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PROVO
- Mark Smith, bishop of the Brigham Young University 937th Ward was released this week after serving
in the calling for only three months. The susprise release comes after
a severe drop in meeting attendance since he was sustained.
George Johnson, a counselor in the stake presidency, explains
the action, "We came for a visit and nobody showed up for the meetings. We decided we had to do something."
At first, stake officials were very concerned. A careful investigation of ward records, however,
revealed that the drop in attendance did not indicate the entire ward had become inactive. Rather, records revealed
that all members of the
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ward had recently gotten married and could no longer attend the
singles-only unit.
Johnson said, "We were very surprised and pleased with what Bishop Smith
could accomplish in such a short time. Other bishops have taken years to achieve the same result."
When contacted, Bishop Smith refused to take credit for the achievement. "This has been
a great cooperative effort on the part of everyone," explained Smith, "the Elder's Quorum President, Relief Society President, and
other ward leaders all did their part to help out. They were also willing to practice what they preached, which made
it a lot easier for everyone else."
Apparently, some of the
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ward member Nicholas Music last week had been the ward's activity chairperson.
"She came up with the idea,"
claims Smith, "of setting aside fifteen minutes or so after every activity to allow couples who had gotten
engaged during the activity to make a formal announcement. I really think the added peer pressure
got some of the more bashful ward members to make up their minds.
Bashful or not, the "proposal periods" apparently were a main
attraction. Smith explains that after the first few times, they had so many
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