Aug 9th - Stressful! Ang Grateful!

Our visiting teaching routes have been needing to be changed and updated for a while.  We have had a lot of move-ins and move-outs, plus changes in circumstances for many of the sisters.  Some of the existing routes have been doing well, but many just don't work.  All of that has meant that we knew a complete overhaul was due.  We have tried to be organized about the whole thing, having socials and interviews to make sure we had the best information from and about each sister, so we could try to meet everyone's needs.

So, today we started with the revising.  What a chore!  Melanie had things well organized, using magnetic boards and different colored name slips, etc.  Even so, it is a daunting task to try to match companionships that we feel will complement each other and then to assign sisters to each.  It is like a giant jigsaw puzzle that just won't come together.  There are always pieces that just don't fit anywhere!

The five of us (the presidency and the VT supervisor) worked for 3 1/2 hours and are still not finished.  We got all the routes set and maybe a third or so of the sisters assigned.  Whew!  We will meet again Monday to try to finish it up. 

The most stressful thing is that we know that when we hand out the new lists there will be complaints!  We have spent hours trying to understand the needs and desires of each sister, to put companions together who will enjoy each other and work well together, and then to assign sisters who will be most blessed by those particular visiting teachers. 

It is too bad that all the sisters do not have the opportunity to try to make something like this fit together perfectly.  Perhaps they would be more sensitive to the difficulties, but more importantly, perhaps they would understand the love that has already gone into the process.  We feel strong promptings in many cases and have no doubt that the Lord wants it to be done a certain way.  In other cases, we just have to do our best since we don't get those strong promptings.

I am grateful for a program like visiting teaching that is a means to provide love and support to every one of Heavenly Father's daughters here on earth.  Now how do we help everyone to catch that same vision?