August 2012 Visiting Teaching Message

 

Taking Action in Time of Need

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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.

Taking Action in Time of Need

As visiting teachers, one of our purposes is to help strengthen families and homes. The sisters we visit should be able to say, “If I have problems, I know my visiting teachers will help without waiting to be asked.” In order to serve, we have a responsibility to be conscious of the needs of the sisters we visit. When we seek inspiration, we will know how to respond to the spiritual and temporal needs of each sister we are assigned to visit. Then, using our time, skills, talents, prayers of faith, and spiritual and emotional support, we can help give compassionate service during times of illness, death, and other special circumstances.¹

Through the help of reports from visiting teachers, the Relief Society presidency identifies those who have special needs because of physical or emotional illness, emergencies, births, deaths, disability, loneliness, or other challenges. The Relief Society president then reports her findings to the bishop. Under his direction, she coordinates assistance.²

As visiting teachers we can have “great reason … to rejoice” because of “the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work” (Alma 26:1, 3).

From the Scriptures

Matthew 22:37–40; Luke 10:29–37; Alma 26:1–4; Doctrine and Covenants 82:18–19

From Our History

In the early years of the Church, membership was small and centralized. Members could respond quickly when someone was in need. Today our membership is over 14 million and is spread throughout the world. Visiting teaching is part of the Lord’s plan to provide help for all His children.

“The only system which could provide succor and comfort across a church so large in a world so varied would be through individual servants near the people in need,” said President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency.

“… Every bishop and every branch president has a Relief Society president to depend upon,” he continued. “She has visiting teachers, who know the trials and the needs of every sister. She can, through them, know the hearts of individuals and families. She can meet needs and help the bishop in his call to nurture individuals and families.”³

For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

What Can I Do?

1. 1. Am I using my gifts and talents to bless others?
   
2. 2. Do the sisters I watch over know that I am willing to help them when they have a need?
   

July 2012 Visiting Teaching Message

JULY 2012 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

  

Demonstrating Our Discipleship through Love and Service 

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.

Throughout His mortal life, Jesus Christ showed His love for others by ministering to them. He said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). He set the example and wants us to “succor those that stand in need of [our] succor” (Mosiah 4:16). He calls His disciples to work with Him in His ministry, giving them the opportunity to serve others and become more like Him.¹

Our service as visiting teachers will closely resemble the ministry of our Savior when we show our love for those we visit teach by doing the following:²

Remember their names and the names of their family members and become acquainted with them.

Love them without judging them.

Watch over them and strengthen their faith “one by one,” as the Savior did (3 Nephi 11:15).

Establish sincere friendships with them and visit them in their homes and elsewhere.

Care about each sister. Remember birthdays, graduations, weddings, baptisms, or other times that are meaningful to her.

Reach out to new and less-active members.

Reach out to the lonely or those in need of comfort.

From the Scriptures

3 Nephi 11; Moroni 6:4; Doctrine and Covenants 20:47

From Our History

“The New Testament includes accounts of women, named and unnamed, who exercised faith in Jesus Christ. … These women became exemplary disciples. … [They] journeyed with Jesus and His Twelve Apostles. They gave of their substance to assist in His ministry. After His death and Resurrection, [they] continued to be faithful disciples.”³

Paul wrote of a woman named Phebe, who was “a servant of the church” (Romans 16:1). He asked the people to “assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many” (Romans 16:2). “The kind of service rendered by Phebe and other great women of the New Testament continues today with members of the Relief Society—leaders, visiting teachers, mothers, and others—who act as succorers, or helpers, of many.”⁴

For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

What Can I Do?

1.  How am I increasing my ability to nurture others?
2. What am I doing to ensure that the sisters I watch over know that I love them?

June 2012 Visiting Teaching Message

June's Visiting Teaching Message centers on the importance of asking for inspiration from Heavenly Father as to what our sister need and how we can help show love to our sisters.


Let's hear what our dear President Thomas S. Monson has to tell us about receiving inspiration and showing love.

Visiting Teaching—

a Sacred Assignment

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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.

Visiting Teaching—a Sacred Assignment

As visiting teachers, we have an important spiritual mission to fulfill. “The bishop, who is the ordained shepherd of the ward, cannot possibly watch over all of the Lord’s sheep at one time. He is dependent on inspired visiting teachers to help him.”¹ Seeking and receiving revelation as to who should be assigned to watch over each sister is essential.

Inspiration begins as members of the Relief Society presidency prayerfully discuss the needs of individuals and families. Then, with the bishop’s approval, the Relief Society presidency gives the assignment in a way that helps sisters understand that visiting teaching is an important spiritual responsibility.²

Visiting teachers sincerely come to know and love each sister, help her strengthen her faith, and give service when needed. They seek personal inspiration to know how to respond to the spiritual and temporal needs of each sister they visit.³

“Visiting teaching becomes the Lord’s work when our focus is on people rather than percentages. In reality, visiting teaching is never finished. It is more a way of life than a task.”⁴

From the Scriptures

Matthew 22:36–40; John 13:34–35; Alma 37:6–7

From Our History

Eliza R. Snow, the second Relief Society general president taught, “I consider the office of a teacher a high and holy office.” She counseled visiting teachers “to be filled with the Spirit of God, of wisdom, of humility, of love” before they visited homes so they would be able to ascertain and meet spiritual needs as well as temporal ones. She said, “You may feel to talk words of peace and comfort, and if you find a sister feeling cold, take her to your heart as you would a child to your bosom and warm [her] up.”⁵

As we go forth in faith as the early Relief Society sisters did, we will have the Holy Ghost with us and be inspired to know how to help each sister we visit. “Let [us] seek for wisdom instead of power,” said Sister Snow, “and [we] will have all the power [we] have wisdom to exercise.”⁶

For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

What Can I Do?

1. 1. 
   How can I improve in my ability to fulfill my important responsibility as a visiting teacher?
2. 2. 
   As a visiting teacher, how can I help other sisters fulfill their responsibility as visiting teachers?

May 2012 Visiting Teaching Messages

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Because the May Ensign contain a report of the April general conference, there is not a specifically designated First Presidency Visiting Teaching Message for May. Visiting teachers are encouraged to prayerfully select their message from the addresses given during general conference.

Visit the general conference website to read, watch, or listen to conference addresses.

      Here are some highlights from Conference.

West Point 8th Ward Visiting Teaching
April 2012

Growing up in Utah and participating in the Church's seminary program. One thing we could always count on was every year seeing the film (yes, that will date me I know!) Johnny Lingo.
I truly loved this film. It had a Cinderella type feeling. Not only was it cool that Mohana turned out to be so beautiful, but that Johnny Lingo saw truly who Mohana really was and what she needed to turn into this strong, beautiful woman.

This month's Visiting Teaching Message reminded me of that film. We can be like Johnny Lingo to our sisters. As Johnny Lingo showed love, watched over and strengthened is new wife, so can we love watch over and strengthen our sisters.

Sometimes all it takes is truly loving each other!
Here is the link to the Johnny Lingo.
(Can't help sharing this guilty pleasure!)

http://mormonchannel.org/video/johnnylingo

Love, Watch Over, and Strengthen

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.

Like the Savior, visiting teachers minister one by one (see 3 Nephi 11:15). We know we are successful in our ministering as visiting teachers when our sisters can say: (1) my visiting teacher helps me grow spiritually; (2) I know my visiting teacher cares deeply about me and my family; and (3) if I have problems, I know my visiting teacher will take action without waiting to be asked.¹

How can we as visiting teachers love, watch over, and strengthen a sister? Following are nine suggestions found in chapter 7 of Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society to help visiting teachers minister to their sisters:

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  Pray daily for her and her family.

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  Seek inspiration to know her and her family.

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  Visit her regularly to learn how she is doing and to comfort and strengthen her.

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  Stay in frequent contact through visits, phone calls, letters, e-mail, text messages, and simple acts of kindness.

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  Greet her at Church meetings.

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  Help her when she has an emergency, illness, or other urgent need.

• •

  Teach her the gospel from the scriptures and the Visiting Teaching Messages.

• •

  Inspire her by setting a good example.

• •

  Report to a Relief Society leader about their service and the sister’s spiritual and temporal well-being.

From the Scriptures

Luke 10:38–39; 3 Nephi 11:23–26; 27:21

From Our History

“Visiting teaching has become a vehicle for Latter-day Saint women worldwide to love, nurture, and serve—to ‘act according to those sympathies which God has planted in [our] bosoms,’ as Joseph Smith taught.”²

A sister who had recently been widowed said of her visiting teachers: “They listened. They comforted me. They wept with me. And they hugged me. … [They] helped me out of the deep despair and depression of those first few months of loneliness.”³

Help with temporal tasks is also a form of ministering. At the October 1856 general conference, President Brigham Young announced that handcart pioneers were stranded in deep snow 270–370 miles (435–595 km) away. He called for the Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City to rescue them and to “attend strictly to those things which we call temporal.”⁴

Lucy Meserve Smith recorded that the women took off their warm underskirts and stockings right there in the tabernacle and piled them into wagons to send to the freezing pioneers. Then they gathered bedding and clothing for those who would eventually come with few belongings. When the handcart companies arrived, a building in the town was “loaded with provisions for them.”⁵

For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

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© 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved

West Point 8th Ward Visiting Teaching
March 2012

Daughters in My Kingdom

On April 28, 1842, the Prophet Joseph Smith said to the sisters in Relief Society: “You are now placed in a situation in which you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in [you]. … If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.”³

Recognizing the power of Relief Society to serve others and to help individuals increase in faith, Zina D. H. Young, third Relief Society general president, promised the sisters in 1893, “If you will dig in the depths of your own hearts you will find, with the aid of the Spirit of the Lord, the pearl of great price, the testimony of this work.”⁴

We are truly daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves us

more than we will ever know and can imagine!

March 2012 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

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.

Daughters in My Kingdom

We are daughters of our Father in Heaven. He knows us, loves us, and has a plan for us. Part of that plan includes coming to earth to learn to choose good over evil. When we choose to keep God’s commandments, we honor Him and acknowledge our identity as daughters of God. Relief Society helps us remember this divine heritage.

Relief Society and its history strengthen and support us. Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president, said: “As daughters of God, you are preparing for eternal designations, and each of you has a female identity, nature, and responsibility. The success of families, communities, this Church, and the precious plan of salvation is dependent on your faithfulness. … [Our Heavenly Father] intended Relief Society to help build His people and prepare them for the blessings of the temple. He established [Relief Society] to align His daughters with His work and to enlist their help in building His kingdom and strengthening the homes of Zion.”¹

Our Father in Heaven has given us specific work to help build His Kingdom. He has also blessed us with the spiritual gifts we need to accomplish this specific work. Through Relief Society, we have opportunities to use our gifts to strengthen families, help those in need, and learn how to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, said of discipleship: “By patiently walking in the path of discipleship, we demonstrate to ourselves the measure of our faith and our willingness to accept God’s will rather than ours.”²

Let us remember we are daughters of God and strive to live as His disciples. As we do so, we will help build God’s kingdom here on earth and become worthy to return to His presence.

From the Scriptures

Zechariah 2:10; Doctrine and Covenants 25:1, 10, 16; 138:38–39, 56; “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2010, 129)

From Our History

On April 28, 1842, the Prophet Joseph Smith said to the sisters in Relief Society: “You are now placed in a situation in which you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in [you]. … If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.”³

Recognizing the power of Relief Society to serve others and to help individuals increase in faith, Zina D. H. Young, third Relief Society general president, promised the sisters in 1893, “If you will dig in the depths of your own hearts you will find, with the aid of the Spirit of the Lord, the pearl of great price, the testimony of this work.”⁴

What Can I Do?.

1. How can I help my sisters reach their potential as daughters of God?
2. How can I apply in my life the counsel and warnings given to women in Doctrine and Covenants 25?

For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

Guardians of the Hearth

February 2012
Visiting Teaching Message
Guardians of the Hearth

The Family: A Proclamation to the World is referred to this month in the visiting teaching lesson. I was especially impressed by Sister Barbara Thompson and her talk that was referred to in this months lesson.
I remember when she gave this talk and fell in love with Sister Thompson and I could the love she had for her family. I appreciated her insight and admired her.

Her talk is at the bottom.

Sisters, Thanks for all you do in loving your sisters and helping them feel that love. We appreciate you so much! West Point 8th Ward has the best sisters in the world!

February 2012 Visiting Teaching Message

Guardians of the Hearth

“You are the guardians of the hearth,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) as he introduced “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” in the general Relief Society meeting in 1995. “You are the bearers of the children. You are they who nurture them and establish within them the habits of their lives. No other work reaches so close to divinity as does the nurturing of the sons and daughters of God.”¹

For almost 17 years now this proclamation has reinforced that our most significant responsibilities are centered in strengthening families and homes—no matter our current circumstances. Barbara Thompson, now second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, was in the Salt Lake Tabernacle when President Hinckley first read the proclamation. “That was a great occasion,” she remembers. “I felt the significance of the message. I also found myself thinking, ‘This is a great guide for parents. It is also a big responsibility for parents.’ I thought for a moment that it really didn’t pertain too much to me since I wasn’t married and didn’t have any children. But almost as quickly I thought, ‘But it does pertain to me. I am a member of a family. I am a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, a niece, and a granddaughter. I do have responsibilities—and blessings—because I am a member of a family. Even if I were the only living member of my family, I am still a member of God’s family, and I have a responsibility to help strengthen other families.’”

Fortunately, we are not left alone in our efforts. “The greatest help,” says Sister Thompson, “we will have in strengthening families is to know and follow the doctrines of Christ and rely on Him to help us.”²

From the Scriptures

Proverbs 22:6; 1 Nephi 1:1; 2 Nephi 25:26; Alma 56:46–48; Doctrine and Covenants 93:40

From Our History

“When Sister Bathsheba W. Smith served as the fourth Relief Society general president [from 1901 to 1910], she saw a need to strengthen families, and so she established mother education lessons for Relief Society sisters. The lessons included counsel on marriage, prenatal care, and child rearing. These lessons supported President Joseph F. Smith’s teachings about the Relief Society helping women in their roles at home:

“‘Wherever there is ignorance or at least a lack of understanding in regard to the family, duties of the family, with regard to obligations that should exist and that do rightfully exist between husband and wife and between parents and children, there this organization exists or is near at hand, and by the natural endowments and inspiration that belongs to the organization they are prepared and ready to impart instruction with reference to those important duties.’”³

What Can I Do?

1. 1.

   How can I help the sisters I watch over to strengthen families?

2. 2.

   How can I be a righteous influence in my family?

For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.