I have some great handouts that I will post on my Visiting Teaching Surprise blog that go along with blogging, which is what you are doing right now. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am doing a little "Creation Station" in the Alpine Stake Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment in about a week or so. I just turned in my handouts that will be put on a blog that they are creating for their sisters to download their own handouts instead of printing thousands of copies. Great idea huh??? Anyway...I spent so many hours working on my handouts that I thought I would share them with you. Who knows, you might be a blogger without a blog, so if you want to learn how to make and Ingeniously Incredible blog... just go to my other blog... once again it is called Visiting teaching Surprise located at http://visitingteachingsurprise.blogspot.com/ and you can download them too, and of course it is always for free. Enjoy! Love, Katie

February 2009 Visiting Teaching message

I thought I would give you all a head start for your Visiting Teaching in February. The new message is located at http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,2044-1-4737-1,00.html but you can always get it out of your Feb. 2009 Ensign as well. I like to have a copy on the Internet to print out and mark up then I can keep my Ensign neat and tidy for reading. One thing I like to do for Visiting Teaching is to print off copies for the sisters that I teach because inevitably one or more sister, or all of them have not gone out to give the message to those they teach. This is sort of a subtle reminder and putting the lesson into their hands gives them a gentle nudge to go get theirs done. See.... there is method to my madness. Anyway, I will be back with some cute ideas for the new month once Feb. hits, and so keep checking back for some great new ideas and handouts. Oh and if you have not done your visiting teaching for January...."Go Girl"... you have a few more days to get it done.

I am continually reminded everywhere I go that there is a need for literacy among us. I love to learn for myself and I enjoy the wonderful finds of resources on the Internet. I am always amazed and understand the time and effort it must have taken to put these programs to help others on the Internet. I have added a new section to this blog, on the left hand column.... listing wonderful links to literacy. I hope you will take some time to visit these sites or at least those that interest you. Remember...."The Glory of God IS Intelligence!" All of us can find another area to become alittle more literate in. Enjoy!

If your Ward or Stake creates a blog or any of the organizations in your Ward or Stake creates a blog, please let me know in the comments section. I would like to be a resource for everyone to get ideas about what other Wards and Stakes all over the world are doing. Great ideas are worth sharing and since we are all working toward the same goal, let's share. Please let me know by clicking on "Comment" below and give me the link to the blog. I will post all the links on this blog, so everyone can enjoy each others great ideas! Thanks, and "Happy Blogging"!

A GREAT IDEA FOR YOU! HOW ABOUT WARD RELIEF SOCIETY BLOGS?
I have been getting some feedback on this blog with regard to blogging and the most recent comment was from Debbie in Southern California. She said that her ward Relief Society was setting up a blog and asked me some questions about how to do it. WHAT A GREAT IDEA TO DO A RELIEF SOCIETY BLOG!!!! What a terrific way to get out information to your sisters including your monthly calendars, (go paperless and put everything on your blog & save printing costs for Enrichment treats...YUM!) Add upcoming events, announcements, and what about all those scrumptious recipes that are served in Enrichment meetings, ward dinners, or whenever? You could have all those recipes on that blog for sisters to click on, save to their own computers and print out for themselves. This could save so much time as well as money for all the copying that you now do. How about the great handouts from Sunday R.S. Lessons, or other handouts from Enrichment's?.... Post them on your blog for everyone to enjoy! The ideas for sharing great information and ideas are limitless by setting up your own Relief Society blogs. You know, appropriate blogging is not just for fun, but it is for literacy, learning, sharing and service as well and all of these things and more. Isn't that what Relief Society(ing) is all about?

When you get your own Ward's Relief Society blog set up, ( & FYI - you can set up a blog for free!!!) contact other wards who also have their blogs set up and add a link to theirs so you sisters can gleam the ideas of other wards. Make sure to add my blog link to your blogs so that your sisters can get some great ideas, tips and handouts that I make on a monthly basis to go along with their visiting teaching lessons. (http://visitingteachingtips.blogspot.com )

Another idea along with this is that maybe some of your ward sisters have their own blogs. Many LDS Women have great blogs that give service through their blogs for others to use. Add those links to your blog as well. It's sort of like LDS Women's inspiration, uniting through this new blogging technology... Sisters helping sisters from all over the world.

I really enjoy when LDS women throughout the world comment or contact me through my blog(s) with a nice comment, question or suggestion. It is great to see that the efforts I make on behalf of sharing my ideas, get noticed, used, and enjoyed in far away places. I am going to be doing a little teaching demo or as they call it "Creation Station" at a Stake Enrichment in Alpine, Utah in February, and my topic is on "Blogging." I have been in the process of collecting LDS women's blog links of interest to me to share at this event. So far I have collected 2 pages worth of blogs relating to Homemaking, food storage, emergency preparedness, Family Home Evening, Recipe blogs, Enrichment ideas, food preserving, gardening, Grains, and so forth. I love these creative blogs and I get so much good and useful information from them. I will have this list to pass out to the sisters who come to that Stake Enrichment as well as be able to show them my blogs and share my ideas about really good appropriate blogging. If you would like to pass on your appropriate blog link to me that has really useful infomrmation worth passing on to others, please email me at katie1956gauger@mindspring.com In February, I will post on this blog, the links that I have collected for you to enjoy too, so come back and get them and all the other fun things I will have created for you & I to use.

Have fun blogging!!!! Oh and there is a comment about blogging on at LDS.org on the Relief society page found at http://www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,4644-1,00.html listed under "A Call for young adult sisters". This was a suggestion for Young Women to do some service and then "BLOG" about it. I hate to say this but I am an "oldster", but I love to blog too! Hey other "OLDSTERS" catch the vision too! Let's blog together! Leave me a comment!

I was reading at the LDS Church website, in particular under Relief Society and went to the page on "Visiting Teaching". I loved how it described what Visiting teaching is all about. I urge you to go to http://www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,4691-1,00.html and with humility...read. It should not only provide the vision of what you are suppose to do as a Visiting Teacher, but motivate you to be the very best Visiting Teacher you can be! You should catch the spirit of Visiting teaching!