
okay. If there's any last minute details,
Kurt, you're the you you're the one that
works out,
the last
the last few details.
Yeah.
When does the truck show up? You know?
If there's a delay,
that's up to you to let your team
know.
Yeah. And, like, on a move, that person
that's what you have a piano dolly. You
know? And and, you know, oh, do do
you guys have a piano dolly? You know?
Yeah. So when that that person, you know,
have the phone number to the family, they're
moving and Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I
try to put the put the family into
the group.
Yeah. So when I pull off pull off
the the project group, the team group for,
you know, Kurt and I'm gonna go through
these names. Kurt and Steve and David and
Anden,
you guys are all going to the Jones',
you know, on Saturday morning.
So I'll make a group,
and then I'll plug in the fan the
Jones family, pro probably brother and sister Jones.
Yeah. Whoever's driving the truck for sure.
And then, puts you all in there. So
on Friday, you're talking to each other.
And if there's gonna be a delay or
the Joneses say, oh, we couldn't get a
U Haul truck after all.
We're gonna be there at ten instead of
eight. You know? You guys handle that. Yeah.
Makes sense.
So outside of moving assignments, like, what are
some typical,
service opportunities you get?
Let's not forget to talk about Supertrol.
Okay. That's a little kind of a sideline,
but,
it's it's related.
And it's it answers part of that question.
A lot of yard work kinda thing. We
have we're an older ward, so we have
a lot of elderly people,
retired, a lot of, single sisters,
a lot of people with chronic health conditions.
So,
there is,
usually, somebody needs
a garage. You know, they got
heavy things they need to get up on
the shelves.
Sometimes they wanna, you know, donate things. Oh,
can
we can somebody take this washer and dryer
and and take it to DI or whatever?
There have been a few
kind of longer term garage cleanup,
projects.
Mhmm.
I I mentioned building shelves for something that
we've done that a couple times.
Recently,
a pretty inactive member,
wanted help with his his lawn that was
pretty wrecked,
and, so we kinda mobilized for that. Some
guys went over on a Saturday and kinda
cleaned up his yard. He was very appreciative
and came to some got it got him
to church after a long time, but and,
of not going.
A
lot of these things are are ongoing. They're
not just,
you know, once and done.
What I have found, and it's kind of
obvious if you think about it, is any
kind of service is a bridge to more
fellowship,
missionary work. By the way, I have the
the elders on my they're one of the
on one of the lists. So they regularly
get,
oh, we need, you know, we need some
a couple of guys. And sometimes, if they're
not busy, they'll come and help. But, also,
I've let them know that we're a resource
for them.
So regardless of of where their investigator is,
if an investigator all of a sudden needs
some help,
let me know, and I'll I'll scramble to
help.
And, we'll get some people out. We've given
rides, and we've,
you know, just done basic basic cleanup type
stuff.
So there's there's fellowship opportunities,
ministry opportunities.
I I need to talk about the overlap
between the ministering brothers
and the the m and s list. So
don't let me forget that. Sure. But,
young men,
release cooperation with the release society.
I mean, this service
thread runs in many directions and can can
benefit
all kinds of other efforts and and amplify
them. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yep. So,
explain what Supertrol is.
So Soupatrol is an outgrowth of,
one of my good friends who has since
passed away,
Rob Dunlap, who brought me some soup while
I was suffering from COVID back in,
I can't remember what year. But, anyway, it
was going on. Somewhere in there.
I was not feeling happy. And he just
came over, brought me some some hot chicken
soup. It was great homemade. It was great.
And the it was the best thing about
it was he came to my house and
braved
the the dreaded gambuy and came in and,
you know, we talked and,
just you know, somebody's thinking about me. So
Soup Patrol
doesn't have to be soup, and it's not
really about the soup. It's really about going,
you know, saying hi and say, hey. We're
thinking about you. Here's some soup or some
homemade bread or some chili or Yeah. It
could be anything. Cookies,
store bought, whatever.
It's not about the soup. It's about, oh,
hey. We're thinking about you. We heard you
had a knee replacement, and you're can't go
anywhere. You know? Hey. How's that? Here's some
cake. You know?
And,
that has been
a a very
impactful
effort. So it's not I don't think of
it as
owned by the elders quorum, although it it
is in essence, it is. But anybody can
be as part of the sea patrol. So
Yeah. A couple, a family,
single guy, single lady,
can we do we rotate it by month.
So some like, we just finished our
my wife and I did Super Patrol this
month. I've got somebody lined up for next
month, and, you know, I just every month.
Yeah. And it could be done in a
number of other ways too. But the the
idea is they have something ready to go.
And when we hear about it, something they
just say, oh, do you have some soup
ready to go? And they go, oh, yeah.
Yeah. I just made some the other day.
Or we have some in the fridge, or
we have some in the freezer.
Okay. Well, so and so needs them. Now
here here's the way you tie it into
the m and s or to the, the
ministering system, ministering brothers or ministering sisters.
You contact
the ministering brothers or sisters. I call them
min bros, by the way.
So let the, let the min bros know.
And this goes for service projects too. As
soon as you find out that,
brother Smith is planning the move or he's
got a shed that he needs to tear
down or whatever,
one of the first things you could try
to do is reach out to the minbros
Yeah. And say, would you like to be
involved?
And then
depend now in our ward, like I said,
a lot of elderly guys,
it kinda takes a day or two to
get a response back.
And often, the thing has already passed. Like,
it's already things are already moving before the
minbros get on board. Right. But we have
some mixed success with telling the minbros,
hey. So and so needs hey. We need
some sandbags in his driveway to control the
flooding that comes down off the hill.
Can you help us get the sandbags up
there? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I'll meet you tomorrow
morning at 07:00. That just happened a couple
weeks ago. Mhmm. So me and the ministering
brother
met with,
the the brother that needed the help, and
we brought some sandbags up. That's a whole
another project that we have. Right. Sandbags ready
to go. But,
put sandbags up on his driveway to keep
the the floods from coming into his basement.
The flood waters, not the flood. But Yeah.
Yeah. So going back to the Supertrol, so
when it's it's someone's month to be the
to spearhead the Supertrol, they just just during
that month, they always make sure they have
soup on hand ready to go. Theoretically.
Yeah. Okay. I mean,
you know, things Okay. Things don't work perfectly.
Or or sometimes when somebody goes, oh, I
forgot. We already gave out the we don't
have any left. Okay. Well, we'll figure out.
You know? Yeah. Or they run to the
store or whatever. Right? Some people just run
to the store. Yeah. Or they're gone for
two weeks. You know? They go, oh, yeah.
We forgot. We don't have then we just
fill in this you know? We it's very
loose and very,
unstructured.
I have a saying,
the gospel of Christ is not a program.
Yeah. You know, it's things are not all
laid out neatly in a manual. Here's what
you do. You know, if this doesn't work,
do this, do this. Yeah. It's not a
manual of instruction. It's
what what's in your heart? How do you
how can you help people? And if everybody's
trying to help people, then it works pretty
well. So the idea is that the elders
quorum presidency may get wind or anybody in
the quorum may get wind that somebody's sick
or going through a hard time, and then
they activate the suit patrol that that person
would then
follow through with delivering that. That's right. Now
and ministering brothers and sisters can just go
to their to whoever's done, you know, and
pick up the suit.
Uh-huh. The the the the Soup Patrol person
doesn't even have to deliver it. They just
it's just just kind of a ready magazine,
ready to go. Yeah. Yeah. And and they
can deliver it. Sometimes they do deliver it.
Doesn't have to be in the ward again.
It could be somebody else. I I my
wife and I just took soup to a
friend of mine who lives in Santa Clara.
So,
very, very open ended. But
to me, the idea here is to
start to affect the culture of not just
the ward, but the whole community. Let's Yeah.
Let's start when we talk about Zion communities.
Right?
Well, how how is that really gonna work?
Well, to me, I mean, it's a small
step, but this is a this is a
step towards that.
Being ready to
step out of your comfort zone and go
talk to somebody outside
and say, oh, oh, I hear your,
you know, your,
your car got a flat tire and you
don't have a jack. You know? Can I
help? Yeah. And then so just to clarify,
like,
with the the the Super Patrol, are they
calling ahead, letting the the family know they're
bringing the suit? They just show up? Or
Depends.
Okay. One one of the,
typical things and this is maybe this is
just a, you know, American
culture thing, but,
you know, hey. We'd like to bring you
some oh, no. We're okay.
Don't worry about us.
So it it's a hit and hit and
miss. Depends on
it depends on who you're dealing with and
who you are. Yeah. I have often dropped
things off at the door, you know, left
a note or
or send them a text saying, hey. We
just brought you some cookies or whatever.
But, you know, you don't wanna leave something
on the door that's gonna get,
you know, raided by
the wild animals or whatever. Right. Right.
Often, we're just you know,
it's a surprise. You know? Oh, hi. Here's
some soup. One time, I remember going into
a lady's house. She was upstairs.
She let she buzzed us in.
She was upstairs recovering from something
and just said leave it on the kitchen
counter. And so we did, hi. Hi. How
are you doing? She's, you know, talking down
the stairwell at us. So, okay. We brought
you something. Just we're leaving it on the
counter. And then, you know, she she said,
oh, thank you. That was so good. You
know? So
it's really about being willing to go, not
not,
waiting and waiting for the perfect
time. Yeah.
Yeah. Is there is there anything you do
as far as with involving
everybody in the quorum, like so that you
don't get the same 10 people that are
always showing up for the moves, you know,
like, are you trying to Yeah. I I
have mixed success.
Yeah. As we So, yeah, I mean, we're
seeing a lot of the same guys, obviously.
And like I said, I get to know
all of them.
I try to rotate things around. I I
make a conscious effort. But our elders quorum
right now,
elders quorum president, Stuart,
he he's phenomenal. He's he's like, he would
do anything at any at any time.
And I'm constantly trying to say, no, Stuart.
You you know, you did the last you
sit you sit down. Let me work with
other guys. You know? And so I I
kinda have to keep him up because he's
got a whole lot of stuff to do.
He's working on,
you know, the welfare issues,
greeting new member. He's got a whole bunch
of tasks that he's working on. So I
I actually try to protect the elders corp
president
as I do the bishopric. I I try
not to
pass things on to the to see the
the bishopric do things.
And,
you know, I try to try to relieve
these leaders of of this burden.
Yeah. Makes sense. But I also don't wanna
you know, they wanna do it.
So I'm not gonna say no.
I might say no once, but if they
really persist, I was okay. Alright. Come on,
Stewart. Be there tomorrow at eight. Yeah. And
I'm thinking, you know, there may be people,
you know, resistant to showing up to a
move, and you can approach them and say,
how about you do SuperTroll this week this
month. Right? And it's less of a physical
task and more of just service. Right? Right.
Right. Is there anything else? And I I
love the SuperTroll thing because it's such it's
kind of this universal thing. Like, everybody's eating
and, yeah, maybe it's not a big deal
or but maybe someone lost their job or
they're just had a rough day or whatever.
Like, you you know, whether they're sick or
not, that's, kind of a universal thing you
can do to serve.
I think another part of the service coordinator,
at least in my org, like, we don't
have a we've kinda gone through our phase
of move ins. You know, everybody's sort of
settled.
We have a lot of young couples who
are you know, maybe they have a have
an infant of you know, we have the
machine of the of the compassionate service and
the newborns, you know, bringing meals after births
is you know, that's, definitely
dialed in.
I'm just like, the big part of it
is just finding service
opportunities.
And even if it's like sometimes we don't
even know someone's been sick, you know, or
we don't know
there's it kinda feels forced at times. You
know? Like, well, let us know if there's
anything we can do, but, no, there's not
really. I mean, I'm good. Or my brother's
down the road or you know? Yeah. I'm
besides just waiting
for the next move in,
I I'm
usually
sending messages out. I'm,
talking to people in, I I have time
in elders quorum, so
I'll I'll use that time and say what
what things might be coming up, or I'll
thank people for the you know, showing up
at this particular project. But I'm also asking,
who do you know? If you know any
people,
you know, there's always the suit patrol who
who'd like you know, do you know anybody
that's sick? But, also, what do we know
about other projects coming up?
So we we have a little bit of
a discussion about that. And then I've been
doing it long enough in this ward that
people know that,
you know, if there's if there's an issue,
people will get ahold of me or they'll
get ahold of Stewart as the elders' former
president, and I'll find out quickly. I mean,
you gotta have your feelers out. You know?
Don't just sit back and wait. You gotta
go and do. Go and do. You gotta
be proactive.
Yeah. And,
there are many things. There are lots of
opportunities if you just keep keep asking.
Yep. Yep. And I I just love just
the this culture of service that comes. You
know, people start to understand what what Ajax
is doing and, you know, what oh, you
know, there there's sort of the system.
They can reach out, send a message.
You know? And then I think these things
will come up a lot easier as Now
let me all the members are aware. Challenge,
though.
And I've been doing this long enough to
where everybody knows me,
and I'm the guy to go to, but
I now I'm to the phase of I
need to
I need to stop
talking about what I do. You know?
I guess maybe I'm narcissistic enough to where,
you know, it kinda comes across that way.
But I for the last couple of years,
I've been actually
understanding that I'm trying to build this culture
so other people are getting involved, and other
people are getting excited about it, and other
people are going out and finding projects. And
and and I've had a little bit of
success with that. But, yeah, I am I
am concerned that,
you know, if I'm not here
to make this work, then what's gonna happen?
I'm trying to get an assistant that's that's
proactive enough to to work on that.
I would love to have a a a,
you know, twenty year younger version that I
could,
like, would transplant all these ideas and go,
okay. Now you
but,
I do think that that's part of why
I've started reaching out to some of these
LDS podcasts. It's like, I I think there's
people that would really benefit the the people
that could be service coordinators
that would benefit. I mean, it's so great
to be able to go out and serve
people.
And it's,
I didn't really talk about this in the
beginning, but one of my motivations is,
you know, if you if things aren't going
if you if you get inside your own
head too much, then you start
and I'm retired, so this all started after
I retired. But,
you know, instead of thinking about your own
problems and
your own you know, or or, you know,
what vacation you're gonna take next,
start looking around and go, well, how can
I help people?
And it changes your whole attitude. It changes
you spiritually.
And,
so
I think, you know,
let a thousand service coordinators bloom all over
the all over the church. Yeah.
And and I would love to,
to,
exchange ideas with others. There there are service
coordinators out there. I'm not I'm not the
only one. You're not. I'm not that big
of a genius. So so there's
other people I wonder if we have more
apostles or service coordinators in the in the
church. I think there's a lot more service
coordinators. I have I I when I first
started, like, becoming aware that, oh, there's this
calling, I thought, well, no one has ever
talked about this. But, no, there are there's
a few other wards at my stake that
have service coordinators.
And now that I started,
you know,
plugging into Discord and some other places, yeah,
there are service coordinators out there. And they
and they have ideas, and they have cool
stories, and they have exciting things they're doing.
So I would like to, like, get that
get that community going. Yeah. For sure. Let
me Yeah.
Let me mention another,
challenge
is that,
maybe challenge is too strong, but but you
need to be aware
of
how you mesh with the relief society.
So
in in a lot of ways and in
many wars I've been in, the Relief Society
is doing its thing. It's in a silo
over here,
and then the elders quorum is in its
silo.
And they're just doing you know, they're they're
working away, but they don't necessarily talk to
each other.
It's not that way in all words, so
maybe, you know, maybe that doesn't apply. No.
That's fine. But,
I think that the service coordinator
and the compassionate service leaders ought to be
communicating regularly, and I'm
that's something I'm still working on trying to
get that going. And you shouldn't compete with
them. Like, Soup Patrol is not a substitute
or a competitor to the meals that Relief
Society does. Right.
They you know, the Soup Patrol thing is
just a quick hit. It's like, oh, somebody
need you know, somebody got their ankle busted
and, you know,
let's let's take them, some hot bread.
But they might need meals for the next
week or two, and that's a release side
thing. There's no intent
to
displace or compete with what the release side
the ministering efforts that the men that the
release side does every day. There's no intent
for that.
You should try to figure out ways to
mesh and ways to work together
and complement each other. So are you in
communication with the commercial service
either? Or Nominally, yes.
Uh-huh. I I I wish I did more
on that.
So Yeah. But the the I guess the
point being, don't let it let, you know,
each group retreat to their silos and just
sort of there's there's a lot we can
learn and a lot more people we can
serve effectively by working together.
Right. Yeah. Right. I mean, the Relief Society
has a lot of they've got their feelers
out through the through the sisters and through
you know, they know,
when somebody's struggling or something. And often, that
that's been worked on, and then it goes
it goes up to the to the, ward.
What's the what's it called there?
I can't remember. But the the meeting that
they have The word council? Or Ward council.
Excuse me. I I was gonna say correlation,
but it's the it's the word council that
talks about those issues. So so let's you
know? Some sister so and so,
lost her job, and now she's struggling and,
you know, and that that comes up
to the to the word council. Word council
talks about it, and then maybe meals start.
And then it could be a week or
two before the elders corps member finds out
about it. Unless somebody makes an effort, he
goes, oh, let's talk to the elders corps
president.
And then
it trickles down, and then it comes across,
oh, hey. We have this guy. He's the
service coordinator. Maybe he could help
do the, you know, trim the bushes. You
know? And it's, like, two weeks later.
So I'd like to see that sped up
so that
Yeah. When the release society finds out, Elvis
Coram and and me find out and vice
versa.
Yeah. So every everybody's kinda energized at the
same time. Yeah. You know, and we are,
we do have that,
you know, the,
admonition to seek out the poor and the
needy. Right? So sometimes we kinda wait around,
like, for people to approach us, but,
you know, the more proactive we can be
to seek these opportunities out, I mean, that's
where Right. Where our discipleship
should be focused.
To to me, the seek the service effort
is a multidisciplinary,
you know, crosses boundaries.
I've already mentioned, you know, the elders getting
involved, the missionaries getting involved. I I have,
a good he's a neighbor of mine, the
the award mission leader. Mhmm. And he he
knows that he can reach out to, to
the M and S list and and the
super patrol anytime.
And if we if he has an investigator
or somebody that he's working with,
we'll we can chip in. Yeah.
The,
I mentioned the youth, the young men, young
women.
I could do more there. I I wish
that the young men and young women had
more I mean, they have their own opportunities,
but I think we could be tighter in
sync and it could give them even more
opportunities.
And we need more young bodies.
In our ward, we got
willing old guys with weak knees and weak
backs.
So I'm always on the prowl for somebody
with, you know, with fresh meat. So when
when somebody under 40 moves into our award,
I'm typically
when they give their first talk, I'm I'm
up there. Hey. How are you doing? I
heard you let you know? Seeing how firm
that handshake is. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Oh, do
you have a truck?
Exactly.
Yeah.
That's awesome. And so things like
well, does I know sometimes we'll get from
our area, our steak, we'll get, you know,
canning assignments, like church
formal service assignments that way. Is is that
something you ever deal with? I I try
not to deal with those. Like I said,
it's and to me, it's kinda like the
self licking ice cream cone. Uh-huh. That's that's
a little pejorative. I shouldn't maybe I shouldn't
use that term so much. But,
for example, though, the state president has come
to me to, this is the second year
to do a Christmas lighting program
at the at the Saint George Temple.
So we there's multiple stakes that get involved.
They come and they set up the lights
and, you know, it's kind of a big
deal.
So the state president knows that, you know,
I'm very active in this. So he he
asked me last year, and it was fun,
and I enjoyed it. And
so I'm the
the crew chief for that project
and our stake.
So it's kind of an outgrowth of just
my
activity of, you know, trying to
help people in it whenever.
But
the typical,
ward assignment
type stuff,
I
like, you know, and we need six guys
to go to the temple or do you
know?
I I I usually stay away from those.
We don't have any more steak canning assignments
that I know of. Mhmm. At least I'm
not aware. Maybe I'm maybe that's an area
I I could plug into. But nobody in
our ward ever comes up and goes, hey.
We need six people to go to the
Bishop's Storehouse.
That doesn't happen here. Maybe it does elsewhere.
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. That's really good. Any other
point principle concept that we missed? Or
Yeah. The the cross channel
communication, I think, is is key.
Communication is everything about this this particular calling.
I think a lot of guys would be
would have
the temptation
to just do it themselves.
And and I have that as well. It's
like, oh, and I I find there's a
second thing I really wanna talk about.
But, yeah, instead of
just going, oh, yeah. Well, I you know,
I'll be there and I'll do that.
You can do it. A lot of times,
it's simple. Oh,
sister so and so needs
the a cactus in their backyard taken out
and put in the trash. You know?
I could do that in five minutes.
But
her neighbor, two doors down,
young guy, just moved into the ward, still
trying to figure things out. You know, if
you get him involved, now now he's got
a connection with with her, and he's just
two doors down.
So try to build the linkages as you
go and get other people involved instead of
just doing everything yourself. And and there is
always a max capacity. One person can't do
everything. So
instead of sometimes it takes more time and
more effort to get other people
the opportunity than just do it yourself. So
Yeah. Try to work on the coordination and
not the execution side.
Yeah.
The other big thing that I I have
been working on for my own personality and
my own growth is
to use the the opportunities for service as
as spiritual
development
for everybody.
And,
this goes into maybe too much detail, but
it's easy to get frustrated at stuff when
you're on moves and other projects and get
impatient
and,
you know, like I already mentioned, guys standing
around and stuff. So it's easy to kinda
get flustered and, hey. Come on. Let's get
going. Let's and it'd be more directive and,
but
instead of thinking about the mission, accomplishing unloading
the truck, you know, planting the the sod,
fixing the plumbing, instead of, you know, thinking
about that,
which is is valuable. I'm not I'm not
deprecating it. It's important to get the job
done.
But
what's more important is the feeling and the
the camaraderie and the and the spiritual connection
you have with those people and with the
people you're working with.
I haven't made this a
a
common practice,
but I've I'm try I'm trying to figure
out ways to do it is before we
actually start the project, we should just have
a little prayer.
I I I've done it once or twice,
but it's
amazingly hard because everybody's showing up at different
times. And when they show up, they're some
of them are like, okay. Let's go. Tell
me where to go. You know? It's like,
calm down, brother. Come over here. Let's say
a little prayer. And and and I'm not
that way either. I'm the one that's like,
okay. Let's go. Let's go. But
take a beat,
pull off to the side, say a little
prayer. It could be saying a prayer when
the person's living room with them. Yeah. You
know?
And so the spiritual side is something that
I've been trying to work on myself and
trying to instill that with others. I'm
I'm more of a practical
worker than a spiritual worker, so it's something
I need to work on. No. That's that's
really helpful advice to make sure that that
that component is part of it. Right?
A few questions here that, people written in.
Any
do did you say you called each one
of those three lists as the mover and
shaker list one, two, and three. Right? Right.
Yeah. That's just
I I don't know. It was the fastest
way to put EMS. Yeah. Okay. Could have
other way other reasons to call it something
else. By the way, those names are, like,
just little cutesy names. You could do call
it. In in the in the manual,
it call you say something about a service
committee.
Yeah. You know? Like,
there's a service committee. Well,
in in essence, that's what my lists are.
But nobody's there's no calling for them. There's
no nobody's assigned.
It's just do would you like to be
on this list? Would you like to get
these these texts, and would you like to
be involved?
So and then we don't have meetings. There's
no meetings.
So you don't necessarily with if someone moves
into the ward, they don't automatically go on
one of these lists. You, like, actually No.
No. I have to I recruit them. Okay.
And sometimes like, there's a guy right now
that I've
I've reached out to
because he's, like, 64 and two two forty,
and he I know he can move a
piano.
And he's young, and I'm I'm waiting for
his response, but I don't know. May maybe
he's busy. You know? Maybe Sounds like he
needs some soup. But He's a young father,
so, you know, he's
maybe he's maxed out.
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So that that's good. So
they're not just the it's not just the
quorum split up into three groups. These individuals
you've invited to be part of,
the service. And and,
that so
let me reiterate.
That little group could be seen as
some kind of a little sub,
you know,
elite group of ministers, you know, that
and and there is some concern in the
word leadership about
use not the what's the word? Displacing
and taking away opportunities from the ministering
brothers and sisters.
And we we're trying not to do that.
That's why I say if the if a
project comes in, the I will look because
I have access. I I don't know how
many people do. Maybe it has to be
turned on. But I can see who the,
ministering brothers and ministering sisters are. Mhmm. So
let's say I find out that, you know,
brother Anderson
needs help.
I'll I'll look at brother Anderson's profile and
on on LDS tools, and I'll see, oh,
yeah. Well, he's got these two ministry brothers.
And I'll I'll send them a text because
nobody answers their phone anymore.
I'll send them a text,
say, would you like to be involved?
You know, I understand you're the elder you're
the ministering brothers for brother Anderson,
and he needs help with this. Could you
be involved?
And then if they come back to me
in a relatively fast time frame,
then then I'll plug them in. They could
be the team lead. They could they could
do it. If there's two of them and
it's a two man job, they could do
it.
But what typically happens about 75%
of the time is I don't get a
response back,
or I get a response from one and
he's out of town.
So we just move ahead. But then they're
they're still in the loop because there might
be a follow on.
So it's a way to tie in. Hey.
Now they know about this need of this
family that they have
that is their assignment. It's their priesthood assignment.
So it helps it helps the administering brothers
and sisters as well. Now I don't do
that typically on the sister side,
but if it's,
if it's a single sister, for example, I'm
I might so I'm trying to get the
ministering brothers and sisters involved,
and I I think that's an important part
of this. Because, again, you don't wanna set
up a separate system. That wouldn't be
that wouldn't be correct.
Yep. Yep. Very good.
And then anything like, as far as how
you are these just lists you have in
your phone that then you text them all,
like or do you have a different system?
I'm very informal about it, and Again. It
actually could be more structured, I suppose. There's
people that are a little more organized.
When I went on Salty Saints, one of
their guys talked about when he was an
elders corps president, he maintained a spreadsheet
of needs.
So, you know, people that needed service or
needed something.
And then
his service coordinator
and his counselors
could look at that
and then go, oh, I I know somebody
that can help that or that. You know?
I don't know how well that worked. I
haven't talked to him more, but that's another
another method that you could use,
or at least
they those things could work together. The list
and the the needs matrix could kinda work
together.
Yep. I'm not saying my my ways are
the only ways. There are other methods out
there, and I Yep. I could use some
more ideas.
Yep. Well, Ajax, I really appreciate you just
sharing all this and, yeah, let's keep the
conversation going in, over in the elders quorum,
group in, in Zion lab, as people have
different experiences or thing they've, they've tried. Like,
I'd like to start, you know, kind of
interacting in that forum and see if, see
if other people have experiences and
yeah, things we can talk through. Good stuff.
Last question I have for you, Ajax is
as you reflect on your time as a
service,
coordinator for your elders quorum, how has this
role helped you become a better follower of
Jesus Christ?
Yeah. Like, like I was mentioning, I, I
have learned to be
more,
you know, how would Christ do this?
That's
questions. I'm asking myself more and more instead
of just how how can we get it
done? It's like, how can this be done
in a spiritual way?
And that concludes this how I lead interview.
I hope you enjoyed it. And, I would
ask you, could you take a minute and
drop this link in an email, on social
media, in a text, wherever it makes the
most sense, and share it with somebody who
could relate to this experience. And this is
how we develop as leaders, just hearing what
the other guy is doing, trying some things
out, testing, adjusting
for your area, and,
that's where great leadership's discovered. Right? So we
would love to have you, share this with,
somebody in this calling or a related calling.
And that would be great. And also if
you know somebody,
any type of leader who would be a
fantastic guest on the, how I lead segment,
reach out to us. Go to leadingsaints.org/contact.
Maybe send this in individual an email letting
them know that you're going to be suggesting
their name for this interview. We'll reach out
to them and,
see if we can line them up. So,
again, go to leadingsaints.org/contact,
and there you can submit all the information
and let us know. And maybe they will
be on a future how I lead segment
on the Leading Saints podcast.
It came as a result of the position
of leadership which was imposed upon us
by the God of heaven who brought forth
a restoration
of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And when the declaration was made
concerning the own and only true and living
church upon the face of the earth,
We were immediately put in a position of
loneliness.
The loneliness of leadership
from which we cannot shrink nor run away,
and to which we must face up with
boldness
and courage
and ability.