no empty chairs

Yesterday all the women in the ward combined for the Relief Society lesson. The men took over in primary, nursey etc. I knew I 'for some reason' needed to hear this lesson. I took Jackson over to nursery and let him loose with the men that were incharge for the last hour of church. I didnt mention his age, and they didnt seem to care.... I knew he'd be fine.

The women in the ward all met together in the cultural hall. It was completely full of chairs... over 150. I thought to myself that it looked a little silly that they set up so many chairs. The 30-40 women all sat toward the front of the room so we could feel close and were able to hear the speaker.

Our lesson was on visiting teaching, a topic that I have a really hard time with. Over the 3 1/2 years that I have been married I have never had a visiting teacher come to my door. I have always felt very left out when it comes to feeling included in V.T. And for some reason my name always slips through the cracks because Ive never been given names of women to visit teach.

I always give myself the excuse that I move every 6 months because of Tony's job and maybe they dont want to hassle with giving me a name in the ward, but deep down I really want to develop a close friendship with a sister in my ward.

Ive wondered if there are many sisters like me who go month after month without hearing a lesson/thought from a visiting teacher.

The speaker continued on with her lesson about the importance of the topic, and that our bishop is really hoping that every women in the ward could be visited. She then had us turn around and look at all the empty chairs behind us. Each chair represented a women in our ward that does not have the opportunity to have their visiting teacher come to their home. Over 100 chairs were EMPTY.... and one of those chairs stood for me. In that spiritual and emotional hour, I realized how important visiting teaching responsibilities are.

At that point I challenged myself that afterwards I would go the the RS Pres and ask if I could have a womens name in the ward that I could meet and visit. I went up to her and before I even asked she explained to me that she knew I was moving soon so she didnt add me to the new list of people who needed companions/women to visit.

I left church feeling down but hopeful that the ward I move back into in September will give me the opportunity to share my love and service to someone. I hope that I can help fill up the empty chairs, and that as a daughter of God I can come closer to thee. I commend all of you for serving the women in your ward by doing act of kindness, service, showing love and visiting teaching.