0 or 100, what does that tell ya? –

One of the commandments given by the Lord to his followers is to watch over the church. Home Teaching is a program designed to do just that. In my patriarchal blessing the Lord told me I would be known for my faithfulness and devotion and the opportunity to serve will come naturally to me. I consider this to be a great compliment, thankfully most of my life I have lived up to that declaration and observation. I have my weaknesses and areas I need to improve, just ask my family. Those that see you the most are also those that know your shortcoming. In my religious responsibilities home teaching is probably one of my weakest areas. I don’t know why I have such a hard time, because when you go its very enjoyable and really beneficial to everyone involved. Every month after going home teaching you need to report your faithfulness. But your also suppose to report if the families you have responsibility over are doing OK and if they need any assistance in their lives. These report are then passed on to other leaders to make sure the needs of the members are met. Now it should be everyone’s desire to always have a hundred percent participation, but it really doesn’t happen that often. Because this is a religious assignment you would never think that anyone would lie or fudge the number to look better. I don’t encourage that behavior, but in extreme conditions it might be in your best interest. Now before you get discussed or think I’m evil let me explain. One week during my bachelor years, a friend of mine asked me to go visit another singles ward with him. Now this is more common than it should be – it’s a good way to see which ward has the hottest girls. During priesthood meeting the Elders Quorum President gave the monthly report – the previous month they had zero percent home teaching. Really, zero percent? It took me so much by surprise that I started to laugh – that didn’t go over that great. Think about that for a second, zero percent meant that the President that tried to encourage the brethren to do better didn’t even do his. Why should I feel a need to go if my leaders don’t think it’s important enough to do theirs? Now I think he should have just done his – then there wouldn’t have been a problem. If he had said that we had five percent all of the others would have thought – we better do ours the President is the only one doing it. Years later I had the opportunity to be an Elders President and I learned how hard it was to keep everyone motivated to do their duty. We lived in a ward that was great at home teaching and you could tell as the majority of the members were actively engaged. Our percentage was normally always over eighty percent. There began too be a friendly competition with the High Priest group. Being during the Christmas season the Bishop encouraged us the to have one hundred percent for the month of December. I was proud of my group, as ninety–five percent of the elders had reported having done their visits. I don’t know if the high priest group leader just wanted to beat us or if in reality the members had reported that it was all done but in the meeting where the numbers are reported after my ninety-five percent report he declared with pride they had one hundred percent. I think it was the first month they had out done our number. His glory didn’t last long as two people in the room turn and almost in unison stated ‘\”no one came to our house.” Now if he had said ninety-eight percent those two people would have said I was the only one in the ward not visited. Maybe the moral of these stories is to never report zero or a hundred percent. If you have zero and your not faithful you might as well lie to save face – now I don’t believe that just make sure if your in charge -do your home teaching. If your group reports one hundred understand most likely someone lied.