Honestly I don't hear much about it anymore. It might come up now and then, but it seems like no one really buys much stock in it.

No one comes to the house.

No one calls to ask if it has been done.

Is this just a Colorado thing? Is it still a strong program or is it another one of those things that TSCC has abandoned while still paying it lip service?

Nope. They still harp on about it at church. To be more specific, I hear the morg harp about it every Sunday during Priesthood opening exercises.

Maybe Home Teaching's a flop in Colorado!??

I haven't have HTs in years. I even said to the bishop last Fall, hey my next door neighbor here would make a great HT cause we're always talking. The bishop said, I'll make it happen...5 months later...

So, GoV, I'm not your HT, but your RfM friend. Have a great, happy, joyous holiday season, and keep up those posts! Boner.

Well, it is almost December. You should be home taught this month. I hear from the home teachers every December, just before Christmas.

...should be called HS........"Home Snitchers."

My HT get there timing perfect. The last time 2or more years ago they showed up. I have C.F.S. (a mild form of polio ). I'm up on my roof on a hot T.N day just finished coating my metal roof with this white latex stuff. So I'm hot tired and some what snow blind from the sun reflecting off the white coating. They did help a little they climed the ladder and carryed the last almost empty bucket down. Then called me to repentance for doing the jod that despratly needed doing by myself. I suppose I was supposed to wait for them, is this what they mean by for time and all eternity

I agree, they should be called that, or "home spies" since if you decide to skip church instead of spreading your or your child's cold to the rest of the ward, the HT's show up at your door.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2014 04:28PM by adoylelb.

The program is still going strong. We have told our HT that we are not interested in them visiting.

If your ward has a large number of inactive folks they will just decide who is worthy of a visit. If they haven't had contact with you for awhile they will often write you off, they just don't have enough people to cover everyone.

Okay. Are you single? Are you old? Do you not have very much money? Do you have only a "minor" calling? Are you an introvert?

True story. I was in a group of about 150 single women in the Mormon Single Adults (not the younger single adults). Most of them were divorced with children. While we were waiting for the speaker to arrive, I asked them how many of them had regular home teachers, and to raise their hand. No one raised their hands. Not one! I was co-chairman of the regional singles, and I knew this was a problem, but I had no idea how widespread it was. I asked how many had had one or two visits from HT's, and 5 people raised their hands.

I have had RS teachers pass me in the street, and roll down their car window to shout at me, or run across the street when I'm weeding the garden, and say, "Is there anything I can do for you? No? Can I count this as an official visit?" My reply would be, "You have my permission to count ahead, and have it official for the rest of the year, too."

In my own ward, the bishopric would always congratulate the ward for having 100% home teaching and 100% visit teaching. One sacrament meeting, during the self-congratulations, I turned to the divorced lady next to me and said, "I wasn't home-taught, and I wasn't visit-taught." She told me that she wasn't, either. I said, "That's not 100%, then."

No, the HT program has not been abandoned. It's just that everyone lies about it.

+100

I was a single parent for several years, and I had home teachers exactly once, despite my repeated requests to the bishop. He told me I must be assigned to the High Priests because it wasn't "appropriate" for the EQ members to visit me. Despite vehicle breakdowns, sick kids asking for blessings, various home repair jobs I needed help with, and other problems when I needed their help, no one showed up. I was reassigned -- again and again and again. Same results.

The one time they came, they insisted they needed to inspect my water heater to make sure it was tied down properly. The stake pres. had had a "revelation" that everyone in the stake should be checked for water-heater-tie-down compliance. I failed. They chastised me, told me to get it done, and left, never to return.

This is spot on. There are some good folks out there who try to help out but they are so burdened by meaningless crap they have little time for real charity.

When we were young with a young family my husband was the EQ President in an urban inner city ward. He worked two jobs at that time and spent every waking moment that he wasn't at church doing service work. He drove a pick up truck and moved countless folks. He would spend weekends and evening helping with minor household repairs for those in need. We would feed three sets of missionaries at least once a week, often twice a week. There were sisters without cars that we would drive to and from their jobs, and then for nearly every Sunday we would drive two cars so we could transport carless folks to church.

I don't regret the real charity we were able to do, it wasn't done because we were told to, it was done because there was need, but it can and does wear a person out especially when also burdened down with all the busy work and meetings. Also I have found very few members that actual want to help, especially when there is nothing in it for them. True charity isn't about looking good for the bishop or stake president, it's about helping that helpless person when there is no one watching. And true charity just doesn't exist that often in the church.

Here in a very strict corner of the southeast, tscc has always been fanatical about ht. But not anymore. Now, they are counting text messages and fb posts. For the most part, nobody asks for ht numbers anyways.

From what I can tell, tscc here is way less concerned about ht than it once was.

LOL--talk about lowering the bar.

Our ward was counting one phone call every QUARTER as 100% home teaching!

I am sure it is still in place. We actually had a home teacher visit in August of 2011

Last I attended (last july) they spent a good deal of Elder's Quorum and priesthood opening exercises going on about it.

A couple months ago my brother-in-law even tried to assign me a family and partner for home teaching. That was good for a laugh.

There's nothing to indicate that they are de-emphasizing this key program. DW still gets HT's monthly back in Utah. The guys who home taught us are actually still friends of mine, even though I never took anything they said about TSCC seriously. I am very glad that no one has ratted me out here in Kentucky. No one from the small group of LDS here have contacted me at all, and that's just fine with me.

I am an Elders Quorum first counselor in Wyoming.

Home Teaching here is a FAIL.

No one does it.

We all keep talking about it.

It has never done any good for us.

The Lord's massive multi-year, countless hour program for getting people's cars started at times.

One guy faithfully did his home teaching 10 times a year. Why not 12? You wouldn't expect him to go home teaching on Halloween and New Years eve would you?

Last time I was called as EQ Pres I told the SP that I would not focus on HT since the effort was futile and frustrating. He was very concerned but called me anyway.

It is still alive and well here in the southeastern part of Arizona. The other day when I visiting my parents, my dad warned me that their visiting teachers would be arriving in about 15 minutes and that I was free to stay if I wanted. He knows that I am no longer a mormon and was just giving me the heads up. I told him that unless they were ready for a bunch of questions from me about various topics, then I should probably not stick around.

Our HTers visit faithfully.

Monson gave a talk about it in the last priesthood session.

I'm sure it gets over-reported! No one wants to look bad, but no one want to do the visit, either.

I'm guessing it is mostly done in elderly established wealthier areas of high concentration areas of mormons. The poorer wards have way too many widows/orphans/welfare/transients/singles. Wealthy retired mormons are more comfortable visiting other well off mormon "couples."

As a child growing up in the original "Ogden Stake" (2 blocks from Washington blvd). We had 5 rest homes a 13 story tower of widows, piles of immigrants, drug dealers, prostitutes next door, illegitimate children everywhere. Each Elder was to visit 13 families. That's equivalent to a part time job, right?

Now living in a Wealthier suburb of Ogden each elder visits 3-4 other well to do families with less problems (usually no kids).

Alive and well in Texas. Just got a call from HTs to set up December visit :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2014 06:40PM by EveEphraim.

Home teaching as practiced needs to go away.

As EQ president a couple times, frustration over HT was the beginning of the end for me. Got tired of all the excuses from elders, who somehow found time for church sports and fun stuff. So I asked SP if we could set aside a week for home teaching. He said no, I persisted, and he yelled, "We're not going to have a DAMN week for home teaching!"

In other words, we'll chew you out if it isn't done, but won't make it a priority.

Not to mention the time wasted. Go visit a guy you just saw in church to give him a message that you both just heard in church, and he just gave to another guy, and you just heard from your home teacher.

Non-morons would focus on those who might actually need help, as mentioned above - singles, sick, elderly, etc.

I would cut out one hour of church, and use it to actually visit with people. Those who need more assistance can be visited at home.

Does anyone ever look forward the arrival of the HTs? Whenever they came calling at my childhood home, there was a flurry of angry activity. "Go to the living room now. I don't want to hear your excuses. You will sit through the visit with the rest of the family. And no talking unless it contributes to the godversation. No radio or TV. No books. Stay on the sofa and be reverent. Church subjects only. I will strike you."



But Mormonism is a religion of love. Don't ever forget it (or I'll hit you again).

Ah, the memories! You nailed it.

I will add to this that we did have one guy back in the early 80s. I swear to god, he always reminded me of Mr. Magoo. Same exact face, glasses, and expressions. He was Irish and still had an accent.

Anyway, he flew airplanes in WWI. He loved to tell stories of how they would get somewhat drunk and then go flying. His visits were always entertaining. His wife was his companion and they were always together, thick as thieves. He got terminal cancer and real close to the end for him, his wife was decapitated in a car accident. He died three weeks later. I think it was a combination of a broken heart and the cancer.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2014 11:49AM by Bite Me.

Yeah, I love how everyone gives the same message.

So assume you are an active Elder, your wife gets visit taught, the message is the standard one from the Ensign. You go home teaching with your wife as your companion, you give the same message to your 4 families. You go home and YOUR home teachers call. They want to come by to give the same message which you have heard 4 times and your wife has heard 5 times already.

And then you take a closer look at the message in the Ensign. It is a talk that Monson gave 20 years prior and has been published before.

Rinse and repeat over and over every month. Insanity.

Mormons, of course, are completely out of sync with society, which has changed.

It used to be the norm, before social media and cellphones, for people to stop by without notice and, in really bygone times, leave a calling card in the tray you had on a table by the door.

Yesteryear, indeed.

The other day I heard a wonderful comedy standup special where the comic did a bit on the difference between what happened when the doorbell rang when he was a kid and what happens today.

When he was young, his mom bought Sara Lee and kept it in the freezer. The family was warned not to touch the pound cake because that was for "company." When the doorbell rang and everybody was watching tv, their dad would turn it off and announce happily, "We have COMPANY!" The whole family went to the door in excitement, knowing the Sara Lee would be coming out.

Today a knock on the door and the father says, "Nobody move. He does a quick survey--anybody invite someone? You? You? Upstairs: you expecting anybody? NOBODY MOVE, says Dad, peeking out the window to see who-the-hell is at the door.

Normal people call, even neighbors next door, and nobody imposes without calling first. More and more, a personal visit is considered an unwanted imposition because people can keep up with friends through social media and everybody can have their privacy at home. Nobody wants to clean up because a neighbor is coming over to chat?

Friends meet more and more in restaurants and coffee shops, only family have the right to demand a personal visit in your home.

The idea of strangers insisting they come in and (obviously) look around is RIDICULOUS.

If you church spies are reading this, for heaven's sake STOP. You are making fools of yourselves forcing this home teaching spying.


Kathleen Waters

One ward in the D.C. area applies these criteria, with reporting done via an email form to fill out. The first three count as "done" for their monthly home teaching report.

1. Visit. A "visit" is a lesson and a prayer.

2. Contact. A "contact" is a productive conversation without a lesson and prayer.

3. Attempt. An "attempt" is an honest effort to make a visit that is unsuccessful only due to scheduling conflicts or unwillingness or inability on the part of the person being visited.

4. None of the Above.

There is also a box to write additional information about the people home taught, including:

A. You are encouraged to share additional information about those you home teach, including any special needs.

B. Please report confidential information to [the elder's quorum president], or in severe cases, to [the bishop] directly.

They were pushing HT every week before I stopped attending EQ. They would take 10 minutes at the beginning of EQ each week to allow companions to talk, set up appointments, etc... I always just sat there uncomfortably. We haven't had home teachers visit or contact us in the last 4-5 years. The ward here had ~15% home teaching when they started their big push. I would bet they're still at 15%.

I attended a stake leadership meeting being led by a member of the 70. When someone questioned hometeaching and how it doesn't seem to work, he admitted that the program was broken and was broken almost the minute it was created. He suggested that efforts be redirected to those who need the visits and help and using those who actively want to participate as hometeachers.

One month later the stake president ignored the counsel from the 70 and was back harping and brow beating on everyone participating and visiting everyone. the president even when so far as to question the worthiness of those who didn't home teach. the feedback I gave was how can the worthiness of the hometeacher be questioned when his assigned families do not want hometeachers, refuse to let them in the door, refuse to make appointments, and generally don't want anything to do with the church. This was fed back up the chain through the leadership messenger service (high council) and the president recanted some of his venom on the issue. Nothng like pushing conscripted participation to force feed unwilling participants.

In my time in that ward, I can count the number of Home teaching visits on one hand...

"Nothng like pushing conscripted participation to force feed unwilling participants."
That sums the whole program perfectly!

i have home teachers but dont like the older one. i know he does not care about me or my family, he only comes out of duty and does not stay one extra minute. i would not call him for help for any reason. i would not share a concern or any sort of problem with him. if the hpgl would ever hold interviews i might mention to him that i cant stand this guy but it would not change anything since he is a byu toady who always tows the party line.