Ideas for Successful Visiting Teaching

Ideas for Successful Visiting Teaching:

It should be impressed upon the sisters and the brethren how sacred visiting and home teaching ‘callings’ are. I don't believe that these callings are given to the members in a sacred manner. Usually (from my past experiences) the calling is given in a rush in the hallway at church or through a phone call. Someone gives a member a slip of paper saying, "Oh, by the way, here is your visiting teaching list." Or on the phone, "Hi, sister, I just called you to be a visiting teacher, here is your list." It is always done so informally. If I didn't have a strong testimony of the gospel and of visiting teaching, I would probably say forget this, I don't want to do this. Also, the personal interviews are a vital part of all this.

Make sure to speak to each sister personally or each pair of sisters when making changes. One suggestion is to buy some beautiful writing paper and write each new Visiting Teacher a letter, not a form letter, but an individual letter telling her about her new responsibility and how special and important this ‘calling’ is.

Meet with each sister personally to discuss her new district, and to let her know what would be expected of her as a Visiting Teacher.

Make sure that each of the new teachers have a top-notch, cream-of-the-crop visiting teacher as her partner, so that the new sister will have extra support. It works wonderfully to set the tone, and show the sisters that visiting teaching is REALLY important to the Lord, and a sacred trust, rather than just being a "job." The attitude makes ALL the difference in the world!

Prepare and present a Visiting Teaching workbook. The first page in the book is titled "It Starts With The ‘Calling’". If leaders treat VT casually then the whole process collapses.

Extending the call as a visiting teacher:

Visiting Teaching Interviews:

Have your interviews following Sunday meetings. Use 4 or 5 classrooms beside each other so the sisters just stand in line and goes to the first empty room. The RS President, 2 counselors, secretary, and VT coordinator can do the interviews. With five sister doing the interviewing, it takes much less time.

If this is not possible, use part of Homemaking Night to interview the sisters. As the classes for the evening are being conducted, the Relief Society Presidency, secretary, and visiting teaching coordinator can interview sisters by pulling them from their class for a few minutes.

Try to make the interviews quick and simple by deciding ahead of time what needs should be the focus in this interview - service, lesson etc.

New Converts and Visiting Teaching:

The thing that needs to be remembered is that when a person is being taught by the missionaries, they have daily or at least weekly contact with enthusiastic missionaries who give them their undivided attention and discuss gospel topics with them. If they are handed over to the home/visiting teachers and the teachers do an average job, those visits will be stretched out to once a month, and maybe the teachers won't spend much time talking about gospel topics inviting the spirit into their home.

The home/visiting teachers need to be aware of this and make an effort to have positive contact with the person regularly and also make sure that they invite the spirit in the home by discussing gospel topics and answering questions. The new member discussions help to structure some of these visits.

Sometimes active members don't realize, or don t remember what a transition it is, and how much attention a new convert needs. A stake missionary told the story about when he joined the church, there was a couple who befriended him, sat by him in Sunday school, stopped by to see him, became genuine friends, etc. Some years later when he was called to be a stake missionary, he realized that they were fulfilling their calling as stake missionaries, and he was glad that they did it with such caring and love and attention.

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