Sister Cahoon,
I am the Relief Society Secretary in our ward, I have been asked to put some questions together for interviews and I am not sure what to ask. In all my years as a visiting teacher I do not recall having an interview; are there general questions?
LeAnn
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon
Dear Sister Cahoon,
I have been called as a visiting teaching leader in our ward. Our president has made all the changes without me there and tells me that she is responsible for this and all I have to do is collect the figures and give a short message to the sisters in Relief Society a few times a month. I always thought there was more to this calling. Can you please put my mind at ease. Thank you.
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon
Dear Sister Cahoon,
I am in a small branch who is being downsized due to families moving out. We have 5 elders and 40 families to be home taught so the Elder’s Quorum President teamed up the elders and their wives to do the home teaching of these families. The Relief Society Presidency have followed suit giving the same families that are home taught as visiting teaching assignments as well for the same husband and wife teams. So we have to give two messages a month to the same families. Now here is my question, would it be ok to give both lessons in the same visit, or should we have two separate appointments for the different messages? As you can probably tell, our active members in our branch are very busy with many callings and many appointments.
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon
Dear Sister Cahoon,
The boundaries in our ward have recently changed to include a neighboring ward. Because of this, I have a new visiting teaching companion. We have three sisters that we are assigned to visit, which include two very active sisters (that I “chat” with every Sunday) and one inactive member that has not been to church in several years. My companion thinks it is necessary to visit with all three of the sisters every month. How do I explain to my companion that the handbook only suggests visiting active sisters once a quarter if it is nearly impossible to visit every month? Of course the other two months of the quarter, I am calling or sending a note to the three sisters that we are to be “visiting teaching”. Please help!
Sister Anonymous
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon
Dear Sister Cahoon,
I have a question on a subject that has bothered me. Around the first of this year my Relief Society president assigned me the “mailing list”. I was told to mail a photocopy of the Ensign message to about 20 less active or not active members in our branch and I am told to mark them as visited every month when they count up the visits. I do not feel right about this. I talked to the Relief Society president and she said ‘we have always done it this way’. I talked with my Branch President and he said that it was her call. I have even prayed about this and I am still troubled. I do not feel that I am doing visiting teaching by mailing a photocopied page out of the Ensign. I am fairly new to the church. Is this something that happens commonly? Or is this something I may need to speak with stake leaders about?
Jennifer
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon
Dear Sis. Cahoon
I have heard some sisters talk about how they take little gifts sometimes relating to the message, each time they visit their sisters. But I have no ideas on what to take as a gift. I always make something special for the holidays; I am wondering if there are any ideas you can supply. I think maybe for the inactive sisters it might be something to help. I don’t know, what do you think?
Elaine
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon
Dear Sister Cahoon,
I am a new Relief Society President. I have come to realize that there are not enough visiting teachers in the ward to go around for all the sisters that needed visits. The solution of the previous presidency and VT coordinator was to assign some sisters a route without a partner…these sisters visit their assigned sisters alone. I read something recently in Shepherds that suggested that sisters should not be visiting without a companion. Should these sisters be assigned a partner, even if that means double the visits for both sisters to make?
Kathy C, TX
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon
Dear Sister Cahoon,
I am the visiting teaching coordinator in our ward. We have a lot of inactive sisters in our ward, and most companionships have six or seven sisters to visit with at least half of them being inactive. Many sisters complain about their assignments. Since the Relief Society President makes all the decisions about VT companionships and routes, I really have no say in who visits whom. There is NO companionship that doesn’t have a few inactive sisters or that doesn’t have the sisters spread out over a wide area. What do I say to these sisters who complain about their routes?
Andrea
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon
Dear Sister Cahoon,
I am a visiting teaching coordinator in a very large ward with many inactive sisters. Each sister that is willing to be a visiting teacher has about four sisters on her route. Some of the companionships are asking if they can have it changed to three sisters because it becomes so overwhelming; and these are the sisters who ARE doing their visiting teaching. Ideas?
Kathi
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon
Dear Sister Cahoon,
I visit teach a woman who attends every church meeting we have and has done so for the last several years. Her daughter is a member and her son-in-law the branch president BUT she does not like “religious” LDS messages. Any CLEVER ideas?
Lori
Posted by John in Visiting Teaching, Ask Sister Cahoon