Sometimes it can be difficult to complete your visiting teaching each month. This can become more difficult as the Holidays approach and schedules become even more hectic. It is important to continue to contact your sisters and reach out to them. The stress that accompanies the holidays can often be alleviated by a short visit. Here are five suggestions for scheduling visits with your sisters.
1) It is often easier if you can schedule each of your visits for the same day. This is not always possible due to scheduling conflicts, but you can try to do two visits in a day. Often the Relief Society president tries to schedule people according to day and evening routes, if one sister seems to have a hard time meeting during the route you are on, you may suggest to the president to try having her on the opposite route.
2) Try to keep your visits short. Many times visits last for longer than intended because you begin chatting, and the conversation just keeps going. During the Holidays make a point of staying for no more than thirty minutes. This does not apply if you have a sister who may be feeling lonely during this time of year.
3) You can schedule your visits for the same time every month. This makes the visits easy to plan for and to remember. My visiting teachers schedule the next visit when they are visiting with me. They do call and remind me, since I have been known to completely forget.
4) A reminder call is a great tool. It is easy to forget a visit in the midst of shopping, and other activities that take place during the Holidays. It can also give your sister a chance to straighten up the home, if she has forgotten.
5) Be flexible, if you can tell that you won’t be able to get a visit in during the month, you can call or mail a letter. You can also just drop something by to let her know that you are thinking of her.