Is there anyone else here who absolutely loathed visiting teaching like I did? It never failed to interfere with our life outside of church or work. My partners did most of the talking and once in a while, would let the person we were "teaching" put in a couple words. Every time, without fail, it would eventually turn into a gossip session and I would sit there in disgusted silence, staring at my partner and then the person we were visiting. It was made known who had declared bankruptcy, who and what problems families were having with their kids,or marriages that were in trouble,etc. One woman that we were visiting kept us at her house for 3 hours with non-stop yapping! So glad I don't have to feel obligated to do that crap anymore.

I lived in rural south, so it was nice to visit the sisters, but I hated giving the lesson. Im shy and didnt really believe.

We call it "gossip teaching".

For us guys, when we went home teaching, it was really about the lesson and strictly followed.

However, for you girls, the visits really do center around gossip. I've seen it over and over and over.

Why do women like gossip so much?

It's not just the LDS church either, the visiting teaching is just an avenue for girls to sit around and gossip about others.

Mormon men and other males often love to discuss anyone who's having problems. In the mormon church, male priesthood guys base much of their "revelation" and counsel on what they've heard in gossip sessions.

I was a visiting teacher to a totally inactive woman. She would sit and keep watching her soap opera while we were there and barely listen to us. It was embarassing and we hated intruding on her. But, we got to check the box for 100% done.

Yeah, I hated visiting teaching.

.....or not joys. My mom was a single mom raising us kids on next to nothing. There was my deadbeat dad who didn't contribute and the Mormon Church which I could tell she loved but yet hated.

I was young and didn't understand her feelings about the church as she did not discuss anything with me, but I would hear her mumble things I wasn't supposed to hear to no one or to my older sister.

I could tell from here mumblings that the visiting teachers were a sore spot with her. I heard her say, Why would I want them to come so they can turn around and talk about our old furniture and old house. Tell them I am busy. She had been fairly rich for awhile in her life until my dad drank and gambled it down the drain. She was so ashamed of being in the poor house.

I thought many times how here was a chance for the church to really help someone, my mom. She worked hard outside the home at a menial job, then came home to tons more work in the home with us kids (one very ill), cooking, mending, scrubbing, etc.

Money never stretched where it needed to stretch and I heard enough to know this was a continual menacing worry for her.

Where was the church when it could have made such a difference in someone's life?

Where was it?

I'll tell you where it was back then and where it still is now. It was spending $$$money on show-off-look-at-us real estate, more real estate, expensive cars and extra homes for the sleazy apostles, and building condos and apartments for starters.