Visiting Teaching

I am just finishing up Visiting Teaching interviews for our ward. There are about 100 visiting teachers. We got 40 to come in for an interview and are trying to talk to the rest by phone. It is very interesting to see the different responses to the calling to be a visiting teacher. It makes me think about the importance of being creative in our lives. Elder Uchtdorf, in his talk to the General RS last November said if we want to be happy we need to include two things in our lives – creativity and service. This applies not only to women, but also to men. If we would all be a little more creative in our approach to connecting with the people we visit teach and home teach, we would not only bless their lives but also our own by fulfilling that need to be creative. But usually what happens is the same approach is used month after month to try to see a family, and then we wonder why we keep getting the same results. Let me give you a few simple suggestions: Call the person at the beginning of the month and ask when they will be available that month. Set an appointment early. That is not even being creative. The creativity can come in with the lesson. If your family is not very cooperative in setting an appointment then is the time to get creative. Try different times of day or night, try planning activities together, try just dropping in – I am sure you can be much more creative than I can think of right now, but the key is to not just try once, or one way and then give up.
I just read a book called “The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas.” (Sorry, Jon and Megan for talking about this so much.) It really made me think about our relationship to others. The boy in the book lived outside the concentration camp fence, looking in at the people in the stripped pjs, thinking how lucky they were to get to wear them all the time. He saw lots of children and thought how lucky they were to be able to be together. He often took a piece of cake, or other food to share with his friend on the other side of the fence as they sat and talked through the fence, but he would get hungry before he saw his friend and would eat the food himself. His prospective was so self-centered and oblivious, that he could not even imagine his friend’s perspective – starving, being beaten, always afraid, etc. It made me wonder how often I am like that with other people. How often I don’t even see the need they have and just “eat the cake” myself.
Anyway, I don’t mean to be depressing, but just thoughtful. The Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching programs are inspired programs and it is important to support them the best we can, both in being creative in our approach to teaching, and in being creative in finding ways to serve.