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.

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© 2013 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved

March 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

Each of us make mistakes in our lives, and each of us have opportunities to make changes and repent of those mistakes. Let us make the effort to help those around us make those changes that will help them be happy and find peace in their lives!

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

March 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

Activation

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

Activation

Our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, has encouraged us to “reach out to rescue those who need our help and lift them to the higher road and the better way. … It is the Lord’s work, and when we are on the Lord’s errand, … we are entitled to the Lord’s help.”¹

Many years ago LaVene Call and her visiting teaching companion visited a less-active sister. They knocked on the door and found a young mother in her bathrobe. She looked ill, but they soon realized her problem was alcohol. The visiting teachers sat and talked with the struggling young mother.

After they left, they said, “She is a child of God. We have a responsibility to help her.” So they visited often. Each time, they could see and feel a change for good. They asked the sister to attend Relief Society. Though reluctant, she eventually attended regularly. After encouragement, she and her husband and daughter attended church. The husband felt the Holy Ghost. He said, “I’m going to do what the bishop suggests.” Now they are active in the Church and have been sealed in the temple.²

From the Scriptures

3 Nephi 18:32; Doctrine and Covenants 84:106; 138:56

From Our History

Helping those who have gone astray come back to the gospel of Jesus Christ has always been part of being a Latter-day Saint and a member of Relief Society. President Brigham Young (1801–77) said, “Let us have compassion upon each other, … and let those who can see guide the blind until they can see the way for themselves.”³

Eliza R. Snow, second Relief Society general president, gratefully acknowledged the efforts of sisters in Ogden, Utah, USA, to strengthen one another. “I am well aware that a great deal is donated [in terms of service] that never reaches the [record] books,” she said. But recognizing that a heavenly record is kept of the sisters’ work as they reach out to those whose hearts have grown cold, she said: “President Joseph Smith said this society was organized to save souls. … Another book is kept of your faith, your kindness, your good works, and words. … Nothing is lost.”⁴

What Can I Do?

1. Am I confident asking a less-active sister to attend a Relief Society meeting with me?
   
2. Do the sisters I watch over feel comfortable asking me questions about the gospel?
   

Notes

1. Thomas S. Monson, “The Sacred Call of Service,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2005, 55, 56.
   
2. Letter to the Relief Society general presidency from the daughter of LaVene Call.
   
3. Brigham Young, in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 107
4. Eliza R. Snow, in Daughters in My Kingdom, 83.
   

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

February 2012 Visiting Teaching Message

This video seemed especially appropriate for this month, and the lesson.

Visiting Sisters make the best friends!

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

Visiting Teaching Message

Converted unto the Lord

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.

Converted unto the Lord

Faith, Family, Relief

New sisters of the Church—including Young Women entering Relief Society, sisters returning to activity, and new converts—need the support and friendship of visiting teachers. “Member involvement is vital to convert retention and in bringing less-active members back into full activity,” said Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “Capture the vision that the Relief Society … can become [one of] the most powerful friendshipping resource[s] we have in the Church. Reach out early to those being taught and reactivated, and love them into the Church through your organization.”¹

As members of Relief Society, we can help new members learn basic Church practices, such as:

• Giving a talk.
• Bearing testimony.
  
• Living the law of the fast.
  
• Paying tithing and other offerings.
  
• Participating in family history work.
  
• Performing baptisms and confirmations for their deceased ancestors.
  

“It takes attentive friends to make new members feel comfortable and welcomed at church,” said Elder Ballard.² All of us, but especially visiting teachers, have important responsibilities to establish friendships with new members as a way of helping them become firmly “converted unto the Lord” (Alma 23:6).

From the Scriptures

2 Nephi 31:19–20; Moroni 6:4

From Our History

“With the ever-increasing number of converts,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008), “we must make an increasingly substantial effort to assist them as they find their way. Every one of them needs three things: a friend, a responsibility, and nurturing with ‘the good word of God’ (Moroni 6:4).”³

Visiting teachers are in a position to help those they watch over. Friendship often comes first, as it did for a young Relief Society sister who was the visiting teacher of an older sister. They had been slow in building a friendship until they worked side by side on a cleaning project. They became friends, and as they talked about the Visiting Teaching Message, they were both nurtured by “the good word of God.”

President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) said Relief Society “is a vital part of the kingdom of God on earth and … helps its faithful members to gain eternal life in our Father’s kingdom.”⁴

What Can I Do?

1. Do I pray for my companion and ask that the Spirit will guide us as we minister to our sisters?
   
2. In what ways do we serve each sister we watch over so that she knows we truly care about her?
   

Notes

1. M. Russell Ballard, “Members Are the Key,” Ensign, Sept. 2000, 13.
   
2. M. Russell Ballard, “Members Are the Key,” 14.
   
3. Gordon B. Hinckley, “Converts and Young Men,” Ensign, May 1997, 47.
   
4. Joseph Fielding Smith, in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 97.
   

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

January 2013 Visiting Teaching Message

Missionary Work

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.

Latter-day Saints are sent forth “to labor in [the Lord’s] vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men” (D&C 138:56), which includes missionary work. We don’t need a formal mission call to share the gospel. Others whose lives will be blessed by the gospel surround us, and as we prepare ourselves, the Lord will use us. Visiting teachers can embrace their spiritual responsibilities and help “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

When the Prophet Joseph Smith organized the Relief Society in 1842, he said that the women were not only to look after the poor but also to save souls.¹ This is still our purpose.

“The Lord … entrusts a testimony of the truth to those who will share it with others,” said President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency. “Even more, the Lord expects the members of His Church to ‘open [their mouths] at all times, declaring [His] gospel with the sound of rejoicing’ (D&C 28:16). … Sometimes a single phrase of testimony can set events in motion that affect someone’s life for eternity.”²

From the Scriptures

Doctrine and Covenants 1:20–23; 18:15; 123:12

From Our History

The story of Olga Kovářová of the former Czechoslovakia is an example of member missionary work from our Relief Society history. In the 1970s, Olga was a doctoral student and hungry for a deeper spiritual life. She noticed 75-year-old Otakar Vojkůvka, a Latter-day Saint. “He appeared to me seventy-five in his age but in his heart nearer to eighteen and full of joy,” she said. “This was so unusual in Czechoslovakia at that time of cynicism.”

Olga asked Otakar and his family how they found joy. They introduced her to other Church members and gave her a Book of Mormon. She read it eagerly and was soon baptized and confirmed. Since that time Olga has been an influence for good in a world of political oppression and religious persecution. She served as Relief Society president in her little branch and helped save the souls of others by bringing them to Christ.³

What Can I Do?

1. Do I follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost as I share my testimony with the sisters I visit?
2. How am I helping the sisters I watch over to learn the gospel?
   

Notes

1. See Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 453.
   
2. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Waiting on the Road to Damascus,” Ensign, May 2011, 76–77.
3. See Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 92–95.

Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved

December 2012 Visiting Teaching Message

Have a Wonderful Christmas!
 

December 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

http://visitingteachingwestpoint8thward.blogspot.com

Visiting Teaching, a Work of Salvation

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 gives women the opportunity to watch over, strengthen, and teach one another—it is truly a work of salvation. Through visiting teaching, sisters minister in behalf of the Savior and help prepare women for the blessings of eternal life.

“We are ‘to warn, expound, exhort, and teach, and invite [others] to come unto Christ’ (D&C 20:59), as the Lord said in his revelations,” said President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985). Further, he said, “Your testimony is a terrific medium.”¹

When we as visiting teachers increase our knowledge of gospel truths, our testimonies strengthen and support sisters who are preparing to be baptized and confirmed. We help new members become anchored in the gospel. Our visits and love help “win back those who have gone astray [and] warm up the hearts of those who have grown cold in the gospel.”² And we encourage sisters to come unto Christ through temple attendance.

“You are going to save souls,” said President Kimball to visiting teachers, “and who can tell but that many of the fine active people in the Church today are active because you were in their homes and gave them a new outlook, a new vision. You pulled back the curtain. You extended their horizons. …

“You see, you are not only saving these sisters, but perhaps also their husbands and their homes.”³

From the Scriptures

Doctrine and Covenants 20:59; 84:106; 138:56

From Our History

When the Prophet Joseph Smith organized the Relief Society, he said that the women were not only to look after the poor but also to save souls. He also taught that women in the Church play essential roles in Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation.⁴ Guided by the principles taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith, we as sisters in Relief Society can work together to prepare women and their families for God’s greatest blessings.

“Let us have compassion upon each other,” said President Brigham Young (1801–77), “and let [those who are] strong tenderly nurse the weak into strength, and let those who can see guide the blind until they can see the way for themselves.”⁵

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

What Can I Do?

1. How does Relief Society prepare me for the blessings of eternal life?
2. What can I do to increase the faith of those I watch over?

Notes

1.  Spencer W. Kimball, in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 116.
2. Eliza R. Snow, in Daughters in My Kingdom, 83.
3. Spencer W. Kimball, in Daughters in My Kingdom, 117.
4. See Joseph Smith, in Daughters in My Kingdom, 171–72.
5. Brigham Young, in Daughters in My Kingdom, 107.