An Epiphany

I used to think that I was one of the neglected. No one in my ward ever remembered my birthday. When I moved to a new ward, they didn't bother to get to know me or to give me a calling right away. I focused on these things because I wanted others to see how I was neglected and how I still stayed strong in the church. I cared too much about what other people thought of me. My focus was always on how I was the exception to the rule. Whenever I learned about the duties of the members of the church, I always paid attention to how people didn't fulfill those duties when it came to me.

One day, within the last year, it occurred to me that it didn't matter what other people did or didn't do. What mattered was whether I did or didn't do what was expected of me. I started paying more attention in church when we learned about duties of the members. I started trying to change my approach. I worked on improving myself so that I would be more use to others.

I changed my view of visiting teaching. My responsibilities as a visiting teacher are to make sure the sisters I visit can trust me and that they feel welcomed and wanted in the ward.

The biggest impact on visiting teaching that I experienced was through my visiting teacher. She told a story about her sister who lived away from home and family. She was going through a really tough time, and my visiting teacher wanted nothing more than to be there for her sister. She couldn't be there, but she knew that the women in her sister's RS were there for her. She knew her visiting teachers were taking care of her.

This impressed me because I would hope that my sister was being taken care of when I can't be there for her.