Home and Visiting Teaching

I need to develop a list - 101 Uses for Visiting Teachers or something like that. Okay, I probably couldn't come up with 101 uses, but there are quite a few.

Visiting teaching is so much more than visiting or receiving a visit once a month. It's, as the LDS.org Relief Society website says, "watchcare" over those we are assigned to.

How many of us think to turn to our visiting teachers FIRST when we need something? Need some babysitting while you go to a doctor appointment? Call your visiting teachers! Do you need to borrow a cup of sugar? Call your visiting teachers! Need a ride to the temple? Call your visiting teachers!

And, as visiting teachers assigned to care for those we visit, we should gladly give the service. If we are unable to ourselves, we should be wiling to help her find someone who CAN help. Maybe you can't babysit at that time but know someone who will be able to. Don't just say, "No, I can't." Say, "let me give you some ideas on who might be able to." It's essentially the same as providing good customer service. Only, the master we are serving is not a retailer, but the Lord. We should have a deep desire to represent Him well.

As the Bishop's house, we sometimes get phone calls from ward members with requests that really could be handled by home and visiting teachers. Most of the time, they didn't even think to call them. We have come to the conclusion that it's because many people either don't know who they are or don't want to "bother" them. Well, you should be no bother to them and they have more stewardship over your care than the Bishop does.

Don't know who your home or visiting teachers are? Ask! Ask the Elders Quorum President or High Priest Group Leader or Relief Society President. Don't see them? Invite them over. Seriously! Catch them at church and say, "We're free tonight. Would you like to come over and do your home teaching?" Mark has done that many times. We often promise them some of his famous chocolate chip cookies if they come. Sometimes the reason people don't come is that they haven't come in SO LONG that they are embarrassed about it now. You can help them get back in the swing of things by inviting them over. If they don't come that month, do it again. You should not be ashamed in asking them to perform their priesthood duty.

I really, truly believe that if members of the church did their home and visiting teaching visits every month and then took it a step farther and truly ministered and watched over those they visited, that people and wards would be transformed into Zion. Love for one another would dramatically increase and gossip and back-biting would dramatically decrease.

Visiting those we are assigned to is really a very simple thing to do. Let's all shoot for 100% this and every month from now on. Then let us learn to truly love and care for those we visit by looking for opportunities to serve them - even if it's not convenient or sometimes even hard.

A Thought For Visiting Teaching

We are having our Visiting Teaching Conference next week and the theme is "Angels". I found this quote that I just love. It's truly the spirit of visiting teaching. We must embrace our partners and those that we visit in order to "fly".

Drive-By Visiting Teaching Interviews

We are holding our Visiting Teaching interviews this coming weekend. We know everyone is busy and so is our presidency - half of us work full-time. So, we are going to get the job done!

We are making it super easy - the sisters will sign up for a time between 9 and 11 am. They will literally just drive into the church parking lot and one of the presidency members will hop in the car with them and do the interview. The sisters will get a muffin and some juice and HOPEFULLY a fun thing to hang off their rear view mirrors to remind them to do their visiting teaching and then we'll send them on their way.

We're telling them to "come as you are"! If they want to come in their jammies on a Saturday morning, they can.

The only thing that would make it more fun is if we had a literal drive-up window at the church, but, we can't have them driving into the bushes! I don't think the Bishop would appreciate that.

Chaity Never Faileth

We have had more than our share of mishaps and illness in our ward this summer. We have one sister who was in a head-on freeway collision (with a drunk 17 year old girl) and has been in the hospital since August. We had one sister with MS fall and break her hip. Another who suffers from chronic illness ended up in the hospital with cellulitis. And another who just finished up chemo from a double mastectomy.

Our poor (and totally awesome) Compassionate Service leader has been run ragged. Last Sunday she was chasing down helpers for 4 different lists for food and visits. The other women in our ward have stepped up and been totally AWESOME! The visiting teachers for these sisters in need have been too!

Last Sunday, our Relief Society lesson was on Unity and I will say that nothing creates unity more than the need for charity. When Mark was in the hospital last year with Encephalomyelitis, several people commented that his illness really brought the ward together. We were served in amazing and humbling ways over that three month period from the simplest prayer to the brother who came every Saturday until late Fall to mow our lawn to the youth who came and cleaned up our yard for the winter. Everyone was looking to help.

There is nothing so nourishing to the soul as to serve one another. I am so grateful that service is a big part of the LDS culture. If there were more people in the world who served those around them, the world would be a much better place.

This Ain't Your Momma's Relief Society President!

Our Relief Society President ROCKS! Actually, she ROLLS, too! She is a petite Harley Ridin' Momma and it cracks me up! Who says women in the church have to be prim and proper?

I hear rumors that our Primary President loves a good ride on her husband's Harley, too. Now, if the Bishop could just convince HIS wife that he needs a bike (um, over somebody's dead body and it won't be mine), all those nasty parking problems at our church building would be alleviated (he's a giver...).

She's got a pretty important career and shows up professionally dressed to RS on Sundays. But on Saturdays, she's all about leather and doo-rags.

It's like some {not so} secret life. Ride on, Sister P!!!!

Actually, her husband (and my photo partner in crime) sent me an article yesterday about Harley Ridin' Mormons who rumble up to the temple on their bikes: LINK. I asked him if they were going to join the gang, but he said his rebel days are behind him. :-)