As a newly called Relief Society Presidency in our branch, we were told that one of the responsibilities we had was to hold visiting teaching interviews. This was somewhat startling to most of us, as I don’t think any of the four of us had actually ever been interviewed regarding our visiting teaching. This leads me to believe that this is a somewhat neglected activity. Yet I would encourage any of you responsible for visiting teaching to consider taking the steps necessary to ensure such interviews are performed.
Although we were told that these interviews could be done over the phone, I decided to go ahead and do most of mine at church (one sister was unable to do this). In each case, we found a quiet room and started and ended the interview with a prayer. I had initially decided to take a list of questions with me, but wound up not using them. Instead, in a very relaxed way, we discussed the sisters these women were responsible for.
With each sister, I asked about the visiting teaching activity. When there were difficulties, I asked what they were. For instance, one sister told me that the woman she visited did not seem to pay any attention to her visiting teachers, but instead played with her dog. And this was a very active sister in a position of responsibility in our branch! However, this lack of focus caused her visiting teachers to stop visiting and simply phone or make contact at church. I spoke with the sister I interviewed regarding the importance of the visit, and she left with a stronger commitment to try. (Note to sisters: pay attention to your visiting teachers!)
In each case, we addressed the need of each visited sister individually. We asked why inactive sisters were not attending church. Since we have little participation in smaller Enrichment activities, we asked what sort of skills each sister could contribute, and what activities might draw them.
After we had covered all of the sisters, we discussed our visiting teaching “teams.” We wanted to be sure that no problems existed with sisters we visiting taught; we had no complaints.
Finally, I asked each sister if there were any questions or challenges they might have for us. Was there anything they struggled with that had not been addressed in the interview? The sisters were not very forthcoming, but had they been, I would have done my best to offer suggestions, or gotten suggestions from other members of the presidency.
I really feel that these interviews will help to encourage our sisters to do their visiting teaching. They have also helped us, as a Relief Society Presidency, to learn of any needs that we might have otherwise overlooked, thus making sure that we were truly serving all of the sisters in the branch, and not just those who were most obviously in distress. I highly encourage interviewing the sisters in your branches and wards.
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