Ok, so I am liking my new calling as visiting teacher coordinator. I know, I complained about the quick release I got from teaching, but I’m over that. This suits me. I get to see something new.
When I first got the calling, my son was still home from his mission, waiting to go up to BYU. I came home from meeting with the Relief Society President and I gave him my lists of sisters and visiting teachers and asked his advice about how best to organize this.
You know, those missionaries, when they first come home go stir crazy unless they are working 6 am to 10 pm. He was so excited to have the work, after all he had been up since 6 doing push-ups, running, studying the scriptures.
He set it all up in excel — names, months of the year, sisters called, visited, or emailed, sisters not visited — All looking so professional, tabs for pages, list of directory, emails for sisters, supervisors. I looked it over, amazed, “how did you learn all this?” (he is one of my home schooled boys) —“Working in the mission office.”
I have uploaded the excel sheets for each supervisor to Google Docs, so they can mark their report there or email it to me. I have one sister who is not internet savvy so she mails her report to me and that works too. Then I just mark the Google Doc. It is essentially an excel sheet.
When I go to the clerk’s office to report for the month, all I need is my laptop or iphone and I can pull up my google doc and get my reports. I can download it into excel too.
Anyway, it is straight forward, and I feel important, as I get access to that clerk’s office mostly dominated by men. ☺ I can go there instead of Sunday School or during the week when my son is in Seminary. And I have keys.
I do see who visits and who does not. hmmmm….
The good news is that you can email or phone sometimes for that monthly visit. And “as appropriate, share a Gospel message.” That does take the pressure off.
It’s just good to know your sisters, you wouldn’t want them falling off the earth while you go on, unawares. I have had some great visiting teachers through the years. One that re-activated me when I was first married and feeling kind of out-of-it.
I was curious who our home teacher was (that’s under the men, not the women–not my department), since we have been here almost a year and have never seen him. Now, I am not complaining, but…
Visiting teachers sincerely come to know and love each sister, help her strengthen her faith, and give service. They seek personal inspiration to know how to respond to the spiritual and temporal needs of each sister they are assigned to visit.
Taking into account each sister’s individual needs and circumstances, visiting teachers have regular contact (monthly if possible) with those they are assigned. When a personal visit is not possible, visiting teachers may use phone calls, letters, e-mail, or other means to watch over and strengthen sisters.
When appropriate, visiting teachers share a gospel message. These messages may be from the monthly visiting teaching message printed in the Ensign or Liahona magazine and the scriptures.
