The blessings you receive as you serve others are many. I have sometimes said, “Oh, I’ve got to get my visiting teaching done!” (Those were the times I forgot I was visiting and teaching women. Those were the times I was looking at it as a burden rather than a blessing.) I can honestly say that when I went visiting teaching, I always felt better. I was lifted, loved, and blessed, usually much more than the sister I was visiting. My love increased. My desire to serve increased. And I could see what a beautiful way Heavenly Father has planned for us to watch over and care for one another.
Other blessings of being a visiting teacher are that we get to know and become friends with those we may not have known well otherwise. At times it allows us to be an answer to someone’s prayers. Also, personal revelation and spiritual experiences are closely connected with visiting teaching.
I have experienced some of the most humbling, joyful, and spiritual experiences of my life as I have sat in the homes of women in my own ward and around the world. We have taught one another the gospel. We have cried together, laughed together, solved problems together, and I have been lifted and blessed.
One evening near the end of the month, I was preparing to leave town and still hadn’t visited one of my sisters. It was later in the evening. I had no appointment. I didn’t call. I had no partner. But I decided it was important to visit my friend Julie. Julie’s daughter Ashley was born with a brittle-bone disease. Although Ashley was almost six years old, she was very small and unable to do much of anything besides move her arms and speak. She lay on a sheepskin rug all day, every day. Ashley was a happy, cheerful child, and I loved being around her.
On this particular night when I got to the home, Julie invited me in and Ashley called out that she wanted to show me something. I went in and knelt down on the floor on one side of Ashley, and her mother was on the other side. Ashley said, “Look what I can do!” Then with a little assistance from her mother, Ashley was able to turn on her side and back again. It had taken her almost six years to accomplish this wonderful goal. As we clapped and cheered and laughed and cried together on this special occasion, I thanked Heavenly Father that I had gone visiting teaching and had not missed this great event. Even though that visit was many years ago and sweet Ashley has since passed away, I will be forever grateful that I had that special experience with her.
My own dear mother was a wonderful and dedicated visiting teacher for many years. She was continually thinking of ways she could bless the families she visited. She paid particular attention to the children of the women she visited, hoping to strengthen families. I can remember one five-year-old running up to my mother at church and declaring, “You are my visiting teacher. I love you!” Being part of the lives of wonderful women and their families was a blessing to my mother.
Not all experiences related to visiting teaching are warm and wonderful. Sometimes it is hard, such as visiting a home where you really aren’t welcome or when it is difficult to meet with a sister with a very busy schedule. It may take longer to build a good relationship with some sisters. But when we truly seek to love, care for, and pray for the sister, the Holy Ghost will help us find a way to watch over and strengthen her.
President Thomas S. Monson is a master at ministering as the Savior did. He is constantly found visiting and helping others. He has said: “We are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness. … We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.”12
“And no one can assist in this work except [she] shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to [her] care.”13
The women we visit teach have been entrusted to our care. Let us have love and compassion and thus make a difference in the lives of those who have been entrusted to our care.
Sisters, I love you. I pray that you will feel the love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I testify to you that the Savior lives, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1. See Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society (1992), 32–33.
2. Jude 1:22.
3. Matthew 9:36; 14:14.
4. See John 13:15.
5. See Mosiah 18:8–9.
6. See Mosiah 4:26.
7. See Doctrine and Covenants 81:5.
8. Doctrine and Covenants 88:77.
9. Doctrine and Covenants 20:53.
10. Julie B. Beck, “Relief Society: A Sacred Work,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2009, 113.
11. Mosiah 18:21.
12. Thomas S. Monson, “What Have I Done for Someone Today?” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2009, 86.
13. Doctrine and Covenants 12:8.
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