Happy Days in Random Chatter 10

[Katya]

RC's? "Recent Converts"?

[Giovanni Schwartz]

Yes'm.

[Katya]

Interesting. I hadn't heard that one.

[Defy V]

I just made a status on Facebook remarking on how the message for visiting teaching has been visiting teaching for months now. Meta visiting teaching. I don't really care . . . I just felt like saying something and have found it somewhat amusing this year.

But the thread following it has now turned into an argument from my angry mama bear friends about the handbook and if you have to use the lesson. Nice to see the spirit of visiting teaching there.

[Zedability]

My VT's last summer liked to share the message and then something else in addition

[Defy V]

I just deleted the whole thing because I was tired of their nitpicking. I'm feeling bitter right now because of it. (This is your fault, Craig . . . I feel obligated to make amusing remarks every now and then so people don't unfriend me.)

[Zedability]

My mom says that when she was in Young Women's, they had the same theme several years in a row. Finally, someone asked the General YW President what was going on, and she said something to the effect of, "We will change the theme once the Young Women learn this one." I feel like kind of the same thing is happening here.

[TheAnswerIs42]

I guess so. This particular topic can get a little awkward, however, if you are teaching a less-active member. You can pull out a "serve others" lesson from it, but my mom is getting a little frustrated at doing that for the last few months to a woman who has many steps to go in activity before "how to be the best Visiting Teacher ever".

And I have one sister who is really bugged by the lessons. She's the RS secretary, but she just is really annoyed by the repetitiveness, for some reason. (Personally, I just shrug and go "whatever, apparently we really need to work on this as a church- and I kinda prefer it to the history lessons from last year.") I did change the lesson for her this month though - her mother passed away and she was really having a tough month, so I found a lovely lesson on Hope from conference in 2008 and I think she appreciated that.

So, not to join the argument on your thread, but . . . the spirit of Visiting Teaching is to love and help our sisters. Which to me, means adapt all things to their needs if you have to. Would that have gotten me yelled at on your thread?

[Defy V]

Yeah, I'm afraid that it would have gotten you yelled at. Maybe if I had stepped in they would have stopped, but I have some combative friends.

My opinion is to talk about what they need to hear. And if it's someone less active who doesn't want any spiritual message, I think it's more important to be a friend first.

[yayfulness]

I think that's the right thing to do. The message (I'm thinking of this in terms of home teaching, which I figure is more or less the same for the purposes of this conversation) is a guideline rather than a thou-shalt-level commandment, and like all other guidelines in the Church, it can be changed subject to the Spirit's direction.

Thought as I woke up from a nap: "Imma go, Imma do the thing the Lord commands." Not entirely sure where that came from.

[Marduk]

I never teach the recommended lessons. Personally, I think that's taking the easy way out, and like 42 and yayful have said, we're teaching people, not lessons, so we ought to consider prayerfully their needs, and adjust as such.

[TheAnswerIs42]

“My desire is to plead with our sisters to stop worrying about a phone call or a quarterly or monthly visit,” said Mary Ellen Smoot, the 13th Relief Society general president. She asked us to “concentrate instead on nurturing tender souls.”

Doesn't this quote from this month's lesson contradict the ridgid "exactly one visit with the precise lesson in the Ensign" concept? I'm not sure I would go to never giving the VT lesson, since that is why they are there, but that quote is what made me decide to pick a lesson that fit her emotional needs this month.

[Whistler]

I was recently called to play the organ once a month, and realized that it's an excellent calling for an introvert. I feel like all my hours spent practicing are a really meaningful sacrifice/devotion of time (something I have never felt about all those hours spent in meetings).

[bobtheenchantedone]

I have never visit taught anyone and do not foresee it happening in the near future (I'm not technically in any ward right now), so I am bugged by all the VT lessons. I know I probably shouldn't think this, but I feel like they don't really apply to me and they're just not that interesting. They do produce some interesting comments though, and if there's something I love about church it's judging the other sisters by the comments they make. (Kidding, though there have been some good ones...)

Whistler, I loved when I was the conductor in Sacrament Meeting. I had a highly visible calling that relied on one of my talents and yet didn't demand much of me, especially in the talking-to-other-people category.

[krebscout]

Visiting (and Home) Teaching in general is actually one thing I really love about the Church, and I have my own partially-thought-out reasons for that. As for the provided lessons, yeah, I take 'em or leave 'em, but I've never dwelled on it too much other than to say, "Well, that was the same as last month's."

[Portia]

As a less-active person who is becoming more so, I can testify that the metaness is super annoying. Would prefer some meat and not just milk.

[Portia]

+1 to 42. She did the right thing in that situation.

[Craig Jessop]

I just deleted the whole thing because I was tired of their nitpicking. I'm feeling bitter right now because of it. (This is your fault, Craig . . . I feel obligated to make amusing remarks every now and then so people don't unfriend me.)

Well you'll be happy to know that now that we have some sort of interaction outside of FB, you're currently safe from the genocide list. The amusing remarks are basically just insurance.

[Digit]

I wonder how much this cave house cost in all to make. Obviously "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" applies, but I'm still curious. Pretty nice, though...hopefully not too many earthquakes in Arizona. Last place I'd want to be during an earthquake is in a cave house in a mountain.

[S.A.M.]

I never teach the recommended lessons. Personally, I think that's taking the easy way out, and like 42 and yayful have said, we're teaching people, not lessons, so we ought to consider prayerfully their needs, and adjust as such.

I concur. Many members, though, just don't yet have the experience and knowledge to do more than give the recommended lesson.