NOM

I do my home teaching pretty regularly. It's a great way to get to know people. I don't prepare lessons in advance. I just read a few paragraphs out of the Ensign on the spot when I visit. I'm assigned three families right now. They're all around my age. One month my wife and I had them all over for dinner, and that was really nice. This month I was only able to schedule one family for a visit, but that visit went well. My home teaching companion and I stopped by the two other families' houses and chatted at the door briefly and gave them cookies. I was happy, and my companion was happy, and I think the families we visited were happy. In our society today, too many of us are disconnected, lonely. Our symbols and traditions and families are being dismantled by the Devil, and so we as Christians need to reach out and provide love and companionship. Home teaching is a way to provide love and companionship.

I rarely get home taught, but when I do, I enjoy it. I'm being serious. I really do feel the Spirit more when I do my home teaching, and when I'm home taught. I guess I just lucked into a really loving ward. I've heard bad stories about people feeling guilty about not doing home teaching... um... or rude or nosy or awkward home teachers... I try my best just to care about all of humanity. I believe that Jesus wants me to stay active in the church and spread His message and keep His commandments.

I feel like some of you are complicating things. Somehow, I just don't worry about the doctrine of the Church anymore. Isn't that what most Church members do? Ha! Really, most active Mormons focus on behavior and social norms rather than doctrine.

I've been reading the Bible pretty regularly lately. I don't know what's true and what's not in the Bible, but I do know that I love what regular Bible reading does for me. It lifts me out of my workaday concerns for a while and helps me think about big ideas, important things. It helps me focus on God.

If any of you are in the middle of a faith crisis and wondering how in the world a guy without a testimony of the Restoration could love home teaching, well, let me just tell you, it's been a long journey. I went through an angry phase, an emotional troubled phase, I visited other Christian churches, and I've landed back where I started: in the LDS Church. It's not easy, but I believe that I'm doing what God wants me to do. My daughters are 7, 4 and 1. I don't know if I'll ever tell them about Joseph Smith. I guess I'll figure that out later.

I've rambled... but thanks for reading and have a good night.

Good post thanks.

Im not able to attend a ward because I can't lie, or teach, uphold, support lies, but I still keep a Sabbath, and still meet with friends who attend sometimes, and who believe different things.

I hold the view or belief that there is a path towards an ideal, (God) and meeting with others who desire the same, who hold to honesty in life, integrity in work ethics, and similar standards in dress, language, consumption, covenants, is good for me, and we still have uplifting experiences and the heavens have not ceased to watch over us and visit with us.

I agree that home teaching can be a good experience. I ran into the problem of being in the high priests group at a relatively young age and having to home teach older people that don't fit into my peer group, and happen to have chronic illnesses that require regular priesthood blessings which I just can't stomach doing anymore. But good for you for having a christian spirit of fellowship in your circumstances.

I know some individuals very much enjoy home teaching. Some do it out of duty, and others do it not at all. I was a fairly regular in my days of activity. The only real satisfaction I got out of it was when I was done for the month. It was a relief to not have to explain to a some leader when they made the call why you did not get it done. Then one day I just told the HPGL I was done and have never visited another family. I do not miss it. I have made many new friends with more similar interests than the church. IN fact those relationships seem much more genuine than the forced relationships I tried to forge home teaching.

It makes perfect sense to me how someone can come out the other end of a faith crisis and still enjoy home teaching. HTing can be a way to minister to people.

telemoonka wrote: ↑Tue Dec 27, 2016 8:51 pm I feel like some of you are complicating things.

I use the simple: Home teaching is a good program for people to participate in... unless it isn't.

telemoonka wrote: ↑Tue Dec 27, 2016 8:51 pm My home teaching companion and I stopped by the two other families' houses and chatted at the door briefly and gave them cookies. I was happy, and my companion was happy, and I think the families we visited were happy. In our society today, too many of us are disconnected, lonely. Our symbols and traditions and families are being dismantled by the Devil, and so we as Christians need to reach out and provide love and companionship. Home teaching is a way to provide love and companionship.

1smartdodog touched on this but I think the language we often use at church presents HTing as a priesthood holder's duty. I like the idea of ministering to people but the HT program is just that, a program. It's one way to minister to people.

The meetings about improving our HTing at church usually draw lines, there's a strong implication (if it isn't said outright) that people that don't do HTing are sinning (by omission) and are in need of repentance. I think there's another way of looking at things.

I imagine extroverts love the home teaching program. What about introverts?

Let's look at the program. You are assigned a companion and assigned families to visit. To the introvert this process feels forced and unnatural. It's extremely difficult for an introvert to develop a working relationship with people in that kind of environment. Meeting up with an assigned companion is a large hurdle, meeting assigned families is also a hurdle. For the introvert, I imagine having no companion at all would make HTing easier because it removes one of the hurdles but there's still the hurdle of forced social interaction with people where there's no "naturally occurring" relationship.

I only say this because on the introvert scale from 1 to 10 I'm an 11.

Is being an introvert a sin? Before I made the connection of what was really going on that's what I thought. My options were:

1) Not do HTing and feel miserable because I was shirking a responsibility.
2) Do my HTing and feel miserable because I was violating a fundamental aspect of my personality.

Lose, lose.

But I go back to this idea. HTing is just a program. A way to minister to people, not the way.

1smartdodog found other ways to minister to people. I've found other ways. The "problem" is that we don't get credit for our efforts. There's no monthly report with a box that can be checked. To the church I may look like a lazy miscreant but only because my program for ministering to people doesn't fit the mold.

...and I just made things complicated, didn't I?

I really didn't mean to come into a thread about loving home teaching to be "that guy." I really, truly do feel that HT is one of the best programs in the church. I fully understand why people would want to continue doing it after a FC.

I felt a little pressure to stick up for the little guys... well maybe not little guys at a place like NOM. I'm just saying... I'm not dismantled by the devil, it's just that the widows, sick, and otherwise afflicted that I minister to aren't always members of my ward so I don't get the credit in MLS.

ETA: What I do love about the program is that it tries to ensure that everyone gets a visit. If we took my ad hoc ministry approach many, many people would fall through the cracks... but we each do what we can.