Too Few Evenings

In our church the men who hold the priesthood (which is most of the active men) are given the responsibility of visiting 3 to 5 members each month just to see how they are doing, to provide help if needed and to share an uplifting message.  We call this one-on-one service "Home Teaching".

Even though I'm currently serving as bishop of an active congregation or "Ward" I'm not exempt from this caring service.  But it seems I have a difficult time getting my home teaching done each month as I have so few evenings available.  Last month I had one evening available so I called my companion the day before and left a message on his voice mail to arrange to go together.  I then called each of the five individuals I'm responsible for to try to schedule a few minutes to visit each one, not knowing if I was going to have a companion or not.

I was able to schedule visits with three of them, but first I had an interview at 7:00 with a young lady at the church.  Two of the members I was going to visit were single young women.  We have a policy not to visit a single woman without a companion and, when the evening came, my companion was unavailable.  At the last minute I asked Jana if she would mind coming with me.  She and our daughter Arielle had some running around they needed to do but she said she'd try to meet me at the church at 7:30 after my appointment.

At 7:35 there was a quiet but melodic knock on my door.  I excused myself briefly and answered it and there stood my sweetheart.  I told her I'd be out shortly.  My interviewee was talkative, which is good, but I didn't get out until about 7:50.

Jana then followed me in her car to my first young woman's home and, like she always does, fully engaged her with questions and empathetic listening.  She then followed me to my second appointment at a young man's home.  Jana suggested I could visit him alone (his father was also home) and asked that I pick her up at home on my way to my third appointment at another young woman's home, which I did.  We again had a wonderful visit with this young woman.

Jana's help that night was truly a sacrifice on her part and, frankly, disrupted her evening because she had other things planned.  I was so grateful for her help.  She is always such a good listener to the members of our congregation.  She has a gift of getting them talking about themselves which makes them feel heard and valued.  What an extremely loving thing Jana did for me and for those we visited.  She's not only a blessing to me, but to our entire ward, one-on-one.
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