Visiting Teaching Tips, Handouts and Ideas

Have you looked at the calendar lately? It is May 18th and the month is half over. Have you done your Visiting Teaching yet? I just thought I should remind you because with all the end of the year programs, recitals, ballgames, and such, everyone gets really busy. Do your best to get a visit with your sisters, I should talk because I have not done mine yet. My Visiting Teaching partner and I spoke on Sunday and told each other of how busy our weeks are looking. We could only find one day and a short period of time to fit it in, so we are hoping that our ladies can see us. If not, we are going to belong to the "last week of the Month club"... ha, ha!

I just wanted to share with you, my readers, some good news for my husband and I. A few weeks ago, we just completed serving an 18 month part time mission in the LDS Addiction Recovery Program as missionaries. http://providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,8517-1-4751-1,00.html We opened up the Spanish Speaking branch of our mission and served there, even though I didn't speak Spanish.( My husband does Speak Spanish) A wonderful thing happened, that I can testify to you that the Lord is mindful of our needs when we are in His service.

I had agreed to serve that particular mission in Spanish, knowing full well that I don't speak, but prayed continually and had a prayer in my heart that I could somehow be able to participate. The Lord truly blessed me, and though I didn't learn to speak the language, He blessed me to understand much of what was said in our meetings. When the Spirit is present, miracles can happen. I feel so blessed to have had the Spirit touch my mind and heart and give me understanding. When you are in the service of our Heavenly Father, He definitely keeps an eye on you.

I wanted to let you know of a story of my Grandmother Robinson, who I loved dearly. She was so kind and good and always had a smile on her face. She was assigned to Visit teach a woman who over the years had developed the reputation of being the meanest woman in her ward. She had been assigned Visiting Teachers over the years but none of them were able to get her to answer her door and let them in. My Grandmother took on this assignment and was absolutely determined that this mean old Lady would not prevent her from doing her Visiting Teaching.

One day, she and her companion had tried to call this woman to make an appointment with her, but just like the others before them, she would not answer the phone. This was before answering machines. My Grandmother and her partner just decided that they would go to this woman's home and try to visit with her. They marched up to the front door and knocked. They knocked again, and no one came to the door. My Grandmother looked around porch to a window and could see that this mean old woman was sitting right there and just ignoring their knocks.

This got up my Grandmothers dander a bit, and instead of leaving like all the others before her, she was determined that if she was nice enough to come to visit, this woman should have the courtesy to come to the door. At that, instead of knocking, my grandmother began to kick on the door which really made alot of noise. I am sure her companion was embarrassed, but still she continued.
Suddenly the door opened and to my Grandmothers surprise, there stood this kindly looking old woman with a smile on her face. The woman then said, "Thank-you for knocking so loudly on my door, I am very hard of hearing, almost deaf and I don't hear much at all." She invited her visiting teachers inside, and as they introduced themselves as he Visiting Teachers, the old woman replied, " I have not had any visiting teachers or visits from anyone in my ward for so long, I am happy to finally have some".

You can imagine the joy that my Grandmother felt from gaining an understanding about this woman's hearing problems,so that she and her Visiting Teaching companion could fulfill their calling and serve this lonely sister. I believe that my Grandmother was inspired to do what she did because I know that the Lord will put us in places so that His work can be fulfilled.

Now, back to my good news. We had resubmitted papers to serve as missionaries for another 18 months in the same LDS Addiction Recovery Mission, but in a different area, and finally we received word that our call had been sent to our Stake President this past week. We can now begin serving our second mission together. It is a wonderful blessing to be able to be a missionary, whether full time or part time. For me this is the best of both worlds, because I can still live in my own home,enjoy my family and grandchildren, but serve the Lord on a mission.

There are so many opportunities for mission service, and not just full time opportunities. Some people don't feel they can leave their homes for whatever reason, but they can still serve so many different kinds of missions. As for me and my husband, we are not retired and my husband is still working full time, so doing a full time mission for us, isn't a possibility. That is why we are serving a part time mission. Part time mission calls require at least 6 hours a week of service. That really isn't much more than many of us do in the preparation for our own Ward callings. I wanted to share this with you so that you can know that there are so many ways we can serve the Lord. Visiting Teaching is one of them, and what counts is that we are all giving service in the ways that we can. Without this kind of service, Wards and Stakes couldn't function. What a blessing we are given as members of this church as we receive opportunities to Serve the Lord.