Return to Sego Lily Intro Page

 Return to Visit Teaching Page

We just concluded our visiting teaching interviews and had a great time.  We asked for every VT to sign up on a list to come to our president's home for a 15-minute interview.  We tried to emphasize that the purpose of the interviews weren't to grill anyone, but rather to recognize and thank them for their service and diligence and to better understand the particulars of the situations they have with their companions, sisters, etc.  For some the term "interview" has a connotation that isn't all together positive.

I think we got about 70 or 75 percent of our sisters to sign up and come---we did have to call those who didn't sign up and see if we could schedule them.  If not, we took a few minutes and asked our questions of them on the phone.  (Some sisters were out of town and still others had some obligations of other kinds.)

We held the interviews on two successive nights---Tuesday and Wednesday---between 6:30 and 8:00.  We scheduled some sisters a little earlier or later than these times if that fit better for them.  Moral of the story: Flexibility is a good thing!

We had some fruit, cookies, and drinks available and if there was any waiting time the sisters enjoyed socializing with each other before and after their interviews.  We found that even though we didn't watch the clock and time our appointments that it still worked out well.  We just brought the sister we had talked with back to the front of the house and picked up whoever was waiting next.  We had five of us interviewing---the presidency and the VT supervisor, so it worked out fine.

We identified the kinds of information we wanted to gather from the sisters and after considering it, only had about four questions to ask.  I created a form we all used and took brief notes as we spoke with each sister.  That way we assured that we were all getting the information we were setting out to get and then let the sisters add anything else they wanted to.

I found it SUCH an uplifting experience to talk with these women.  I don't usually get emotional, but I did get a tear in my eye now and then as I was touched by their examples of service and love one to another.  I'm looking forward to presidency meeting this week where we will discuss our outcomes and see what we need to do next based on the information we received.  I thought it was an extremely worthwhile activity.

We still have to follow up with the sisters we haven't seen yet, but I anticipate a rich experience with them as well.