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Subj:  RS: Visiting Teaching Ideas
From: Gaylene

Visiting Teaching is an area that we need to be constantly reminded of to stay motivated.  In the nine months I've been supervisor in my ward, I've found I need to do something every month for the sisters to keep them excited about it.

The first thing I did as VT Supervisor was to go through the Ensign magazines looking for stories that related to visiting teaching and make a copy.  For example, there is one story (Ensign, January 1998, p. 65) that talks about the importance of praying before you go visiting with your partner to invite the spirit.  For the homemaking message one month, I related this story and then challenged the sisters to pray with their partner before going visiting.

There's a good paperback book called Visiting Teaching: A Call to Serve by Johanna Flynn and Anita Canfield published by Deseret Book that is great!  It's a story (written in journal entry form) about two close sisters who promised to help each other in the preexistence and what happens to them on earth.  It has some good thoughts in it plus a True/False Quiz of Points to Ponder for VT at the back that can be given out as a handout.  I plan to tell the sisters about this book and give this quiz as a handout for my next Homemaking message.

I have also done an object lesson using a clothespin to teach the principle of service and bearing one another's burdens.  There is a story entitled "Visiting Teachers who Cared" in the book When Life Doesn't Seem Fair by Bruce and Joyce Erickson (p. 17).  Before telling this story or other appropriate story, ask each sister to hold open a clothespin that you've given them in their right hand as wide as they can and continue doing so until you finish talking.  After telling this story (about two minutes should pass), stop and ask the sisters how their hand feels.  It should be feeling uncomfortable and cramped.  Ask the sisters to take their left hand and surround or cup the hand holding the clothespin.  Ask them how it feels now.  It should feel better because of the support you're getting from your other hand.  The trial or pain will not go away completely, but will be easier to bear when you have the support of others.  As we give service, we support and lighten the burden of others so that it's easier for them to bear their trials. The sisters can put their clothespin down now.

As it states in the RS Handbook, the VT Supervisor gives a short message at Homemaking meeting.  The problem I've had is not very many sisters come out to Homemaking, so very few get to hear the visiting teaching message.  I know that some wards in our stake give their message on Sunday during Relief Society to take advantage of more sisters in attendance.  I hate to take away the class time from the Sunday teacher, but if I can do something very short I can still give a message to the sisters on Sunday.  I try to remember the sisters who serve in Primary and Young Women too with some kind of handout, so they're not left out.

I always make copies of the Visiting Teaching Message from the Ensign and have it  at church for the sisters to pick up.  Sometimes I look for a specific meaningful scripture or quote from the message and make it into a special handout with a cute border that the sisters can take and give to the sisters they visit.

As a craft for homemaking, painted clothespin magnets (with wooden flower, apple, bear, flowerpot shapes) can be painted and glued for visiting teachers to give as a small gift to the sisters they visit. Then when they have a handout for their sister, she can attach it to the clothespin on her fridge. The sisters I visit love to get a message they can post on their fridge.

I hope these ideas are of help to you sisters.  Please share with me your wonderful ideas!

Gaylene