"Push Forward Saints!" - July Visiting Teaching Challenge

In my attempts to motivate, challenge and encourage Visiting teaching, I have come up with a fun challenge for July. I have actually put it on the face book group for "Extraordinary Visiting Teachers". Here is how it will be done.... This is a challenge to see if you can get your July visiting teaching done before the Saints made it to Utah... you know on the 24th of July. This is just a fun challenge, but for those of you who usually wait until the last week of the month to get in your visits, let's see if we can beat your odds. If the Pioneers can make it on foot, pulling handcarts, and living in covered wagons, rolling along, then certainly we can give ourselves a tiny challenge too. Report back, but writing on the Face book wall, and maybe you can encourage others in their trek. Make the trek...Visit your Sisters in their homes by July 24th, 2009, Let us all press on, and keep those wagons rollin!If you would like to join Face book and keep track of the July Visiting Teaching Trek, do so. If you want to offer your comments on this blog, do so in the comments, and know everyone benefits from each others comments. The face book link for this is http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=94317431386
I am also going to post a calendar with a link per day of a Pioneer Woman's story, so that you can see her life, and the obstacles she faced in order to join the church, and eventually make her trek to Utah. I believe that we can more fully appreciate the blessings and relative ease of our lives now, if we look back on the past and see what others had to go through for us. This should be the motivation we need to just do our part with our Sisterhood, because it is so easy. We have cars to drive and don't have to do it on foot, or handcart or wagon. We need to appreciate the courage and fortitude our ancestor sisters had and the sacrifices they made for us.

Anyway... be sure to check back in on this site daily to be able to get the link to read, as well as to make your comments on the daily link posts. Let's do this together and keep rolling along with our Visiting Teaching Efforts. I personally would like to do a count on how many of you readers got your visiting Teaching done and how many sisters from all over the world were visited. That would be so exciting to know that thousands / no millions of visits were made. If you care to share, please do once again, below the daily posts and links.

This is exciting!!! Love, Katie G.

Pink Popcorn Recipe

For those of you who want the pink popcorn recipe to put in the bags and use the popcorn header below, just go to http://visitingteachingsurprisedocuments.blogspot.com/2009/06/pink-popcorn.html
 You will need to copy and past this into the address bar because when I list this as a post, it doesn't let me activate the link. Sorry for the confusion, but you will get the recipe if you will copy and paste.

Thanks for asking. Katie G.

A "Sweet" Visiting Teaching Surprise!

I have had a very busy day and I don't forsee that I will have the time to make the popcorn treat for my visiting Teaching ladies as I go teaching tomorrow morning... So, I am thinking about what I already have that I could make into something cute.I remembered that I had purchased several packages of M & M's to mix with the Pink Popcorn goodie bags that I was going to give out at my nieces bridal shower this past weekend. Needless to say, I didn't get that done either, thus the extra bags of M & M's. Anyway, I came up with a very generic, simple header for tiny treat bags that I also already had, and filled them with M & M's. (You can pick up a variety of sizes of plastic bags from Xpedex.) The header read like this..."We love to visit you because you are so "SWEET". On the back side of the header it says "Love" which is actually a picture of a heart, and then "Your Visiting Teachers". I printed the header on a solid color of cardstock and cut them out. They turned out looking very cute.

The story continues... So my husband comes home from work and sees that I am working on something. I had just stapeled the header to the bag of candy and I said, "Come and see what I have just made to give to my sisters I visit teach." He looked at the little treat bags and read the header and replied...."Isn't that alittle Corney?"
Well, I guess that is the difference between Men and Women. Men don't care or even think about doing cute little things, but Women appreciate, and enjoy tiny little gifts. I wasn't offended by my husbands comments, in fact, I took it as a compliment, because I always get an opposite reaction from those I give cute little things to, than I got from my husband. I know my sisters will appreciate something thoughtful and handmade. (You can put in the bag anything that is sweet.)

I will attach the header template to this post for you to copy, cut out and use.I was actually going to do one with Pink Popcorn in it and say something different and I have that header all made, so I will attach it as well if you want something different. If you want me to add my pink popcorn recipe, just comment below or email me and I will type it up and add it later to this post. I hope you enjoy this cute little "SWEET" treat idea more than my husband did.

June 2009 Visiting Teaching message

If you read my blog at http://visitingteachingtips.blogspot.com you will know that I suggested that you could print off this postcard for your sisters as your handout for this month since the theme is on "Prayer". Make sure to print on the backside of the postcard, your names as Visiting Teachers, and your phone numbers so that your sisters can call you when they need you.

Just some in site on this darling postcard. I found the photo and fell in love with it because it reminded me of a story of my Grandmother Robinson when she was a child. Her mother, and my Great Grandmother whom we called "Grammie Great" raised her 11 children alone. Her husband Alexander Cunningham was a brick mason and he was working on a multi-story building in Provo, Utah and suffered heat stroke, causing him to fall to the ground and he later died. At the time of his death, she was carrying her 13th child (two of her children died in infancy) and was left to raise her children alone. My Grandmother Robinson, was her third child, and she remembered every night gathering for family prayer. All of the chairs would be situated with the seats facing outward, instead of under the table, so that the children would have to kneel on the wood floor. Whenever Grammy Great would take her turn to pray, the children's knees would be sore, because Grammy Great would thank Heavenly Father for every single thing that their family had including the pig, and cow and the fruit trees and berries, and recognizing that all they had came from Heavenly Father. Her life epitomized the verse that says "Without His love, I can do nothing, with his love there is nothing I cannot do."

The photo in the post card is the closest photo I can find of a mother praying with her little children. I would so much love to have a photo of my Grandmother Cunningham and her 11 children, kneeling around the table in family prayer, but until that happens, this will have to do.

Enjoy! Love Katie G.

Espanol
Si leen mi blog en htt://visitingteachingtips.blogspot.com pueden haberse dado cuenta que les sugeri que podian imprimir esta tarjeta postal para sus hermanas como un reparto de este mes ya que el tema es acerca de la "Oracion." Asegurense que impriman en el otro lado de la postal, sus nombres como Maestras Visitantes, y sus telefonos para que las hermanas les puedan llamar en caso que las necesiten.

Algo acerca de esta postal. Me encontre la foto y me enamore de esta porque me recordo a mi Abuela Robinson cuando era niña. Su mama, y mi Bisabuela a quien le llamamos "Grammie Great" crio a 11 hijos sola. Su esposo Alexander Cunningham era un albañil de ladrillo y estaba trabajando en un edificio de varios pisos en Provo, Utah y sufrio un ataque al corazon, causando que se cayera al piso y despues murio. En el tiempo de su muerte ella llevaba su hijo decimo tercero (dos de sus hijos habien muerto en la infancia) y se quedo sola para criarlos. Mi Abuela Robinson, era su tercero, y se acuerda que todas las noches se juntaban para hacer la oracion familiar. Todas las sillas estarian situadas con los asientos volteando fuera de la mesa, para que los niños se pudieran arrodillar en el piso de madera. Cuando mi Grammie Great le tocaba su turno para hacer la oracion, las rodillas de los niños les dolia, porque Grammie Great le agradeceria a Nuestro Padre Celestial por cada cosa que su familia tenia incluyendo al puerco, la vaca, y los arboles de fruta y las moras, y reconociendo todo lo que provenia de Nuestro Padre Celestia. Su vida personifico el verso que decia 'Sin Su Amor, No puedo hacer nada, con su amor no hay nada que yo no pueda hacer."

La foto en la tarjeta postal es lo mas acercado de lo que pude encontrar de una madre orando con sus pequeños hijos. Me gustaria mucho el tener una foto de mi Abuela Cunningham y de sus 11 hiijos, arrodillandose alrededor de la mesa en oracion familiar, pero hasta que eso suceda, esto tendra que hacerse asi.

Disfrutenla! Con Amor Katie G. (Traducido por Maria)