October 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

I have never been that great at visiting teaching, even now. However, now that I'm home, I really don't have any excuse to not visit teach. I guess you could say I used my schedule and me being busy as an excuse to not do it. In reality, it's only because I was uncomfortable giving messages. I've always been shy to people I don't know. I also didn't become an "active" member of the LDS church until I was in college. I also felt awkward delivering messages to people that probably knew more about the church than I did.
When my visiting teachers would come over, it was weird. Actually, the whole thing was just awkward. Sometimes I felt like I was the charity case and that the only reason these people came to my house was to get me to go to church so they could feel good that they got someone to go to church. I didn't go for many reasons. 1) I didn't want to go by myself 2) When I did go, I was put into awkward situations where they would ask me to pray, tell them my favorite scripture, or my favorite hymn. I had NO clue what to say when asked. 3) I didn't want to be the charity case. It's not that I was doing anything bad that prevented me from being a good church member. It was simply because I was uncomfortable being there.
I did grow up with a basic understanding of the church and parents that enforced that standards and teachings of the church in our home. We would have bible and Book of Mormon study groups and would always be encouraged to say our prayers. We just didn't attend church. My father still expected me to live as if I was an active member of the church. I'm very grateful for that. I could've easily made wrong choices if it wasn't for the good examples my parents set for me. I finally became active in the church because it's what me and my husband decided we wanted, for ourselves.
If there's one thing I've realized is that people have to want to do things for themselves. No one can force them to do it. The biggest influences on my life were those living examples. It made me want what others had. I had an aunt and uncle that were very active in the church. Whenever I went and stayed with them, it was always such a spiritual experience for me to watch them as a family. They weren't the strict Mormon family that forced it down your throat. They just set a good example of how I wanted my family to be. I would watch them say family prayers, scripture study, and encouraged their kids to live by good standards. It didn't really hit me hard until one of their sons went on a mission. I went to the airport with them when they dropped him off. They had a family prayer as they were gathered in a circle. I could feel the spirit and from then on, I knew how I was supposed to live my life. I wanted a close family like that, and I felt the best way for me to get there was through God.

Anyway, now that I'm an active member of the church I feel a little more comfortable visiting my assigned people. If I ever get assigned a less active person, I certainly don't want them to feel the way I did. Instead, I would just offer to be their friend and give the message. I hated sitting down and "discussing" the messages I knew nothing about. It got to the point I would ignore the visiting teachers because I didn't want to feel stupid again. Maybe that's why I've always been a little intimidated about visiting teaching.
I'm going to give it a good shot here and just be a little more casual about it. We'll see where it takes me.

Here's a message if you do decide to visit teach your sisters. :)

 

Just right click the image and save and/or print it.

I'm still tying to figure everything out, so if you have any problems just let me know and I can get a pdf file to you.