Visiting Teaching Lesson
December 2013

 Contact your sister by the 5th, make an appointment by
the 10th, visit by the 15th and report by the 20th

 The Divine Mission of Jesus Christ: The Only Begotten Son
  Prayerfully study this material and seek to know what to share. How will understanding the life and mission of the Savior increase your faith in Him and bless those you watch over through visiting teaching? For more information go to reliefsociety.lds.org.


This is part of a series of Visiting Teaching Messages featuring aspects of the mission of the Savior.

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is called the Only Begotten Son because He is the only person on earth to be born of a mortal mother and an immortal Father. He inherited divine powers from God, His Father. From His mother, Mary, He inherited mortality and was subject to hunger, thirst, fatigue, pain, and death.

Because Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten of the Father, He was able to lay down His life and take it up again. The scriptures teach that “through the atonement of Christ,” we “obtain a resurrection” (Jacob 4:11). We also learn that all “might be raised in immortality unto eternal life” if we “would believe” (D&C 29:43).

As we come to understand more fully what it means for Jesus to be the Only Begotten Son of the Father, our faith in Christ will increase. Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “Faith in Jesus Christ is the conviction and assurance of (1) His status as the Only Begotten Son of God, (2) His infinite Atonement, and (3) His literal Resurrection.” Modern prophets have testified: “[Jesus Christ] was … the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.”3
From the Scriptures
John 3:16; Doctrine and Covenants 20:21–24; Moses 5:6–9
From Our History
In the New Testament we read of women, named and unnamed, who exercised faith in Jesus Christ, learned and lived His teachings, and testified of His ministry, miracles, and majesty. These women became exemplary disciples and important witnesses in the work of salvation.
For example, Martha bore strong testimony of the Savior’s divinity when she said to Him, “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world” (John 11:27).
Some of the earliest witnesses of the Savior’s divinity were His mother, Mary, and her cousin Elisabeth. Soon after the angel Gabriel visited Mary, she visited Elisabeth. As soon as Elisabeth heard Mary’s greeting, she “was filled with the Holy Ghost” (Luke 1:41) and bore testimony that Mary would become mother to the Son of God.
What Can I Do?
    Why is it important for me to understand the roles of Jesus Christ?
    How do covenants increase our faith in the Savior?
    Notes
    See Gospel Principles (2009), 52–53.
   D. Todd Christofferson, “Building Faith in Christ,” Ensign, Sept. 2012, 53; Liahona, Sept. 2012,
          “The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles,” Ensign or Liahona, Apr. 2000, 2–3.

Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2013 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved

November 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

November 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

This month's messages should be taken from the talks given over the pulpit during the last session of general conference. Check out this video of highlights to spark inspiration on what you can share with your sisters. 

 

October 2013 Visiting Teaching Lesson

The Divine Mission of Jesus Christ: Creator

Prayerfully study this material and seek to know what to share with the sisters you visit. How will understanding the life and mission of the Savior increase your faith in Him and bless those you watch over through visiting teaching? For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

This is the first in a series of Visiting Teaching Messages featuring aspects of the mission of the Savior.

Jesus Christ “created the heavens and the earth” (3 Nephi 9:15). He did so through the power of the priesthood, under the direction of our Heavenly Father (see Moses 1:33).

“How grateful we should be that a wise Creator fashioned an earth and placed us here,” said President Thomas S. Monson, “… that we might experience a time of testing, an opportunity to prove ourselves in order to qualify for all that God has prepared for us to receive.”¹ When we use our agency to obey God’s commandments and repent, we become worthy to return to live with Him.

Of the Creation, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, said:

“We are the reason He created the universe! …

“This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God.”² Knowing that Jesus Christ created the earth for us because we mean everything to Heavenly Father can help us increase our love for Them.

From the Scriptures

John 1:3; Hebrews 1:1–2; Mosiah 3:8; Moses 1:30–33, 35–39; Abraham 3:24–25

From Our History

We have been created in God’s image (see Moses 2:26–27), and we have divine potential. The Prophet Joseph Smith admonished the sisters in Relief Society to “live up to [their] privilege.”³ With that encouragement as a foundation, sisters in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been taught to live up to their divine potential by fulfilling God’s purposes for them. “As they come to understand who they really are—God’s daughters, with an innate capacity to love and nurture—they reach their potential as holy women.”⁴

“You are now placed in a situation where you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in your bosoms,” said the Prophet Joseph Smith. “If you live up to these principles how great and glorious!—if you live up to your privilege, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.”⁵

What Can I Do?

1. How does seeking to understand our divine nature increase our love for the Savior? How can we show our gratitude for God’s creations?
   

September 2013 Visiting Teching Message

Self-Reliance

  Contact your sister by the 5^th, make an appointment by 

the 10^th, visit by the 15^th and report by the 20^th

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Prayerfully study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life. For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

Self-reliance is the ability, commitment, and effort to provide for the spiritual and temporal well-being of ourselves and of our families.¹

As we learn and apply the principles of self-reliance in our homes and communities, we have opportunities to care for the poor and needy and to help others become self-reliant so they can endure times of adversity.

We have the privilege and duty to use our agency to become self-reliant spiritually and temporally. Speaking of spiritual self-reliance and our dependence on Heavenly Father, Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught: “We become converted and spiritually self-reliant as we prayerfully live our covenants—through worthily partaking of the sacrament, being worthy of a temple recommend, and sacrificing to serve others.”²

Elder Hales counseled us to become self-reliant temporally, “which includes getting a postsecondary education or vocational training, learning to work, and living within our means. By avoiding debt and saving money now, we are prepared for full-time Church service in the years to come. The purpose of both temporal and spiritual self-reliance is to get ourselves on higher ground so that we can lift others in need.”³

From the Scriptures

Matthew 25:1–13; 1 Timothy 5:8; Alma 34:27–28; Doctrine and Covenants 44:6; 58:26–29; 88:118

From Our History

After the Latter-day Saints had gathered in the Salt Lake Valley, which was an isolated desert, President Brigham Young wanted them to flourish and establish permanent homes. This meant the Saints needed to learn skills that would allow them to become self-sufficient. In this effort, President Young had great trust in the capacities, talents, faithfulness, and willingness of the women, and he encouraged them in specific temporal duties. While the specific duties of Relief Society sisters are often different today, the principles remain constant:

What Can I Do?

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Prayerfully study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life. For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

Self-reliance is the ability, commitment, and effort to provide for the spiritual and temporal well-being of ourselves and of our families.¹

As we learn and apply the principles of self-reliance in our homes and communities, we have opportunities to care for the poor and needy and to help others become self-reliant so they can endure times of adversity.

We have the privilege and duty to use our agency to become self-reliant spiritually and temporally. Speaking of spiritual self-reliance and our dependence on Heavenly Father, Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught: “We become converted and spiritually self-reliant as we prayerfully live our covenants—through worthily partaking of the sacrament, being worthy of a temple recommend, and sacrificing to serve others.”²

Elder Hales counseled us to become self-reliant temporally, “which includes getting a postsecondary education or vocational training, learning to work, and living within our means. By avoiding debt and saving money now, we are prepared for full-time Church service in the years to come. The purpose of both temporal and spiritual self-reliance is to get ourselves on higher ground so that we can lift others in need.”³

From the Scriptures

Matthew 25:1–13; 1 Timothy 5:8; Alma 34:27–28; Doctrine and Covenants 44:6; 58:26–29; 88:118

From Our History

After the Latter-day Saints had gathered in the Salt Lake Valley, which was an isolated desert, President Brigham Young wanted them to flourish and establish permanent homes. This meant the Saints needed to learn skills that would allow them to become self-sufficient. In this effort, President Young had great trust in the capacities, talents, faithfulness, and willingness of the women, and he encouraged them in specific temporal duties. While the specific duties of Relief Society sisters are often different today, the principles remain constant:

1. Learn to love work and avoid idleness.
   
2. Acquire a spirit of self-sacrifice.
   
3. Accept personal responsibility for spiritual strength, health, education, employment, finances, food, and other life-sustaining necessities.
   
4. Pray for faith and courage to meet challenges.
   
5. Strengthen others who need assistance.⁴
   

What Can I Do?

1. How am I helping the sisters I watch over find solutions to their temporal and spiritual needs?
   
2. Am I increasing my spiritual self-reliance through preparing for the sacrament and sacrificing to serve?
   

August 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

  How are we preparing to care for ourselves and for our families spiritually and temporally? How can we follow the Savior’s example as we help meet the needs of the sisters we watch over?

 Contact your sister by the 5^th, make an appointment bythe 10^th, visit by the 15^th and report by the 20^th

http://visitingteachingwestpoint8thward.blogspot.com

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Prayerfully study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life. For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

Welfare

The purposes of Church welfare are to help members become self-reliant, to care for the poor and needy, and to give service. Welfare is central to the work of Relief Society. President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, has taught:

“[The Lord] has from the beginning of time provided ways for His disciples to help. He has invited His children to consecrate their time, their means, and themselves to join with Him in serving others. …

“He has invited and commanded us to participate in His work to lift up those in need. We make a covenant to do that in the waters of baptism and in the holy temples of God. We renew the covenant on Sundays when we partake of the sacrament.”¹

Under the direction of the bishop or branch president, local leaders assist with spiritual and temporal welfare. Opportunities to serve often begin with visiting teachers who seek inspiration to know how to respond to the needs of each sister they visit.

From the Scriptures

Luke 10:25–37; James 1:27; Mosiah 4:26; 18:8–11; Doctrine and Covenants 104:18

From Our History

On June 9, 1842, the Prophet Joseph Smith charged the sisters in Relief Society to “relieve the poor” and to “save souls.”² These goals are still at the heart of Relief Society and are expressed in our motto, “Charity never faileth” (1 Corinthians 13:8).

Our fifth Relief Society general president, Emmeline B. Wells, and her counselors launched this motto in 1913 as a reminder of our founding principles: “We do declare it our purpose to … [hold] fast to the inspired teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith when he revealed the plan by which women were to be empowered through the calling of the priesthood to be grouped into suitable organizations for the purpose of ministering to the sick, assisting the needy, comforting the aged, warning the unwary, and succoring the orphans.”³

Today the Relief Society has a worldwide reach as sisters extend charity, the pure love of Christ, to their neighbors (see Moroni 7:46–47).

What Can I Do?

1. 1. How am I preparing to care for myself and for my family spiritually and temporally?
   
2. 2. How can I follow the Savior’s example as I help meet the needs of the sisters I watch over?
   

July 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

Teaching and learning by the spirit is always the very best way to find peace, truth and happiness in our lives.

July 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

Contact your sister by the 5^th, make an appointment by
the 10^th, visit by the 15^th and report by the 20^th

http://visitingteachingwestpoint8thward.blogspot.com

Teaching and Learning the Gospel

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Prayerfully study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life. For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

Teaching and Learning the Gospel

Jesus Christ was a master teacher. He set the example for us as He “taught women in multitudes and as individuals, on the street and by the seashore, at the well and in their homes. He showed loving-kindness toward them and healed them and their family members.”
He taught Martha and Mary and “invited them to become His disciples and partake of salvation, ‘that good part’ [Luke 10:42] that would never be taken from them.”
In our latter-day scriptures, the Lord commanded us to “teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom” (D&C 88:77). Of teaching and learning doctrine, Cheryl A. Esplin, second counselor in the Primary general presidency, said, “Learning to fully understand the doctrines of the gospel is a process of a lifetime and comes ‘line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little’ (2 Nephi 28:30).”
As we learn, study, and pray, we will teach with the power of the Holy Ghost, who will carry our message “unto the hearts of the children of men [and women]” (2 Nephi 33:1).

From the Scriptures

Alma 17:2–3; 31:5; Doctrine and Covenants 42:12–13; 84:85

From Our History

Our past prophets have reminded us as women that we have an important role as teachers in the home and Church. In September 1979, President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) asked us to become “sister scriptorians.” He said: “Become scholars of the scriptures—not to put others down, but to lift them up! After all, who has any greater need to ‘treasure up’ the truths of the gospel (on which they may call in their moments of need) than do women and mothers who do so much nurturing and teaching?”
We are all teachers and learners. When we teach from the scriptures and the words of our living prophets, we can help others come unto Christ. When we engage in the learning process by asking meaningful questions and then listening, we can find answers that meet our personal needs.

What Can I Do?

How am I preparing to be a better teacher?
Do I share my testimony with the sisters I watch over?

July 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

July 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

Contact your sister by the 5^th, make an appointment by
the 10^th, visit by the 15^th and report by the 20^th

http://visitingteachingwestpoint8thward.blogspot.com

Joy in Family History 

Prayerfully study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life. For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

Joy in Family History

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught that the Spirit of Elijah is “a manifestation of the Holy Ghost bearing witness of the divine nature of the family.”¹

As members of Christ’s restored Church, we have the covenant responsibility to search for our ancestors and provide for them the saving ordinances of the gospel. They without us cannot “be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:40), and “neither can we without our dead be made perfect” (D&C 128:15).

Family history work prepares us for the blessings of eternal life and helps us increase our faith and personal righteousness. Family history is a vital part of the mission of the Church and enables the work of salvation and exaltation for all.

President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said: “When we research our own lines we become interested in more than just names. … Our interest turns our hearts to our fathers—we seek to find them and to know them and to serve them.”²

From the Scriptures

Malachi 4:5–6; 1 Corinthians 15:29; D&C 124:28–36; 128:15

From Our History

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead.”³ We can serve as proxy in the temple for our deceased ancestors and perform necessary ordinances for them.

Sally Randall of Nauvoo, Illinois, whose 14-year-old son died, found great comfort in the promise of eternal families. After her husband was baptized for their son, she wrote to her relatives: “What a glorious thing it is that we … can be baptized for all of our dead [ancestors] and save them as far back as we can get any knowledge of them.” Then she asked her relatives to send her information on their ancestors, saying, “I intend to do what I can to save [our family].”⁴

What Can I Do?

How can I help the sisters I watch over to do family history?

Am I recording my personal history?

Notes

Russell M. Nelson, “A New Harvest Time,” Ensign, May 1998, 34.

Boyd K. Packer, “Your Family History: Getting Started,” Ensign, Aug. 2003, 17.

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 475.

See Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 21.

Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2013 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved

May 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

Since May's visiting Teaching Message 

is taking from 

April"s General Conference

Choose your favorite talk to share with your sisters! 
Contact your sister by the 5th, make an appointment by
  the 10th, visit by the 15th and report by the 20th

Happy Mothers's Day to all those women who have such an wonderful impact on our lives and on our heart this month as we celebrate this day for you!

 

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April 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

April 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

Contact your sister by the 5^th, make an appointment by
the 10^th, visit by the 15^th and report by the 20^th

http://visitingteachingwestpoint8thward.blogspot.com

Temple Covenants

Prayerfully study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life. For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

Temple Covenants

“The saving ordinances received in the temple that permit us to someday return to our Heavenly Father in an eternal family relationship and to be endowed with blessings and power from on high are worth every sacrifice and every effort,”¹ said President Thomas S. Monson. If you have not yet been to the temple, you can prepare to receive sacred temple ordinances by:

Believing in Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

Cultivating a testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel.

Sustaining and following the living prophet.

Qualifying for a temple recommend by paying tithing, being morally clean, being honest, keeping the Word of Wisdom, and living in harmony with the teachings of the Church.

Giving time, talents, and means to help build the Lord’s kingdom.

Participating in family history work.²

President Monson further taught, “As we remember the covenants we make within [the temple], we will be more able to bear every trial and to overcome each temptation.”³

From the Scriptures

Doctrine and Covenants 14:7; 25:13; 109:22

From Our History

“More than 5,000 Saints thronged the Nauvoo Temple after its dedication. …

“The strength, power, and blessings of temple covenants [sustained] the Latter-day Saints during their journey [west], when they [suffered] cold, heat, hunger, poverty, sickness, accidents, and death.”⁴

Like many Relief Society sisters, Sarah Rich served as a temple worker. She spoke of her experience: “If it had not been for the faith and knowledge that was bestowed upon us in that temple by … the Spirit of the Lord, our journey would have been like one taking a leap in the dark. … But we had faith in our Heavenly Father, … feeling that we were His chosen people … , and instead of sorrow, we felt to rejoice that the day of our deliverance had come.”⁵

The exodus was not a “leap in the dark” for faithful Latter-day Saint women. They were sustained by their temple covenants.

What Can I Do?

Am I worshipping in the temple regularly?

Am I encouraging my sisters to receive temple blessings?

Notes

Thomas S. Monson, “The Holy Temple—a Beacon to the World,” Liahona and Ensign 2011, 92.

See Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 21.

Thomas S. Monson, Liahona and Ensign, May 2011, 93.

Daughters in My Kingdom, 29–30.

Sarah Rich, in Daughters in My Kingdom, 30.

Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2013 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved