Home Teaching
Dear Paul and Kate, Melanie and Jared, Bridget and Justin, Sara, Ben and Sarah, Heather, Audrey, Rachel, and Matt via hardcopy,
cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny,
& Maxine Shirts
Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea,
belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit
to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended
family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail
box at any time.
"Last Sunday I went Home Teaching alone to the Riches and Hayden
Hudson. And I called an inactive lady I've recently assigned
to who does not want me to come and visit her. Wednesday night
my companion, Scott Whitrock, and I went Home Teaching to the
Schmidts. Today I gave a talk on Home Teaching. Since I have
included the talks I've given in the past in Thoughtlets, and
since Home Teaching is an important part of my monthly cycle,
I decided to title this week's thoughtlet Home Teaching.
This was my first full week of driving to the Galleria area
to work at GDC. It takes between 45 minutes and an hour of
commuting time each direction. For those of you who play
the lottery or are otherwise mathematically challenged, this
means I have between 1 1/2 and 2 hours of wasted time each
day, or between 7 1/2 and 10 hours of wasted time each week.
This is a lot. Over the last three years I have spent a lot
of time building Infinite Grid(SM) examples, and putting
together investment opportunities, and based on the results
it is reasonable to say all of this was wasted time. So my
challenge is going to be to change my view of what I
consider wasted time. Andrea got me some batteries for my
little cassette player, and I did make it through 3 different
books on tape this week. Maybe I will figure out a way to
not react so strongly to the commute time.
Mike Dunn has been a good boss this week. He has given me
reasonable objectives, and I've worked hard to exceed his
expectations. Most of the week was spent designing a booth
for the SEG/SPE meeting in Beijing the end of March. I
will be leaving on the 21st of March and returning on the
6th of April. This means I will miss General Conference
Sunday. Oh well! Guess I will watch the tapes of General
Conference instead of the broadcast. On Friday I got a
signed contract for the first month's work for GDC. They
hope to have the employee status worked out before this
contract ends. According to both Mike and his boss, Dave
Johnson, I will be able to continue working on exploration
projects I have already started. This will be one upside
possibility to obtain a funds which can cover `retirement.'
Monday afternoon Jerry Fletcher called and invited Andrea
and me to dinner at Willie G's at San Felipe and Post Oak.
Very nice dinner. Nice conversation. They have purchased
their blocks in Indonesia that I worked up for them. In
addition Pertamina, the National Oil and Natural Gas Mining
Company, announced a the largest gas discovery in the last
20 years about 6 kilometers away from the purchased blocks.
It is deeper than where they previously thought there was
viable production. I mapped a deeper structure when I
evaluated the blocks. Greg, Jerry's son who lives in
Indonesia, sent me an e-mail yesterday asking me under
what terms we would work for them. This is good news,
and will take quite a bit of effort to work through.
Friday night I was wiped out. After a week of getting up
at 4:30 to exercise (wake up) before teaching seminary
Andrea was wiped out too. We watched Joan of Arcadia,
JAG, and went to sleep. Saturday morning I cut down the
banana tree, fixed the fan in the bedroom, and spent the
rest of the day working in the office. We also
interviewed a second group about trimming the trees in the
yard. They were cheaper, and were able to do it right
then, and so all of our trees have had a nice branchcut.
The yard looks really nice. Marc came over and we finally
implemented an e-mail filter for my e-mail account. I was
getting 40-50 e-mails per day, and since it was implemented
I have received 1 that got through the filter. If it works
well for a couple of weeks, we will put the same filter on
each of the e-mail accounts that forward these thoughtlets
to each of you. Saturday evening Andrea and I went to a
Know Your Religion talk on The Second Coming. I also spent
time working on my talk on Home Teaching. Matt spent as
much time as he could playing Diablo II on the new portable
computer I brought home from GDC. For your reference, my
e-mail account at GDC is roice@geodev.com and I can pick
up mail from anyplace I can bring up NetScape.
Today my thoughts were mostly centered around my talk. I
got up early and finished writing it out. I ended up only
reading about half of the words I wrote. Oh well! Maybe
some of you will read my entire talk about Home Teaching,
and gain something from my thoughts:
<![CDATA[ `HOME TEACHING
H. Roice Nelson, Jr.
Sacrament Meeting Talk
29 February 2004
I enjoy preparing, thinking about, and presenting talks.
Brent Peterson, thanks for putting me on the list, and,
Brother Mason, thanks for asking me to talk about Home Teaching.
I pray that the holy spirit will be with me and with each of
you, and that we can each learn something new about Home Teaching.
As I thought about this topic of Home Teaching, my first thought
was to count the number of times I have gone Home Teaching. I
got active in the church in 1968, each time I moved it took a few
months to receive a Home Teaching assignment, and so the basic
formula is (12 months per year x 36 years - 2 months delay per
move x 13 moves) x an average of 4 families per month = 1624
Home Teaching visits. Did I make all of those visits? No.
I have missed some months across the years.
However, I remember when I was an Elder's Quorum President in
the Dallas 1st Ward and with over 100 Prospective Elders in the
Ward and only about 5 attending meetings we had a challenge.
In addition, we had about 15% of the ward membership move each
month. I was getting an MBA at SMU in those days, in addition
to working at Mobil, striving to fulfill church callings and
take care of my new family. This was in the days before PC's,
and I ended up using the Cyber 6600 at SMU to keep track of the
Home Teaching assignments. I think each of you who are Home
Teachers, or each of you who are assigned a Home Teacher to
visit you, which is everyone, realizes this was a challenge
compared to Home Teaching in Nottingham Country Ward. The
bottom line is there were a lot of extra Home Teaching visits
and moves and such in those days compared to the average from
my formula. My point is that this assignment was probably when
I really became converted to the importance of Home Teaching.
This last summer we had the opportunity to take our two
daughters who graduated from college to England and we visited
some of the places I served on my mission. Ray O'Connell in
the Hyde Park Ward recounted in priesthood meeting when he
first joined the church, which was just before I was assigned
to work in the Hyde Park Ward, and how I worked with him to
help get the Elder's Quorum doing their Home Teaching. I
didn't remember that, and I do remember the joy in listening
to him talk about the importance of Home Teaching last summer.
So I have a benchmark that Home Teaching was important to me
prior to living in Dallas.
In fact Home Teaching has been important to me since before
I gained a testimony of the restored gospel. There was one
quite funny event that happened when I was in High School.
My Dad had a poker club he participated in every Tuesday night.
And this certainly had something to do with 3 of my friends
and I forming a similar poker club. We were playing at Mark
Rickstag's place, who happened to live in the Cedar 3rd Ward,
when the Ward Teachers came to visit. They came in, gave
their lesson to Mark's parents, and we kept playing 5 card
stud until after they left, when we all broke out laughing.
On the other side, Clint Hunt, who was in the Cedar City 3rd
Ward Bishopric, used to drive out to our farm in Cedar Valley
and take me Ward Teaching. There was not a lot of gospel
training in our home, and I think the times I went Home
Teaching laid the groundwork so that when I was confronted
with the question "Are you a Mormon?" I knew to pray for an
answer. After my conversion, which I talked about in a
previous Sacrament Meeting talk, I always strived to do my
Ward Teaching, and when the name was changed to Home Teaching
to do my Home Teaching.
One of the consistencies that has surprised me over the years
is how often people I have been assigned to Home Teach have
said, `You are the first Home Teacher we've had who comes
regularly.' A few months ago my companion Scott Whitrock and
I found ourselves listening to this conversation. Then someone
said, `Well that's not exactly right, Brother Beckstrom always
came to visit us.' Home Teaching is one of those parts of the
gospel, like living the word of wisdom, which I can do 100%.
There are certainly parts of the gospel that I do not do very
well. But I can make a few visits to families each month.
And I have found that as I make these visits, I gain, and
families have told me they have gained from the visits. If
you have let your Home Teaching slip, I hope you will consider
my testimony of how Home Teaching has blessed my life will
motivate you to make each of your visits each month.
In our time, once we receive the Priesthood and are called as
a Home Teacher, we can be guaranteed that we will have that
calling for the rest of our lives. So young men, when you
accept the calling to be a Home Teacher, recognize you are
going to be doing this each month for as long as you live.
And do it. Go Home Teaching. Call your companion and
encourage him to take you out. Do not sluff it off. When
we do we loose the holy spirit and we do not feel as good
about ourselves as we can.
I am convinced that if Home Teachers are saying their prayers,
reading the scriptures, attending Sacrament Meeting, worthily
taking the sacrament, attending Priesthood Meeting, and
generally striving to live the Gospel, then they are picking
up light and truth. When we do our Home Teaching, we are like
a spiritual power cable which reach from the Bishop, from the
Priesthood Quorum, and ultimately from the Lord to our assigned
families. This Home Teaching spiritual power cable passes on
light and truth to the families we visit. When I was asked to
give this talk on Home Teaching, the picture that came to mind
was a picture of unity and oneness, to a time and place where
there are no poor and where everyone helps their neighbor. It
was a picture of Zion, where Zion was connected by these strong
priesthood spiritual cables which do not fade. However, the
cables do fade if the pathways are not traveled each month.
Home Teaching, like faith, repentance, baptism, and receipt of
the Holy Ghost is a basic principal of the restored gospel.
And why is it important that these Home Teaching and Visiting
Teaching spiritual cables remain strong? Think what would have
happened when the dam broke above Rexburg and Sugar City in
Idaho in 1976, if the Home Teachers did not know their families!
And today, in Houston, Texas it is important because the Prophets,
those who have been given the gift to see across time, have
warned us about the times in which we live. Let us turn to the
scriptures for a few examples.
D&C 1:1-5 "Harken, O ye people of my church, saith the voice of
him who dwells on high, and whose eyes are upon all men; yea,
verily I say: Harken ye people from afar; and ye that are upon
the islands of the sea, listen together. For verily the voice
of the Lord is unto all men, and there is none to escape; and
there is no eye that shall not see, neither ear that shall not
hear, neither heat that shall not be penetrated. And the
rebellious shall be pierced with much sorrow; for their
iniquities shall be spoken upon the housetops, and their
secret acts shall be revealed. And the voice of warning shall
be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have
chosen in these last days. And they shall go forth and none
shall stay them, for I the Lord have commanded them."
Isn't the description of iniquities being spoken upon the
housetops descriptive of Channel 2 New's special on sexual
predators using the Internet this last Wednesday and Thursday
evening?
Mormon 5:8 "And now behold, I, Mormon, do not desire to harrow
up the souls of men in casting before them such an awful scene
of blood and carnage as was laid before mine eyes; but I,
knowing that these things must surely be made known, and than
all things which are hid must be revealed upon the house-tops."
Doesn't this describe what is coming into our homes on CNN or
Fox News every day. The world is getting very bad.
Because Andrea is teaching Seminary I was invited to attend
the annual Church Education System General Authority Fireside.
President Packer of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles was the
speaker. He said:
"The world is spiraling downward in an ever quickening pace.
It is not going to get any better." He also said: "Nothing
happened in Sodom and Gomorrah that is worse than what is
happening now."
Unnatural marriages in California and Massachusetts, which by
their very basis can not meet God's first commandment to
multiply, are an attack on the foundation of society, our
families. I have personally seen and experienced the pain of
divorce and children who turn to drugs, and I firmly believe
Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching are key in the Lord's
plan to protect us and our families in these perilous times.
Let's go back to the scriptures:
Mormon 8:22, 29-31: "For the eternal purposes of the Lord shall
roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled. ... Yea,
it shall come in a day when there shall be heard of fires, and
tempests, and vapors of smoke in foreign lands (Kuwait); And
there shall also be heard of wars, rumors of wars, and earthquakes
in divers places. Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall
be great pollutions upon the face of the earth; there shall be
murders, and robbing, and lying, and deceivings, and whoredom,
and all manner of abominations; when there shall be many who
will say, Do this, or do that, and it mattereth not, for the
Lord will uphold such at the last day. But wo unto such, for
they are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity."
I'm convinced the prophets actually saw our times. This
description of today is uncanny, given the Book of Mormon
was published in 1832. In fact, it could only have been
written by someone who saw our time, given it was written
over 1600 years ago. So what do we as individual members do
to meet the challenges of our time? We strengthen each other.
We help each other. We look after each other. We do our
Home Teaching and our Visiting Teaching. We follow the
teachings in the Doctrine and Covenants.
D&C 88:118 "And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and
teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the
best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and
also by faith."
As I look over my years in Nottingham Country Ward, I have
been blessed by my Home Teachers and by the families I Home
Teach. My first companion in this ward was Aaron Boyce. He
is now a lawyer with a family. I remember teaching him to
drive. I remember teaching the Pickerds before it was Bishop
Pickerd or President Pickerd. We had really good discussions
with the Wades, who have since moved out of the ward, and are
still in the stake. Byron has not been that active in the
church because of Viet Nam stuff, and his son served a mission
and married Tanya Burgerner. I certainly don't take credit
for this, and yet I remember our discussions and our Home
Teaching visits with fondness. I remember a Home Teacher
pulling me aside and pointing out that every time I was
traveling and gone on a Sunday my family didn't attend
church. I stopped traveling. It was too little too late.
However, a new Home Teacher, Floyd Lunt faithfully visited
me each month of the four years I was divorced. And when my
friend and mentor Bill Bavinger died, Floyd flew with me to
Oklahoma City for the funeral. He would Home Teach me by
asking questions and getting me to talk to him. It helped
me not feel like such a failure. The last few years Tim
Gebauer has been our Home Teacher. He seldom misses visiting
us. Tim has diligently taken Matt fishing and helped him
with scouting. All in all, we have taught one another words
of wisdom, even by study and also by faith. I appreciate my
Home Teachers. I appreciate the families I have had the
opportunity to Home Teach. I appreciate my companions.
All of these examples demonstrate fulfillment of the scripture
command found in:
Proverbs 27: 23 "Be thou diligent to know the state of they
flocks, and look well to thy herds."
Or the commandments found in the Doctrine & Covenants:
D&C 20:38 "The duty of the elders, priests, teachers, deacons,
and members of the church of Christ - . . . "
"" :42 "And to teach, expound, exhort, baptize, and watch over
the church."
"" :47 "And visit the house of each member, and exhort them to
pray vocally and in secret and attend to all family duties."
"" :51 "And visit the house of each member, exhorting them to
pray vocally and in secret and attend to all family duties."
"" :54 "And see that there is no iniquity in the church,
neither hardness with each other, neither lying, backbiting,
nor evil speaking."
"" :59 "They are, however, to warn, expound, exhort, and teach,
and invite all to come unto Christ."
I think it is important to go Home Teaching with our companions.
Over and over I have been amazed by the insights I have gained
from my Home Teaching Companions. I remember when Matt was my
companion and we visited a man who was quite hostile towards
the church. Matt taught the lesson, he listened, and we
became friends. This man was at a wedding reception in the
church and he brought his wife over to introduce her to his
Home Teacher. He did have his name removed from the records
of the church and yet he still likes me to call him up and
say hello or stop by and visit. Who knows how the story will
be written when it is all over.
My current companion is Scott Whitrock, and we have had a lot
of fun Home Teaching together. Sometimes Brother Morales'
companion is traveling and he calls me to go Home Teaching
with him. I have enjoyed these opportunities to get to know
him better, and to visit the Pickerds again, as well as the
Schultz. So some months I am a senior companion and a junior
companion. There are great and wonderful things we can learn
as a junior companion. One thing I wondered about as I was
thinking about junior companions was why don't we give our
Young Women the opportunity to learn to Visit Teach while they
are in their youth. Maybe the Young Women could set up a
Young Women Visiting Teaching program. I realize everyone is
too busy, and this is just one more thing. And, just like
adults are busy, there are great blessings which come from
strengthening each other.
D&C 105:2-6 "Behold, I say unto you, were it not for the
transgressions of my people, speaking concerning the church
and not individuals, they might have been redeemed even now.
But behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things
which I have required at their hands, but are full of all
manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, as
becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them; And
are not united according to the union required by the law of
the celestial kingdom; And Zion cannot be built up unless it
is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom;
otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself. And my people
must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it
must needs be, by the things which they suffer."
D&C 105:9-10 "Therefore, in consequence of the transgressions
of my people, it is expedient in me that mine elders should
wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion - That
[1] they themselves may be prepared,
[2] my people may be taught more perfectly, and
[3] have experience, and
[4] know more perfectly concerning their duty, and
[5] the things which I require at their hands."
I pray that each of us who have been called by the Lord,
through our priesthood leaders, to be a Home Teacher will
realize the importance of the call in these dangerous times
and will make the effort to complete our calling.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.']]>
Hopefully each of you already knew how important I think
Home Teaching is. If not, you now have a better feel for
why I often write in these thoughtlets about going
Home Teaching."
I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements
of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how
important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy
it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of
distractions of daily life. To download any of these thoughtlets
go to http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets or e-mail me at
rnelson@walden3d.com.
With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)